Latest news with #Bahawalpur
News18
13-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
10 Languages, 10-Day Mass Connect & Modi's Message: How BJP Plans To Win Narrative War
Last Updated: BJP's 'Tiranga Yatra' will see the party crediting PM Modi's leadership, while highlighting opposition statements that came across as tacitly supporting Pakistan Operation Sindoor is 'paused", as Prime Minister Narendra Modi puts it, setting narrative of a 'new normal" of 'crushing terror universities" like Bahawalpur and Muridke. In probably one of his most straightforward addresses to the nation, PM Modi refused to take any credit but showered praise on India's tri-service, paramilitary, and scientific community for Operation Sindoor. Stressing that it was Pakistan that requested for a ceasefire, the prime minister warned: 'I am repeating; we have just suspended our retaliatory action against Pakistan's terror and military camps. In the coming days, we will measure every step of Pakistan on the criterion of what sort of attitude it adopts ahead." But in this age of information warfare, where Pakistan has flooded the internet with doctored video to suggest it demolished India's prized S400 air defence system, or their prime minister's midnight press conference claiming 'victory", how does BJP plan to take Modi's message of 'India struck at the heart of Pakistan"? MODI'S MESSAGE IN 10 LANGUAGES On Monday, PM Modi reminded the world that he still believes it's not the age of war but 'neither is it the age of terror". The prime minister, using the occasion of Buddha Poornima, sent out the message of peace but with a caveat: 'The path of peace also goes through power". For those who wondered about US President Donald Trump's offer of mediating in the Kashmir matter, Modi left nothing to confusion for the domestic crowd. 'Today, I would also like to tell the global community that our stated policy has been: if there are talks with Pakistan, it will be only on terrorism; and if there are talks with Pakistan, it will be only on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)." But the problem lies with the language in which he spoke—Hindi. According to the 2011 census, only 43.63 per cent of the people in India can speak Hindi. The southern and north-eastern states, apart from Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, have a very low percentage of Hindi speakers. For instance, in Tamil Nadu only 2.3 per cent speak Hindi. So how will Modi's message reach them? The government used Artificial Intelligence and dubbed PM Modi's speech in 10 regional languages in an hour's time—Telegu, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Punjabi, Kannada and Odia. They beamed the regional versions in respective Doordarshan channels and released on YouTube channels, garnering massive eyeballs and taking the message deep. BJP's TIRANGA YATRA If the government is taking Modi's message of 'We have defeated Pakistan every time" to the masses with multiple languages, the BJP isn't sitting idle either. The party now plans to hold a 10-day nationwide mass connect movement through which it plans to not just portray a brave face of the BJP-led Centre but will inevitably do a contrast of response between Congress-led UPA era and BJP-led NDA era. The movement will be called 'Tiranga Yatra', which is expected to kick off from May 13 and will continue till May 23. BJP will not just hold press conferences across major capitals, but its member of MPs, general secretaries, and even select Union ministers, will be asked to tour certain states where they will reach out to intellectuals, senior citizens, trader bodies, clubs among others, say sources. BJP's Yuva Morcha and Mahila Morcha will also be used during this 'Tiranga Yatra' where the goal will be to claim victory and credit PM Modi's leadership, while highlighting opposition statements that came across as tacitly supporting Pakistan. BJP will mount a social media campaign with regular multiple reels on Instagram targeting the youth, while the cadres will distribute leaflets highlighting, in bullet points, why Operation Sindoor is a 'gamechanger', a BJP source told News18. With Bihar election scheduled in the year-end, less than six months from now, one can expect BJP to become more aggressive in its narrative war in the coming days. First Published: May 13, 2025, 14:14 IST
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Reduced to rubble: India strikes alleged headquarters of militant groups in Pakistan's heartland
MURIDKE, Pakistan, May 7 (Reuters) - Video footage from the early hours of Wednesday shows a bright flash from the residential Islamic seminary outside Bahawalpur in central Pakistan as India attacked its neighbour in response to the killing of Indian tourists in Kashmir. The seminary was emptied of its students in recent days as speculation grew that would be targeted by India, but the family of Masood Azhar, founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist militant group, was still there, according to the group. Ten of Azhar's relatives were among 13 people killed in the strike, including women and children, the Pakistani military said. Thousands of people turned out for their funerals at a sports stadium later in the day, shouting "Allah Akbar", or God is Great, and other religious chants. "(Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi's brutality has broken all norms," the group said in a statement. "The grief and shock are indescribable". It said that five of those killed were children and the others included Azhar's sister and her husband. It did not respond to a request for comment on why the family was still at the site. Azhar, who has not been seen for years, and