Downing Pak birds big deal, but let us know our losses
Now that India has made public the kills of the Pakistani birds, it is only fair to expect clarity on the aircraft losses on our side. There is no need for secrecy. Disclosing the data will not hamper national security. Analogies such as 'the result of the exam is important, not whether a pencil got broken or a pen was lost' underestimate the maturity of the very people in whose name the battle was fought.
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Hans India
30 minutes ago
- Hans India
US may not impose additional 25 pc tariffs on India over Russian oil, hints Trump
New Delhi: The Donald Trump administration may not impose secondary tariffs on India over purchasing Russian energy, as the US President said that Russia has already lost a key oil client. Speaking to Fox News aboard Air Force One en route to Alaska, Trump said the US may not impose secondary tariffs on countries continuing to buying Russian crude oil. "Well, he (Vladimir Putin) lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40 per cent of the oil. China, as you know, is doing a lot…,' said Trump. 'And if I did what's called a secondary sanction, or a secondary tariff, it would be very devastating from their standpoint. If I have to do it, I'll do it. Maybe I won't have to do it,' he added. The secondary 25 per cent tariffs on India are likely to come into effect from August 27. Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said if 'things don't go well' between Trump and Putin at the Alaska summit, then secondary sanctions on India for purchasing Russian oil could go higher. Meanwhile, the government has already said the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable. 'Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,' it said. The fact is that India has sharply increased its purchases of oil and gas from America. This, in turn, has led to a reduction in India's trade surplus with the US, which is a major aim of the Trump administration's trade policy. Official figures show that India's oil and gas imports from the US have jumped by as much as 51 per cent from January to June this year. The country's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the US nearly doubled to $2.46 billion in the financial year 2024-25 from $1.41 billion in 2023-24. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured in February that India would increase energy imports from the US to $25 billion in 2025 from $15 billion in 2024 to help reduce the trade deficit of the US. This was followed by Government-owned Indian oil and gas companies entering into discussions for more long-term energy purchases from the US companies. New Delhi has also made it clear that it was diversifying its sources of energy imports to reduce dependence on Russian oil. New Delhi has also made it clear that India and the US share a very important strategic relationship that goes beyond trade.
Scroll.in
30 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
How Jinnah survived an assassination attempt in Bombay
On a July day in 1943, Muhammad Ali Jinnah entered his secretary's room in his Malabar Hill bungalow to find a young man speaking with the secretary. The man was desperate for a meeting with the Muslim League leader. He hoped that if he could just speak to Jinnah, he might convince him to reach a compromise with the Congress and Mahatma Gandhi on the issue of India's partition. But instead of dialogue, there was violence. Aggravated by Jinnah's refusal to meet, the young man pulled a knife from his pocket and attempted to stab him in the throat. Jinnah managed to deflect the blade – just barely. He suffered a small puncture wound on his jaw and a gash across the back of his hand. His assailant, Rafiq Sabir Mozangvi, was quickly overpowered by the household staff and arrested by the Bombay Police. But one question lingered: who was this man, and had he travelled halfway across India to attack the leader of the Muslim League? Travels from Lahore The story begins weeks earlier in Lahore, when Mozangvi boarded a train to Delhi, driven by a burning political grievance. Although only 32, Mozangvi had lived many lives – working as an electrician, committing petty crime, serving short stints in prison, and shifting allegiances among the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League and the Ahrar Party. Eventually, he aligned with the Khaksar movement, a paramilitary group led by political theorist and Islamic scholar Allama Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, who opposed the creation of Pakistan and believed Muslims could prosper in a united India. 'I decided to stay at Delhi for a day as I thought Mr. Jinnah might pass through there, but on making enquiries I was told that Mr. Jinnah was probably already in Bombay,' Mozaangvi told the Bombay Police in a statement. From Delhi, he took a train to Cawnpore, spending a few hours there, and then hopping on another train to Mughal Sarai. 