Live! Iran says ops normal on bombed Kharg Island; drone sets UAE oil facility ablaze

India has repatriated the non-essential crew members of an Iranian warship that docked in Kochi on March 4 amid the escalating military conflict between Iran and the US, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday (March 14).

Over 50 of the 183 crew members have stayed back as the ship, IRIS Lavan, remains in Kochi, they said.

The non-essential sailors left India by a Turkish airline aircraft. The aircraft landed in Kochi late last night after picking up the bodies from Colombo of over 80 Iranian sailors of another warship that was sunk by a US submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka on March 4.

IRIS Lavan has remained in Kochi since March 4. The ship had developed urgent technical issues and was granted emergency docking approval on March 1 following a request from the Iranian side.

It is learnt that the Iranian sailors of IRIS Lavan will travel to Iran by road from Yerevan, Armenia's capital city.

The repatriation of the crew members comes as New Delhi makes efforts to ensure safe passage for over two dozen Indian-flagged merchant vessels currently stationed on either side of the Strait of Hormuz.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday night in the fourth such conversation since the West Asia crisis erupted

BJP leader Padmaja Venugopal on Saturday (March 14) invited the senior Congress leader and Kannur MP, K Sudhakaran, to join the saffron party, in the wake of speculative reports suggesting that he was unhappy with his party's decision not to allow sitting MPs to contest the Assembly election.

Venugopal, the daughter of Congress stalwart K Karunakaran, who herself left Congress to join the BJP, also said she was "not surprised" by how Congress was treating Sudhakaran, just like it had "sidelined" her.

She also said that a person like Sudhakaran joining the BJP was the need of the times.

Wherever the senior Congress leader goes, he will get a seat to contest in the upcoming polls, she added. "He will never be left without any support," the BJP leader told a TV channel.

Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain took oath as the governor of Bihar on Saturday (March 14).

Patna High Court Chief Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo administered the oath of office and secrecy to Hasnain at a ceremony at the Lok Bhavan. Hasnain replaced Arif Mohammed Khan as the governor.

The ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his cabinet colleagues and senior officers, among others.

Hasnain's last posting in uniform was as Military Secretary of the Indian Army, a key position responsible for senior-level personnel management. Before this, he commanded the Army's 15 Corps in Jammu & Kashmir.

Hasnain remained active in national and academic roles even after retirement. In 2018, he was appointed chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir.

In 2020, he joined the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as a member.

South Korea's military said on Saturday (March 14) it detected North Korea firing at least one projectile toward the eastern sea.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't immediately say whether the weapon was ballistic or how far it flew.

The launch came as the United States and South Korea conducted their annual springtime joint military exercises.

The North has long described the allies' drills as invasion rehearsals and often uses them as a pretext to dial up its own military demonstrations or weapons testing.

Amid the LPG crisis, Uttar Pradesh's Food and Civil Supplies Department conducted raids at 1,483 locations in Lucknow and arrested six people in an operation to check black marketing of cooking gas cylinders, according to an official statement.

The raids were conducted on Friday (March 13), along with the district administration.

As part of the operation, 24 FIRs were registered, said the statement issued by the Uttar Pradesh government late on Friday night.

In line with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's instructions, the Food and Civil Supplies Department and the district administration are continuously monitoring the supply system of LPG cylinders and conducting inspections and raids across the state so that no shortage or irregularity occurs anywhere, it said.

In this regard, Chief Secretary S P Goyal has issued instructions to all district magistrates to take all necessary steps to maintain the availability of petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders.

Uttar Pradesh is the first state to initiate swift and strict action against black marketing. Under this drive, enforcement teams at the district level conducted inspections and raids at a total of 1,483 locations on Friday, the statement said.

At least four persons, including two children, were injured when hit by the debris of the Afghan Taliban drones which were destroyed before reaching their targets, the Army said on Saturday (March 14).

The drones were intercepted and destroyed on Friday (March 13) in Quetta, Kohat and Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital Islamabad. According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing, these attacks were aimed at inducing fear in the public and "remind us of the terrorist mindset which drives the Afghan Taliban".

"The drones were intercepted through soft and hard kills and did not reach their intended targets," the military's media wing said.

However, the debris from these drones resulted in injuries to two children in Quetta and a civilian each in Kohat and Rawalpindi, it added.

A disc jockey has been held for allegedly making a remark referring to a bomb during an argument with airline staff at Kempegowda International Airport, in Bengaluru after he was denied entry for arriving late at the boarding gate, police said on Saturday (March 14).

The accused, Rajatesh Bera (40), a native of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, was scheduled to travel from Bengaluru to Raipur on an Indigo flight on March 11, they said.

According to police, Bera, who works as a disc jockey in Bengaluru, went to Gate No 16 at Terminal 1 but was denied entry by gate staff as he had arrived after the boarding time.

Following this, an argument broke out during which he allegedly remarked that the flight would stop if there was a bomb inside the aircraft, a senior police officer said.

The mention of the word "bomb" triggered security concerns, and he was detained and handed over to the police. A bomb threat assessment committee was subsequently formed as per protocol to assess the seriousness of the remark, he said.

Sri Lanka has repatriated the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who were killed when their frigate was sunk by a US submarine, an official said.

Last week on Wednesday, Sri Lanka said it had recovered 84 bodies of Iranian sailors after the US submarine attack sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off Galle on the island’s southern coast.

The ship was returning to Iran from Visakhapatnam, India, where it had participated in a naval fleet review exercise. "Human remains were sent by the Iranian embassy on Friday - all 84", a foreign ministry spokesman said.

They were sent on a chartered Turkish airliner, which departed on Friday, reporters present at the Mattala international airport in the southern district of Hambantota said.

The Chief Magistrate, Sameera Dodangoda, gave the order on March 11 to the Director of the National Hospital at Karapitiya to hand over 84 bodies of the sailors from Iris Dena to the Embassy of Iran.

Following the magistrate's court order, the arrangements were finalised.

The bodies were kept at the Karapitiya hospital in Galle along with 32 survivors who were warded as a result of the US torpedo attack on the ship on March 4.

The ongoing LPG crisis, which has led to the mass closure of restaurants and hotels across Kerala, has triggered an exodus of migrant workers returning to their native places, as Ramzan approaches and elections are to be held in West Bengal and Assam.

Restaurant and hotel operators are trying to retain their staff from other states, fearing that if migrant workers leave now, they may not return until after the election.

G Jayapal, state president of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA), told PTI that migrant workers from West Bengal and Assam were expected to return home a week before the elections in their respective states.

“However, with the LPG crisis forcing hotels and restaurants to shut down, migrant workers will start returning to their native places early. They will return only after the elections. Also, Ramzan will be celebrated next week, and people who were working in restaurants will start returning to their states due to the lack of jobs here,” he said.