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Blast in Siwan village during CM Nitish Kumar’s visit, one dead

Patna, Jan 22 (IANS) A powerful explosion occurred in Siwan district on Thursday, shortly after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar arrived in the district, as part of his ongoing ‘Samriddhi Yatra (Journey of Prosperity)’.

According to an official, the blast took place in Badram village, under the jurisdiction of Hussainganj police station.

The SHO of the Hussainganj police station confirmed the incident and said that the blast occurred around 11.30 am.

Preliminary investigation suggests the incident may have been caused by firecrackers, and one youth, named Mohammad Murtaza, was killed in this explosion.

Local residents alleged that firecracker materials were being illegally manufactured in the village, and the explosion occurred suddenly.

The blast was so powerful that its sound was heard across a wide area, causing panic among residents.

Nearby houses also sustained damage, locals claimed.

After receiving information, the Hussainganj police reached the spot, cordoned off the area, and launched an investigation.

Police teams are clearing debris and trying to ascertain the nature of the materials involved and whether more people were present at the site. A forensic team has also been informed.

With the Chief Minister’s program underway in Siwan, the incident has increased security and administrative concerns.

Police officials said the case is being probed from multiple angles, including the possibility of illegal manufacturing of explosive materials.

The body of the deceased is being sent for post-mortem examination, and further details are awaited.

Nitish Kumar, on the sixth day of his ‘Samriddhi Yatra’, reached Siwan district, where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of 71 projects.

Kumar visited the Government Medical College in Mairwa, Siwan. There, he inaugurated the facilities in the newly-constructed building.

Following this, at the program venue, the Chief Minister inspected the stalls set up by various departments and distributed checks to beneficiaries of the state government’s development schemes.

During this event, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Water Resource Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Health Minister Mangal Pandey, Cabinet Minister Pramod Kumar, Siwan MP Vijayalakshmi Devi, MP, and Maharajganj MP Janardan Singh Sigriwal, along with numerous state government officials and other dignitaries, were present.

–IANS

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Rahul Gandhi writes to President Murmu, urges for safeguarding interests of deserving Bengal teachers

New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday and sought her intervention in West Bengal teachers’ crisis, emanating from a Supreme Court verdict, which dealt a big blow to the recruitment of more than 26,000 teachers in the state.

In his two-page letter to President Murmu, Rahul said that treating the teachers selected through fair means on par with tainted ones will be a serious injustice to them and therefore it was important to draw a distinction between the two – one selected via fair means and the tainted, selected through unfair means.

Drawing President’s attention to the crisis arising from 26,000 job losses, he urged the President to take stock of it and take some steps for ‘redressal’.

“I request you to kindly consider their request favourably and urge the government to intervene in the matter to ensure that candidates selected through fair means are allowed to continue,” Cong MP wrote in the letter.

He further wrote, “Most untainted teachers have served for nearly a decade. Terminating them will force lakhs of students into classrooms without adequate teachers. Ther arbitrary termination will destroy their morale and deprive their families of what is often the sole source of income.”

Notably, the Supreme Court, on April 3, upheld an earlier verdict of the Calcutta High Court, leading to invalidation of 25,752 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff. These appointments were made by a recruitment panel set up by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016.

The court observed that the entire selection process of TMC government was “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution”.

The SC verdict came as a blow to the ruling party and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee particularly in light of the fact that it comes ahead of party’s poll preparations for the 2026 Assembly elections.

–IANS

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Haryana travel blogger arrested for spying for Pakistan

Chandigarh, May 17 (IANS) The Haryana Police have arrested six people, including a Hisar-based YouTuber and travel blogger Jyoti Malhotra, on charges of spying and passing sensitive information to Pakistani operatives, officials said on Saturday.

These are the prominent arrests in Haryana in less than a week, after Punjab Police arrested two for espionage linked to the Pakistan High Commission arrest, after India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire.

Jyoti, who visited Pakistan twice in 2023, was sent to a five-day police remand. She was linked to a spy network in Haryana and Punjab.

Vikas Kumar, a spokesperson for the police, said officials are questioning her to gather details about the crime.

According to the first information report (FIR), the travel blogger visited the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023, where she came into contact with Ehsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish, a staffer.

She has been accused of sharing sensitive information regarding Indian locations and was used to project Pakistan on social media in a positive light.

Danish, who has since been declared persona non grata by the Indian government and expelled on May 13, introduced her to multiple intelligence operatives based in Pakistan.

Investigators say she also entered into an intimate relationship with an intelligence operative and travelled to Bali in Indonesia with him.

During Danish’s stay in Delhi, she was allegedly in regular touch with him. During her trips to Pakistan, she reportedly met with Pakistani intelligence officers and began supplying them with sensitive information on Indian military installations and movements.

She allegedly used encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat to communicate and saved contacts of Pakistan’s ISI under fake names in her phone to conceal their identity.

Jyoti, who was running a YouTube channel named ‘Travel with Jo’, has been booked under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on the statement of Sub-Inspector Bijender Singh in the Civil Lines Police Station in Hisar.

According to the police, Devender Dhillon, a resident of a village in Kaithal district, was also arrested on espionage charges. He is accused of providing strategic details, including updates on Operation Sindoor.

Earlier this week, Punjab Police arrested two people, including a 31-year-old woman, for their alleged involvement in espionage activities linked to an official posted at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Those arrested have been identified as Gazala and Yameen Mohamad, both residents of Malerkotla in Punjab. Police teams have also recovered two mobile phones from their possession.

The development came days after Amritsar (Rural) Police arrested two people, identified as Falaksher Masih and Suraj Masih, for their alleged role in leaking sensitive information and photographs of army cantonment areas and air bases to Pakistan’s intelligence agency.

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav had said preliminary investigation has revealed that the arrested accused had been receiving payments through online transactions in exchange for sharing classified information.

They were in frequent contact with the handler and were involved in channelling funds to other local operatives as per his instructions, he had said.

The DGP had said this operation marks a significant step in dismantling cross-border espionage networks and reinforces the commitment to national security.

Senior Superintendent of Police Gagan Ajit Singh had said that acting on a tip-off off accused Gazala was arrested for leaking sensitive information regarding Indian Army movements to a Pakistan-based handler.

Based on disclosures made by her during interrogation, a second conduit identified as Yameen Mohamad was also identified and taken into custody, he had said.

Accused Gazala admitted that she was doing it in lieu of money, and the accused official has sent her Rs 30,000 in two transactions — Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 — via UPI, he added.

–IANS

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