Hundreds | Pakistan

Hundreds of people led by the chief minister of India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) shouted slogans and staged a protest in the capital Delhi on Monday, demanding statehood for the region, seven years after it revoked the disputed region’s autonomy by abrogating Article 370. Protesters were stopped by police from staging their demonstration, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a post on X, which had videos and pictures of people holding posters and shouting slogans. “This is only the beginning of our struggle for statehood, our rights, our dignity and everything that was taken away from us,” Abdullah said in the post. In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the partial autonomy of the occupied Kashmir state, removed its statehood and divided it into two federally controlled territories: held Kashmir with Jammu, and Ladakh. The government has since said statehood to the Himalayan region will be restored at the “appropriate time” but has not given a deadline. Abdullah and his party, the Jammu and Kashmir...

Hundreds of young students gathered in New Delhi on Saturday for the first street protest by the satirical “Cockroach People’s Party” over alleged irregularities in recent major examinations. Carrying paper cockroach masks and pamphlets, the protesters called for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who has faced criticism over the irregularities, including question paper leaks and technical glitches. “We want accountability from the government,” Utkarsh Raj, a medical college aspirant, told AFP at the protest site, which was watched closely by police officers in riot gear. “How is it that exam papers get leaked in this country? How is this right?” added Raj, 16. Protesters were led by Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old Boston University graduate who arrived in New Delhi from the United States on Saturday. “The youth of the country will no longer fear anyone, they will fight,” Dipke, a former political communications strategist for the opposition Aam Aadmi Party, told supporters at the rally. “...

Hundreds of people in India’s border region with Bangladesh have fled to the frontier, police said Wednesday, after the government ordered the construction of detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in West Bengal state in early May with a hardline policy to “detect, delete and deport” illegal migrants. India’s right-wing have long argued that illegal migration is a national security threat, and warned of changing demography in India’s border states. West Bengal government’s last week ordered the setting up of “holding centres” for “apprehended foreigners”, singling out both Bangladeshis and Rohingya. The decision has fuelled anxiety among West Bengal’s roughly 35 million Muslims, many of whom share linguistic and cultural ties with neighbouring Bangladesh. Indian police officer Shirshendu Pati, from the Swarupnagar Police Station about 10 kilometres from the Bangladesh bo...

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of Mount Everest in Tibet were guided to safety by rescuers, Chinese state media reported on Sunday, as unusually heavy snow and rainfall pummelled the Himalayas. As of Sunday, 350 trekkers had reached the small township of Qudang, while contact with the remaining 200-plus trekkers had been made, CCTV reported. Visitors to the remote valley of Karma, which leads to the eastern Kangshung face of Everest, were in the hundreds this week, taking advantage of an eight-day National Day holiday in China. “It was so wet and cold in the mountains, and hypothermia was a real risk,” said Chen Geshuang, who was part of an 18-strong trekking team that made it to Qudang. “The weather this year is not normal. The guide said he had never encountered such weather in October. And it happened all too suddenly,” Chen told Reuters. Snow, thunder and lightning Snowfall in the valley, which lies at an elevation averaging 4,200 metres, began on Friday evening and pers...

GILGIT: Hundreds of Chinese nationals, foreign tourists and students remained stranded on the second day on Tuesday at Sost as protesters blocked Khunjerab Pass Immigration Office’s entry and exit points on the Pakistan-China border. Officials said a large number of Chinese nationals, students, foreign tourists couldn’t travel to China through Khunjerab Pass on the second day as the GB protesters did not allow travel at KKH between the two countries. The stranded Chinese nationals and foreign tourists protested with local police for not arranging their departure to China. Officials said a large number of Chinese nationals protested and exchanged hot words with officials. The GB people and traders have been staging a protest sit-in and blocking the Karakoram Highway for the last 51 days against collection of Sales Tax, Income Tax and Excise Tax by the federal government from the GB people. They say that collection of any tax from the GB people by the federal government is illegal as they have no representation...

Hundreds of people in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) have fallen victim to water-borne diseases owing to a severe shortage of clean drinking water following devastating floods in the region, government data showed on Thursday. The devastating impacts of climate change have become more visible in GB as unprecedented heat­­waves, erratic weat­her patterns and glacial melting have triggered cloudbursts and intense floods across the region. On Wednesday, a glacial lake outburst flood (Glof) swept away part of the Karakoram Highway (KKH), while on Tuesday evening, a powerful torrent surged through the Juchar nullah in Gulmit, Gojal, and Hunza, triggered by accelerated glacier melt. “Diamer, Shigar, Skardu, Astore, and Gilgit are most affected by poor and unsafe water, with the people of these districts being admitted to hospitals and clinics every day,” said GB government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq. A government report said children under the age of five have also begun falling victim to cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid and p...