SRINAGAR: Leaders of Indian-administered Kashmir’s biggest political party were sworn into office Wednesday to run a largely powerless government after the first local election since India stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah will be the region’s chief minister after his party won the most seats in the three-phased election. It has support from India’s main opposition Congress party, although Congress decided not to be a part of the new government for now.
The vote was Kashmir’s first in a decade and the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019. The National Conference staunchly opposed the move, and its victory is seen as a referendum against the Modi government’s changes.
Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, administered the oaths of office to Abdullah and the five members of his council of ministers in a ceremony under tight security at a lakeside venue in the region’s main city of Srinagar. Some of India’s top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, attended.
However, there will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi to the local government as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood would have to be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Kashmir’s last assembly election in 2014 brought to power Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. The government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition and New Delhi took the region under its direct control.
A year later, the federal government downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave the way for demographic changes in the region.
The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted.
Like on election days, authorities on Wednesday limited access of foreign media to the oath ceremony and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including The Associated Press, without citing any reason.
In the recently concluded election, the National Conference won 42 seats, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, while the BJP secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu. The Congress succeeded in six constituencies.
Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Experts say the new government, stripped of all the essential powers, would face a daunting task to fulfil its election promises against huge public expectations to resist the 2019 changes and the federal government’s tight control.
Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the region’s political vacuum of the last few years will not vanish with the polls alone.
“The Modi government should build on it by restoring full statehood and empowering the government,” said Donthi. “Otherwise, it will intensify disaffection and is a set up for failure.”
Modi and his powerful home minister, Amit Shah, have repeatedly stated that the region’s statehood will be restored after the election, without specifying a timeline. However, they vowed to block any move aimed at undoing the 2019 changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.
For the new chief minister, meanwhile, it’s going to be a tightrope walk.
“As a pro-India politician at the helm of this powerless administration, Omar Abdullah knows his limitations,” Donthi said. “He would be looking at his job as a buffer to moderate the worst instincts of New Delhi, but he would be clutching at straws.”
Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government
https://arab.news/vtp4k
Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government
- The region has been on edge since 2019, with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted
- There will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi that will remain Kashmir’s main legislator
Indians battle respiratory issues, skin rashes in world’s most polluted town
- According to government data, the number of respiratory infection cases in the region rose to 3,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022
BYRNIHAT, India: Two-year-old Sumaiya Ansari, a resident of India’s Byrnihat town which is ranked the world’s most polluted metropolitan area by Swiss Group IQAir, was battling breathing problems for several days before she was hospitalized in March and given oxygen support.
She is among many residents of the industrial town on the border of the northeastern Assam and Meghalaya states — otherwise known for their lush, natural beauty — inflicted by illnesses that doctors say are likely linked to high exposure to pollution.
Byrnihat’s annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2024 was 128.2 micrograms per cubic meter, according to IQAir, over 25 times the level recommended by the WHO.
PM2.5 refers to particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can be carried into the lungs, causing deadly diseases and cardiac problems.
“It was very scary, she was breathing like a fish,” said Abdul Halim, Ansari’s father, who brought her home from hospital after two days.
According to government data, the number of respiratory infection cases in the region rose to 3,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022.
“Ninety percent of the patients we see daily come either with a cough or other respiratory issues,” said Dr. J Marak of Byrnihat Primary Healthcare Center.
Residents say the toxic air also causes skin rashes and eye irritation, damages crops, and restricts routine tasks like drying laundry outdoors.
“Everything is covered with dust or soot,” said farmer Dildar Hussain.
Critics say Byrnihat’s situation reflects a broader trend of pollution plaguing not just India’s cities, including the capital Delhi, but also its smaller towns as breakneck industrialization erodes environmental safeguards.
Unlike other parts of the country that face pollution every winter, however, Byrnihat’s air quality remains poor through the year, government data indicates.
Home to about 80 industries — many of them highly polluting — experts say the problem is exacerbated in the town by other factors like emissions from heavy vehicles, and its “bowl-shaped topography.”
“Sandwiched between the hilly terrain of Meghalaya and the plains of Assam, there is no room for pollutants to disperse,” said Arup Kumar Misra, chairman of Assam’s pollution control board.
The town’s location has also made a solution tougher, with the states shifting blame to each other, said a Meghalaya government official who did not want to be named.
Since the release of IQAir’s report in March, however, Assam and Meghalaya have agreed to form a joint committee and work together to combat Byrnihat’s pollution.
US defense chief Hegseth had a second Signal chat where he shared details of Yemen strike, NYT reports
- Chat group included Hegseth's wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Houthi militants that were sent in another chain
- Hegseth’s use of Signal messaging chat and the sharing of such plans are under investigation by the Defense Department’s acting inspector general
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, The New York Times reported.
A person familiar with the contents and those who received the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, confirmed the second chat to The Associated Press.
The second chat on Signal — which is a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information — included 13 people, the person said. They also confirmed the chat was dubbed “Defense ‘ Team Huddle.”
The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, who is a former Fox News producer, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. Both have traveled with the defense secretary and attended high-level meetings.
