India | Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday accused India of sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan, alleging that New Delhi was providing support and resources to militant groups to destabilise the country.

India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka secured direct entry into the men’s cricket knockout stage at the 2026 Asian Games after the draw was announced on Thursday. The 10-team men’s competition, starting from September 24 in Nagoya, will begin with a preliminary round featuring Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal and Oman competing for the remaining quarter-final berths. Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal were drawn in Group A, while Hong Kong, Malaysia and Oman were placed in Group B. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage to join the four seeded sides. The women’s tournament, scheduled from September 17-22, features eight teams and will begin at the quarter-final stage. Defending champions India will face hosts Japan, Bangladesh will take on China, Sri Lanka will meet Malaysia, and Pakistan will play Thailand. All matches in both competitions will be played in the Twenty20 format. India swept the cricket gold medals at the 2022 Asian Games, held in 2023 in Hangzhou, cla...

Thousands of supporters of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement have been protesting since June, demanding the education minister resign over exam paper leaks, in the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term. Activists say the leaks showed widespread corruption, a complaint which has brought crowds onto the streets for years. Following are details of major rallies, triggered by graft and other crimes and causes, over the past two decades. April 2011 Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare started the first of two hunger strikes in a bid to push the government to bring in anti-graft legislation. Hundreds of thousands rallied to his support across the country and he was briefly jailed by the then-Congress alliance government. India’s parliament eventually passed an anti-graft law, though Hazare said it watered down his demands. Some of his supporters went on to form the Aam Aadmi Party in 2012, now one of Modi’s opponents in parliament. December 2012 Public fury over the gang-rape of a...

A steady stream of food delivery riders carrying meals, snacks and bottled water is helping sustain a youth-led protest movement that has sprung up in the heart of India’s capital. Motorcycles weave through traffic before pulling up beside clusters of volunteers, ferrying donations from supporters across India and abroad unable to join a rare display of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. “From Kerala to the USA, orders are coming from everywhere,” said rider Suraj Kumar, 25, sitting atop his motorcycle with a bag of kachoris, a popular deep-fried snack, as some volunteers climbed over police barricades to take delivery of the packages. A volunteer took the packet and passed it hand-to-hand towards the centre of the protest site a few hundred metres away around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory, where hundreds of people gathered around a raised platform. There, leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a movement that began as online satire in May, demanded the resignation of E...

WASHINGTON: A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced legislation aimed at criminalising efforts by foreign governments to intimidate political opponents and activists living in the United States, amid growing concern in Washington over alleged cases of transnational repression involving India. The Stop Transnational Repression Act of 2026, sponsored by Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Senator John Curtis, would make transnational repression a specific federal crime for the first time. It would expand the Justice Department and FBI’s authority to investigate and prosecute foreign efforts to suppress dissent on American soil. Under the proposed legislation, individuals convicted of transnational repression could face an additional prison sentence of up to 10 years and fines of up to $100,000, alongside penalties for any underlying offences. The bill would also strengthen the role of the US Justice Department’s National Security Division and the Assistant Attorney General for National Securi...

When pent-up youth anger propelled India’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to online fame in May, its founder said his supporters were disillusioned with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party and the opposition for failing to address their concerns. Yet CJP leaders turned to opposition lawmakers and appealed directly for their support on Monday after police used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters marching on parliament to demonstrate against damaging exam leaks and corruption. Opposition lawmakers were quick to oblige on Tuesday, after many young demonstrators were injured. Police personnel stand guard as India’s opposition party Indian National Congress stages a sit-in protest calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation outside the latter’s residence in New Delhi on July 21, 2026. — AFP The show of solidarity with protesters could help opposition parties win valuable young voters and broaden the appeal of the CJP, which has so far focused on demanding the education minister’s resignation o...

On a Saturday evening this month, an 11-year-old girl left her home for a friend’s birthday party in a small town in eastern India. She never returned. She was kidnapped, raped, bundled into a sack and thrown into a pond by a gang of men while still alive, according to a local investigating police officer. A health and physical education textbook of an 11-year-old girl who was raped and killed last week, is kept inside her parents’ house in a town near Kolkata, West Bengal, India on July 11, 2026. —Reuters/File The assault was the latest example of the brutal sexual violence that is endemic across India, with over 80 rapes reported to police every day, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. Many more assaults go unreported because of victim blaming and shaming, activists say. Deep-seated patriarchy and misogyny, understaffed police forces and severe judicial delays contribute to many perpetrators believing they can escape punishment for assaulting women. That sense of impunity feeds into th...

