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Rakesh Tikait threatens to cut off electricity in 16 states if Centre does not reconsider farm laws

OpIndia Staff
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Rakesh Tikait threatens to cut off electricity in 16 states if Centre does not reconsider farm laws

After bandhs, road blocks, train blocks, arm twisting, blackmailing and political mud slinging failed, ‘farmer leader’ Rakesh Tikait has now fired a fresh salvo at the Centre. In a fresh statement to media in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, Rakesh Tikait threatened that the protesting farmers will cut electricity in 16 states if their demands are not met, reported Hindustan Times.

In a media interaction, Tikait reiterated, “There is no government in the Centre while traders are ruling the country. They have sold out all government institutes and people of the country need to kick them out of the government”.

Alleging that the ruling party is behaving like a dictator, he said, “The central government is planning to sell out the land of farmers while the public faces unemployment and starvation”. Rakesh Tikait also lashed out at the opposition saying, “it’s unfortunate for a democracy that there is no opposition. Farmers’ stir on the road would ideally have been fought in Parliament if the opposition was alive”.

Sharing the roadmap of the protests, Rakesh Tikait announced, “Next, we have to free the state of Gujarat from the clutches of this government”. He had said the same ahead of local body polls in Gujarat last month. However, the BJP registered an unprecedented victory in those polls.

Meanwhile, eight farm group leaders were held on Friday in Ahmedabad for allegedly flouting COVID-19 norms while addressing a press conference at a restaurant, reported New Indian Express. Among those held by Chandkheda police was Bharatiya Kisan Union general secretary Yudhvir Singh. This information was shared by Rakesh Tikait on Twitter.

Rakesh Tikait, in a video released by him on social media, claimed that the Gujarat government arrested the farmer union leaders out of fear.

While on one hand, Tikait insists that the farmers’ protest is purely farmers agitation against the bills, on the other hand, he can be seen giving political statements at every conference and rally.

Rakesh Tikait has asserted that the kisan andolan will go on for at least five to six months. However, he has not yet clarified which 16 states he plans to plunge into darkness. As of now, there are twelve states where BJP is the ruling party and 6 states where BJP is part of the ruling coalition.

Woman dead, six injured as man goes on stabbing spree at Canada’s Vancouver library, suspect arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Woman dead, six injured as man goes on stabbing spree at Canada’s Vancouver library, suspect arrested

One person is dead and multiple others are seriously injured after a man went on a stabbing spree in Vancouver, Canada on Saturday.

According to the reports, a person was killed, and six others were injured after a person went on to stab people inside a library in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The Canadian police authorities have nabbed the killer.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said that it appeared that killer acted alone, adding that they were still looking for “potential additional victims”. Sgt. Frank Jang of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said the attacker, who is in his 20s, has had interactions with police in the past.

Amy Robertson of BC Emergency Health Services said six people were taken to the hospital.

A witness, Steve Mossop, said he and his partner stopped in traffic when they saw a bloodied woman who told them she had just been stabbed. They then saw several victims within about 100 meters (yards) of each other, he said.

In a video, the perpetrator can be seen stabbing his own leg before he was taken into custody.

“There was a man, there was an older woman, there was a younger woman, a mom — a random group of individuals in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seemed like he was just running in a direction, whoever was in his path happened to be victimized,” Mossop said.

The Canada incident comes a week after a similar incident was reported from the neighbouring United States, in which a Muslim immigrant from Syria had opened fire at a supermarket in Colorado’s Boulder, killing at least 10 people.

Boulder shooting:  

Last week, an unidentified shooter opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, that left 10 dead. Later the suspect was identified as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who was taken into custody. Alissa’s family is a Syrian migrant family and he often felt Muslims were not treated equally.

Al-Aliwi opened fire in a crowded supermarket in Boulder, and ten people, including a police officer, were killed. Investigators have not yet established a motive but believe he was a lone attacker. He used an AR-15 rifle, a lightweight semi-automatic rifle. The officials are trying to trace the weapon.

