Here’s what happened during Trump’s 10th week in office
While the U.S. military has been conducting strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, President Donald Trump and his White House have been engaging in a battle of their own, defending leaked texts detailing war plans about those very strikes in Yemen. This week, the Trump administration has fielded a litany of questions and criticism after the Atlantic published a story detailing how administration officials used a Signal group chat to discuss strikes in Yemen, and accidentally added a journalist to the group. The group chats included White House leaders, including Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, as well as other administration officials including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Additionally, the chat included Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. While the White House said that classified information was not shared via the encrypted messaging service, the Atlantic published the full exchange of messages Wednesday. The messages included certain attack details, including specific aircraft and times of the strikes. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained Wednesday no classified information was shared. TRUMP ADMIN DECLARES THE ATLANTIC’S SIGNAL ARTICLE A ‘HOAX’ AFTER IT DROPS ‘WAR PLANS’ RHETORIC “We have said all along that no classified material was sent on this messaging thread,” Leavitt told reporters. “There were no locations, no sources or methods revealed, and there were certainly no war plans discussed.” Meanwhile, the episode has prompted backlash from lawmakers. Senate Armed Service Committee leaders Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., said they are requesting an inspector general investigation into the use of the Signal app and as a classified briefing with a top administration official on the matter. Additionally, several lawmakers including Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., from the House Intelligence Committee have called for Hegseth’s resignation. Here’s what also happened this week: Trump issued a pardon Tuesday for Devon Archer, former first son Hunter Biden’s prior business associate, who was convicted in 2018 for defrauding a Native American tribe in a plot to issue and sell fraudulent tribal bonds. Archer faced a sentence of more than a year in prison, but his conviction was overturned before later being reinstated in 2020. His appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, and so his prison sentence was up in the air prior to the pardon. “Many people have asked me to do this,” Trump said Tuesday ahead of signing the pardon. “They think he was treated very unfairly. And I looked at the records, studied the records. And he was a victim of a crime, as far as I’m concerned. So we’re going to undo that. … Congratulations, Devon.” Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing the FBI to immediately declassify files concerning the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the agency probe launched in 2016 that sought information on whether Trump campaign members colluded with Russia during the presidential race. After signing the order, Trump said that now the media can review previously withheld files pertaining to the investigation — although he cast doubt on whether many journalists would do so. TRUMP ORDERS FBI TO DECLASSIFY DOCUMENTS FROM ‘CROSSFIRE HURRICANE’ RUSSIA INVESTIGATION “You probably won’t bother because you’re not going to like what you see,” Trump said. “But this was total weaponization. It’s a disgrace. It should have never happened in this country. But now you’ll be able to see for yourselves. All declassified.” The FBI on July 31, 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump, then a presidential candidate, or members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 election. That investigation was referred to inside the bureau as “Crossfire Hurricane.” The extensive probe yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Vance and second lady Usha Vance, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, visited Pituffik Space Base in Greenland Friday, the Department of Defense’s northernmost military installation. The base is home to the Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group to conduct missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations. The Trump administration is seeking to acquire Greenland for national security purposes, and has accused Denmark of neglecting Greenland. VANCE’S ‘AMERICA FIRST’ APPROACH GOES GLOBAL, TAKES HARDLINE MESSAGE TO GREENLAND But leaders in Denmark and Greenland remain unequivocally opposed to Greenland becoming part of the U.S., although Greenland’s prime minister has called for independence from Copenhagen. Meanwhile, Denmark has come under scrutiny for its treatment of indigenous people from Greenland. A group of indigenous women from Greenland sued the Danish government in May 2024 and accused Danish health officials of fitting them with intrauterine devices without their knowledge between the 1960s and 1970s. Denmark and Greenland launched an investigation into the matter in 2022, and the report is expected for release this year. The Associated Press and Fox News’ Emma Colton and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Trump draws laughs when defining a ‘woman’ — until he touches on a serious issue
