Archives for 2024

MALE: Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu on Monday said the first group of Indian military personnel will be sent back from the island nation before March 10, while the remaining Indians manning two aviation platforms will be withdrawn by May 10.

In his maiden address to Parliament, Muizzu, widely seen as a pro-China leader, said he believes a large majority of Maldivians support his administration with the expectation that they will remove foreign military presence from the country, and recover the lost oceanic territory.

He said his administration will not allow any State agreements that may compromise the country’s sovereignty, The Edition newspaper reported.

Soon after taking oath as the President of Maldives on November 17, Muizzu formally requested India to withdraw 88 military personnel from his country by March 15, saying the Maldivian people have given him a “strong mandate” to make this request to New Delhi.

“Diplomatic discussions with other nations that the President can conduct are ongoing.

We have officially requested India to remove its troops stationed in the Maldives.

Deliberations on this issue are ongoing.

“As per the most recent discussions, military personnel on one of the three aviation platforms will be recalled before March 10, 2024.

The military personnel on the remaining two platforms will also be recalled by May 10, 2024,” Muizzu told Parliament.

After the latest round of bilateral talks, India said on February 2 that a “set of mutually workable solutions” was agreed upon with the Maldives for continuing the operations of Indian aviation platforms in the island nation.

Currently, Indian military personnel are in the Maldives primarily to operate two helicopters and an aircraft that have carried out hundreds of medical evacuations and humanitarian missions.

The Indian platforms have been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of the Maldives for the last few years.

The president said his administration would not do anything that could in any way compromise the nation’s sovereignty.

He asserted that he would remain steadfast and not give in to any external pressures under any circumstances if it posed a risk to the country’s independence and sovereignty.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday alleged that pressure was being exerted on him to join the BJP, but he will never do that. “Won’t join the BJP, not going to bend,” Kejriwal said.

The BJP dismissed his claim as an attempt to “distract and trick” the people of Delhi. Addressing an event in north-west Delhi, the AAP chief claimed that the BJP wanted them to join the party but he was firm on not doing so. “They can hatch any conspiracy against us but nothing is going to happen. I am standing firm against them and I am not going to bow,” the Delhi CM said.

“They say ‘come and join BJP and we will leave you alone.’ Why should we join the BJP?” Kejriwal asked.

Kejriwal’s latest attack came a day after he received a notice from the Delhi Police Crime Branch over his recent claim that the BJP had offered `25 crore each to seven AAP MLAs in a bid to topple the Kejriwal-led government. “They (BJP) can conspire against us all, but they will fail. I am standing against them, will never give up. They tell me I should join, but I told them I will never join them. Why should I?” he said.

“If you go to the BJP, all your crimes are forgiven. What wrong have we done? We are building schools, hospitals, roads, and repairing sewers. Is this a crime?” said the AAP national convener.

Later in a post on X, Kejriwal asserted that all cases against AAP leaders were false. “If not today, tomorrow, all the cases will end,” he said in the post in Hindi. He said that even if he was sent to jail, the development works will not stop in Delhi, and “as long as we are alive, we will continue to serve the country and society.”

RANCHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister on Monday moved a confidence motion in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. The new state government is seeking a vote of confidence on the first day of the two-day special assembly session.

“The BJP tried to destabilise the democratically elected state government,” Champai Soren asserted in his speech, while referring to himself the “part 2 of Hemant Soren.”

The MLAs of the ruling JMM-led alliance had raised pro-Hemant Soren slogans during the Governor’s speech earlier today in the assembly.

The MLAs have exuded confidence of winning the floor test, while the opposition BJP asserted that the coalition would be defeated. Arrested JMM leader and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren too will be participating in the trust vote.

Section 144 of CrPC has been imposed in the area around the assembly.

State minister Alamgir Alam had on Sunday said, “Our MLAs are united and we have the support of 48 to 50 legislators in the 81-member assembly”. A video, released by the coalition last week, had claimed that it has the support of 43 legislators.

The MLAs of the ruling JMM-led alliance were at a resort in Hyderabad for the past three days before leaving for Ranchi on Sunday evening. They landed at the Birsa Munda Airport here in a chartered flight and were taken to the Circuit House in the city in two buses.

About 38 legislators had gone to Hyderabad, the capital of Congress-ruled Telangana, in two flights on February 2, amid the coalition’s fears that the BJP might attempt to “poach” them in the run-up to the trust vote.

