India OKs new defence policy

Bid to boost local companies

NEW DELHI, May 25, (Agencies): India’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a long-awaited policy to boost local manufacturing of high-tech defence equipment and cut down reliance on expensive imports.

Under the new Strategic Partnership model, the government will pick Indian companies to tie up with foreign organisations to manufacture fighter jets, armoured vehicles, helicopters and submarines locally.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has raised the limit on foreign investment in the defence sector and encouraged tieups between foreign and local companies under the “Make in India” manufacturing campaign.

“The new policy will give a substantial boost to domestic manufacturing and service provision, thereby creating employment,” a government statement said.

“Preference in government procurement will be given to local suppliers,” the statement added.

Modi

Protesters bury dead:

The bodies of eight people shot dead during an anti-government protest in northeast India have been buried after 632 days, authorities said Thursday, ending a long confrontation.

The victims’ families were refusing to bury the bodies until their demands for proper compensation and action against the government officials who ordered the firing had been met.

They finally laid their loved ones to rest on Wednesday after a deal with the local government in the restive state of Manipur.

The state’s Chief Minister, N. Biren Singh, tweeted photos showing hundreds of people paying their tributes to the dead.

US drone strike kills 3:

A Pakistani government official says a suspected US drone strike has targeted a compound in Afghanistan, killing three local Taleban militants.

Kamran Afridi, an official in the Pakistani border town of Miran Shah, says the strike took place Wednesday just across the Afghan border in the village of Gurowek in Khost province.

A Taleban commander who identified himself as Abdullah Waziristani confirmed the attack, saying the targeted compound belonged to a local Taleban commander. There was no immediate confirmation from inside Khost province.

2 Taleban executed:

Pakistan’s military says prison authorities have executed two members of the Pakistani Taleban over their involvement in a 2014 school attack that killed 150 people, mostly schoolchildren.

The military says the executions were carried out on Wednesday after a military court had sentenced the two convicts, identified as Atta Ullah and Taj Mohammad, to death for their role in the attack on the school in the city of Peshawar.

Pakistan has executed nearly 450 people, mostly convicted criminals, since it lifted a moratorium on the death penalty following the school attack.

Karachi

bans

swimming:

Pakistanis in the port megacity of Karachi have been banned from swimming in the sea for six months, authorities said Wednesday, after a recent spate of drownings as residents sought relief from the scorching heat.

Rescue workers and media have reported some 15 cases of drowning at beaches along the city’s Arabian Sea coast over the past week, including eight on Tuesday alone, alarming authorities as summer intensifies.

“The six month ban has been imposed on swimming, wading or diving in the sea to ensure the safety of public,” a government statement said.