President Donald Trump drew laughs from the press when one reporter asked him to define what a woman is. Trump was speaking at a news conference after Alina Habba, a longtime member of his team, was sworn-in as the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. The reporter who asked the question first said that Trump had done “so much for women” before listing women who have powerful roles in the Trump administration, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Attorney General Pam Bondi. He then asked, “Since Democrats seemed to struggle answering this question, I want to ask you, what is a woman and why is it important that we understand the difference between men and women?” The room quickly erupted in laughter as Trump said that the question was “easy” to answer. “A woman is somebody, they can have a baby under certain circumstances. She has equality. A woman is a person who is much smarter than a man, I’ve always found. A woman is a person that doesn’t give a man even a chance of success,” Trump said. While the reporters in the room chuckled, Trump took the opportunity to take the question in a serious direction and addressed the issue of transgender athletes playing in women’s sports. TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘PROUD TO BE THE PRESIDENT TO SAVE WOMEN’S SPORTS’ AFTER NCAA CHANGES TRANS ATHLETE POLICY “And a woman is a person that in many cases has been treated very badly. Because I think that what happens with this crazy, this crazy issue of men being able to play in women’s sports is just ridiculous and very unfair to women, and very demeaning to women,” Trump said, shifting the tone of the news conference. Trump referenced a Democrat lawmaker, without naming who it was, fighting to keep transgender athletes in women’s sports. The president joked that he hopes Democrats keep arguing for the inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports “because they’ll never win another election.” TRUMP SIGNS ‘NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS’ EXECUTIVE ORDER The Trump administration has taken swift action in combating gender ideology. Trump signed an order specifically addressing the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports. The order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funds from allowing trans athletes to compete against women. Additionally, Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” This order made it official policy that the U.S. government only recognizes two genders: male and female. CALIFORNIA UNDER INVESTIGATION BY TRUMP ADMIN FOR ALLEGEDLY HIDING ‘GENDER IDENTITY’ OF KIDS The U.S. Department of Education recently took action on this issue and launched an investigation of the California Department of Education over alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) after a new California law went into effect that bars schools from disclosing a child’s “gender identity” to their parents. California Gov. Gavin Newsom spokesperson Elana Ross told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday, “Parents continue to have full, guaranteed access to their student’s education records, as required by federal law.” As Trump concluded his answer to the question, he said, “Women are, basically, incredible people, do so much for our country. And we love our women and we’re going to take care of our women.” Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph contributed to this article.
Why Trump’s push for frigid Greenland is about icing out US adversaries
President Donald Trump has insisted the U.S. needs to “get” Greenland, “one way or another.” But it’s not the first time U.S. leaders have had their eyes on the icy, sprawling island. Located in the middle of contested waters between the U.S., Russia and Western Europe, Greenland is situated at a point that could protect the North Atlantic passage from Russian ships and submarines. It was a key military vantage point during the Cold War, and President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland from the Danes in 1946. The island is also a transfer point for communication cables that cross the Atlantic. European officials claim Russian “ghost ships” have been destroying such cables by dropping their anchors and dragging them across the ocean floor. Greater control over the island would not only offer the U.S. the shortest ship route to Europe but also the opportunity to bolster its ballistic missile early warning system and place radar on the ocean floor to track the movements of Russian and Chinese ships. US ACCUSES DENMARK OF TREATING GREENLANDERS AS ‘SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS’ DURING VANCE VISIT TO ARCTIC BASE The island rests on top of lucrative supplies of critical and rare earth minerals, such as cobalt, nickel, uranium and iron — materials that are essential to electric vehicles, medical equipment, electronics, batteries and advanced defense systems. The U.S. was once a top producer of rare earth minerals, but has been knocked off by China. China currently dominates the global supply chain with access to 60% of the world’s supply, but Greenland could be a “game changer,” according to national security attorney Irina Tsukerman. “Their total resources of these rare earths could be greater than what China has,” she told Fox News Digital. Vice President JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance, national security advisor Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, along with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, visited Greenland on Friday. