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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kashmir on Friday, his first visit to the contested Himalayan region since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan last month, and opened a strategic railway line.Modi is launching a string of projects worth billions of dollars for the divided Muslim-majority territory, the centre of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.His office broadcast images of Modi at a viewing point for the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-metre-long (4,314-foot-long) steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359 metres above the river below.”In addition to being an extraordinary feat of architecture, the Chenab Rail Bridge will improve connectivity,” the Hindu nationalist leader said in a social media post ahead of his visit.Modi strode across the bridge waving a giant Indian flag to formally declare it open for rail traffic soon after his arrival.New Delhi calls the Chenab span the “world’s highest railway arch bridge”. While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China.The new 272-kilometre (169-mile) Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway, with 36 tunnels and 943 bridges, has been constructed “aiming to transform regional mobility and driving socio-economic integration”, Modi’s office says.The bridge will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air.The railway “ensures all weather connectivity” and will “boost spiritual tourism and create livelihood opportunities”, Modi said.The railway line is expected to halve the travel time between the town of Katra in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and Srinagar, the main city in Muslim-majority Kashmir, to around three hours.More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire during last month’s conflict.The fighting was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing — a charge Islamabad denies.Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged a 35-year-long insurgency demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.

Indian police have arrested two people including a senior executive at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, reports said Friday, after 11 fans were crushed to death during celebrations for the team’s maiden IPL title.Hundreds of thousands packed the streets in the southern city of Bengaluru on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team after they beat Punjab Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League.But the euphoria of the vast crowds ended in disaster when 11 mainly young fans died in a stampede near M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the players were parading the trophy.Media outlet India Today said that Nikhil Sosale, RCB’s head of marketing, was arrested at Bengaluru’s airport.The Indian Express newspaper reported Sosale was arrested along with an executive from an event management company.The deaths at what should have been a celebration have sparked widespread anger and top police officers including the city’s police commissioner have been suspended.The reported arrests came hours after Karnataka state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that “legal action has been taken against the representatives of RCB”, as well as the event organisers, and the state’s cricket association.Siddaramaiah said a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”. Local media reported that the charges include culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, among others.There was no immediate comment from RCB.- ‘Made to pay’ -Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, also pointed the finger at some senior police.”These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent and it has been decided to suspend them,” Siddaramaiah said.The dead were mostly aged between 14 and 29 and were among a sea of people who had poured onto the streets to catch a glimpse of their heroes.RCB offered financial aid of $11,655 to each family of the victims, calling the deaths “unfortunate”.Indian media have widely reported the team earned $2.3 million in prize money alone for taking the title on Wednesday.Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream first IPL crown turned to tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”. Siddaramaiah has said that the stadium had a capacity of 35,000 people “but 200,000-300,000 people came”.Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events such as religious festivals due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.”The grim truth is that the fan, who drives the commerce of every sport, is the last priority for administrators,” The Hindu newspaper wrote in its editorial on Friday. “Asphyxia was the primary cause of death besides injuries suffered in the stifling rush,” it added. The pioneering IPL sold its broadcast rights in 2022 for five seasons to global media giants for an eye-popping $6.2 billion, putting it up amongst the highest-ranked sport leagues in cost-per-match terms.”The world’s richest cricket tournament can’t cut corners when it comes to fans’ safety,” the Indian Express newspaper wrote in an editorial. “A fitting tribute to those dead, therefore, is not mere signing a cheque but holding those in charge responsible — ensuring that heads roll, and those who dropped the ball Wednesday are made to pay.”

