WORLD

Canada is "very closely" following the developments in Punjab and will continue to address the concerns of the community, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has said amid Punjab Police`s crackdown on radical preacher Amritpal Singh.

Joly was answering a question from Indo-Canadian MP Iqwinder S Gaheer in the House of Commons on Thursday.

"We are aware of the evolving situation in Punjab, and we are following it very closely. We look forward to a return to a more stable situation," she said.

Since the fallout of Pakistan’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Pakistani army called out a meeting with its top commanders. The failed economy and volatile political crisis are posing extreme situations. Based on the information, there are indications that Pakistan is heading towards military intervention.

The escalating feud between former prime minister Imran Khan’s supporters and security forces is approaching a “military-led solution”.   

The UK will review the security at the Indian High Commission here following "unacceptable" acts of violence by pro-Khalistan protesters, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said, asserting that the government takes these matters "very seriously" and would "robustly" respond to such incidents. Around 2,000 protesters waving Khalistan flags descended upon the Indian mission here on Wednesday for a planned demonstration and hurled objects and chanted slogans amid a heightened security presence and barricades. Unlike the violent disorder on Sunday when the India House came under attack, the protesters were barricaded across the road with uniformed officers standing guard and patrolling the area throughout. The protesters, including turbaned men, and some women and children, had been bussed in from different parts of the UK and chanted pro-Khalistan slogans.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which has entered Day 392, has seen different types of weapons and strategies being deployed. The West, in its efforts to help, has provided Ukraine with several munitions — ranging from the Patriot missile to different types of tanks and other armaments.

On Monday, Britain announced its plans to send Challenger 2 tanks along with ammunition, including armour piercing rounds. However, this decision has irked Russia, with Vladimir Putin telling reporters — after talks at the Kremlin with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping — that Moscow would be “forced to react” and accused the West of deploying weapons with a “nuclear component”.

A new report citing US intelligence sources claims "previously unreported act of intelligence-sharing" between the United States and India helped the Indian armed forces thwart a Chinese incursion in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, last December.

A US News report claims that the US government "for the first time provided real-time details to its Indian counterparts of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion".

"They were waiting. And that's because the US had given India everything to be fully prepared for this," US News quoted a US intelligence source familiar with the matter. These reports are in line with the earlier India Today Open-Source reporting from December 2022, which demonstrated how Indian forces were positioned for an eventual Chinese incursion in the region with help of the latest satellite imagery.