'As I travelled all the way without a ticket, I found it necessary frequently to alight from the train and catch another train,' Mozaangvi said, 'and I eventually reached Bombay V.T. Station at sometime near 8 pm last night having travelled via Gwalior, Busaval, Bhopal, etc.' He wandered the bazaars at night, slept on the footpath, and bathed in a mosque – though he could not say exactly where, claiming his mind was 'obsessed with the object' of meeting Jinnah and discussing the 'political policy of the Muslim League'. He asked around for directions to Jinnah's house and was given a receipt by a Muslim League member bearing the printed address of Jinnah's bungalow on Mount Pleasant Road. Angry confrontation At the gates of the bungalow, Mozangvi told the security guard, a 'Pathan with a long moustache', that he wished to see Jinnah. He was escorted to Jinnah's secretary, AI Syed, who asked him to put his request in writing. As they spoke, Jinnah himself walked in and asked what the visitor wanted. From this point, accounts diverge. According to John Colville, the Commissioner of Police for Bombay, Mozangvi told 'Mr. Jinnah that he wanted to have an interview with him regarding the solution of the present political deadlock in the country and Mr. Jinnah's refusal to see Mr. Gandhi. Mr. Jinnah told him that he was very busy and had no time, and that Rafiq Sabir could make an appointment with his Secretary and could see him in a day or two.' This apparently enraged Mozangvi, who first punched Jinnah in the jaw and then tried to stab him. 'Mr. Jinnah warded off the blow and caught hold of the assailant's right hand with his left hand and in doing so sustained an incised wound on the back of his left hand one and half inches long skin deep,' Colville wrote in a letter to the Home Secretary. 'He also sustained a small punctured wound on the angle of the left jaw.' Jinnah's servants managed to subdue Mozangvi and summoned the police, who arrived promptly and arrested him. Mozangvi offered his own version of events. He claimed that when Jinnah entered the secretary's office, he pointed at him and said something in English. 'I stood up and saluted and explained to Mr. Jinnah that I had travelled a long way to see him and asked him to hear me,' Mozangvi said. 'Mr. Jinnah abruptly refused and pointed towards the door saying in English 'get out' or 'walk out.' I do not remember which expression he had used, but the purport of his words was that I should leave the place. I understand enough of the English language to know what was being said.' Mozangvi said he refused to leave and repeated his request for an interview. At that, Jinnah 'flew into a rage' and abused him, calling him a 'dog' and 'zalil (despicable)'. He claimed that Jinnah's servants tried to push him out of the room and struck him. 'I also used my fists in retaliation,' he said. 'Mr. Jinnah was standing nearby. During the struggle, I remembered a clasp knife that I had in my pocket and took it out in self-defence. I cannot say how Mr. Jinnah was injured.' During interrogation, Mozangvi insisted that his only purpose in meeting Jinnah was to urge him to speak with Gandhi. 'I have no real grudge against the Muslim League or against Mr. Jinnah personally, beyond my disapproval of certain points of policy followed by them.' He added that he believed Jinnah lacked sincerity in seeking a constructive dialogue with Gandhi. 'I disapprove of Mr. Jinnah's attitude in this matter and consider he is doing a disservice to Muhammedans and to India in general. On giving the matter considerable thought I came to the conclusion that Mr. Jinnah's true policy is one of self-aggrandisement and that he has no real desire to do anything towards ending the political deadlock in the country for the mutual benefit of all Indians.' Panic in Bombay The police report noted that Jinnah's injuries were not serious and were treated by Dr Massina on Pedder Road. Soon after, Jinnah addressed the press about the attack. 'Although it was a serious and well-planned attack, no serious injuries were inflicted on me,' he told Reuters. 'I do not want to say anything just now but I appeal to Muslims to remain calm and cool, and let us all thank Providence for this miraculous escape.' The news of the attempted assassination spread through Muslim neighborhoods in Bombay. Some shopkeepers shuttered their stores until Muslim League workers assured them there was no need to panic. 'All the newspapers, including the extreme Congress press, had condemned the attempt and congratulated Jinnah on his escape,' the Intelligence Bureau wrote in a confidential report. The Bombay Police contacted their counterparts in Lahore and requested that an officer be sent to interrogate Mozangvi to determine whether a broader conspiracy was at play, as the Muslim League alleged. 'I saw Mr. Jinnah shortly after the incident and in the course of conversation I questioned him as to whether in his opinion the action of the assailant was that of one man instigated by an idea which he developed in his own mind or whether it was an idea planted by someone else,' Commissioner Colvile wrote in a letter to the director of the Intelligence Bureau. 'Mr. Jinnah's opinion was that the idea had been planted there by Allama [Inayatullah Khan] Mashriqi, the Khaksar leader.' When Colville expressed his doubts, Jinnah replied that Mashriqi 'was a very indiscreet gentleman and also extremely pig-headed and obstinate'. The commissioner offered an alternative explanation. 'I suggested that a leader might convey to several of his trusted followers that Mr. Jinnah was an obstacle to Self-Government, and that if he were removed, their goal might be within reach. This small group might then have incited the assailant to commit this dastardly act,' Colville wrote. 