CHANDIGARH, India: Indians in Punjab, worried that plans to work, study or visit families in Canada will be jeopardized by this week’s tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats over the murder of a Sikh separatist, are urging both governments to reduce the tension.
Canada’s nearly 800,000 Sikhs formed the world’s second largest community in 2021, after roughly 20 million in India. They have links to the northern granary state of Punjab, where their religion was founded more than 500 years ago.
“Many clients have reached out, worried about how this might affect their plans to migrate to Canada,” said an immigration lawyer, Karan S. Thukral, who is based in the Indian capital, though adding he had seen no big drop yet in legal inquiries.
“Indian students are among those feeling the impact most acutely.”
Indians have made up Canada’s largest group of international students in recent years, mainly from Punjab, holding more than 41 percent of student permits in 2022. International students bring in about C$22 billion ($16 billion) for its universities each year.
“We want to go to Canada to study and settle there, but now that’s not possible because students who want to go there are facing difficulties,” said Anita, a student in Punjab’s capital of Chandigarh, who gave only her first name.
Canadian study permits for Indians fell sharply late last year and the diplomatic tension was likely to weigh on future numbers, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told Reuters in January.
“It is something that both countries cannot afford because we are heavily dependent on each other,” said Kanwalpreet Kaur, a political science professor at Chandigarh’s DAV College.
“It is really keeping students on edge because their future is tied up with Canada,” she added.
Ties soured last September when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the killing of the Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil.
India’s high commissioner, or ambassador, was among the six diplomats Canada expelled on Monday, linking them to the murder, while accusing the Indian government of having undertaken a broad campaign targeting the South Asian community in Canada.
India dismissed the accusations and accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda,” while kicking out six high-ranking Canadian diplomats in retaliation.
However, both countries see no immediate impact on two-way trade, which stood at $8.4 billion at the end of the last fiscal year on March 31.
“It’s a loss for families and for our children who want to go there to live a better life,” said Gurinder Singh, who runs a cloth business and exports to Canada.
“The government should consider all this and should ensure that the matter does not escalate.”
Indians in Punjab fear dispute with Canada endangers work, study plans
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Indians in Punjab fear dispute with Canada endangers work, study plans
- Indians have made up Canada’s largest group of international students in recent years
- India’s high commissioner, or ambassador, was among the six diplomats Canada expelled on Monday
Kremlin: Zelensky’s letter to Trump on readiness to negotiate is positive
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov: ‘The question is who to sit down with. For now, the Ukrainian president is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side’
Zelensky made the statement in a letter to US President Donald Trump, which Trump made public on Tuesday.
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” Trump said in an address to Congress while quoting from the letter.
Asked how the Kremlin viewed this, spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: “Positively.”
But he added: “The question is who to sit down with. For now, the Ukrainian president is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side. So, overall, the approach is positive, but the nuances have not changed yet.”
Peskov was referring to a Zelensky decree in 2022 that ruled out negotiations with President Vladimir Putin.
Five Pakistan soldiers killed in militant attack in northwest, military says
KARACHI: Pakistan’s military said five soldiers were killed in a militant attack on a military site in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday.
Four suicide bombers were among 16 militants who were also killed in the attack, the military added.
Rain, snow offer hope in Japan’s worst wildfire in 50 years
- The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato has raged for more than a week
- Columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain through the rain and snow on Wednesday
OFUNATO, Japan: Japan battled its worst wildfire in half a century on Wednesday in a region hit by record-low rainfall, as wet weather gave hope for some relief.
The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato has raged for more than a week, killing one person and forcing nearly 4,000 residents to evacuate their homes.
It has engulfed about 2,900 hectares — around half the size of Manhattan — making it the largest wildfire since at least 1975, when 2,700 hectares burnt in Hokkaido.
Columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain through the rain and snow on Wednesday, AFP reporters saw. More wet weather was forecast through Thursday.
“The fire was like nothing I’ve seen before. It was towering and spreading fast,” said Mitsuo Otsubo, 85, who fled his home to stay with a relative.
“It didn’t rain or snow at all this year... Thank goodness it rained today though. I can only hope it will help contain the situation,” the seaweed and scallop farmer said.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches) of rainfall in February — breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and well below the average of 41 millimeters.
Makeshift tents were being set up at a city hall where around 270 people were taking shelter, with bottles of water and food supplies spread out on tables.
“Fires are the scariest disaster, because they spring from one place to another, so you don’t know where to run,” 69-year-old evacuee Fumiko Tanaka said.
“I can only hope the fires won’t reach my house.”
Tanaka and her husband, a fisherman, “feel the effect of climate change every year” as rising ocean temperatures affect what they are able to catch, she said.
At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.
The owner of an “onsen” hot spring inn voluntarily opened his facility for free to evacuees.
