In pictures: How India is celebrating the festival of colour Holi

Vibrant hues filled the air as millions of people across South Asia celebrated Holi, the Hindu festival of colour that signifies the arrival of spring in India.

Observed on the last full moon day of the Hindu luni-solar month of Falgun, Holi is marked by joyous gatherings, playful throwing of coloured powders, traditional music, dance, an abundance of sweets, and offering prayers to deities.

The origin of Holi is steeped in legends telling of the victory of righteousness over evil. The most popular story is that of demon king Hiranyakashipu and his son Prahlad. Hiranyakashipu, who was granted near-immortality by the gods, grew arrogant and demanded everyone worship him. However, Prahlad remained a devout follower of Lord Vishnu, defying his father’s command.

Infuriated, Hiranyakashipu plotted to kill Prahlad with the help of his sister Holika, who had a boon that made her immune to fire. Holika tricked Prahlad into sitting with her on a burning pyre, but her boon failed and she perished in the flames while Prahlad, protected by his unwavering devotion to Vishnu, emerged unscathed.

The story is commemorated through the ritual of Holika Dahan, which involves the lighting of bonfires on the eve of Holi to symbolise the destruction of evil.

Another popular myth associates Holi with the playful love story of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha. The legend goes that dark-skinned Krishna was envious of Radha’s fair complexion, so his mother playfully suggested he smear colours on Radha’s face to erase the difference. This legend is celebrated through the playful throwing of colours during Holi, symbolising love.

Northern India, particularly Uttar Pradesh state, celebrated the unique version of the festival called Lathmar Holi, which sees women playfully beat men with sticks and the men defend themselves with shields, re-enacting the legend of Krishna and Radha.

In the eastern state of West Bengal, Holi coincides with Basanta Utsav, a festival initiated by poet Rabindranath Tagore that celebrates spring with songs, dances, and cultural performances.

In Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the two-day Masaan, or crematorium, Holi along the banks of the Ganges river attracts thousands of visitors from across India and beyond. During this unique celebration, devotees and ascetics apply ashes from funeral pyres to each other’s faces, honouring both the cycle of death and the Hindu god Shiva.

While Holi is known as the festival of joy and togetherness, many women have spoken out about harassment under the guise of playful colour-throwing. Incidents of groping, inappropriate touching, and verbal harassment have been reported, particularly in crowded public spaces.

A video shared by Indian actor Tushar Shukla showing men throwing colours and water at women while making lewd remarks sparked outrage on social media. “Today I went to play Holi in Barsana. Everything was great, it was fun,” he asks in the video. “But I have a question: do only girls go to play Holi in Barsana? Why are they directly targeted in such an indecent manner? Men also come, so why not engage with them?”

Pakistan accuses India of sponsoring terror after train hijacking

Pakistan’s military accused neighbouring India on Friday of sponsoring insurgents in a restive southwestern province, where an unprecedented attack by armed separatists this week killed 26 passengers aboard a hijacked train.

The scope of the attack underscored the struggles Pakistan faced in efforts to reign in militant groups as attacks across the country surged in recent years.

Accusing India and neighbouring Afghanistan has been Pakistan’s go-to strategy in the past.

The military provided no evidence of its claim. The accusation was promptly rejected by New Delhi.

In the attack on Tuesday, fighters of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army ambushed a train in a remote area in Balochistan, took about 400 people onboard hostage and triggered a firefight with security forces.

The standoff lasted until late Wednesday, when the army said 33 hijackers were killed.

The BLA has been fighting for more autonomy if not outright independence from the government in Islamabad and a greater share of the province’s resources.

At a news conference in Islamabad, army spokesman Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif said on Friday that “in this terrorist incident in Balochistan, and others before, the main sponsor is your eastern neighbour”, referring to India, without providing proof to back up the claim.

When asked by a reporter, he acknowledged that most of the fatalities on the train were security forces protecting the passengers and troops traveling to their home cities.

