Assessing the unprecedented destruction at rain-ravaged Uttarakhand, including 110 major landslides in small stretches, the Border Roads Organisation has taken a massive road rehabilitation programme in the state, pressing into service about 4,000 men.
The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was reopened for one way traffic after overnight heavy snowfall had blocked it.
Stepping up relief and rescue operations in Uttarakhand, the Union defence ministry has deployed more than 45 choppers belonging to the Army and the Indian Air Force there along with more than 10,000 troops in the rain-ravaged parts of the hill state.
Was Border Roads Organisation commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Ajay Verma killed by militants because he did not pay heed to their demands and the government failed to provide him adequate security?Verma had written two letters to the district administration and police in Kishtwar about threats from militants and also demanded security cover for the men of the organisation, official sources told PTI. But the state failed to provide them security.
A massive landslide triggered by torrential rains at Somroli in Udhampur, 275 km from Srinagar, blocked the arterial road in the morning, the police said.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
Due to a 'Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat' convened by farmers at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Thursday, the Delhi Police has beefed up security and deployed heavy force for checking vehicles, which might lead to traffic snarls in the central parts of the city, officials said.
The captain and six crew of the Iran-bound ship have been detained and questioned by authorities to ascertain how the explosives went missing after the vessel had set sail from Mumbai on December 22.
"One BRO personnel from the team is still missing," the sources added.
A group of Naxalites killed two persons and damaged an abandoned police camp in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, police said on Saturday.
The mortal remains of Sepoy Karam Chand, who died while fighting Chinese aggressors in Arunachal Pradesh in 1962, were consigned to flames with full military honours in his native village near Palampur on Thursday morning. Touching scenes were witnessed at the cremation ground as his family members had assumed that Chand had been made a Prisoner of War.The martyr's body was spotted under the debris by a detachment of the Border Roads Organisation in Walong area on July 1.
The PLA said the move has 'seriously damaged' border peace and tranquillity.
Over 800 vehicles, including 178 buses, were stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar highway on Monday morning after the road got blocked due to landslides triggered by heavy snowfall and rain since Saturday, official sources said.
The road network will stretch from Gujarat to Mizoram.
The two-day-long rescue operation ended on Friday evening in hilly Kishtwar district of Jammu region where eleven persons were killed when two trucks carrying Border Roads Organisation labourers were trapped in a massive landslide early on Thursday. While the rescue teams recovered bodies of seven labourers on Thursday, they finally managed to retrieve the bodies of other four dead labourers on Friday.
We need to have patience as it is a dangerous operation,NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said.
The auger machine was facing repeated obstructions in the rubble in the past few days.
Bodies of the two Border Roads Organisation personnel, who were killed in a terror attack in Afghanistan, were on Wednesday flown to Delhi.The bodies of M P Singh and C Govindaswamy, engineers with BRO, were airlifted from Kabul and reached the Indira Gandhi International airport this afternoon.Singh's body will be taken to Varanasi and Govindaswamy's to Tamil Nadu. Suspected Taliban extremists targeted Indian construction workers in Nimroz on Saturday, killing the duo.
Two personnel of Border Roads Organisation were on Saturday killed and several others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of Indian road construction workers in south west Afghanistan. Nearly 400 BRO personnel are engaged in construction of a key highway between Zaranj and Delaram in Afghanistan as part of India's assistance programme for reconstruction of the war-torn country.
President Droupadi Murmu addressed both Houses of Parliament, highlighting the government's achievements in various sectors, including economic growth, social welfare, and infrastructure development. She emphasized the government's efforts to lift the economy out of "policy paralysis" and create a more inclusive society. Murmu also acknowledged the challenges posed by digital fraud and cybercrime and stressed the need for a social infrastructure revolution. The President's speech is considered a policy statement, outlining the government's vision and roadmap for the future.
Pakistan has said that many of its countrymen have also been killed in Afghanistan.
In all, about 290 Indians are engaged in various projects in Afghanistan.
The body will be placed for public homage at the school where his son is studying, ahead of the cremation at the house premises itself, sources said.
More than 40 food items have been banned at the upcoming Amarnath Yatra and the pilgrims have been advised to achieve physical fitness by walking at least 5 kilometres a day, the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board said in its health advisory issued on Thursday.
A dozen teams of the NDRF will be deployed to ensure the safety of the people who embark on the yatra from July 1, they added.
The security measures are being intensified by the Afghan government after a fresh assessment suggested increased threat to the Indians, particularly those engaged in construction of a crucial highway from Delaram to Zaranj, sources said. The assessment of the threat was carried out by a two-member team of senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry which went to Afghanistan.
The Amarnath yatra was suspended on Saturday due to closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in the wake of a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Udhampur district of the state.
Two personnel of the Border Roads Organisation were killed and another injured as National Democratic Front of Bodoland insurgents fired at them in upper Assam's Dhemaji district, on Monday night.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) intensified its campaign in Lebanon with targeted airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, hitting key weapons depots and terror infrastructure overnight, according to a report by Times of Israel.
He said the tragic incident, however, would not dampen Indo-Afghan relations
Worried parents and wife pray for Kutty's early return
Maniappan was kidnapped on Sunday along with three Afghans from the site of a highway construction project they were working at.
A mob led by Kuki-Zo women clashed with security forces in Manipur's Kangpokpi district on Tuesday, triggering fresh tensions in the ethnic strife-hit state.
