Nigeria's President Tinubu declares ‘nationwide security emergency’ amid surge in mass kidnappings
Abuja: In a move to address the escalating wave of mass kidnappings and armed violence across the country, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu declared a "nationwide security emergency" on Wednesday.
The president further announced a security plan that will see the recruitment of thousands of additional personnel for both the military and police forces. “This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,” Tinubu said in a statement, as cited by news agency AFP.
Kidnappers have recently targeted various groups across Nigeria, abducting schoolchildren, worshippers, and women in separate incidents. Within a single week, at least 25 schoolgirls, 38 worshippers, 315 schoolchildren and teachers, 13 young women and girls near a farm, and 10 women and children were kidnapped.
While dozens of victims have been rescued or managed to escape, more than 265 children and their teachers remain missing after being seized from a boarding school in Niger state last week, reported AFP.
“In view of the emerging security situation, I have decided to declare a nationwide security emergency and order additional recruitment into the Armed Forces,” Tinubu added.
The president has ordered the recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers, which will increase the police force's strength to 50,000.
The government has also approved the use of National Youth Service Corps camps as training facilities. Furthermore, Tinubu has directed the withdrawal of officers from VIP guard duties for redeployment to conflict zones after crash retraining.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