It was the first time the BLA had hijacked a train, although it had attacked trains before. Some assailants escaped, and a search operation was underway to find them, he said.

Also speaking at the news conference, Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, claimed Pakistan had “solid evidence” of India’s involvement in attacks in the province. He didn’t share any specifics.

The military spokesman added that an Indian naval officer arrested in 2016 and convicted of espionage in Pakistan had worked for Indian intelligence to help the Baloch separatists and other militant groups.

The officer, identified as Kulbhushan Jadhav, was subsequently sentenced to death. Sharif did not link him to the train attack.

Pakistan and India are nuclear-armed rivals with a history of bitter relations. They have fought three wars since they gained independence in 1947 from colonial power Britain.

“We strongly reject the baseless allegations made by Pakistan,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

Earlier, Pakistan’s foreign ministry claimed the train attack was orchestrated from Afghanistan. Kabul denied the accusation and said the BLA had no presence in Afghanistan.

Lt Gen Sharif, however, claimed the train attackers had been in contact with handlers in Afghanistan. He praised the military for the 36-hour rescue mission and claimed that the attackers’ weapons originated from both India and Afghanistan.

Both he and Mr Bugti claimed that Indian media outlets aired “fake footage” of the hijacked train and used images generated by artificial intelligence to conduct “information warfare” against Pakistan.

Pakistan has suspended all train services to and from Balochistan since the attack. Sharif Ullah, a railway official, said repairs on the tracks, which were blown up by insurgents to stop the train, have not yet started.

Survivors have recounted their harrowing ordeal. Muhammad Farooq, a resident of Quetta, described how the BLA stopped the train and ordered passengers to disembark.

“They checked identity cards and started killing people who worked for the armed forces,” Mr Farooq said. Many passengers, he said, fled successfully while the hijackers were exchanging fire with Pakistani troops.

Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. Ethnic Baloch residents have long accused the central government of discrimination — a charge Islamabad denies.

Two men arrested after UK tourist raped in Delhi hotel, police say

Police say they have arrested two men over the alleged rape and molestation of a 36-year-old British tourist at a hotel in the Indian capital Delhi.

The woman was reportedly assaulted at a hotel in Delhi’s Mahipalpur area, 15km south of the Indian parliament.

One of the suspects, identified as Kailash, had befriended the London resident on Instagram, the police said. He was arrested on charges of rape, while a hotel staff member named Wasim was held on charges of molestation.

“This is not a gang rape. These are two separate incidents of sexual abuse. The suspects are not related to each other,” a South West Delhi police officer told The Independent.

The woman arrived in Delhi from the UK to meet the suspect after becoming friends with him on social media, police said.

The woman was on holiday to Maharashtra and Goa when she asked Kailash to join her, news outlet NDTV reported. However, the suspect allegedly said he could not travel, which prompted the British national to visit Delhi this week.

The woman checked in to the hotel on Tuesday, where Kailash, a resident of Delhi, allegedly visited and subsequently assaulted her.

The woman reportedly alleged that hotel staff inappropriately touched her while she was in the lift.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told The Independent: “We are supporting a British woman in India and are in touch with the local authorities.”

The British national was allegedly assaulted less than a week after a 27-year-old Israeli tourist and her Indian homestay operator were gang-raped near a Unesco world heritage site in Karnataka. A fellow Indian male traveller was killed, while two others, including an American man, survived.

The two women, who were stargazing with three male tourists near Sanapur Lake in Hampi, Karnataka, were attacked by three assailants last Thursday. The incident prompted foreign and local tourists to leave the state or cancel their travels to India.

Reports of horrific sexual assaults on women have become familiar in India, where police recorded 31,516 rape cases in 2022, a 20 per cent increase from 2021, according to the latest figures available from the National Crime Records Bureau. The real figure is believed to be far higher due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence.

The gang rape of a tourist from Spain in the eastern state of Jharkhand last year sparked anger and a discussion on safety in a country with rising crimes against women.

