Helicopter with 5 people on board crashes in Nepal
Kathmandu (PTI): Four Chinese tourists were among five people killed in Nepal on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in the mountains northwest region of Kathmandu.
Police have recovered five dead bodies from the crash site in Ward No 7 of Shivapuri Rural Municipality, Nuwakot, Myrepublica newspaper reported.
Nepal-based Air Dynasty helicopter, 9N-AJD, was en route to Rasuwa from Kathmandu when it crashed.
The helicopter departed from Kathmandu at 1:54 PM and was en route to Syaphrubensi when it crashed.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), a Prabhu helicopter (9N-ANL) was dispatched to the crash site immediately after the incident.
There were five individuals on board, including four Chinese tourists, the paper said. The helicopter lost contact with the tower just three minutes after takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport, according to the CAAN.
Citing a police official, the paper said that the bodies of two men, one woman and the pilot, identified as Arun Malla, were recovered from the crash site.
One body has not been identified yet as it is charred beyond recognition, Myrepublica reported.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Shantiraj Koirala, at the District Police Office, Nuwakot, who reached the crash site, confirmed that five bodies had been recovered.
This crash comes just weeks after the Saurya Airlines plane crash at the Tribhuvan International Airport on July 24. The crash claimed the lives of 18 people on board, with the captain being the sole survivor.
This latest incident raises serious concerns about air safety over the skies of the Himalayan nation, which has witnessed numerous air crashes in recent years.
#SadNews: काठमाडौंबाट रसुवा उडेको एयर डाइनेस्टी हेलिकप्टर नुवाकोटको शिवपुरी गा.पा. ७ सूर्यचौरमा दुर्घटना भएको छ । घटनास्थलमा पुगेर नेपाल प्रहरीले उद्धार कार्य जारी रहेको छ ।#NepalPolice #नेपालप्रहरी #BelieveInBlue #ToServeandProtect #rescue #helicopter pic.twitter.com/KKLm6M3nnK
— Nepal Police (@NepalPoliceHQ) August 7, 2024
रुखमा ठोक्किएर आगो लाग्दै झरेको थियो हेलिकोप्टर
— Nepal Clicks (@nepalclicksnews) August 7, 2024
भिडियो : समृद्ध नुवाकोट pic.twitter.com/AAjqYwqyvO
Nepal: Five people, including Nepal Captain Arun Malla and four Chinese nationals, died in a helicopter crash at Suryachaur, Nuwakot. The helicopter was en route from Kathmandu to Syabrubesi. The cause of the crash is still unknown pic.twitter.com/9pY4xWJmru
— IANS (@ians_india) August 7, 2024
An Air Dynasty helicopter crashed on Wednesday in Nepal's Nuwakot leaving five dead including four Chinese passengers.#Nepal pic.twitter.com/Tyr5UZCVwB
— Raajeev Chopra (@Raajeev_Chopra) August 7, 2024
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Shivaji Maharaj was 100% secular, the ultimate ideal king: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari
New Delhi, Apr 3 (PTI): Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has described Shivaji Maharaj as an exemplary king, a benevolent ruler, and a "100 per cent secular figure." He said if there is an ultimate ideal, it is undoubtedly Shivaji Maharaj.
Speaking at the launch of the book "The Wild Warfront - Shivaji Maharaj: Volume 2" by Vishwas Patil, Gadkari, who claimed that he has only one photograph in his office – that of Shivaji Maharaj -- said the Chhatrapati holds a special place in the hearts of Indians and is even more significant to him than his own parents.
"Nowadays, the word 'secular' is very popular, but the meaning of the word 'secular' in the English dictionary is not religious neutrality. The meaning of the word secular is 'equal respect for all religions,' treating all religions with equal justice. This is the meaning of secular. And Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was a public welfare king in our country’s history who was 100 per cent secular.
"Particularly throughout his history, he won many battles and never attacked a mosque... He always showed respect for women, was a king devoted to the people, and was strict in administration," Gadkari said to a packed audience at Maharashtra Sadan on Wednesday.
To emphasise his point about Shivaji being a secular and just king, Gadkari referenced the Battle of Pratapgarh, which took place on November 10, 1659, between the Maratha forces led by Shivaji Maharaj and the Bijapur troops under General Afzal Khan.
The 67-year-old lauded how, after killing Khan, Maharaj ordered his army — which he mentioned included many Muslim soldiers — to bury Khan with full respect at the battlefield -- Pratapgarh Fort.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who was also present at the launch, said he was happy that Gadkari discussed the secular aspect of Shivaji Maharaj, a quality that, he argued, is often underappreciated, even by the Maharaj's own admirers.
According to the Lok Sabha MP of Thiruvananthapuram, it was Shivaji, who after many of his conquests, gave strict instructions to his soldiers that "if they ever came across a Quran, they should pick it up, treat it with respect until they could find a Muslim to hand it over to."
He added, "Those were the kind of values that Shivaji had. We all know about Shivaji's chivalry towards women, the extraordinary grace with which he dealt with the people, and the fact that his army consisted of people from every caste. Literally, every caste, from Dalit to Brahmin, was with him — around him, amongst his courtiers, and amongst his soldiers. He had Muslim soldiers. There was absolutely no bigotry in Shivaji."
Commending the book, which is Nadeem Khan's English translation of Patil's historical Marathi novel "Rankhaindal", Gadkari expressed hope that people now in India — those outside Maharashtra — and in Western countries would see a just picture of the king, as the history written during the Mughal era and British rule was unfair to him.
"... There were many things that were unfair to him, some even called him a 'lootera' (a bandit). I can say with full confidence that Shivaji's personality was complete, it was exceptional. In our current governance system, how a king should be, how a king should act, he is an example of that," he said.
Tharoor, too, congratulated the author for bringing his skill of "novelisation of history" to best use and able to pull off two volumes on Shivaji in fictional form, who he admits is an extraordinarily interesting figure to read about in any Indian language.
He seconded Gadkari saying that Shivaji has indeed come through various renderings in the national imagination -- from demonisation during the Mughal era to being hailed as "original Hindu nationalist" by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
"We have had demonisation of him (Shivaji), as Gadkari ji reminded us of 'lootera,' a bandit, which was propagated by the partisans of the Mughal side. Then, we had the veneration of him as the great anti-colonial resistance figure, and this notion of resistance.
"You had different interpretations even within Maharashtra. Jyotiba Phule's interpretation of Shivaji as the voice of the subaltern, as the voice of the underclass rising up, versus, say, the Bal Gangadhar Tilak version of the original Hindu nationalist, portraying Shivaji as the origin of Hindu nationalism," explained the 69-year-old Congress leader.
Touted by publishing house Westland Books as the dazzling second volume of Patil's "The Wild Warfront", the book reconstructs Shivaji Maharaj's life and battles through intensive research.
Patil, known for his novels like "Ranangan", "Chandramukhi", "Panipat", and "Sambhaji", has sold over 50,000 copies of the two volumes in Marathi -- "Jhanjhawat" (The Whirlwind) and "Rankhaindal" (The Wild Warfront).
