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A mosque in the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir stood half collapsed as daylight broke on Wednesday, its aged caretaker killed in a strike by India in the darkness.It was one of six sites struck by New Delhi in what it said was retribution for a militant attack on its side of divided Kashmir last month, a deadly strike that it accuses Islamabad of backing. “There were terrible sounds at night, there was panic among the people,” said Muhammed Salman, who lives next door to the destroyed Bilal Mosque in Muzzaffarabad.Several houses were damaged in the attack and the neighbouring school was closed on Wednesday, like all others across the region and in neighbouring Punjab province, after it was also hit.”The children are very scared. We couldn’t leave our place during the night but now we are moving to the house of our relatives,” said 52-year-old mother Jamila Bibi.Torn copies of the Koran were carefully collected by worshippers from among the debris of iron roof sheets, collapsed wooden beams and metal rods at the Bilal Mosque.United Nations military observers arrived at the site to inspect it on Wednesday. Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, rivals since their painful partition nearly 80 years ago, have exchanged heated threats and border gunfire for days since the April 22 attack on civilians in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.India’s strikes overnight were expected and, according to its army, targeted “terrorist sites”.Pakistan responded with heavy artillery fire along the de facto border in Kashmir and said it had also shot down five jets inside India.The South Asian countries reported around 40 people were killed in total.”We are moving to a safer place… We are homeless now,” said  24-year-old Tariq Mir, who lives near the Bilal Mosque and was struck by shrapnel. The 70-year-old caretaker of the mosque was buried on Wednesday in a funeral attended by more than 600 people, an AFP journalist witnessed.In Bahawalpur, in Punjab near the Indian border, Ali Muhammed was also jolted awake. “We were sleeping when we heard an explosion,” he said, standing among dozens of onlookers, most still on their scooters, observing the damage to the city’s Subhan mosque that was also hit.Indian intelligence agencies say the mosque is linked to groups close to the jihadist movement Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is suspected of carrying out the April 22 attack that killed 26 people.Repeating rhetoric broadcast daily on television, radio, and social media by the military, Ali Muhammed said: “We know how to respond… we are not weak.””We are a nuclear power.”

Sri Lanka’s leftist government won local council elections but with significantly lower margins, in its first test since sweeping national polls last year, official results showed on Wednesday.President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s coalition received the most votes in 265 out of the 339 councils, but fell short of an outright majority in about half of them.The main opposition SJB won just 14 councils, while the country’s main minority Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, performed better, winning 35.The parties of former presidents Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa failed to win control of a single council, but between them secured 1,123 of the 8,299 council seats.The leftist NPP will need the support of other parties to control about 130 councils where it fell short of an absolute majority, but has ruled out any coalition with traditional parties.Dissanayake’s NPP vote share fell to 43.3 percent, down from the 61.6 percent it secured at the November parliamentary election. The main opposition SJB made a marginal gain, reaching 21.7 percent, up from 17.70 percent.Dissanayake, who upset the more established parties to win the September presidential election, built on his popularity to secure the parliamentary vote held two months later.The 56-year-old has made a U-turn since coming to power on his pledge to renegotiate the terms of an unpopular IMF bailout agreed by his predecessor, and has maintained high tariffs.He had turned the local elections into a referendum on his six-month-old administration, saying it was essential for his party to secure local councils so that all layers of government were “free of corruption and endemic waste”.About 60 percent of the 17.14 million electorate turned out to vote on Tuesday, down from nearly 70 percent in November and 80 percent in the September presidential vote.The campaign was lacklustre, with no high-profile figures in the running.

At dawn Wednesday on the contested border between India and Pakistan, in the usually sleepy Indian-run town of Poonch, a thumping explosion ripped the air as an artillery shell smashed into a building.Red flames shot high in the sky, and black smoke towered high.India launched missile strikes against arch-rival Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday, two weeks after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed Kashmir.Pakistan reported that at least 26 civilians were killed in the strikes.The strikes escalated repeated nighttime gunfire between Indian and Pakistani soldiers across the de facto border — known as the Line of Control — in the contested Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Buildings shook and glass shattered as the two vast armies duelled with heavy artillery across the line.At least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded on the Indian side in Poonch, according to local government official Azhar Majid.In the hours before sunrise on Wednesday, the crump of explosions echoed over the town — both incoming from Pakistan and Indian fire in response.The power went out and air raid sirens wailed, as flares fired into the sky lit up the town, AFP reporters saw.As the explosions grew louder and more frequent, some took the risk to flee and others hunkered down in basements, seeking what shelter they could find.Calls echoed from the mosque loudspeaker warning people to stay indoors.As dawn broke, AFP reporters heard the sound of vehicles as residents took their chance to escape.During a lull in gunfire, hundreds of people trekked out of Poonch — by car and on foot. Stores on the road leading away from the town did brisk business as people rushed to buy food — stocking up for when they can find somewhere safe to hunker down.

