New Delhi | Pakistan

New Delhi has asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an “integral part” of India in response to Beijing’s claim over the territory as the two countries rowed over the detention of an Indian citizen at Shanghai Airport. On Tuesday, India had issued a demarche to China over the detention of Prema Wangjom Thongdok, a UK-based woman from Arunachal Pradesh, at the Shanghai airport. Thongdok had said immigration officials had held for 18 hours and “mocked” her by saying the region was not a part of India. China says Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls Zangnan, is a part of South Tibet — a claim India has repeatedly dismissed. Beijing has renamed places in the northeastern Himalayan state multiple times, prompting strong reactions from New Delhi. Responding to queries during a press briefing on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning had said that “Zangnan is China’s territory”. “The Chinese side has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India,” she said. She further s...

Indian police are investigating a deadly car blast in New Delhi under a law used to fight “terrorism”, an officer said on Tuesday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to bring to justice all those responsible. The explosion near the historic Red Fort on Monday evening killed at least eight people and injured 20. It was the first such blast in the heavily guarded city of more than 30 million since 2011. “Today, I have come to Bhutan with a very heavy heart,” Modi said in Thimphu, the capital of the neighbouring Himalayan nation, as he arrived on Tuesday for a scheduled visit. “The horrific incident that happened in Delhi last evening has deeply disturbed everyone,” Modi told a public meeting. “Our agencies will get to the very bottom of this conspiracy. The conspirators behind this will not be spared. All those responsible will be brought to justice.” New Delhi’s deputy chief fire officer A.K. Malik told AFP shortly after the explosion that eight people had been killed. The Press Trust of India news agency r...

An explosion was reported near the Red Fort in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Monday, in which at least eight people were killed and at least 20 people were injured, local television channels reported. The exact cause of the blast was being investigated, city police spokesperson Sanjay Tyagi said. However, India’s financial capital of Mumbai, as well as its most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi, went on high security alert after the blast, local media reported. “Eight people have been killed in the explosion,” Tyagi said. View this post on Instagram A previous owner of the car, named only as Salman, was arrested after the blast, NDTV reported, without going into more details. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha said the blast took place minutes before 7pm (6:30pm PKT). “A slow-moving vehicle stopped at a red light. An explosion happened in that vehicle, and due to the explosion, nearby vehicles were also damaged,” he told reporters. ...

Indian police detained dozens of people during a rare protest at the famed India Gate monument in New Delhi, who were demanding action to curb an annual scourge of toxic air swathing the capital and its surrounding region. Sunday’s protest by crowds of all ages holding banners and chanting slogans before police bundled them away was a scarce event, even though Delhi and the national capital region have battled such fumes every winter for years. “We have only one problem, and that is of clean air,” said Neha, a mask-wearing protester, who gave only one name. “This problem has been going on for many years, but no action is being taken,” she told news agency ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake. Visuals from the agency showed police dragging protesters, some holding banners that read, “Breathing is killing us,” while others chanted slogans such as “Our right, clear air” into waiting buses before they were driven away. The city’s air quality index of 345 on Monday ranked as “very poor”, compared to ratings ...

Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to peace while strongly rejecting Indian allegations of terrorism, accusing New Delhi of sponsoring and exporting terrorism in the region.

India and the United States will hold trade talks in New Delhi on Tuesday, weeks after US President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs on the South Asian nation’s exports, slowing its overall shipments to a nine-month low in August. India and the US will “fast-track” trade talks, Rajesh Agarwal, India’s chief negotiator and a special secretary in its commerce ministry, told reporters at an event for the release of trade data, but gave no details. “US Trade Representative for South Asia Brendan Lynch is set to make a one-day visit to New Delhi on Tuesday,” Agarwal said. India’s exports slowed to $35.10 billion in August from $37.24bn in July, and its trade gap narrowed to $26.49bn, from $27.35bn in July. The US imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods over New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil starting August 27, taking the total on Indian exports to 50 per cent, among the highest for any US trading partner. Exports to the United States fell to $6.86bn in August from $8.01bn in July...

Republican President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the United States ambassador to India said on Thursday that Washington and New Delhi were “not that far apart” on tariffs. “We’re not that far apart on a deal on these tariffs,” Sergio Gor, a close Trump aide who is currently director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, said at his Senate confirmation hearing. “I do think it will get resolved in the next few weeks,” Gor said. US-India ties have been strained by Trump’s trade war, with talks on lower tariff rates collapsing after India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, resisted opening its vast agricultural and dairy sectors. Bilateral trade between the two countries is worth more than $190 billion each year. Trump first imposed additional tariffs of 25 per cent on imports from India, then said they would double to 50pc from August 27 as punishment for New Delhi’s increased purchases of Russian oil, as Washington works to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said on Tuesday his administration is contin...

