48-hour bandh in Manipur: Businesses, offices, educational institutions shut over bus name controversy - All you need to know
48-hour bandh in Manipur.
NEW DELHI: Normal life in the Valley's five districts was disrupted for the second consecutive day on Friday due to a 48-hour state-wide bandh called by COCOMI, a Meitei organisation, protesting the removal of the state's name from a government bus.
Business establishments, government offices, private offices, educational institutions remained shut, whilst public transport services were suspended.
Private vehicles were restricted, with exceptions made for medical emergencies and those travelling to the Shirui Lily festival in Ukhrul district.
In Bishnupur and Thoubal districts, women bandh supporters intercepted central security force vehicles and affixed 'Manipur/Kangleipak' to their windshields.
Kangleipak refers to Manipur's historical name.
Early Friday, bandh supporters instructed roadside vegetable vendors at Andro Parking, Kongba and Khurai areas in Imphal East district to cease operations. The bandh was also enforced in Uripok, Singjamei and Kwakeithel in Imphal West district.
Thursday night witnessed a 2-kilometre torch rally with participants chanting "Manipur cannot be obliterated."
Strategic locations leading to the Raj Bhavan are under central forces' surveillance.
The state government initiated an investigation on Wednesday regarding allegations that security personnel compelled covering of the state's name on a bus transporting journalists to the Shirui Lily festival.
Reports indicate that security forces halted a state-operated bus carrying journalists to the Ukhrul district tourism festival on Tuesday, compelling DIPR staff to obscure the state's name on the windscreen with white paper.
A two-member inquiry committee was established to "examine facts and circumstances involving security personnel and Manipur State Road Transport Bus carrying media persons to cover the Manipur Shirui festival on May 20 near Gwaltabi checkpost", per home department orders.
The directive stated: "The committee shall investigate any lapses and recommend preventive measures for similar future situations."
Commissioners N Ashok Kumar and secretary Th Kirankumar Singh comprise the committee, tasked to submit findings within 15 days.
COCOMI launched a 48-hour general strike from Wednesday midnight, demanding governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla's apology and resignations from Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh, DGP Rajiv Singh and Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Singh.
COCOMI convenor Khuraijam Athouba stated: "The decision to have Manipur removed from a state bus itself is anti-Manipur, absolutely challenges the idea of Manipur and its historical and cultural identity."
He added: "The people of Manipur demand to know under whose authority the decision was taken. It should be clarified to the public within 48 hours."
The Shirui Lily festival resumes after two years in the state. After N Biren Singh's resignation as chief minister, Manipur is now under President's rule after violent clashes between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities.
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Business Standard
27 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Speed immigration records checks, find visa overstayers: US to USCIS, ICE
The United States has launched a sweeping review of visa overstays following the arrest of an Egyptian national accused of setting Americans on fire in Colorado. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday ordered immigration authorities to speed up checks on all temporary visa holders, after it emerged that 45-year-old Mohammed Soliman had remained in the US illegally since 2022. Soliman was arrested in Boulder, Colorado, after a firebomb attack that left 12 people injured. Prosecutors have charged him with a federal hate crime, alongside multiple state-level felonies. 'This was a shocking terrorist attack,' said Noem. 'Anyone who thinks they can come to America and advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here. 'We will find you, deport you, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.' Noem said the US would move fast to identify and remove visa overstayers, blaming what she called the Biden administration's weak enforcement. A statement from US Citizenship and Immigration Services said: 'At the direction of Secretary Kristi Noem, US Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and USCIS are ramping up the review of immigration records and will take immediate appropriate actions to crack down on visa overstays stemming from the Biden Administration's failure to enforce the law.' Soliman, who had entered the country on a B-2 visa intended for tourism or family visits, later applied for asylum with his wife and five children. He was granted work authorisation while the case remained pending in immigration court. The Biden-era rule allowed hundreds of thousands of people like Soliman to live and work legally while awaiting their asylum decisions. Trump calls for tighter vetting US President Donald Trump pointed to the Boulder attack to justify a new travel ban affecting 12 countries, including nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Egypt was not among them. Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. 'The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas,' Trump said in a video message on Wednesday. 'We don't want them.' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called the US immigration system 'suicidal' and confirmed that Soliman's wife and five children had been taken into immigration custody. They will be deported. However, months before the Colorado attack, Trump had already instructed US consulates to scrutinise visa applicants' social media posts and deny visas to those with anti-Semitic or 'anti-American' views. 565,000 visa overstays recorded in 2023 According to a 2023 Department of Homeland Security report published in 2024, 565,000 temporary visa holders overstayed their visas that year. About 55,000 eventually left before the fiscal year ended, but the remainder are believed to have stayed on illegally. The overstay rate among student and exchange visa holders was close to 4 per cent. Some nationalities had far higher rates, with 70 per cent of students from Equatorial Guinea, 54 per cent from Eritrea, and 40 per cent from Burma failing to leave on time. For Indian nationals, more than 7,000 on F, M, or J student and exchange visas overstayed in 2023, pushing the overstay rate to 3.8 per cent—more than double the 1.6 per cent recorded in 2020. In the case of business and tourist travellers from India (on B1/B2 visas), US records show: 1,000,020 departures were expected in 2023 12,882 people overstayed The total overstay rate was 1.29 per cent 1.08 per cent are believed to have remained in-country without a recorded departure The US Department of Homeland Security said it would now increase monitoring of all visa holders whose permitted stay has ended. Meanwhile, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal last Friday said that they had close cooperation between India and the United States on migration issues, on the deportation of Indian nationals who are either in illegal status there or who travel illegally. "We take them back once we receive details about them,' he said in the weekly press briefing. He added, 'The update on the numbers is that since January 2025, around 1,080 Indians have returned or been deported from the United States. Of these, about 62 per cent have come on commercial flights.'
