BANIHAL, India: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday opened the country’s longest railway tunnel during a rare visit to troubled Indian Kashmir, which has been marred by one of the deadliest militant attacks on soldiers in years.
Singh inaugurated a stretch of line that runs through the 11-kilometer (6.8 mile) long tunnel, part of an ambitious multi-year railway project in the region, as he wrapped up his first visit to the region in three years.
“It took seven years to complete,” Singh said of this section of the project, during a speech in the town of Banihal, some 110 kilometers from the main city of Sriningar.
It is the first time the premier has visited the Indian-controlled part of the divided Himalayan territory — which has been the scene of two wars with Pakistan — since June 2010 and comes less than a year before India goes to the polls.
During Singh’s visit, Pakistani troops fired across the borders twice in an hour, an Indian army spokesman said, dubbing it a breach of a cease-fire pact between the estranged neighbors.
“This morning Pakistani troops fired at out positions in the Poonch sector. Our side retaliated with small arms fire,” Col. Rajesh Kalia told AFP. He said troops also engaged up to three heavily-armed cross-border militants in a firefight in Indian Kashmir’s frontier Rajouri district.
Also yesterday, suspected Muslim militants shot dead a man in the Kashmiri town of Sopore, police said.
On of the eve of premier Singh’s trip Monday, militants ambushed a convoy of troops on the outskirts of Srinagar, killing eight soldiers and wounding 13 others. It was the deadliest such attack since July 2008 when a land mine killed nine soldiers on a bus, also on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The tunnel and railway stretch have been added to a train line running through the valley, part of a 20-billion-rupee ($ 470-million dollar) project that will eventually link Kashmir to the rest of India’s vast railway network.
Sections of the track have been drilled through the Himalayan mountains, and Singh said it was a “national dream” to link Kashmir with the network by 2018.
Singh faced protests when he arrived in Kashmir on Tuesday after the region’s three main separatist groups called a strike against his visit. Shops and other businesses, along with schools, banks and offices were closed throughout Srinagar and security forces were deployed in strength.
Manmohan opens India’s longest railway tunnel in Kashmir
Manmohan opens India’s longest railway tunnel in Kashmir
Palestinian woman hospitalized following seizure in US ICE detention
- Kordia, a 33-year-old Muslim Palestinian woman living in the US and whose mother is an American citizen, was detained by US immigration authorities early last year
WASHINGTON: A Palestinian woman, who lost dozens of family members in the Gaza war, has been hospitalized following a seizure in US immigration detention, the Department of Homeland Security said on Monday.
On February 6, 2026, at about 8:45 p.m., “medical staff at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, notified ICE that detainee Leqaa Kordia was admitted to Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Burleson, Texas, for further evaluation following a seizure,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Kordia, a 33-year-old Muslim Palestinian woman living in the US and whose mother is an American citizen, was detained by US immigration authorities early last year.
She was detained during a meeting with immigration officials at the Newark Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office, where she was accompanied by her attorney. At the time of her detention last year, Kordia was in the process of securing legal residency.
In a weekend statement cited by media, her family and legal team said they have not received communication from US authorities about her health. The family could not immediately be reached for comment. DHS says ICE will ensure she receives proper medical care.
Rights groups have long reported on detainee complaints about conditions in ICE detention facilities, calling the conditions inhumane. The federal government has denied treating detainees inhumanely.
Amnesty International says 175 members of Kordia’s family have been killed during Israel’s assault on Gaza since late 2023 following an attack by militant group Hamas.
The Homeland Security Department says Kordia, who was raised in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was arrested for immigration violations related to overstaying her expired student visa. The DHS also says she was arrested by local authorities in 2024 during pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University that the department cast as being supportive of Hamas.
Kordia and other protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Kordia has said she was targeted for pro-Palestinian activism and cast the conditions in her detention facility as “filthy, overcrowded and inhumane.”
President Donald Trump’s administration cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests by threatening to freeze federal funds for universities where protests occurred and by attempting to deport foreign protesters. It has faced legal obstacles while rights advocates say the crackdown hurts free speech and lacks due process.
