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Straits Times
21 hours ago
- General
- Straits Times
Dead bodies, mangled luggage, debris haunt rescuers at Air India crash site
Workers prepare to remove the tail section of Air India Flight AI171 from the crash site in Ahmedabad, India, on June 14. PHOTO: ATUL LOKE/NYTIMES AHMEDABAD - Students of the B.J. Medical College were having lunch in their hostel dining hall on June 12 when a Boeing 787 jet loaded with fuel smashed into the building and exploded. Flight AI171 had taken off just minutes earlier from a nearby airport in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, before making a perilous descent that ended in the death of all but one of the 242 people aboard. The number of casualties among those on the ground and the building the plane slammed into is less clear. Those that rushed to the site in the wake of the crash were met with haunting visuals: a charred plane wing lay strewn across a road. Fragments of another wing and engine parts were nearby, along with clothes and mangled bags. A pungent smell of burnt debris lingered in the air. 'The blast was so intense that no one could approach the site initially,' said Mr Rajesh Patel, a 56-year-old real estate businessman. He was heading home for lunch on June 12 afternoon, but instead spent the next seven hours helping pull out bodies from the wreckage along with rescue workers. 'The scene was horrific, with bodies scattered everywhere.' About 150 to 200 people, including students and workers, were inside the medical college hostel building when disaster struck, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported. 'We collected the remains in bags and clothing, and later used sarees and sacks,' Mr Patel said. 'The rescue operation continued until 9 p.m., during which I personally collected around 50 bodies.' The official death toll will be announced only after DNA verification, according to Mr Amit Shah, India's federal home minister. Investigators are combing the wreckage to determine what caused the Boeing Co. Dreamliner to crash. One of the two black boxes from the plane have been found, India's Aviation Ministry said on June 13. The last communication from flight captain Sumeet Sabharwal to air traffic control was 'Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,' the UK's Telegraph newspaper reported. The flight was carrying 12 crew and 230 passengers, most of whom were Indian and British nationals. Mr Azaz Vohra, 29, has been waiting outside the local hospital since June 12 evening to collect the bodies of his cousin and two other relatives, including a child. 'We had dropped Yasmin Vohra, my aunt, cousin Parvez Vohra, and his four-year-old daughter Zuveria Vohra at the airport on Thursday,' Mr Vohra said. Mr Vohra's cousin had visited India for dental treatment, bringing along his younger daughter while his wife and elder daughter stayed behind in the UK, he said. 'We haven't received any updates from the hospital authorities,' Mr Vohra said, showing photos of his relatives on his phone. Ahmedabad is the biggest city in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. The country's premier business school is also located there. Mr Modi visited the crash site on June 13 and met the lone survivor from the Air India flight. 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise,' Mr Vishwash Ramesh Kumar, who sat in the first row of economy class, told local reporters, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper. He walked out unassisted from the burning plane. 'There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere,' he said. Media outlets identified him as a UK citizen aged 40, from the city of Leicester. Dead bodies were being released in batches on June 13 from the hospital's post-mortem room. Medical students were overcome with emotion as they received the bodies of friends who had lost their lives. At the crash site, surrounded by burnt debris and scattered aircraft parts, a woman who identified herself as Babhiben was sitting in anguish, mourning the loss of her grandson. The 14-year-old boy, Akash, was neither a passenger nor a resident at the hostel. He simply happened to be in the neighbourhood. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Indian military warns Pakistan against ceasefire violations
Security personnel in the city of Jammu, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on May 11. PHOTO: ATUL LOKE/NYTIMES NEW DELHI/ MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - The Indian military sent a 'hotline message' to Pakistan on May 11 about violations of a ceasefire agreed this week and informed it of New Delhi's intent to respond if it was repeated, a top Indian army officer said. India's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) was speaking as a fragile 24-hour-old ceasefire appeared to be holding after both sides blamed the other for initial violations on May 10 night. The truce announced on May 10 followed four days of intense fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours. In the worst fighting in nearly three decades, they fired missiles and drones at each other's military installations, killing almost 70 people. Diplomacy and pressure from the United States helped secure the ceasefire deal when it seemed that the conflict was spiralling alarmingly. But within hours of its coming into force, artillery fire was witnessed in Indian Kashmir, the centre of much of last week's fighting. Blasts from air-defence systems boomed in cities near the border under a blackout, similar to those heard during the previous two evenings, according to local authorities, residents and Reuters witnesses. "Sometimes, these understandings take time to fructify, manifest on the ground," Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, the Indian DGMO, told a media briefing, referring to the truce. "The (Indian) armed forces were on a very very high alert (yesterday) and continue to be in that state." The Indian army chief had given a mandate to its commanders to deal with "violations of any kind" from across the borders in the best way they deem fit, Lt Gen Ghai added. He said his Pakistani counterpart called him on May 10 afternoon and proposed the two countries "cease hostilities" and urgently requested for a ceasefire. There was no immediate response to the Indian comments from Pakistan. Late on May 10, the Pakistani foreign ministry had said that it was committed to the truce agreement and blamed India for the violations. US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on May 10, saying it was reached after talks mediated by Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said India and Pakistan had also agreed to start talks on "a broad set of issues at a neutral site". While Islamabad has thanked Washington for facilitating the ceasefire and welcomed Mr Trump's offer to mediate on the Kashmir dispute with India, New Delhi has not commented on US involvement in the truce or talks at a neutral site. India maintains that disputes with Pakistan have to be resolved directly by the two countries and rejects any third party involvement. On May 11, Mr Trump praised the leaders of both countries for agreeing to halt the aggression and said he would "substantially" increase trade with them. Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan each rule a part of Kashmir but claim it in full, and have twice gone to war over the Himalayan region. India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of the territory, but Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists. Picking up the pieces Among those most affected by the fighting were residents on either side of the border, many of whom fled their homes when the fighting began on May 7, two weeks after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir's Pahalgam that India said was backed by Islamabad. Pakistan denied the accusation. People walk across a market strewn with garbage as shops lie closed in Uri, about 100km from Srinagar on May 11. PHOTO: AFP In the Indian border city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, people returned to the streets on Sunday morning after a siren sounded to signal a return to normal activities following the tension of recent days. "Ever since the terrorists attacked people in Pahalgam, we have been shutting our shops very early and there was an uncertainty. I am happy that at least there will be no bloodshed on both sides," said Satvir Singh Alhuwalia, 48, a shopkeeper in the city. In some border areas, however, people were asked not to return home just yet. In the Indian Kashmir city of Baramulla, authorities warned residents to stay away due to the threat posed by unexploded munitions. "People here are hosting us well but just as a bird feels at peace in its own nest, we also feel comfortable only in our own homes, even if they have been damaged," said Azam Chaudhry, 55, who fled his home in the Pakistani town of Khuiratta and has now been told to wait until Monday before returning. In Indian Kashmir's Uri, a key power plant that was damaged in a Pakistani drone attack is still under repair. "The project has suffered minor damage ... We have stopped generation as the transmission line has been damaged," said an official from state-run NHPC, India's biggest hydropower company, who did not want to be identified. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