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” the vice president remarked on the trip. “You underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you’ve underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, all-beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change and because it hasn’t changed, this is why President Trump’s policy in Greenland is what it is.” TRUMP SAYS ‘WE NEED GREENLAND FOR INTERNATIONAL SAFETY AND SECURITY’ AHEAD OF VANCE TRIP Greenland is estimated to have the world’s eighth-largest reserve of rare earths, just behind the U.S. But its minerals have proven difficult to access — 80% of the island’s surface is covered in thick sheets of ice. The island also has lots of red tape: strict environmental and social impact requirements mean the permitting process takes time. The nation’s economy is currently built on fishing and welfare: Denmark offers around $700 million each year, nearly half of Greenland’s budget. The U.S. has dangled “billions” in investment to mine minerals in Greenland as part of an effort to reduce its reliance on China, though China has already had a limited involvement in mining projects there. “China is more concerned about access to the Arctic than those minerals,” said Tsukerman. “China has focused its mineral efforts on Africa, where it is indeed far ahead of the U.S. Russia has been focused on the Arctic,” she continued. “There’s been growing talks about increasing NATO presence in the area to deter Russian and Chinese vessels from entering.” There’s oil and gas, too, but in 2021 Greenland passed a ban on all future oil and gas exploration and extraction. As the ice caps continue to melt, the waters around Greenland are becoming more and more navigable — meaning ships traveling from Asia and Europe can sail polar routes and avoid heading south to the Panama and Suez canals. U.S. and Danish defenses on the island have become outdated, just as Russia is refurbishing its own Arctic ports. Greenland once hosted dozens of U.S. bases and outposts, but today hosts just one: Pituffik Space Force Base. Once home to around 10,000 U.S. troops, just around 200 are deployed there now. “We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,” Trump said in an interview on Wednesday. The territory largely opposes the idea of joining the U.S. In response to Trump’s threats to take Greenland, Denmark announced a $2 billion investment in defense on the island in January. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Denmark’s defense intelligence service has determined Greenland to be “a priority for Russia, and it will demonstrate its power through aggressive and threatening behavior, which will carry along with it a greater risk of escalation than ever before in the Arctic.” “We have not invested enough in the Arctic for many years,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen admitted recently. “Now we are planning a stronger presence.”
Utah bans LGBTQ+ pride flags, MAGA flags, other unapproved flags in government buildings, schools
Utah became the first state to prohibit LGBTQ+ pride flags from being flown at government buildings and schools in a move that also bans political flags such as those with President Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, announced he was allowing the ban on unsanctioned flag displays to become law without his signature. Although he continues to have serious concerns about the policy, the governor chose not to reject the proposal because the Republican-controlled legislature would likely have overridden his veto. The ban will go into effect on May 7, when state or local government buildings will be fined $500 a day for displaying any flag other than the American flag, the Utah state flag, military flags or a handful of others approved by lawmakers. FORMER GOP REP. MIA LOVE DEAD AT 49 AFTER BATTLE WITH CANCER, FAMILY SAYS Political flags supporting a candidate or party, including MAGA flags, will be prohibited under the law. The new law could put the state and its largest city, Salt Lake City, at odds. City buildings in the city typically honor Pride Month each June by displaying flags that celebrate its LGBTQ+ population. Local leaders in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County have illuminated the city and county buildings with rainbow lights each night since the bill was sent to Cox’s desk in protest of the legislation. LGBT AMERICANS REACH RECORD NUMBER, MORE LIKELY TO BE DEMS, GEN Z: GALLUP POLL Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office said their attorneys are reviewing the law, but the city does not yet have details on what it will do when the law takes effect. The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Trevor Lee and Sen. Dan McCay, both of whom are Republicans, said the measure aims to encourage “political neutrality” from teachers and other government employees. Opponents argue that the law seeks to root out LGBTQ+ expression and remove authority away from cities and towns that do not align politically with the legislature’s GOP majority. Cox said in a letter to legislative leaders explaining his decision that he agreed with the “underlying intent” of the bill to make classrooms politically neutral but believed it went too far in restricting local governments. The governor also highlighted that the law, since it narrowly focuses on flags, does not ban other political displays such as posters or lighting. “To our LGBTQ community, I know that recent legislation has been difficult,” Cox said. “Politics can be a bit of a blood sport at times and I know we’ve had our disagreements,” the governor continued. “I want you to know that I love and appreciate you and I am grateful that you are part of our state. I know these words may ring hollow to many of you, but please know that I mean them sincerely.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,129
