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.

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’.

Gaza, May 8: The food relief organisation World Central Kitchen (WCK) has announced that it will halt cooking in the Gaza Strip due to the depletion of humanitarian supplies.

“After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza,” the Washington, D.C.-headquartered charity said on Wednesday in a press statement.

“Since Israel closed border crossings in early March, WCK has been unable to replenish the stocks of food that we use to feed hundreds of thousands of Gazans daily,” the non-governmental organisation added.

WCK’s large-scale field kitchens have run out of the ingredients needed to prepare daily meals, and its mobile bakery has no flour left, it said, adding that more than 80 per cent of community kitchens in Gaza have run out of WCK-provided stock, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network in Gaza, warned that the closure of community kitchens, given the depletion of their food supplies, could exacerbate the hunger.

“The repercussions of the severe humanitarian disaster will be significant on the health and lives of citizens, especially children, women, the elderly, and the sick,” Shawa told Xinhua.

“If all parties do not intervene to save the situation by opening the crossings and allowing the entry of humanitarian and medical aid, we will be facing an extremely dangerous situation in Gaza,” he said.

Israel halted the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2, following the expiration of the first phase of a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

The UN has warned of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, reporting increasing signs of acute hunger, particularly among children.

Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed in March after the collapse of a ceasefire deal. Israel has accused agencies, including the United Nations, of allowing large quantities of aid to fall into the hands of Hamas, which seizes supplies intended for civilians for its own forces.