Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Tuesday said the organisation believes that there is no need to turn India into a 'Hindu Rashtra' or Hindu nation because the country has always been one.
How to conduct the mock exercise with active public participation of people was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Top civil and police officers of the country participated in the meeting, official sources said.
Vimala Chandra Sidam alias Tarakka, a top Naxal leader with a Rs 25 lakh reward on her head, surrendered before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Gadchiroli along with ten other senior Maoists. Tarakka, who joined the Naxal movement in 1986, rose through the ranks over 38 years to become a Dandkaranya Special Zonal Committee member. She is the wife of Central Committee Member Sonu alias Bhupati. The surrendered Naxals, eight women and three men, were collectively carrying a bounty of Rs 1.03 crore. Fadnavis also felicitated C 60 personnel for the July 17, 2024 encounter wherein 12 hardcore Maoists were killed in a forested area bordering Chhattisgarh.
The quadcopter was "recovered" from a field near the border fence and a search is on to check if it dropped any consignment in the area.
The Indian Council of Medical Research was in talks with the Serum Institute of India for local manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies (MABs). However, it did not take off, as the volume was much less in India.
The police are also patrolling border villages.
'Even known names and social media handles went berserk by stating that Karachi has been attacked and an F-16 was shot down.'
Bill Aitken came to India nearly 60 years ago. He never returned. An Indian citizen since 1972, he tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how India changed his life forever.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the involvement of Canadian colleges and Indian entities in a money laundering case linked to the trafficking of Indians into the US from the borders of Canada. The probe stems from the death of an Indian family who died trying to illegally cross the Canada-US border in January 2022. The ED has alleged that accused individuals arranged admissions for Indians in Canadian colleges, but the students never joined the institutions after obtaining student visas. The ED has conducted searches at multiple locations in India and found that two entities were involved in facilitating admissions for Indians in foreign universities on a commission basis. The agency suspects that several Canadian colleges near the Canada-US border are involved in the trafficking racket.
In a strong retaliation to the Pahalgam massacre, India's armed forces early Wednesday destroyed nine terror sites including that of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) using deep strike missiles in a 25-minute-long 'measured and non-escalatory' mission.
Punjab farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said on Saturday that they have not received any message from the Centre for talks to address their issues and said a group of 101 farmers will again begin their march to Delhi on December 8.
India is set to bring eight cheetahs from Botswana in two phases, with four arriving by May 2025. This follows the successful reintroduction of cheetahs to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, with the population now at 26, including 14 cubs born in India. The initiative aims to boost cheetah conservation efforts and create inter-state collaboration for their protection. The project has already seen significant investment, with over Rs 112 crore spent on cheetah rehabilitation.
Two Pakistani intruders were shot dead by the Border Security Force troops at a village near the border in Punjab and fake Indian currency with a face value of Rs 65 lakh was seized, officials said on Friday.
'No village in Maharashtra will go to Karnataka! The state government will fight strongly in the Supreme Court to get Marathi speaking villages in Karnataka including Belgaum-Karwar-Nipani!' said Fadnavis.
Daljit Singh, one of the 116 illegal Indian immigrants deported from the US on Saturday night, has claimed that they were handcuffed with their legs chained during the journey. Singh, who traveled via the 'donkey route', an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter the US, said that he was deceived by a travel agent who promised him a direct flight to the US. The C-17 aircraft that landed at the Amritsar airport on Saturday was the second batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigrants. A third plane carrying 157 deportees is expected to land at the Amritsar airport on Sunday.
He also expressed confidence about getting justice in the Supreme Court, as Karnataka's stand on the issue is both legal and constitutional.
BSF director general (DG) Pankaj Kumar Singh on Tuesday said that the "demographic balance" has been upset in border-states like Assam and West Bengal over a period of time and that was probably the reason that the Centre recently extended the force's jurisdiction.
BSF official said while two rockets landed in an agricultural field in the border villages around Attari border on Friday night, the rest two failed to explode.
Three Gujarat-based "illegal immigration" agents, who facilitated the family's ill-fated journey, were later arrested.
