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International

Halt on visas temporary due to logistical issues: Govt sources on Saudi travel restrictions

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New Delhi, June 9: Government sources and foreign policy experts on Monday debunked certain reports and claims made by some opposition leaders about a Saudi Arabia visa halt restricting travellers from 14 countries, including India, asserting that the temporary decision would not affect the sturdy relationship between both nations.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to temporarily halt Umrah, business, and family visit visas for 14 countries, including India, from April to June 2025 to manage the massive Haj crowds and ensure safety, was even labelled as a “steady collapse of India’s foreign policy” by some opposition leaders.

However, government sources have made it clear that the suspension is a result of logistical, not political, compulsions as restrictions have been imposed on granting short-term visas to avoid overcrowding during the Haj season.

Nationals of Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen holding or applying for a Saudi visit visa for business, tourism and family visits cannot enter Saudi Arabia until a temporary entry restriction is over, which could last until the end of June when the Haj season is expected to end. This latest measure follows additional restrictions introduced in February 2025, which limits one-year multiple-entry visas for business, tourism, and family visits for the same group of nationalities.

Saudi authorities, which strictly controls Haj, have stated that multiple-entry visas were being misused. Some travellers entered the country on long-term visas but remained illegally for work or performed Haj without proper authorization.

The over-crowding has also become a serious issue due to unauthorised pilgrims using long-term visit visas to bypass restrictions. This issue became particularly alarming in June 2024 when over 1300 pilgrims died due to overcrowding and extreme heat as temperatures exceeded 50 degree Celsius. Saudi authorities believe unregistered pilgrims significantly contributed to the crisis, necessitating tighter visa regulations. By restricting travel to single-entry visas, the Saudi government aims to ensure that only authorized pilgrims perform Haj, reducing risks associated with unregulated attendance.

Saudi Arabia has called this suspension a temporary measure, but no timeline has been provided for a review. The Saudi government will monitor the impact before making further decisions.

Despite such temporary restrictions, the Saudi government remains focused on expanding tourism with India under the Vision 2030 initiative. The bilateral trade between the two countries touched USD $43.36 billion in FY-2023-24. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country last month, India and Saudi Arabia signed USD $100 billion worth of agreements in energy, infrastructure, security, and innovation sectors, strengthening bilateral trade and investment relations.

India’s fifth-largest trading partner, Saudi Arabia continues to align its economic priorities amidst global market turbulence and energy realignments.

Highlighting India’s rising global stature, experts also point out the country’s emergence as a “Vishwa Bandhu” in a divided world.

They recalled that India’s G20 Presidency in November 2023 was a reflection, recommitment and rejuvenation of the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. Under its Presidency, India sought to offer the world an alternative to the status quo, a shift from a GDP-centric to human-centric progress.

PM Modi has stated that India’s growing profile is due to its cultural image, growing capabilities, and foreign policy.

On the other hand, Beijing and Islamabad’s repeated attempts to seize opportunity to reassert their self-assigned roles have been rejected by the international community, time and again.

Pakistan’s desperate efforts to include strong anti-India references on Kashmir at the 19th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) Member States in Jakarta last month also failed miserably.

In the following weeks, India’s Operation Sindoor diplomatic outreach, for the first time in independent India’s history, delivered a clear message to Pakistan that its support for cross-border terrorism would no longer be tolerated and would be met with a strong military response.

The visits were marked by high-level engagements as several top leaders across the world backed India’s resolute commitment to the policy of zero tolerance on the issue of cross-border terrorism.

Crime

Human rights body condemns rape of Hindu woman by local politician in Bangladesh

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Dhaka, June 30: In yet another disturbing incident of violence on minorities and the atrocities against women in Bangladesh, a Hindu woman was brutally gang raped in her own home in the Cumilla district, while her attackers filmed the assault and circulated the footage, a human rights body said on Monday.

So far, five accused have been arrested, including the main accused, Fajar Ali, who is a politician of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) said that the culprits circulated the video of the brutal assault “like a war trophy.”

“On the night of June 26, 2025, a Hindu woman in Muradnagar, Cumilla District, endured one of the most brutal forms of violence imaginable: her home was forcibly invaded, her dignity shattered, and her trauma recorded and circulated like a war trophy. She was gang raped by multiple assailants, her cries echoing through the silence of a country that has, for decades, looked away from the suffering of its most vulnerable,” read a statement issued by the HRCBM.

The human rights organisation also mentioned that the law enforcement officials failed to arrange a mandatory medical examination, delayed filing her First Information Report (FIR) until June 29, and later deflected blame by claiming it was “up to her” to pursue medical treatment.

The HRCBM mentioned that the critical delays in filing the FIR, failure to conduct a medical examination within the first 24 hours, and a dismissive attitude toward the survivor’s rights point to “systemic negligence,” adding that suggesting the survivor should arrange her own medical exam represented a “gross violation of procedural and ethical standards.”

The human rights body also said that despite public pressure and “media manipulation by Islamist groups portraying the crime as consensual,” one primary perpetrator and several accomplices involved in the distribution of the assault video were eventually arrested. However, several others remain at large.

