Indian Kashmir was put under federal rule yesterday following the collapse of the state government over a land row that prompted more than a week of rioting in the Muslim region, officials said.
India’s only Muslim-majority region was thrown into crisis when chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned on Monday after a key political ally withdrew support, protesting the allocation of land to a Hindu pilgrim trust.
The order was revoked by Azad, a member of the Congress party that leads the federal government, but only after violent street protests that lasted more than a week, in which six people were killed and hundreds injured.
Kashmir state’s governor, N.N. Vohra, “issued a proclamation on Thursday evening and assumed, with immediate effect, all the functions of the government of the state,” an official statement said.
It is the third time the scenic Himalayan region will be directly ruled by New Delhi since an Islamic insurgency, which has left at least 43,000 people dead, broke out 18 years ago.
Vohra, New Delhi’s top representative in the region, also dissolved the state assembly, the statement said, making him the administrator of the troubled region.
“Based on the conclusion that no group or party was in a position or willing to form the Government of the State, Vohra sought the concurrence of the President of India for issuance of a Proclamation to enforce Governor’s rule,” the statement said.
The region is due to go to the polls in September or October.
The state government had last month decided to give land to a Hindu trust so it can provide accommodation to thousands of pilgrims who visit a Kashmir mountain grotto each year.
Muslim separatists said the land transfer was a ploy to settle Indian Hindus in Kashmir.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including