'Mr. Jinnah doubted this and said that in his opinion Allama Mashriqi was so indiscreet and individualistic that it was not at all unlikely that he personally would have expressed such views to the assailant – and that the assailant, having absorbed the idea, decided to act on it.' The Criminal Investigation Department had a file on Mozangvi, revealing that he had lived in various parts of India, including Aligarh, where he ran a tea shop, and Calcutta, where he was wanted for theft in May 1943. He remained untraceable after the theft until he resurfaced in Bombay two months later. The file also revealed that Mozangvi had embezzled Khaksar funds in Cawnpore. The police found no direct evidence linking the assassination attempt to Mashriqi. Threat to life In November 1943, Mozangvi was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the Bombay High Court. The court found no links between the attack and the Khaksar movement. Police records from 1943 reveal that there was another plot by members of the Khaksar movement to assassinate Jinnah that year. 'It was reported that one Abdul Rahim Dagh, a resident of Ambala district and Nazim Bab-i-Ali of the Delhi Khaksars, had called on Sadiq, alias Munir to Delhi, and detailed him to proceed to Bombay to murder Mr. Jinnah,' GAJ Boon, assistant director of the Intelligence Bureau, wrote in a December 1943 report. When members of the movement in Delhi heard about the plot, they immediately informed Mashriqi. 'It was reported that Allama Mashriqi ordered that the plan must be frustrated at all costs,' Boon noted. The bureau remained vigilant, monitoring individual Khaksar members who might attempt to assassinate Jinnah. 'While, therefore, there is no evidence at present that the Khaksars are planning to assassinate Mr. Jinnah, it remains true that the Khaksars are not particularly pleased with him and the possibility of an individual attempt to harm him physically cannot, in the circumstances, be entirely discounted,' Boon added. 'Fortunately Rafiq Sabir has received heavy punishment for his attack on Mr. Jinnah and this may deter others from repeating the performance.' Mashriqi, who opposed the partition of India until the end, would go on to become a citizen of Pakistan after its formation. He remained politically active until his death in 1963.
Hindustan Times
30 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Hours after Putin talks stall, Trump repeats he averted India-Pakistan 'nuclear' war
US President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his claims of preventing wars across the globe, including between India and Pakistan, while defending his administration's push for ceasefires in conflicts that, as Fox News host Sean Hannity noted, 'do not impact the United States as much as [they do] allies in Europe.' President Donald Trump talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.(AP) The US President's remarks came just hours after a highly anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Moscow's war in Ukraine. In an interview on Hannity, the Fox News primetime show, Trump was asked why he was investing time and energy into disputes seemingly far from US shores. Sean Hannity asked him: 'This (Ukraine war) does not impact United States as much as it does our allies in Europe. But you are doing it anyway. Why?' Trump responded that his actions were motivated by a desire to save lives and avoid catastrophic escalation. Donald Trump said, 'Number one, to save lives in all cases. Cause wars are wars. See what would have happened with Cambodia as an example. I was involved with negotiating a trade." Trump went on to claim that India and Pakistan ceasefire wouldn't have been possible without his involvement, a claim that has been repeatedly denied by India. "Take a look at India and Pakistan. They were shooting down airplanes already. And that would have been maybe nuclear. I would have said it was gonna get nuclear, but I was able to get it done. Number one is lives, number two is everything else,' Trump said. The US President in the past has claimed that without his involvement, 'six major wars' would be raging globally. 'India would be fighting with Pakistan. You see what we did yesterday with two nations that we were trading with,' he said, referring to the recent ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia after five days of border clashes that left at least 33 people dead. Trump said he had warned the two Southeast Asian nations that Washington would not pursue trade deals with them unless they agreed to halt fighting. 'We got them settled in 24 hours,' he added. India rejects Trump's ascertions Trump's latest comments come amid repeated denials from New Delhi over his claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan earlier this year. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told Parliament that the understanding with Pakistan was reached through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs), without any US involvement. 'I want to make two things very clear. One, at no stage in any conversation with the United States was there any linkage with trade and what was going on,' Jaishankar said, adding that there was no call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump during the period Trump referred to. Despite these denials, Trump has repeatedly insisted that his administration 'got it done,' framing his role as central in preventing escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Since May, Trump has cited the India-Pakistan ceasefire alongside other disputes to underline his foreign policy record. He has also claimed credit for pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, saying recently that he gave Putin a '10 or 12 day' deadline to end the war.