The revelation of the additional chat group brought fresh criticism against Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s wider administration after it has failed to take action so far against the top national security officials who discussed plans for the military strike in Signal.
“The details keep coming out. We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X. “Pete Hegseth must be fired.”
The first chat, set up by national security adviser Mike Waltz, included a number of Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was added to the group.
The contents of that chat, which The Atlantic published, shows that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen last month.
The White House, the National Security Council and a Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the additional chat group.
Hegseth has previously contended that no classified information or war plans were shared in the chat with the journalist.
The Times reported Sunday that the second chat had the same warplane launch times that the first chat included. Multiple former and current officials have said sharing those operational details before a strike would have certainly been classified and their release could have put pilots in danger.
Hegseth’s use of Signal and the sharing of such plans are under investigation by the Defense Department’s acting inspector general. It came at the request of the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Republican Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and ranking Democratic member Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
The new revelations come amid further turmoil at the Pentagon. Four officials in Hegseth’s inner circle departed last week as the Pentagon conducts a widespread investigation for information leaks.
Dan Caldwell, a Hegseth aide; Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; and Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, were escorted out of the Pentagon.
While the three initially had been placed on leave pending the investigation, a joint statement shared by Caldwell on X on Saturday said the three “still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.”
Caldwell was the staff member designated as Hegseth’s point person in the Signal chat with Trump Cabinet members.
Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot also announced he was resigning last week, unrelated to the leaks. The Pentagon said, however, that Ullyot was asked to resign.
Trump says he hopes Russia, Ukraine to strike ‘deal this week’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he hoped for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal “this week,” promising “big business with the United States” for both combatants if a truce is signed.
“Hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week,” Trump posted to his Truth Social network, without giving details of any progress in peace talks Washington has sought to push forward since he took over from Joe Biden in January.
Congo suspends Kabila’s political party
- Joseph Kabila, who was president for 18 years up to 2019, remains head of his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, the Interior Ministry said
KINSHASA: The Democratic Republic of Congo government said it suspended the political party of former President Joseph Kabila days after security services raided his properties.
“This decision follows the overt activism” of Kabila, who was president for 18 years up to 2019 and remains head of his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, PPRD, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
PPRD activities “are suspended across all the national territory,” the statement said.
There was no immediate reaction from the party.
Current leader President Felix Tshisekedi has accused Kabila of preparing “an insurrection” and backing an alliance that includes the M23 armed group that is fighting government forces in eastern DR Congo.
According to a spokesman for his family, Kabila, 53, left the country before the last presidential election in 2023.
But in early April, in a message relayed by his staff, he said he would return on an unspecified date because the country was “in peril.”
There are unconfirmed suggestions that he will arrive, or is already in, the eastern city of Goma.
The family spokesman said on Thursday that security services mounted raids on Kabila’s main property, a farm east of Kinshasa, and on a compound belonging to the family in the capital.
The Interior Ministry statement accused Kabila’s party of keeping “a guilty, or even complicit, silence” over “the Rwandan war of aggression.”
Kinshasa, UN experts, and several international powers have said M23 is backed by Rwanda, which denies the charge.
The armed group is at the center of a new surge in conflict in eastern DR Congo, having taken the key cities of Goma and Bukavu.
The DR Congo ministry statement said Kabila has maintained an “ambiguous attitude” on the M23 rebellion, which he “has never condemned.”
It criticized Kabila’s “deliberate choice” to enter the country through the city of Goma, under the “control of the enemy.”
A separate statement from the country’s Justice Ministry said the chief prosecutor had been asked to start legal action against Kabila for “his direction participation” in M23.
Exec linked to Bangkok building collapse arrested
BANGKOK: Thai authorities said they have arrested a Chinese executive at a company that was building a Bangkok skyscraper which collapsed in a major earthquake, leaving dozens dead.
The 30-story tower was reduced to an immense pile of rubble when a 7.7-magnitude quake struck neighboring Myanmar last month, killing 47 people at the construction site and leaving another 47 missing.
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong told a news conference Saturday that a Thai court had issued arrest warrants for four individuals, including three Thai nationals, at China Railway No.10 for breaching the Foreign Business Act.
The Department of Special Investigation, which is under the justice ministry, said in a statement Saturday that one of the four had been arrested — a Chinese “company representative” who they named as Zhang.
China Railway No.10 was part of a joint venture with an Italian-Thai firm to build the State Audit Office tower before its collapse.
Zhang is listed as a 49-percent shareholder in the firm, while the three Thai citizens have a 51-percent stake in the company.
But Tawee told journalists that “we have evidence ... that the three Thais were holding shares for other foreign independents.”
The Foreign Business Act says that foreigners may hold no more than 49 percent of shares in a company.
Separately, Tawee said several investigations related to the collapse were ongoing, including over the possibility of bid rigging and the use of fake signatures of engineers in construction supervisor contracts.
Earlier this month Thai safety officials said testing of steel rebars — struts used to reinforce concrete — from the site has found that some of the metal used was substandard.
The skyscraper was the only major building in the capital to fall in the catastrophic March 28 earthquake that has killed more than 3,700 people in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar.
