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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.

Britain on Tuesday struck a free trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since leaving the European Union, after negotiations relaunched in February following US tariff threats.Britain has sought to bolster trade ties across the world since it left the EU at the start of the decade under Brexit, a need that became more pressing after the United States unleashed tariffs that risk causing weaker economic growth.”Today we have agreed a landmark deal with India — one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, which will grow the economy and deliver for British people and business,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. His Labour government said it is “the biggest and most economically significant bilateral trade deal the UK has done since leaving the EU”. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the deal as “ambitious and mutually” beneficial.The pact will help “catalyse trade, investment, growth, job creation, and innovation in both our economies”, Modi said in a post on social media platform X.His office said in a statement that the deal will “unlock new potential for the two nations to jointly develop products and services for global markets”. It added that Modi had invited Starmer to visit India at an unspecified date.- Whisky and shoes -The accord will slash tariffs on imports of UK goods into India, including whisky, cosmetics and medical devices.Whisky and gin tariffs will be halved to 75 percent, while automotive tariffs will be slashed from more than 100 percent to 10 percent. In exchange, the UK will cut tariffs on imports of clothes, footwear and food products, including frozen prawns, from India. The deal comes after US President Donald Trump hiked tariffs on trading partners and launched sector-specific levies on steel, aluminium and cars.The UK and India are the sixth and fifth largest global economies respectively, with a trade relationship worth around £41 billion ($54.8 billion) and investment supporting more than 600,000 jobs across both countries.The sides hope the free-trade agreement will increase trade between the two countries by £25.5 billion, as well as boosting the British economy and wages.The UK called it “the best deal India has ever agreed”.Talks were relaunched between the two countries in February after stalling under Britain’s previous Conservative administrations.In previous negotiations, India pushed for more UK work and study visas for its citizens in exchange for lowering tariffs.The Federation of Indian Export Organisations welcomed Tuesday’s announcement, saying that the deal “eliminates or significantly reduces tariffs on a wide range of Indian goods, giving our exporters preferential access to one of the world’s most affluent and consumption-driven markets”. Mike Hawes, chief executive of British automotive lobby group SMMT also praised the outcome.”While the agreement will likely feature compromises, and might not offer unfettered market access to all UK automotive goods, we appreciate the considerable effort British negotiators have devoted to secure the first partial liberalisation of the Indian automotive market.”- UK trade deals -Britain has secured other trade deals since exiting the EU, including with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. However, a much sought-after agreement with the United States remains elusive.The European Union remains Britain’s biggest trading partner, and Starmer has sought to bring the UK and the EU closer together since his Labour party won re-election last July.A landmark EU-UK summit is due this month, but Starmer has ruled out Britain rejoining the neighbouring bloc.Britain joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in December.The CPTPP alliance comprises fellow G7 members Canada and Japan, plus long-standing allies Australia and New Zealand, alongside Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. burs-ajb/bcp/rlp

Four decades after she moved to India from Pakistan, got married and had six children, Nasreen Akhtar Bi’s life was upended — a case illustrating in one family the fractured history of contested Kashmir.Bi, 55, was not caught up in the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir when gunmen targeting tourists killed 26 mainly Hindu men, killings that New Delhi blames on its arch-rival Islamabad. Pakistan rejects the accusations.But the furious arguments since have triggered regular gunfire between their troops along the de facto frontier in Kashmir and sweeping tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic sanctions — including cancelling visas.Bi and her family, living in the usually sleepy farming village of Salwah in the Himalayan hills under Indian control, were dragged into a bitter quarrel between the leaders of the nuclear-armed nations.She, her four brothers and four sisters, were detained by police and taken to the border with Pakistan.”It was a very big shock,” Bi said. “I did not know what to do, I was shivering with chills and fever all over my body.”- ‘Roots and history’ -India and Pakistan have fought multiple times since the violent end of British rule in 1947, when colonial officers drew straight-line borders on maps to partition the nations, dividing communities.Muslim-majority Kashmir — claimed by both India and Pakistan — has been a repeated flashpoint.Rebels in the Indian-run area of Jammu and Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.During previous conflict in 1965, her parents had fled fighting — and ended in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.But in 1982, when borders eased, they returned to the Indian side.”All their lands, family roots and history were here,” said Bi’s older sister, Nasheen Akhtar, 60.Akhtar’s son, Faisal Majeed, 35, said they were shocked at the attack at Pahalgam, but had not thought it would impact them.”When the civilians were killed in Kashmir and our government announced expulsions, we didn’t think it could have a direct bearing on us,” said Majeed, Bi’s nephew.”It was like a ton of bricks had fallen on me.”Many of their neighbours were unaware of their family history.Bi arrived at the border with Pakistan, a place she barely has a memory of. “I’ve never been there since I came here with my late parents as a child,” she said. “All my siblings, family and relatives are here.”Bi said she understood the angry grief in response to the Pahalgam attack but that it was ordinary people like her who were suffering in the sweeping response.”I felt the pain for the people killed,” she said. “I also feel for those who’re being asked to leave after all these years.”But as Bi and her siblings readied to cross into Pakistan, a last minute Indian court order stopped their expulsion.”Thank God, it didn’t happen,” Bi’s husband Fazal Hussain said, sitting alongside his wife on the veranda of their simple hillside home.”We’d all have been orphaned,” 65-year-old Hussain said, with a long grey beard. “I’d have been just as lost here as she’d have been there, alone on the other side.”- ‘Boiling point’ -Bi is now back home on her farm, in Indian-run Jammu and Kashmir.The wider situation remains a concern.UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Monday relations between Pakistan and India had reached a “boiling point”, warning that “now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink”.India’s army said on Tuesday its troops had exchanged gunfire with Pakistani soldiers overnight across the Line of Control in multiple sites, which it says has taken place every night since April 24.That includes gunfire near Bi’s home village.But for Bi and her family, her return was something to celebrate. “I realised I was home after I saw my buffaloes, goats and my husband, who cried with joy and put a garland of flowers on me,” she said. 

