On June 26, several news outlets reported that under new rules by the Indian government, two-wheelers will be required to pay a tax at toll plazas from July 15, 2025.
Media outlets TV9 Bharatvarsh, TV9 Hindi and TV9 Assam in their video reports and stories on June 26 said that July 15 onwards, two-wheelers using the national highway will have to pay toll to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Although TV9 Bharatvarsh has now removed this video, it was shared on YouTube by Opposition party, Congress. The party’s national spokesperson, Ritu Chaudhary, and party member, Priyamvada, also shared TV9 Bharatvarsh’s video on X to claim that the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party was making life harder for middle-class Indians by imposing toll tax on two-wheelers, which is often dubbed a lifeline for many who cannot afford cars.
Besides TV9, many other media organisations such Zee News Telugu, ETV Bharat, Punjab Kesari, IBC24, Lalluram.com, IRIA Gujarat, BBN 24 and DB Live published similar reports that two-wheelers will have to pay toll tax from July 15. India Today also published a report, which was subsequently taken down from its website. However, social media users shared screenshots of the story. Panchajanya, a Hindi language weekly magazine published by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also posted the update on X but deleted it later.
The Karnataka Congress also shared a similar report on its official X handle, calling it another blow to the common man. Other social media users on X also posted about the government levying a toll tax, based on media reports.
Considering some news outlets deleted their reports, we began checking whether the information was true.
While investigating, we came across an X post by Nitin Gadkari, the minister of road transport and highways, shipping and water resources. His post said that media outlets were spreading misleading news that the government was levying toll on two-wheelers. Condemning those for spreading misinformation without verifying, he clarified that no such decision was made and two-wheelers remain exempt from toll tax. He even tagged TV9Bharatvarsh in his post.
The X handle of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) also said that reports by media outlets on toll being levied on bikes and scooters was baseless and that no such proposal was being considered.
The fact-checking unit of the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) also debunked the claims that two-wheelers would soon have to pay toll. However, it is worth noting that PIB did not call out any news outlet’s reports in its post, even though the misinformation was amplified because of misreporting by news outlets.
Even during the recent India-Pakistan conflict, PIB’s fact-check unit debunked many false claims spread on social media, but did not name or call out any media houses that blatantly spread misinformation.
On June 26, TV9 Bharatvarsh issued a clarification: “TV9 Bharatvarsh had run the news some time ago that now two-wheelers will have to pay toll tax on NHAI, refuting this news, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has tweeted and informed that this news is false.”
दो पहिया वाहनों को नहीं देना होगा टोल टैक्स
TV9 भारतवर्ष ने कुछ देर पहले ये खबर चलाई थी कि अब NHAI पर टू व्हीलर्स को टोल टैक्स देना होगा, इस खबर का खंडन करते हुए केंद्रीय मंत्री नितिन गडकरी ने ट्वीट कर जानकारी दी है कि ये खबर गलत है. यानी टू व्हीलर्स पर कोई भी टोल टैक्स नहीं… pic.twitter.com/RSP1mkFC3w
To sum up, many Indian news outlets misreported that two-wheelers would soon have to pay toll tax, resulting in many amplifying it. The NHAI and Union minister Gadkari clarified that no such proposal was on the cards.
Human Rights activist Henry Tiphagne at the press meetInstagram/peopleswatch
On 25 June 2025 Azeefa Fathima wrote how – at the release of the Global Index on Torture in Geneva, human rights defender Henri Tiphagne of India’s People’s Watch slammed India for failing to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and for allowing systemic impunity in custodial deaths.
India’s human rights record on custodial torture came under sharp international criticism at the launch of the Global Index on Torture in Geneva on Tuesday, June 25, with prominent rights advocate Henri Tiphagne accusing the country of “zero accountability” in cases of police brutality and deaths in custody.
Drawing attention to the fifth anniversary of the custodial deaths of Jeyaraj and Benix in Tamil Nadu, Henri said, “The father and son were tortured and died in judicial custody. They were produced before a judicial magistrate after medical examination, having already changed clothes three times due to bleeding. The trial has gone on for five years, across 262 hearings, and is still ongoing, while the family continues to face reprisals.”
Henri, who is the Executive Director of People’s Watch, criticised India for being among eight countries listed in the Global Index for ongoing torture and reprisals against victims and human rights defenders. “We are yet to ratify the Convention Against Torture, despite over 41 countries having recommended it. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has existed for 32 years and has not prosecuted even one police officer responsible for extrajudicial killings or torture,” he said…
He said that India must “bow down in shame” for its continued failure to ratify the UN convention and for its “zero accountability” in cases of custodial torture and deaths.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), established 32 years ago, has never successfully prosecuted a single police officer involved in torture or extrajudicial killings, Henri noted, and said, “We are the only country with so many human rights institutions, and yet they are not functioning. The NHRC has even been downgraded in Geneva, and this speaks volumes”.
Following the devastating crash of Gatwick-bound Air India flight 171, a new video purportedly of Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the tragic accident, is viral on social media. The footage shows him walking towards the crash site, which is engulfed in flames. Ramesh was among the 242 aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed into the BJ Medical College in the densely populated area of Meghani Nagar in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad within 30 seconds of take-off. The accident, among the worst tragedies in recent aviation history, claimed the lives of 241, including crew, and many others residing in the premises of the medical college.
The survival of Ramesh, who was seated in an emergency exit in the aircraft, has been nothing short of miraculous. Earlier, a video, shared by many news outlets, showed Ramesh walking out of a building gate as plumes of smoke could be seen in the background. This was different from the now-viral video, which shows him walking towards the site of the crash.
Social media users have widely circulated the video questioning why he walked towards the site of the crash and emerged afterwards. Wondering what unfolded, many insinuated it was fishy that a man “shown as a survivor” was walking into the accident and coming out later. Some even said that this was the “reality” that was not being broadcast by media outlets. Below are some claims from X and Instagram. (Archives 1, 2)
Users on Facebook also shared the viral clip. Screenshots below:
Fact Check
Since information on passengers in the flight and Vishwas Kumar Ramesh’s boarding pass were published by many media outlets, we were certain that he was on the flight.
But to understand what was being shown in the viral video, we broke it down into key frames, and ran reverse image searches on some of them. This led us to several short videos where a man bearing a close resemblance to Vishwas Kumar Ramesh is seen entering the crash site more than once and exiting. Alt News went through many such videos generated by those at the site and tried to piece together the chain of events.
Our research found that Ramesh first exited the crash site when there were very few people around and tried to go back in twice to look for his brother, who was on the same flight. The new viral video, shared with conspiracy theories, shows him re-entering the crash site for the first time. He tried entering it a second time, too when there were more people at the site, who beckoned to him and called him back. When he emerged from the site this time, he was guided by these people to an ambulance. A video of his emergence and being taken to an ambulance was the same one shared by news outlets.
Here’s a breakdown of how we arrived at this:
We found one Instagram reel uploaded by user @ravibarthuniya on June 12, showing a man in a white t-shirt, standing across from the crash site, making his way across the street and entering the premises. His clothing and the fact that he was limping matched the description and visuals of Vishwas Kumar Ramesh seen emerging from the site.
We compared visuals in the viral video and this reel and found they were the same. Below is a comparison.
Thus, the viral clip does show Vishwas Kumar Ramesh entering the crash site. We also noticed that there was a scooter parked by the compound wall he entered and only few people around.
However, when this reel is compared with the video shared by news outlets showing him emerging from the site and being guided towards an ambulance, some things appear different.
For instance, the scooter against the wall seen in the first comparison image was removed. Also, there were a lot more people present at the site. This suggests that some time had passed between the two videos, and the clip of him emerging was taken later.
We also found another video on Instagram of Ramesh using his phone and entering the crash site. However, this is different from the previous video of him entering.
We also noticed that the scooter was removed and, unlike in the previous instance, the dog is absent. There are also more people. Multiple videos we watched confirmed that he entered the crash site not once, but twice.
In the second instance, the people present at the site call out to him after he goes in. When he comes out, a man in a pink shirt and blue turban is visible. Based on the video shared by news outlets, we know that he is the same person who guides Ramesh to an ambulance.
A video report by BBC India, posted on Instagram on June 18, identifies the man in the turban as Satinder Singh Sandhu. Sandhu, who supervises a fleet of ambulances, was the first emergency responder at the crash site.
We then reached out to Sandhu, who told us that when he arrived at the spot, he saw Ramesh going back into the premises. “I was just done shifting a victim to the ambulance. Then I saw him (Ramesh) near the gate. He went in and then came out again, after which I intervened and moved him to an ambulance,” he told us in Hindi.
Sandhu told the BBC that Ramesh, even after his rescue, “kept trying to go back to the site of the crash.”
“He had no idea what he was doing. He kept going in and out of the complex. We told him to stop, and dragged him away to an ambulance so that he could receive medical care… That’s when he said to me that his relative was trapped inside and he wanted to go save him. We did not speak a word after that,” he told the publication. At the time, Sandhu had no idea the man was the lone plane crash survivor. The emergency responder gave similar accounts to news outlets PTI, NDTV and UK-based DailyMail.
Thus, we were able to conclude that Vishwas Kumar Ramesh emerged from the crash site and tried going back near the burning wreckage at least twice to look for his brother. Piecemeal footage on social media from different angles and at different times has led to confusion regarding the chain of events. Alt News was unable to find footage that shows him walking away from the crash site the very first time. But we were able to establish that the now-viral video shows him trying to re-enter the first time, most likely to look for and save his brother.
Mumbai-based Prot has released Prot Block, a shelf-stable ingredient offering health-conscious Indians a new format of plant-based protein.
Walk into metropolitan India right now, and you might begin wondering whether you have a protein deficiency.
Protein is everywhere right now, from chocolates and coffee to kulfi and even water. It has given a boost to functional health startups and forced dairy giants like Amul and Mother Dairy to innovate and introduce protein-rich offerings.