Facebook services down, Bangladesh deploys border guard as Islamist protests over PM Modi’s visit continue: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Facebook services down, Bangladesh deploys border guard as Islamist protests over PM Modi’s visit continue: Details

Facebook services are down in Bangladesh as Islamists protest against the visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Four Hefazat-e-Islami members died on Friday as the Police cracked down on lawlessness in the streets.

“We’re aware that our services have been restricted in Bangladesh. We’re working to understand more and hope to have full access restored as soon as possible,” Facebook said in a statement. Meanwhile, Hefazat-e-Islami protesters marched on the streets of Chittagong and Dhaka.

“Police opened fire on our peaceful supporters. We will not let the blood of our brothers go in vein,” the Islamist group’s organisational secretary Azizul Haque told a rally. The Bangladesh government has decided to deploy border guards in light of the violent protests.

“With the instructions of the home ministry and in aid of the civil administration, required number of BGB has been deployed in different districts of the country,” Lieutenant Colonel Fayzur Rahman told AFP on Saturday.

Four members of the hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam were reportedly shot dead on Friday in police firing in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The police had opened fire to control Islamists protesting against India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the nation’s capital Dhaka. According to reports, the police had retaliated when the protest turned violent.

Hefazat-e-Islami has a history of adopting hardline Islamist stance and accused of persecuting the Hindu minority in Bangladesh.

‘It is better to call out hypocrisy of vested interests rather than allowing them to set narrative’, EAM Jaishankar slams agenda-driven ‘watchdogs’

OpIndia Staff
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‘It is better to call out hypocrisy of vested interests rather than allowing them to set narrative’, EAM Jaishankar slams agenda-driven ‘watchdogs’

A few weeks after certain self-proclaimed ‘watchdogs’ with vested interests pointed fingers at India for being ‘partly free’, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Friday said that it is better to call them out rather than allowing them to define a false narrative.

Speaking to Times Now Editor Rahul Shivshankar, Minister Jaishankar said that there is a need to call out the hypocrisy of vested groups which target India over several issues. He added that people, both abroad and at home, sometimes say unkind things about the country and the government.

However, you can either put up with it or call it out, he said. “The problem with putting up with it they then get to define the narrative. Calling it out is not defensive, it is called for and sensible,” the External Affairs Minister said.

Responding to the recent instance of the British Parliament and a few members in the US Congress interfering in the domestic politics of the country, Dr Jaishankar said that democratic countries should follow a basic courtesy to not interfere in other countries’ domestic affairs. Courtesy is a two-way street, he said, adding that even the Indian legislature can discuss issues concerning other countries.

“Our speaker made a point during the IPU visit last week. It is not appropriate for democratic legislatures to pass comments on the working of other democratic legislatures. We think that the basic courtesy between legislatures should be observed. If they are not, people need to realise that it is a two-way street.”

“Today if British Parliament debates on what they feel about Indian laws, it is very likely that Indian MPs will feel equally strongly about what is happening in UK or US or wherever else and want do to something similar as I said courtesy is a two-way street,” said EAM Jaishankar.

People not doing politically are encountering and using borderless politics: EAM Jaishankar

Emphasising the transformation that has taken place in the country in the last few years and the subsequent reactions from the global players, Jaishankar stated that it was important to understand two-three important issues concerning India.

“One, there are very comprehensive, deep changes happening in the country. They are political, economic, social and cultural. These changes are, in a way, revolution but in a democratic way. Today, it is encountering borderless politics, where people who are politically not doing well domestically tends to extend the issue globally,” said Jaishankar taking a dig at Indian opposition parties for trying to join hands with global forces to destabilise the country.

Minister Jaishankar said, “A lot of noise that we are hearing is borderless politics meeting democratic transformation at home”.

Continuing, he said, “Secondly, there is much stronger governance in the country today. There was a view in this country that equating freedom and liberty with bad governance or non-governance. So, when you start governing well through using legitimate tools of governance and delivering on the ground, it is being depicted as an infringement of freedom. There is also a desire to project leadership as a kind of something similar to a dictatorship. This country needs leadership”.