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First Post
28 minutes ago
- First Post
How Pakistani military has metastasised like cancer inside society
The public plays along as the military intensifies its anti-India narrative and false propaganda and the Generals prosper at the expense of the economy read more 'Of all the countries I've dealt with, I consider Pakistan to be the most dangerous because of the radicalisation of its society and the availability of nuclear weapons.' —Jim Mattis, former US defence secretary and four-star Marine Corps General, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, 2019 General Mattis, who commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan War and Iraq War, realised three things: First, the Pakistani society is 'radicalised'. Second, Pakistan's political culture has 'an active self-destructive streak'. Third, US military interactions with Pakistan 'could only be transactional' as its military can't be trusted. The three factors are interwoven and describe the current state of Pakistan's mess. A nation born out of hatred and animosity, ruled directly or indirectly by its military, which sponsors terrorism and has radicalised its society, will keep on sinking into the abyss of self-destruction. Decades of hatred and enmity towards India—especially the dream of occupying J&K—systematically nurtured and propagated by the Pakistani military, have turned into a metastatic cancer which has spread deep inside its society. External affairs minister S Jaishankar rightly compared Pakistan to a cancer that has started affecting its society. 'Pakistan is an exception in our neighbourhood in view of its support for cross-border terrorism. That cancer is now consuming its body politic,' he said at the 19th Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in Mumbai in January. Military supremacy and hatred for India Hatred for India and the Pakistani military's creation of the mirage of a Hindu nation being an existential threat unite its society. Despite orchestrating four coups, ruling directly and indirectly, meddling in politics, robbing the nation of development, wasting funds and foreign loans on weapons and suppressing dissent and protests, the Pakistani military is respected by the population. The military has cemented its image as the saviour of Pakistan's borders and its people, 'threatened by a Hindu India' since its independence. In his book Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, Husain Haqqani, a Pakistani journalist and former ambassador to the US, writes: 'Very soon after independence, 'Islamic Pakistan' was defining itself through the prism of resistance to 'Hindu India'.' The belief that India 'represented an existential threat to Pakistan led to maintaining a large military, which in turn helped the military assert its dominance in the life of the country'. Within weeks of independence, Haqqani writes, 'Editorials in the Muslim League newspaper, Dawn, called for 'guns rather than butter', urging a bigger and better-equipped army to defend 'the sacred soil' of Pakistan.' The national security apparatus was accorded a special status as protecting nationhood by military means 'took priority over all else'. 'It also meant that political ideas and actions that could be interpreted as diluting Pakistani nationhood were subversive. Demanding ethnic rights or provincial autonomy, seeking friendly ties with India, and advocating a secular Constitution fell under that category of subversion.' Haqqani explains how the military gained prominence. 'The Kashmir dispute as well as the ideological project fuelled rivalry with India, which in turn increased the new country's need for a strong military. The military and the bureaucracy, therefore, became even more crucial players in Pakistan's life than they would have been had the circumstances of the country's birth been different.' Historian Ayesha Jalal, in her book The State of Martial Rule, explains how internal threats to the government were conflated with a defence against India. Thus, the difference between internal and external threats was blurred to the military's advantage. 'So in Pakistan's case, defence against India was in part a defence against internal threats to central authority. This is why a preoccupation with affording the defence establishment—not unusual for a newly created state— assumed obsessive dimensions in the first few years of Pakistan's existence,' she writes. The Pakistani leadership found it 'convenient to perceive all internal political opposition as a threat to the security of the state'. Gradually, the Pakistani society also started perceiving India as a threat and the military as the protector from this imaginary danger. A February Gallup & Gilani Pakistan opinion poll found that only 41 per cent of Pakistanis think that Pakistan should maintain any relationship with India at any level before the Kashmir issue is resolved—35 per cent are against it. Military cons, coerces Pakistanis at the same time Operation Sindoor exposed Pakistani society's fickle-mindedness, the military's hero-worshipping and how the Generals con and coerce the public at the same time. The Pakistani military changed the Black Day in May 2023 to the Day of Righteous Battle in the same month this year in merely four days. The tactics were the same. Pakistani and local terrorists attack J&K, Indian retaliation portrayed