Swathes of studies suggest that India has a protein problem—according to one survey, 73% of the country has a deficiency. That said, a separate analysis of household food intakes reveals that the risk of protein deficiency, when adjusted for digestible quality, is low in adults and non-existent in young Indians.
Either way, the protein trend isn’t going anywhere. And in a country with the world’s largest vegetarian population, it’s an opportunity for plant-based companies.
The challenge? Meat alternatives are still ultra-niche, and tofu (often marketed as ‘soy paneer’) is only just emerging into tier 2 cities. The industry’s USP, however, is health and nutrition.
Polling shows that protein and health benefits are the most influential purchase drivers of plant-based meat and dairy in India, even more so than affordability. It’s what spurred the 18% growth of the vegan market between 2021 and 2024.
According to market research firm Ipsos, this value is expected to expand 18-fold in the next decade, with plant proteins “set to be woven into everyday meals and snacks, attracting a wider audience beyond vegans”.
It leaves room for new, innovative products that pack a punch with protein and fibre, all while satisfying the taste buds of a food-loving population.
Not an alternative to tofu or paneer
Courtesy: Prot
Prot, a Mumbai-based startup formerly known as Seaspire, is tapping into the opportunity. It has released Prot Block, a novel format of plant-based protein that isn’t quite a meat alternative or tofu, and holds its own on the culinary and nutrition fronts.
“The motivation for us in developing this product actually came from an unintended blind test, where we just had some test consumers give insights on how they feel about the texture and early iterations of this product without any positioning… [except only] if they were given the option to eat plant protein,” co-founder Varun Gadodia tells Green Queen.
“And this got us a strongly positive early feedback that vegetarian consumers in India and some Western markets are looking for a protein texture that can be incorporated easily in their daily food habits without sounding like any alternative or plant-based meat positioning.”
Indeed, we’re already seeing this shift in Europe, where whole-food options and new formats are taking over the plant-based space. In the UK, Oh So Wholesome’s Veg’chop and This’s Super Superfood both offer protein blocks made from legumes and vegetables. Meanwhile, Austria’s Revo Foods uses mycoprotein to deliver The Prime Cut, which doesn’t mimic meat and is designed for functional nutrition instead.
Prot Block – available in plain and tandoori flavours – contains 15g of protein (on par with tofu) and 10g of fibre per 100g, as well as 7g of fat sourced from coconuts and sunflower. In fact, both the overall and saturated fat content are over three times lower than paneer.
“In the short to medium term, we don’t intend to raise this as a rival of traditional paneer or tofu, but more of an option in the vegetarian protein textures, as consumers don’t really have much to look at and they are looking for options more actively,” suggests Gadodia.
“The commoditisation of soy and paneer in India within a very complex yet mature supply chain has left consumers with a choice paralysis with a cluttered marketplace of paneer, tofu and other soy derivatives,” he adds.
“In order to meet the differentiated positioning, we took the road to break out of that clutter,” he continues. “An allergen-free offering is just another value-added category [in which] we aim to position this product as a counter.”
Prot Block spotlights peas over soy
Courtesy: Prot
Peas are the star ingredient, with the Prot Block comprising textured pea protein and pea protein isolate. Wheat fibre and spices close out the ingredient list.
Using pea protein was a strategic choice to reduce the Asian market’s reliance on soy. “Reinventing the wheel with any soy-derived texture doesn’t compel consumers enough to look over the likes of tofu and tempeh, and soy granules, chunks or chaap (heavily consumed in many parts of India as a vegetarian protein),” Gadodia says.
“The opportunity here is to establish bench standards for wider adoption of pea protein, which unfortunately has remained restricted to the supplement space,” he adds, contends that this will ultimately help lead to improved standards of protein processing and commercialisation.
Prot describes the product as a versatile option suited to both local and international cooking styles, as well as a range of applications, from curries and rice to wraps and barbecue. “But this is just the beginning,” he says.
“We are in the process of some process tweaks in the product, which can get us to position it as an on-the-go snack that can be consumed directly. The hint lies in packed halloumi sticks and cheese sticks,” Gadodia adds. “While the product is pre-cooked during the course of processing and can be consumed raw, we are not positioning this as a use case.”
By offering a shelf-stable format, Prot is tackling a key bottleneck for India’s plant protein sector—the cold supply chain—while offering a long shelf life and potentially mitigating food waste.
Government support is critical to tackling India’s protein deficiency
Courtesy: Prot
The release of the product follows a closed-group pilot with more than 500 fitness enthusiasts, home cooks, and health-conscious, food-savvy early adopters. According to Prot, the feedback on taste, texture, nutrition and usability was “overwhelmingly positive”, underscoring the need for functional, high-protein options in the country.
“India is largely protein-deficient, despite heavy dairy consumption,” says Gadodia. “The environment around plant-based protein as a healthier choice is offering a great stage. However, the motivators are high-protein, allergen-free, affordable, low-cholesterol, in contrast to slow or underperforming categories like plant-based meat alternatives.”
“The low-hanging fruit, even for us, is the audience seeking high-protein offerings and willing to try more value-added products, [whether] out of need or simply boredom,” he says.
“The fact that plant protein products are still a niche is [reflective of] the consumer behaviour in India, which varies between a wide spectrum of cultural differences. While consumption in many regional markets is getting an upgrade with more disposable incomes, when it comes to food, consumers have a taste for traditional offerings,” the Prot co-founder explains.
“Many of these traditional foods already include a good chunk of plant protein derived from lentils, etc., but clean and additive-free packaged foods that solve for convenience are still a white space.”
The government, he believes, has a crucial role to play. Gadodia likens it to the promotion of the millet-based trade: “More formative policies can support the growth of plant-based foods, which need a robust supply chain and processing support to overcome scaling challenges.”
This chimes with calls from other experts, who have urged the government to launch a national plant protein mission to scale the sector and build a dedicated policy framework for plant-based foods.
Prot attracts pre-seed investment
Courtesy: Prot
Prot’s protein block is priced at ₹199 ($2.3) per 200g product. That’s several degrees higher than what Indians pay for paneer and, in many cities, tofu.
Gadodia admits that there’s an initial premium, though he insists that it is “well-gauged to a number that consumers are willing to pay for a value-added and differentiated protein offering that not only serves their need, but also hooks an aspiration to include a new product in their lifestyles”.
“The current pricing is slightly higher than good-quality paneer offerings, yet it’s in a ballpark of what an early consumer is actively looking to spend to find a valuable offering. We have our early consumers who have found the product reasonable,” he says.
“Our pricing strategy has been gauged carefully by understanding the value creation, early customers, unit economics and supply chain costs,” he adds. “Yet we have plans to improve pricing further with greater traction and quick turnaround times that could enable us to improve operational margins.”
Prot Block is currently selling the ingredient on its website and via foodservice. “We have great foodservice partnerships in place with curated menus, kitchen takeovers, etc. taking place to raise consumer awareness, and driving it all to the B2C channel,” says Gadodia.
To boost the startup’s plans, Gadodia and co-founder Shantanu Dhangar are now fundraising. “We have just closed a pre-seed funding round to support our growth plans with Prot Block and our growing presence in the retail and CPG space,” Gadodia says, hinting at an investor announcement in the coming weeks.
In another example of the effort to diversify India’s plant protein sources, plant-based meat brand Blue Tribe Foods – backed by Indian actress Anushka Sharma and cricketer Virat Kohli – has just unveiled Klaw, a brand of protein puffs derived from “supergrains”.
Amidst an ageing aircraft fleet, India’s air force is looking to indigenously develop platforms that enhance its combat potential. The Indian Air Force (IAF), which is facing continued depletion of its fleet of combat fighters, is looking at the induction of indigenously developed aircraft and helicopters to maintain its combat effectiveness. This effort will be […]
India’s fascistgovernment has been ramping up anti-Muslim persecution with violent and illegal deportations of citizens. The country’s 200 million Muslim citizens were already a target for highlycontroversialHindu-nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi, but the recent escalation of the ongoing Kashmir crisis has apparently worsened the situation further.
As the Guardianreported, Indian authorities have been rounding up “thousands of people” across the country without “due legal process”. And in some cases, the country’s border security force has pushed people over into neighbouring Bangladesh “at gunpoint”. Bangladeshi authorities, meanwhile, have returned hundreds of people to India after discovering they were actually Indian citizens.
A researcher from Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar said:
India is pushing mainly Muslims and low-income communities from their own country
This, they said:
is against national and international law.
Bangladesh claims India has broken with previous procedures and ignored its requests for their renewal.
Picking on older, disabled citizens
62-year-old grandmother Hazera Khatun is physically disabled. She recounted that Indian authorities picked her up and later pushed her into a van, saying:
They treated us like animals
The thugs also to told her:
‘We will shoot you if you don’t go to the other side.’
Bangladeshi authorities later returned her and others to India because they were Indian citizens, and they:
had to walk through forests and rivers
The ordeal was ‘deeply traumatic’, leaving her with bruises all over.
A 67-year-old Indian citizen, Maleka Begam, is “physically infirm and cannot walk unassisted”. She also said authorities had used guns to threaten her to cross the border. But so far, she has been unable to return home.
In Gujarat, where Modi himself once presided over deadly anti-Muslim riots, police recently paraded thousands of people through the streets, only 450 of whom were in the country illegally. In Assam, meanwhile, which is also under the control of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), authorities has persecuted and even disappeared people it labels “infiltrators”. Previously, the state exempted non-Muslims from having to prove they were citizens, but it has now opted to “automatically expel” the people it targets.
Intensifying persecution, with the West’s blessing
Under Modi’s regime in the last 11 years, the persecution, harassment, and disenfranchisement of Muslim citizens in India has intensified. India’s ongoing occupation of resource-rich territory in Kashmir (a legacy of Britain’s brutally divisive colonial rule), for example, stepped up a gear with Modi’s 2019 revocation of the region’s autonomy, which led to severe human rights abuses and growing militarisation. The West allowed this because it increasingly values India’s role in counteringChinese power. And as tensions erupted earlier this year after an anti-Indian attack in Kashmir, a fragile ceasefire did nothing to stop the runaway train of anti-Muslim rhetoric within India.