His response came after several US-based organisations, and British Parliament had raised their voices against the country’s domestic politics, especially the way the Indian government handled the ‘farmer’ protests and the subsequent riots that were unleashed by the protestors on Republic Day.

EAM Jaishankar exposes hypocrisy of US-based think tank

Earlier, days after US-based organisation ‘Freedom House’ downgraded India’s status from ‘free’ to ‘partly free’, Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar had slammed the agenda-driven report during the India Today Conclave South on Saturday. His comments also come at the backdrop of the recent V-Dem Institute report that downgraded India’s status from a ‘democracy’ to ‘an electoral autocracy.’

On being asked by India Today journalist Rahul Kanwal about the decline in the country’s status on the freedom index, EAM S Jaishankar had emphasised, “You used the dichotomy of democracy and autocracy. (Do) Do you want a truthful answer? It is hypocrisy. We have a set of self-appointed custodians of the world who find it very difficult to stomach that somebody in India is not looking for their approval…They invent their rules, their parameters, pass their judgements and make it look as though it is some kind of global exercise.”

S Jaishankar pointed out that all such agenda-driven reports refer to the BJP as a ‘Hindu nationalist party. He emphasised, “We are the nationalist guys. We have given vaccines to 70 countries in the world. Tell me (about) the internationalist countries. How many vaccines have then given? Which one of these countries have said that while I do (vaccinate) my own people, I will do (inoculate) other people who need it as much as we do. Where are these people?”

The Union External Affairs Minister said that the Indian government is accused of shrinking civil liberties, whereas the ground reality is much further from such baseless claims. “Whatever you may say, in this country, nobody questions an election. Can you say that in those countries?” His remarks were directed at the United States, where scepticism about the 2020 Presidential Election results is still rife.

It is worth mentioning that Freedom House, that had downgraded India’s status from ‘free’ to ‘partly free’, is funded notorious organisation – Open Society Foundation, run by notorious billionaire George Soros that intends to destabilise nationalist government across the world.

Concerns rise as men of Pakistani origin found sexually assaulting women in Greece with alarming frequency

OpIndia Staff
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Concerns rise as men of Pakistani origin found sexually assaulting women in Greece with alarming frequency

There is a rising concern among the people of Greece after an increasing number of sexual assault cases are being linked to men of Pakistani origin. In the last few months, there have been several cases where Pakistani migrants were found committing unspeakable sexual atrocities against native women and children.

Recently, a Pakistani migrant was arrested in Ierapetra, Crete, for the assault and attempted rape of a local woman. The Pakistani migrant had approached a local woman named Despina Platanaki on Friday night near the old town hall and beat her while attempting to rape her.

A police complaint was filed by the victim and the assaulter was arrested. It was later learned by the police that the assaulter might have sexually harassed at least five other women.

Two days later, on Sunday, Ms Platanaki posted a picture of herself on Facebook and informed the world about the sexual attack on her. She urged other victims of sexual assault to come forward and speak up after she came to know that she was not the Pakistani migrant’s only victim.

In her appeal, Platanaki said, “On Friday night, I was brutally, sexually assaulted by a man of Pakistani descent. After many hours of security statements, we discovered that this ‘gentleman’ had attempted and sexually harassed five more girls who have not testified.”

“Fortunately for those girls, they did not experience the horror and pain that I feel. I know this is a delicate matter, and you may feel ashamed, but if any of you have been harassed and have not mentioned it, please go to the police and make a statement,” Platanaki said.

Alarming rise in the number of sexual assault cases reported in Greece that are linked to Pakistani migrants

For some time now, Greece has been afflicted by a series of sexual assaults involving Pakistani migrants. While the victims have been predominantly native women, in some cases, even children have been brutalised by men of Pakistani descent.

