Ankara, Dec 19: Turkey will continue its military activity in northern Syria until Kurdish fighters fully “disarm,” Turkish semi-official Anadolu Agency reported Thursday, citing a Defence Ministry source.

Highlighting ongoing threats from Kurdish forces within Syria to Turkey’s southern border, the source said, “Our counter-terrorism measures and preparations will persist until terrorist groups lay down arms and their foreign fighters leave Syria.”

The source made the remarks in response to allegations that the Turkish Armed Forces and the Syrian National Army, a coalition of armed groups backed by Turkey, are preparing for operations against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the east of the Euphrates.

Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, and has rebelled against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

The Turkish military has launched several operations since 2016 in northern Syria in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border with the neighbouring country.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that Ankara will not allow Syria to become a conflict zone and be divided once again.

“Any attack on the stability of the new Syrian government or the integrity of ancient Syrian lands will face both the Syrian people and us,” Erdogan said at a ruling party meeting, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We cannot accept any steps or provocations aimed at preventing the return of our Syrian brothers and sisters to their homes,” he noted.

Syrian militant groups, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), waged a major offensive from northern Syria starting November 27 and swept southwards through government-held areas, capturing the capital Damascus within 12 days.

Following the offensive, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigned and arrived in Russia for asylum.

Mohammed al-Bashir, an electrical engineer and head of the ‘Syrian Salvation Government’ in Idlib formed in 2017 by the HTS and other Syrian militant groups during the Syrian civil war, was tasked with heading a transitional government in Syria until early March 2025.

Nagpur, Dec 19: The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra took out a vociferous protest march here on Thursday to condemn and demand an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks on B.R. Ambedkar in the Parliament.

The MVA constituents, Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leaders gathered and joined the long procession from the Constitution Square to the Legislature Building.

They were carrying banners, placards, pictures of B.R. Ambedkar, some sporting copies of the Indian Statute, and raised angry slogans against HM Shah and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Sporting dark blue caps, bands or shawls with the words ‘Jai Bhim’ printed, the top MVA leaders including SS (UBT)’s Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve, SS (UBT) Group Leader Aditya Thackeray, Congress’ ex-Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, NCP (SP)’s state chief Jayant R. Patil, Rohit R. Pawar and other leaders, plus Opposition legislators squarely hit out at HM Shah’s remarks and ranted cries for his apology.

The MVA leaders hailed the virtues of B.R. Ambedkar for giving India a Constitution that has equal rights to all the citizens, uplifted the poor and downtrodden, acknowledged his contributions for the depressed classes and hailed his services to the nation, while vowing that “the country will never tolerate any insults” to him.

Simultaneously, B.R. Ambedkar’s grandson, Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) also organised separate agitations in Pune and other places to flay HM Shah.

SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack HM Shah from the Cabinet.

Earlier, the participants bowed, garlanded and saluted a life-size statue of B.R. Ambedkar, paid homage and then launched the march which terminated outside the Vidhan Bhavan where the Winter Session is currently underway and continued to raise slogans against the ruling BJP.

It may be recalled that a couple of days ago, HM Shah had made certain remarks pertaining to B.R. Ambedkar which the Opposition termed as ‘disrespectful’, and went on to spark an outrage in the state and different parts of the country.

However, HM Shah has claimed that his statement was twisted out of context and he turned around to blame the Congress terming it as ‘anti-Ambedkar’ and against the Dalits.

New Delhi, Dec 19: India is well on its way to having the second-largest metro network in the world with 993 km of Metro rail already operational in 23 cities across the country and about 997 km under construction in 28 cities, Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar has said.

The Union Minister made an elaborated presentation on Urban Transport to the consultative committee members of Parliament attached to MoHUA, according to an official statement on Thursday.

He emphasised that Urban Mobility is an important aspect to tackle the rising urban population and the government is working relentlessly to strengthen the Urban Transport Network across the country.

The participants were briefed about Metro Rail Policy 2017 and Metro Networks across the cities including Delhi, Jaipur, Patna and Lucknow.

The members were also briefed about the ongoing projects of RRTS (Regional Rapid Transport System) high speed train network, including its funding pattern.

The briefing to members also covered initiatives taken to promote indigenisation of technologies under Make in India and promote Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

The briefing also mentioned PM-eBus Sewa, a scheme for augmenting city bus operations by deploying 10,000 e-buses on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

Salient features of this scheme include deployment of 10,000 e- buses on PPP model, bus operations support for 10 years, support for development and the upgradation of bus depots and support for behind-the-meter power infrastructure.

The service aims to cover cities with 3 to 40 lakh population.

The briefing also covered ‘One Nation One Card’, an indigenously developed National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019 to enable seamless travel through Metro, Rail, Bus and other Public Transport Operators.

During the meeting, the Members of Parliament raised issues pertaining to urban mobility which included matters related to last mile connectivity, enhancement of amenities, metro connectivity in their respective states, scaling up of metro operations in the country, ease of travel and passenger comfort.

The MPs who attended the meeting include Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Dinesh Sharma, Ajay Maken, Kamaljeet Sherawat, P.N. Vasava, Prof V.E. Gaikwad, Kavita Patidar, B.M. Sutariya , V.E. Vaithilingam , G. Lakshminarayana, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Y. Chandolia.

The Minister asked the officials that suggestions from members received should be reviewed and information sought by them should be provided.