Since trading the battlefield for Afghanistan’s halls of power, some Taliban members have also swapped their weapons for pens to tell their version of the 20-year conflict with Western forces, who they accuse of distorting “reality”.A flood of books has been written, mostly from a Western perspective, about the war between the US-led forces that invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks until the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. But in the years since, a proliferation of writings by Taliban figures — praising their exploits and the achievements of the “Islamic Emirate” — is now the reigning narrative in Afghanistan.”No matter what foreigners have written… they have largely ignored the reality of what happened to us and why we were forced to fight,” author Khalid Zadran told AFP. A member of the Haqqani network — long viewed as one of the most dangerous militant factions in Afghanistan — he now serves as the spokesman for the capital’s police force.In his 600-page tome in Pashto published in April, he recounts US incursions in his home province of Khost, his childhood steeped in stories of soldiers’ “atrocities”, and his desire to join the Taliban in the name of his country’s “freedom”.”I witnessed horrific stories every day — mangled bodies on the roadside,” he writes in “15 Minutes”, a title inspired by a US drone strike he narrowly escaped. Muhajer Farahi, now a deputy information and culture minister, penned his “Memories of Jihad: 20 Years in Occupation” to “state the facts”, he said.”America, contrary to its claims, has committed cruel and barbaric acts, destroyed our country with bombs, destroyed infrastructure, and has sown discord and cynicism between nations and tribes,” he told AFP from his office in central Kabul.Little attention is paid in either book to the thousands of civilians killed in Taliban attacks — many of them suicide bombings that entrenched fear across the country for nearly two decades.Farahi insists the Taliban “were cautious in saving civilians and innocent” lives, while criticising fellow Afghans who collaborated with the pro-Western police as a “stain” on the country.Rights groups accuse the current Taliban authorities of widespread abuses — particularly against women and girls, who the United Nations say are victims of what amounts to “gender apartheid”.In his book published in 2023, Farahi claims the Taliban attempted to negotiate — in vain, he insists — with the United States over the fate of Osama bin Laden, whose capture or death Washington demanded after his plane hijackers killed around 3,000 people in the September 11, 2001 attacks.Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, who had been based in Afghanistan, was killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011.- American ‘bloodthirsty dragon’ -“It was clear… that the Americans had already planned the occupation of Afghanistan,” writes Farahi in the English version of his book, which has been translated into five languages.In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Afghans thought it would “have nothing to do with our country”, he continues, but soon realised that Afghanistan would face “punishment”.For 20 years, the war pitted Taliban militants against a US-led coalition of 38 countries supporting the Afghan Republic and its forces. Tens of thousands of Afghans died in the fighting and in Taliban attacks, as did nearly 6,000 foreign soldiers, including 2,400 Americans.For Farahi, the war reflects the West’s desire to “impose its culture and ideology on other nations”.His disjointed journal mixes battlefield memories with polemical chapters railing against the American “bloodthirsty dragon”.The book “reveals the truths that were not told before because the media, especially the Western media, presented a different picture of the war”, he said.According to him, the “mujahideen”, or holy warriors, despite being far less equipped, were able to rely on their unity and God’s aid to achieve victory.- New front -Only a few of the new wave of Taliban books have been autobiographies, which appeal to an audience seeking to understand the war “from the inside”, according to Zadran.His book, initially 2,000 copies in Pashto, sold out quickly and another 1,000 are in the works — along with a Dari-language version, he said.Many chapters mention Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier held hostage for five years by the Haqqani network. He recounts treks through the mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to move him between hideouts, efforts to convert him to Islam and conversations about his girlfriend back in the United States.Both accounts end in 2021, before the transformation of the fighters who moved from remote mountain hideouts to the carpeted offices of the capital.There, their battle has turned diplomatic: the Taliban are now fighting for international recognition of their government.”The war is over now,” Farahi said, “and we want good relations with everyone” — even with the “bloodthirsty dragon”.