Just a day ago, on 26 March, a case of a Pakistani migrant trying to molest a 13-year-old boy came to the fore. In the Greek village of Messara, a Pakistani migrant reportedly attempted to kiss the minor boy on his lips. The boy had gone to the house of the Pakistani migrant, who was a neighbour of the boy’s relative. After the incident, the boy narrated the incident to his father, who in turn called the police and filed a complaint against the Pakistani migrant.

In February 2021, a court in Greece had extended the judicial custody of a man of Pakistani descent from 12 months to 18 months after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old minor girl. The incident occurred in April 2020 when the Pakistani migrant had raped the minor girl. The culprit had reportedly sexually assaulted the girl when she had come to her home.

While the Pakistani migrant defended himself saying that there was no sexual act between the two, the court had pressed charges for committing rape. Witnesses testified that the Pakistani met the 11-year-old outside a primary school and that the children had informed him that she was a student.

Again in February 2021, a case of a Pakistani man trying to rob and rape a young woman was reported from Pyrgos Kallistos, a village on the island of Santorini. The Pakistani migrant had reportedly threatened the girl with a knife and attempted to rape her in the small municipality of Koliri in the Peloponnese.

Sexual assaults by men of Pakistani origin has increasingly become a common occurrence in various cities across Greece. In January 2021, a horrifying case of attempted rape of a 5-year-old girl by a 20-year-old Pakistani was reported.

The Pakistani migrant, later identified as Ihtisham Al, who worked in an equestrian club in the area, dragged the child and attempted to rape her. However, he did not succeed and when the five-year-old returned to her mother, she described the scene of horror to her. The woman then immediately called the police following which Ihtisham was arrested.

Most of the Pakistani migrants arrested and accused in the sexual assault case are repeat offenders. A couple of months ago, the Greek police arrested a 29-year-old Pakistani in connection with a sexual abuse case of a 17-year-old teenage girl.

As per the complaint lodged by the girl, the accused chased her, stabbed her in the neck, and forced her to have sex with him on 23 August 2019 near Attiki Square. The girl claimed that the accused raped her again on September 2019.

In December 2020, an egregious case of minors being sexually assaulted was reported from Athens, Greece. As per the case, a Pakistani drug dealer had held two underage girls imprisoned in his apartment, drugged them and repeatedly raped them.

The girls somehow break free of their captor and escaped her apartment. The half-naked drug dealer ran after them to catch them but bumped into the police, who stopped him and handcuffed him. The girls complained that the Pakistani drug dealer was administering them drugs and sexually assaulting them. When the police raided his house, they 49 packages of cannabis, 70 pills and heroin.

Punjab: Anti-farm law protestors attack BJP MLA, strip him naked after thrashing him

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab: Anti-farm law protestors attack BJP MLA, strip him naked after thrashing him

Anti-farm law protestors in Punjab attacked BJP MLA from Abohar, Arun Narang, and tore off his clothes after thrashing him. In visuals of the incident that have gone viral on social media, Narang can be seen in a nude state before the Police managed to carry him away.

The incident is reported to have occurred at Malout town in Punjab on Saturday. Arun Narang had reportedly reached the spot to participate in a press conference against the state government. However, the protesters were already waiting for him near the BJP office.

As soon as Narang reached the spot, they threw ink at him and blackened his car. BJP workers and the police somehow managed to take him inside a shop. However, he was attacked brutally when he came out. They stripped him naked with the police seemingly helpless to prevent the assault.

Punjab BJP leader Varun Puri said, “BJP’s Abohar MLA Arun Narang Ji along with two other party leaders were assaulted in Malout town. Attack on people’s representative under democratic state is punishable and shameless offence. I demand strict action with immediate results.”

Intriguingly, Arun Narang had opposed the farm laws as well and said that the laws were against farmers. His sympathetic views towards farmers do not appear to have earned him any concession.

Lawlessness has been a feature of the protests against the farm laws with things reaching a height on the 26th of January in Delhi. However, apart from the Republic Day riots, other instances of grave crimes have also been prevalent with one journalist saying that female reporters were sexually harassed at protest sites.

