Occultist, aide questioned in Delhi family deaths
New Delhi, July 2 : Police on Monday said an occultist and his accomplice were detained for questioning in the mysterious mass deaths of 11 members of a Delhi family on Sunday.
Police said it recovered handwritten notes in the prayer area of their two-storey house in Pant Nagar in Burari, revealing a possible mystical connection to the deaths.
All but one of the bodies were found hanging from the ceiling. Most of them were blindfolded, gagged and their hands tied behind the back.
The oldest, Narayan Devi, 77, was found on the floor with signs of strangulation.
The notes hinting at mysticism were found in a diary in the prayer area. The texts of pages discussed spirituality, salvation, rituals and few dates of last month.
Articles used for offering in worship such as ghee and grains were also recovered from the house. The police suspect the role of an occultist or a godman behind the deaths.
"We are suspecting that the family may have died in a ritual which went wrong," a police officer said. The officer said the notes had instructions like: "Everyone should be blindfolded properly, nothing but zenith should be visible to the eyes.
"Worship the banyan tree for seven days at a stretch with devotion. If somebody comes home, then do it the next day. Choose Thursday and Sunday for this.
"If the elderly woman (Narayani Devi) can't stand, she can lie down in another room. "Use dim light for offering rituals. Offer the rituals between 12 and 1 a.m so that no one disturbs you.
"When you all were hanging during that period, god will miraculously appear and save you all at the moment."
The police officer said almost every instruction in the note seemed to have been followed by the family for "obtaining salvation". One important rule was that the family was to avoid using mobile phones, he said.
It took the police a few hours to recover their mobile phones from the house.
Vivek Kumar, a neighbour, said the family used to hold religious rituals and prayed regularly every two hours in morning and evening the last few weeks.
The deceased found hanging were Narayan Devi's two sons Bhavnesh Bhatia, 50, and Lalit Bhatia, 45, and two daughters Pratibha, 57, and Priyanka, 33, who got engaged last month.
Bhavnesh's wife Savita, 48, and their three children Nitu, 25, Monu, 23, and Dhruv, 15, were also found dead along with Lalit's wife Tina, 42, and their son Shivam, 15.
The Bhatias ran a grocery stone and a plywood outlet in the neighbourhood. Narayan Devi's eldest son Dinesh Bhatia lives in Rajasthan's Kota and another daughter Sujata lives in Panipat in Haryana.
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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.