Pakistan’s children are losing weeks of education each year to school closures caused by climate change-linked extreme weather, prompting calls for a radical rethink of learning schedules.Searing heat, toxic smog and unusual cold snaps have all caused closures that are meant to spare children the health risks of learning in classrooms that are often overcrowded and lack basic cooling, heating or ventilation systems.In May, a nationwide heatwave saw temperatures up to seven degrees Celsius above normal, hitting 45C (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in Punjab and prompting several provinces to cut school hours or start summer holidays early.”The class becomes so hot that it feels like we are sitting in a brick kiln,” said 17-year-old Hafiz Ehtesham outside an inner city Lahore school.”I don’t even want to come to school.”Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation, and extreme weather is compounding an existing education crisis caused mostly by access and poverty.”Soon we will have major cognitive challenges because students are being impacted by extreme heat and extreme smog over long periods of time,” said Lahore-based education activist Baela Raza Jamil.”The poorest are most vulnerable. But climate change is indeed a great leveller and the urban middle class is also affected.” Pakistan’s summers historically began in June, when temperatures hit the high 40s. But in the last five years, May has been similarly hot, according to the Meteorological Department. “During a power outage, I was sweating so much that the drops were falling off my forehead onto my desk,” 15-year-old Jannat, a student in Lahore, told AFP.”A girl in my class had a nosebleed from the heat.”- Health versus learning -Around a third of Pakistani school-age children — over 26 million — are out of school, according to government figures, one of the highest numbers in the world. And 65 percent of children are unable to read age-appropriate material by age 10.School closures affect almost every part of Pakistan, including the country’s most populous province Punjab, which has the highest rates of school attendance.Classes closed for two weeks in November over air pollution, and another week in May because of heat. In the previous academic year, three weeks were lost in January to a cold snap and two weeks in May due to heat.Political unrest and cricket matches that closed roads meant more lost days.In Balochistan, Pakistan’s poorest province, May heatwaves have prompted early summer vacations for three years running, while in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, school hours are regularly slashed. For authorities, the choice is often between sending children to school in potentially dangerous conditions or watching them fall behind.In southern Sindh province, authorities have resisted heat-related closures despite growing demands from parents. “It’s hard for parents to send their children to school in this kind of weather,” private school principal Sadiq Hussain told AFP in Karachi, adding that attendance drops by 25 percent in May.”Their physical and mental health is being affected,” added Dost Mohammad Danish, general secretary of All Sindh Private Schools and Colleges Association.”Don’t expect better scientists from Pakistan in the coming years.”- ‘Everyone is suffering’ -Schools in Pakistan are overseen by provincial authorities, whose closure notices apply to all schools in a region, even when they are hundreds of kilometres (miles) apart and may be experiencing different conditions, or have different resources to cope. Teachers, parents and education experts want a rethink of school hours, exam timetables and vacations, with schools able to offer Saturday classes or split the school day to avoid the midday heat.Izza Farrakh, a senior education specialist at the World Bank, said climate change-related impacts are affecting attendance and learning outcomes. “Schools need to have flexibility in determining their academic calendar. It shouldn’t be centralised,” she said, adding that end-of-year exams usually taken in May could be replaced by regular assessments throughout the year.Adapting school buildings is also crucial. International development agencies have already equipped thousands of schools with solar panels, but many more of the country’s 250,000 schools need help. Hundreds of climate-resilient schools funded by World Bank loans are being built in Sindh. They are elevated to withstand monsoon flooding, and fitted with solar panels for power and rooftop insulation to combat heat and cold.But in Pakistan’s most impoverished villages, where education is a route out of generational poverty, parents still face tough choices. In rural Sukkur, the local school was among 27,000 damaged or destroyed by unprecedented 2022 floods. Children learn outside their half-collapsed school building, unprotected from the elements. “Our children are worried, and we are deeply concerned,” said parent Ali Gohar Gandhu, a daily wage labourer. “Everyone is suffering.”

