'Will Build Bridges With India': Hindu Woman Who Will Contest Pak Polls

Dr Saveera Parkash, the first Hindu candidate to contest the general elections from the Buner constituency in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has said that, if elected, she would help build diplomatic bridges between Pakistan and India.

A doctor by profession, 25-year-old Saveera filed her nomination papers from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for the general seat of PK-25 in Buner district last week.

Ms Saveera said she has received the title 'daughter of Buner' while the "Muslim brothers" have not only assured her of getting their votes but also their complete support, Geo News reported on Tuesday.

If elected as a lawmaker, Dr Saveera said she would help solve the problems of Hindus living in Pakistan.

Ms Saveera said she is a patriotic Hindu and her morale has increased after receiving the 'daughter of Buner' title.

If elected as a provincial assembly member, she said she will play a positive role towards the relations between Islamabad and New Delhi, while the Hindu community - both in Pakistan and across the border - will be able to contact her without any hesitation, the channel reported.

The politician, who will contest one of the most crucial elections in the country's recent political history, termed PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Goa visit in May a positive development towards fostering Indo-Pak relations.

Ms Saveera said that people stand with her and, because of this, she has never felt ostracised. She claimed she does not only have the PPP's backing but is also receiving support from other parties, which is an indication that she will receive votes from Muslim voters as well.

"I was proud to be a part of the Pashtun culture, but when I got the party ticket for the general elections and people, including my Muslim brothers, came to know about it, I received several congratulatory and encouraging messages," she said, sharing astonishment at receiving immense support, after which her morale "rose higher than the Himalayas".

After winning the elections to be held on February 8, her priorities as a lawmaker would include promoting education and addressing issues like health and environmental pollution. She is also concerned about the lack of health facilities available in her district, along with the lack of education and awareness about healthcare.

Ms Saveera chose to become a doctor following the footsteps of her father, Dr Om Parkash, who worked with a passion for humanitarian service.

"Buner is a backward district where problems are aplenty and facilities are lacking," she said.

During her house surgeoncy, the young doctor realised that she would have to do something different to rid the district of its problems.

She completed her MBBS from the Abbottabad International Medical College in 2022 and is also the general secretary of the PPP women's wing in Buner.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Hamas Deputy Head Killed In "Treacherous" Israeli Strike In Lebanon

Israel's war against Palestinian operatives reached into the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, where an Israeli strike killed Hamas's deputy leader, the group and security officials in Lebanon said.

A high-level security official told AFP that Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in the strike by Israel, which vowed to destroy Hamas after the movement's unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7.

A second security official confirmed the information, adding two floors of the targeted building and one car were damaged. Lebanese state media reported the strike hit a Hamas office in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

Hamas TV also said Israel had killed Aruri in Beirut. And Lebanese media said a total of six people were killed in the strike.

The strike will add to persistent fears that the nearly three-month-old Israeli-Hamas war could become a wider conflagration.

Gunmen from Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, killed around 1,140 people, most of them civilians in their October attacks, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The Palestinian operatives also took around 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israeli figures.

After the worst attack in its history, Israel began a relentless bombardment and ground offensive that has killed at least 22,185 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

On Tuesday in Gaza, Israeli forces battled Hamas operatives among the ruins of the heavily-bombed Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said soldiers had killed "dozens of terrorists", including some carrying explosives, raided a weapons storage compound in the southern city of Khan Yunis and discovered long-range rocket launchers and tunnels.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry said 70 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the previous 24 hours during Israeli raids.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, Israel twice struck the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) headquarters, PRCS said, resulting in "five casualties and three injuries" among displaced people who had sought refuge there and at a nearby hospital.

The health ministry in Gaza said four people were killed including an infant.

"They told us to go to the south that is safe, but they are liars," shouted Fathi al-Af, pointing to his daughter on a stretcher on the floor of Nasser Hospital after the strike. "The entire Gaza Strip is not safe."

United Nations agencies have voiced alarm over Gaza's spiralling humanitarian crisis that has left 2.4 million people under siege and bombardment, most of them displaced and crowded into shelters and tents.

The World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine, and disease.

Accused mastermind 

The Israeli army says 173 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in the battle against Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.

US news outlet Axios, citing unnamed Israeli sources, said Hamas had presented Israel with a proposal on Sunday for a new hostage exchange deal via Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

The official told Axios the proposal had been deemed unacceptable by the Israeli war cabinet, but suggested progress could be made towards a more amenable plan in future.

Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, speaking on Tuesday before Aruri's death, said hostages will only be freed "on terms set by the resistance."

Aruri, in early December, had said: "The price to pay for the release of Zionist prisoners will be the release of all our prisoners -- after a ceasefire."

Aruri, who lived in exile, is accused by Israel of masterminding numerous attacks. He was elected deputy to Haniyeh in 2017, before being officially named the group's number two.

In October the Israeli army demolished Aruri's home in the occupied West Bank.

In a televised address Tuesday, Haniyeh also said Hamas is "open to the idea of a national government for the West Bank and Gaza."

In November, US President Joe Biden wrote in a newspaper opinion article that Gaza and the West Bank should ultimately be "reunited" under a new Palestinian Authority.

Throughout its bloodiest ever Gaza war, Israel has had the backing of its ally the United States, which has however also urged greater restraint to spare civilian lives.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which includes far-right and hardline nationalist groups, has said repeatedly it will keep fighting until Hamas is eliminated.

As 2024 started, a dispute that had split the nation for months prior to the war flared again. Tens of thousands of people repeatedly took to the streets to protest the judicial reforms proposed by the government of Netanyahu, who is being tried on corruption charges he denies.

The Supreme Court overruled a key plank of the judicial overhaul that Netanyahu has defended as rebalancing the powers of politicians and judges, but which protesters -- including military reservists -- labelled a threat to Israel's liberal democracy.

The army said Monday it would soon rotate out some of the more than 300,000 reservists called up after October 7, in part to prepare them for many more months of war ahead.

It said reservists from two brigades, which have about 4,000 troops each, will start returning home this week.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also said some residents "will soon be able to return home" to towns and villages near Gaza that were attacked by Hamas and then evacuated.

Turkey arrests 'Mossad suspects' 

In the West Bank, violence since October 7 has surged to a level unseen in nearly two decades. At least 321 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers since the Gaza war began, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.

In the latest clash Tuesday, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, the ministry said. The army said it had shot dead four operatives in a "counter-terrorism" operation.

The war has also led to almost daily exchanges of fire on the border with Lebanon between the army and Iran-backed groups, particularly Hezbollah.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have also launched attacks at Israel and at cargo ships in the Red Sea, where the US military has assembled a multinational taskforce to protect the vital shipping lane.

Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has harshly criticised Netanyahu over the war, announced the detention of 34 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Erdogan weeks ago warned of "serious consequences" should Israel attempt to target Hamas figures living or working in Turkey.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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"Miracle" Evacuation From Burning Japan Jet Helped By Fliers Leaving Bags

All 379 people aboard a Japan Airlines airliner escaped after a collision with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport that killed five of six crew on the smaller aircraft on Tuesday.

Video showed passengers being evacuated from the burning Airbus A350 by escape slides in relative calm and apparently without hand luggage, in an operation hailed as a "miracle".

Aviation safety agencies have warned for years that pausing to collect carry-on baggage risks lives during an evacuation.

Following are major milestones in passenger aircraft evacuations in recent decades:

THE 1980s

Evacuation has been a key safety priority since at least the mid-1980s, when a British Airtours Boeing 737 was engulfed in flames at Manchester airport in Britain, killing 55 people.

Investigators of the 1985 disaster said the biggest cause of death was smoke inhalation following delays in opening doors and restricted access to emergency exits.

SAFETY STUDY

A 2000 U.S. safety study said that on average, an airliner evacuation for whatever cause happens every 11 days. Such events typically only make headlines when fire is involved, but have led to improvements in door mechanisms and emergency lighting.

However, new challenges are arising from the amount of luggage passengers are allowed to take on board.

Air crash investigators have recommended stronger in-flight briefings to urge passengers to leave behind those belongings when ordered to evacuate - but often with little effect.

'REMARKABLE'

In 2016, amateur video showed passengers blocking aisles and grabbing bags from overhead bins as the cabin of an Emirates jet filled with smoke in Dubai. Cabin crew were praised after managing to evacuate all 300 people, despite the panic.

In 2018, Britain's Royal Aeronautical Society recommended the automatic locking of overhead bins following a crash landing, noting that passengers often ignore safety briefings.

"It's clearly a benefit if you're not carrying your baggage," Steve Creamer, an aviation safety consultant and former senior director at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said following Tuesday's Tokyo crash.