These are the key developments on day 1,129 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is the situation on Saturday, March 29, 2025: Fighting Four people were killed in a Russian drone attack on Friday in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The regional governor said 19 people were injured and a large fire broke out in a hotel and restaurant complex that consumed a high-rise apartment building and 10 homes. Ukraine’s military said its air force had struck a border post in Russia’s Bryansk region, destroying infrastructure it said was used for drone launches. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement that the attack was in response to “dozens of daily strikes by attack drones”. Ukrainian troops have staged an incursion into Russia’s Belgorod region, according to Russian military bloggers. Kyiv and Moscow have not confirmed it but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday that his military had taken “certain steps” in Russia outside the Kursk region in an effort to ease pressure on Ukrainian troops. The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Friday its forces had recaptured the village of Hoholivka, one of a handful of villages still held by Ukraine of about 100 seized last August. Ukraine’s General Staff said it had stopped 18 Russian assaults in Kursk over the past day. Ukraine’s military said it shot down 89 of 163 Russian drones launched overnight with 51 failing to reach their targets due to technical issues. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed to have shot down 19 Ukrainian drones that tried to strike an oil refinery in Saratov. Ukrainian police cordon off access to the site of a fire in a restaurant caused by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine, on March 28, 2025 [Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters] Ceasefire Volodymyr Kohut, governor of Ukraine’s Poltava region, has accused Russia of damaging warehouses owned by Ukraine’s state gas producer, Naftogaz, in the central region in violation of a United States-brokered ceasefire on energy infrastructure. The Russian Defence Ministry hit back with its own claims, accusing the Ukrainian military of striking a gas measuring station in the Kursk region’s Sudzha city with US-made HIMARS rockets and a second strike in Bryansk that caused a power outage. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an end to the “horrific suffering” caused by attacks on civilians in Ukraine and said that a ceasefire in Ukraine “would be very welcome”. Turk said “limited ceasefires that protect shipping lanes and infrastructure are a welcome step forward” but a proper end to the war was needed. In a televised address on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Ukraine should be temporarily placed under external governance to allow for democratic elections to take place. Putin suggested that Zelenskyy did not have legitimacy as the Ukrainian president and suggested Ukraine could change any negotiated peace at any time. Responding to Putin’s statements during a briefing with journalists on Friday, Zelenskyy said the comments offer a “reason not to end the war”, adding that Putin is “afraid of negotiations with Ukraine” and that he is “afraid of negotiations with me personally”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres immediately rejected Putin’s suggestion that Ukraine be placed into a form of administration, saying Ukraine’s government is legitimate and must be respected. Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of Russia’s Security Council via a videolink in Moscow, Russia, on March 28, 2025 [Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters] Politics and Diplomacy Advertisement Putin’s comments on Ukraine follow the conclusion of a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron that considered plans to deploy troops to Ukraine. Macron said “several” other nations are willing to join a peacekeeping force alongside France and Britain. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine had received the draft of a new minerals deal from the US, saying it was an “entirely different” document than what had been proposed previously. Neither he nor his vice president would discuss the draft, saying it would first need to be reviewed and discussed. The Ukrainian president confirmed Ukraine was formalising agreements on European military aid and intelligence sharing before the next summit at the US’s Ramstein airbase in Germany. Adblock test (Why?)
Nepal appoint former Australian international Law as new coach
The former West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach guided United States to the 2024 T20 World Cup Super 8s. Former Australia batter Stuart Law has been named coach of the Nepal men’s team on a two-year contract. The 56-year-old replaces Monty Desai, whose two-year stint with the South Asian side ended after the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) decided not to renew his contract. Law, a 1996 Cricket World Cup runner-up with Australia, last coached the United States, guiding them to the Super 8 of the Twenty20 World Cup last year on home soil in their inaugural World Cup appearance. The former right-handed batter left the role after just six months in charge, despite leading the United States to one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history with their win against Pakistan. Law, who appeared in 54 one-day internationals and one Test for Australia, has also had spells with the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Nepal face Scotland and the Netherlands in World Cup League 2 in June as part of the qualifiers for the 2027 Cricket World Cup, which will be staged in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Advertisement They will then enter the qualification for the 2026 T20 World Cup in October, having finished bottom of their group – with only one point – at the 2024 edition. Away from his time with Australia, Law spent much of his playing career in England with Essex and Lancashire and was head coach role at Middlesex prior to his appointment with the United States. Adblock test (Why?)
