Indian troops and police had brought most of Gujarat state under control yesterday after nearly 500 people died in the nation's worst Hindu-Muslim bloodshed in a decade.
"The situation has become normal in most parts of Gujarat. No major incidents have been reported so far on Sunday," senior state official Ashok Narayan said.
But he said tension was still high in some rural parts of the troubled state and there had been "sporadic incidents."
Overnight, a mob burned four people alive in Palampur town and police shot dead one of the attackers as they tried to disperse them.
Narayan said 485 people had died across Gujarat since Wednesday, including 58 Hindus burned alive when a suspected Muslim mob torched a train, triggering the wave of revenge killings.
Thousands of troops are patrolling the main city, Ahmedabad, and some other hotspots, but have yet to reach remote villages.
Telling horrific tales, victims urged the government to act.
"Both Hindus and Muslims have gone mad -- otherwise how could people kill each other," Thodaji Nagai Prajapati, a 46-year-old driver covered in burns and bandages, said from his hospital bed yesterday.
Baker Moin-uddin Sheikh, 31, watched his family die in an attack on Friday in which 65 Muslims were burned alive.
"I saw my father, sister and mother being burned alive. Despite pleas for help, nobody came to our rescue," he said. "Will someone take action against them for being responsible for my family's brutal killing?"
Lal Krishna Advani, the minister in charge of internal security, visited victims in hospital in Ahmedabad. "The government will do everything to ensure peace in Gujarat," he said.
The killings have so far been confined to Gujarat, but state governments across the secular, but mainly Hindu nation mobilized tens of thousands of security personnel after the train attack.
Many of the dead were burned alive when mobs attacked Muslim homes and shops. Police also shot dead 80 as they tried to assert control.
India's leading Hindu radical group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), appealed for peace and another Hindu group was due to announce if it would delay plans to build a controversial temple that has also fuelled tensions.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)