Ransomware group World Leaks has posted on the dark web a huge cache of files related to India’s largest nuclear plant, including purported blueprints of parts of its facilities and supplier details — information it ​labelled as coming from Reliance Group. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is the largest of India’s seven nuclear plants and central to Prime Minister ‌Narendra Modi’s ambitious plans to expand the country’s atomic energy capacity. Indian businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, one of the plant’s contractors, told Reuters in a statement that there had been a “partial breach” of its data on a server hosted by third-party Indian data centre service provider Yotta, and that the government had been informed about the incident. Reliance did not disclose what data had been breached. The data breach could pose a “serious” risk to the safety of the plant, says Nickolas Roth, a senior director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which ​advises governments and...

They suffered a six-wicket defeat against India in the first ODI

India has prohibited the import of goods produced using forced labour, the trade ministry said on Tuesday, in a move that could help avert new tariffs from a probe by the United States. The Asian nation is one of the several countries facing proposed new US trade tariffs of up to 12.5 per cent over allegations they failed to prohibit import of goods produced with forced labour. The ministry’s notification, dated Monday, said it empowers “the central government to prohibit, by notification, the import of goods produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, through the use of forced labour”. India’s foreign trade body will investigate whether imported goods were made using forced labour and, if evidence is found, recommend that the government ban imports of those products after consultations, according to the notification. The notification will come into force after 30 days. Like most countries, the bulk of goods from India currently face a 10pc US tariff. But Washington is expected to introduce steeper tariffs t...

• Rapporteurs say Muslims were disproportionately targeted in voter purge • Seek explanation over alleged deletion of 52m voters • Warn exercise may violate international human rights law • Criticise rhetoric linking purge to ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants’ KARACHI: Three United Nations special rapporteurs have sought clarification from the government of India over allegations that millions of voters, particularly Muslims, were wrongfully removed from electoral rolls ahead of recent state elections. In a formal communication dated May 1, 2026, the independent UN experts expressed grave concerns regarding a massive voter-deletion exercise that reportedly stripped approximately 52 million names from registers across 12 Indian states and union territories. While the voter purge reportedly affected some other linguistic and religious minorities, the independent experts highlighted that Muslim citizens bore the brunt of the administrative exclusions. The letter highlighted West Bengal, where 9.1m names were delet...

India rejected a quick trade agreement with the US in recent talks and is holding out for a better deal as Prime Minister Narendra Modi draws confidence from new trading partners, eased economic risks and political gains at home, officials and analysts said. After months of talks, the two nations failed to finalise an interim trade agreement during US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s visit to New Delhi last month, despite expectations from both sides that a limited deal was within reach. There was no consensus because Washington did not offer assurances on New Delhi’s key demands: a tariff advantage over competitors such as China and no new US levies after the deal, said an Indian government official aware of the talks. “Our position is clear — we don’t intend to rush into a deal that is not on favourable terms or compromise on red lines like ceding ground on agriculture,” the official said. Washington had hoped for quick trade concessions from a strategic partner as US President Donald Trump prepares ne...

New Zealand and India announced on Saturday a “strategic partnership” encompassing defence and security, during a landmark visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon feted his guest with an indigenous Maori welcome and guard of honour, seeking to expand relations after signing a free-trade pact in April that he has touted as an economic boon. Modi’s visit, at the tail end of a July 6-11 tour that has also taken him to Indonesia and Australia, came in the aftermath of China’s test-fire of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, stirring unease in the region. It was the first visit to New Zealand by an Indian prime minister in 40 years, a sign of Delhi’s deeper engagement at a time of strengthened Chinese diplomatic and military presence in the Pacific. Modi described the creation of the strategic partnership as a “milestone” that would inspire greater energy and confidence, as he was hosted by the New Zealand leader at Government House in Auckland. “Our firm belief in...