The HRCBM asserted that in video statements received by the organisation from members of the local Muslim community, some of them were attempting to “downplay” the incident and “protect” the primary accused, Fajar Ali, and his gang — despite the “brutal nature of the assault.”

Such actions by community actors, it further stated, “obstruct justice and enable the normalisation of gender-based violence against minorities.”

“This incident is not isolated. It is a horrific example of an entrenched pattern in Bangladesh where minority women are routinely targeted, raped, abducted, forcibly converted, and shamed into silence,” it said.

According to the HRCBM, since April 2025 alone, 13 gang rape cases have been recorded in Cumilla District involving Hindu women. Additionally, across the country, reports of headless bodies, mass abductions, and forced conversions of young minority girls are rising at an alarming pace.

“Families now contact HRCBM regularly, pleading to rescue their daughters,” said the human rights organisation.

The HRCBM also criticised the mainstream Bangladeshi media for its largely silent response. They noted that the Muradnagar case, similar to many others, would likely have been “buried under layers of political denial and communal pressure” if it weren’t for the viral circulation of the assault video, which compelled public and institutional attention.

The HRCBM is preparing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding a judicial inquiry into the condition of minority women and girls in Bangladesh.

At the same time, it called upon the international community — UN agencies, human rights defenders, and global civil society — to support its efforts, pressure the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, and push for accountability mechanisms.

Condemning the horrific incident, Bangladesh Students League President Saddam Hussain said that in a country that increasingly resembles a “fascist Islamist regime,” the cries of women and Hindu minorities in Bangladesh continue to go unheard.

He stressed that each passing day brings another chilling tale of “temples desecrated, families displaced, and daughters brutalised.”

“The latest horror comes from Cumilla, where a young Hindu mother of two was raped at knifepoint by Fazar Ali and others. He is reported to be an active member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a party which has a long and controversial history regarding its treatment of religious minorities,” he said in a post on X.

“Her ordeal didn’t end there; they filmed the assault and continued to beat her mercilessly. The video, too disturbing to share, stands as a grim testament to the escalating violence and persecution faced by Hindu women and minorities in Bangladesh,” he said in a post on X.

“Her only crime: being a Hindu woman in a land where religious identity has become a target. As the nation turns a blind eye and justice remains elusive, the question lingers: How long will the Hindu community and women in Bangladesh be forced to live in fear? How much more must they endure before the world pays attention?” the post added.

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International

Israeli soldier killed in Gaza

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Jerusalem, June 30: An Israeli soldier was killed in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.

In a statement, the military said Sergeant Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion of the 401st Brigade, “fell during combat,” Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported that Rosenfeld was killed by an explosive device in Jabalia, in an area where the military had begun demolishing buildings in preparation for constructing outposts as part of a planned buffer zone in northern Gaza.

Since the beginning of June, 21 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip, bringing the military’s death toll to 880 since October 2023, according to official figures.

Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian sources reported heavy bombardments in northern Gaza, with at least 88 people killed and 365 wounded in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza health authorities.

The strikes came as the Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings, calling on residents of Gaza City and Jabalia to move immediately toward the al-Mawasi area.

Meanwhile, Gaza health authorities said on Sunday that the Palestinian death toll from Israeli military operations since October 2023 had risen to at least 56,500.

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Crime

25 prison officials in Punjab suspended in crackdown against drug networks

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Chandigarh, June 28: In a major action against corruption and drug networks in prisons, the Punjab government on Saturday said it has suspended 25 officials, including three Deputy Superintendents and two Assistant Superintendents.

The government said the action is part of the drive to root out corruption and dismantle drug networks operating inside prisons.

“Following reports of irregularities and drug-related activities within jails, the government said the action was to end corruption and drug networks. The big action was taken as per information received about corruption and drug networks in jails,” the government said in a statement.

In March, the government shifted notorious jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria from the high-security Bathinda Central Jail to Silchar Jail in Assam as authorities suspected that detained gangsters were running drug syndicates from Punjab’s prisons.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested Bhagwanpuria, also an accused in the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (PIT NDPS) Act.

Bhagwanpuria, against whom 128 FIRs have been registered in Punjab and other states, was arrested in a murder case in 2015 and, since then, has been lodged in several jails, previously in Punjab.

In the singer Moosewala’s murder case, it was Bhagwanpuria and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who had hatched a conspiracy to kill him.

However, later, both fell apart. Bhagwanpuria, a native of Gurdaspur district, is considered the most dreaded gangster of Punjab after Bishnoi and has more than five cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for hatching conspiracies to disturb communal harmony in Punjab.

Bhagwanpuria is facing 15 cases of arms and drug smuggling. On his shifting to Assam, the NCB had said then that Bhagwanpuria was moved out of Punjab as he had “established linkages” with international operatives in Canada, the US and Pakistan. His relocation was a must to disrupt the ecosystem, facilitating continued criminal activities, it added.

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