Regional

India jubilant as all trapped workers rescued from Himalayan tunnel

Published

3 years ago

November 29, 2023

Rescuers on Tuesday pulled out all 41 workers trapped for 17 days inside a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas after drilling through the debris of rock, concrete and earth to reach them, triggering jubilation across India.

The evacuation of the men – low-wage workers from some of India’s poorest states – began more than six hours after rescuers broke through the debris in the tunnel in Uttarakhand state, which caved in on Nov. 12, Reuters reported.

They were pulled out on wheeled stretchers through a 90 cm wide steel pipe, with the entire process being completed in about an hour.

“Their condition is first-class and absolutely fine … just like yours or mine. There is no tension about their health,” said Wakil Hassan, a rescue team leader.

The first to be evacuated, a short man wearing a dark grey winter jacket and a yellow hard-hat, was garlanded with marigold flowers and welcomed in traditional Indian style inside the tunnel by state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and federal deputy highways minister V.K. Singh.

Some walked out smiling and were hugged by Dhami, while others made gestures of thanks with clasped hands or sought blessings by touching his feet. All were garlanded and also presented with a white fabric stole by Dhami and Singh.

“I want to say to the friends who were trapped in the tunnel that your courage and patience is inspiring everyone,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media platform X.

“It is a matter of great satisfaction that after a long wait these friends of ours will now meet their loved ones. The patience and courage that all these families have shown in this challenging time cannot be appreciated enough.”

Modi later spoke to the rescued men by phone and enquired about their condition, TV channels reported.

Federal road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari thanked rescue workers and said a safety audit of the tunnel would now be done.

Ambulances that had lined up with lights flashing at the mouth of the tunnel transported the workers to a hospital about 30 km away. They are expected to travel to their home states after doctors clear them.

“We are happy and feel relieved. I have told everyone in the family that he has come out,” said Rajni Tudu, whose husband Surendra was among the trapped men.

Local residents gathered outside the tunnel set off firecrackers, distributed sweets and shouted slogans hailing Mother India.

The cave-in and the ordeal of the men did not grab much attention in its first week as it happened on the day of the Hindu festival of Diwali and in the run-up to the cricket World Cup semi-finals and finals, which India was expected to win.

It however made national headlines since and there was jubilation around the country on Tuesday, with politicians, retired cricket players, business leaders, diplomats and spiritual leaders hailing the effort.

“The safety of our labourer brothers who are building India is of paramount importance. I salute all the brave men who made this difficult campaign successful,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi posted on X.

Billionaire Anand Mahindra, chairman of conglomerate Mahindra Group, said “after all the sophisticated drilling equipment, it’s the humble ‘rat-hole miners’ who make the vital breakthrough!”

“It’s a heartwarming reminder that at the end of the day, heroism is most often a case of individual effort & sacrifice,” he posted on X.

The 41 men have been getting food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe, but efforts to dig a tunnel to rescue them with high-powered drilling machines were frustrated by a series of snags.

Rescue clinched by ‘rat-miners’

Government agencies managing the crisis had on Monday turned to “rat miners” to drill through the rocks and gravel by hand from inside the evacuation pipe pushed through the debris after machinery failed.

The miners are experts at a primitive, hazardous and controversial method used mostly to get at coal deposits through narrow passages, and get their name because they resemble burrowing rats.

The miners, brought from central India, worked through Monday night and finally broke through the estimated 60-metres of rocks, earth and metal on Tuesday afternoon.

“There was probably no government department that was not involved, there was practically an all-of-government approach … unlike any in the past,” said Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority which oversaw the rescue.

The tunnel did not have an emergency exit and was built through a geological fault, a member of a panel of experts investigating the disaster has told Reuters.

Regional

Blast in Pakistan’s Dera Ismail Khan kills 11, injures 30

Published

11 hours ago

September 26, 2026

Ariana News

Eleven people were killed and 30 injured in a blast ‌in Dera Ismail Khan in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, emergency service Rescue 1122 said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack.

The blast occurred near Aman Mela in the Darazinda area of ‌the ⁠district, Rescue 1122 said in a statement.

Rescue teams from the Darazinda station reached the scene and began relief operations, ⁠providing medical assistance to the wounded and taking them to hospital, the service ⁠said.

Security incidents have continued in the district this month, including attacks ⁠involving the Pakistani Taliban.

Regional

Imran Khan’s party postpones planned Islamabad march to October 4

Published

20 hours ago

September 26, 2026

Ariana News

Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has postponed a planned long march from Peshawar to Islamabad ‌until October 4, the chief minister of the PTI-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sohail Afridi, told reporters on Friday.

PTI had planned to begin the march on September 27 to press for the release of Khan, who has ⁠been in jail since 2023. The PTI’s last large-scale protest two years ago ended in deadly clashes with security forces, Reuters reported.

Earlier this week, Pakistan curbed access to its capital, Islamabad, by blocking major highways with shipping containers and deploying tens of thousands of security forces, ahead of the march planned by Khan’s supporters.

Party spokesperson Zulfi Bukhari, however, told Reuters ‌that ⁠although they had moved the planned date to October 4, they could launch the march earlier.

“We can now do it whenever we deem fit. The question is to the government, as ⁠to how long they’re willing to keep the country closed off?”, Bukhari said.

Authorities have detained three of Khan’s sisters and hundreds of ⁠party activists in recent days, citing a need to maintain public order.

Khan, 73, a former cricket star ousted ⁠by parliament in a 2022 no-confidence vote, has claimed to be a political prisoner.

Regional

Saudi Grand Mufti tells troops to be ready to sacrifice their lives fighting Houthis

State TV has ⁠in recent weeks aired footage of an alleged Houthi strike on a mosque in the kingdom’s south, and authorities have also accused the Houthis of launching an attack on Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.

Published

2 days ago

September 25, 2026

Ariana News

Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority called on soldiers in the kingdom to be ready to lay ‌down their lives to fight the Iran-backed Houthis until the group is ousted from power, a statement posted on the Saudi state news agency said.

The rare and strongly worded message by Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan was addressed to soldiers stationed at the country’s borders and drew heavily on Quranic verses and recorded sayings of the Prophet Mohammad related to sacrifice and struggle in defence of God, Reuters reported.

It comes after weeks of escalating violence between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis which has ⁠seen the Iran-backed group attack the kingdom with salvos of missiles and drones and Saudi Arabia respond with airstrikes.

Observers have been questioning whether Saudi Arabia will launch a broader military operation along with Yemeni government forces it backs.

“Protecting this great nation… and punishing anyone who seeks to lay a hand on even an inch of its territory are among the greatest duties and most virtuous acts of devotion, for which lives and souls may be sacrificed in seeking God’s pleasure,” said the statement, issued late Thursday.

Asserting the authority of the Saudi-backed internationally recognized Yemeni government over the entire country was “among the most pressing obligations,” it added.

Those government forces lost control of the vital Bab el-Mandeb waterway to the Houthis two weeks back, a blow to the kingdom, which has been mired in the conflict since ‌2015 ⁠after it launched an unsuccessful operation to oust the Houthis from the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

The recent fighting is the latest episode in 12 years of civil war in Yemen which had largely been frozen since a 2022 but has escalated again and has become linked to the wider Iran war.

“We ask God Almighty to grant you all his support, and to protect our countries and beloved Yemen from all harm. We also ask him to ⁠bring about the complete defeat of the Houthi group and those who assist and support them,” the statement said.

The Mufti’s letter adds to a growing religiously centered narrative by authorities in the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom aimed at discrediting the Houthis, who follow a different sect of Islam.

“It is incumbent upon you, brothers serving on the front lines, to ⁠remain constantly prepared to perform your duty, to obey the rulers and your field commanders, and to carry out orders with the utmost precision, as God Almighty commanded the companions of his Prophet to do,” the statement said.

“You are following in the footsteps of the Prophet’s companions, defending the sacred sites of Muslims.”