his brother, Abdul Rauf Asghar, deputy head of the group, did not appear to have attended the funeral prayers. The road to the site was cordoned off after the strike. Further north, around half an hour after midnight, four Indian missiles hit a sprawling complex in Muridke over six minutes, a local government official said. The attack demolished a mosque and adjacent administration building and buried three people in the rubble. A sign outside describes the site as a government health and educational complex, but India says it is associated with militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Delhi and Washington blame LeT for the 2008 attack on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. LeT, which has has denied responsibility for that attack, is banned. The attack left other buildings in the complex untouched. A local official said that normally there were up to 3,500 staff and students at the site, but almost everyone had been evacuated in recent days as they feared it would become a target. Hafiz Saeed, leader of LeT and its successor organizations, is in a Pakistani jail since being convicted in 2020, on terror financing charges. He says his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups. Delhi said it had conducted pinpoint strikes on the two headquarters of its militant adversaries, part of what it said were nine "terrorist camps" targeted. "Over the last three decades Pakistan has systematically built terror infrastructure," it said in a briefing on the attacks. Pakistan said India had hit six sites, killing 26 people and wounding 46, all "innocent civilians". Officials and experts said India's attack on its neighbour, its most significant in decades, fulfilled a long-cherished goal, but Islamabad warned that it would hit back. The conflict between India and Pakistan has been confined in recent decades mostly to the disputed mountainous region of Kashmir. But the air strikes in the towns of Bahawalpur and Muridke were seen in Islamabad as a major escalation. India said seven of its targets were used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both Islamist groups designated "terrorist" organisations by the U.N. Security Council. India launched the attacks in response to the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists in Indian Kashmir last month. Jaish says that it carries out educational and charity work in Pakistan and its militant activities are only in India. Delhi says that it runs training camps in Pakistan, as well as indoctrination schools, and that it launches militants into India. For decades Hindu-majority India has accused Pakistan of supporting Islamist militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Kashmir. Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of supporting separatist rebels in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies.
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump offers to help India, Pakistan as tensions rise
Members of the media film the inside of a building after it was hit by an Indian strike in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab Item 1 of 2 Members of the media film the inside of a building after it was hit by an Indian strike in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he wants India and Pakistan to stop attacking each other now and offered to help the two countries work out their differences amid rising tensions "I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help, I will be there," he told reporters in the Oval Office. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Ryan Patrick Jones Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab Share X Facebook Linkedin Email Link Purchase Licensing Rights
BBC News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Militant group chief says relatives killed in India strike
Militant group chief says relatives killed in India strike 6 minutes ago Share Save Frances Mao BBC News Reporting from London Umer Draz Nangiana BBC Urdu Reporting from Bahawalpur Share Save Reuters Coffins laid out at a funeral for those killed in a strike on a madrasa in Bahawalpur The Pakistan-based leader of a militant group has said 10 of his relatives have been killed in a missile strike by India. Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), said his older sister and her husband, his nephew and his nephew's wife, his niece and five children from his family were killed in a strike on a mosque in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. India launched strikes on sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Tuesday night. Islamabad called the strikes an "act of war". India said it acted in response to a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago that killed 25 Indians and one Nepali. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack. Indian police alleged that two of the attackers were Pakistani nationals, with Delhi accusing Pakistan of supporting militants - a charge Islamabad denies. India said it targeted sites on Tuesday night "from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed". Pakistan said six locations have been hit, but denies India's allegations of these being terrorist infrastructure. India said JeM's headquarters in Bahawalpur, 100km inside Pakistan, was hit. Video footage of the mosque, assessed by BBC Verify, showed one of its domes had collapsed and extensive damage occurred inside, including two holes in the roof and one in the ground. In Bahawalpur on Wednesday, crowds were mourning those killed in the strikes overnight in funeral processions through the streets. Local residents told the BBC they were angry about the attack, but also worried about Pakistan's potential response.
