Zohran Mamdani’s surprising win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary over ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo has rocked city politics. But can he turn progressive momentum into victory this November — and become mayor of America’s biggest city?
Published On 26 Jun 202526 Jun 2025
NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani was a state lawmaker unknown even to most New York City residents when he announced his run for mayor back in October.
On Tuesday evening, the 33-year-old marked his stunning political ascension when he declared victory in the Democratic primary from a Queens rooftop bar after former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded.
While the race’s ultimate outcome has yet to be confirmed by a ranked choice count scheduled for July 1, here’s a look at the one-time rapper seeking to become the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor, and its youngest mayor in generations.
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating from college.
He lived with his family briefly in Cape Town, South Africa, before moving to New York City when he was 7.
Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include “Monsoon Wedding,” “The Namesake” and “Mississippi Masala.” His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is an anthropology professor at Columbia University.
Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, earlier this year at the City Clerk’s Office. The couple live in the Astoria section of Queens.
Mamdani graduated in 2014 from Bowdoin College in Maine, where he earned a degree in Africana studies and co-founded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.
After college, he worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens helping residents avoid eviction, the job he says inspired him to run for public office.
Mamdani also had a notable side hustle in the local hip-hop scene, rapping under the moniker Young Cardamom and later Mr. Cardamom. During his first run for state lawmaker, Mamdani gave a nod to his brief foray into music, describing himself as a “B-list rapper.”
“Nani,” a song he made in 2019 to honor his grandmother, even found new life — and a vastly wider audience — as his mayoral campaign gained momentum.
Mamdani cut his teeth in local politics working on campaigns for Democratic candidates in Queens and Brooklyn.
He was first elected to the New York Assembly in 2020, representing a Queens district covering Astoria and surrounding neighborhoods and has handily won reelection twice.
The Democratic Socialist’s most notable legislative accomplishment has been pushing through a pilot program that made a handful of city buses free for a year. He’s also proposed legislation banning nonprofits from “engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”
Mamdani’s opponents, particularly Cuomo, have dismissed him as woefully unprepared for managing the complexities of running America’s largest city.
But Mamdani has framed his relative inexperience as a potential asset, saying in a mayoral debate he’s “proud” he doesn’t have Cuomo’s “experience of corruption, scandal and disgrace.”
Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian causes was a point of tension in the mayor’s race as Cuomo and other opponents sought to label his defiant criticism of Israel as antisemitic.
The Shia Muslim has called Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “genocide” and said the country should exist as “a state with equal rights,” rather than a “Jewish state.” That message has resonated among pro-Palestinian residents, including the city’s roughly 800,000 adherents of Islam — the largest Muslim community in the country.
During an interview on CBS’ “The Late Show” on the eve of the election, host Stephen Colbert asked Mamdani if he believed the state of Israel had the right to exist. He responded: “Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist — and a responsibility also to uphold international law.”
Mamdani’s refusal to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” on a podcast — a common chant at pro-Palestinian protests — drew recriminations from Jewish groups and fellow candidates in the days leading up to the election.
In his victory speech Tuesday, he pledged to work closely with those who don’t share his views on controversial issues.
“While I will not abandon my beliefs or my commitments, grounded in a demand for equality, for humanity, for all those who walk this earth, you have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements,” Mamdani said.
Marcelo writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.
Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra, speaks to the media during a press conference in Mumbai, India, in 2019. File Photo by Divyakant Solanki/EPA-EFE
June 15 (UPI) — An iron bridge in western India collapsed around 3:30 p.m. local time Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and 32 people injured, authorities said.
The bridge that collapsed spans the Indrayani River in the Pune district of the state of Maharashtra, the state’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a statement.
“Two people have died in this incident. I offer my heartfelt condolences to them. We share the grief of their families,” he said.
Those who were injured were taken to a hospital for treatment, six of whom remain in critical condition.
Fadnavis added that others were also missing after being swept away by the river and said that there is a “war-like” search for them. It was not immediately clear how many people might be missing.
“Six people have been rescued so far,” he said. “All the agencies have been ordered to be put on alert mode.”
In a separate statement from his office on X, Fadnavis said the families of the victims who lost their lives would be given financial assistance of about $5,800 and that the government would pay for the medical care of those who were injured.
Fadnavis said he had been in contact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the incident.
The government’s response received some criticism from the public, like one who responded to the X post, questioning why families were only being provided about $5,800 when families of victims of a recent Air India crash were being provided over $116,000.
“Does the value of a human life depend on whether the tragedy occurred in the air or on a bridge?” that critic wrote.
The bridge collapse had come after heavy rains in recent days had raised water levels.
Video shows Indian Coast Guard crews dropping dry chemical powder and taking other steps to try to douse a blaze that’s been burning for days on a cargo ship carrying hazardous materials. The ship was off the Kerala coast en route to Mumbai when explosions sparked the blaze. Four crew members are missing.
Published On 12 Jun 202512 Jun 2025
At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in stampede outside Bengaluru stadium on Wednesday.
Police in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru have arrested four people after a stampede during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricket team’s Indian Premier League victory celebrations killed 11 people and injured at least 47, local media reported.
Three people from an event management company and one official from the RCB team were arrested on Friday, according to local media reports.
