Millions of workers walked off their jobs across India, with the telecoms, transport sector and postal service most affected. The “all-India” general strike was most universally observed in the southern state of Kerala, which remains virtually paralyzed.
Indian police detained two members of an Italian navy security team over the fatal shooting of two fishermen from an oil tanker off the coast of Kerala, sparking a diplomatic fracas. Italy says the naval guards mistook the fishermen for pirates.
The assassination of Kartam Surya, legendary leader of the Salwa Judum militia in Chhattisgarh state, raises question about the Indian government’s ongoing collaboration with the officially outlawed paramilitary network.
Deadly street clashes erupted in the Maldives, with protesters reported to be seizing police stations on some islands, after the archipelago nation’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was removed in a coup d’etat.
Molajula Koteswar Rao AKA “Kishenji,” most-wanted leader of India’s Naxalite guerillas, was killed in a gun battle with security forces, authorities said. Sympathizers of the Maoist rebel movement charged that Kishenji had been illegally executed.
After years of delay protested by survivors groups, a court in the Indian state of Gujarat convicted 31 people of crimes committed during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The guilty were convicted of murder, arson, rioting and criminal conspiracy.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) claimed responsibility for the terror blast at the court building in Delhi. HUJI leader Ilyas Kashmiri, allegedly killed in a drone strike earlier this year, was protected by Pakistani intelligence, according to court testimony.
Just two days after the fifth anniversary of the Mumbai train blasts that left more than 180 dead comes a new wave of coordinated terror blasts in India’s financial hub—this time targeting the gold and jewelry districts.
Former Maoist rebels and indigenous protesters demanding greater rights under the new constitution have staged weeks of civil strikes across Nepal, repeatedly shutting down large areas of the country, including Kathmandu.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of five of the six men accused in the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai—the woman whose refusal to remain silent about the 2002 crime won international acclaim for her courage.
At least one was killed as officers fired on protesters who overran a police station near Jaitapur, site of a proposed nuclear plant in Ratnagiri district of India’s Maharashtra state.
A special court in India sentenced 11 Muslims to death in connection with the Godhra train burning in 2002 that killed 59 Hindu nationalists and started the 2002 Gujarat riots.