“Not being able to bathe yourself on top of dealing with the chaos of life in a shelter definitely wears you down,” 60-year-old Toyoshige Shida, of Ofunato Onsen, said.
He said he built the inn after seeing how people suffered in the wake of a huge earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that killed at least 340 people in Ofunato alone.
The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since its 1970s peak.
However, there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.
Greg Mullins, formerly fire and rescue commissioner for the Australian state of New South Wales, said this fire and the recent Los Angeles wildfires were “highly unusual” because they were in winter.
“In both cases the fires were preceded by hot summers, which increased evaporation and drying of vegetation, followed by large rainfall deficits that parched the landscape,” he said.
“This is a common by-product of climate change,” said Mullins, a founder of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group.
“As the planet warms further we can expect to see fires in places where they have never before been a problem.”
Around 2,000 firefighters, most deployed from other parts of Japan, including Tokyo, have been working from the air and on the ground.
“The fact that teams of firefighters are being reinforced every day, and that the fire has been going on for a week, shows the extent of the dry weather and the difficulties we are facing,” Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told reporters.
The topography of the mountainous coastal area, with steep slopes and narrow and winding roads, was hampering the fire-fighting operation.
Russian attack cuts power, kill two in south Ukraine
KYIV: Russia staged night-time attacks on energy facilities in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa, officials said Wednesday, cutting electricity to the Black Sea territory and leaving at least one dead.
Moscow has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine even as rhetoric builds in Washington and Moscow on potential talks to halt fighting.
Regional authorities announced that “critical infrastructure has been damaged and part of the city has been left without electricity, water and heat.”
Emergency services described the damage as “large-scale” and released images showing firefighters battling blazes.
The governor said a 77-year-old man was killed by shrapnel in village outside Odesa city.
Separately the governor of the neighboring region of Kherson said a 55-year-old was killed in Kherson city.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the attacks.
The Ukrainian airforce said Russia had launched four missiles and 181 drones, including the Iranian-designed Shahed attack unmanned aerial vehicles, adding Kyiv had shot down 115 of the Russian drones.
Philippine fighter jet wreckage, bodies of crew found
- The FA-50 fighter jet had gone missing a day earlier while on a mission to provide air support for troops fighting guerrillas
- The wreckage of the missing jet was found on Mount Kalatungan, the fifth-tallest mountain in the Philippines
MANILA: Philippine rescuers on Wednesday found the wreckage of a fighter jet and the bodies of two crewmen sent to combat communist rebels in a mountainous region of the country’s south.
The FA-50 fighter jet had gone missing a day earlier while on a mission to provide air support for troops fighting guerrillas in northern Mindanao.
Lt. Gen. Luis Rex Bergante, commander of Eastern Mindanao Command, said the two crewmen had been found inside the wreckage.
“The bodies were found inside the aircraft. There was an attempt to open a parachute and eject,” he said.
“The aircraft was a total wreck. The aircraft smashed through the trees in the mountain.”
Lt. Col. Francisco Garello of the 4th Infantry Division said the wreckage of the missing jet was found on Mount Kalatungan.
Located in Mindanao’s Bukidnon province, the 2,880-meter Kalatungan is the fifth-tallest mountain in the Philippines.
Bergante said bringing the servicemen’s remains down the mountainside was now the top priority.
In a statement, the air force said it had temporarily “grounded its FA-50 fleet” and would “ensure a thorough investigation into the accident,” the cause of which remains unknown.
The crashed jet was one of a dozen FA-50s the Philippines purchased from South Korea in the past decade.
Garello said early Wednesday that the search had been suspended overnight due to the danger of “communist groups” believed to be operating in the area.
On Tuesday, he said his division had called in air support during a firefight with the New People’s Army, a long-running Maoist insurgency now believed to have fewer than 2,000 fighters.
The jets flew out of Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base, which shares a runway with the airport in Cebu, the Philippines’ second-largest city.
Air force spokeswoman Col. Consuelo Castillo told reporters Tuesday it was the “first major incident” involving its squadron of FA-50s, which have been used in exercises over the disputed South China Sea.
The FA-50s have been flown in joint air patrols with treaty ally the United States over contested areas of the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines have been involved in increasingly tense confrontations.
On Wednesday, Castillo said the air force hoped the investigation would be “done thoroughly but swift enough for us not to sacrifice our operational readiness” given the fighters’ key role in maritime patrols.
She also said the air force has proposed purchasing 12 more FA-50s, a request under consideration at the Department of National Defense.
There have been a number of deadly crashes involving Philippine military aircraft in recent years.
Two navy pilots were killed last April when their Robinson R22 helicopter crashed near a market south of the capital Manila during a training flight.
Two PAF pilots were killed in January 2023 when their Marchetti SF260 turboprop plane crashed into a rice field.