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in New Zealand on Friday touting a free trade deal that has sparked a backlash despite promises it will unlock jobs and economic riches. On the agenda are trade, tourism and sport — but recent undercurrents of anti-migrant sentiment risk tarnishing his trip to a nation long proud of its tolerance. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon celebrated the signing in April of the free trade deal with the world’s most populous nation, touting an export boom that would deliver jobs and investment in spades. The pact is widely expected to be approved by New Zealand’s parliament. But not everyone is happy at the prospect. Lawmakers in the populist New Zealand First Party, part of Luxon’s governing coalition, railed against parts of the agreement covering migration and visas. “I don’t care how much criticism we get, I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” government minister Shane Jones told a local radio show. An Indian commun...

Indian leader Narendra Modi said he clinched a uranium supply agreement while visiting Australia on Thursday, securing a fuel source that will play a crucial role in his nation’s nuclear energy ambitions. Faced with an almost-insatiable appetite for electricity in the world’s most populous nation, Modi has outlined plans to substantially scale-up nuclear power generation in coming years. Australia lays claim to around 28 per cent of the world’s uranium resource, but legal hurdles and political sensitivities have hindered exports to India. “We have signed an important agreement today on nuclear energy,” Modi said after talks with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese. “This will pave the way for uranium supplies from Australia to India and give our clean energy objectives fresh momentum.” A joint statement said the arrangement allowed long-term uranium exports for “exclusively peaceful purposes”. The exports would fall under safeguards established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “The ar...

NEW DELHI: India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed charges against Pakistan’s Hafiz Saeed for allegedly being behind an attack on tourists in India-held Kashmir last year. The Pahalgam incident sparked a major military escalation between the countries after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack, without evidence, and proceeded to unilaterally suspend the Indus Waters Treaty and launch attacks on Pakistani territory, which were effectively responded to by the armed forces. Saeed was charged with “waging war against India and hatching a conspiracy from across the border”, according to an NIA statement. India had previously blamed a little-known group known as ‘The Resistance Front’ for the attack. Now, it has charged Saeed, alleging that the group is a proxy of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit. Pakistan has consistently denied any involvement in the attack and has repeatedly sought evidence from India regarding its claims. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif even offered an independ...

Hit by the biggest energy supply shock in decades during the Middle East war, import-dependent India is expanding domestic crude exploration, its oil minister says. India, the world’s third-largest importer of oil and the second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas, faced major disruptions due to restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict between the United States and Iran. With a temporary US-Iran deal in place to pause hostilities, oil and gas shipments are flowing through the Gulf waterway again, and restrictions and price hikes in India are being rolled back. But Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said the energy crunch provided fresh impetus for India’s expansion of domestic supplies. “We are currently in the process… to bid out about 250,000 square kilometres (96,500 square miles) of unexplored area,” Puri told AFP. India is a modest producer in global terms. Domestic crude production in 2025-2026 was 25.98 million metric tonnes, according to the oil ministry. Tha...

India approved on Friday the purchase of a range of military equipment for its defence forces worth $5.46 billion, including missiles, electronic warfare systems and Kamikaze drones. The acquisition was approved “in-principle” by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) comprising top military officers and headed by the defence minister, according to a government statement. The statement said the estimated cost of the deal would be about INR520 billion. It did not specify the period over which the acquisitions would be made or whether the systems approved for purchase will be imported or domestically produced. New Delhi over the last decade has sought to reduce its dependence on Russia, its traditional main supplier of military equipment, turning to other countries like the United States and France, as well as boosting domestic production. The deal included the purchase of anti-drone and electronic warfare systems, medium range surface-to-air and portable anti-tank missiles and a “jet based kamikaze drone system...

India is investigating a data breach at Tata Electronics that exposed documents linked to Apple’s unreleased iPhone 18 Pro, the country’s IT secretary said on Thursday in the government’s first public comments on the incident. Sensitive lists of components and suppliers as well as photos of iPhone 18 Pro models are among files that were posted on the dark web by a ransomware group that stole data from Tata Electronics, Apple’s Indian supplier. “We are investigating,” S. Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, told reporters. Krishnan said the incident had been reported to India’s Computer Emergency Response Team, the main agency responsible for computer security issues. The breach threatens the carefully negotiated, highly sensitive business of building the iPhone, which Apple assembles using a collection of suppliers worldwide. Apple is expected to release its iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max in September. The leak contains at least six files that expose which companies are pr...

Pakistan and India have exchanged lists of prisoners held in each other's custody under the provisions of the 2008 Consular Access Agreement, diplomatic sources confirmed on Tuesday.