NEW DELHI: An Independence Day ceremony was held at the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. Saad Ahmed Warraich, the Pakistani High Commissioner to India, hoisted the national flag at the High Commission. The ceremony began with the recitation of the Holy Quran, followed by the playing of the national anthem of Pakistan. Messages from […]

New Delhi police briefly detained Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition members on Monday as they protested a controversial revised electoral roll in Bihar and alleged “vote theft” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world’s most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office. The opposition members were taken into custody midway while marching from the parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi as they protested the roll revision, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Nearly two hours later, Congress lawmaker Kishori Lal Sharma said Gandhi and other opposition leaders had been released. “The police detained us but now we have been released,” he told the media, adding that the police had not allowed them to go to the ECI as promised, and instea...

Police in India have arrested a man accused of running a fake embassy from a rented house near New Delhi and duping job seekers out of money with promises of overseas employment. Harsh Vardhan Jain, 47, was operating an “illegal West Arctic embassy by renting a house” in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, which neighbours the capital, local police said. Jain, according to police, claimed to be the ambassador of fictional nations “like West Arctica, Saborga, Poulvia, Lodonia”. He allegedly used vehicles with fake diplomatic plates and shared doctored photos of himself with Indian leaders to bolster his claims. “His main activities involved acting as a broker to secure work in foreign countries for companies and private individuals, as well as operating a hawala (money transfer) racket through shell companies,” the police said in a statement following his arrest earlier this week. He is also accused of money laundering. During a raid on Jain’s property, police said they recovered $53,500 in cash in addition to doctored ...

In an exclusive interview with Indian journalist Karan Thapar, PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday said the Indian public was “lied to” by New Delhi about Pakistan’s alleged involvement in the Pahalgam attack in occupied Kashmir. The statement comes amid tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries in the wake of their recent military confrontation, sparked by New Delhi’s baseless allegations against Islamabad over the Pahalgam attack. In an interview with The Wire’s Thapar, the PPP chief said that had Pakistan been involved in the attack, evidence would have surfaced and the perpetrators identified. This is the first interview given by a Pakistani representative to Indian media since the military escalation. “As far as the Pahalgam terrorist attack is concerned, Pakistan has been willing to be part of an impartial international investigation; your government refused that,” Bilawal said. Notably, Bilawal led a delegation to present Pakistan’s case across the globe ...

PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said that following the Pahalgam attack in occupied Kashmir and the brief but intense military escalation with Pakistan last month, India “lost its international credibility due to a lack of transparency and widespread disinformation”. Earlier this month, Pakis­tan launched a broad-based engagement campaign to present its perspective on the conflict with India to the world and counter New Delhi’s unproven allegations. As part of its global outreach, a delegation led by Bilawal visited the United States, London and Brussels. Addressing reporters at the National Press Club in Islamabad, the PPP chairman stressed that through spreading false information, both in the media and through diplomatic channels, India stripped itself of credibility. “Pakistan gained victory on the narrative front, which is beneficial,” Bilawal said. “The whole world saw what the Indian [and] Pakistani media were doing. “People all over the world were reading and a...

Javed alias Langra, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) London faction, passed away in New Delhi, India, ARY News reported. According to sources, Javed alias Langra had fled to India following operation in 1992 and was wanted in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in terrorism and dozens of other hardcore cases. He was […]

• ISPR says 31 lives lost, 57 injured in six Indian strikes, Lt-Gen Chaudhry accuses India of perpetrating ‘terrorism’ against innocent civilians • Military touts shooting down five jets including Rafales; India claims three planes ‘crashed’ in its territory • Firing continues across LoC; Neelum-Jhelum hydel project also targeted • Trump urges both countries to stop, offers to help however he can • Erdogan conveys message of solidarity • UN says world can’t afford conflict in S. Asia • Dar confirms contact between national security advisers on both sides • UNMOGIP team visits damaged sites in AJK as emergency response centre set up to coordinate relief efforts ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday mourned the loss of 31 lives in attacks by Indian forces on civilians, terming New Delhi’s actions “terrorism” and accusing it of continuous ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC). Despite a ramping up of rhetoric from the Indian side, diplomatic channels remained open, as Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed ...