07/08/2025

THURSDAY | AUG 7, 2025

7

Hiroshima warns against nuclear weapons

Indian army searches for missing flood victims

NEW DELHI: The Indian army brought in sniffer dogs, drones and heavy earth-moving equipment yesterday to search for scores missing a day after a deadly Himalayan flash flood. At least four people were killed and around 100 are unaccounted for – including 11 soldiers – after a wall of muddy water and debris tore down a narrow mountain valley, smashing into the town of Dharali in Uttarakhand state. “Additional army columns, along with army tracker dogs, drones, logistic drones, earthmoving equipment etc, have been moved ... to hasten the efforts,” the army said yesterday. Military helicopters were working to bring in “essential supplies, medicines and (for the) evacuation of the marooned”, it added. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the flood was caused by an intense “cloudburst” of rain, and that rescue teams had been deployed “on a war footing”. Videos broadcast on Indian media showed a terrifying surge of muddy water sweeping away apartment blocks in the tourist region on Tuesday afternoon. Several people could be seen running before being engulfed by the dark waves of debris that uprooted entire buildings. Images released by the army showed a river of slow-moving mud. A large part of the town was swamped by mud, with rescue officials estimating it was 15m deep in places. – AFP Monsoon peaks in south China BEIJING: Rescue crews raced yesterday to clear debris and flooded roads as southern China braced for more extreme rainfall and spreading infection after some of the worst downpours this century, as East Asian monsoon rains peak. Forecasters warned of more thunderstorms after the century’s second-heaviest August rains pounded Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, forcing its Baiyun airport, one of the world’s busiest, to cancel 363 flights. The day before, the skies above Hong Kong and the high-tech cities of China’s Pearl River Delta turned livid and dumped the heaviest August rainfall since 1884 on the Asian financial centre. Rescue crews in Guangdong scrambled to open drains and pump water away from urban areas, state media said, as the intense rain set off mudslides and felled trees on highways, tearing away road surfaces. Video images showed roads transformed into brown waterways, threatening to worsen a major outbreak of Chikungunya, fuelled by mosquitoes thriving in stagnant flood water, which had been on a downtrend before the latest rains. China has suffered weeks of atmospheric chaos since last month as it is battered by downpours heavier than usual batter with the East Asian monsoon stalling over its north and south. – Reuters

At least 122 were arrested trying to block roads and threatening law and order in the eastern city of Lahore, capital of Punjab province, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Faisal Kamran. The remainder were picked up in overnight raids in the province, two security officials said. Thousands rallied in support of Imran in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which is ruled by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, officials said. Police fired teargas in the cities of Karachi and Muzaffarabad. “Free Imran Khan!” chanted supporters outside a Lahore courthouse, while smaller groups staged protests across the city. Party spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari said over 200 activists were detained in Lahore alone. “Down with the government!” shouted a group of PTI women HIROSHIMA: Exactly 80 years since an atomic bomb was used in war for the first time, thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Hiroshima yesterday, as the city’s mayor warned world leaders about the nuclear warheads that still exist today. The western Japanese city of Hiroshima was levelled on Aug 6, 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium bomb nicknamed “Little Boy”, killing about 78,000 people instantly. Hiroshima was the headquarters of some military units and a major supply base during World War II. US war planners calculated that the surrounding mountains would concentrate the force of the bomb and enhance its destructiveness. “Little Boy” unleashed a surge of heat reaching 4,000º Celsius and radiation that killed tens of thousands more by the end of the year. It was followed by a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki three days later, and Japan’s surrender on Aug 15. Representatives from a record 120 countries and territories including nuclear superpower the United States, and Israel, which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weaponry, attended the annual ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the milestone year. After a moment of silence observed at 8.15am (7.15am in Malaysia), the exact time of the blast, mayor Kazumi Matsui called on leaders to heed the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and o City marks 80 years since A-bomb

Japanese pray at a cenotaph for victims of the 1945 bombing at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. – REUTERSPIC

want peace so they can live their lives happily.” In the decades following the attacks, survivors, called hibakusha , often faced discrimination as rumours spread that they carried diseases and their offspring could be tainted. Their numbers fell below 100,000 for the first time this year. Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, has stated its commitment to nuclear disarmament but is not a signatory or observer of the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons. – Reuters

frameworks that have been built for peace-building. “To all the leaders around the world: Please visit Hiroshima and witness for yourselves the reality of the atomic bombing.” Yoshikazu Horie, a 71-year-old tourist, expressed a similar sentiment. “It feels more and more like history is repeating itself. Terrible things are happening in Europe ... Even in Japan, in Asia, it’s going the same way, it’s very scary,” he said. “I’ve got grandchildren and I

warned of the consequences of the global trend towards a military buildup. “Among the world’s political leaders, there is a growing belief that possessing nuclear weapons is unavoidable to protect their own countries,” he said, noting that the US and Russia possessed 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. “This situation not only nullifies the lessons the international community has learned from the tragic history of the past, but also seriously undermines the

Pakistani protesters demand ex-PM Imran’s release LAHORE: Police in Pakistan arrested more than 240 opposition party activists on Tuesday at protests calling for the release of their leader Imran Khan on the second anniversary of his jailing, security officials and police said. supporters rallying in Quetta, while nearly 2,000 activists in Karachi held demonstrations on bikes, rickshaws, and other vehicles, carrying posters of Imran and party flags before police dispersed them by firing teargas.

Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi remained quiet, with heavy police deployments on main roads. Uzma Bukhari, a spokesperson for Punjab’s provincial government, said the PTI cannot be allowed to create chaos by holding the protests, a charge the party’s spokesperson denied. In a message attributed to Imran on his party’s X account on Monday, he urged supporters to “come out and hold peaceful protests until a true democracy is restored”. The former cricket star was elected prime minister in 2018 but once in office, he fell out with the powerful military and was ousted in 2022 by parliament. His arrest in May 2023 sparked protests against the military nationwide, leading to a crackdown on the party. Imran denies any wrongdoing and has dismissed as politically motivated the dozens of cases against him,

A protester being detained by police in Lahore on Tuesday. – REUTERSPIC

were disqualified on Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan said. Imran’s party emerged as the single biggest in the election last year, and it says that vote rigging robbed it of more seats. Other parties joined forces to form a government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who denies coming to power through electoral fraud. – Reuters

ranging from terrorism to disclosure of official secrets. He was convicted in January in a corruption case, but was acquitted of other charges or received suspended sentences. Hundreds of Imran’s party members including several parliamentarians were convicted late last month on charges related to the 2023 protests against his arrest. By law, nine of the parliamentarians