The dangerously divisive language of expelling “outsiders”, “traitors” or “infiltrators” has skyrocketed in recent weeks. Fascist voices on social media have spread such language, as have a wave of Islamophobic songs. And in just two weeks after the Kashmir attack in April, there were reportedly “184 anti-Muslim hate incidents across India”. Authorities even arrested a prominent Muslim academic for calling out such attacks.
From the US to Britain, Western governments have prioritised backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza while ramping up tensions with Russia and China. And in this environment, they have little interest in condemning the useful extremists ruling India today. But everyone in the world should absolutely be very concerned about the increasing consolidation of fascism in yet another nuclear-armed state.
Forest Department officials break down the shelters of Jenu Kuruba people who had reclaimed their old village inside Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.
This morning more than 250 police, forest guards and tiger force members raided a village which Indigenous people had reclaimed in a tiger reserve six weeks ago. The security forces tore down seven forest shelters where women, children and older people were living, at Karadikallu Atturu Kolli village, in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.
“They are forcing people to destroy their own homes on their own lands. This is a grave violation of human rights as well as the rights guaranteed under the Forest Rights Act,” said a source from inside the village.
Jenu Kuruba people were violently evicted from Nagarhole 40 years ago to make way for a tiger reserve. More than 50 families returned on May 5 to live in their former village and to assert their claims in accordance with India’s Forest Rights Act. It’s believed to be the first time Indigenous people in India asserted their rights to return to their homes after eviction from a Protected Area.
“It is outrageous that the Jenu Kuruba are being thrown out of their home once again. The authorities must stop this persecution of the Jenu Kuruba, who are just trying to live in peace on their own land,” said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International. “As we’ve seen time and again, conservation – in this case a Tiger Reserve – is being used as a pretext to violate Indigenous rights. It is time to stop this abusive and colonial model of fortress conservation.”
The Jenu Kuruba had lived alongside and worshipped tigers for generations. They decided to return because their sacred spirits, who still dwell in the old village location, became angry at being abandoned when the community was forced from the forest in the 1980s.
There are fears the crackdown against ‘outsiders’ is driving widespread persecution as expelled Indians are returned by Bangladesh border guards
The Indian government has been accused of illegally deporting Indian Muslims to Bangladesh, prompting fears of an escalating campaign of persecution.
Thousands of people, largely Muslims suspected of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, have been rounded up by police across India in recent weeks, according to human rights groups, with many of them deprived of due legal process and sent over the border to neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Amid geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, several prominent Indian news outlets, including CNN News18, India Today, CNBC TV18, Times of India, Financial Express, Deccan Herald and Economic Times among others reported that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir was invitated to participate in the celebrations marking the 250-th anniversary of the US Army. The celebrations, which took place on June 14, 2025 coincided with the 79th birthday of US President Donald Trump.
The Pakistan Army promoted Asim Munir to the rank of field marshal after the recent conflict between the two countries, which intensified after India launched Operation Sindoor (on May 7) targeting terror bases in Pakistan, a fortnight after the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam killed 26 civilians.
On June 11, News18 published a story titled “Pakistan COAS Asim Munir Invited to US Army Day Celebrations on June 14: Sources | Exclusive”. According to the report, Pakistan’s chief of army staff (COAS), Asim Munir, was invited by the US administration to attend the commemorative event. Citing ‘top intelligence sources’, News18 said that Munir would arrive in the United States by June 12.
On June 12, India Today also reported, citing ‘top sources’ that Munir confirmed his attendance at the ceremonial military parade on June 14 after Washington extended an invitation.
Deccan Herald also reported that the Trump administration invited Asim Munir to attend the US Army Day celebration on June 14.
Munir being invited to the US celebrations sparked outrage in India, with Opposition leaders calling it a major diplomatic setback for the country on a global scale. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh criticized the United States for extending an invitation to Munir, considering his incendiary rhetoric (calling Kashmir India’s jugular vein) before the Pahalgam attack.
This is the man who spoke in such incendiary and provocative language just before the Pahalgam terror attacks. What is the US really up to?
Secondly, right before the parade, the White House categorically told some news publications that it had not invited any foreign military leaders, including Munir, to participate in the June 14 US Army parade.
The Quint cited an unnamed White House official as saying: “We never invited a foreign official… this is a celebration of 250 years of our Army and the United States of America.”
Responding to widespread speculation—particularly reports originating from India—regarding Asim Munir’s purported attendance, the official added:
“If a foreign military leader of that stature were to visit, established diplomatic protocols would be followed and public announcements made in advance. This appears to be a product of rumor-mongering, amplified by certain media circles. Just observe the timing.”
Note that the unsubstantiated claims surfaced shortly after US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) commander general Michael Kurilla, testified before the US House Armed Services Committee, where he commended Pakistan’s ongoing counter-terrorism operations.
By June 14, several of the publications that reported on Munir being invited to the US Army parade have updated or revised these reports to say that the White House issued a denial of these reports. News18 was among the few that added a correction in its updated report.
To sum up, reports claiming Pakistan army chief Asim Munir was invited to the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade are not true and have been denied by the US. Many Indian media news outlets seem to have misreported this owing to incorrect “source-based information”.
Amid geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, several prominent Indian news outlets, including CNN News18, India Today, CNBC TV18, Times of India, Financial Express, Deccan Herald and Economic Times among others reported that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir was invitated to participate in the celebrations marking the 250-th anniversary of the US Army. The celebrations, which took place on June 14, 2025 coincided with the 79th birthday of US President Donald Trump.
The Pakistan Army promoted Asim Munir to the rank of field marshal after the recent conflict between the two countries, which intensified after India launched Operation Sindoor (on May 7) targeting terror bases in Pakistan, a fortnight after the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam killed 26 civilians.
On June 11, News18 published a story titled “Pakistan COAS Asim Munir Invited to US Army Day Celebrations on June 14: Sources | Exclusive”. According to the report, Pakistan’s chief of army staff (COAS), Asim Munir, was invited by the US administration to attend the commemorative event. Citing ‘top intelligence sources’, News18 said that Munir would arrive in the United States by June 12.
On June 12, India Today also reported, citing ‘top sources’ that Munir confirmed his attendance at the ceremonial military parade on June 14 after Washington extended an invitation.
Deccan Herald also reported that the Trump administration invited Asim Munir to attend the US Army Day celebration on June 14.
Munir being invited to the US celebrations sparked outrage in India, with Opposition leaders calling it a major diplomatic setback for the country on a global scale. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh criticized the United States for extending an invitation to Munir, considering his incendiary rhetoric (calling Kashmir India’s jugular vein) before the Pahalgam attack.
This is the man who spoke in such incendiary and provocative language just before the Pahalgam terror attacks. What is the US really up to?
Secondly, right before the parade, the White House categorically told some news publications that it had not invited any foreign military leaders, including Munir, to participate in the June 14 US Army parade.
The Quint cited an unnamed White House official as saying: “We never invited a foreign official… this is a celebration of 250 years of our Army and the United States of America.”
Responding to widespread speculation—particularly reports originating from India—regarding Asim Munir’s purported attendance, the official added:
“If a foreign military leader of that stature were to visit, established diplomatic protocols would be followed and public announcements made in advance. This appears to be a product of rumor-mongering, amplified by certain media circles. Just observe the timing.”
Note that the unsubstantiated claims surfaced shortly after US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) commander general Michael Kurilla, testified before the US House Armed Services Committee, where he commended Pakistan’s ongoing counter-terrorism operations.
By June 14, several of the publications that reported on Munir being invited to the US Army parade have updated or revised these reports to say that the White House issued a denial of these reports. News18 was among the few that added a correction in its updated report.
To sum up, reports claiming Pakistan army chief Asim Munir was invited to the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade are not true and have been denied by the US. Many Indian media news outlets seem to have misreported this owing to incorrect “source-based information”.
Amid geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, several prominent Indian news outlets, including CNN News18, India Today, CNBC TV18, Times of India, Financial Express, Deccan Herald and Economic Times among others reported that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir was invitated to participate in the celebrations marking the 250-th anniversary of the US Army. The celebrations, which took place on June 14, 2025 coincided with the 79th birthday of US President Donald Trump.
The Pakistan Army promoted Asim Munir to the rank of field marshal after the recent conflict between the two countries, which intensified after India launched Operation Sindoor (on May 7) targeting terror bases in Pakistan, a fortnight after the dastardly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam killed 26 civilians.
On June 11, News18 published a story titled “Pakistan COAS Asim Munir Invited to US Army Day Celebrations on June 14: Sources | Exclusive”. According to the report, Pakistan’s chief of army staff (COAS), Asim Munir, was invited by the US administration to attend the commemorative event. Citing ‘top intelligence sources’, News18 said that Munir would arrive in the United States by June 12.
On June 12, India Today also reported, citing ‘top sources’ that Munir confirmed his attendance at the ceremonial military parade on June 14 after Washington extended an invitation.
Deccan Herald also reported that the Trump administration invited Asim Munir to attend the US Army Day celebration on June 14.
Munir being invited to the US celebrations sparked outrage in India, with Opposition leaders calling it a major diplomatic setback for the country on a global scale. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh criticized the United States for extending an invitation to Munir, considering his incendiary rhetoric (calling Kashmir India’s jugular vein) before the Pahalgam attack.
This is the man who spoke in such incendiary and provocative language just before the Pahalgam terror attacks. What is the US really up to?
Secondly, right before the parade, the White House categorically told some news publications that it had not invited any foreign military leaders, including Munir, to participate in the June 14 US Army parade.
The Quint cited an unnamed White House official as saying: “We never invited a foreign official… this is a celebration of 250 years of our Army and the United States of America.”
Responding to widespread speculation—particularly reports originating from India—regarding Asim Munir’s purported attendance, the official added:
“If a foreign military leader of that stature were to visit, established diplomatic protocols would be followed and public announcements made in advance. This appears to be a product of rumor-mongering, amplified by certain media circles. Just observe the timing.”