Media outlet India Today said Nikhil Sosale, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s head of marketing, was arrested at Bengaluru’s airport.
The Indian Express newspaper reported Sosale was arrested along with an executive from an event management company.
There was no immediate comment from RCB.
Tens of thousands of people had packed the streets of the city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team after they beat Punjab Kings in the final of the Indian Premier League.
As the team was celebrating with the trophy inside a stadium in the city, thousands of people tried to push through the gates, leading to a stampede.
The franchise said later the incident was “unfortunate” and pledged one million Indian rupees ($11,655) to each family of the 11 fans who died.
The deaths have prompted widespread anger and top police officers have been suspended.
On Thursday during a news conference, Karnataka state’s chief minister Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, criticised the suspended officials.
“These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent and it has been decided to suspend them,” Siddaramaiah said.
The chief minister also said “legal action has been taken against the representatives of RCB,” as well as the event organisers and the state’s cricket association. He noted that a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”.
Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream first IPL crown turned to tragedy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”.
Stampedes occur frequently in India, mainly at religious events, but it was the first time in 45 years that fans had died in a crush at a sporting event, local media said.
India’s head cricket coach Gautam Gambhir said on Thursday he did not support such roadshows and celebrations.
“Celebration is important. But more important than that is the life of any person. So, if we are not prepared or if we can’t handle the crowd in that way, then we might as well not have these roadshows,” Gambhir told reporters.
The pioneering IPL sold its broadcast rights in 2022 for five seasons to global media giants for an eye-popping $6.2bn, putting it up amongst the highest-ranked sport leagues in cost-per-match terms.
At least 11 people died in a stampede outside a cricket stadium in Bengaluru as crowds gathered to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title. Footage shows fans scaling fences and swarming the stadium.
Published On 4 Jun 20254 Jun 2025
Flies hovered over the blackened and swollen bodies of men and boys, lying side-by-side on a piece of tarpaulin, in blood-soaked combat fatigues, amid preparations for a rushed cremation in the Tamu district of Myanmar’s Sagaing region, bordering India.
Quickly arranged wooden logs formed the base of the mass pyre, with several worn-out rubber tyres burning alongside to sustain the fire, the orange and green wreaths just out of reach of the flames.
Among the 10 members of the Pa Ka Pha (PKP), part of the larger People’s Defence Forces (PDF), killed by the Indian Army on May 14, three were teenagers.
The PKP comes under the command of the National Unity Government (NUG), Myanmar’s government-in-exile, comprising lawmakers removed in the 2021 coup, including legislators from Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.
It mostly assists the PDF – a network of civilian militia groups against the military government – which serves, in effect, as the NUG’s army.
The Indian Army said that on May 14, a battalion of the country’s Assam Rifles (AR) paramilitary force patrolling a border post in the northeast Indian state of Manipur, killed 10 men armed with “war-like stores” who were “suspected to be involved in cross-border insurgent activities”. The battalion, the Indian Army said, was “acting on specific intelligence”.
The Indian soldiers were stationed at the border in Chandel, a district contiguous with Tamu on the Myanmar side of the frontier. Manipur has been torn by a civil war between ethnic groups for the past two years, and Indian authorities have often accused migrants from Myanmar of stoking those tensions.
However, disputing the Indian version of the May 14 events, the exiled NUG said its cadres were “not killed in an armed encounter within Indian territory”. Instead, it said in a statement, they were “captured, tortured and summarily executed by” Indian Army personnel.
For nearly five years since the coup, political analysts and conflict observers say that resistance groups operating in Myanmar, along the 1,600km-long (994 miles) border with India, have shared an understanding with Indian forces, under which both sides effectively minded their own business.
That has now changed with the killings in Tamu, sending shockwaves through the exiled NUG, dozens of rebel armed groups and thousands of refugees who fled the war in Myanmar to find shelter in northeastern Indian states. They now fear a spillover along the wider frontier.
“Fighters are in panic, but the refugees are more worried – they all feel unsafe now,” said Thida*, who works with the Tamu Pa Ah Pha, or the People’s Administration Team, and organised the rebels’ funeral on May 16. She requested to be identified by a pseudonym.
Meanwhile, New Delhi has moved over the past year to fence the international border with Myanmar, dividing transnational ethnic communities who have enjoyed open-border movement for generations, before India and Myanmar gained freedom from British rule in the late 1940s.
“We felt safe [with India in our neighbourhood],” said Thida. “But after this incident, we have become very worried, you know, that similar things may follow up from the Indian forces.”
“This never happened in four years [since the armed uprising against the coup], but now, it has happened,” she told Al Jazeera. “So, once there is a first time, there could be a second or a third time, too. That is the biggest worry.”
![A document that the officials in Tamu, Myanmar, said that Indian security forces gave to them to sign, in order to be get back the bodies [Photo courtesy the National Unity Government of Myanmar]](https://www.occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Handing-over-doc-1748844077.jpg)
On May 12, the 10 cadres of the PKP arrived at their newly established camp in Tamu after their earlier position was exposed to the Myanmar military. A senior NUG official and two locals based in Tamu independently told Al Jazeera that they had alerted the Indian Army of their presence in advance.