JMM legislature party leader Champai Soren took oath as the chief minister of Jharkhand on February 2, after his predecessor by the Enforcement Directorate last week in a money laundering case.

A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court has allowed him to participate in the trust vote.

Hemant Soren was remanded to ED custody for five days by the court on February 2.

WASHINGTON: The US military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that weekend.

The massive barrage of strikes hit more than 85 targets at seven locations, including command and control headquarters, intelligence centers, rockets and missiles, drone and ammunition storage sites and other facilities that were connected to the militias or the IRGC’s Quds Force, the Guard’s expeditionary unit that handles Tehran’s relationship with and arming of regional militias. And President Joe Biden made it clear in a statement that there will be more to come.

The US strikes appeared to stop short of directly targeting Iran or senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guard Quds Force within its borders, as the US tries to prevent the conflict from escalating even further

It was unclear what the impact will be of the strikes. Days of US warnings may have sent militia members scattering into hiding. With multiple groups operating at various locations in several countries, a knockout blow is unlikely.

Though one of the main Iran-backed militias, Kataib Hezbollah, said it was suspending attacks on American troops, others have vowed to continue fighting, casting themselves as champions of the Palestinian cause while the war in Gaza shows no sign of ending.

“Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” Biden warned, adding, “let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.” He and other top US leaders had been saying for days that any American response wouldn’t be just one hit but a “tiered response” over time.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the targets “were carefully selected to avoid and based on clear, irrefutable evidence that they were connected to attacks on US personnel in the region.” He declined to detail what that evidence was.

The strikes took place over about 30 minutes, and three of the sites struck were in Iraq and four were in Syria, said Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Staff.

US Central Command said the assault involved more than 125 precision munitions, and they were delivered by numerous aircraft, including long-range B-1 bombers flown from the United States. Sims said weather was a factor as the US planned the strikes in order to allow the US to confirm it was hitting the right targets and avoiding civilian casualties.

It’s not clear, however, whether militia members were killed.

“We know that there are militants that use these locations, IRGC as well as Iranian-aligned militia group personnel,” Sims said. “We made these strikes tonight with an idea that there there would likely be casualties associated with people inside those facilities.”

Syrian state media reported that there were casualties but did not give a number. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 18 militants were killed in the Syria strikes.

Iraqi army spokesman Yahya Rasool said in a statement that the city of al-Qaim and areas along the country’s border with Syria had been hit by U.S. airstrikes. The strikes, he said, “constitute a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, posing a threat that will pull Iraq and the region to undesirable consequences.”

Kirby said that the US alerted the Iraqi government prior to carrying out the strikes.

The assault came came just hours after Biden and top defense leaders joined grieving families to watch as the remains of the three Army Reserve soldiers were returned to the US at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Just Friday morning, Iran’s hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated earlier promises by Tehran to potentially retaliate for any US strikes targeting its interests. We “will not start a war, but if a country, if a cruel force wants to bully us, the Islamic Republic of Iran will give a strong response,” Raisi said.

In a statement this week, Kataib Hezbollah announced “the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government.” But that assertion clearly had no impact on US strike plans. Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the other major Iran-backed groups, vowed Friday to continue military operations against US troops.

The US has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a broad coalition of Iran-backed militias, for the attack in Jordan, but hasn’t narrowed it down to a specific group. Kataib Hezbollah is, however, a top suspect.

Some of the militias have been a threat to US bases for years, but the groups intensified their assaults in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. The war has led to the deaths of more than 27,000 Palestinians in the and has inflamed the Middle East.

Iran-backed militia groups throughout the region have used the conflict to justify striking Israeli or US interests, including threatening civilian commercial ships and US warships in the Red Sea region with drones or missiles in almost daily exchanges.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “this is a dangerous moment in the Middle East.” He said the US will take all necessary actions to defend its interests and people, and warned, “At this point, it’s time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past.”

As of Tuesday, Iran-backed militia groups had launched 166 attacks on US military installations since Oct. 18, including 67 in Iraq, 98 in Syria and now one in Jordan, according to a US military official. The last attack was Jan. 29 at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, and there were no injuries or damage.

The US, meanwhile, has bolstered defenses at Tower 22, the base in Jordan that was attacked by Iran-backed militants on Sunday, according to a US official. While previous U.S. responses in Iraq and Syria have been more limited, the deaths of the three service members in Jordan crossed a line, the official said.

That attack, which also injured more than 40 service members — largely Army National Guard — was the first to result in US combat deaths from the Iran-backed militias since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. Tower 22 houses about 350 U.S. troops and sits near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is only 6 miles (10 kilometers) away.