Note that the unsubstantiated claims surfaced shortly after US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) commander general Michael Kurilla, testified before the US House Armed Services Committee, where he commended Pakistan’s ongoing counter-terrorism operations.
By June 14, several of the publications that reported on Munir being invited to the US Army parade have updated or revised these reports to say that the White House issued a denial of these reports. News18 was among the few that added a correction in its updated report.
To sum up, reports claiming Pakistan army chief Asim Munir was invited to the US Army’s 250th anniversary parade are not true and have been denied by the US. Many Indian media news outlets seem to have misreported this owing to incorrect “source-based information”.
Pakistan’s COAS Field Marshal General Asim Munir (second from right) and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (far right) offering prayers at Kaaba in Saudi Arabia during their reent visit IMAGE/Dawn
In 1909, the renowned poet Muhammad Iqbal wrote Shikwa or Complaint to Allah.1
The poem is a lament that Allah has neglected his followers, Muslims, the very people who spread Islam and gave Him global exposure.
A couplet refers to Mahmud Ghazni,2 an eleventh century ruler, and his “slave” Ayaz:
ek hee saf meiN khaDe ho gaye mahmud o ayAz
na koi bandA rahA aur na koi bandA-nawAz
— Muhmmad Iqbal, Shikwa or The Complaint to Allah in Bang-e-Dara, Rekhta
they stood in the same row: Mahmud (the lord) and Ayaz (the slave)
(praying to Allah), no more was there distinction of master and slave
Malik Ayaz, according to Majid Sheikh, was not a slave but was a white European from Gerogia who was Mahmud’s “‘lakhtay’, a Pushtun polite word for ‘boy partner’.” According to S. Jabir Raza, there have been many other nobles with the name Ayaz. Many poets and authors, including Jalaluddin Rumi, have written about Ayaz.
Anyways, proceeding forward to this 21st century, Asim Munir and Shehbaz Sharif also rule the area which was once under Mahmud’s rule. Sharif is neither “lakhtay” nor a “slave” of Munir. But nonetheless, the reltionship between COAS (Chief of Army Staff) General Munir and Prime Minister Sharif is not even that of equals.
The parliamentary system of government in Pakistan officially endows the most power in the prime minister’s office and all others, including Chief of the Army Staff, work under the premier. However, since the 1950s, military has usurped the power and so the civilian governments rule at the mercy of the army — which gets a significant portion of the country’s budget, but also runs several businesse, and has overthrown and installed governments.
Between May 7 and 10, 2025, India and Pakistan went to war. Both claimed victory. Munir and Sharif thanked Allah for the “victory,” by going to Saudi Arabia in the first week of June to perform Umrah, and to pay homage to the Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or MbS.
Like in Iqbal’s couplet, Munir and Sharif in the picture above, are standing as equal in front of their Allah. But a quick analysis clearly shows the contentment and happiness on them is not equal — more correctly, it is totally missing on Sharif’s face, who seems worried and frustrated. On the other hand, Munir seems very satisfied and delighted.
What was Munir praying to Allah:
“Ya Allah, I am going to thank you but first let me thank my enemy Narendra Damodardas Modi. I am here in Saudi Arabia, at this time, because of him. It’s due to him that my reputation, that was on a downward trajectory, suddenly picked up and went so high that I have now become a hero in Pakistan. Allah, you won’t believe but I feel like a superman, I have so much power. Please Allah, don’t be scared of me — I am not like Ayub Khan.3.
“Allah, one more thing I have to tell you. Recently, I was made field marshal and was granted the baton of field marshal by President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. I am the second field marshal, Ayub Khan was the first one. Allah, isn’t it strange that both Sharif’s and Zardari’s parties [Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan People’s Party] have suffered at the hands of the army and yet they’re givng me more prestige. I tell you, now any if these two guys try to be clever with me, I’m going to use this very baton to spank their rears. By the way, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader, Imran Khan, is already rotting in prison.
“Now Allah, before I part, I should thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
President Asif Ali Zardari (centre) and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (right) jointly confer baton of field marshal upon Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir on May 22, 2025. IMAGE/Radio Pakistan/The News International
(Munir received an invitation to attend the US army’s 250th anniversary on June 14, 2025. He is going to attend King Trump’s extravaganza. He must be feeling very happy but will also be very worried because commercial-animal that Trump is, will push him to be on the US side instead on China’s side.)
What was Shehbaz praying to Allah:
“Ya Allah, what is happening in your world? Why is it that I can’t exercise my due power as a prime minister? You can see the worry on my face, I can’t even close my eyes or at least pretend to close while offering prayers. Allah, look at this guy standing next to me — he seems to be in a post orgasmic state — calm, relaxed, and satiated.
In 1959, Ayub Khan became Pakistan’s first field marshal and now Munir has become one. Everyone knows, the minute my government will try to carve our own policy, he’ll shove the baton we awarded him, up my you know what.
Allah, please guide me as to how can we get rid of him. Should we put a case of mangoes in his plane or find some other way?” Please!
ENDNOTES:
1 Several poems of Iqbal in Urdu with English translation are at Dr. Allama Muhmaad Iqbal. Khushwant Singh, journalist and author, translated both “Complaint” and “Answer” in a book form with introduction and can be found here. See also Frances W. Pritchett critiquing Singh’s couple of stanzas.
2 Extremist Hindus use many excuses to disriminate against Muslims. One of those excuses is Muslim invader Mehmud Ghazni’s raid of temple of Somnatha and destrution of an idol in 1026 CE But that lacks historical truth. See eminent historian Romila Thapar’s “Somanatha and Mahmud,” in Frontline magazine.
3 In the 1960s, during military dictator Field Marshal General Ayub Khan’s rule, a joke circulated about Ayub’s love for power. On the Day of Judgement, Pakistan’s leaders lined up to see Allah. Allah would rise from his throne and pat Pakistani leaders but would not arise when Ayub Khan came. A question was raised as to why? Allah’s reply: “He would have grabbed my throne.”
Note: In polite company or in public arenas or in schools and conferences, what have you, what is it to be anti-semitic according to the Israel Occupation Forces legions of facilitators like the ADL, AIPAC, and a list of tens of thousands of Jewish controlled non-profits and foundations?
Pro-Israeli circles often try to invent an anti-Semitic element behind every legitimate criticism of Israel.
But this is a cheap and increasingly exposed exploitation and manipulation of true anti-Semitism a morbid form of racism that ought to be denounced.
However the behaviors of the shipyard dogs of Zionism would have us believe that true anti-Semites are no longer those who hate Jews for being Jewish but rather those Zionist fanatics criticize for criticizing Israel for being criminal murderous and evil.
Well we are supposed to be living in a moral universe where no people should have more rights than the rest of mankind.
Proceeding from this timeless basic logic if criticizing Israel including questioning the moral legitimacy of Israel’s very existence amounts to anti-Semitism then humanity has a moral obligation to be anti-Semitic.
Opponents of Israel it must be proclaimed loudly don’t hate Israel because Israel is Jewish; they hate Israel because Israel happens to be a gigantic crime against humanity a virulent practitioner of ethnic cleansing and apartheid which is committed to the national destruction of another people the Palestinian people.
Yes anti-Judaism is wrong and should be rejected. However if Judaism especially Jewishness can not maintain a decent and peaceful existence outside the realm of racism apartheid and genocidal supremacy then people will have second thoughts about Judaism. — effing 2012 Op-Ed, The absurdity of equating opposition to Israel with anti-Semitism
No lover of ANY POTUS, especially Truman, but, that broken white psychosis can get it right once in a blue moon:
In 1948 President Harry Truman was infuriated by Jewish terrorism which was nothing in comparison to Israel’s terror these days angrily wrote in a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt: “I fear very much that the Jews are being like all underdogs. When they get on top they are just as intolerant and cruel as the people were to them when they were underneath.” (Eleanor and Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman Eleanor Roosevelt, [Scribner/Drew, 2002] p.187.)
No fan of Stanley, as he calls the American University the most Jewish of institutions; however,
Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor who recently decided to leave Yale to go teach in Canada, recently explained on PBS’ Amanpour & Company why he thinks the Trump administration’s efforts are actually boosting antisemitic tropes:
This is reinforcing antisemitic tropes all across the political spectrum. … What are the most toxic antisemitic tropes? Well, “Jews control the institutions.” This is absolutely reinforcing this. Any young American is going to think: Remember what happened when they took down the world’s greatest university system on behalf of Jewish safety? And this will go down in history books — the history of this era will say that Jewish people were the sledgehammer for fascism. So if we don’t speak out, if we American Jews do not speak out against this, this will be a grim chapter in our history as Americans. It’s the first time in my life as an American that I have been fearful of our status as equal Americans — not because of the protests on campus, which, as I said, had a lot of Jewish students in them. But because we are suddenly at the center of U.S. politics. It’s never good to be in the crosshairs for us. And we are being used to destroy democracy.
So, this following little doozy would be put on the targets for IOF and others loving the Jewish Raping Murdering Starving Displacing Poisoning Polluting Occupied State of “Israel”/Palestine.
Over an effing billion of these Goy-ionists?
Days later, India launched Operation Sindoor, a wave of air strikes, describing them as “non-escalatory” in nature. Yes, that is the face of Judaism in that part of the world, where Benzion Mileikowsky works wonders on the Jewish Population where 84 percent plus want all Palestinians wiped from lower Greater Israel.
Many of the drones used in the operation were Israeli-made.
Among the systems deployed was the Harop, a “suicide drone” developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Designed to hover above a target area before diving for impact, the Harop carries a 10-kilogram warhead and can remain airborne for nearly six hours.
Since acquiring the Harop, India has increasingly relied on it.
Oshrit Birvadker, a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, toldThe Times of Israel that India’s use of Harop drones reflects “Israel’s growing footprint in Indian defense.”
That’s fourth globally in arms sales, Jewish State of Murdering Maiming Raping Starving Poisoning Polluting Displacing Israel (sic).
Marching to get into the Katz’s and Benzion Mileikowsky’s heads? For fuck’s sake!
