MV Ganga Vilas cruise ship reaches Assam on Friday
Guwahati (PTI): Touted as the world's longest river cruise, MV Ganga Vilas, reached Assam on Friday after passing through neighbouring Bangladesh.
The vessel crossed the zero point in Dhubri along the India-Bangladesh border, and will continue its onward journey to reach Dibrugarh at the eastern tip of the state on March 1, an official statement said.
MV Ganga Vilas is scheduled to travel 13 days in Assam and will halt at Dhubri, Jogighopa, Pandu (Guwahati), Kaziranga and Majuli before the culmination of the journey at Dibrugarh.
The luxury cruise was planned to cover a distance of more than 3,200 km across 27 river systems in five states in India and Bangladesh.
The vessel has already traversed through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Bangladesh, the statement said.
The maiden journey of MV Ganga Vilas, flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on January 13, has been curated to showcase the rich heritage of India with stopovers in spots of historical, cultural and religious importance.
The famous 'Ganga arti' in Varanasi and Sarnath, a place of great reverence for Buddhism, Sundarbans, a Unesco world heritage site in West Bengal, Mayong, known for its Tantric craft, and Majuli, the largest river island and hub of Vaishnavite culture in Assam, are among places that MV Ganga Vilas' tourists could experience.
Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had earlier said that the vessel would carry 32 tourists from Switzerland and 14 of them would disembark at Kolkata with an equal number of boarding again for the onward journey to Dibrugarh, from where they will fly back to New Delhi.
Another set of 32 tourists from the same country will board the ship on their way to Varanasi, he had said.
Sonowal had also said the MV Ganga Vilas would herald a new age of river cruise tourism in India.
The global river cruise market has grown at 5 per cent over the last few years and is expected to constitute 37 per cent of the cruise market by 2027, according to an estimate.
Europe has been driving growth with around 60 per cent share of river cruise vessels in the world.
In India, eight river cruise ships are operational between Kolkata and Varanasi, while cruise movement is also operational on the Brahmaputra river.
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Explosive device kills 13, injures 38 on bus in southwestern Colombia as violence persists
Bogota (Colombia) (PTI): An explosive device killed 13 people travelling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, an attack the country's army chief described as a “terrorist act" that also left at least 38 injured as violence linked to drug trafficking in the region escalates.
Octavio Guzman, the governor of the region of Cauca, said on X that the device was set off while the bus was travelling along the Panamerican Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. Five children were among the injured, Cauca Health Secretary Carolina Camargo told Noticias Caracol, a TV news program.
Gen. Hugo Lopez, commander of Colombia's Armed Forces, told a news conference that it was a “terrorist act" and blamed the network of a man known as “Ivan Mordisco” — one of Colombia's most wanted figures — and the Jaime Martínez faction. Both are dissidents of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that operate in the region.
Neither Ivan Mordisco nor the Jaime Martínez faction abide by the peace agreement signed with the state in 2016.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the attack on X.
“Those who carried out the attack and killed seven civilians — and wounded 17 others — in Cajibío — many of them Indigenous people — are terrorists, fascists, and drug traffickers,” he wrote.
The attack is the latest in a spate of explosions that have attempted to target public infrastructure. At least 26 incidents have taken place in the past two days in southwestern Colombia, which Lopez said have only affected civilians.
They included a shooting at a police station in the rural area of Jamundi, and an attack on a Civil Aviation radar facility in El Tambo, where authorities took down three explosives-laden drones earlier on Saturday. No one was hurt.
On Friday, two vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated near military units in Cali and Palmira, causing material damage.
The escalation of violence in that region — a territory contested by illegal armed groups linked to drug trafficking — prompted the mobilisation of high-ranking officials on Saturday. Led by Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez, the delegation that includes regional governors and local authorities, was meeting in Palmira when the deadly explosion occurred.
“These criminals seek to instil fear, but we will respond with firmness,” Sanchez said on X.
Meanwhile, Francisca Toro, governor of Valle del Cauca, has called upon the national government to provide “immediate support.” In a message on X, Toro called for a reinforcement of public security forces, enhanced intelligence operations and “decisive actions” against crime in the face of a “terrorist-level escalation.”
According to authorities, Cauca and Valle del Cauca serve as a critical hub for illicit activities of illegal armed groups vying for control over sea and river access routes leading to the port of Buenaventura — a key transit point used to traffic drugs to Central America and Europe.
The government has also offered a reward of more than 1 million dollars for information leading to the capture of “Marlon,” who is identified as the leader of the region's dissident group. On Friday, local authorities offered more than USD 14,000 for information leading to the identification and location of those behind the attacks in Cali and Palmira.