Also Friday, the Israeli military said its Arrow defense system intercepted a missile that approached the country from the Red Sea, raising suspicion it was launched by yemen The rebels did not immediately claim responsibility.

And a US official said the military had taken additional self-defense strikes inside Yemen Friday against Houthi military targets deemed an imminent threat. Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said British and American forces conducted three strikes in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah, a Houthi stronghold.

AGRA: A right wing organisation has filed a petition in an Agra court seeking prohibitory injunction against the observation of the ‘Urs’ at the Taj Mahal.

The petitioner, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, has also challenged the free entry for ‘Urs’ inside the Taj Mahal.

The court accepted the petition and fixed March 4 as the date of hearing.

The three-day ‘Urs’ event will take place this year from February 6 to February 8.

The period is observed to mark the death of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who got the Taj Mahal constructed in 1653 on the banks of of the Yamuna river.

Petitioner’s counsel Anil Kumar Tiwari said, “On Friday, the petitioner ABHM through its divisional head Meena Diwakar and district president Saurabh Sharma filed a petition in the Court of IV Additional Civil Judge (Junior Division) Room No 4 at Civil Court premises in Agra.

“They have sought for a permanent prohibitory injunction against the committee celebrating the ‘Urs. The petitioner has also objected to having free entry for the Urs at the Taj Mahal.”

ABHM spokesperson Sanjay Jat contended that the body had filed the petition on the basis of an RTI which revealed that neither the Mughals, nor the British allowed Urs to take place inside the Taj.

“The petition has been filed on the basis of an RTI filed by a Raj Kishore Raje, an historian of Agra city. In the RTI, he asked ASI who permitted ‘Urs’ celebration and ‘Namaz’ in Taj Mahal premises. The ASI replied that neither Mughals, nor the British government or the Government of India have allowed ‘Urs’ celebration in the Taj Mahal

“So, on that basis we have filed a petition seeking the prohibitory injunction, stopping the organisers of Shahjahan ‘Urs’ Celebration Committee, headed by Saiyyad Ibrahim Zaidi, from celebrating the ‘Urs’ at the Taj Mahal.”

The three-day ‘Urs’ sees the rituals of ‘chadar poshi’, ‘sandal’, ‘gusul’, ‘kul’ among other events.

On the last day of the ‘Urs’, a ‘chadar’, measuring 1,880 metre or more, is offered.

NEW DELHI: Confident of winning the upcoming General Election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said in the third term of BJP-led central government, India will become the world’s third-largest economy.

“India is on the move and is moving fast. Today’s India is moving forward to make ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047…This is the start of golden period for the Indian mobility sector. Today, India’s economy is growing at a brisk pace. In our third term, India’s economy is sure to become the third largest in the world,” said the PM at Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2024.

According to IMF data, India is currently placed at the fifth spot with the size of its economy pegged at over $3.7 trillion. The United States sits at the (around $27 trillion) and is followed by China (around $17.7 trillion), Germany ($4.4 trillion) and Japan ($4.2 trillion).

While giving numbers as to how the country’s mobility sector has grown in size over the last 10 years since his government first came to power in 2014, Modi said that in Amrit Kaal, India’s passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle and auto component industry should strive to become number 1 in the world. As per Modi, the emergence of neo-middle class, expanding spheres and growing income of the middle class will continue to generate demand for the mobility sector.

To lure the driver community who recently protested against the new hit-and-run law, Modi said that a new scheme is in the works to develop modern buildings with facilities for food, clean drinking water, toilets, parking and rest for drivers on all national highways. He added that the government is preparing to build 1,000 such buildings across the country in the first phase of this scheme. The PM advised tyre manufacturers to hold discussions with farmers to meet the need for natural rubber domestically.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning in an alleged money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, according to the AAP.

The ED on Wednesday had issued a fresh and the fifth summons to Kejriwal after he skipped four earlier summonses over the last four months.

“Kejriwal will not appear before the agency for questioning,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said.

Terming the summons “illegal”, the party said the ED is repeatedly sending notices to Kejriwal to arrest him

The AAP also alleged that the BJP wants to topple its government in Delhi by getting Kejriwal arrested.

The AAP will not let this happen, it said.

The Delhi chief minister is, however, scheduled to take part in a protest of the AAP outside the BJP headquarters here at 11 am.

Kejriwal skipped ED summonses for November 2 and December 21 in 2023 and January 3 and January 18 this year.

It is alleged that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).