as an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and the military retaliates as the nation's saviour. The scene in Pakistan changed from the massive protests against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's arrest, which engulfed major cities, public and private properties and military installations, to celebration and triumph around two years later. In May 2023, the public challenged the military's dominance and power. In May 2025, the public celebrated the military's fake propaganda of supremacy and winning against India as the Generals took advantage of Operation Sindoor and the decades-old Kashmir issue to boost their decreasing popularity. A May 7 Gallup Pakistan survey found 77 per cent of Pakistanis rejecting India's allegation that Pakistan was behind the Pahalgam attack with 55 per cent believing that India's intelligence or government may have orchestrated it. Despite India's no-first-use nuclear policy, 45 per cent of Pakistanis fear that India might launch a first nuclear strike. For Pakistanis, the country's foreign policy with India takes precedence over deep-rooted corruption, serious economic problems and the incapability of successive governments with 64 per cent of the public satisfied with the political leadership's unified stance on tensions with India. Sixty-five per cent express overall satisfaction with the Shehbaz Sharif government's India foreign policy. Another Gallup Pakistan survey, conducted on May 21, found how the military's lies, disinformation and fake propaganda had boosted its image with 96 per cent of the public believing that India was defeated and 97 per cent rating the performance of its armed forces as good or very good. An overwhelming 87 per cent held India responsible for initiating the conflict. Public opinion of the Army improved to 93 per cent compared to 73 per cent of the civilian government. Sharif's party, PML-N, received the highest positive performance rating (65 per cent), followed by PTI (60 per cent) and Pakistan Peoples Party (58 per cent). Around 30 per cent opposed normalisation of ties with India. Not even 50 per cent supported normalising relations with India with trade cooperation receiving the highest support (49 per cent), followed closely by sports (48 per cent), education (44 per cent) and cultural exchanges (40 per cent). Two incidents show how the military cons Pakistanis, who are willing to be conned, in the name of the non-existent Indian threat and increases its iron grip at the same time. First, the government revoked the ban on X, imposed in February 2024, a few hours after India targeted terrorist bases in Pakistan and PoK on May 7. The social media platform was banned on February 17, 2024, without notification on the pretext of threats to national security and Elon Musk's company's refusal to accede to requests and comply with the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2021. The actual reason for the ban was the accounts of candidates and parties, especially PTI and the National Democratic Movement, posting about election irregularities. The government admitted after one month that X was banned. Internet and cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks said that X was banned after 'it was used to draw attention to instances of alleged election fraud'. According to Access Now, a nonprofit that focuses on digital civil rights and reports on global Internet censorship, Pakistan imposed 21 shutdowns in 2024. Once the ban on X was revoked, a deluge of disinformation, like Pakistan shooting down a Su-30MKI and a MiG-29, from Pakistani handles flooded the platform. Pakistanis were part of the disinformation campaign without realising that the ban was removed to whip up anti-India feelings and restore the military's image. The military managed to reunite the nation with hatred against India and false claims of victory as Pakistanis forgot how their economic woes increased, ethnic and political dissent was crushed, dissenters went missing and all these years. Even Khan, who had held Army chief General Syed Asim Munir responsible for his arrest, tweeted: 'The recent escalation between Pakistan and India has once again proven that Pakistanis are a brave, proud, and dignified nation.' Second, as Pakistanis celebrated the military's lies, the spineless Supreme Court, in a 5-2 verdict by the Constitutional Bench, allowed 105 civilians accused in the May 9, 2023, protests to be tried in military courts. The civilians had been convicted under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA), 1952, and the Official Secrets Act, 1923, for espionage, 'interfering with officers of the police or members of the armed forces' and unauthorised use of uniforms. The apex court overturned an earlier ruling against military trials of civilians. Section 2 of PAA permits trials of civilians before military courts when they are accused of 'seducing or attempting to seduce any person subject to this Act from his duty or allegiance to government' or having committed 'in relation to any work of defence…in relation to the military of Pakistan'. Section 59(4) provides for the trial of such civilians under the PAA. In a May report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), 'Military Justice in Pakistan: A Glaring Surrender of Human Rights', found that trials of the 105 civilians violated Pakistan's legal obligations under international human rights. 