The 28-year-old woman and her husband were assaulted in the Dumka district of Jharkhand where they had set up their tent for the evening. The couple, who manage an Instagram page chronicling their motorbike travels across South Asia, posted a video recounting their ordeal.

In February this year, a 31-year-old man was jailed for life over the rape and murder of a 28-year-old Irish tourist in Goa.

UN food agency to cut aid for 1 million people in Myanmar

More than a million people in Myanmar will be cut off from lifesaving food assistance provided by the World Food Programme from next month because of critical shortfalls in funding, the latest cut in humanitarian support from the UN agency.

“These cuts come just as increased conflict, displacement and access restrictions are already sharply driving up food aid needs,” WFP said on Friday, warning that the cuts would affect groups that were entirely reliant on the agency for food.

WFP, which describes itself as the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, has said in recent months that a lack of funding would mean cuts to operations in Afghanistan, parts of Africa and refugee camps in Bangladesh, leaving millions of people hungry.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021 when the military seized power from an elected civilian government, sparking a protest movement that has expanded into a nationwide armed rebellion.

Nearly 20 million people in Myanmar are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, and an estimated 15.2 million, about a third of the country’s population, are facing acute food insecurity, according to UN human rights experts.

A junta spokesman did not respond to a call from Reuters.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on Friday was in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than a million Rohingya face a halving of their WFP-backed food rations to just $6 per month from April.

WFP did not elaborate on the funding shortfall and whether it was due to the Trump administration’s decision to cut US foreign aid globally.

It said it needed $60m to maintain its food assistance operations in Myanmar this year.

The agency said the cuts would affect communities across Myanmar, including around 100,000 internally displaced people comprising the minority Muslim Rohingya communities and others.

“WFP is also deeply concerned about the upcoming lean season from July to September, when food shortages hit hardest,” the statement said.

The escalating conflict in Myanmar, which has engulfed swathes of the country, has contaminated farmland with landmines and unexploded ordnance and destroyed agricultural equipment, making local food production more challenging, according to UN human rights experts.

“Even where arable land exists, there is a shortage of workers due to massive displacement and people fleeing conscription by the military,” they said in a statement on Thursday.

Myanmar’s junta has suppressed information about a severe food crisis gripping the country by pressuring researchers not to collect data about hunger and aid workers not to publish it, Reuters reported late last year.

Taiwan actor arrested for ‘evading conscription’ begins military duty

Taiwanese actor Darren Wang began his conscription service on Thursday, a month after he was arrested for allegedly evading mandatory military duty.

The 33-year-old star began his one-year military service, the Ministry of Interior said, as he joined general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung.

He would first undergo 26 days of training before being assigned a designated service unit, Taipei Times reported.

During his training, Mr Wang would participate in disaster response exercises, entry-level emergency medical technician training, simulated and live-fire shooting drills, team-building activities such as rock climbing, and physical fitness tests, as well as a 3km run and push-ups, the report said.

The actor, who shot to fame for his role in romantic comedy-drama Our Times and Suddenly Seventeen, was arrested on 18 February for allegedly evading military service and forging military documents.

However, he was released on bail for NT$150,000 ($4,583) after questioning.

Taiwan‘s Central News Agency said that police seized “relevant evidence” from his home.

Taiwan has a long-standing system of mandatory military conscription and all men have to undergo compulsory military training for a year.

The law governed under the Act of Military Service System has undergone several reforms in recent years due to geopolitical concerns, declining birth rates, and public sentiment. The duration was raised from four months to one year in 2022 over growing threats from mainland China.

Instead of active-duty military service, some men can opt for alternative service in government agencies, public service roles, or specific industries.

Taiwan considers itself an independent nation and governs itself, but China views it as a breakaway province that will eventually come under Beijing‘s control.