Pressure is mounting on record Indian Premier League signing Rishabh Pant with Lucknow Super Giants badly needing their captain to find his brilliant best with the bat if they are to have any chance of making the playoffs.Wicketkeeper-batsman Pant has flopped since Lucknow splashed $3.21 million on him at the November auction, scoring just 128 runs from 10 innings this IPL season.Despite Pant’s reputation as a swashbuckling left-hander who can destroy opposition bowling, the 27-year-old has only made one score of note, 63 against Chennai Super Kings on April 14.His usually infectious free spirit has deserted him as the runs dried up and he was out again cheaply on Sunday, making just 18 as Lucknow lost by 37 runs to Punjab Kings.”Watching him, you always feel that he enjoys his cricket. We haven’t seen that this time around. Haven’t seen him smiling, laughing, being jovial, being relaxed,” the Australian former wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist said on website Cricbuzz.com.”Maybe it is the responsibility of the captaincy, coming into a new franchise with that highest price tag over his head. “Just don’t see that spark in him. Something is missing,” he added.Another defeat on Friday for Pant and Lucknow against Royal Challengers Bengaluru would almost certainly end their chances of finishing in the top four and reaching the playoffs.- Bidding war -Even if they were to win all three of their remaining matches, Lucknow would still need other results to go their way to finish in the top four.Pant has drawn comparisons with his hero Mahendra Singh Dhoni and former India opener Virender Sehwag said Pant could reach out to India’s World Cup-winning captain for inspiration and advice.”I think Rishabh Pant should go back and watch his old IPL videos. That will remind him how he used to build his innings, how he used to play his shots. Sometimes you forget your old routines,” said Sehwag. “He idolises Dhoni — maybe he should call him and talk.”Pant returned to the IPL last year as captain of Delhi Capitals after almost losing his life in a car crash in December 2022.He came back with a bang, amassing 446 runs at an average of 40.55 but Delhi did not make the playoffs and the two parted ways.Back on the market, Pant was subject of a fierce bidding war before Lucknow got their man, breaking the previous record of $2.98 million paid for Mitchell Starc in 2023.Super Giants coach Justin Langer called Pant a “character that can lift a team”.Pant was part of India’s T20 World Cup-winning side in 2024 but lost his place as first-choice wicketkeeper in the 50-over Champions Trophy earlier this year.Former Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch suggested that the burden of juggling three roles — captain, batsman and wicketkeeper — could be why Pant’s batting has suffered.”It’s probably very tough to lead a team while also keeping wickets,” Finch said on JioHotstar.”You only get a few seconds to talk to your bowlers, maybe 10 to 15 seconds between overs, especially with the over-rate clock running.”

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier in Kashmir on Wednesday in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.The latest crisis erupted after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival, with deaths subsequently reported on both sides.New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack in years on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 men were killed.Islamabad rejects the charge. The two sides have fought multiple conflicts — ranging from skirmishes to all-out war — since their bloody partition in 1947.- 1947: Partition -Two centuries of British rule ends on August 15, 1947 with the sub-continent divided into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.The poorly prepared partition unleashes bloodshed that kills possibly more than a million people and displaces 15 million others.Kashmir’s monarch dithers on whether to submit to Indian or Pakistani rule.After the suppression of an uprising against his rule, Pakistan-backed militants attack. He seeks India’s help, precipitating an all-out war between the countries. A UN-backed, 770-kilometre (480-mile) ceasefire line in January 1949 divides Kashmir.- 1965: Kashmir -Pakistan launches a second war in August 1965 when it invades India-administered Kashmir.Thousands are killed before a September ceasefire brokered by the Soviet Union and the United States.- 1971: Bangladesh -Pakistan deploys troops in 1971 to suppress an independence movement in what is now Bangladesh, which it had governed since 1947 as East Pakistan.An estimated three million people are killed in the nine-month conflict and millions flee into India.India invades, leading to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh. – 1989-90: Kashmir -An uprising breaks out in Kashmir in 1989 as grievances at Indian rule boil over. Tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians are killed in the following decades.India accuses Pakistan of funding the rebels and aiding their weapons training.- 1999: Kargil -Pakistan-backed militants seize Indian military posts in the icy heights of the Kargil mountains. Pakistan yields after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear arsenal nearer to the conflict. At least 1,000 people are killed over 10 weeks.- 2019: Kashmir -A suicide attack on a convoy of Indian security forces kills 40 in Pulwama.India, which is busy with campaigning for general elections, sends fighter jets which carry out air strikes on Pakistani territory to target an alleged militant training camp.One Indian jet is shot down over Pakistani-controlled territory, with the captured pilot safely released within days back to India.

