09/06/2026

TUESDAY | JUNE 9, 2026

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Seven dead in Kashmir clashes MUZAFFARABAD: Seven people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes between police and members of a banned activist group in Pakistan administered Kashmir. Supporters of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an anti-government movement demanding economic and governance reforms, had vowed to press ahead with protests days after the local government banned the group under anti-terrorism laws. Commissioner Sardar Waheed, the top civilian official in the city of Rawalakot, where the latest clashes took place, said three civilians were killed and 40 wounded. Police confirmed in a statement that the incident left four officers dead and 23 wounded. Police said that the JAAC’s central office was sealed on Sunday and a ban on gatherings imposed in Muzaffarabad, the largest city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Markets were open in Muzaffarabad while law enforcement agencies were patrolling the city yesterday after residents had rushed over the weekend to shops to stock up ahead of expected protests and lockdowns. Members of the JAAC have called their listing as a “terror” group “oppression”, saying they are demonstrating for legitimate economic and political rights. Authorities confirmed more than 70 JAAC members had been arrested over the weekend. – AFP Russian duo held in Bali drug probe JAKARTA: Authorities here arrested two Russian nationals suspected of smuggling drugs into Bali. The woman, 52, and the 40-year-old man were arrested after trying to smuggle close to 8kg of hashish in a suitcase from Thailand, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) said in a statement. “We have seized the evidence, 7.8kg of hashish,” BNN chief Suyudi Ario Seto said. The woman, identified by her initials “KK”, arrived in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport before driving to Bali in a rental vehicle to meet the man at a seaport on Friday. The man, identified by his initials “SK”, picked up the woman and dropped her, along with the case, at an unidentified location before attempting to flee. Officials pursued the man and said he had been driving recklessly and hit several pedestrians before being stopped by authorities. Both were taken into custody on Friday, the agency said. An investigation to determine whether the pair are part of a larger syndicate is underway, BNN said. – AFP

Major quake rocks Mindanao

o Indonesian island of Sulawesi also hit

MANILA: The death toll in a powerful earthquake off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao yesterday has risen to at least 32 with dozens of people injured, disaster officials said, as Manila stepped up search and rescue operations. The 7.8-magnitude quake, which triggered tsunami warnings across several countries, hit early in the morning about 20km off Sarangani province, with the tremors felt strongly across Mindanao and 420km away in the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The Philippines mobilised military and disaster response teams and authorities were verifying preliminary reports of 32 people killed and 134 injured across Mindanao, mostly from falling debris and landslides, according to civil defence officials. Tsunami warnings were cancelled after more than six hours in the southern Philippines, northern Indonesia and Sabah, where residents in coastal areas had been told to evacuate immediately to higher ground. The disaster came eight months after the Philippines suffered its deadliest tremor in 12 years, when a shallow 6.9 magnitude quake hit off the central island of Cebu, killing 79 people. Two powerful quakes struck

People collect their belongings from a damaged house following an earthquake off Mindanao that was also felt in North Tabukan, Sangihe Islands regency, North Sulawesi province, Indonesia. – REUTERSPIC

Relations between India and Bangladesh soured after a 2024 revolution in Dhaka ended the autocratic rule of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, an ally of New Delhi, who fled to India. A new government in Dhaka was elected in February, and relations have since slowly improved. Bangladesh and Indian border force chiefs were due to meet in New Delhi later yesterday. – AFP reduced to piles of concrete and rubble. Video shared by the local government showed the collapse of a building housing a fast food restaurant, with panicked onlookers fleeing as a cloud of dust spread quickly through the air. One General Santos hospital was evacuated due to concerns about cracks on higher floors. One of the buildings at the city’s Notre Dame of Dadiangas University collapsed but no one was inside. “I had to duck and shelter myself under the table. And it was very long and strong,” the university’s president Manuel de Leon told broadcaster DZMM. The Philippine seismology agency said there were more than 200 aftershocks, at least nine of those strong and felt across Mindanao, the highest at a magnitude 6.7. The quake struck just as schools were returning from a long break. A video shared by one school the moment the quake struck showed a large group of children sitting on the floor swaying rapidly from side to side, some hugging teachers, before fleeing en masse as a makeshift shelter collapsed nearby. Witnesses in Indonesia’s Manado said they felt the quake strongly. Only minor damage was reported, according to Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency. – Reuters

The Philippines and Indonesia experience hundreds of quakes each year and sit on tectonically complex parts of the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a seismically active belt stretching from South America to the Russian Far East. Damage to buildings, utilities and infrastructure was still being assessed, but the worst affected area was General Santos, a city of about 700,000 people, where shops and buildings were damaged, some with broken signs and glass, others

Mindanao two weeks later, the strongest at a magnitude 7.4. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered an immediate disaster response in Mindanao, an island the size of South Korea, with agencies directed to prepare relief supplies and evacuation centres and be ready for possible rescue operations. “The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” Marcos said in a statement.

Filipinos stand near a collapsed building in General Santos. – REUTERSPIC

India deports 5,000 Bangladeshi migrants KOLKATA: India has deported nearly 5,000 Bangladeshi citizens since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party swept to power in West Bengal last month, according to official statistics. border with Bangladesh, where migration has historically been driven by economic hardship and family links. “We have started the work of deporting infiltrators who do not fall under the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Act,” Adhikari said, saying the government had “established holding centres in all districts” last month.

arrangements to deport the 836 soon,” Adhikari said. The deportation campaign comes against a backdrop of political tensions over immigration. Critics accused the party of conflating religious identity with illegal migration. Rights groups have previously accused India of pushing hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrants into Bangladesh without due process.

On taking power, the new West Bengal government ordered the establishment of detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said nearly 5,000 Bangladeshi citizens had been deported across the border.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a sweeping victory in elections in the eastern border state of more than 100 million people, promising to “detect, delete and deport” illegal migrants. India shares a long and porous

“From these centres, 4,800 infiltrators have already been deported so far. “Another 836 people are in the holding centres ... we are making