Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the celebrations of the 400th Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji at Red Fort in New Delhi on 21 April 2022 at around 9:15 PM. He will address the gathering and also release a commemorative coin and postage stamp on the occasion.

The programme is being organised by the Government of India in collaboration with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. During the two day (20 and 21 April) event, ragis and children from different parts of the country will participate in ‘Shabad Kirtan’. There will also be a grand light and sound show depicting the life of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji. Apart from this, the traditional martial art of Sikhs ‘Gatka’ will also be organized.

The programme is focussed on highlighting the teachings of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, the ninth Sikh Guru, who sacrificed his life to protect religion and human values, ideals and principles in world history. He was executed for supporting the religious freedom of Kashmiri Pandits on the orders of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. His death anniversary is commemorated as Shaheedi Divas every year on 24 November. Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj in Delhi are associated with his sacred sacrifice. His legacy serves as a great unifying force for the nation.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s 34-member Cabinet was sworn in on Tuesday after several days of delay, with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani administering the oath to new ministers as President Arif Alvi did not attend the ceremony.

The ceremony was scheduled to be held on Monday, but President Alvi had refused to administer the oath to the lawmakers, compelling the government to postpone it.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP’s) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was not among the ministers. Earlier, there was speculation that he would be the country’s next foreign minister.

Initially, 31 federal ministers and three ministers of state took the oath to join Prime Minister Sharif. Last week, Sanjrani administered the oath of office to Prime Minister Sharif after President Alvi, a member of ousted premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, went on ‘sick’ leave ahead of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader’s inauguration.

Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got 13 ministries and nine ministries have been given to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Four ministries were handed over to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) got two ministries.

Other coalition partners including Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Jamhori Watan Party (JWP) got one ministry each in the new set up.

Two state ministers from PML-N and one state minister from PPP were also appointed. One member of the PPP and two members of PML-N have been appointed advisors to the Prime Minister.

Lawmakers from the PML-N who took oath are Khwaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanveer, Khurram Dastgir, Saad Rafique, Mian Javed Latif, Mian Riaz Pirzada, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Azam Nazir, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Miftah Ismail.

Khurshid Shah, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Abdul Qadir Patel, Shazia Marri, Murtaza Mahmood, Sajid Hussain Tori, Ehsan-ur-Rehman and Abid Hussain from the PPP have also joined the Cabinet.

Asad Mahmood, Abdul Wasay, Mufti Abdul Shakur and Senator Talha Mahmood from the JUI-F and Syed Aminul Haq and Faisal Sabzwari MQM-P are also in the Cabinet.

Israr Tarin of BAP, Shahzain Bugti of JWP and Tariq Bashir Cheema of PML-Q are also included in the cabinet. Amir Muqam of PML-N, Qamar Zaman Kaira of PPP and Aun Chaudhry of Jahangir Tareen group are advisers to the Prime Minister.

Ayesha Ghous Pasha, Abdul Rehman Kanjo and Hina Rabbani Khar are the ministers of state in the new Cabinet.

The portfolios for these ministers are yet to be announced.

Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday claimed to have recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from Hajam Mohallah, Taad Karnah in Karnah area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. The cache included 10 pistols, 17 pistol magazines, 54 pistol rounds and  5 grenades.

“Acting on a specific information that a huge cache of arms and ammunition has been smuggled in from across LoC, a police team led by SHO Police Station Karnah Mudaser Ahmad and PSI Ayush Sharma, Incharge Police Post Taad Ayush Sharma along with local Army unit undertook a search operation in the general area of police post-Taad,” a police spokesman said..

“Apparently it looks like a new consignment smuggled for terrorist activities in Kashmir Valley, however timely action of Police and local Army has enabled the security forces to thwart nefarious designs of the adversary of committing innocent killings at the hands of terrorists in the valley,” the police statement added.

New Delhi: With 1247 coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,45,527, while the active cases increased to 11,860, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday morning at 8 am.

Death toll climbed to 5,21,966 with one fresh fatality being reported from Uttar Pradesh.
The active cases comprise 0.03 % of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 %, union health ministry said.

An increase of 318 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.31 %  and the weekly positivity rate as 0.34 %, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,25,11,701, while the case fatality rate was recorded a 1.21 %.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 186.72 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.

Mumbai :  Actor R Madhavan says he is “overwhelmed and humbled” with his son Vedaant’s winning streak after he scored his second medal, a gold, in swimming at the Danish Open in Copenhagen.
The 16-year-old bagged gold in the men’s 800m freestyle and bettered his personal best time by a whopping 11:48 to stop the clock at 8:17.28, edging past local swimmer Alexander L Bjorn by 0.10 to stand atop the podium on Sunday night.

Madhavan took to Instagram and posted a video of his son from the ceremony.
“Today it’s a Gold in 800m for @vedaantmadhavan. Overwhelmed and humbled. Thank you Coach @bacpradeep sir @swimmingfederation.in @ansadxb and the entire team,” the 51-year-old actor wrote.

On Friday, Vedaant had won the silver medal in the 1500m freestyle event, before bettering his 200m freestyle time to finish 12th overall in the event. The Danish Open concludes on April 19.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
A special bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli also asked the accused to surrender in a week’s time.

The top court on April 4 had reserved its order on a plea of farmers seeking cancellation of bail to Mishra.

Earlier, the high court had granted bail to him.  On October 3 last year, eight people were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri during violence that erupted when farmers were protesting against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to the area.

Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV, in which Ashish Mishra was seated, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police FIR. Following the incident, the driver and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers.

A journalist also died in the violence that triggered outrage among opposition parties and farmer groups agitating over the Centre’s now-repealed agricultural reform laws.