President Ram Nath Kovind to undergo bypass procedure on Tuesday on the advice of AIIMS doctors in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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President Ram Nath Kovind to undergo bypass procedure on Tuesday on the advice of AIIMS doctors in Delhi

President Ram Nath Kovind has been advised a bypass surgery by the doctors at AIIMS, Delhi, after diagnosing. According to reports, the surgery will be conducted on Tuesday morning in the AIIMS. A statement issued by the President’s secretariat said that it will be a planned bypass surgery, and the health of the president is stable.

The president of India, who is also the head of the armed forces, was shifted to AIIMS from Army Hospital today. President Kovind had visited the Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital in Delhi yesterday for a check-up after he had felt discomfort in chest. The doctors at the R&R hospital had kept him under observation after conducting routine tests, and today they had referred him to AIIMS Delhi after the test results were out. The doctors at the army hospital had said that the health of the president is stable.

“President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind visited Army Hospital (R&R) in New Delhi following chest discomfort this morning. He is undergoing routine check-ups and is under observation. His condition is stable,” a medical bulletin by Army R&R Hospital had said yesterday.

The specialist doctors at AIIMS conducted further tests on president Ram Nath Kovind today, and after that they advices the bypass procedure for him, which will be conducted on 30th March in the morning.

The officials have not divulged further details of the exact diagnosis of the president’s condition. However, bypass surgery is recommended when blood flow to the heart gets disrupted due to blockage in a coronary artery. Coronary artery provides blood to the muscles of the heart, and if they get blocked, blood flow to the heart gets reduced, which may have very serious consequences. In the bypass procedure, the surgeons use blood vessel from other areas of the body to restore blood flow to the heart, bypassing the damaged artery.

New leaked audio shows Mamata Banerjee allegedly instructing aide to bury BJP leader in a pit: Details

OpIndia Staff
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New leaked audio shows Mamata Banerjee allegedly instructing aide to bury BJP leader in a pit: Details

BJP MP Arjun Singh has released an audio clip where he alleges that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is heard instructing the person at the other end of the call to kill a BJP leader and bury him. This is the second audio clip that has surfaced today regarding Mamata Banerjee.

In the audio clip, Mamata Banerjee can be heard telling the person that he should inform Alok, who is apparently a block president, that there is a threat to him from one BJP leader called Dilip Jatua. The Trinamool supremo alleges that Dilip Jatua has paid someone Rs 60000 to eliminate Alok. She asks for Alok to be informed about it so that he can beef up his security.

Then, Mamata Banerjee inquires about Dilip after which she is informed that Dilip has joined the BJP after losing two elections. Following that, she can be allegedly heard instructing the man to bury Dilip Jatua in a pit so that he can be ‘born later as a tree’.

OpIndia could not verify the authenticity of the clip. Arjun Singh said, “Who leaked this audio tape, only Mathurapur MP CM Jatua or Mamata Banerjee can answer.” The first audio clip leaked today showed Mamata Banerjee pleading with a BJP leader in Nandigram to help her win but the Pralay Pal said that he will not betray the Adhikari family.

USA: CDC chief under Trump admin says he believes the novel Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab

OpIndia Staff
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USA: CDC chief under Trump admin says he believes the novel Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab

Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control in USA during Donald Trump’s presidency, has said that he believes that the novel Coronavirus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The former CDC chief also speculated that the virus was already in transmission in China’s Hubei province by September or October 2019.

“That’s my own view. It’s only an opinion. I’m allowed to have opinions now,” Robert Redfield said. “I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human, and at that moment in time that the virus came to the human became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission,” he added.

Robert Redfield said, “I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory. Escaped. Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect the laboratory worker.”

The comments made by Robert Redfield is consistent with some of the earlier reports in the media. A paper published by Chinese scientists in April 2020 suggested that the virus ‘probably’ originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The report detailed the tracing of COVID-19 to the intermediate host Horseshoe bat, a bat that they confirmed was not available at the Wuhan wet market and did not live locally. In fact, the report noted that native populations were no closer than 900kms away from the first known cases, making a natural transmission from bat to human appear more unlikely.