Families of illegal immigrants from Punjab who were deported from the US are facing a crushing debt they took to facilitate their travel to America. They allege that travel agents used unfair means to facilitate the youths' travel without their knowledge and are seeking strict action against them. The families are burdened by the debt they took on hoping for a better future and are appealing to the government for help.
The Superintendent of Police in Manipur's Kangpokpi district was injured after a mob attacked his office on Friday evening over the officer's alleged failure to remove central force from Saibol village bordering Imphal East district. Kuki organisations have been protesting against the alleged baton charge on women by security forces on December 31 in Saibol village. The attackers threw stones and other projectiles towards the office to vent their anger over the continued deployment of central forces, particularly the BSF and the CRPF in the village. Several others, including police personnel and protesters, also suffered injuries during the clash between security forces and attackers.
The caller, posing himself as either a colonel or a local official, made queries about the army presence in the area and the timings of their movement, official sources said.
Restrictions under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) continued to be imposed in the clash site and surrounding areas, they said.
The shutdown was called by Kuki-Zo groups, including the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and Kuki Students Organisation (KSO), in protest against Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh's statement about militants entering the state from outside.
Most of the houses in this village have been abandoned as the residents have migrated to safer places to save themselves from the ceasefire violation from the Pakistani side.
Speaking to reporters in Belagavi, he said, everyone in Karnataka is united to protect the interest of the state.
The Indian Army is effecting a major "reorientation" and "rebalancing" of its troops in the strategically sensitive areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, with a top general saying its overall combat readiness in the region is of a "very high order."
Punjab Police have arrested two key operatives of the banned organization Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) who had direct links to Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Singh Rinda and US-based gangster Happy Passian. The accused, Jagdish Singh alias Jagga and Shubhdeep Singh Aulakh alias Shubh, were instructed to carry out targeted killings in Punjab as part of a larger coordinated terror operation. Jagdish is a key shooter involved in a murder case in Maharashtra two weeks ago. Both accused were arrested from Mohali and a case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act at SSOC police station, Mohali.
Three Maoists were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Sunday. The gunfight broke out in the morning at a forest in the Indravati National Park area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation. The bodies of the three Naxalites were recovered along with firearms and explosives.
The border village of Sarabjit Singh in Punjab erupted in joy on Thursday following his imminent release from Pakistan with his family calling it a 'relieving' moment and an act of kindness from President Asif Ali Zardari.
More than two decades after deserting their village due to Maoists, around 25 tribal families are planning to return to their native place in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.
'Prime Minister Modi should sit with Trump and find a solution to this issue.'
At Lyngkhong village in East Khasi Hills district, the foundation for the single line fence has been built but the fencing has been stopped due to protests of the residents.
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Wednesday took a couple of sips of water from the Yamuna river to counter claims by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that Haryana was polluting the river with industrial waste. He accused AAP leaders of spreading "poison" in politics and said their minds were filled with poison. The incident comes days before the Delhi assembly polls where the BJP and AAP are locked in a fierce battle.
In the frontier areas of Jammu district, the number of people staying in the safe camps has also dwindled as the people want to tend to their standing crops.
'China wants to change the status quo of India's Northern Border and proves that it can do whatever it wants in what it perceives as its own territory,' states Claude Arpi.
The Meitei group Arambai Tenggol surrendered 246 firearms to security forces in Manipur, bringing the total number of weapons surrendered to 307. The surrender follows a deadline set by Governor Ajay Bhalla for the return of illegal weapons. Arambai Tenggol's decision was influenced by assurances from the governor, including the eradication of opium poppy cultivation, implementation of border fencing, and a general amnesty for members of the group. Officials believe the surrender will contribute to restoring peace in the state, which has been rocked by ethnic violence for nearly two years. The police have urged others in possession of illegal firearms to surrender them before the deadline. Former Chief Minister N Biren Singh welcomed the surrender, calling it a "big step towards peace."
Eleven villages in Akkalkot tehsil of Maharashtra's Solapur district have asked the district administration to provide them basic facilities or grant them permission to merge with adjoining Karnataka.
Officials said the personnel of the force stopped about 120-140 Bangladeshi citizens who were attempting to cross over to the Indian side from multiple locations in the eastern state.
It is a 165 MW run-of-the-river scheme proposed in Dhauli Ganga river in Darma valley.
