20 killed in attack on miners in Pakistan
Karachi(PTI): At least 20 miners were killed and eight others were injured early Friday when unidentified armed men attacked their coal mines in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province.
The incident occurred in the Dukki area of the province, Dunya News reported.
The attack is the latest in a string of violence in Pakistan. It comes less ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit to be held in the national capital.
According to District Chairman Dukki Haji Khair Ullah Nasir, the attackers used hand grenades and rocket launchers in the attack. He said that there are ten coal mines located in the area.
Nasir said that the attackers also set ablaze mining machinery before fleeing the scene.
At least 20 miners were killed and eight others were wounded.
Police, paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and rescue teams rushed to the spot after the attack.
Police sources said that the death toll may rise as some injured minors were in critical condition.
SHO Dukki Hamanyan Khan said the armed men first gathered the miners in different groups and then sprayed bullets on them.
Heavy contingents of police and FC have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to arrest the culprits.
Pakistan has witnessed a worrying surge in terrorist attacks in the ongoing year with fatalities in the first three quarters surpassing the numbers recorded in all of 2023.
As per the third Quarterly Report (Q3) issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), the number of fatalities rose to at least 1,534 in the first three quarters of 2024 compared to 1,523 in 2023.
Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting CPEC projects.
The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) accuses China and Islamabad of exploitation of the resource-rich province, a charge rejected by the authorities. It has fought a long-running insurgency for a separate homeland.
Earlier this week, two Chinese nationals were killed and 17 people injured in a suicide attack by a Baloch insurgent group that targeted a convoy of Chinese workers near Pakistan's busiest airport in Karachi.
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Kumaraswamy says ‘caste for sake of a chair’ charge against CM Siddaramaiah was serious
Bengaluru (PTI): Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday launched a sharp counterattack on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, asserting that his charge that the CM had “dragged caste into the picture for the sake of a chair” was made in all seriousness and not in jest.
Responding to Siddaramaiah’s media statement targeting the JD(S) leadership, Kumaraswamy in a post on X said, “When I said that Siddaramaiah has dragged caste into the picture for the sake of a chair, I did not say it jokingly; I said it seriously."
In his statement, Siddaramaiah had alleged that Kumaraswamy and his father, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, were 'family-centric' and that "in the past, present and future, the top leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) will be members of the Gowda family".
Reacting to this, the MP wrote, “Siddaramaiah, I do not speak in a roundabout manner. I will come straight to the point.”
Taking strong exception to Siddaramaiah’s remarks against his father, Kumaraswamy said, “You are not a champion of social justice but its destroyer. It is shocking that you are pointing fingers at Deve Gowda, who gave you political strength and life. The power you hold today and the attire of a social justice crusader you wear are all gifts of Deve Gowda. You too are a product and beneficiary of his social justice.”
He further contended that had Deve Gowda been guided solely by caste or family considerations, Siddaramaiah would not have risen in politics.
“Had he thought only about his own caste and family back then, you would not have become Finance Minister, nor would you have secured even the chairmanship of a corporation,” he said.
Referring to the Chief Minister’s listing of several Vokkaliga leaders who had left the JD(S), Kumaraswamy said, “Like you, they too enjoyed power and grew in stature because of Deve Gowda’s hard work and sacrifice, and later jumped the fence. As you claim, had Gowda believed that only family mattered, none of those on the list would have become MLAs, Ministers or MPs — including you! What do you say?”
He also objected to Siddaramaiah invoking senior Congress leaders in his defence.
“Do you possess even a mustard seed’s worth of worthiness or morality to utter S M Krishna’s name? The world knows how cruelly you betrayed Krishna, whom you once described before Sonia Gandhi as ‘an unpolished diamond’ and who paved your way into the Congress,” he wrote.
Kumaraswamy rejected the Chief Minister’s claim that the Congress alone had nurtured Vokkaliga leaders. “You say it is the Congress that nurtured Vokkaligas — sheer nonsense… If the Congress alone makes Vokkaligas Chief Ministers, should you not immediately vacate the chair? This is the right time to demonstrate your love for Vokkaligas!” he said.
He also raised questions about Siddaramaiah’s second term as Chief Minister and the reported power tussle between him and his deputy D K Shivakumar.
The JD(S) leader said he welcomed the generosity of the Congress in giving capable leadership to the Vokkaliga community.
He demanded that Siddaramaiah should also need to demonstrate that generosity by vacating the top post, paving the way for a 'Vokkaliga' -- an apparent reference to Shivakumar.
According to Kumaraswamy, before Siddaramaiah became the Chief Minister for a second term, there was an agreement between him and Shivakumar and he should now show the generosity to reveal it publicly. "I believe that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, who were witnesses to that agreement between the two of you in Delhi, have now understood the peak of your commitment to social justice and love for Vokkaligas. At least I believe their mental faculties are intact."
In a pointed remark on social justice, Kumaraswamy alleged that it is repulsive that the "destroyer of social justice" keeps speaking repeatedly about social justice.
"Your social justice has no conscience. If it had, Mallikarjun Kharge would have become Chief Minister before you,” the Union Minister said.
Concluding his post, he said if Siddaramaiah was truly a leader of AHINDA (an acronym for minorities, backward castes and Dalits) and a representative of social justice, he would not have dragged in the caste into which he was born at such a sensitive time.
He advised Siddaramaiah not to invoke the names of social reformers in future.