“The AR personnel visited the new campsite [on May 12],” claimed Thida. “They were informed of our every step.”
What followed over the next four days could not be verified independently, with conflicting versions emerging from Indian officials and the NUG. There are also contradictions in the narratives put out by Indian officials.
On May 14, the Indian Army’s eastern command claimed that its troops acted on “intelligence”, but “were fired upon by suspected cadres”, and killed 10 cadres in a gunfight in the New Samtal area of the Chandel district.
Two days later, on May 16, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of Defence said that “a patrol of Assam Rifles” was fired upon. In retaliation, they killed “10 individuals, wearing camouflage fatigues”, and recovered seven AK-47 rifles as well as a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Five days later, on May 21, the Defence Ministry identified the killed men as cadres of the PKP. The ministry spokesperson further noted that “a patrol out to sanitise the area, where fence construction is under way along the [border], came under intense automatic fire”, with the intent “to cause severe harm to construction workers or troops of Assam Rifles to deter the fencing work”.
Speaking with Al Jazeera, a retired Indian government official, who has advised New Delhi on its Myanmar policy for a decade, pointed out the dissonance in the Indian versions: Did Indian soldiers respond proactively to intelligence alerts, or were they reacting to an attack from the rebels from Myanmar?
“It is difficult to make sense of these killings. This is something that has happened against the run of play,” the retired official, who requested anonymity to speak, said. The contradictions, he said, suggested that “a mistake happened, perhaps in the fog of war”.
“It cannot be both a proactive operation and retaliation.”
Al Jazeera requested comments from the Indian Army on questions around the operation, first on May 26, and then again on May 30, but has yet to receive a response.
Thura, an officer with the PDF in Sagaing, the northwest Myanmar region where Tamu is too, said, “The [PKP cadres] are not combat trained, or even armed enough to imagine taking on a professional army”.
![A photo of one of the rebel fighters killed by Indian security forces [Courtesy of the National Unity Government of Myanmar]](https://www.occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PKP-cadre-1748844189.jpg)
When they were informed by the Indian Army of the deaths on May 16, local Tamu authorities rushed to the Indian side.
“Assam Rifles had already prepared a docket of documents,” said a Tamu official, who was coordinating the bodies’ handover, and requested anonymity. “We were forced to sign the false documents, or they threatened not to give the corpses of martyrs.”
Al Jazeera has reviewed three documents from the docket, which imply consent to the border fencing and underline that the PDF cadres were killed in a gunfight in Indian territory.
Thida, from the Tamu’s People’s Administration Team, and NUG officials, told Al Jazeera that they have repeatedly asked Indian officials to reconsider the border fencing.
“For the last month, we have been requesting the Indian Army to speak with our ministry [referring to the exiled NUG] and have a meeting. Until then, stop the border fencing process,” she said.
Bewildered by the killings, Thida said, “It is easy to take advantage while our country is in such a crisis. And, to be honest, we cannot do anything about it. We are the rebels in our own country — how can we pick fights with the large Indian Army?”
Above all, Thida said she was heartbroken. “The state of corpses was horrific. Insects were growing inside the body,” she recalled. “If nothing, Indian forces should have respect for our dead.”
Angshuman Choudhury, a researcher focused on Myanmar and northeast India, said that conflict observers “are befuddled by these killings in Tamu”.
“It is counterintuitive and should not have happened by any measure,” he said.
The main point of dispute, the border fencing, is an age-old issue, noted Choudhary. “It has always caused friction along the border. And very violent fiction in the sense of intense territorial misunderstandings from groups on either side,” he said.
When New Delhi first moved last year to end the free movement regime, which allows cross-border movement to inhabitants, Indigenous communities across India’s northeastern states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh were left stunned. Members of these communities live on both sides of the border with Myanmar – and have for centuries.
Political analysts and academics note that the border communities on either side reconciled with the idea of India and Myanmar because of the freedom to travel back and forth. Erecting physical infrastructure triggers a kind of anxiety in these transnational communities that demarcation on maps does not, argued Choudhary.
“By fencing, India is creating a completely new form of anxieties that did not even exist in the 1940s, the immediate post-colonial period,” Choudhary said. “It is going to create absolutely unnecessary forms of instability, ugliness, and widen the existing fault lines.”
Last year, the Indian home minister, Amit Shah, said that border fencing would ensure India’s “internal security” and “maintain the demographic structure” of the regions bordering Myanmar, in a move widely seen as a response to the conflict in Manipur.
Since May 2023, ongoing ethnic violence between the Meitei majority and the Kuki and Naga minority communities has killed more than 250 people and displaced thousands. The state administration has faced allegations of exacerbating the unrest to strengthen its support among the Meitei population, which the government has denied.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and the Manipur state government, also under the BJP, have blamed the crisis in Manipur in part on undocumented migrants from Myanmar, whom they accuse of deepening ethnic tensions.
Now, with the killings in Tamu, Choudhary said that Indian security forces had a new frontier of discontent, along a border where numerous armed groups opposed to Myanmar’s ruling military have operated — until now, in relative peace with Indian troops.
The deaths, he said, could change the rules of engagement between Indian forces and those groups. “Remember, other rebel groups [in Myanmar] are also watching this closely,” he said. “These issues can spiral quickly.”
