Amit Shah arrives in Manipur to set tone for 2019 polls
Imphal, June 30: As part of the exercise to prepare strategy for the parliamentary elections next year, BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday arrived in the city. He will hold meetings with the BJP chief ministers of the northeastern states.
Shah is also scheduled to hold meetings with the party presidents of states in which the BJP is not in power. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources said the party is launching an all-out pre-election exercise to win all Lok Sabha seats in the Northeast.
All chief ministers, ministers and party functionaries are putting up in a three-star hotel in Imphal for holding the meetings round-the-clock.
Manipur unit BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP K. Bhabananda said: "Amit Shah held talks with the leaders of every northeastern state, discussing how to win all Lok Sabha seats in all the eight states."
Both Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and Bhabananda met Shah.
Manipur has been organising the people through "Go to Hills" and "Go to Village" missions. Under these projects, selected persons are given various benefits, including free gas connections.
However, senior Congress leader and former Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh said: "All developmental projects had been started during the Congress rule of 15 years. All that the BJP-led government has done now is that it inaugurated those projects."
He said that a party which restricts the food habit of communities cannot find a permanent foothold in the Northeast. He recalled how some BJP functionaries had resigned in Meghalaya in protest against ban on cow-slaughter, and added that "beef is a part of culture of the people of the state".
Another senior Congress leader and former Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam said: "Despite all the eye dazzlings, BJP will be wiped out in the 2019 parliamentary elections."
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