'The ICJ recalls that the use of military courts to try civilians usurps the functions of the ordinary courts and is inconsistent with the principle of independence of the judiciary.' According to Principle 5 of the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission, 'military courts should, in principle, have no jurisdiction to try civilians… The jurisdiction of military courts should be limited to offences of a strictly military nature committed by military personnel. Military courts may try persons treated as military personnel for infractions strictly related to their military status'. Pakistani military's grip on economy The state of Pakistan's economy is as open as the military and the political leadership's sponsorship of terrorism. Since joining the IMF in 1950, Pakistan has been bailed out more than 20 times by the Fund to address fiscal deficits, balance of payments crises and structural reforms. One of the arrangements under which the IMF has bailed out Pakistan is the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), a longer-term arrangement involving reforms to address the economy's structural weaknesses. On May 9, a day before the ceasefire, the IMF granted $1 billion to Pakistan as part of its $7-billion EFF and another $1.3 billion under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. The amount was a carrot dangled by the US-led IMF before Pakistan to end hostilities, and was vociferously opposed by India. Pakistan's economy was in negative territory twice in the last five years—2020, -0.9 per cent; 2021, 5.8 per cent; 2022, 6.2 per cent; 2023, -0.2 per cent; and 2024, 2.5 per cent In April, the IMF revised Pakistan's GDP growth in 2025 downward to 2.6 per cent from 3 per cent in January and 3.6 per cent in 2026 from 4 per cent citing the 29 per cent tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration. Inflation has been a constant problem with higher prices of fruits, vegetables, flour, rice, meat and chicken. According to IMF data, inflation has been in double digits in the last five years except once—2020 (10.7 per cent), 2021 (8.2 per cent), 2022 (12.2 per cent), 2023 (29.2 per cent) and 2024 (23.4 per cent). Per IMF projections, inflation in 2025 will be 5.1 per cent and 7.7 per cent in 2026. The unemployment rate in the last five years was 6.6 per cent in 2020, 6.3 per cent in 2021, 6.2 per cent in 2022, 8.5 per cent in 2023 and 8.3 per cent in 20204. According to the IMF, the unemployment rate in 2025 is projected at 8 per cent and in 2026 at 7.5 per cent. Pakistan's forex reserves are abysmally low compared to India's. In December 2020, it was $20.5 million; December 2021, $23.9 million; December 2022, $10.8 million; December 2023, $12.7 million; and December 2024, $15.9 million. Forex reserves in May were $16.6 million, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan. The Pakistani currency has been severely hit by economic mismanagement, ineffective fiscal policies, a massive trade deficit, the lack of structural reforms and investment, low growth rates, high inflation, rising unemployment and political instability. The PKR tanked to an all-time low of 307.10 against the dollar in the first week of September 2023. The currency has been trading above 280. According to a Fitch Ratings projection in April, Pakistan will gradually devalue its currency to avoid likely pressure on the current account. Bloomberg, quoting Krisjanis Krustins, director, Asia Pacific Sovereign Ratings, Fitch, reported, 'The ratings company sees the rupee falling to 285 against the dollar by the end of June and weakening further to 295 by the end of the next fiscal year in 2026.' Pakistan's poverty rate is estimated at 42.4 per cent in the 2025 fiscal year, higher than 40.5 per cent in 2024, according to the World Bank. With a two per cent annual population growth, 1.9 million more people will fall into poverty this year. Even in 2026 and 2027, the rate will be around 40 per cent and 40.8 per cent, respectively. Amid the economic disaster and financial ruin with a national debt of $130 billion, $7.64 billion was allocated for defence in the 2024-25 defence budget. The Generals have been thriving for decades at the expense of Pakistanis by controlling industry, agriculture and the private sector. Under the Defence Housing Authority, the Army owns 12 per cent of the country's land at nominal rates, including urban and agricultural. The military has a massive stake in the government's industrial and commercial policies due to its immense influence on industry, commerce and business. In her book Military Inc. – Inside Pakistan's Military Economy, Pakistani political scientist Ayesha Siddiqa terms the military's 'internal economy' Milbus, military capital used for the personal benefit of its personnel, especially officers. 'Pakistan's military runs a huge commercial empire with an estimated value of billions of dollars.' This capital is 'neither recorded nor a part of the defence budget. Its most significant component is entrepreneurial activities that are not subject to state accountability procedures'. The military is the sole driver of Milbus— and is 'an example of the type of Milbus that intensifies military interest in remaining in power or direct/indirect control of governance'. According to her, Milbus involves: the varied business ventures of four welfare foundations (small businesses such as farms, schools and private security firms and corporate enterprises such as commercial banks and insurance companies, radio and television channels and manufacturing plants) direct institutional military involvement in enterprises such as toll collecting, shopping centres and petrol stations and benefits given to retired personnel, such as state land or business openings. Siddiqa explains how Milbus hurts Pakistan economically, politically and socially. The system 'nurtures' the military's political ambitions by creating deep-rooted vested interests in military dominance. 