Raipur, Chhattisgarh – Indian security forces have launched an all-out war against Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh state, as the federal government aims to “wipe out” long-running armed rebellions in the mineral-rich tribal region of the country.
The Karrigatta hills forest, which straddles across Chhattisgarh and Telangana states, has turned into a “warzone” with more than 10,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the anti-Maoist operation – dubbed “Operation Zero or Kagar”.
The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs both the state as well as the central government, has drastically escalated security operations, killing at least 201 Maoist rebels, also known as Naxals, this year.
At least 27 rebels were killed on Wednesday, including the leader of the Maoists. In the past 16 months, more than 400 alleged Maoist rebels have been killed in Chhattisgarh state, home to a sizable population of Adivasis (meaning original inhabitants or Indigenous people).
But activists are alarmed: They say many of those killed are innocent Adivasis. And campaigners and opposition leaders are urging the government to cease fire and hold talks with Maoist rebels to find a solution to the decades-old issue.
More than 11,000 civilians and security forces have been killed in clashes involving Maoist fighters between 2000 and 2024, according to official figures. Security forces have killed at least 6,160 Maoist fighters during the same period, according to police and Maoist figures.
So, will the government’s hardline approach help bring peace, or will it further alienate the Adivasis, who are already one of the most marginalised groups in the country?
The armed rebellion in India originated in a 1967 rural uprising in the small town of Naxalbari, located in West Bengal state. The word Naxal comes from the town’s name.
Led by communist leaders Kanu Sanyal, Charu Majumdar, and Jungle Santal, the armed uprising called for addressing the issues of landlessness and exploitation of the rural poor by landlords.
The three leaders founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)) on April 22, 1969, to wage armed rebellion against the Indian state. They believed that their demands were not going to be met by the prevailing democratic set-up.
The Naxal rebels were also inspired by the revolutionary ideology of the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Modelled on the Chinese communist party’s approach to capturing the state, they waged a violent rebellion against the Indian security forces in mineral-rich central and eastern India for decades. The West Bengal government, led by Congress leader Siddhartha Shankar Ray, launched a fierce campaign to suppress the Naxalite uprising.
I once again assure the countrymen that India is sure to be Naxal-free by 31 March 2026
by Amit Shah, home minister
Sanyal, one of the founding leaders of the movement, told this reporter in 2010 that “by 1973, at least 32,000 Naxalites or sympathisers had been jailed across India.”
“Many were killed in fake encounters. And when the Emergency was declared in June 1975, it was clear- the sun had almost set on the Naxalite movement,” he said. He died in 2010, aged 78, apparently by suicide in Siliguri.
Over the years, the CPI(ML) splintered into multiple parties, more than 20 of which still exist. The main CPI(ML) itself gave up armed struggle, expressed faith in the Indian Constitution and began participating in electoral politics. Currently, it is a legally recognised political organisation with several legislators.
Meanwhile, in 1980, one of the splinters, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People’s War, was founded by Kondapalli Seetharamayya and Kolluri Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh.
Another major breakaway faction, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), had a base in Bihar and West Bengal states. In September 2004, the MCC and CPI(ML) People’s War merged, resulting in the formation of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the largest armed Maoist organisation in India today.
The organisation’s most recent general secretary, Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraj, was killed by security forces on Wednesday in Bastar, Chhattisgarh – the last stronghold of Maoists.
The BJP-run Chhattisgarh state government has adopted a more aggressive stance against Maoists compared with the previous government led by the Congress party.
At least 141 Maoists were killed between 2020 and 2023, when the Congress party was in power, but after the BJP came to power, security forces claimed to have killed 223 alleged Maoists in 2024 alone, according to government figures.
“For the past 15 months, our security personnel have been strongly fighting the Naxals,” Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai told Al Jazeera.
“This action is part of the broader efforts, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, to make India free from Naxalism. This is a decisive phase, and we are advancing rapidly in that direction,” he said.
The security forces have currently surrounded suspected Maoist hideouts in Karigatta Hills, with the army’s helicopters assisting in the operation, according to authorities.
Whether it’s the Maoists or the DRG, the one who kills is tribal and the one who dies is also tribal
by Former Member of Parliament Arvind Netam
On May 14, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah announced the killing of 31 fighters in the Karrigatta Hills.
“I once again assure the countrymen that India is sure to be Naxal-free by 31 March 2026,” Shah reiterated in his post on X.
Overall, nearly 66,000 security personnel spanning a range of paramilitary and special forces have been deployed in Chhattisgarh.
The latest operation, which involves more than 10,000 soldiers, centres around the mineral-rich Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, which spans 38,932 square kilometres (15,032sq miles) – an area nearly the size of the US state of Kentucky.
The government has set up approximately 320 security camps in Bastar alone – home to three million people. The number of personnel at each security camp fluctuates depending on the requirement: It can be as low as 150 personnel and rise up to 1,200. They include security forces, as well as technical staff.
Security camps are often equipped with surveillance and communication equipment to assist in the operation against the rebels. The 20,000-strong local police force is also helping in the operations in Bastar.
