Senior J&K official among five killed in Pakistani shelling in Jammu region
Rajouri, May 10: A senior Jammu and Kashmir official was among five civilians killed on Saturday morning as Pakistani forces carried out intense shelling across multiple areas in the Jammu region. The attacks come amid ongoing air and drone strikes along India’s northern and western frontiers.
Raj Kumar Thapa (55), Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC) of Rajouri, lost his life after a Pakistani artillery shell hit his residence in Rajouri town early Saturday. Thapa, a 1989 MBBS graduate from Jammu Government Medical College, was critically injured in the blast and later succumbed to his injuries.
Just a day earlier, Thapa had accompanied Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary on a district visit and had attended a high-level online meeting chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Expressing his condolences on social media platform X, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote,
**“Devastating news from Rajouri. We have lost a dedicated officer of the J\&K Administration Services. Just yesterday he was accompanying the Deputy CM around the district and attended the online meeting I chaired. Today, his residence was hit by Pakistani shelling. I have no words to express my shock and sadness at this terrible loss of life. May his soul rest in peace.”**
He further urged the public to stay indoors and avoid sharing or believing in unverified rumours.
In a separate incident in Kheri village near Raipur on the outskirts of Jammu city, a civilian named Zakir Hussain was killed when another shell hit his house. Several members of his family were injured in the blast.
In yet another shelling-related incident, Ashok Kumar of Kheri Jattan and three of his relatives were wounded while they were trying to move to a safer location.
The latest attacks have pushed the civilian death toll in the Jammu region to five. This includes two residents from Bihar who died in Rajouri town and a woman who was killed in the Mendhar area of Poonch district during earlier strikes.
The early morning shelling marked a sharp escalation in cross-border hostilities. It came just hours after Pakistan launched swarms of drones for the second night in a row, targeting Indian military positions in several cities close to the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border.
According to officials, the Indian Air Force continued to effectively engage Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighters in response to these provocations. They also hinted that the PAF may have suffered losses during the overnight engagements, particularly in the Srinagar sector, which came under missile attack.
The situation remains tense in several border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, with local authorities urging residents to stay alert and follow safety advisories amid the continuing hostilities.
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Bengal awaits May 4 results; TMC looks to retain power, BJP aims historic win after record turnout
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal heads into verdict day on Monday after over a month of frenzied campaigning, as it waits with bated breath to see whether the TMC manages to hold on to power or the BJP makes a historic breakthrough and claims the state for the first time.
As the EVMs open at 8 am, the CPI(M) and the Congress will be watching with equal keenness, hoping to reclaim a foothold in the state's electoral map after five years in the wilderness, following their wipeout in the 2021 polls.
Counting of votes will take place across 77 centres in the state, with elaborate security arrangements and a charged political atmosphere setting the stage for the declaration of results in 293 of the 294-seat House.
The Election Commission countermanded polls in the entire Falta constituency in South 24 Parganas district, citing “severe electoral offences and subversion of democratic process during polling in a large number of polling stations”.
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The fresh poll in that seat and the counting will take place on May 21 and May 24, respectively.
The two-phase polls in the state ended on April 29, with what the election watchdog said was the state's highest-ever voter turnout of 92.47 per cent since Independence.
Repolling in 15 booths in South 24 Parganas concluded on Saturday, with around 87 per cent turnout recorded, officials said.
The state’s political climate bordered on the vicious, even after the conclusion of polls, leading to fervent anticipation ahead of the announcement of results, with both primary contenders TMC and BJP, claiming they were dead certain about their victory prospects.
Courtesy the tight security arrangements – with over 2.5 lakh central paramilitary personnel on the ground, besides the presence of a thoroughly reshuffled state police force – electoral violence remained at a minimum, and no deaths were reported for the first time in the state’s election history of recent decades.
This was also the first election held in the state in twenty years, conducted after an extensive, albeit controversial, SIR exercise that revised the electoral rolls, removing over 9 million voters.
The jury is out on the impact of the exercise on the electoral fortunes of all parties across the board, prompting pollsters to burn the midnight oil to make sense of the likely choice of voters and keeping the public greatly enthused about what verdict the result day would deliver.
The campaigns recorded the BJP unleashing its full might, with top leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launching all-out attacks on the TMC over corruption, law and order, infiltration, women’s safety and unemployment, while promising welfare measures.
The TMC’s retaliation, with the CM and party MP Abhishek Banerjee leading the charge, focused on SIR harassment, Bengali persecution and ‘outsider’ plank, accusing the BJP of failing to deliver on its national commitments and upholding TMC’s development report card.
Polling for the elections was held on April 23 and April 29, with a total electorate of over 3.21 crores.
The poll body has scaled down the number of counting centres this year to 77 from 87 announced earlier, and 108 in 2021, while putting in place a multi-layered security grid.
“Comprehensive security arrangements have been made to ensure that counting is conducted in a peaceful, transparent and orderly manner,” a senior EC official said.
The run-up to counting, however, has been marked by high political drama, with TMC leaders, helmed by CM Mamata Banerjee, rushing to strongrooms in Kolkata, apprehending counting malpractice and alleging attempts to tamper with the sealed EVMs.
The EC rejected those allegations, maintaining that all electronic voting machines are kept under strict surveillance with round-the-clock security and CCTV monitoring.
“Strongrooms are secured under a three-tier security system, and candidates or their representatives are allowed to keep watch as per protocol. There is no scope for any tampering,” another poll panel official said.
Closer to the counting date, security outside strongrooms has been further tightened, with the EC deploying 165 additional counting observers and 77 police observers to oversee the process and ensure adherence to norms.
In Kolkata, counting for 11 assembly constituencies will be conducted across five locations - Ballygunge Government High School, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University, Shakhawat Memorial School, Netaji Indoor Stadium and St Thomas Boys’ School.
Counting for the Bhabanipur seat, arguably carrying the highest symbolic weight where Mamata Banerjee is taking on senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari in a prestige fight on her home turf, will be held at the Sakhawat Memorial centre.
The EC has introduced stringent access control measures, mandating entry only through QR code-based photo identity cards issued via its ECINet system. Mobile phones have been barred inside counting halls, except for returning officers and observers.
The counting exercise will be conducted under a framework upheld by the Supreme Court, which on Saturday declined to pass further directions on a TMC plea challenging the deployment of central government personnel.
The elections saw the TMC contesting in 291 seats and its ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), led by Anit Thapa, fielding candidates in three seats in the Darjeeling hills.
The BJP, Congress and the Left Front are gunning for all 294 segments, with parties like Humayun Kabir’s AJUP and Asaduddin Owasi’s AIMIM also trying their luck in some crucial pockets.
BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Roopa Ganguly and Nishit Pramanik are in the fray, while prominent TMC candidates include Firhad Hakim, Kunal Ghosh, Madan Mitra and Udayan Guha.
