Telangana students from Punjab, J&K seek to return
Hyderabad: Even as India and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to a ceasefire in the wake of Operation Sindoor, more than 100 students from Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, IIT Jammu, and other institutions in Srinagar reached the control room set up by the state govt at Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi.
Officials said they were making arrangements to send the students to Telangana. However, it was not immediately known if the students would alter their plans now that the ceasefire has been agreed to.The students started reaching out to Telangana Bhavan from Friday night, with the first batch being from IIT Jammu and other institutions in Srinagar. On Saturday morning, students from LPU began arriving."They came to New Delhi by rail and road. We are providing accommodation, food, and transport facilities to them to reach their homes in Telangana. Many students booked flight tickets from Delhi. A few others are making plans to travel by car to Telangana. Some of the tickets are not confirmed, and we are trying to get them confirmed. More people are expected to reach out to us," Telangana Bhavan resident commissioner Gaurav Uppal told STOI.Interestingly, many students did not come back after the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22. However, after Operation Sindoor was launched in the early hours of May 7, parents of the students started calling them back."We too wanted to return to Telangana. We could hear loud sounds during the night. There was no confirmation, but we used to discuss in our hostel rooms that a drone or a missile could have gone over our campus. There are nearly 300 students from Telangana in LPU, and all of us decided to come back. Many have already reached their homes. A final decision was taken after the university postponed our exams," said Ashrith Satya Bitla, a first-year BTech student at LPU.Till Saturday afternoon, the control room at Telangana Bhavan had received nearly 100 calls from students and students and those working in areas that are close to the Pakistan border.Telangana Bhavan helplineLandline: 011-23380556Vandhana, private secretary to the resident commissioner & liaison head – 9871999044Haider Ali Naqvi, personal assistant to the resident commissioner – 9971387500G Rakshith Naik, liaison officer – 9643723157Ch Chakravarthy, public relations officer – 9949351270Free food and lodging facilities are being provided to Telangana citizens returning from bordering states at Telangana Bhavan. Medical camps have been established for health check-upsTelangana residents are being provided transportation assistance to the airport, railway stations, and bus stands.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
23 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Supriya Sule sidesteps question on buzz over NCP factions reuniting
The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) [NCP(SP)] working president Supriya Sule on Tuesday (June 10, 2025) avoided a direct response on the speculation about the rival NCP factions coming together, saying she was busy with other responsibilities and had no time to discuss the party affairs. Asked if she is remembering "dada" — her cousin and rival NCP head Ajit Pawar — on the Nationalist Congress Party's 26th Foundation Day on Tuesday (June 10, 2025), the Lok Sabha member told reporters that she has six brothers and she remembers them every day. To a query on whether she will call Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to wish him on the party's Foundation Day, Ms. Sule said, "I speak to all my brothers on different occasions." The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, split in July 2023 after nephew Mr. Ajit Pawar joined the then Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government. The party name and its clock symbol was given to the Ajit Pawar faction, while the one headed by the former Union Agriculture Minister was christened NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). There has been speculation that the two factions could be looking at burying the hatchet and reuniting. To a query on a section of the NCP(SP) having the same feeling and Mr. Sharad Pawar saying all decisions regarding the party will be taken by her, Ms. Sule said, 'I have had no time to discuss the party affairs with party leaders or meet my family for the last 15 days. Everyone has the right to express their views and opinions in a democracy,' she added. "NCP is an organisation founded by Sharad Pawar and is functional for 26 years. Everyone, whether they are with us or not, has contributed to the growth of the party. There was team work. I am remembering R. R. Patil, who is no more," she said. Ms. Sule recently led a multi-party delegation and travelled to some of the foreign countries to convey India's stand following Operation Sindoor. The Parliamentarian said she will be leaving in the afternoon for New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet members of multi-party delegations which travelled abroad.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
33 minutes ago
- First Post
FATF can salvage its counter-terrorism credentials by cracking down on Pakistan
With the second meeting of the FATF scheduled to commence today, countries interested in the fight against terrorism and its financing need to re-evaluate Pakistan's role in failing to crack down on terrorism from its soil read more Should the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) take a sharper and closer look at Pakistan's counter-terrorism reality? With the second meeting of the FATF scheduled to commence on 10 June 2025, like-minded countries invested in the fight against terrorism and its financing need to re-evaluate Pakistan's role in failing to crack down on terrorism from its soil. Pakistan has thrice been listed on FATF's Grey List in the past, from 2008-2010, 2012-2015 and 2018-2022. The third time around, it landed on the list after the motion was initiated by the United States and supported by the United Kingdom, France and Germany due to Pakistan's glaring deficiencies in counter-terrorist financing (CFT). STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The recent events around the conduct of Operation Sindoor are a stark reality check on the complicity of the Pakistani state in supporting, funding and participating in terrorism. If the world needed any further proof, Pakistan did not hesitate to provide it in full glare of the world media. Shortly after the successful