The use of cutting-edge technology, such as advanced drones equipped with high-definition cameras and thermal imaging sensors, has helped security forces monitor Maoist activity in the region’s dense forests.
However, local villagers allege that security forces have carried out aerial bombings in various parts of Bastar using large drones. Maoist groups have also accused the forces of conducting air strikes.
Security forces have consistently denied these allegations.
Shah, the home minister, has made frequent visits to Chhattisgarh, even spending nights with security forces in Bastar.
But the federal government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who preceded Modi in India’s top executive office, had also taken a tough stance against Naxals.
Singh even called Naxalism the “greatest internal security threat” to India, and his government launched a major crackdown in 2009 under what it called “Operation Green Hunt” to quash the armed rebellion. Amid allegations of human rights violations, Indian security forces managed to reduce the terrain controlled by the Maoists.
In the 2000s, Naxals controlled nearly one-third of India’s mineral-rich tribal areas, known euphemistically as the Red Corridor, straddling the states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, among others. But the number of districts where Maoists wield significant influence had declined from 126 in 2013 to just 38 by April last year.
As the government claims success in its military offensive, human rights groups such as the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) accuse the security forces of carrying out fake encounters or extrajudicial killings.
“A large-scale military campaign is being carried out under the pretext of eliminating Maoists,” Junas Tirkey, the president of the PUCL in Chhattisgarh state, said.
“Since 2024, violence, human rights violations, and militarisation have increased sharply in Bastar. Innocent tribals are being killed in fake encounters,” he told Al Jazeera.
Since 2024, violence, human rights violations, and militarisation have increased sharply in Bastar. Innocent tribals are being killed in fake encounters
by Junas Tirkey, president of the PUCL in Chhattisgarh
The PUCL has identified at least 11 incidents as fake encounters over the past one and a half years.
On March 25, police claimed it had killed Maoist rebels Sudhakar alias Sudhir, Pandru Atra, and Mannu Barsa in Bordga village, Bijapur, about 160km (100 miles) east of Bastar.
But villagers allege the police’s version is false. They claim that the police surrounded the village at night, took 17 people away, released seven, shot three, and took the remaining seven with them.
The government has denied the allegations, but no independent investigation has been conducted in this case. The regular magisterial inquiry, which is carried out after so-called encounters, is not considered credible by rights groups and tribal communities as it is largely based on the police version of events.
“It’s true that Sudhakar was a Maoist and came to visit someone in the village. But the police captured Sudhakar, my brother and others alive, took them away, and later shot them, falsely declaring it an encounter,” the brother of Mannu Barsa, Manesh Barsa, told Al Jazeera.
Inspector general of police of Bastar region, Pattilingam Sundarraj, disagreed with these allegations. He claimed that Maoists often pressure locals to fabricate accusations against the police following encounters.
However, multiple so-called encounters in Bastar have been proven fake in the past, and in most cases, justice has evaded victims.
Even if they are eliminated from Bastar, Maoism is an ideology that cannot be defeated through violence alone
by Former DGP Vishwaranjan
Out of thousands of so-called encounters in Bastar in the last 25 years, only two have faced judicial inquiry. On June 28, 2012, 17 Adivasis, including six minors, were killed in Sarkeguda village in Bijapur district. On May 17, 2013, four minors were among eight Adivasis killed in Edasmeta village in the same district.
The inquiries led by High Court judges found all victims to be innocent. The reports were released in 2022 during the previous Congress rule, though no police cases have been registered against any personnel to date.
Even peaceful protests against mining projects and the militarisation of the region have been met with harsh crackdowns.
The Moolvasi Bachao Manch (MBM), led by Adivasis, was banned last year for “opposing development” and “resisting security forces”.
Dozens of Adivasi youth associated with MBM have been arrested since 2021.
The recruitment of Adivasis, many of them former Maoists, in recent years by the authorities seems to have turned the tide in favour of the government.
The then-BJP state government started to incorporate Adivasis, particularly former Maoists, in the District Reserve Guard (DRG) force in 2008 with the aim of using them in anti-Maoist operations. The idea: Former Maoists are better at navigating dense jungle terrain and know about Maoist hideouts.
But past records have raised concerns. Adivasis enlisted as Special Police Officers (SPOs), as they were called, have been accused of rights violations.
In 2005, the state government ruled by the Congress government launched a campaign against Maoists called Salwa Judum (meaning “peace march” in the local Gondi language). Salwa Judum members were armed and were later designated as SPOs and paid 1,500 rupees/month ($17/month).
On one hand, the government itself had proposed dialogue with the Maoists. But now, that same government has turned Bastar into a warzone
by Soni Sori, Adivasi activist
But Salwa Judum members faced accusations of rape, arson, torture and murder. In 2011, the Supreme Court declared Salwa Judum illegal and slammed the state for arming civilians. Subsequently, many SPOs were absorbed into the DRG.
DRG personnel have also been accused of rights abuses, but such cases have rarely been investigated.
Campaigners have also questioned the policy of using surrendered Maoists in combat instead of rehabilitating them.
“The manner in which SPOs were incorporated into the DRG is disturbing. It shows how tribal youth involved in violence were again handed guns under the pretext of rehabilitation,” lawyer and human rights activist Priyanka Shukla told Al Jazeera.