Gold Smuggling Fiasco: Constable’s complicity, DCP’s blind eye, and ACS Gupta’s crumbling cover-up in Karnataka
Travel records show Ranya made 27 trips to Dubai in three months-nearly one every three days-yet Basavaraj claims he had no clue she was smuggling gold worth crores.
Four Afghan girl guitarists escaped the Taliban. Will they be forced back?
Islamabad, Pakistan – On a pleasant February afternoon in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, the sound of strumming guitars fills a small bedroom in a two-storey home that houses tenants from neighbouring Afghanistan. A flight of slippery marble stairs leads to the room on the first floor, where the bright rays of the sun enter through the window and bounce off the musical instruments, which belong to four young guitarists. These guitarists – 18-year-old Yasemin aka Jellybean, 16-year-old Zakia, 14-year-old Shukriya, and seven-year-old Uzra – are Afghan refugees who, with their families, fled the country after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Yasemin and Uzra are sisters, as are Zakiya and Shukriya. This is where Yasemin and Uzra are now living with their family. The bedroom is where the girls spend hours at a stretch practicing and jamming from Saturday to Thursday. Friday is their weekly day off. On the day Al Jazeera visits, the girls are busy tuning their guitars. They tease one another as they strum squeaky, off-key chords in between. Advertisement Dressed in a grey sweatshirt, her head covered with a black scarf, Yasemin is the group’s lead guitarist and a fan of Blues legend BB King and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. “I really want to see and produce music with him,” says Yasemin on her dream to meet Gilmour, before crooning a track by King. As she tunes her sturdy wooden guitar with her dependable red pick, Yasemin turns towards her bandmates and guides them in adjusting theirs. Yasemin – aka Jellybean – sets the strings of her guitar before playing a tune at her home in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera] The girls learned to play the guitar at Miraculous Love Kids, a music school for children in Kabul set up in 2016 by Lanny Cordola, a rock musician from California. The girls, whose first language is Dari, also learned to speak basic English from Cordola in Kabul, where they attended regular school as well. Their world was turned upside down when the Taliban re-took power on August 15, 2021, after 20 years. The girls were afraid to step outside their homes following a spate of restrictions imposed on women. Cordola, who left Kabul for Islamabad the day the Taliban returned to power, began hatching plans to pluck his students and their families out of Afghanistan so the girls could continue to pursue their music dreams. After months of lobbying donors for funding and negotiating with agents who promised to help the families escape, Cordola finally managed to get seven of his students out, to Islamabad, in April 2022. Even as he continued to teach them there, Cordola worked towards eventually resettling them and their families in the United States, which had announced a programme to take in Afghan allies and refugees who wanted to flee Taliban rule. Advertisement Three of the seven girls were relocated to the US over the past few months. Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra – and their families – were supposed to fly on February 5. “It felt like we had everything in place. They [the US government] did all their medical tests, vetting, screening and interviews. We had the date,” says Cordola. Then Donald Trump took office. Almost immediately, Trump issued a series of executive orders, including one that suspended all refugee programmes for 90 days. “Now, it is all new again,” Cordola says, adding that the “devastating” move has postponed the relocation plans “indefinitely”. But things would get even worse. On March 7, the Pakistani government announced its own plans to deport all Afghan nationals, even those with proper documentation, back to their country by June 30. For those Afghan refugees hoping to relocate to a Western country – like Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra – the deadline to leave Pakistan is even more imminent: Islamabad has said it will begin deporting them on April 1. Yasemin (left), Shukriya, Lanny Cordola, Uzra and Zakia (right) smile for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera] ‘Girl with a guitar’ To gather at Yasemin and Uzra’s house for practice, Cordola picks Zakia and Shukirya up in a van from their home a few blocks away. “We practise for about three to four hours,” says Cordola. In a floral lilac dress and a white headscarf, Zakia’s slender fingers hit the chords on her guitar, which bears her initial, Z. She taps her feet to match the rhythm – Chris Martin of Coldplay is her favourite musician. Advertisement Her younger sister, Shukriya, sporting a double