US President Donald Trump has signed a travel ban on 12 mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, reviving a controversial measure from his first term expected to trigger a fresh wave of legal challenges.Trump said on Wednesday the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on an Egyptian man they said was in the country illegally.The move bans all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, according to the White House.Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some temporary work visas from those countries will be allowed.”The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message posted on social media platform X.”We don’t want them.”- World Cup, Olympics, diplomats excluded -The ban will not apply to athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Trump’s order said.Nor will it apply to diplomats from the targeted countries, according to the spokesman of the secretary-general of the United Nations headquartered in New York.”As we’ve said before, whatever system is put in place (should be) one that respects people’s human dignity,” said Stephane Dujarric, who added it was for individual countries to determine how to control their borders.UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that “the broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law.” And Amnesty International USA called the ban “discriminatory, racist, and downright cruel.”Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meanwhile claimed Trump was being “poisoned” by “lies” about his country, while Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello warned that it was the United States that posed a risk to visitors from Venezuela and elsewhere.With seven of the 12 countries banned from Africa, the African Union said the move would harm “people-to-people ties, education exchange, commercial engagement, and broader diplomatic relations” and urged “constructive dialog.”Yemen’s internationally recognised government urged Washington to “reconsider” the travel ban, or to at least exempt Yemeni citizens “in recognition of the difficult humanitarian conditions” in the war-ravaged country.In Myanmar, one student affected by the ban only got her US study visa two days ago and said it would hit many young people’s dreams of escaping oppression.”We don’t really have life here, and people want to escape to a country where we can breathe, we can walk, we can study,” she told AFP from Yangon.In Haiti, Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in the capital Port-au-Prince, warned that following the decision, the impoverished and violence-hit country “will be further isolated.”The ban could yet face legal challenges, as have many of the drastic measures Trump has taken since his whirlwind return to office in January.- ‘Terrorists’ -Rumors of a new Trump travel ban had circulated following the fire attack on Jewish protesters in Colorado, with his administration vowing to pursue “terrorists” living in the United States on visas.US officials said suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national according to court documents, was in the country illegally having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.Trump gave specific reasons for each country facing travel restrictions — a list that notably did not include Egypt — insisting the move aimed to protect the United States from “foreign terrorists and other national security” threats.His proclamation said Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen lacked “competent” central authorities for processing passports and vetting.Iran, with which the United States is in negotiations on a possible nuclear deal, was included because it is a “state sponsor of terrorism,” the order said.For most of the other countries, Trump’s order cited an above-average likelihood that people would overstay their visas.dk-burs/gw/bjt/sla

Weeks after a military crisis, India and Pakistan have dispatched top lawmakers to press their cases in the United States, where President Donald Trump has shown eagerness for diplomacy between them.After crisscrossing the world, the delegations descended this week at the same time on Washington, which played a key mediatory role in a ceasefire after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed adversaries in May.In strikingly similar strategies, the rival delegations are both led by veteran politicians who have been critical of their countries’ governments and are known for their ease in speaking to Western audiences.Pakistan has embraced an active role for the Trump administration while India, which has close relations with Washington, has been more circumspect and has long refused outside mediation on the flashpoint Himalayan territory of Kashmir.”Just like the United States and President Trump played a role in encouraging us to achieve this ceasefire, I believe they should play their part in encouraging both sides to engage in a comprehensive dialogue,” said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the scion of a political dynasty whose Pakistan People’s Party says it belongs neither to the governing coalition nor opposition.”I don’t quite understand the Indian government’s hesitance,” he told AFP. “I’m the first to criticize the United States for so many reasons, but where they do the right thing, where they do the difficult task of actually achieving a ceasefire, they deserve appreciation.”India’s delegation is led by one of its most prominent opposition politicians, Shashi Tharoor, a former senior UN official and writer.He said he was putting the national interest first, despite disagreements domestically with Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Tharoor said he heard “total support and solidarity