9 killed, 17 injured as bus collides with truck in UP's Banda
Banda/Lucknow (UP), Nov 25: Nine people were killed while 17 injured in a collision between a UP Roadways bus and a truck in the Tindwari police station area here on Monday afternoon, police said.
In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the deaths and the UPSRTC announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of each of the deceased and Rs 2.5 lakh for those who sustained serious injuries.
The accident took place near the Saimiri turn this afternoon, SP (Banda) Ganesh Prasad Saha said.
Altogether there were 50 passengers on the bus which was on its way to Fatehpur from Banda, the SP said, adding the identity of the victims was being established. Senior officials, including the district magistrate, rushed to the scene of the accident.
An official spokesman in Lucknow said the chief minister has directed all officials concerned to make arrangements for the treatment of those injured in the accident.
The UPSRTC announced that it will bear the expenditure of treatment of the injured.
UPSRTC MD Raj Shekhar and a technical team had rushed to the site for preliminary assessment, an official spokesman said.
The MD had asked for a report on preliminary reasons and a sequence of events leading to the accident, he added.
Later in a statement, Raj Shekhar said, "In the preliminary investigation and the site visit, it is believed that the truck ran into the bus and hit the right portion of the bus immediately after the driver seat. The truck brushed the complete right side portion of the bus, causing death of nine persons and injuring 17."
The driver and conductor of the bus had suffered injuries and were being treated at a hospital, he said.
"The driver of the UPSRTC bus has a valid driving licence and was driving the vehicle in order. The vehicle physical fitness was in order and the speed limit device was installed. It was in working condition. The speed at that time as per the vehicle tracking system was 50 km/hour," the UPSRTC MD said.
He added that the driver and assistant of the truck fled after the accident.
An FIR against them has been registered by the UPSRTC.
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Trump says Islamic State group leader was killed in joint US-Nigerian mission
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump said US and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday.
Trump announced the joint operation in a late-night social media post that offered few details. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second in command of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”
The US viewed Al-Mainuki as the key figure in IS organising and finance, and believed he was plotting attacks against the United States and its interests, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share sensitive information.
Born in Nigeria's Borno province in 1982, al-Mainuki took the helm of the IS branch in West Africa after the group's previous leader in the region, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, according to the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks militant groups.
Al-Mainuki was based in the Sahel area, the monitoring group said, adding that it is believed that he fought in Libya when IS was active in the North African nation more than a decade ago. He was sanctioned by the US in 2023.
Trump in December directed US forces to launch strikes against the Islamic State group in Nigeria, though he released little detail then about the impact.
Nigeria has been battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with IS.
The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela's then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the US, followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran.
