Leaders, public pay homage to Ananth Kumar
Bengaluru, Nov 13: A stream of leaders and supporters Tuesday paid their last respects to Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar, who passed away on Monday.
The body was taken from his Basavanagudi residence, where it was kept since Monday morning to Jagannath Bhavan, the BJP state headquarters at Malleshwaram, in a decorated military vehicle with personnel of the three services- the Army, Navy and Air Force- accompanying it.
The procession began, with supporters chanting slogans "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", "Ananth Kumar Amar Rahe".
State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa and party's General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Muralidhar Rao were present at the state BJP office, where a pall of gloom has descended.
Several BJP leaders including Union Minister Sadananda Gowda, R Ashok, K S Eshwarappa, Anurag Thakur, Pralhad Joshi, and hundreds of party workers paid their last respects to the departed leader at the party office, where the body will be kept for about an hour.
Kumar's mortal remains will then be shifted to the National College Ground, which falls in his constituency, for the public to pay homage, before the funeral at Chamarajpet crematorium in the afternoon.
The central government has announced a state funeral for Kumar.
According to sources close to the family, Kumar's brother Nanda Kumar will perform the last rites according to Brahmin traditions.
The 59-year-old Bangaluru South MP breathed his last around 2 am on Monday at the Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre where he was under care after returning home in October following treatment in the US and Britain.
Besides Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and BJP President Amit Shah, Union Ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Harsh Vardhan, Radha Mohan Singh, Ramdas Athawale, Mahesh Sharma, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Ram Kripal Yadav would pay homage on Tuesday, party sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew in here from Varanasi and drove straight to the residence of Kumar at Basavanagudi and paid homage to his colleague by placing a wreath on his mortal remains, on Monday night.
Modi consoled Kumar's wife Tejaswini and his two daughters during his 15-minute visit.
BJP leaders and those from various political parties, relatives, family friends, party workers and people made a beeline at Kumar's residence to pay homage to the "most-loved" Bengaluru MP, known for his affability and cordial ties with rivals.
The Karnataka government had declared a three-day state mourning.
Foraying into politics in 1987, Kumar became an Union minister in the Vajpayee cabinet in 1998 when he was only 38.
He remained in the inner circle of the central leadership of the BJP -- be it during the heyday of Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Narendra Modi now.
He served as an important link between the central and state units of the party.
Teaming up with Yeddyurappa, Kumar was among the few party leaders who could be credited for the growth of the BJP in Karnataka, bringing it to power in 2008 and making it the first saffron party government in the South.
Kumar made his parliamentary debut in 1996 from Bangaluru South, where he remained unconquered till his death.
He had defeated software icon Congress's Nandan Nilekani in the highly politically conscious constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
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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.