Pakistan says train attack was orchestrated from Afghanistan

The hijacking of a train in Balochistan was orchestrated by militants based in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military said citing intelligence as the 36-hour siege concluded on Wednesday.

The audacious assault began on Tuesday at 1pm local time after militants from the Baloch Liberation Army hijacked the Jaffar Express train carrying more than 400 passengers in the isolated mountains of Balochistan province.

By Wednesday night, the military said security forces killed 33 armed assailants and all the remaining passengers were rescued. But at least 21 passengers were killed in the assault on the train.

Militant leaders based in Afghanistan remained in contact with the attackers throughout the incident using satellite phones, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media and public relations wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, said in a statement.

“Intelligence reports have unequivocally confirmed that the attack was orchestrated and directed by terrorist ring leaders operating from Afghanistan, who were in direct communication with the terrorists throughout the incident,” it said.

“Pakistan expects the interim Afghan government to uphold its responsibilities and deny use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan.”

Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of ISPR, also doubled down on Dunya News TV on allegations that Afghanistan was supporting militants and said the attack “changes the rules of the game”, without specifying what changes will take place.

“Whoever does this, let me say it very clearly, will be hunted down and brought to justice. Let me also say that this incident of Jaffer Express changes the rules of the game,” he said.

“We cannot allow anyone to target Pakistanis on behalf of their foreign paymasters,” he said, pledging to hunt down those responsible wherever they were.

He said the passengers were used as human shields by the militants and they had to carry out the operation with extreme caution.

The passenger train was travelling from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to Peshawar in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with scheduled stops in many cities. But the train came under attack near Sibi city, about 160km (100 miles) from Quetta.

Ghulam Sarwar, 48, an assistant sub-inspector of the Pakistan Railways Police, said he was travelling with four railway personnel and five soldiers when the attack began, ensuing a heavy gunfighting.

“It was like a rain of rockets and bullets on the train, but we retaliated with gunfire,” he told Aljazeera. “When we ran out of bullets, they came down and started pulling the passengers from the train.”

He said attackers systematically sorted passengers based on ethnicity by checking their identity cards. They specifically singled out ethnic Punjabi passengers and individuals they suspected of having ties to the Pakistani military. Those selected were executed.

He said they killed so many people that they lost count and killings continued till 10km before some of the militants left.

Information minister Attaullah Tarar said they averted “a potential catastrophe” and claimed no passengers died because of the military operation.

The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for attacking the train in a tunnel in a remote part of Balochistan and gave a 48-hour ultimatum, demanding the “unconditional release of Baloch political prisoners, forcibly disappeared persons and national resistance activists”.

Spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch had said the group was ready to free passengers if authorities agreed to release jailed militants.

The attack drew condemnation and concerns from countries across the world including the US, China and Iran.

The US embassy in Islamabad said it condemns the “horrific attack” and expressed support to Pakistan in its efforts to ensure security.

“We strongly condemn the attack on the Jaffar Express train, and the hostage-taking of passengers in Kacchi, Balochistan, claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army, a US-Specially Designated Global Terrorist group. We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the victims, their families, and all those affected by this horrific act,” it said.

“The Pakistani people deserve to live free from violence and fear. The United States will remain a steadfast partner of Pakistan in its efforts to ensure the safety and security of all its citizens. We stand in solidarity with Pakistan during this difficult time.”

China, whose nationals working on multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects in Balochistan have been regularly targeted, also condemned the attack.

“We noted the reports and strongly condemn this terrorist attack,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

“We will continue to firmly support Pakistan in combating terrorism, maintaining solidarity and social stability and protecting the safety of civilians.”

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, called on those who’ve taken people hostage to “release them at once”.

According to a global terrorism index released by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an international think tank, Pakistan was among the nations most impacted by terrorism last year, ranking second only to Burkina Faso in Africa.

Just last week, a coalition of separatist groups, including the BLA, declared their intent to escalate attacks on Pakistani security forces, infrastructure, and Chinese interests in the region.