Former Member of Parliament Arvind Netam believes Bastar is “in a state of civil war”. In a situation like this, he says, it’s the tribals who suffer the most.
“Whether it’s the Maoists or the DRG, the one who kills is tribal and the one who dies is also tribal,” Netam, a tribal leader, told Al Jazeera.
Campaigners have argued that Chhattisgarh’s new rehabilitation policy, which promises bounties and cash rewards, incentivises people to turn on each other for money, often with allegations that may be legally untenable.
Interestingly, while the government has intensified its offensive, it has also continued to offer peace talks to Maoists.
“We still reiterate, Maoists should come forward for dialogue after laying down their arms. Our doors for talks within the framework of the Indian Constitution are always open,” Chhattisgarh’s Home Minister Vijay Sharma told local media last week.
The Maoists, however, insist on a ceasefire and withdrawal of paramilitary forces as conditions for talks. They argue that peace talks and military operations cannot run simultaneously.
In a statement, CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Abhay said, “The right to life guaranteed by the Indian Constitution is being crushed by the government itself … On one hand, our party is trying to initiate unconditional dialogue, and on the other hand, ongoing killings of Maoists and tribals render the peace process meaningless.”
Activists have raised concerns regarding the plight of Adivasi communities.
Soni Sori, an Adivasi social activist from Bastar, believes the government must take the initiative for peace talks.
“On one hand, the government itself had proposed dialogue with the Maoists. But now, that same government has turned Bastar into a warzone,” Sori told Al Jazeera.
“Given the way these operations are being conducted, the government should halt them, foster an environment conducive to dialogue, and take meaningful steps toward initiating peace talks.”
Human rights activists, academics and students have been targeted after being dubbed Naxal sympathisers. A 90 percent disabled professor from Delhi University, GN Saibaba was jailed for backing Maoists. Last October, he died months after being acquitted by the country’s top court after a decade of incarceration.
But state Chief Minister Sai says there will be no leniency in this matter. “Naxal eradication is not just a campaign but a mission to secure Bastar and Chhattisgarh’s future,” he said.
In 2011, then-Director General of Police of Chhattisgarh Vishwaranjan estimated approximately 10,000 armed Maoists and 40,000 militia members in the Bastar region. Accurate numbers are hard to determine.
The rebels were able to carry out deadly attacks against the security forces. In 2010, they killed 76 paramilitary troops in a forest ambush in Chhattisgarh. Three years later, dozens of people, including the Congress leader who founded the Salwa Judum, were killed in a rebel ambush.
Current Bastar IGP Sundarraj P estimates about 1,000 armed Maoists remain, along with 15,000 affiliated individuals.
Internal Maoist reports acknowledge declining recruitment, smaller units, and ammunition shortages. Of the 40 central committee and politburo members, only 18 remain free – the rest are either dead or arrested.
Meanwhile, security forces have expanded, built new camps, and improved intelligence and training, while Maoists’ base areas are shrinking.
While our government is running an anti-Naxal campaign, we are also actively working on development projects
by Vishnu Deo Sai, chief minister of Chhattisgarh
Former DGP Vishwaranjan says Maoists are weakened in Chhattisgarh, but they have expanded into neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
“Even if they are eliminated from Bastar, Maoism is an ideology that cannot be defeated through violence alone,” he told Al Jazeera.
“As long as we build a society on economic inequality, the ideology may resurface in a new form.”
Defending his government’s policies, Chief Minister Sai said that “security and development go hand in hand.”
“While our government is running an anti-Naxal campaign, we are also actively working on development projects,” he said.
Naxals have invoked the exploitation of natural resources, particularly through mining leases issued to global corporations, and the displacement of local communities, as their reasons for picking up guns in mineral-rich areas of the country. Thousands of Adivasis have been displaced and their local environments severely damaged due to mining activities.
Of the 51 mineral leases in Bastar, 36 are held by private firms, including global steel major ArcelorMittal.
Former MLA and tribal leader Manish Kunjam echoes a similar sentiment, arguing, “The real issue is iron ore.”
According to the Indian government, 19 percent of the country’s iron ore reserves are in Chhattisgarh, mainly in Bastar.
Chhattisgarh accounts for 18 percent of India’s railway freight revenue, largely from mineral transport – and this is growing.
Kunjam explained that when the corporations Tata and Essar began their projects in 2005 to mine iron ore, the state launched Salwa Judum, evacuating 644 villages under the pretext of Maoist fear. At least 350,000 people were displaced. However, strong tribal resistance forced the companies to withdraw.
“Learning from that failure, the government has now set up security camps in mining zones, preparing for renewed extraction,” he said.
“Without village council approval, mining cannot proceed. If tribals protest, they will be labelled as Maoists or sympathisers and dealt with accordingly.”
A closer look at his claims reveals that most camps are indeed in areas where mining has begun or is about to. In Bastar’s mining belt, there is one soldier for every nine tribals. Many of these camps are funded by mining companies.
But Chief Minister Sai believes that the mineral resources in tribal areas should be utilised.