Chris Hedges: This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most. Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets. They lack clean water, medicine and food. They have reached a point of collapse. Sick. Injured. Terrified. Humiliated. Abandoned. Destitute. Starving. Hopeless.
In the last pages of this horror story, Israel is sadistically baiting starving Palestinians with promises of food, luring them to the narrow and congested nine-mile ribbon of land that borders Egypt. Israel and its cynically named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), allegedly funded by Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the Mossad, is weaponizing starvation. It is enticing Palestinians to southern Gaza the way the Nazis enticed starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to board trains to the death camps. The goal is not to feed the Palestinians. No one seriously argues there is enough food or aid hubs. The goal is to cram Palestinians into heavily guarded compounds and deport them.
Some bulwarks across international community would stop this. Fuck, it is a Jewish project across all DNA-lines.
Given Britain’s continued support for Israel, from refusing to implement a full arms embargo to continuing to send RAF spy flights over Gaza from the British base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, Ahmed questions whether efforts have indeed been enough.
Israeli drones sprayed the Madleen with a white substance and an Israeli boat rammed the aid vessel before commandos boarded it, all because it contained things like baby food, medicine and prosthetics. Israel must defend itself from those things, apparently.
Is this a certain brand of Jewish Inspired, Supported, Financed death and murder cult? Is the question antisemitic?
Dirty dirty Sweden:
The Temporary Protection Directive (2001/55/EC) (commonly referred to as collective temporary protection) was activated in March 2022, granting Ukrainians seeking refuge temporary protection in EU countries, including Sweden. This directive provides residence permits, access to work, education, and limited social benefits without requiring individuals to go through the standard asylum process.
However, the practicalities of the Directive’s use differed significantly between countries. Sweden, despite its, until recent, reputation of being relatively liberal in its migration policies, has at times, lagged behind its Scandinavian neighbors in supporting Ukrainian displaced people. To illustrate this, it is useful to compare the Swedish approach to that of other Nordic states, as well as Poland.
Bizarrely, Israel’s act of piracy was described by the BBC as “diverting” the Madleen. In what universe was this a diversion? When you capture people in international waters who have committed no crime, you have not diverted them, you have kidnapped them. The crew of the Madleen are hostages, and not only that, Israel is already bragging about how it plans to abuse them.
The crew of 12, who the media describe as “activists”, comprised of journalists, politicians, and a doctor. They are to be taken to the port of Ashdod where they will be psychologically tortured by the IDF/IOF.
Israel Katz says he has given the order to make the crew watch footage of October 7th to show them “exactly who the terrorist organization they came to support and for whom they work is”. Presumably, they will only watch the killings carried out by Hamas and not the enactment of the Hannibal Directive killing hundreds of Jews by Jews.
Pointing out the non-Jews and Jews involved, is that antisemitic?
Remember this Jewish guy?
1992 document published by the US Department of Defense, known as the Wolfowitz Doctrine (because it was co-written by Paul Wolfowitz, who then served as US undersecretary of defense for policy, before later returning as Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush).
Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia.
The Trump administration’s foreign policy is still consistent with much of the Wolfowitz Doctrine. Although Trump has de-prioritized Western Europe and the territory of the former USSR, he has dedicated significant resources to US military operations in East Asia and Southwest Asia (also known as the Middle East).
Yep, even CIA-drenched Wikipedia advances Ratner’s Judaism:
Ely Ratner, who served as the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs in Biden’s Pentagon, wrote approvingly on X/Twitter, “Rhetoric aside, on actual defense policy Secretary Hegseth’s speech was near total continuity with the previous administration”.
“That’s good, but we’ll need heightened urgency, attention, and resources to address the China challenge”, Ratner added.
This fellow for years advanced his Jewishness for sure Zyklon or Final Solution Blinken:
Biden’s neoconservative Secretary of State Antony Blinken had also maintained a hardline anti-China position.
“We cannot rely on Beijing to change its trajectory. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing”, he said.
Blinken added, “The scale and the scope of the challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China will test American diplomacy like nothing we’ve seen before”.
Tucker Carlson has posted an extraordinary article on X that could potentially stop a war with Iran. As everyone knows, Carlson’s political views are admired by President Donald Trump who sees the former Fox commentator as a blunt, but fair-minded analyst who sees the world in similar terms as himself. And while there’s no evidence that the two men communicate regularly, a number of pundits believe that Carlson has influenced Trump’s thinking, particularly on matters related to foreign policy. That said, it is entirely possible that Trump will read Carlson’s June 4 post on Iran, and see that—once again—influential neocons are making every effort to drag the US into another bloody conflict in the Middle East to achieve Israel’s ambition of becoming the preeminent power in the region. Here’s Carlson:
Mark Levin was at the White House today, lobbying for war with Iran. To be clear, Levin has no plans to fight in this or any other war. He’s demanding that American troops do it. We need to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, he and like-minded ideologues in Washington are now arguing. They’re just weeks away.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because the same people have been making the same claim since at least the 1990s. It’s a lie. In fact, there is zero credible intelligence that suggests Iran is anywhere near building a bomb or has plans to. None. Anyone who claims otherwise is ignorant or dishonest. If the US government knew Iran was weeks from possessing a nuclear weapon, we’d be at war already.
Iran knows this, which is why they aren’t building one. Iran also knows it’s unwise to give up its weapons program entirely. Muammar Gaddafi tried that and wound up sodomized with a bayonet. As soon as Gaddafi disarmed, NATO killed him. Iran’s leaders saw that happen. They learned the obvious lesson.
So why is Mark Levin once again hyperventilating about weapons of mass destruction? To distract you from the real goal, which is regime change — young Americans heading back to the Middle East to topple yet another government. Virtually no one will say this out loud. America’s record of overthrowing foreign leaders is so embarrassingly counterproductive that regime change has become a synonym for disaster. Officially, no one supports it. So instead of telling the truth about their motives, they manufacture hysteria: “A country like Iran can never have the bomb! They’ll nuke Los Angeles! We have to act now!” Tucker Carlson (tuckercarlsonliveshowpodcast)
*****
Back to the death spiral of the Jewish Controlled Palestine:
Should a drone vaporize some nameless soul on the other side of the planet, who among us wants to make a fuss? What if it turns out they were a terrorist? What if the default accusation proves true, and we by implication be labeled terrorist sympathizers, ostracized, yelled at? It is generally the case that people are most zealously motivated by the worst plausible thing that could happen to them. For some, the worst plausible thing might be the ending of their bloodline in a missile strike. Their entire lives turned to rubble and all of it preemptively justified in the name of fighting terrorists who are terrorists by default on account of having been killed. For others, the worst plausible thing is being yelled at.
You cannot decimate a people, carry out saturation bombing over 20 months to obliterate their homes, villages and cities, massacre tens of thousands of innocent people, set up a siege to ensure mass starvation, drive them from land where they have lived for centuries and not expect blowback. The genocide will end. The response to the reign of state terror will begin. If you think it won’t you know nothing about human nature or history. The killing of two Israeli diplomats in Washington and the attack against supporters of Israel at a protest in Boulder, Colorado, are only the start.
Chaim Engel, who took part in the uprising at the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp in Poland, described how, armed with a knife, he attacked a guard in the camp.
“It’s not a decision,” Engel explained years later. “You just react, instinctively you react to that, and I figured, ‘Let us to do, and go and do it.’ And I went. I went with the man in the office and we killed this German. With every jab, I said, ‘That is for my father, for my mother, for all these people, all the Jews you killed.’”
Does anyone expect Palestinians to act differently? How are they to react when Europe and the United States, who hold themselves up as the vanguards of civilization, backed a genocide that butchered their parents, their children, their communities, occupied their land and blasted their cities and homes into rubble? How can they not hate those who did this to them?
What message has this genocide imparted not only to Palestinians, but to all in the Global South?
It is unequivocal. You do not matter. Humanitarian law does not apply to you. We do not care about your suffering, the murder of your children. You are vermin. You are worthless. You deserve to be killed, starved and dispossessed. You should be erased from the face of the earth.
“To preserve the values of the civilized world, it is necessary to set fire to a library,” El Akkad writes:
To blow up a mosque. To incinerate olive trees. To dress up in the lingerie of women who fled and then take pictures. To level universities. To loot jewelry, art, food. Banks. To arrest children for picking vegetables. To shoot children for throwing stones. To parade the captured in their underwear. To break a man’s teeth and shove a toilet brush in his mouth. To let combat dogs loose on a man with Down syndrome and then leave him to die. Otherwise, the uncivilized world might win.
There are people I have known for years who I will never speak to again. They know what is happening. Who does not know? They will not risk alienating their colleagues, being smeared as an antisemite, jeopardizing their status, being reprimanded or losing their jobs. They do not risk death, the way Palestinians do. They risk tarnishing the pathetic monuments of status and wealth they spent their lives constructing. Idols. They bow down before these idols. They worship these idols. They are enslaved by them.
At the feet of these idols lie tens of thousands of murdered Palestinians.
A 30-second-long video showing scenes from inside an aircraft is viral on social media and is being shared as footage showing last moments before the London-bound Air India flight, AI171, crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. The Air India flight, with 242 passengers and crew onboard, took off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad at 1:39 pm and crashed into a residential area (Meghaninagar) of the city within minutes of takeoff.
The Hindu reported that flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick gave a ‘Mayday’ call to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) before getting disconnected. A ‘Mayday’ call or alert is an internationally recognised SOS or distress emergency call. A Moneycontrol report citing someone from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the flight “departed from Ahmadabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23. It gave a ‘Mayday’ call to ATC, but thereafter, no response was given by the aircraft to the calls made by ATC. Immediately after departure from runway 23, the aircraft fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter. Heavy black smoke was seen coming from the accident site”. Several casualties are feared, but so far, there has been no official statement from Air India or the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The viral video, taken by a passenger shows scenes outside from the window seat before there is sudden chaos and screaming. X user @Honest_Cric_fan shared the video with claims that it was a Facebook Live that captured the plane crash in Ahmedabad. At the time of writing this, the post has received over 280,000 views. It was later deleted. (Archive)
To verify the viral claim that the clip is of the recent crash in Ahmedabad, we did a reverse image search on some key frames. This led us to a news report by the South China Morning Post from January 19, 2023, titled “Final moments of deadly Nepal plane crash caught on passenger’s Facebook live stream” and carried a screengrab from the now-viral clip.