'The military has nourished the religious right to consolidate military control over the State and society.' Socially, it 'increases inter-ethnic tensions (due to skewed military recruitment policies), reduces the acceptability of the military as an arbiter among political interests and increases the alienation of the underprivileged'. Moreover, building and sustaining the military's influence in power politics come at a cost. 'Evidence shows that military businesses are not run more efficiently than others. Some of the military's larger businesses and subsidiaries have required financial bailout from the government.' Meanwhile, the Army continues with its anti-India narrative despite losing four wars to India—and the public plays along. Anti-India rhetoric, sponsorship of terrorism in J&K and the portrayal of India as an existential threat to Pakistan sustain the military while development has come to a standstill. According to Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the father of modern linguistics, 'Pakistan just cannot survive' if it continues the confrontation with India. In an interview with the Dawn in May 2013, he said, 'Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on society.' The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. He tweets as @FightTheBigots. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Iranians react to new Trump travel ban as tensions are high between nations
People walk past a state-sponsored anti-US mural painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran (Image credit: AP) Iranians again face a US travel ban imposed by President Donald Trump , with the decision drawing anger, frustration and some shrugs given the decades of tensions between the countries. Trump imposed a similar ban during his first term before withdrawing America unilaterally from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, under which Iran drastically limited its program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But when he returned to the White House and began seeking a new deal with Iran, it saw the country's rial currency improve and stocks rise, but worries have grown as its government appears poised to reject an initial American proposal. The travel ban has further darkened that mood and led Iranians to fear Trump will lump the nations' 80 million people alongside of its theocratic government even after he's repeatedly praised them while seeking a deal. "Now I understand that Trump is against all Iranians, and his attitude is not limited to the government," said Asghar Nejati, a 31-year-old man working in a Tehran pharmacy. Even in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent US Embassy hostage crisis, Iranian students traveled to the US to attend universities. Between 2018 to 2024, an average of around 10,000 Iranian students went to the US annually. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Perdagangkan CFD Emas dengan Broker Tepercaya IC Markets Mendaftar Undo Estimates suggest some 1 million Iranian-origin people live in the US today. Mehrnoush Alipour, a 37-year-old graphic designer, said the nations could have better relations if they could spoke to each other in softer tones. "This is another foolish decision. Trump cannot reach his goals by imposing pressures on ordinary Iranians," she said. "The two nations can have better relation through openings, not restrictions." Bank teller Mahdieh Naderi said Trump was lashing out over his frustrationed efforts to reach ceasefires in the Israel-Hamas war and the Russia-Ukraine war. "Trump just expressed his anger about his failed plans," Naderi said. "He is complaining about the Chinese and others who are living in the US, too." Some said interest in the US was already waning before the latest ban. "Over the past years, two of my grandchildren went to Canada to continue their education there," said Mohammad Ali Niaraki, 75. "Iranians are not limited in immigration and they are not as interested to go to the US as they were decades ago. Iranians prefer Canada, as well as neighbouring countries with flourishing economies like the (United Arab) Emirates." But others pointed out that high-ranking government officials have children living or working in the US, despite the tensions. "It's fine, but if he also kicks out the children of officials who live there it would be very nice," said a man who just gave his name as Mehdi. "We can't afford traveling to the US, almost 80 per cent of us can't. But if he kicks out those who are already there it would be much better." Tehran resident Mehri Soltani offered rare support for Trump's decision. "Those who have family members in the US, it's their right to go, but a bunch of bad people and terrorists and murderers want to go there as well," he said. "So his policy is correct. He's doing the right thing."