The idea of generating revenue at the cost of tribal lives is dangerous and unconstitutional
by Sushil Anand Shukla, opposition Congress party spokesperson
“The lives of tribals will change with the beginning of mining and industrial activities,” he said. He boasted that Chhattisgarh ranks second among mineral-producing states [after Odisha], earning approximately 14.19 billion rupees ($1.71bn) last year.
This year, the state has allocated 48 major mineral blocks to private companies in the state.
But mass poverty and lack of basic health facilities expose the government’s claims.
Netam, the tribal leader, pointed out that the state has an infant mortality rate of nearly 38 per 1,000 live births, compared to the national infant mortality rate of 28 per 1,000 live births.
In Bastar, he said, poverty is 80 percent.
The opposition Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla claimed that under the guise of mining, preparations were under way to completely displace tribals from Bastar.
“Today, Bastar stands on the brink of war, and its answers cannot be found by looking to the past. The government must stop surrendering to corporate houses and mining companies at the cost of evicting tribals,” Sushil Anand Shukla says.
“The idea of generating revenue at the cost of tribal lives is dangerous and unconstitutional,” he told Al Jazeera.
May 20 (UPI) — The Trump administration is imposing visa restrictions on India-based travel agencies and their owners for facilitating illegal migration to the United States.
The State Department announced the punitive measure Monday amid a Trump administration crackdown on immigration, saying it was banning entry to owners, executives and senior officials of Indian travel agencies who knowingly facilitate illegal migration.
Specifics of who and what firms were targeted were not disclosed, but the State Department said its Consular Affairs and Diplomatic Security Services mission in India was working to identify those involved in human smuggling and trafficking operations.
“We will continue to take steps to impose visa restrictions against owners, executives and senior officials of travel agencies to cut off alien smuggling networks,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
“Our immigration policy aims not only to inform foreign nationals about the dangers of illegal immigration to the United States but also to hold accountable individuals who violate our laws, including facilitators of illegal immigration.”
Under the previous Biden administration, the State Department announced a policy in July that prohibited entry to executives of travel agencies and tour operators offering services to bring migrants into the United States illegally.
It was one of several actions the Biden administration took to curb illegal migration amid criticism during a surge in migrants entering the country following the end of pandemic-era restrictions.
The Biden administration in November 2023 first implemented a policy to target Nicaraguan charter flight companies, which was late superseded by another policy that included ground and maritime transportation firms.
The Biden administration also imposed a policy to bar visa issuance to Colombian transportation companies executives and owners.
Then in March, the Trump administration announced a further expansion to the policy to ban entry to foreign government officials facilitating irregular migration by failing to enforce immigration laws or policies.
UPI has contacted the State Department for comment.
Since President Donald Trump‘s inauguration in January, the White House has conducted a crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration that includes mass deportation efforts, which have been challenged in court.
A professor from an elite, private liberal-arts university in India has been arrested for a social media post about news briefings on the military operation against Pakistan more than a week after the two nuclear-armed neighbours agreed to a ceasefire, according to local media reports.
Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor with the Department of Political Science at Ashoka University, was arrested on Sunday under sections of the criminal code pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, incitement of armed rebellion or subversive activities, and insults of religious beliefs.
A police official told the Indian Express newspaper that Mahmudabad, 42, was arrested in the capital, New Delhi, 60km (37 miles) south of the university, located in Sonepat in Haryana state.
A report by the online publication Scroll.in on Sunday quoted Mahmudabad’s lawyer as saying the case against him was filed on Saturday based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri, general secretary of the youth wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana.
The arrest was made days after the Haryana State Commission for Women summoned Mahmudabad for his comments on the daily briefings on India’s military operation in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh from the Indian armed forces held media briefings on Operation Sindoor, launched on May 6.
In a Facebook post on May 8, Mahmudabad had said: “I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophia Qureishi but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens.
“The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is importantly but optics must translate to reality on the ground otherwise it’s just hypocrisy.”
The post referred to Qureishi, a Muslim officer in the Indian army, and attacks against Muslims, including lynchings and destruction of their houses without due process.
According to local media reports, the Haryana Women’s Commission on Monday said the professor’s statement “disparaged women officers in the Indian Armed Forces and promoted communal disharmony” and summoned him.
Mahmudabad has defended his comments and said on X that they had been misunderstood.
“If anything, my entire comments were about safeguarding the lives of both citizens and soldiers. Furthermore, there is nothing remotely misogynistic about my comments that could be construed as anti-women,” he said.
In February last year, the human rights group Amnesty International urged the government to stop “unjust targeted demolition of Muslim properties”.
“The unlawful demolition of Muslim properties by the Indian authorities, peddled as ‘bulldozer justice’ by political leaders and media, is cruel and appalling. Such displacement and dispossession is deeply unjust, unlawful and discriminatory. They are destroying families – and must stop immediately,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general.
“The authorities have repeatedly undermined the rule of law, destroying homes, businesses or places of worship, through targeted campaigns of hate, harassment, violence and the weaponization of JCB bulldozers. These human rights abuses must be urgently addressed,” she said in a statement.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered a halt to so-called bulldozer justice, but that has not stopped authorities from disregarding due process.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP has also been accused of allowing far-right Hindu vigilante groups to act with impunity. They have lynched Muslims and tried to police interfaith relations. Modi has spoken against cow vigilante killings, but his government has done little to stop the activities of vigilante groups.