The screengrab showed a man in a yellow sweatshirt with the caption, “Sonu Jaiswal smiles at his smartphone camera moments before the Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu crashed near Pokhara, Nepal, killing all 72 passengers on board. Photo: Facebook”.
We also found that the same viral video shared by news outket Mid Day on January 16, 2023.
#watch: A sudden fire engulfs the plane as the heart-wrenching and horrifying Facebook live video of a Nepal plane crash by one of the flyers goes viral.
On June 12, the fact-checking unit of the government’s Press Information Bureau also said that the viral videoisfrom the planecrash in NepalinJanuary2023 and has been wrongly linked to the accident in Ahmedabad.
सोशल मीडिया पर एक पुरानी वीडियो को अहमदाबाद विमान हादसे से जोड़कर साझा किया जा रहा है। #PIBFactCheck
वीडियो नेपाल में जनवरी 2023 में हुए विमान हादसे की है।
आधिकारिक स्त्रोतों से प्राप्त सूचनाओं पर ही भरोसा करें।
Hence, the claim that the viral video shows a Facebook Live captured by a passenger on board the Ahmedabad-Gatwick flight that crashed on June 12 is false. The video shows a livestream by a flyer from 2023 and depicts moments before a Yeti Airlines flight crashed in Nepal in January 2023.
Security concerns involving the People’s Republic of China, and worries over the strategic direction of the Trump administration, may serve to deepen electronic warfare collaboration in Asia-Pacific. “In the Asia-Pacific region, there is no collective security organisation like that in Europe,” wrote Lieutenant General (Retired) Jun Nagashima, a senior research advisor at the Nakasone Peace […]
For defense and intelligence agencies operating in today’s high-speed global environment, timely geospatial intelligence is mission critical. Yet legacy systems are too slow. Delayed intel hurts everyone — defense ministries securing borders, civilian teams responding to disasters or agencies operating at scale. Outdated solutions make intelligence hard to request, unreliable in delivery and ultimately impossible […]
In a region too often consumed by the drums of war, particularly between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan, the importance of a sustained ceasefire cannot be overstated. While military skirmishes and nationalistic posturing capture headlines, they divert critical attention and resources from the real battles against poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and public health crises. A nation’s greatness lies not in its arsenal but in the well-being of its people. The ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan in May 2025 offers an opportunity to reimagine national priorities, shifting focus from border conflicts to building equitable and just societies.
On April 22, militants from The Resistance Front (TRF), a group accused by Indian authorities of being linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, slaughtered 26 tourists in the resort town of Pahalgam in the Indian administered portion of Kashmir. This came as a rude shock to the Indian military establishment, which decided that rebellious sentiments in the region had declined. (In March 2025, an assessment concluded that a mere 77 active militants were busying themselves on India’s side of the border.)
The feeling of cooling tensions induced an air of complacency. Groups such as the TRF, along with a fruit salad of insurgent outfits – the Kashmir Tigers, the People’s Anti-Fascist Front, and the United Liberation Front of Kashmir – were all spawned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August 2019 revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which granted Kashmir singular autonomy. TRF has been particularly and violently opposed to the resettlement of the Kashmiri pandits, which they see as an effort to alter the region’s demography.
The murderous incident raised the obvious question: Would Modi pay lip service to the 1972 Shimla Agreement, one that divided Kashmir into two zones of administration separated by a Line of Control? (A vital feature of that agreement is an understanding that both powers resolve their disputes without the need for third parties.)
The answers came promptly enough. First came India’s suspension of the vital Indus Water Treaty, a crucial agreement governing the distribution of water from India to Pakistan. Pakistan reciprocated firmly by suspending the Shimla Agreement, expelling Indian military diplomats, halting visa exemptions for Indian citizens, and closing the Wagah border for trade.
Hindu nationalism proved particularly stirred, and Modi duly fed its cravings. On May 7, India commenced Operation Sindoor, involving what were purportedly precision missile attacks on nine militant camps in Pakistan and the Jammu and Kashmir area controlled by Islamabad. The operation itself had a scent of gendered manipulation, named after the vermillion used by married Hindu women to symbolise the durable existence of their husbands. Two female military officers – Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh – were tasked with managing the media pack.
The Indian briefings celebrated the accuracy of the strikes on what were said to be the sites of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen. Thirty-one suspected terrorists were said to have perished, though Pakistan insisted that civilians had been killed in this apparent feast of forensic precision. India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would have none of it: Indian forces had only “struck only those who harmed our innocents”.
The next day, it was operations against Pakistan’s air defence systems in Lahore that stole the show. The inevitable Pakistani retaliation followed on May 10, with the Indian return serve against 11 Pakistani air bases. What followed is one version: Pakistan’s military broke into a sweat. A cessation of hostilities was sought and achieved. Armchair pundits on the Indian side celebrated: India had successfully targeted the terrorist cells supported by Pakistan. If one is to read Anubhav Shankar Goswami seriously, Operation Sindoor was a stroke of genius, threatening “the Pakistan Army’s strategic shield against terrorists”.
More accurately, this was a lovely little spilling of blood with weaponry between callow sibling throats, a pattern familiar since 1947. The two countries have fought four full-blown conflicts, two over Kashmir. Along the way, they have made the world a lot safer by acquiring nuclear weapons.
There was something for everyone in this retaliatory and counter-retaliatory feast. India claimed strategic proficiency, keeping censorship on the matter tight. Pakistan could claim some prowess in shooting down five Indian jets, using Chinese weaponry, including the J-10. With pride and pomp, they could even appoint Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir to the post of Field Marshal, an absurdly ceremonial gesture that gave the impression that the army had restored its tattered pride. It was to be expected that this was ample reward for his, in the words of the government, “strategic leadership and decisive role” in defeating India.
The only ones to be notably ignored in this display of subcontinental machismo were the Kashmiris themselves, who face, in both the Pakistan and Indian administered zones, oppressive anti-terrorism laws, discriminatory practices, and suppression of dissent and free speech.
Ultimately, the bickering children were convinced to end their playground antics. The fact that the overbearing headmaster, the unlikely US President Donald Trump, eventually brought himself to bear on proceedings must have irritated them. After four days of conflict, the US role in defusing matters between the powers became evident. Kashmir, which India has long hoped to keep in museum-like storage, away from the international stage, had been enlivened. Trump even offered his services to enable New Delhi and Islamabad a chance to reach a more enduring peace. Praise for the president followed, notably from those wishing to see the Kashmir conflict resolved.
In one sense, there seems to be little reason to worry. These are countries seemingly linked to sandpit grievances, scrapping, gouging, and complaining about their lot. Even amidst juvenile spats, they can bicker yet still sign enduring ceasefires. In February 2021, for instance, the militaries of both countries cobbled together a ceasefire which ended four months of cross-border skirmishes. A mere two violations of the agreement (how proud they must have been) was recorded for the rest of the year. In 2022, a solitary incident of violation was noted.
A needlessly florid emphasis was made on the conflict by Indian political scientist Pratap Bhanu Meta. This was an encounter lacking a “decisive victory and no clear political end”. It merely reinstated “the India-Pakistan hyphenation”. In one sense, this element of hyphenation – the international perception of two subcontinental powers in an eternal, immature squabble – was something India seemed to be marching away from. But Prime Minister Modi, despite his grander visions for India, is a sectarian fanatic. History shows that fanaticism tends to shrink, rather than enlarge, the mind. In that sense, he is in good company with those other uniformed fanatics in uniform.
Since the partition from India in 1947, Pakistan has been engaged in around a dozen significant and minor conflicts with India. Wars and negotiations are carried out based on the interests and directives of the respective central governments. Both Indian and Pakistani citizens are worried about a full-scale conflict, and the wounds of numerous wars are deeply felt at the local level. Recently, the population has been traumatized by Operation Sindoor and its subsequent retaliation. This research aims to promote peace by placing the people at the forefront, educating them about peace, and exerting pressure from the grassroots level up to the provincial and national levels to restore peace, unity, coexistence, security, and prosperity. The objectives are to promote positive peace between the two nations by empowering local people, fostering connections between them, and sharing the findings with interested parties.
The workers of the Samsung India’s Chennai plant secured a landmark wage revision agreement after a long battle with the company management on Monday, May 19. Samsung management was forced to agree to revise the wages of all workers at the plant, increase leave, and improve the overall working conditions at the factory.
The agreement was negotiated by the newly formed Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU) with the company management, under the mediation of the Tamil Nadu state government, where the plant is situated.
Announcing the agreement, A. Soundararajan, president of the Tamil Nadu Center for Indian Trade Union (CITU), with which the SIWU is affiliated, congratulated the workers and the SIWU leadership for the victory.
On Sunday 18 May, British bulldozer manufacturer JCB was due to celebrate its 80th anniversary at its headquarters in Rocester in the British midlands with a so-called ‘sportive’, a cycle ride which aimed to raise money for the children’s charity NSPCC. However, the sportive did not go according to plan thanks to people highlighting JBC complicity with Israel.
Activists from the Stop JCB Demolitions Campaign disrupted the event. They turned it into an expose of JCB’s complicity in ethnic cleansing and genocide. On top of this, they shamed NSPCC for accepting funds from a company which has destroyed children’s lives in Palestine, India, and Kashmir, plunging them into homelessness, poverty, and lasting trauma.
