IOCL urges calm as fuel panic buying begins amid India-Pakistan tensions
Indian Oil Corporation Limited
(
IOCL
) on Friday issued a public advisory urging citizens to avoid
panic buying
of
fuel
and
LPG
, assuring that stocks are ample and supply lines are fully functional.
'There is no need for panic buying—fuel and LPG is readily available at all our outlets,' IOCL said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). It added, 'Help us serve you better by staying calm and avoiding unnecessary rush. This will keep our supply lines running seamlessly and ensure uninterrupted fuel access for all.'
The advisory comes amid fears of supply disruption following cross-border hostilities.
Operation Sindoor
Tensions reached new heights following India's precision missile strikes under 'Operation Sindoor', launched early Wednesday. The operation targeted nine terror bases deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba's base in Muridke. The strikes were a direct retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 civilian lives two weeks ago.
Following the Indian strikes, Pakistan retaliated on the night of May 7 by attempting to target military installations across Northern and Western India using drones and missiles. The intended targets included critical locations such as Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Chandigarh, Bhatinda, Bhuj, and more.
However, the Indian military's Integrated Counter-UAS Grid and S-400 Sudarshan Chakra air defence systems successfully intercepted and neutralised the incoming threats. Debris from the neutralised drones and missiles is being recovered from multiple locations, reinforcing evidence of Pakistan's offensive.
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First Post
30 minutes ago
- First Post
US-Pakistan ‘counter-terrorism' dialogue: A cover to suppress Baloch movement
The US, apparently the world's most powerful democracy, entirely ignores the fact that it is the Pakistani practices that are fuelling the Baloch insurgency. (Image: X@BalochYakjehtiC) If you want to collapse in shock, read the latest gem from the US-Pakistan dialogue. This one is on counterterrorism and lauds Pakistan's actions in such laudatory terms as to make any intelligence officer of any country feel sick. Regardless of reality, it seems Trump's United States is on a headlong path against India and, worse, against logic. It might be an attempt to wean the country away from China and drag it firmly into the US camp, or it could be just petty point scoring. Whatever the motives, the news is not good. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The US-Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue Consider the Joint Statement, which says, 'Both delegations underscored the critical importance of developing effective approaches to terrorist threats, including those posed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), ISIS-Khorasan, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and applauded Pakistan's continued successes in containing terrorist entities that pose a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world'. There's worse. The US 'expressed condolences for the loss of civilians and members of law enforcement agencies in terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including the barbaric Jaffar Express terrorist attack and the bombing of a school bus in Khuzdar'. There is nothing to indicate that the Jaffar bus attack killed innocent civilians, but the BLA did kill security forces and their colleagues in intelligence. True also, that the school bus attack in May 2025 was particularly horrifying. But the BLA is the last group ever to do such an attack on their own. It would set the Baloch against them, and they know it. Pakistan's agencies are not below killing their own or even the Chinese. Remember the attack on the latter at Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year that killed five Chinese travelling to a power project site? That was blamed on the Pakistanis themselves, to get Beijing to put pressure on Afghanistan on the TTP. And it worked. That's exactly what China did, pressuring Kabul to mend relations with Islamabad on May 21st post Sindoor, in an 'informal' trilateral interaction. Targeting Baloch Now it's the turn of the US. Its intelligence agencies are well aware of the fact that the Baloch have never ever targeted the US, not even when its logistics lines were going through their land to fight the mujahideen or later the Taliban. In fact, the odd reality is that the Majeed Brigade, now officially designated as a terrorist group, have only attacked the Chinese relentlessly for poaching on their land at the behest of the 'Punjabis'. Logic demands that the US should quietly give them a hand against their sworn competitor. But it seems not to be. The farcical nature of the whole joint statement is apparent from the fact that the Pakistani signatory was Nabeel Munir, Special Secretary to the United Nations. Not a single Pakistani counter-terrorism official or anyone from the Interior Ministry. Last year's dialogue also had similar representation but was far less laudatory and more matter-of-fact. It also noted US training of Pakistani personnel on counterterrorism. Most importantly, the 2024 statement made no mention of the BLA, though it was designated as a terrorist group in 2019. This time the focus is almost entirely on it, with the TTP just an add-on. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Accommodation of Pakistan's Balochistan Narrative by the US That is a worrying slide in policy, accommodating Pakistan's frequent complaints of Indian backing of the Baloch resistance. The one and only 'evidence' that Rawalpindi claims is the arrest of former navy officer Kulbushan Jadhav, who was kidnapped from Iran and brought into Pakistan and made to 'confess' to various sins. Compare this to the available data on Pakistanis not in prison for terrorist activities, drug running and the like, but the hundreds of protests and agitations organised every year on 'Kashmir Solidarity Day' or on any pretext whatsoever on Kashmir. There has yet to be a single protest in India on Balochistan. The Indian public is largely ignorant of the serious Baloch crisis which has been brewing since Pakistan's independence, with rebellion after rebellion leading to the kidnapping, torture and deaths of thousands. That includes entirely peaceful protestors like the charismatic Mehrang Baloch, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and now languishing in prison — with no access allowed to her family — and others like Mama Qadeer, leader of the 'Voice of Baloch', nominated for the Nelson Mandela peace award. Others, including their family members, lie incarcerated too. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Yet, the US, apparently the world's most powerful democracy, entirely ignores the fact that it is such Pakistani practices that are fuelling the Baloch insurgency. Even if a foreign power is training fighters, it cannot, by any stretch of the imagination or even with the largest purse, create the groundswell of support for the fighters among ordinary people. Also Baloch insurgency has turned a page. It is no longer a platform for the somewhat elite tribal leaders. BLA fighters are heavily part of student organisations and carry those ideals with them that lie with the youth. Shari Baloch, the first female suicide bomber, was an academic with an degree. An additional point the US agencies would obviously know. There is not a shred of obscurantism or extremism about the BLA. US Motivation and Further The question that then arises is US motivation for this unalloyed public support, with the State Department spokesperson reiterating the important role played by the US in ending the conflict while then referring to the US–Pakistan counterterrorism dialogue. But the curious part is that there isn't very much else. No great US financial largesse has come in. The F-16 package of $397 million is a technical package that also prevents these aircraft from being used against India. Neither have there been any weapons commitments — yet. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan gets almost its entire weaponry from China, but it is parity with India that Pakistan craves, now that the Terrorist Resistance Front, a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was designated by the US recently. There is another important aspect. It might also mean that US Central Command is legally free to act against BLA—at least with intelligence—much as it used its drones to kill TTP leaders, on Pakistan's urging. This is dangerous stuff. Meanwhile, the designation benefits China in multiple ways. As a commentator says, it will secure Chinese projects and deal a blow to India. The hope among Pakistanis and Chinese is that Trump will mention—at the very least—that India is a state sponsor of terrorism. It could happen. So far it seems this is a personal grudge held by Trump against India because Delhi refuses to recognise a US role in ending the recent conflict or accept mediation. The latter is non-negotiable, and the State Department bureaucracy probably understands that. The former is a different thing altogether. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Delhi could acknowledge that Islamabad—as expected—went running to the US the moment it faced serious damage to its installations. That has been true for almost every single conflict between the two. India should also have anticipated the Trump offer of mediation, given that he offered this to an exuberant Imran Khan in 2019. Pakistan took advantage of that. India got the 'bad guy' image again, as Rawalpindi knew it would. Time to change corners, as it's going to be the Baloch who will suffer. Acknowledge the historical truth of the Pakistan army using the US for its own mischievous ends. On no account must Islamabad be rewarded with 'mediation', simply because there is nothing to mediate. Especially since it has yet to detain or even mildly shake its finger at the many terrorists within its soil. Meanwhile, it's time to name and shame. Get each terrorist into the limelight through media and diplomacy. Ramp up the terrorist dialogue. As the late strategic affairs analyst K Subramanyam used to say, even if one person listens, that's good enough. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The author is Director (R&A) at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. She tweets @kartha_tara. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
India.com
30 minutes ago
- India.com
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi To Visit India On Monday
Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi is set to visit India on August 18 (Monday) for the 24th Round of Talks Between the Special Representatives of China and India on the Boundary Question, Beijing confirmed on Saturday. "From August 18 to 20, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs and China's Special Representative on the China-India boundary question Wang Yi will visit India and hold the 24th Round of Talks Between the Special Representatives of China and India on the Boundary Question at the invitation of the Indian side," the Chinese Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The visit is scheduled to take place shortly before Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit scheduled to take place at Tianjin, from August 31 to September 1. The Chinese side also welcomed PM Modi's participation in the SCO Summit. At a briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, "China welcomes Prime Minister Modi to China for the SCO Tianjin Summit. We believe that with the concerted effort of all parties, the Tianjin summit will be a gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results, and the SCO will enter a new stage of high-quality development featuring greater solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness." According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, leaders of over 20 countries, including all member states of the SCO and heads of 10 international organisations, will attend relevant events of the summit, which, Jiakun said, will be the "largest summit in scale since the establishment of the SCO." This will be PM Modi's first visit to China since the Galwan clash in 2020, which severely strained bilateral ties. The breakthrough in bilateral talks, first after the Galwan Valley face-off between the soldiers of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in June 2020, was made possible after India and China reached an agreement on patrolling along the nearly 3500-km LAC to end the four-year-long border confrontation. In July, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited China to attend the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Tianjin. He also held discussions with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the meeting. He also called on Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with his fellow SCO Foreign Ministers. Earlier in June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited China to attend the SCO Defence Ministers Meeting. India had refused to endorse the joint declaration at the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting, citing the exclusion of concerns around terrorism as a key reason. India stated that it wanted concerns about terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country; therefore, the statement was not adopted. During his visit, Singh met his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Don Jun, and the two leaders had a "constructive and forward-looking exchange of views" on issues related to bilateral ties. In June, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval also visited China to attend the 20th Meeting of the SCO Security Council Secretaries. In his intervention at the meeting, he highlighted the need to shun double standards in the fight against terrorism and take decisive actions against UN-proscribed terrorists and entities like LeT, JeM and their proxies and dismantle their terror eco-systems.
Hans India
30 minutes ago
- Hans India
Vajpayee upheld highest moral values in life, says Himachal Guv
Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla on Saturday paid floral tributes to former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna, late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his death anniversary at the historic Ridge in Shimla, saying he was a politician who upheld the highest moral values throughout his career. Remembering A.B. Vajpayee as a statesman, visionary leader, and a politician who upheld the highest moral values throughout his career, the Governor said, 'Atal ji considered Himachal Pradesh his home and always maintained dignity in public life. He never resorted to corruption for the sake of power or to save his government. Today, the greatest tribute we can pay him is to follow the path of integrity and value-based politics that he showed us.' The Governor said Vajpayee was a towering figure in Indian politics, admired across party lines, and loved by the entire nation for his simplicity, oratory skills, and statesmanship. On the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri also offered floral tributes to the late leader. Mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation, Surinder Chauhan, former Member of Parliament Pratibha Singh, Deputy Mayor Uma Kaushal, former minister Suresh Bhardwaj, Deputy Commissioner Anupam Kashyap, councilors, officers of the district administration, and other prominent people were also present on the occasion. Patriotic songs and devotional hymns were presented to pay homage to the former Prime Minister. Paying tributes to Vajpayee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote in a post on X: 'Remembering Atal Ji on his Punya Tithi. His dedication and spirit of service towards the all-round progress of India continue to inspire everyone in building a developed and self-reliant India.' A poet and statesman, Vajpayee was prime minister for over six years between 1998 and 2004 and is credited with pushing economic reforms that paved the way for a period of high growth. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also paid tribute to the former Prime Minister. In his message, Singh recalled Vajpayee's lifelong efforts to build a strong and prosperous India.
