Supreme Court judges' team arrives in Manipur's Imphal, to inaugurate legal aid clinics
Imphal (PTI): A delegation of Supreme Court judges arrived at the airport here on Saturday morning and is scheduled to visit people displaced due to ethnic violence in Manipur, officials said.
The top court delegation led by Justice B.R. Gavai was accorded a warm welcome by the lawyers' fraternity of the state at the airport.
The judges are scheduled to visit relief camps and virtually inaugurate legal services camps, legal aid clinics and temporary medical facilities from the Mini Secretariat in Churachandpur district around 10:40 am and later, they will go to a relief camp at Moirang College in Bishnupur, the officials said.
"We are very happy to be here...we have just come here and are looking forward to the visit," one of the visiting judges told reporters.
Justice N Kotiswar Singh, who is part of the delegation and belongs to the Meitei community, will not visit the Kuki-majority Churachandpur district, amid objection from a lawyers' body there, the officials said, adding that Justice Singh will head for Bishnupur district.
The All Manipur Bar Association (AMBA) has urged its Churachandpur district counterpart to withdraw its directive preventing a Meitei judge of the Supreme Court from visiting the Kuki-Zo-dominated area.
AMBA president Puyam Tomcha Meitei told PTI that the visit of the Supreme Court judges is historic and first-of-its-kind.
The apex court judges will also attend an event at the High Court of Manipur on Sunday.
More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.
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Trump’s fresh threat to bomb Iran amid reports of deal to end war
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened Iran with more bombing if it doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz, amid a report that the warring sides were nearing an agreement to end the war.
US media outlet Axios reported, quoting US officials and two other sources, that the US and Iran were getting close to a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations.
The US expects Iranian responses on several key points over the next 48 hours, Axios reported, adding that nothing has been agreed yet. This was the closest the parties had been to an agreement since the war began.
"Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before," Trump said.
According to Axios, the deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment, the US agreeing to lift its sanctions and release billions in frozen Iranian funds, and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
It said many of the terms laid out in the memo would be contingent on a final agreement being reached, leaving the possibility of renewed war or an extended limbo in which the hot war has stopped, but nothing is truly resolved.
