20 Myanmar migrant workers killed in Thailand bus fire
Bangkok: Twenty migrant workers from Myanmar were killed when their bus caught fire in northwestern Thailand on Friday, the police said.
The workers were travelling to a factory district near Bangkok when their chartered bus was engulfed in flames around 1.30 a.m. in Tak Province, the Bangkok Post reported.
The double-decker bus was carrying 47 Myanmar workers, out of which 27 managed to escape the inferno, said Col. Krissana Pattanacharoen, a Royal Thai Police spokesman.
The cause of the fire was not yet known, he said. Initial reports said that the engine of the bus caught fire which spread quickly through the vehicle.
Police said the fire was so intense that identifying the dead would require experts. One officer at the scene told the daily that he could not distinguish between male and female corpses.
The authorities were planning to interview the driver, who survived the fire.
The workers who were killed on Friday had passed the lengthy new registration process to work in the country, reports said.
Thailand has the world's highest rate of road traffic deaths, according to World Health Organisation data from 2013. In 2015, it was found to have the second highest road fatality rate behind Libya.
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Informing Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor was a crime: Rahul Gandhi on Jaishankar's 'admission'
New Delhi, May 17 (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the government for "informing" Pakistan about targeting terror infrastructure as part of Operation Sindoor, saying it was a crime and asking who had authorised it.
In a post on X, Gandhi questioned External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar for publicly admitting that the government of India (GOI) had informed Pakistan of the action and asked how many aircraft the Indian Air Force lost as a result.
"Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?" said Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.
He also shared an undated video of Jaishankar saying India had informed Pakistan of the action against terror infrastructure on its soil.
Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video, "At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying, 'We are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military.'"
"So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice," the minister can be heard saying in the clip.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB), however, has debunked claims that Jaishankar had said India informed Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor. In a post on X, the PIB's Fact Check Unit said the minister had not made any such statement and that he was being misquoted.
Operation Sindoor was the Indian offensive against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 17, 2025
EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it.
1. Who authorised it?
2. How many aircraft did our airforce lose as a result? pic.twitter.com/KmawLLf4yW