braid with two strands of hair resting on her rosy cheeks, is fond of American musician Dave Matthews, but also has a soft spot for South Korean band BTS and its singer, RM. “RM is my favourite. I like his dancing and rapping… it’s beautiful,” says Shukriya, as her teacher, Cordola, shakes his head in disbelief – and gentle disapproval. Uzra, Yasemin’s younger sister, wears a lime-coloured sport watch on her left wrist, a sequinned teddy bear sweatshirt and black, patterned trousers, as she grips her smaller guitar. She struggles to climb on to the chair, then breaks into soft, husky vocals. “She is a normal seven-year-old in a lot of ways. But when she is in the studio, she is very, very focused. I can’t joke with her when she is in there,” says Cordola about his youngest student. Then Cordola joins them in the jam session, strumming his black guitar. The girls nod in tandem and break into “Girl with a Guitar”, their own original, instrumental song. Practice ends at 1pm, and the girls go about the rest of their day – having lunch, praying, helping their mothers with chores and spending time with their families. Uzra, Yasemin says, is friends with the neighbours’ child, and always finds ways to step out of the house to play with her. Almost on cue, the little guitarist dashes out of the room. A custom guitar pick featuring the
US wants to make Philippines “a proxy” in US-China confrontation
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Victor Gao says Pete Hegseth is trying to stir up a confrontation between China and the US, using the Philippines.
Four policemen, two suspected rebels killed in India-administered Kashmir
The deaths came in a gun battle in the forested area of the southern Jammu region. At least four police officers and two suspected rebels have been killed during a gun battle in the India-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian army’s Rising Star Corps said on social media on Saturday morning that “relentless operations” had led to the “elimination of two terrorists” – a term usually referring to rebels opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir. “We have recovered bodies of three policemen and have also spotted the body of another cop and two militants lying in the forest,” the official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told the Reuters news agency. Arms and ammunition, including two grenades, a bulletproof jacket, empty shells and some magazines of assault rifles were also recovered from the area, the official said. For decades, rebel groups have fought security officials in the region, resulting in a death toll in the thousands. But in recent years, violence has tapered off. Still, according to government data, at least 14 security personnel were killed in such fighting in the first half of 2024, and at least 30 were killed in 2023. Advertisement Latest clashes The latest bout of fighting in the region began on Thursday in the forested area near the city of Kathua in the southern region of Jammu, near India’s border with Pakistan, after a police foot patrol was ambushed while searching for fighters, police chief Nalin Prabhat told reporters on Friday night. The police chief accused the rebels, who were believed to have escaped a cordon by security forces four days earlier, of being from Pakistan, without elaborating. “We will not sleep till we stop such activities of our neighbour,” Prabhat said, referring to Pakistan. Police officers place wreaths on coffins containing the bodies of their colleagues during a wreath-laying ceremony in the Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, on March 28, 2025 [Reuters] The Muslim-majority Kashmir has been at the core of more than 70 years of hostility between India and Pakistan, with both countries claiming complete control over the region. But India regularly accuses Pakistan of pushing fighters across the heavily militarised unofficial border in Kashmir to attack Indian security forces. However, Pakistan denies the allegations, saying it only supports Kashmir’s fight for self-determination. Rebel groups have also been fighting for decades to demand either independence for Kashmir or to merge with Pakistan. But since 2019, the region has bubbled in anger after New Delhi ended Kashmir’s semi-autonomy and curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while at the same time increasing counterinsurgency operations. Advertisement In November last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed the decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s partial autonomy after the territory’s newly elected lawmakers sought restoration. “Only the constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar will operate in Kashmir … No power in the world can restore Article 370 (partial autonomy) in Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to one of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution. Adblock test (Why?)