for India” during his meetings with US lawmakers and a “complete understanding of India’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”- ‘No equivalence’ -Gunmen on April 22 massacred 26 tourists on the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, most singled out as Hindus, in the deadliest attack on civilians in decades in the scenic region that has seen a long-running insurgency.India accused Pakistan of backing the assailants and launched strikes on Pakistani territory. More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides.”There can be no equivalence between a country sending terrorists and a country having its civilians killed — holiday-makers, tourists, men shot down in front of their wives and children after being asked their religion,” Tharoor told a news conference.He said he was “puzzled” by those who believe denials of responsibility by Pakistan, pointing to how US forces found Osama bin Laden in the country.Tharoor also noted that former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari — Bilawal’s father — had advocated peace with India but was in power during the siege of Mumbai on November 26, 2008.”If they can’t control what they’re doing to us, why bother to talk to them?” said Tharoor, who pointed to the outsized role of the military in Pakistan.- ‘A new normal’ -Trump has repeatedly credited his administration with averting nuclear war and said the United States had negotiated an agreement to hold talks between the two sides at a neutral site, an assertion that met India’s silence.Pakistan had cool relations with Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, whose aides bitterly resented Islamabad’s role in the Afghanistan war, but Pakistan has quickly worked to woo Trump including with the arrest of a suspect in a deadly 2021 attack that killed more than 170 people, including 13 US troops, during the withdrawal from Kabul.Bilawal — recalling how his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in an attack — said Pakistan was ready to discuss terrorism with India but that Kashmir as a “root cause” also needed to be on the table.He said that India was establishing a dangerous new precedent in South Asia where whenever there is a terrorist attack in any country, “you go straight to war.””I think that the fate of 1.7 billion people and our two great nations should not left in the hands of these nameless, faceless, non-state actors and this new normal that India is trying to impose on the region,” he said.The two delegations have no plans to meet in Washington.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru said Thursday they stood “united” with fans as the Indian Premier League champions announced financial aid to families of those crushed to death during their title celebrations. Hundreds of thousands had packed the streets in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team-mates after they beat Punjab Kings in a thrilling IPL final.But the euphoria of the vast crowds ended in disaster when 11 fans died in a stampede near the city’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the players were parading the trophy.Most of the dead were young fans aged between 14 and 29 who had gone out just to catch a glimpse of their heroes.Dozens of abandoned shoes and flip-flops littered the site in the aftermath.RCB offered financial aid of $11,655 to each family of those killed.Indian media have widely reported the team earned $2.3 million in prize money alone for taking the title on Wednesday.”Our fans will always remain at the heart of everything that we do,” RCB said. “We remain united in grief.”Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream IPL crown turned to tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”. –  ‘Stamped on me’ -Police used mild force to disperse people outside the stadium, an eyewitness told AFP, but the crowd was “extremely difficult” to control. Lakshminarayan, who lost his 14-year-old granddaughter in the crush, said his family carried the child in a motor rickshaw to hospital. He said celebrations should have been delayed to prepare for the widely expected mass crowds.”There was no need to conduct celebrations the very next day, they should have postponed it to a week and organised it a better way,” he said. “You should take all precautionary measures, they should have police protection and follow the queue system.”One of the people injured described to AFP how a “huge crowd” had crushed her.”They stamped on me,” said the woman, who did not give her name, from a wheelchair. “I was not able to breathe. I fell unconscious.”- ‘Died in an RCB shirt’ -Street food vendor Manoj Kumar mourned the death of his 18-year-old son.”I wanted him to go to college,” Kumar told the Indian Express newspaper. “I brought him up with a lot of care. Now he is gone.”A grieving mother outside a city mortuary said her 22-year-old engineering student son had also died.”He was crazy about RCB,” she was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.”He died in an RCB shirt. They danced when RCB won and now he is gone. Can RCB give him back to us?”Authorities had already called off RCB’s proposed open-top bus victory parade through the streets after anticipating vast crowds.But organisers pressed ahead with the welcome ceremony and celebrations inside the stadium.RCB’s social media account posted a video of cheering crowds lining the streets as the players waved back from their team bus on their way to the stadium.The team said they cut short the celebrations “immediately upon being made aware of the situation”.Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah said that the stadium had a capacity of “only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came”.