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Business Standard
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
On Google, India looks for 'Operation Sindoor', Pak gripped by Bahawalpur
Following India's 'Operation Sindoor', which involved targeted and non-escalatory missile strikes on terror centres in Pakistan early Wednesday morning, the military action found an echo in online trends and search patterns, with a geographical variance in online searches. Google Trends data showed that while 'Operation Sindoor' was the top trending term in India, with over 2 million searches, Pakistani cyberspace saw 'Bahawalpur' leading with over half a million searches. The Indian trend suggests a centralised focus on the specifics of the reported military action, with related searches around Masood Azhar and Sindoor Operation, among others. 'Related queries' data in India reveal an intense concern for the impact of the operation, with increasing searches for 'Operation Sindoor reaction' and 'Operation Sindoor how many killed'. Interestingly, searches for '#Flightradar24' and 'flight tracking' were also prominent, hinting at heightened security anxieties and public monitoring of air traffic. The search interest was highest in Karnataka, Delhi, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with relatively lower interest seen in the traditionally sensitive regions of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly, 'Operation Sindoor' was also a trending term in Pakistan but with much less concentration. Instead, 'Bahawalpur', where the 18-acre headquarters of the Masood Azhar-led terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) was targeted in the missile strikes, saw the most searches. The south Pakistan city has become the dominant trending topic across the border, with searches revolving around the immediate aftermath, with terms like 'Bahawalpur attack', 'Bahawalpur map', and 'Bahawalpur distance'. Geographically, search interest for #Bahawalpur peaks in Punjab, where the city is located, followed by the Islamabad Capital Territory and Sindh, indicating a more geographically concentrated zone of concern. Alongside Bahawalpur, searches for Muzaffarabad, border, explosion, and even madrasa are prominent in Pakistan. Notably, the most searched entity is 'mosque', often linked with an Al Jazeera report, potentially indicating heightened alert and a focus on local community impact. In terms of media consumption, #ARYNewsLive was trending high, suggesting a strong reliance on local news sources. Economic anxieties are also evident, with #KarachiStockExchange and #PakistanShareMarket trending, suggesting an interest in local economic stability. Geographic interest in 'Operation Sindoor' within Pakistan was highest in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), followed by Islamabad Capital Territory and Sindh, indicating that the location of the military operation is more important for the Pakistani. The 'related queries' data for 'India Pakistan war' (worldwide) revealed a mix of historical context and current anxieties. In both India and Pakistan, there is significant interest in past conflicts like the 1971 and 1965 wars. However, the 'rising queries' dataset offers a glimpse into more immediate concerns. In India, these centred around 'Pakistan and India war 2025', 'India Pakistan war prediction 2025', 'Is there any chance of war between India and Pakistan', and so on. The trending terms also reveal differences in news consumption patterns. In India, there was significant interest in "flightradar24" and 'flight tracker,' suggesting a desire to monitor air traffic movements. In Pakistan, 'ARY News Live', 'BBC Urdu' and 'DGispr' were trending, demonstrating the importance of local news sources. In both countries, however, there was interest in international media outlets like CNN and BBC News. A notable trend in both countries was the interest in the economic impact of the situation. Both countries saw searches for 'Dassault Aviation share price', potentially reflecting interest in the performance of defense stocks. Dassault also manufactures the Rafale fighter aircraft, which are part of the Indian Air Force. In Pakistan, there was a notable spike in searches for "Pakistan share market," highlighting concerns about the economic stability of the country. Interestingly, both countries have seen significant searches for Colonel Sofia Qureshi, a senior officer from the Indian Army who was part of the Indian government's media briefing regarding the missile strikes, with related queries centered around her religion.