JCB’s bulldozer genocide exposed at 80th anniversary event
Despite strict security, the activists managed to enter the sportive. When the JCB event began with the cyclists being flagged off, several cyclists revealed striking black and yellow T-shirts with the message: “Stop Bulldozer genocide In Palestine, India and Kashmir”:
Simultaneously, supporters of the campaign shouted slogans and held banners accusing JCB of complicity in genocide. They also accused the NSPCC of a callous and racist lack of care for children in Palestine, India, and Kashmir:
— SouthAsia Solidarity (@SAsiaSolidarity) May 18, 2025
Despite the JCB security guards best efforts, activists enacted this scene over and over again across the 50km route of the sportive.
JCB’s chairman, billionaire Anthony Bamford, or Baron Bamford of Daylesford and Wooton is a ‘super donor’ to the British Conservative party and a close friend of Boris Johnson. The Bamford family trusts control the JCB empire. It has been involved in offshore tax scandals.
More recently, Bamford has been aligning himself closer to the far-right Reform party. In March this year, party leader Nigel Farage entered a major Reform rally on a JCB machine that Bamford lent to him. Earlier, Bamford had treated him to a £8,000 helicopter flight to tour a JCB site.
So why is the NSPCC, the children’s charity whose aim is the “prevention of cruelty to children” accepting funds from a company which is complicit in ethnic cleansing in Palestine, India, and Kashmir?
NSPCC: taking funds from a company wrapped up in children’s rights abuses
Over the years, the NSPCC has been frequently asked to stop taking funds from JCB. Groups have provided it with evidence of the callous home demolitions JCB has carried out. As the UK Palestine Mental Health network has put it previously:
It would appear that children’s services provided by the NSPCC in the UK are financed in part by profits from state crime and the abuse and traumatisation of children overseas.
In India, state governments controlled by Narendra Modi’s Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have consistently used JCB bulldozers to demolish Muslim homes, shops, and places of worship. It’s part of an ongoing project disturbingly named ‘bulldozer justice’. In fact, JCB is so closely intertwined with this project that it has come to symbolise attacks on Muslims. All the while, the harm to children is incalculable.
For example, on the 2 February 2024, the demolition of a madrasa and 600 year-old Mosque in Mehrauli, South Delhi, left more than 20 orphaned children who lived in it displaced and traumatised. Authorities gave no notice before moving in the JCB bulldozers.
In Kashmir, in the name of development drives, authorities have demolished houses using JCB bulldozers across large areas. This has affected whole communities, and of course numerous children, permanently damaging their physical and mental health
JCB complicity with Israel: ‘hypocritically posing as family friendly’
The Stop JCB Demolitions Campaign is a coalition of organisations based in the UK. Two of its members – South Asia Solidarity Group and Nijjormanush – previously produced a report titled Stop JCB’s Bulldozer Genocide: A report on human rights violations in Palestine, India & Kashmir. This references a large number of cases where JCB has been involved in serious human rights violations.
The campaign has also filed a complaint with the UK National Contact Point. This is a government body promoting OECD guidelines on responsible business conduct. The complaint alleges that the manufacturer had failed to address the adverse human rights impacts from the use of its products in India.
The Stop JCB’s Demolitions Campaign has two main demands. Firstly, it demands that JCB must end its relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defence. It states that it must cease all activities in occupied Palestine.
Secondly, it calls on it to commit to ensuring that its products are not used for human rights violations in India and Kashmir. Specifically, it suggests it should do this through robust monitoring and prevention systems. This includes making compulsory the use of its existing LiveLink technology to trace and locate JCB machines. It argues that JCB’s failure to use this technology is a deliberate violation of its human rights responsibilities.
Stop JCB Demolitions campaign member Mukti Shah said:
The fact that JCB continues to operate on behalf of the Israeli state in ethnically cleansing Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and that they have also failed to make use of the technology they already have to prevent horrific human rights violations in India and Kashmir, despite an Indian Supreme Court ruling is utterly shameful
Josh – a cyclist who took part in the sportive – added:
I am glad to be here exposing the crimes of JCB, a British company which hypocritically poses as family friendly when in fact it is destroying communities in Palestine, India and Kashmir. As for the NSPCC, the fact that they are accepting JCB’s blood-stained money shows that they think only some children matter. This is blatant colonial racism.
Anima Mondal was in eighth grade when her parents announced they’d found a man to marry her. Growing up in a village in rural West Bengal, Anima knew this was the norm — her mother wed when she was only nine; her grandmother at six. But something inside Anima demanded that she say no. Anima’s …
India on Wednesday rejected China’s renaming of 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh as a “vain and preposterous” move, saying its northeastern border state, which Beijing claims is part of Zangnan or southern Tibet, remains an “integral and inalienable” part of the country.
On Sunday, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released its fifth batch of “standardized” names for over 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh – including mountains, mountain passes, rivers, residential areas, and a lake – in its latest attempt to bolster its claim over the territory that Beijing claims is Chinese territory and part of historical Tibet.
“We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
“Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically. Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” Jaiswal added.
China’s latest move to rename places in the Indian border state comes despite recent attempts by both nations to improve diplomatic ties, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia last October shortly after their governments reached an agreement over a disputed area along their shared border.
That came after prolonged tensions, when thousands of Indian and Chinese troops faced off in June 2020 at three or four locations in the western Himalayas. India accused Beijing’s forces of intruding into Indian territory, although China denied it.
The two countries fought a border war in 1962, and China has mounted a long-standing campaign to assert its claim over areas held by India.
In 2017, China released its first list of standardized names for six places. Thereafter, it has carried out three more such renaming attempts, with new names for 15 places released in 2021, for 11 places in 2023, and 30 places in 2024.
In response to India’s condemnation of China’s latest move, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the Chinese government’s efforts to “standardize” the names of certain places in the region “is fully within China’s sovereignty.”
“The Zangnan region belongs to China,” Lin said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
India and China have made competing claims on territory along the disputed 1,130-kilometer (700-mile) border, known as the McMahon Line, between Tibet and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
India recognizes the McMahon Line, a boundary line drawn between Tibet and British India as agreed during the Simla Convention in 1914, as the international border. China, on the other hand, maintains that the boundary with India has never been delimited and claims areas south of the McMahon Line in Arunachal Pradesh as southern Tibet.
An Indian Army soldier stands guard at a post in Tawang near the Line of Actual Control with China in the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, Oct. 20, 2021.(Money Sharma/AFP)
Sriparna Pathak, professor of China studies at the O.P. Jindal Global University in Haryana, India, and a former consultant at India’s foreign ministry, characterized China’s effort to change names as “cartographic aggression” – an attempt to boost its claims and normalize its occupation of regions it claims as its own.
Kalpit Mankikar, fellow for China Studies at the New Delhi, India-based Observer Research Foundation, highlighted China’s recent attempts to push its allies to use “Xizang,” instead of Tibet, to refer to the formerly independent country it annexed in 1950.
He said it is another example of Beijing’s strategy to rename places and ensure their consistent usage to erase Tibetan identity and further its narrative that Tibet has always been a part of China.
“This has been the fifth time that China has renamed places in Arunachal. And this is also part of the larger scheme of things, where it calls Tibet ‘Xizang’… so this is a long, long-drawn strategy,” Manikar said.
Edited by Mat Pennington.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Tenzin Pema for RFA.
A group of Indigenous people who authorities evicted from their ancestral village in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in south India 40 years ago, have returned to their former homes. The 52 Jenu Kuruba families faced down 130 police and forest guards to do so on Tuesday 6 May. And, on Wednesday, they declared they are there to stay permanently.
The community has begun to build new houses to replace the ones they were forced to leave 40 years ago. A small group of police and forest guards remain at the site.
Jenu Kuruba: Indigenous people return to their ancestral homes in Nagarhole
Their return on Tuesday was an act of tremendous courage, as forest guards had previously shot some Jenu Kuruba. More than 50 Jenu Kuruba families took part in the long-planned operation. Some carried pictures of loved ones who had died since the community’s expulsion from the forest.
Shivu, a young Jenu Kuruba leader, said:
We have today returned to our homelands and forests. We will remain here. Our sacred spirits are with us.
It’s believed to be the first time Indigenous people in India have asserted their rights in this way, to return en masse to their homes after they were evicted from a Protected Area.
Shivu added:
Historical injustice continues to happen over us by denying our rights on our lands, forests and access to sacred spaces. Tiger conservation is a scheme of the forest department and various wildlife NGOs to grab indigenous lands by forcefully moving us out.
When Forest Department officials and police confronted the Jenu Kuruba and warned them against re-occupying their homes on Tuesday, the Indigenous people castigated them for delays in recognizing their forest rights – and then went ahead:
Some have begun to build houses, using their traditional materials and techniques:
Authorities in India have illegally evicted an estimated 20,000 Jenu Kuruba people from Nagarhole. Another 6,000 resisted and have managed to stay in the park.
On Wednesday 7 May, police officers and forest guards stayed on the scene, and prevented journalists accessing the area.
The Jenu Kuruba say they decided to return because their sacred spirits, who still dwell in the old village location, became angry at being abandoned when the community was forced from the forest.
‘We resist the current conservation model’: wildlife and humans can coexist
Enough is Enough. We can’t part from our lands anymore. We want our children and youth to live a life that our ancestors once lived.
Tigers, elephants, peacocks, wild boar, wild dogs are our deities. We have been worshiping them as our ancestral spirits for generations. This deliberate attempt to separate us from our lands, forests and sacred spaces will not be tolerated. We resist the current conservation model based on the false idea that forests, wildlife and humans cannot coexist.
For decades it has been official policy in India, as in many other countries around the world, to evict Indigenous people from ancestral lands in the name of conservation. In many instances, states turn their lands are into Protected Areas, a practice known as Fortress Conservation.
The Jenu Kuruba’s belief system centers around their connection to the forest, its wildlife, and their gods. This includes the tigers who live there. However, forest guards harass, threaten, and even shoot members of the community. Those beliefs underpin the community’s careful management of their environment and have ensured tiger survival. Indeed, the healthy tiger population found in their forest is what drove the Indian government to turn the area into a Tiger Reserve. It has one of the highest concentrations of tigers in all of India.
