22 people killed in two road accidents in India
100 fishermen apprehended
NEW DELHI, March 27, (Agencies): Police say at least 22 people were killed in two road accidents in India, with a bus falling into a gorge in the northeast and a truck overturning in central India.
Police officer L. M. Khaute says the bus driver smashed through a bridge railing on Monday as he was apparently speeding in Senapati district near Imphal, the capital of Manipur state.
Kaute said police have recovered 10 bodies and taken 20 injured people to the hospital.
Also Monday, police officer Net Ram said 12 people were killed when a truck transporting them overturned near Jabalpur, a town in Madhya Pradesh state. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
Driver fatigue, negligence, and poor road quality and vehicle maintenance are often the causes of such accidents in India.
Indian forces kill intruder: Indian security authorities on Monday killed an intruder suspected to be a Pakistani national along the International Border dividing India and Pakistan in the north Indian state of Punjab.
Quoting security officials, the Press Trust of India said that members of the Indian Border Security Force spotted suspicious movement near the Paharipur border post in Gurdaspur sector in Punjab.
The security forces challenged the intruder to surrender repeatedly and were forced to fire at the intruder as he did not pay heed to it.
The sources added that security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to sanitize the area from any other possible suspects.
Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting and funding the armed groups in Kashmir, claims which Islamabad denies and insists Kashmir people are defending their freedom. Crackdown creates meat shortage: India’s most populous state is running out of meat.
After the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh this month on the back of a resounding electoral victory and named a Hindu priest-cum-politician as the state’s chief minister, the government began cracking down on illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops.
The new chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, is a strong supporter of laws protecting cows, which are revered by devout Hindus, and has publicly opposed beef consumption. The slaughter of cows and the consumption of beef are taboo for most Hindus. Their slaughter is barred by law in most Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh.
So far, there have been no reports that any of the slaughterhouses shut down were selling cow meat instead of the usual water buffalo meat, which is permitted.
Airstrike kills 16 in Afghanistan: At least 16 Taleban rebels have been killed and nine others wounded in an air raid in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, said an official on Monday.
The spokesman for 215th Maiwand military corps, Lt Col Mohammad Rasoul Zazai told media that Afghan air force targeted a group of Taleban in the Nad Ali district of Helmand who were planning attacks against security forces.
He confirmed that 16 “militants” were killed and nine others wounded and many weapons and ammunition were destroyed during the airstrike. Separately, four Taleban had been killed in Sangin district during infighting, the official claimed.
Taleban have not yet commented about Afghan forces airstrike and infighting incident. The air raid came at a time when Afghan security forces have paced up their offensive across Afghanistan to maintain law and order in the country.
Mins survive impeachment vote: The Afghan defence and interior ministers and the head of the country’s intelligence service survived a vote of confidence called on Monday over the failure to tackle mounting insecurity and the Taleban insurgency.
Defence Minister Abdullah Habibi, Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Jahid and Masson Stanekzai, head of the National Directorate for Security were all summoned before parliament over a string of security failures in recent months.
About 50 people were killed this month when gunmen attacked Afghanistan’s largest military hospital, Kabul’s 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital, just across the road from the heavily fortified US embassy.
While all three officials survived, the fact of their summons to parliament, which has the power to sack ministers, underlined mounting frustration with the Western-backed government’s handling of the security situation in Afghanistan.
Pak apprehends 100 Indian fishermen: Indian authorities on Sunday said that Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) apprehended around 100 Indian fishermen and seized about 18 boats off Jakhau coast in Kutch district of Western Indian state of Gujarat. Quoting National Fish workers’ Forum Secretary Manish Lodhari, the Press Trust of India said: “We have learned that more than 100 fishermen who were on board around 18 fishing boats were apprehended by PMSA near the international maritime boundary line off Jakhau coast.”
The official further said that his organization is trying to establish contact with the Pakistani authorities to know the exact number of fishermen apprehended by PMSA.
Pakistan starts fencing border: Pakistan has begun building a fence on its disputed 2,500 kms (1,500 mile) border with Afghanistan to prevent incursions by militants, Pakistan’s army chief said, in a move likely to further strain relations between the two countries.
Pakistan has blamed Pakistani Taleban militants it says are based on Afghan soil for a spate of attacks at home in recent months, urging Kabul to eradicate “sanctuaries” for militants.
Citing the attacks, Islamabad earlier this month temporarily shut the main crossing points along the colonial-era Durand Line border, drawn up in 1893 and rejected by Afghanistan.