Virat Kohli said he was lost for words after celebrations of a dream IPL title turned to tragedy when 11 mainly young cricket fans were crushed to death in Bengaluru.Hundreds of thousands had packed the streets Wednesday to welcome home their hero Kohli and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) after they had beaten Punjab Kings a day earlier in a thrilling Indian Premier League final.But the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling it “absolutely heartrending”.Karnataka state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the 11 dead were young people and there were 47 others injured in the crush after a stampede near the city’s M. Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, where the players were parading the trophy for fans.Kohli, who top scored in the final, said earlier it had been “as much for the fans” after the 36-year-old finally celebrated winning the IPL at his 18th attempt.Later, Kohli wrote on social media: “At a loss for words. “Absolutely gutted,” he added, alongside a statement from the RCB team saying they were “deeply anguished” at what had unfolded.One of the people injured described to AFP how a “huge crowd” had crushed her.”They stamped on me,” said the woman, who did not give her name, from a wheelchair. “I was not able to breathe. I fell unconscious.”Most of the dead were young fans who had gone out just to catch a glimpse of their sporting heroes.- ‘He died in an RCB shirt’ -Street food vendor Manoj Kumar mourned the death of his 18-year-old son, killed in the stampede, who he said he had stopped from working on his stall so he could study.”I wanted him to go to college,” Kumar told the Indian Express newspaper. “I brought him up with a lot of care. Now, he is gone.”A grieving mother outside a city mortuary said her 22-year-old engineering student son had also died in the crush.”He was crazy about RCB,” she was quoted as saying by the Indian Express on Thursday.”He died in an RCB shirt. They danced when RCB won and now he is gone. Can RCB give him back to us?”Authorities had already called off RCB’s proposed open-top bus victory parade through the streets after anticipating vast crowds.But organisers pressed ahead with the welcome ceremony and celebrations inside the stadium.RCB’s social media account posted a video of cheering crowds lining the streets as the players waved back from their team bus on their way to the stadium.The team said they cut short the celebrations “immediately upon being made aware of the situation”.Siddaramaiah said that the stadium had a capacity of “only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came”.

Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla blasts off into space next week as the first Indian to join the International Space Station (ISS), bearing with him New Delhi’s dreams of its own manned space flight.An airforce fighter pilot, 39-year-old Shukla is joining a four-crew mission launching from the United States with private company Axiom Space, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.He will become the first Indian to join the ISS, and only the second ever in orbit — an achievement that the world’s most populous nation hopes will be a stepping stone for its own human flight.”I truly believe that even though, as an individual, I am travelling to space, this is the journey of 1.4 billion people,” Shukla was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper this year.Shukla said he hopes to “ignite the curiosity of an entire generation in my country”, and “drive the innovation that will make many such projects possible for us in the future”.The airforce group captain — equivalent to an army colonel or navy captain — will pilot the commercial mission slated to launch June 10 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a joint team between NASA and ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation.- ‘New era’ -India’s Department of Space calls it a “defining chapter” in its ambitions, naming Shukla as “among the top contenders” for its maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, “sky craft” in Hindi, scheduled for launch in 2027.”His journey is more than just a flight — it’s a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration,” the Department of Space said ahead of the launch.New Delhi has paid more than $60 million for the mission, according to Indian media reports.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to send a man to the Moon by 2040.India’s ISRO said in May that it planned to launch an uncrewed orbital mission later this year, before its first human spaceflight in early 2027.Shukla’s voyage comes four decades after Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma joined a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1984.”What sets Shukla’s mission apart is its strategic importance,” the department added.”Unlike the symbolic undertones of India’s first human spaceflight, this time the focus is on operational readiness and global integration.”Shukla also trained in Russia, in 2020 along with three other astronaut hopefuls, at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center — before further training at ISRO’s centre in the southern city of Bengaluru.He has said the journey aboard the Axiom Mission 4 — and then the expected 14 days on the ISS — will provide “invaluable” lessons to bring back home.- Space yoga -Shukla will be led by mission commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, and joined by European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.The son of a government ministry official, from Lucknow in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Shukla is a veteran fighter pilot experienced in flying Russian Sukhoi and MiG jets.He has promised to perform yoga poses in the ISS.If he is unable to fly on Tuesday, fellow airforce pilot Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, 48, is expected to take his place.India has flexed its ambitions in the last decade with its space programme growing considerably in size and momentum, matching the achievements of established powers at a much cheaper price tag.In August 2023, it became just the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the Moon after Russia, the United States and China.Waiting at home will be Shukla’s family, including his wife and son.”I’ve been having goosebumps by just thinking that soon my brother will be in space,” his older sister Suchi, a school teacher, told the Times of India newspaper.

Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said.Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League cricket final on Tuesday night.But the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending”.Karnataka state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead and 47 injured in the crush.In one Bengaluru hospital, a stream of injured came for treatment. “I was standing near the entrance, there was a huge crowd and they stamped on me”, one lady told AFP, being taken in a wheelchair, who did not give her name. “I was not able to breathe. I fell unconscious.”Siddaramaiah told reporters said that “no one expected such a huge crowd.” But he added that the entire police force of the city had been deployed.”The stadium has a capacity of only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came,” the minister said.He said a victory street parade by the winning team was called off as authorities had anticipated an uncontrollable crowd.”The pain of this tragedy has even erased the joy of victory,” said Siddaramaiah, who has ordered an inquiry in the deaths.”I don’t want to defend the incident, the tragedy… our government is not going to play politics on this,” he added.”This tragedy should not have happened. We are with the victims.”- ‘Distressing’ -The IPL winning team said it was “deeply anguished” by the incident. “The safety and well-being of everyone is of utmost importance to us,” Royal Challengers Bengaluru said late Wednesday. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said hundreds of thousands of people had flocked onto the streets and that police had been “finding it very difficult.”An AFP photographer saw vast crowds as a sea of people crammed the streets and police waved sticks.Broadcasters showed police rushing away from crowds carrying young children in their arms, who had seemingly fainted.One unattended young man was sitting in an ambulance struggling to breathe.India cricket great Sachin Tendulkar called the deaths “beyond tragic”, in a post on social media. “My heart goes out to every affected family,” he said. “Wishing peace and strength to all.”Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who attended the final match with his wife on Tuesday, expressed sorrow over the stampede. “We celebrated with you yesterday and we mourn with you today,” he said in a post on X. Where the crush took place, abandoned shoes lay scattered around.Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior Congress party leader, said the deaths were “profoundly distressing”, adding that “the joy of victory should never come at the cost of lives”.- ‘Heartfelt condolences -Organisers pressed ahead with the ceremony, with the team’s social media account posting a video of cheering crowds as the bus full of the players — including batting legend Virat Kohli — waved back.”This welcome is what pure love looks like,” the club said in a post on X, which it later deleted. But IPL chairman Arun Dhumal, speaking to NDTV, said organisers in the stadium had not been told about the stampede until later.”At the time of the celebrations inside the stadium officials there did not know what had happened… I would like to send my heartfelt condolences,” Dhumal said. Shivakumar said cricket organisers had “shortened the programme”.Bengaluru had erupted in midnight celebrations after their team RCB, who scored 190-9, restricted Punjab to 184-7.India’s IPL mega-tournament wrapped up on Tuesday night watched by 91,000 fans packed into the stadium in Ahmedabad — and many millions more on television.Bengaluru fans celebrated wildly after their hero Kohli and RCB clinched victory for the first time in the 18 years of the IPL, their three previous finals having all ended in defeat. Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events such as religious festivals due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.A stampede at India’s Kumbh Mela religious fair in January this year killed 30 people and injured several others.In July last year, 121 people were killed in northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.