Director of Survival International Caroline Pearce said:
The Jenu Kuruba people’s re-occupation of their ancestral land is an inspirational act of repossession. They’re reclaiming what is theirs, in defiance of a hugely powerful conservation and tourism industry that has enriched itself at their expense.
If the Indian government really cares about tiger conservation, it will not only allow the Jenu Kuruba people to return, but encourage them to do so – because the science is clear that tigers thrive alongside the Indigenous people whose forests they live in.
As bombs rain down on Gaza and the world looks away, another settler colonial project is taking notes. From New Delhi to Tel Aviv, the ideological affinity between Israeli Zionism and India’s Hindutva movement has never been more pronounced as India strikes Pakistan.
And with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza facing little to no meaningful international accountability, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has every reason to believe that he, too, can escalate his ethno-nationalist project with impunity.
When Israel bombs a hospital, the world debates whether Hamas was hiding beneath it. When India bombs a mosque, it shrugs – wasn’t it probably a ‘terror hideout’?
90% of Indian workers are in the unorganized sector. This does not mean that they are outside trade union structures, but only that most workers must fight very hard to form unions. There are unions in the formal sector, of course, but there are also unions in occupations that are designed in such a way as to make unionization difficult.
For instance, rural health care workers do not work in a factory or in a shop, but across vast distances with very little contact with each other. And yet, rural health workers – or Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers, as they are called – have fought to set aside every barrier and build trade unions.
A group of Indigenous people who were evicted from their ancestral village in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in south India 40 years ago have returned to their former homes.
It’s believed to be the first time Indigenous people in India have asserted their rights in this way, and returned en masse to their homes after being evicted from a Protected Area.
More than 50 Jenu Kuruba families took part in the long-planned operation, and have started building houses using their traditional materials and techniques. The Jenu Kuruba say they decided to return because their sacred spirits, who still dwell in the old village location, became angry at being abandoned when the community was forced from the forest in the 1980s.
Forest department officials, backed up by police, warned the Jenu Kuruba against re-occupying their homes, but the Indigenous people castigated them for delaying the recognition of their forest rights for years, and went ahead anyway. Today around 130 police officers and forest guards were on the scene, and prevented journalists from accessing the area.
Shivu, a young Jenu Kuruba leader, said today: “Historical injustice continues to happen over us by denying our rights on our lands, forests and access to sacred spaces. Tiger conservation is a scheme of the forest department and various wildlife NGO’s to grab indigenous lands by forcefully moving us out, but opening the very same lands in the pretext of tourism to make money
We have to today returned to our home lands and forests. we will remain here. Our sacred sprits are with us.”
In a statement the Jenu Kuruba of Nagarhole said: “Enough is Enough. We can’t part from our lands anymore. We want our children and youth to live a life that our ancestors once lived. Tigers, elephants, peacocks, wild boar, wild dogs are our deities. We have been worshipping them as our ancestral spirits since generations. This deliberate attempt to separate us from our lands, forests and sacred spaces will not be tolerated. We resist the current conservation model based on the false idea that forests, wildlife and humans cannot coexist.”
An estimated 20,000 Jenu Kuruba people have been illegally evicted from Nagarhole. Another 6,000 resisted, and have managed to stay in the park.
The Jenu Kuruba’s belief system centers around their connection to the forest, its wildlife, and their gods – including the tigers who live there – but forest guards harass, threaten, and even shoot members of the tribe.
Jenu Kuruba people are experts in their environment. They gather medicine, honey, fruits, vegetables, tubers, and the thatch and bamboo needed to build their houses.
Famed for their honey collecting skills – Jenu Kuruba means “honey collectors” – they are guided from birth to death by the philosophy “Nanga Kadu Ajjayya… Nanga Kadina Jenu Ajjayya – Our forests are sacred… The honey from our forest is sacred.”
Those beliefs underpin the tribe’s careful management of their environment and have ensured tiger survival. Indeed, the healthy tiger population found in their forest is what drove the Indian government to turn the area into a Tiger Reserve. It has one of the highest concentrations of tigers in all of India.
Caroline Pearce, Director of Survival International, said today: “The Jenu Kuruba people’s re-occupation of their ancestral land is an inspirational act of repossession. They’re reclaiming what was theirs, in defiance of a hugely powerful conservation and tourism industry that has enriched itself at their expense.
“If the Indian government really cares about tiger conservation, it will not only allow the Jenu Kuruba people to return, but encourage them to do so – because the science is clear that tigers thrive alongside the Indigenous people whose forests they live in.”
The growing tensions between India and Pakistan reached a boiling point in the early hours of May 7 when India launched several attacks inside Pakistani territory. Eight Pakistanis were killed and 35 were injured in the “tri-service” early morning attacks by India, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said in a press conference. Chaudhry added that one of the victims was a three-year-old girl.
The Indian Army launched the attacks as part of “Operation Sindoor” and targeted nine locations in the cities of Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bagh located in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Bahawalpur and Muridke in the Punjab province.
Dozens of people have been killed in the worst fighting between India and Pakistan in more than two decades. India attacked nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir early Wednesday, killing at least 26 people, including a child. Pakistan described the attacks as an act of war and responded by shelling areas controlled by India. Tensions have been soaring between the two nuclear…
According to Pakistan, three different areas were hit: Muzaffarabad and Kotli in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Bahawalpur in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Pakistani officials have said that 26 people have been killed, with 46 more injured. Al Jazeera reported that:
A Pakistani military spokesman had earlier told the broadcaster Geo that at least five locations, including two mosques, had been hit. He also said that Pakistan’s response was under way, without providing details.
In Punjab, missiles hit a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur, killing a child and wounding two civilians, the military said.
India has claimed that the strikes were targeted in areas that are part of:
terrorist infrastructure.
Israel’s genocide against Palestine has followed a remarkably similar pattern of bombing civilians while they sleep, targeting mosques, killing children, and then claiming that the whole operation was to combat terrorism.
India’s coloniality
This similarity, however, is no coincidence. Academic Hafsa Kanjwal sets out how India’s relationship to Kashmir is firmly one of settler colonialism:
When the British ruled the subcontinent, they sold Kashmir to the Dogras, Hindu chiefs from the nearby region of Jammu, in the aftermath of the first Anglo-Sikh War in 1846…Unlike most princely states, Jammu and Kashmir was one of the few where the religious identity of its ruler was different from those of the majority of its subjects. The Dogras were Hindu, while more than three-quarters of the people in the state were Muslim.
Just as Israel’s domination over Palestine has roots in British colonialism via the Balfour Declaration, so too do the contemporary politics of Kashmir originate with British and Indian coloniality. Kanjwal argues:
Kashmir is India’s colony. The exercise and expansion of Indian territorial sovereignty, especially in Kashmir, is a colonial exercise. The exercise of Indian power in Kashmir is coercive, lacks a democratic basis, denies a people self-determination, and is buttressed by an intermediary class of local elites or compradors.
However, this domination can only be understood within the context of Global North colonialism:
But it is also colonial because India’s rule in Kashmir relies on logics of more ‘classical’ forms of colonialism from Europe to the Global South: civilisational discourses, saviourism, mythologies, economic extraction and racialisation. As with all imperial or colonial forces, India has sought to rule over Kashmir through subjugating its people and trampling their rights.
Kashmiris are subject to arbitrary detention, travel bans, and broad state censorship by Indian authorities. Meenakshi Ganguly from Human Rights Watch said:
Kashmiris are unable to exercise their right to free expression, association, and peaceful assembly because they fear they will be arrested, thrown in prison without trial for months, even years.
Settler colonialism
A 2024 UN report found that a “staggering” number of Palestinians are held by Israeli authorities in Israeli detention. Just like Israel, India has also blamed a fight against terrorism as justification for structural violence against native populations.
As well as a pattern of subjugating Muslim natives whilst claiming to be fighting terrorism, India and Israel also share fascist ideologies. Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, is in step with Zionism in a perhaps unexpected manner. Academic Vikram Visana explains, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is founded on Hindutva:
Devised in the early 20th century, the politics of Hindutva insist that the country’s national identity be built around those who consider only India’s geography sacred. Muslims and Christians, whose holy sites lay in the Middle East, were therefore considered second-class citizens.
And:
Hindutva doesn’t stop at India’s borders. Hindu nationalists have used the ongoing conflict in Gaza to vilify other Muslims globally. BJP troll farms have spread disinformation and anti-Palestinian hatred online, and Hindu nationalist groups in India have organised pro-Israel marches.
In other words:
To Hindu nationalists, some Zionists were engaged in a project to reclaim their holy land from a Muslim population whose religious roots in the region were not as ancient as their own.
India: leveraging US power?
Both Hindutva and Zionist ideologies are based on purging a holy land from Muslim savages. And, it is that figure of Muslim savages that has a powerful currency in Israeli and Indian culture of Muslims as an uncontrollable, animalistic, Other. Journalist Azad Essa explains how the connecting factor for contemporary iterations of Zionist and Hindutva ideologies is a tussle for US imperialist support:
The Indian American lobby—or, more accurately, the Hindu nationalist lobby—literally modeled itself on organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as they looked to replicate their methods in hustling for influence over the US government.
Essa concludes that:
Ultimately, Hindu nationalists have tried to align Indian interests with US power—and given the silence in the media and among US lawmakers about the rise of Hindutva, the occupation in Kashmir, and the attack on India’s minorities, including Muslims and Christians, I’d say they have been pretty successful.
India’s latest attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir are yet another attempt to continue the persecution of Kashmiri Muslims. Any similarities to Israel’s mode of operation in Palestine are further evidence of Hindu nationalist ideology built on Islamophobia and colonial domination. And, as with Palestine, the US’ alignment with Indian interests will likely be the difference between life and death for Kashmiris.
is this for real? 
(@lordshivom) 
how’s that possible? I can’t believe this.
Mahadev ke deewane Hain ham 
President Asif Ali Zardari (centre) and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (right) jointly confer baton of field marshal upon Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir on May 22, 2025. IMAGE/Radio Pakistan/
वीडियो नेपाल में जनवरी 2023 में हुए विमान हादसे की है।