My statement re the summons that I received from the Haryana State Women’s Commission.
The posts that were misunderstood and objected to can be accessed on my Facebook page. pic.twitter.com/U4rZrAXhFx
— Ali Khan Mahmudabad (@Mahmudabad) May 14, 2025
Professors and activists across the country have shown their support for Mahmudabad.
An open letter with about 1,200 signatories released on Friday said: “It is clear that Prof Khan praised the strategic restraint of the armed forces, analysed how any distinction between the terrorists or non-state actors and the Pakistani military has now collapsed, and said that the optics of the women officers chosen for media debriefs was ‘important’ as proof that the secular vision of the founders of our Republic is still alive.”
The truce between India and Pakistan, announced on May 10, halted several days of missile and drone attacks across their shared border. Pakistan said at least 31 people were killed in India’s strikes while India said at least 15 people were killed in Pakistan’s counterattacks.
Four days after India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire after a rapid escalation in a military conflict between them, key differences between their battlefield claims remain unresolved.
Among them is Pakistan’s assertion that it shot down five Indian fighter jets on May 7, the first day of fighting, in response to Indian attacks on its territory.
As a battle of narratives takes over from the actual fighting, Al Jazeera takes stock of what we know about that claim, and why, if true, it matters.
Tensions between India and Pakistan erupted into military confrontation on May 7 after India bombed nine sites across six cities in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
India said it had struck what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in response to the deadly April 22 killings of tourists by suspected rebels in India-administered Kashmir.
Gunmen on April 22 shot dead 25 male tourists and a local pony rider in the picturesque meadows of Pahalgam, triggering outrage and calls for revenge in India. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the fighters responsible for the attack, a charge Islamabad denied.
Pakistan said Indian forces on May 7 struck two cities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and four sites in the country’s largest province, Punjab. It said civilians were killed in the attacks. India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh rejected the Pakistani claims, reiterating that Indian forces “struck only those who harmed our innocents”.
Over the next four days, the two nuclear-armed neighbours were engaged in tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, while unleashing drones into each other’s territories.
Amid fears of a nuclear exchange, top officials from the United States made calls to Indian and Pakistani officials to end the conflict.
On May 10, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington had successfully mediated a ceasefire between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Despite initial accusations of violations by both sides, the ceasefire has continued to hold so far.
Pakistan reported on Tuesday that Indian strikes killed at least 51 people, including 11 soldiers and several children, while India has said at least five military personnel and 16 civilians died.
Speaking to Al Jazeera shortly after the May 7 attacks, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad, in retaliation, had shot down five Indian jets, a drone, and many quadcopters.
Later in the day, Pakistan’s military spokesperson Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the warplanes had all been downed inside Indian territory, and aircraft from neither side crossed into the other’s territory during the attacks – an assertion India seconded.
“Neither India nor Pakistan had any need to send their own aircraft out of their own national airspace,” British defence analyst Michael Clarke told Al Jazeera.
“Their standoff weapons all had long enough ranges to reach their evident targets whilst flying in their own airspace,” Clarke, who is a visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, added.
On Friday, Pakistan’s Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed claimed that among the five downed aircraft were three Rafales, a MiG-29, and an Su-30, providing electronic signatures of the aircraft, in addition to the exact locations where the planes were hit.
The battle between Pakistani and Indian jets lasted for just over an hour, Ahmed, who is also the deputy chief of operations, told reporters.
He stated that the confrontation featured at least 60 Indian aircraft, among them 14 French-made Rafales, while Pakistan deployed 42 “hi-tech aircraft,” including American F-16s and Chinese JF-17s and J-10s.
After Chinese state news outlet The Global Times wrote that Pakistan had brought down Indian fighter planes, India’s embassy in China described the report as “disinformation”.
However, beyond that, New Delhi has not formally confirmed or denied the reports.
Asked specifically whether Pakistan had managed to down Indian jets, India’s Director General of Air Operations AK Bharti avoided a direct answer.
“We are in a combat scenario and losses are a part of it,” he said. “As for details, at this time I would not like to comment on that as we are still in combat and give advantage to the adversary. All our pilots are back home.”
Beyond the official accounts, local and international media outlets have reported different versions of Pakistan’s claims of downing the jets.
According to Indian security sources who spoke to Al Jazeera, three fighter jets crashed inside India-controlled territory.
They did not confirm which country the warplanes belonged to. However, with neither side suggesting that Pakistani planes crossed into Indian airspace, any debris in Indian-controlled territory likely comes from an Indian plane.
Reuters news agency also reported, citing four government sources in Indian-administered Kashmir, that three fighter jets crashed in the region. Reports in CNN said that at least two jets crashed, while a French source told the US outlet that at least one Rafale jet had been shot down.
Photos taken by AP news agency photo journalists showed debris of an aircraft in the Pulwama district in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Defence analyst Clarke said if India has indeed lost a Rafale, that would certainly be “embarrassing”.
“If it came down inside Indian territory, which must be the case if one was destroyed, then India will want to keep it only as a rumour for as long as possible,” he added.
“India has said that “losses” are inevitable, and that is probably as near as they will get to admitting a specific aircraft loss for a while.”