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier on Wednesday, after New Delhi launched missile strikes on its arch-rival in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.Dead were reported on both sides. Pakistan said Indian strikes had killed at least eight people, and India said Pakistani artillery fire had killed three civilians along the de facto border in contested Kashmir.New Delhi announced it had carried out “precision strikes at terrorist camps” at nine sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in Punjab state, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed region.The Indian army said “justice is served”, with New Delhi adding that its actions “have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to “shore up” his domestic popularity, but said that Islamabad had struck back.”The retaliation has already started”, Asif told AFP. “We won’t take long to settle the score.”- ‘Shelling raining down’ -Islamabad reported eight civilians — including one child — killed in the strikes, and AFP correspondents in Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was hit by a strike, with marks of explosions visible on the walls of several homes.Shortly after, India’s army accused Pakistan of “indiscriminate” firing across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, with bursts of flame as shells landed, AFP reporters saw.”Three innocent civilians lost their lives”, the Indian army said, adding it was responding in a “proportionate manner”.”We woke up as we heard the sound of firing”, Farooq, a man in the Indian town of Poonch, told the Press Trust of India news agency from his hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bandage. “I saw shelling raining down… two persons were wounded”.Wreckage of an Indian fighter jet was seen by an AFP photographer at Wuyan — on the Indian controlled side of Kashmir.An security source confirmed it was an Indian aircraft, but the reason for its crash, and the fate of the pilot, was not immediately known.India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir by gunmen it said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.That assault left 26 people dead, mainly Hindu men, in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam. No group has claimed responsibility.New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the LoC, according to the Indian army. Pakistan also said it has held two missile tests.- ‘Maximum restraint’ -The violence is a dangerous escalation between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders to step back from the brink of war. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement, adding that Guterres called for “maximum restraint.”US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he hoped that the fighting “ends very quickly”.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to top security officials in both New Delhi and Islamabad since the strikes.Rubio said he was monitoring the situation “closely” and that he would “continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution”.India’s army said it had “demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, adding that “no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted”.Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling the Indian attack “unprovoked” and “cowardly”, said the “heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished.”Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.India regularly blames its neighbour for backing armed groups fighting its forces in Kashmir, a charge that Islamabad denies.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after a visit to Islamabad, as Tehran seeks to mediate. India was also set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday, while schools in Pakistan’s Punjab were closed, local government officials said.The strikes came just hours after Modi said that water flowing across India’s borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an “act of war”.burs-pjm/tym

