Author: Karnavati Bakshi

The US has raised an alleged plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil at the “senior-most” levels with India, the White House says. According to the Financial Times, the target was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US-Canada dual national. Mr Pannun is a vocal advocate for an independent Sikh homeland and has been designated a terrorist by India. The report comes weeks after Canada said India may have been behind the murder of another Sikh separatist. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources, that US authorities thwarted a conspiracy to kill Mr Pannun and have issued a…

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine is allegedly already thinking about negotiations with the Russian Federation. Source: Putin at a press conference following his visit to China Putin’s direct speech: “We hear now that they seem to be ready for some kind of negotiations. The responsible persons who are in charge of the issue of foreign policy and who just recently said that it is necessary to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield, now the stink is already “They have spoken in a different voice and are already saying that these problems need to be resolved through peaceful…

Millions have been voting in the states of Mizoram and Chhattisgarh as a round of key state elections kicked off in India. They are among five states going to the polls between 7 and 30 November. Vote counting is due on 3 December. These polls are seen as a precursor to the national elections next year. Analysts say they are expected to offer some insights into how the governing and opposition parties will perform in the general election in 2024. The other states voting this month include Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in northern India and Telangana in the south. Prime…

Coaching centres in the northern Indian city of Kota are facing tighter regulations after a rise in the number of student suicides. BBC Hindi’s Vineet Khare has been talking to pupils who have travelled to Kota to receive tuition to help them pass entrance exams for elite colleges and found many feel intense pressure to succeed. Twenty-one-year-old Vijay (not his real name) has failed the entrance exam for medical college three times. He had hoped that studying at an expensive coaching centre in Kota in the north Indian state of Rajasthan would get him through the test. Like many other…

At the memorial complex of the Wagner PMC, located near the city of Goryachiy Klyuch in the Krasnodar Territory, a new stele was installed, on which are inscribed the numbers of dog tags of more than 20 thousand Wagnerites who died in the war in Ukraine. Caucasus.Realities write about this . The stele consists of three triangular planes of black granite, which are connected by lintels with a bell suspended on them. On each plane are engraved the numbers of the tokens of the mercenaries who died in Ukraine. According to the telegram channel “Unloading Wagner” associated with the PMC, in total the token numbers of…

India’s financial capital Mumbai has witnessed a drop in air quality this month, authorities said. Withdrawing rains and constructions work have caused the air quality to deteriorate, officials said. Delhi usually makes headlines for dangerous levels of air pollution during the winter months. But Mumbai, which has a vast coastline and is considered to have better air quality, overtook Delhi several times this month. The level of PM 2.5 – fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases – was 166 in the city on Thursday compared to 117 in Delhi, according to government data.…

India has asked Canada to withdraw about 40 diplomatic staff from India, reports say, in a sharp escalation of a weeks-long crisis. Those who stayed past 10 October would lose their diplomatic immunity, the Financial Times first reported. Last month, Canada said India may have been behind the killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil, which India has denied. An Indian foreign ministry official told the BBC it had no comment to make. Canada has many more diplomats in Delhi than India has in Ottawa, and since this crisis erupted India has asked Canada for parity in its…

The counterterrorism expert and author of “Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre: Lessons for the International Community” explains how religious extremism manifested in Sri Lanka’s deadliest terror attack. On April 21, 2019 – Easter Sunday – a coordinated series of bombings ripped through Sri Lanka, targeting churches and luxury hotels. Over 260 people were killed, making it the deadliest terrorist attack ever suffered by Sri Lanka. The attack has continued to resonate in Sri Lankan society and politics, as the public demands to untangle questions of responsibility: Why was the attack not prevented, and what can be done to stop the…

India has urged its citizens travelling to or living in Canada to “exercise utmost caution”. The advisory comes a day after tensions escalated between the countries with each expelling a diplomat from the other side. Canada said it was investigating “credible allegations” linking the Indian state with the killing of a Sikh separatist leader. India strongly denied this, calling the allegations “absurd”. Analysts say relations between the countries, which have been strained for months, are now at an all-time low. On Wednesday, India’s foreign ministry said it issued the advisory “in view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence…

The Indian government has accused X Corp (formerly known as Twitter) of being a “habitual non-complaint platform” in a recent court filing. “X-Corp does not follow the law of the land,” the government said, adding that this lowered “the authority of the law, judiciary and executive”. The document, accessed by the BBC, was filed by the government in response to an appeal by X in a court in the south Indian state of Karnataka. X has not commented on the filing. X is appealing against a recent order of the high court which dismissed its challenge to several government orders…