According to the Chinese research paper, the only place those particular bats existed locally was inside a research facility which was just several hundred yards from the Wuhan wet market. The paper strongly concluded that the coronavirus pandemic had likely been the result of a leak from the lab.

The same month, another Fox News report said that the virus was leaked accidentally by an intern working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The report said the intern contracted the virus accidentally before transmitting it to others. A Chinese virologist had said that she has evidence of the claim that the virus was manufactured at the Wuhan lab.

Days before moving out of the White House, the Trump administration had released a factsheet alleging that the virus was possibly accidentally released from Wuhan Institute of Virology and demanded a thorough probe. However, throughout all of this, the WHO, which was accused of helping China cover up its role in spreading the pandemic, has maintained that it is extremely unlikely that the virus originated from a lab.

‘I had to drag my husband like dead animal’: Victim of Mumbai hospital fire narrates ordeal, says hospital didn’t help them after the incident

Jinit Jain
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‘I had to drag my husband like dead animal’: Victim of Mumbai hospital fire narrates ordeal, says hospital didn’t help them after the incident

An elderly couple suffering from COVID-19 had a hard time escaping the violent fire that swept the Sunrise Hospital in Mumbai, with the wife having to drag her husband out through the dark corridor.

“I can never forget the horror of the last night. I had to drag my husband like some dead animal through a dark corridor,” recounted Madhuri Godhwani in her interview to the Indian Express. However, Madhuri’s ordeal did not just stop there. After surviving the major blaze that broke out at Mumbai’s Sunrise hospital on Friday, she and her husband had to wait for hours before they got a hospital bed.

The couple, Madhuri Godhwani (67) and her husband Chetan Godhwani (78), was admitted to the Sunrise Hospital in the Dreams Mall on Thursday evening after being tested positive for the coronavirus. At 11 pm on that night, Madhuri saw the smoke billowing inside the room where the duo was admitted. Chetan was on oxygen support and too feeble to move. “I called for help…a ward boy asked me to run and pointed in a direction and left…I kept shouting for help for my husband,” the woman recalled.

Realising that there was no help coming and the smoke was rapidly enveloping inside the room, Madhuri dragged her husband through the dark corridor. She remembers taking a lift that was working on backup power to reach the first floor and then came down the stairway.

As the couple emerged out of the hospital, there was chaos and disorder along the street. In the ensuing commotion, Madhuri’s husband’s saline tube snapped and his hand started bleeding. She called up her son and waited for him to arrive.

When their son Lalit arrived, he saw his father bleeding and mother wailing on the road. “There were no ambulance available. I called a private ambulance which charged us Rs 8,000. We tried multiple hospitals, but they all denied having beds…Finally, by 4 am, we reached Viraj Hospital in Thane where we got beds,” Godhwani said.

Lalit said that his family had paid Rs 1 lakh in advance to the Sunrise hospital. Now, their savings are completely depleted. Lalit has asked his company to pay his salary in advance to help him tide over the financial crisis looming over his head. Lalit also mentioned that Sunrise hospital has neither reached out to them nor responded to their calls.

The violent conflagration broke out at the Sunrise Hospital in the Dreams Mall building in the Bhandup area around Thursday midnight. The temporary hospital is situated on the top floor of the four-storied mall building. 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the spot in the afternoon and assured strict action against those who were responsible for the fire. He apologised to the families of the victims and announced Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each deceased.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, BMC sources said. Thirty fire tenders, 20 water tankers and ambulances were rushed to the spot to control the fire and shift the patients to other hospitals.

The blaze came in the midst of surging coronavirus cases in Mumbai. On Thursday this week, Mumbai registered 5,504 new infections, the highest daily count since the pandemic began.

10 people died in the fire that broke out in Mumbai. All the 10 people were coronavirus patients.

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