Two commandos of the special forces were also killed in the rescue operation that was launched after negotiations between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants to end the hostage crisis failed.
Modi referred to the Lok Sabha polls as a "Kurukshetra (battle)" in which "there is development on one hand and 'vote jihad' on the other".
The Congress will make it the main issue when its Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi reaches Jammu and Kashmir early next year.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer told a gathering of hundreds of British Indians that he was determined to put an end to 'divisive politics' and extremist elements exploiting social media to spread hatred within communities.
The newly-elected National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, is meeting to elect the prime minister.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is not interested in dragging former president Pervez Musharraf to the court of law, but rather favours reconciliation with the former general. Zardari said the Pakistan People's Party favours reconciliation with Musharraf, and that the fate of the former army chief would be decided by the parliament. Zardari rebuffed the notion of being a 'power monger', saying he had declined several offers from the previous regime of becoming the PM.
'It is in the interest of China and Pakistan to give a bad name to the Indian Army and remove AFSPA 'completely' from the north east.' 'Hopefully, better sense will prevail and the ground realities of the army countering insurgency in the north east acknowledged,' asserts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, where Rahul Gandhi won for the second time in a row, comprises three assembly constituencies each in the tribal district of Wayanad and the Muslim-dominated Malappuram, as well as one in Kozhikode district where Christians hold a significant vote base.
IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack begins by asking why the hijack lasted seven days and ends in wondering if the good guys fought the bad ones hard enough, observes Sukanya Verma.
A prominent Sikh politician in Pakistan, who was gunned down last week, was killed by contract killers hired by his miffed Hindu rival after he failed to secure a ticket for elections, police said .
In a live-address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan also discussed a 'threat letter' that purportedly showed 'evidence' of a foreign conspiracy to topple his coalition government.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'If Modi is re-elected again, we can forget these things for a long time.'
Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is set to arrive in Islamabad on Saturday after a four-year self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom, months ahead of general elections.
The BJP knows how to play with people's lives and bodies, former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said.
The fresh plea, filed through lawyer Ashwani Dubey, seeks dismissal of the pending PILs of various petitioners including the Indian Union Muslim League on various grounds.
'...It is important for you to take a stand.' 'It is a sin to remain silent when the basic structure of the Constitution is being attacked.'
Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan chief Saad Hussain Rizvi was on Thursday released from the jail, weeks after Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government entered into a 'secret agreement' with the radical Islamist party which was involved in recent deadly clashes with the police.
The pro-Pakistan Peoples League criticised Mirwaiz Umer Farooq for holding talks with the Centre.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is hopeful that the issue will come handy to its efforts to gain political traction in Dravidian state as it gears up for the Lok Sabha polls.
The All India Matua Mahasangha has asked its members to apply for Indian citizenship only after the formation of a new government at the Centre.
Regional economic integration in South Asia, he said, is a priority for the EU.
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com does a deep dive into four elections when Narendra Modi resorted to anti-Muslim fervour and points out that Hindu-Muslim politics does not necessarily mean victory for the BJP.
Opposing a dialogue with Pakistan till it stops 'exporting' terror into Jammu and Kashmir, a Bharatiya Janata Party delegation led by Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina at an all-party meet in New Delhi on Thursday said those seeking engagement with the neighbouring country should meet the victims of violence to understand their pain.
With Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif sharpening his rhetoric against Pervez Musharraf, the ruling Pakistan People's Party said that it was waiting for an opportune moment to offer an exit to the embattled President."Pakistan People's Party will be the one that sends President Pervez Musharraf home," its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday night. Zardari's comments came in the wake of a demand by his Sharif for Musharraf to be made accountable for actions.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
Despite the government's hectic efforts to avoid voting on the no-confidence motion against Khan, the joint Opposition succeeded in its month-long efforts to oust Khan from the prime minister's office as 174 members of the 342-member National Assembly voted against him in the wee hours of Sunday after a day of high drama.
Indian police arrested seven students in the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) region under anti-terror laws for allegedly celebrating Australia's victory over India in the men's Cricket World Cup final earlier this month, police said on Tuesday.
The paramilitary Rangers, which were called in to maintain law and order in the disputed region, came under attack while moving out of the region, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Mian Javed Latif said a decision on PML-N supremo and the three-time prime minister Sharif's anticipated return will be discussed with the coalition partners.
The police also said that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is behind the suicide attack that injured over 100 people in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
Nine people including three women were killed and 33 injured as a bus carrying pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi plunged into a deep gorge after an ambush by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district on Sunday evening, police said, as political leaders cutting across party lines strongly condemn the dastardly attack.
Key provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which came into law this year may violate certain provisions of India's Constitution, a report issued by an independent research wing of the United States Congress has claimed.
Drawing examples from history to prove his point, Vijayan said a Muslim man named Azimullah Khan had coined the slogan 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.
The Pakistani military may shortly give Imran Khan the boot, substituting him with another puppet, predicts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
'No Indian politician has been killed in India for upholding the Constitution except for Kashmiri mainstream politicians.' 'Yet they call us terrorist or militant.'
In an interview with PTI, Roy praised the Union government for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules, stating that it would benefit the refugee population, including the Matua community, who had fled neighbouring countries to escape religious persecution.
The meeting between the three top Opposition leaders took place at the Bilawal House in Islamabad, hours after they ousted Imran Khan as the prime minister after the cricketer-turned-politician lost the no-confidence vote in the National Assembly.
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