India news: Assam Police detain CJP's Ashutosh Ranka

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Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, posted on X on Sunday that CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka has been detained by the police in the northeastern state of Assam while on a visit to the state.

Earlier, Ranka talked to reporters in Assam, where he targeted the chief minister.

"Himanta Biswa Sarma is scared that if we expose the reality of Assam's schools, the country will find out what the condition of the schools here is really like," Ranka said.

The CJP leader said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader is "scared that people will find out how the rights of the people are being taken away in Kaziranga, and how their water, forests and land are being taken away and handed over to their corporate allies."

He accused Sarma of being scared that "people will find out how manmade floods were created in Assam, and how hundreds of people lost their lives."

Ranka also brought up the delimitation in Assam in 2023, which critics say altered demographic weights.

"We know how you redraw the boundaries of the constituencies during the assembly elections," Ranka said. "In one village, people ended up voting in three different constituencies, simply so that you could rig the election and win. But we are not people who are going to be afraid."

Large student protests erupted overnight on Saturday at Lovely Professional University in Punjab's Phagwara, after claims circulated on social media that a female student had allegedly been raped and subsequently died by suicide, according to reports.

Videos showed students smashing windows and flower pots, while some objects and parts of the private university building were set on fire.

However, some students posted on social media that the vandals were not university students but outsiders.

Reports also said students blocked the Jalandhar–Phagwara National Highway. Ppolice later cleared the highway.

Kapurthala Superintendent of Police Gaurav Toora said police had received no complaint or information about any rape and learned of the allegations only after reaching the campus.

Police said a report has been registered based on a students' statement, while investigators are examining the allegation and CCTV footage.

The university urged students to ignore the "rumors" and said they were safe, media reports said.

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This is Shakeel from DW's New Delhi Studio bringing you the latest from across India.

Cockroach party founder Abhijeet Dipke said on X that Assam Police detained CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka while he was in the northeastern state to inspect schools.

Meanwhile, large student protests erupted overnight at Lovely Professional University in Punjab after unverified social media claims that a female student had been raped and subsequently died by suicide.

For all this and more, follow our live blog.

That is all for today! We will have more tomorrow!

India's Election Commission (ECI) on Saturday said all decisions concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including the nationwide exercise, were approved unanimously, amid reports of differences within the poll panel, media reports said.

At a meeting, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, held on Saturday, the commission also eased the process for voters who receive notices over discrepancies, the reports said.

The ECI, while extending the deadline for claims and objections in Delhi to October 30 and in Maharashtra to October 12, said SIR had been completed in 20 states and Union territories, including Bihar and West Bengal, the reports said.

As deadly heat threatens livelihoods, women working in Delhi's informal sector are trying out heat wave insurance that pays out automatically when temperatures spike.

The opposition INDIA bloc parties are likely to meet in New Delhi on September 30 to discuss concerns over the Election Commission of India (ECI) and its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rollsand a coordinated joint response, the Times of India newspaper reported on Saturday.

The proposed meeting comes amid growing calls for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after an Indian Express investigation found that Kumar's fellow Election Commissioners had raised at least 14 objections over 10 months to decisions concerning voter registration and electoral data.

The three commissioners are overseeing the SIR, a voter-roll revision that the ECI says aims to remove the names of deceased, relocated and duplicate voters and prevent the inclusion of "foreign illegal immigrants."

Critics, however, say the exercise has gone beyond that remit and resulted in the removal of millions of eligible voters, potentially benefiting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Friday, Congress workers staged protests across several states demanding Kumar's resignation. Police used water cannons and detained protesters in several locations as they attempted to march towards election offices.

Congress has called for an independent audit of the revision process and greater transparency over deleted and restored voters.

With temperatures and flooding risks rising, finding good housing is getting even tougher. We visit Chennai, Delhi and Berlin to see what the answers to these climate change challenges might be.  

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday moved a resolution in the legislative assembly seeking the immediate restoration of full statehood to the region leading to chaos in the assembly, media reports said.

"We have been waiting. In public and private meetings and every forum, we made the government of India remember that you had made a promise with the people of J&K but it is not being fulfilled," Abdullah said in the assembly of the Union Territory.

Describing it as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise, Abdullah said that it should now be fulfilled, adding that the central government had promised to restore it after delimitation and elections.

He also cited administrative difficulties arising from J&K's status as a Union Territory.

The resolution was supported by the ruling National Conference, as well as other parties, but triggered an uproar from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators who objected to seeking greater autonomy for J&K.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP government in 2019 had revoked Kashmir's special status, known as Article 370, which had allowed Jammu and Kashmir to have its own constitution and a degree of internal autonomy.

Under locally approved laws, this meant that only local Kashmiris could vote, own land, and apply for government jobs.

A land ownership provision, called Article 35A, was also scrapped, leading to accusations of being a move by the BJP to engineer a demographic change in the Muslim-majority region.

Women, particularly students, have taken to the streets across New Delhi in recent days to protest recent cases of sexual violence against women and girls.

The demonstrations were prompted by the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in a Delhi park, as well as reported cases of molestation involving minors in Jamui and Samastipur in the eastern state of Bihar.

India and Pakistan traded accusations at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday, with Islamabad criticizing India's stance on Kashmir and New Delhi accusing Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism.

Addressing the General Assembly, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for "a just and fair resolution of the Kashmir dispute," alleging human rights violations in the region.

Sharif also brought up the military clashes last year between the uneasy neighbors, calling them "external aggression from India under a false pretext."

Pakistan considers Indian missile strikes on May 7 to be the start of the low-level conflict, which ran for less than a week, while India contends that the strikes were retaliation for an attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in April last year.

He added that India's decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance had no legal basis and accused New Delhi of "weaponizing" water.

India rejected Sharif's remarks. First Secretary at India's UN mission Petal Gahlot accused Pakistan of "terrorism, deceit and duplicity" and said Islamabad's support for cross-border terrorism would have consequences.

Gahlot also criticized Pakistan's military establishment and its treatment of minorities, while reiterating India's position that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the country.

Hello! This is Shakeel from DW's New Delhi Studio bringing you the latest updates from across India.

India and Pakistan traded barbs at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, as the acrimonious neighbors used the global forum to air their long-running grievances.

Meanwhile, the Congress Party protested across several states demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Election Commission's handling of the revision of voter rolls.

For all this and more, follow our live blog.