The Evening Wrap: Rescue operations stepped up as death toll crosses 200 in Wayanad landslides

The death toll in the landslides that devastated Chooral Mala and Mundakkai areas near Meppadi in Wayanad district of Kerala crossed 200 as the search and rescue operations gained momentum on July 31. Personnel of the Army, Defence Security Corps (DSC), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the Forest and Fire and Rescue Service picked through the debris strewn across the affected areas with the support of volunteers and rescue equipment, including earth movers. Searing visuals of bodies being pulled out of the rubble, people desperately searching for their loved ones and terrified survivors recounting their ordeal filled television screens and social media platforms through the day. A total of 167 bodies and 61 body parts were retrieved by July 31 evening. As many as 191 persons were reported missing. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said 1,592 persons were rescued from the ravaged sites in two days and admitted to various hospitals. Ninety-nine persons were undergoing treatment and the remaining people were shifted to various relief camps. The heavy layer of slush and the slippery terrain adversely affected the progress of the search on July 31. A makeshift bridge, constructed by soldiers, to cross the river for rescue operations was submerged in rainwater by evening. Meanwhile, the Army started building a 190-metre Bailey bridge across the Punna River, a tributary of the Chaliyar River, to connect the affected areas. The bridge would have a carrying capacity of 20 tonnes and the construction would be completed by August 2 evening. The parts of the bridge were being brought from Delhi to Kannur airport by flight and it would be transported to the site by 15 trucks. Materials for the purpose would also be brought from Bangalore. Kerala and Karnataka sub-area General Officer Commanding (GOC) Major General V.T. Mathew is coordinating the Army’s rescue operations. Gen Mathew said 100 more soldiers would soon join the rescue operations at Chooralmala. Three sniffer dogs of the Army would be brought from Meerut in a special flight of the Air Force to locate people buried under the debris, he added. The district administration is considering the feasibility of modern techniques such as ground mapping and use of the ground penetrating radar to retrieve the bodies buried deep in the debris. Air Force helicopters dropped food materials including drinking water provided by the Kozhikode district administration in the affected areas of Chooralmala and Mundakkai and transported injured citizens to hospital. CM Vijayan said, before leaving for Wayanad, that efforts were on to relocate citizens, including tribals from landslide-prone areas. He said more than 8,000 persons had been shifted to 82 relief camps in Wayanad district. As many as 1,167 rescue workers were involved in the search operations. The Chief Minister added that three teams of the NDRF and units of the Madras regiment, DSC, Navy, Coast Guard and the dog squad of the Kerala Police as well as Special Operations Group and High Altitude team were working in tandem with State departments and agencies. More forensic teams have been deployed to conduct post-mortem of the bodies recovered from the landslide debris and samples of body parts were being sent for DNA analysis. Meanwhile, Wayanad District Collector D.R. Meghasree declared a holiday on August 1 for all educational institutions, including professional colleges, in the district since major tributaries of the Kabani River, including Mananthavady and Panamaram rivers, are in spate, threatening to inundate low-lying areas. Delhi coaching centre deaths: Court rejects bail pleas of SUV driver, basement co-owners A court in Delhi on July 31 rejected the bail pleas of an SUV driver and four owners of the coaching centre basement in the Old Rajinder Nagar area which was flooded with rainwater and led to the death of three civil services aspirants. Judicial Magistrate Vinod Kumar rejected the bail plea of driver Manuj Kathuria and basement owners Tejinder Singh, Parvinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, and Sarabjeet Singh. “All the bail applications are dismissed,” the judge said. Kathuria has been accused of driving his Force Gurkha car through the street that was flooded by rainwater, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storey building and inundate the basement. The four co-owners have been charged with abetting the offences. The five accused were arrested on July 29. Earlier on July 28, a magisterial court had sent to 14 days judicial custody Rau’s IAS Study Circle owner Abhishek Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh. Police have registered an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106(1) (death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide), 115(2) (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt)and 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings). UPSC cancels Puja Khedkar’s candidature for CSE 2022, debars from all future exams The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on July 31 cancelled Puja Khedkar’s provisional candidature for the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2022. “She has also been debarred permanently from all the future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC,” the Commission said. The UPSC stated it neither has the mandate nor the wherewithal to check the veracity of thousands of certificates submitted by the candidates every year. “However, it is understood that scrutiny and verification of genuineness of certificates is carried out by the authorities mandated with the task,” the UPSC said in a statement. In the backdrop of Puja Khedkar case, the UPSC has thoroughly examined the available data of more than 15,000 recommended candidates of the CSEs from the year 2009 to 2023 i.e. for 15 years with respect to the number of attempts availed by them. After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE Rules. “In the lone case of Ms. Khedkar, the Standard Operating Procedure [SOP] of the UPSC could not detect her number of attempts primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents’ name. The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future,” the Commission said in a statement. Congress moves motion against PM Modi for sharing Anurag Thakur’s speech on X amid caste row Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi on July 31 moved a Privilege Motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sharing portion of BJP MP’s Anurag Thakur speech from July 30 Lok Sabha proceedings, that was later expunged from