Bangladesh’s ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia, chair of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), returned home to cheering crowds on Tuesday after months abroad for medical treatment. Zia, 79, led the South Asian nation twice but was jailed for corruption in 2018 during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina, her successor and lifelong rival who barred her from travelling abroad for medical care.The 79-year-old was released from house arrest after a student-led mass uprising ousted Hasina in August 2024.She flew to Britain in January and returned on Tuesday, BNP spokesperson Shairul Kabir said.Thousands of party activists welcomed her, gathering on either side of the road leading to the airport, carrying photographs of Zia and waving party flags and placards with welcome messages.Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who has led an interim government since Hasina fled into exile as crowds stormed her palace, has said elections will be held as early as December, and by June 2026 at the latest. “This is a significant day for the country and the people of Bangladesh,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP’s secretary general, told reporters.”The celebration we are witnessing is not only an outpouring of emotion but also a demonstration of our strength.”Zia’s rival Hasina remains in self-imposed exile in India and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity.

Sri Lanka’s leftist government faced its first electoral test with local polls on Tuesday since sweeping parliamentary and presidential votes last year, as the country emerged from economic meltdown.President Anura Kumara Dissanayake urged voters to return all 339 local council bodies to his ruling National People’s Party (NPP) coalition, which enjoys a sweeping two-thirds majority in parliament.Dissanayake, who upset the more established political parties to win the September presidential election, built on his popularity to secure the parliamentary vote held two months later.Since coming to power, Dissanayake, 56, has made a U-turn on his pledge to renegotiate the terms of an unpopular IMF bailout loan agreed by his predecessor, and has maintained high tariffs.”We must understand the nature of the reality before us — an economy that has collapsed to the bottom,” Dissanayake said at his May Day rally in Colombo.He said it was essential for his party to sweep the local councils so that all layers of the administration were “free of corruption and endemic waste”.He also urged trade unions not to agitate over “small issues”, and to give his government more time to deliver on its promises of increased welfare.Some 17.1 million people — the same number that voted in the two previous national elections — are eligible to vote on Tuesday to elect 8,287 councillors from 75,589 candidates.The campaign has been lacklustre, with no high-profile figures in the running. Results are expected by midday on Wednesday.

The excited little girl who first touched a plane two decades ago is now flying high as the face of India’s fast-modernising military and its only woman Rafale fighter pilot.”This is where my adventure began,” Shivangi Singh, 29, told AFP at the Air Force Museum in New Delhi, recalling her first visit as a child when she “gawked” and “immediately knew that I wanted to become a pilot”.Women were first inducted into the fighter pilot ranks in 2015, two decades after they were allowed to join the Indian Air Force (IAF).”There have been many of us,” said Singh, a lieutenant. “This not only reflects modernisation (of our society) but also the fact that we can now realise our dreams.”Singh, who is married to a fellow fighter pilot, is the first Indian woman to fly the French-made single-seat Rafale jets.New Delhi last month signed a multi-billion dollar deal for 26 of the aircraft from Dassault Aviation, adding to 36 already ordered.The jets are part of a major modernisation of the IAF to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-made MiGs.The deal comes as tensions with arch-rival Pakistan rise after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for an attack in contested Kashmir in April that killed 26 people.Pakistan has rejected any link to the assault, the worst attack on civilians in the Muslim-majority region for a quarter of a century.India has also eyed with worry its northern neighbour China, especially since a deadly 2020 clash between their troops along their disputed Himalayan border.- ‘Be independent’ -Singh, born in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, had to excel in both academics and sports to break into a job once seen by many as something only men could do.”My mother was a great source of inspiration as she didn’t just want me educated — she wanted me to be independent, and backed all my endeavours,” the pilot added.India’s Air Force had more than 1,600 woman officers, including many pilots, according to official statistics from 2023.The world’s most populous nation also has highest proportion of woman commercial pilots — at about 14 percent of the total strength.Singh detailed her experience of flying, from “nervous and anxious” when she first sat in the cockpit, to the “incredibly exhilarating” moment when flying solo.The first time Singh took the controls of a fighter jet, a MiG-21, was when she “realised how much skill it takes to control” to fly.- Aiming for space -Singh was among the first to try the new Rafale jets.After a rigorous selection process, she was in 2020 shortlisted for simulator training with French instructors before stepping into the cockpit.”Its responsiveness is impressive… the cockpit is incredibly comfortable, you feel like it was designed for you,” Singh added.But her dreams are even bigger.India is planning a manned space mission, and the pilot hopes that challenge will be her next frontier.”I succeeded in a field that was long reserved for men, and if I succeeded, then women can now work in any sector,” she said, adding she had applied for training courses to be a test pilot.”I want to be an astronaut,” she said. “So let’s hope.”