National News
AIMIM’s undiminished sway over Hyderabad makes it irreplaceable in T’gana

Such has been the dominance of AIMIM in Hyderabad politics for over four decades that its stronghold remained immune to the political waves sweeping the state.
No matter which party was in power in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, the support base of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) remained intact.
There has been no change after Telangana was carved out as a separate state in 2014. Despite the reservations the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party had over the division of Andhra Pradesh, the party adapted itself to the new political scenario dominated by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
While maintaining its firm grip over the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency and seven Muslim majority Assembly segments in the city, AIMIM backed TRS in the rest of the state both in 2014 and 2018 elections.
This friendship and the secular image of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao helped TRS secure the support of Muslim voters.
With a huge concentration of Muslim voters in state capital Hyderabad and some other districts, they are in a position to tilt the balance in nearly half of the 119 Assembly constituencies.
Muslim voters are believed to be between 35 and 60 per cent in 10 constituencies in Hyderabad and anywhere between 10 and 40 per cent in the 50 other constituencies spread across the rest of the state.
Except the eight Assembly constituencies where AIMIM candidates were in the fray, the party backed TRS in all the remaining constituencies.
While AIMIM’s political opponents accuse the party of pursuing communal politics, CM KCR on many occasions defended his friend and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. He lauded the AIMIM chief for fighting for the Constitutional rights of Muslims in a democratic manner and even talked of using the services of Owaisi to forge a national alternative to both BJP and Congress.
BJP, which is going aggressive to capture power in Telangana, has been targeting KCR for his friendship with Owaisi and accusing the TRS leader of pursuing politics of appeasement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders of BJP have slammed KCR for appeasement politics. Digging up the past, the state leadership of the saffron party has been making bitter attacks on AIMIM, calling it a party of �Razakars’.
�Razakars’ were the volunteers or supporters of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) who backed the Nizam who wanted to keep the state independent after India gained Independence in 1947.
Thirteen months after August 15, 1947, Hyderabad State acceded to the Indian Union following India’s military action codenamed �Operation Polo’.
MIM was founded 1927 to promote the socio-economic and educational development of Muslims. After �Operation Polo’ hastened the accession of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union in 1948, MIM was banned.
However, in 1958 it was revived with a new constitution by Moulana Abdul Wahid Owaisi, grandfather of Asaduddin Owaisi. A well-known lawyer in those days, Abdul Wahid Owaisi converted it into a political party to fight for the rights of the minorities as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
“Those who wanted to go have gone. Those who love the country choose to remain here,” says Asaduddin Owaisi in response to BJP’s taunt of �Razakars’.
He dismisses allegations of pursuing communal politics and maintains that AIMIM believes in Indian Constitution and has been fighting for the Constitutional rights of minorities, Dalits and others.
AIMIM made its electoral debut in 1959, winning two municipal by-elections in Hyderabad. In 1960, it emerged as the main opposition party in Hyderabad.
Abdul Wahed Owaisi’s son Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi was among the party leaders elected to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH).
The party underwent image makeover in the 1980s when Salahuddin Owaisi made three Hindu corporators of the party mayors of Hyderabad. Those were the days when Hyderabad used to witness frequent communal tensions.
From municipal wards in the old city of Hyderabad to two Lok Sabha seats in 2019, AIMIM has come a long way in its six-decade-long journey in Independent India.
More than three decades after first winning the Hyderabad seat, the party expanded itself in true sense in 2019 by wresting the Aurangabad seat in Maharashtra from the Shiv Sena.
A party confined to the old city of Hyderabad till a few years ago, AIMIM was a butt of ridicule by its rivals for calling itself an all-India party.
The party now has 10 MLAs — seven in Telangana, two in Maharashtra and one in Bihar. Its tally of MLAs was 14 till recently, but four MLAs in Bihar switched loyalties to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
While continuing its efforts to expand to various states, the AIMIM is treading cautiously to check BJP’s surge in Telangana.
In a tactical move aimed at stopping the BJP from politically exploiting emotive issues like September 17, AIMIM for the first time in its history has decided to celebrate the day this year as national integration day.
It was on September 17, 1948 that Hyderabad State was merged with the Indian Union. AIMIM always opposed celebrating the day on the ground that there is only one Independence Day for the entire country.
The BJP has been targeting TRS for not officially celebrating �Telangana Liberation Day’ due to pressure from Owaisi.
However, political analysts say that KCR may come under increasing attack from BJP for his friendship with AIMIM.
“KCR wants to herald a secular government in India by achieving a �BJP mukt Bharat’. If BJP is communal, how can MIM be secular? Bonhomie with Owaisis raises questions over secular politics ultimately helping BJP in majoritarian consolidation,” says professor K. Nageshwar.
National News
India negates Pak drone/missile attack on over 15 places, knocks out Lahore air defence system

New Delhi, May 8: In a significant operation, India on Thursday morning targeted the Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan, during which the one at Lahore has been neutralised, said the government in a statement.
On the night of May 7-8, Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India, including Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, using drones and missiles.
These drones and missiles were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS Grid and Air Defence systems. “The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations that prove the Pakistani attacks,” said the release.
Following this, India launched a major strike and targeted Pakistan’s Air Defence Radars and systems at several locations.
“The Indian response has been in the same domain with the same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralised,” the government statement read..
Pakistan has increased the intensity of its unprovoked firing across the Line of Control using mortars and heavy-calibre Artillery in areas in Kupwara, Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar and Rajouri sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.
The government said that India was compelled to take the action in view of Pakistan’s unprovoked heavy shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. In the firing by the Pakistan Army, 16 lives have been lost so far.
“Sixteen innocent lives have been lost, including three women and five children, due to Pakistani firing. Here too, India was compelled to respond to bring Mortar and Artillery fire from Pakistan to a halt,” said the release.
The Indian Armed Forces have reiterated their commitment to non-escalation, provided the same is respected by the Pakistani military.
During the Press Briefing on Operation Sindoor on May 7, India had called its response as focused, measured and non-escalatory.
It was specifically mentioned that Pakistani military establishments had not been targeted. It was also reiterated that any attack on military targets in India will invite a suitable response.
National News
Abdul Rauf Azhar, Masood Azhar’s Brother & Kandhar IC-814 Hijack Mastermind Critically Injured In Operation Sindoor: Reports

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar’s brother, Abdul Rauf Azhar, was critically injured in Indian airstrikes carried out under Operation Sindoor in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur, according to reports.
Abdul Rauf Azhar, who is also the terror group’s second-in-command and played a role in the Kandahar IC-814 hijacking and various other terrorist activities in India, is currently undergoing treatment at a Pakistani military hospital, the sources added.
The reports about Rauf Azhar come after the JeM chief confirmed in a statement that 14 members of his family and four close aides were killed in the Indian strikes.
Among those killed in the Indian strikes were Azhar’s elder sister, her husband, his nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children, along with Azhar’s mother and three key aides, as per reports.
Meanwhile, amid reports suggesting drone strikes in Pakistani cities, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reportedly told political leaders during the all-party meeting in Delhi that Operation Sindoor is still ongoing.
Separately, the Prime Minister chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday with secretaries of various ministries and departments to review national preparedness and inter-ministerial coordination in light of recent developments concerning national security.
Prime Minister Modi stressed the need for seamless coordination among ministries and agencies to uphold operational continuity and institutional resilience. He also reviewed the planning and preparations by ministries to deal with the current situation, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement.
National News
Govt debunks claims of Indian UAV drone shot in Pakistan, shares evidence

New Delhi, May 8: After India launched its most expansive cross-border strikes on terror bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan, a flood of misinformation and false propaganda is being peddled from across the border by influencers, media, as well as government-sponsored social media handles.
The latest lie being peddled by Pakistani handles is the interception of an Indian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in Pakistan’s Gujranwala region and subsequently shot down by the Pakistan Army.
This comes a day after the Indian Army launched multiple cross-border strikes via niche weapons, including drones, missiles and guided bombs to dismantle terror networks and infrastructure.
Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s nodal agency for disseminating information, has fact-checked the fake and baseless narrative being spread by Pakistani handles, pertaining to the drone being intercepted in Gujaranwala.
“The image being circulated is from the Ukraine-Russia conflict in 2022,” informed the PIB on X and also shared a weblink to ascertain the source of the image.
Earlier in the day, the PIB debunked another false narrative by Pakistani media, which claimed that Pakistan has retaliated to Indian military strikes and in response, has hit a military base in Amritsar. A video of an inferno was also shared along with this to corroborate this claim.
The PIB was, however, quick to dig deep and expose the mischievous agenda of Pakistan.
The video was found to be of a wildfire.
“Pakistan-based handles are spreading old videos falsely alleging strikes on a military base in Amritsar. The video being shared is from a wildfire from 2024,” it said and also urged the public to rely only on official sources from the Government of India for accurate information.
Several images and videos shared by Pakistani sources have been either digitally altered or lifted from unrelated incidents, often years old, and repurposed to suggest a fabricated narrative of retaliation and military prowess. Even influential political figures are sharing discredited material and making unsubstantiated claims of victorious counterstrikes.
India’s strikes inside the neighbouring nation have clearly left it rattled and agitated, however, India has maintained that they were ‘measured, calibrated and non-escalatory’.
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