precision strikes, senior military commanders stood in solidarity at the funeral prayer meeting, led by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist commander Hafiz Abdul Rauf. Pakistani military personnel went a step further by carrying the coffins of terrorists to reinforce their support and backing for UN-proscribed terrorist groups and their leaders. Terrorist leaders from the LeT and JuD have since been seen openly galvanising support for terrorism from Pakistan and collecting funds to provide an impetus to their 'jihad'. The Pakistani 'establishment' and terrorist handlers are confident that, having escaped the FATF clutches, they can continue to support terrorism as a state policy. Pakistan has been at pains to highlight Kashmir as the point of contention with India. On the contrary, it is Pakistan's employment of terrorism as an instrument of hybrid war that should remain the focus of attention of world capitals. And the best way to curb Pakistani adventurism is to retain strict control over the proliferation of terrorism by organisations like the FATF. There is no better way to ensure stability in the region and restrict the export from the terrorism factory of the world, and curbing its funding. The FATF is a 40-member, inter-governmental, multinational body that acts as a 'watchdog' against money laundering and terrorist financing. India is a member of the grouping. The FATF sets standards to fight terrorist finance and, along with its affiliated bodies, evaluates member countries for their compliance with its guidelines. This includes technical compliance, such as the absence of or inadequacy of laws. More importantly, its focus on the effectiveness of implementation highlights weaknesses or, worse, wilful defiance of countries like Pakistan in fighting terrorism. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan's last evaluation by the FATF was done in 2019. Its report was a national embarrassment for the country, at the very least. If Pakistan's evaluation is compared to a student's school report card, then, of the 11 effectiveness parameters, Pakistan failed in 10 and got a compartment in one! The rowdy kid's abysmal report card was not a sign of inability or a lack of resources to study. It came from the confidence to successfully fool not only the class teacher but the entire school faculty. This does not come as a surprise, given the country's record of nurturing and sheltering UN proscribed terrorist groups and their commanders. The evaluation report noted that 'Several UN-listed organisations continue to operate openly in Pakistan, including holding fundraising events.' Pakistan has mastered the art of obfuscating reality and window dressing the true face of its parallel terror economy. The appeasement of major powers by handing over selective terrorist leaders and promising to safeguard economic interests like the CPEC corridor is not a guarantee against the spread of the contagion. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD If the FATF does intend to expose Pakistan's age-old strategy of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds, then its record of fighting terrorism deserves closer scrutiny. Member countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany that have been victims of Pakistan's terror factories should support India's attempt at stabilising the region by curbing the funding of terrorism in Pakistan. The international community must realise that the Pakistani establishment's repeated claims of being a victim of terrorism are inherently flawed. It is not the West that is responsible for Pakistan's terror woes, unlike Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's repeated assertions. It is Pakistan's strategy of promoting extremist thought and sowing jihadi ideology that is hollowing its social fabric. Pakistan has been fooling the world by selectively fighting terrorism and equally selectively sharing figures of terrorists prosecuted and acted against. If this continues, little change can be expected. It is time to reintroduce the motion in the FATF to at least place Pakistan on the Grey List. This is despite the reality of mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the blackest of them all? Pakistan. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Col Vivek Chadha (Retd) is a Senior Fellow at Manohar Parrikar IDSA. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Hans India
34 minutes ago
- Hans India
India's defence exports surged by 1,100 pc in last 10 years: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has transformed into an emerging defence exporter, strengthening national security and becoming a trusted partner in global peace. 'India's defence sector has undergone a major transformation in the last decade. India's defence exports have grown by over 1,100% in the last decade from ₹1,941 crore in 2014 to an all-time high of ₹23,662 crore in 2024. The country now exports military hardware to over 100 countries,' the Finance Minister said in a statement on X. She underscored that 75 per cent of the defence capital acquisition budget has been earmarked for domestic production in the financial year 2025-26. The Finance Minister further pointed out that over 5,000 items have been added to the defence indigenisation lists as part of the government's Aatmanirbharta campaign. India's defence production, which was only Rs 43,000 crore 10 to 11 years ago, has now crossed a record figure of Rs 1,46,000 crore, with the private sector's contribution of over Rs 32,000 crore. The government's Make-in-India campaign has turned out to be crucial for security, with the use of indigenous systems during Operation Sindoor proving that India has the power to penetrate any armour of the enemy. FM Sitharaman also highlighted the national security and foreign policy achievements of the Modi government. She mentioned the success of Operation Sindoor, in which over 100 terrorists were killed in the missile attacks on nine terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Among the foreign policy initiatives undertaken for the security of Indian nationals, the Finance Minister has listed the evacuation of over 22,500 Indians from Ukraine after the launch of Russia's military operation, while another 3,000 Indians were brought back home from conflict-torn Sudan. Sitharaman has also highlighted India's role as a vaccine supplier to the world during the devastating Covid-19 outbreak. The country supplied over 30 crore vaccine doses to more than 100 countries to contain the spread of the deadly disease, she added.