Sotheby’s in Hong Kong postponed an auction of gems with ties to early Buddhism on Wednesday after opposition from India, which said the jewels were the country’s religious and cultural heritage.The Piprahwa gems, which the auction house said dated back to around 200 BC and were unearthed in 1898 by Englishman William Claxton Peppe in northern India, were scheduled to go under the hammer in Hong Kong on Wednesday.The Indian Ministry of Culture issued a legal notice on Monday calling the jewels “inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community” and said the sale violated Indian and international law.It asked for the auction to be cancelled and the jewels repatriated to India, as well as an apology and full disclosure of provenance documents, according to the notice posted on X.Sotheby’s said on Wednesday morning that the auction has been postponed “in light of the matters raised by the Government of India and with the agreement of the consignors”.”This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate,” the auction house said in a statement.Sotheby’s said the night before that the auction would “proceed as planned”.The Indian Ministry of Culture wrote on X that it was “pleased to inform” readers that the auction was postponed following its intervention.The gems in the Hong Kong auction were part of a collection of close to 1,800 gems and precious metal sheets — including amethysts, pearls and gold pieces worked into small beads.They were excavated at the Piprahwa village near the Buddha’s birthplace and have been attributed to a clan linked to the religious figure.Indian authorities said an inscription on one of the caskets confirms the contents — which include bone fragments — as “relics of the Buddha, deposited by the Sakya clan”.In an article written for Sotheby’s, Chris Peppe said his ancestor “gave the gems, the relics and the reliquaries to the Indian government” and that his family kept “a small portion” of the discovery.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he hoped clashes between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan end “very quickly,” after New Delhi’s forces launched strikes and Islamabad vowed retaliation.”It’s a shame, we just heard about it,” Trump said at the White House, after the Indian government said it had hit “terrorist camps” on its western neighbor’s territory following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.”I guess people knew something was going to happen based on the past. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it,” he added.India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in full but administer separate portions of the disputed region. “I just hope it ends very quickly,” said Trump.India had been widely expected to respond militarily since gunmen shot dead 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, mostly Hindus. New Delhi has blamed militants that it has said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organization.Pakistan’s army said the Indian strikes targeted three sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and two in Punjab province, the country’s most populous. Islamabad said that three civilians, including a child, had been killed in Indian strikes.The Indian strikes came just hours after the US State Department issued a fresh call for calm.”We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work towards a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.Her statement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned of stopping water from flowing across borders following the Kashmir attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that water from India that once flowed across borders will be stopped, days after suspending a key water treaty with arch-rival Pakistan.New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of contested Kashmir last month, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the nuclear-armed neighbours have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army.Modi did not mention Islamabad specifically, but his speech comes after New Delhi suspended its part of the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which governs water critical to Pakistan for consumption and agriculture.”India’s water used to go outside, now it will flow for India,” Modi said in a speech in New Delhi.”India’s water will be stopped for India’s interests, and it will be utilised for India.”Pakistan has warned that tampering with its rivers would be considered “an act of war”.But experts also pointed out that India’s existing dams do not have the capacity to block or divert water, and can only regulate timings of when it releases flows.International pressure has been piled on both New Delhi and Islamabad, who have fought several wars over Kashmir.”We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work towards a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia,” US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.- ‘Not natural’ -Earlier on Tuesday, Islamabad accused India of altering the flow of the Chenab River, one of three rivers placed under Pakistan’s control according to the now suspended treaty.”We have witnessed changes in the river (Chenab) which are not natural at all,” Kazim Pirzada, irrigation minister for Pakistan’s Punjab province, told AFP.Punjab, bordering India and home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 240 million citizens, is the country’s agricultural heartland, and “the majority impact will be felt in areas which have fewer alternate water routes,” Pirzada warned.”One day the river had normal inflow and the next day it was greatly reduced,” Pirzada added.In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, large quantities of water from India were reportedly released on April 26, according to the Jinnah Institute, a think tank led by a former Pakistani climate change minister.”This is being done so that we don’t get to utilise the water,” Pirzada added.The Indus River is one of Asia’s longest, cutting through ultra-sensitive demarcation lines between India and Pakistan in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir — a Himalayan territory both countries claim in full.- Air raid drills -Modi has said India will “identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer” who carried out the attack at Pahalgam last month in which 26 mainly Hindu men were shot dead.Indian police have issued wanted posters for three suspects — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say belong to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.The Pakistani military has said it has launched two missile tests in recent days, including of a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450 kilometres (280 miles) — about the distance from the Pakistan border to New Delhi.India is set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday preparing people to “protect themselves in the event of a hostile attack”.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after talks in Islamabad with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.Tehran has offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed nations, and Araghchi will be first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries since the April 22 attack sent relations plunging.Rebels in Indian-run Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.India regularly blames its neighbour for backing gunmen behind the insurgency.Modi had already threatened to use water as a weapon in 2016.”Blood and water cannot flow together,” he said at the time.burs-pjm/mlm/st

India’s space agency said Tuesday it planned to launch an uncrewed orbital mission later this year before its first human spaceflight in early 2027.”It represents India’s rise as a global space power”, Jitendra Singh, the country’s science and technology minister, said in a statement.The world’s most populous country has flexed its spacefaring ambitions in the last decade with its space programme growing considerably in size and momentum.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to send a man to the Moon by 2040.”The uncrewed orbital Gaganyaan (“space craft”) mission is on track for launch later this year, with recovery trials already conducted with the Indian Navy, and more sea recovery simulations planned,” the Department of Space said in a statement.Along with other tests, this will lead to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sending astronauts into space.”These milestones will culminate in India’s maiden human spaceflight in 2027, launching Indian astronauts into orbit aboard an Indian rocket from Indian soil,” it added.ISRO said the spaceflight was scheduled for “the first quarter” of 2027.”Training of astronauts is also progressing steadily,” the statement added.”Four Indian Air Force pilots, selected as astronaut-designates, have completed training in Russia and are undergoing further mission-specific training in India.”India has matched 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.This month, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, is expected to fly to the International Space Station — becoming the first Indian astronaut to do so and the second in orbit ever.The mission, which is jointly being undertaken by NASA and the ISRO, will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.Shukla, who is set to pilot the Axiom Mission 4, is likely among the top candidates for ISRO’s spaceflight programme.Shukla’s travel to space will come four decades after India’s Rakesh Sharma’s iconic spaceflight onboard a Russian spacecraft in 1984.