Delhi is under high security with over 10,000 police personnel and hi-tech surveillance deployed for Independence Day celebrations.
An FIR has been lodged against 10 named and 200 unidentified individuals in connection with a clash and stone-pelting incident during a religious procession in Jharkhand's Hazaribag. The clash, involving two communities, broke out over the playing of an objectionable song. Police fired two rounds into the air to control the situation. The incident led to uproarious scenes in the Jharkhand Assembly with BJP MLAs demanding action against the perpetrators.
The survey report of the Shahi Jama Masjid at Sambhal expected on Monday, was not presented by the advocate commissioner entrusted with it, after he sought an extension of 15 days citing ill health.
The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has condemned the imposition of President's rule in Manipur, calling it "undemocratic" and "most unfortunate." The Meitei body alleges the President's rule is a ploy to push the state into further turmoil and that the central government is using it as a means to shift the blame onto the BJP's alleged incompetency rather than addressing the real issues at hand. COCOMI also criticized the BJP legislators for failing to choose a new leader and demanded an immediate and time-bound process to elect a new leader and restore a government at the earliest.
The first batch of pilgrims reached Kashmir on Friday for the annual Amarnath Yatra, beginning Saturday, with J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagging off 4,603 yatris in the morning from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas base camp in Jammu under a tight security cover.
One person was killed and three others injured in post-poll violence in Bihar's Saran district on Tuesday morning, police said.
'It was a disaster on his part to give an oral remark which allowed ascertainment of the religious character of places of worship.' 'This disrupted the social harmony of the country.'
These scenes of paramilitary troops watching out for trouble are from Manipur where violence has been constant, without respite, since May 3, 2023.
Two days after violence broke out during a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, life is gradually returning to normal with schools reopening and shops resuming operations. Internet services remain suspended and authorities continue to monitor the situation closely with restrictions in place on entry of outsiders and public representatives. The area around the Shahi Jama Masjid remains deserted, while the police investigate the violence and make arrests.
The committee will probe the reasons for the breach in security, identify lapses, and recommend further action.
The police have registered an FIR against unidentified people for allegedly making provocative speeches at the August 13 'Sarv Hindu Samaj mahapanchayat' in Haryana's Palwal, officials said on Wednesday.
Hours before the clashes, a planned mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence was stalled after the state's High Court on Thursday morning ordered status quo to be maintained at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district.
Single-phase voting was held in Mizoram on Tuesday, while 20 constituencies in Chhattisgarh voted in the first phase of assembly elections in the state.
In 2022, Lalit Jha, Sagar Sharma, 26, and Maoranjan D, 34, met in Mysuru where they made a plan to barge into the parliament to attract the attention of the country.
The committee's convenor L Binod had earlier said that the strike is not to add to the hardships of the people, but to 'pressure the government.'
Nuh Superintendent of Police Varun Singla, who was on leave when the communal clashes broke out in the district, has been transferred, an official order said on Friday.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday ordered the Haryana government to remove within a week the barricading set up at the Shambhu border near Ambala where farmers have been camping since February 13 when their 'Delhi Chalo' march was stopped.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
The Manipur high court has directed the state government to operationalise mobile towers, on a trial basis, in all those district headquarters which have not been affected by ethnic strife.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
The officer's remarks in effect contradicted the state home minister's conjecture, according the which the violence was engineered and had a mastermind behind it.
Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Munda, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai represented the Centre at the meeting over the farmer unions' various demands, including a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for crops. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also joined the meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26. The meeting started at around 8:45 pm on Thursday and lasted for around five hours.
The situation in Manipur's Imphal valley was calm but tense on Friday morning after a night of violent clashes including an attempt to attack the empty ancestral residence of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
A day after AFSPA was extended in most parts of Manipur, rights activist Irom Sharmila said the "oppressive law" was not a solution to the conflict in the state.
The last two I-T teams left the premises, one each in Odisha and Jharkhand, carrying with them a number of seized "incriminating documents" and data cloned from electronic gadgets in the early morning hours.
The three were gunned down while they were sleeping and later slashed with swords at Kwakta in the district, the police said on Saturday morning, adding that the assailants came from Churachandpur.
Punjab Police expanded their search for Amritpal Singh on Friday to 'deras' and other possible hideouts of the fugitive preacher in Hoshiarpur district, where some suspects had abandoned their car following a chase three days ago.
In a statement, the ITLF said in view of a request of the home minister, the group will finalise an alternative location, in consultation with the people, for burial of bodies of ethnic violence victims belonging to the Kuki-Zo community which are lying in Imphal.
'The khaps have taken a decision that on May 28, a mahapanchayat will be held under the leadership of women and youth near the new Parliament building. We've taken the decision because this is a fight for the integrity and respect of the womenfolk.'
The districts where polling was held were Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur.
A 72-year-old man was held for allegedly disrupting communal harmony and organising a protest without permission at the Jama Masjid area in New Delhi recently against the controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad, police said.
A punishing cold wave swept Delhi on Monday morning with the minimum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory, the city's base station, plunging to 1.4 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the month since January 1, 2021.
Protest rallies erupted in Imphal with thousands of students marching towards the centre of the city, sloganeering against the kidnapping and killing of two youths for the second consecutive day on Wednesday.
In the petition, Congress activist Tehseen Poonawalla ought withdrawal of 'curfew/restrictions' and release of leaders like former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
Delhi has been wrapped in a security blanket for Tuesday's 77th Independence Day celebrations, with more than 10,000 personnel manning the area in and around the Red Fort from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation, the police said.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked state Director General of Police (DGP) Rajnish Seth to provide adequate police protection to the families and homes of rebel MLAs, a police official said on Sunday.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has written to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla requesting that the adequate provision of Central security forces be made and kept ready if needed, and alleged that police remained a 'mute spectator' while offices and homes of some dissident MLAs were vandalised.
'Unfortunately, there is no movement towards peace in Manipur.'
'It is funny that he's on CCTV all the time, but the Punjab police can't find him.'
On Monday, the TMC leader had alleged that the returning officer of Nandigram did not order recounting of votes even after she demanded it as he feared for his life.