"It's pretty remarkable that they got everybody off the airplane. That says a lot about the flight crew and the discipline of the people on board."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Working Towards Closing Down 1,000 Private Madrassas: Assam Chief Minister

The Assam government is trying to negotiate with private madrassas for their closure and conversion to general schools, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on New Year's day. This comes after his government has already shut down all government-run madrassas in the state and converted them to general schools.

"Private madrassas are protected by the constitutions of India as it is written that the government cannot touch minority-run educational institutes. They don't even fall under the RTE Act. But having said that, the Assam police and education department are working together so we can reduce at least 1000 private madrassas. From three thousand, it will come down to two thousand and we are negotiating this with the private madrassa bodies," he said.

"There are five distinct communities who are known as Assamese Muslim communities, we have approved the census and we are verifying the villages where the Assamese Muslim communities live, also wards in municipal areas where Assamese Muslims live are being earmarked and by the end of 2024, we will complete this census," Mr Sarma added.

The Assam Chief Minister also added that his government will complete a fresh census of Assamese Muslims by the end of this year.

Significantly, Mr Sarma said that at least two more districts of Assam will see a rollback of AFSPA this year.

"The Assam government has now recommended a total withdrawal but the Government has advised us that we need to be a little cautious so AFSPA is now restricted to four districts. I think in the next review, we will roll back AFSPA from two other districts, The Centre does not want to withdraw AFSPA from the triangle area of the borders between Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal. It's a matter of time, at some point in time AFSPA will totally be rolled back," he said.

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Janhvi Name-Checks Rumoured Boyfriend Shikhar On The Koffee Couch

The newest guests on the Koffee couch is sister duo Janhvi Kapoor and Khushi Kapoor. The chat show host Karan Johar on Monday dropped the latest promo of Koffee With Karan and lets just say its all kinds of fun. From addressing dating rumours to mimicking Anil Kapoor, the sisters were on fire. Our favourite part of the promo was however when Janhvi mentioned her rumoured boyfriend Shikhar Pahariya AKA "shiku" as one of the three people on her speed-dial list. It so happened that Karan Johar asked Janhvi Kapoor,"Name three people on your speed-dial list.” Janhvi promptly replied, “Papa, Khushu and Shiku," immediately realising the oopsie she made.  During the same game, Karan asked Khushi about Janhvi's past relationships. Janhvi said to Khushi, “I have only dated three boys and we stick to that.”

At the start of the promo, Janhvi Kapoor can be heard saying, “Yesterday night at the party I was just going around asking people to ask me rapid-fire questions. Navya (Naveli Nanda) thinks I am not ready. She said, ‘Don't go.”

Now, Take a look at the video below:

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A post shared by Karan Johar (@karanjohar)

Shikhar Pahariya is the grandchild of the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Sushilkumar Shinde. Janhvi Kapoor and Shikhar Pahariya are often spotted at restaurants, pubs, parties. They have however not confirmed their relationship status yet. In a video that went viral some months back, Janhvi Kapoor can be seen dancing her heart out on the streets of Mumbai at the Ganesh Visarjan of the Ambanis'. Janhvi was accompanied by her rumoured boyfriend Shikhar Pahariya. In the video, Shikhar can be seen showing a dance step to Janhvi which she follows. Take a look:

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A post shared by Hindi bollywoodshaadis (@bollywoodshaadishindi)

In August, the Roohi star visited Tirumala Swami Temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh. Several videos from their visit were shared on social media. In the viral videos, we can see Janhvi, dressed in a violet saree, touching the temple ground with her head. Janhvi was accompanied by Shikhar Pahariya who can be seen dressed in traditional wear. Take a look:

Seeking the blessings of god, #JanhviKapoor was spotted in #Tirumala 's Shri Venkateshwar Swami Temple!!🙏🏻

She looked gorgeous in the indian attire!!🫶🏻pic.twitter.com/R3P9kscR99

— Nisha Rose🌹 (@JustAFierceSoul) August 28, 2023

Janhvi was last seen in Bawaal opposite Varun Dhawan. Janhvi Kapoor will next be seen in Mr And Mrs Mahi alongside Rajkummar Rao. Janhvi will also make her Telugu debut in Devara alongside Jr NTR and Saif Ali Khan.

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Israeli Supreme Court Strikes Down Government's Controversial Legal Reform

Israel's top court ruled Monday against a key component of the government's controversial legal overhaul, which challenged the powers of the judiciary and sparked mass protests.

A Supreme Court statement said eight of 15 justices had ruled against an amendment passed by parliament in July which scraps the "reasonableness" clause, used by the court to overturn government decisions which are deemed unconstitutional.

"This is due to the severe and unprecedented damage to the basic characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state," the statement said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had argued the sweeping judicial reform package presented a year ago was necessary to rebalance powers between judges and politicians.

But his detractors warn the multi-pronged package paved the way for authoritarian rule and could be used by Netanyahu to quash possible convictions against him, an accusation the premier denies.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators had rallied weekly against the government reforms, with protests only ending due to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October.

The "reasonableness" amendment, the only major part of the legal reform package to become law, was also one its most contentious steps as it sought to curb judicial oversight of the government.

When Netanyahu's allies voted to scrap the reasonableness clause in July, opposition lawmakers stormed out of the chamber, shouting "shame".

The law has been cited in only a handful of court decisions, including a high-profile ruling last year which barred a Netanyahu ally from serving in the cabinet because of a previous tax evasion conviction.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Risks Of "Donkey Flights" As Illegal Migration Rises In Punjab, Haryana

Illegal immigration by young Indians to countries such as the US, the UK, and Canada has come under spotlight as a plane carrying suspected victims of human trafficking was rerouted to India. The flight, which made headlines last week, was on its way to Nicaragua after being detained in France.

"Donkey Flight" has become the catchall term for such illegal movements -- a corruption of the Punjabi work "dunki" meaning to hop from one place to another.

Every year more than 20,000 young men and women from Punjab attempt irregular migration, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime hjhad said in a report back in 2009.

As the intercepted flight indicated, the number has only grown. While no consolidated data exists given the secrecy exercised, there are other indicators.

Since 2012, the Punjab Police have issued over 10 lakh Police Clearance Certificates (PCC) -- a spike that raises aspirations even among those of the young generation who have no means to move abroad.  

A Special Investigation Team has handled about 645 such cases, resulting in 518 arrests, Anil Vij, the Home Minister Haryana has said on Saturday.

The process is not easy. Apart from the high financial cost, there is every risk of being thrown into jail at any stage.

"My agent had promised to send me to Italy for 12 lakhs," said Rahul, a resident of Haryana's Kurukshetra, recalling his bid to migrate a few months ago.

"On April 8, they sent me first to Dubai and then to Egypt and was told that I will be sent to Libya from where I will have a direct flight," he said.

Though he managed to reach Libya, he soon found the cost was too great -- landing in jail shortly after.

One day he suffered a heart attack in jail. Thought to be dead, he was thrown on the sand outside.

"The people in the jail protested seeing me like this and tried to break the jail. Then I was taken to the hospital. As soon as I came to my senses, I was taken by the people of the Embassy and after making a white passport, I was brought to India," he said.

Many others are not lucky enough to make it back.

Shiv Kumar, a resident of Kaithal, sent his son to Portugal mortgaging his ancestral land. For the last seven months, he has been running from pillar to post to get his son back.

Though a police case has been lodged against the agent who sent his son abroad, there is no clue to the young man's whereabouts.

"Till date, we do not know where our son is. We last spoke to him on June 8. Two agents got bail and are now on the run... I have appealed to many places... lodged a complaint on the government's Madad App but no help came. We came to know that a boat on way from Libya to Italy sank," he added, breaking down.

Many others, like Malkeet from Kaithal district, the journey proved fatal.
His family got to know of his death from a video that had gone viral.

NDTV approached many travel agents seeking details. Only one person agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.

"There are two kind of illegal routes through which we send people abroad. One is through the forest route which is less expensive -- around 30-40 lakh... these days Turkey is the transit point... From Turkey a visa for Costa Rica is obtained...then to Panama," he said.

The payment has to be made in tranches at every phase -- Rs 10 lakh has to be paid in Turkey, another 10 lakh in Costa Rica and final payments have to be made in two tranches at the Mexico border.

In the second category, the travel is by air, which costs around Rs 40 to 50 lakh and the people are sent by air through any European country.

Even so, dozens of Indians are taking to social media to document their journey, offering tips, route suggestions and risk assessments.

After the flight returned from Bangalore, both Punjab and Haryana have cracked down on fake agents. Punjab has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the issue.  Haryana said it already has one, which has been going after the fraudulent agents.

"The state government will bring a bill in the winter session of the state assembly to regulate immigration agents and agencies," said Anil Vij.

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