the record. The BJP member had made remarks against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s caste during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lower House on July 30. Amid the row over the BJP MP’s remark, PM Modi shared a video of Thakur’s speech on X and said, “This speech by my young and energetic colleague, Shri @ianuragthakur is a must hear. A perfect mix of facts and humour, exposing the dirty politics of the INDI Alliance.” Jalandhar MP and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has submitted a complaint to the Lok Sabha secretary general. In his complaint, Channi said there were “many objectionable remarks” made by the BJP MP in the Lok Sabha. Some of the remarks were later expunged from the records by the Lok Sabha Chair. “It is, however, shocking to note that these expunged portions had been tweeted by the Prime Minister on ‘X’ along with the whole speech video,” Channi wrote. Participating in the discussion on the Union Budget on July 30, Thakur questioned the Congress’ credentials on providing reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Gandhi, however, said that though he had been insulted, the INDIA bloc would ensure that the caste census was conducted, and he did not need an apology. The Hamirpur MP’s remarks led to an uproar among Opposition MPs with many members trooping into the Well of the House demanding an apology. Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, expunged the BJP MP’s remarks. ISIL-K seeks to recruit lone actors through India-based handlers: U.N. report Terror group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant — Khorasan (ISIL-K) seeks to recruit lone actors through their handlers based in India, despite not being able to conduct large-scale attacks in the country, a U.N. report has said. The 34th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team about ISIL (Da’esh), al-Qaeda and associated individuals and entities, released in United Nations on July 30, said that member states registered ongoing concern that terrorism emanating from Afghanistan will be a driver of insecurity in the region and further afield in most scenarios. “Despite not being able to conduct large-scale attacks in India, ISIL-K seeks to recruit lone actors through their India-based handlers and released a booklet in Urdu magnifying Hindu-Muslim antagonism and outlining its strategy as regards India,” the report said. It also said that ISIL-K remains the most serious threat in the region, projecting terror beyond Afghanistan, while “al-Qaeda exercises strategic patience”, prioritising its relationship with the Taliban. It further said there is increased support and collaboration between Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), sharing manpower and training camps in Afghanistan and conducting more lethal attacks under the banner of Tehrik-e Jihad Pakistan (TJP). “Therefore, TTP could transform into an umbrella organisation for other terrorist groups. In the medium term, a potential merger of TTP and AQIS could escalate the threat against Pakistan, and eventually India, Myanmar and Bangladesh,” it said. It added that despite Taliban attempts to exercise control over al-Qaeda, greater collaboration among al-Qaeda affiliates and TTP could transform the latter into an “extra-regional threat”. It said that in the short term, ISIL-K will preserve battle readiness, increase revenue generation, and enhance recruitment by attracting renegades from other terrorist groups and the Taliban. ISIL-K also recruits disaffected individuals unknown to security and intelligence services, and in the midterm, will continue low-impact attacks, combined with sporadic high-impact operations against soft targets to boost its media propaganda, undermine economic and political interests, and humiliate the Taliban, the report said. In the long term, the group will strive to drag Afghanistan into turmoil and gain and hold territorial control while expanding to northern regional countries and beyond. Some member states estimate that ISIL-K has increased from 4,000 to 6,000 fighters despite the loss of territory and attrition among leadership, while others assess its strength as remaining at between 2,000 and 3,500 fighters, it said. The ISIL-K strategy of embedding covertly in al-Qaeda-affiliated groups makes it difficult to estimate accurate figures and to which group fighters are loyal. TTP has an estimated strength of between 6,000 and 6,500 fighters, accompanied by approximately 14,000 family members. Asserting that member states continue to be highly concerned about the situation related to foreign terrorist fighters, the report said, “Several member states note an increase in travellers of Arab and Central Asian nationalities to Afghanistan and some Indian nationals.” Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh killed in Iran Palestinian militant group Hamas said July 31 its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president. “Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the movement said in a statement. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was killed along with a bodyguard. “The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website. Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on reports of Haniyeh’s death. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring back all hostages taken during the October 7 attack, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. The attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead. Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, but was already a well-known figure having become Palestinian prime minister in 2006 following an upset victory by Hamas in that year’s parliamentary election. Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lived in exile and split his time between Turkey and Qatar. He had travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey during the war, meeting both the Turkish and Iranian presidents. Haniyeh was said to maintain good relations with the heads of the various Palestinian factions, including rivals to Hamas. He joined Hamas in 1987 when the militant group was founded amid the outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, which lasted until 1993. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,400 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths. Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has hailed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel but denied any involvement. Earlier on April 10, three sons of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamist group and Haniyeh’s family said. The three sons — Hazem, Amir and Mohammad — were killed after the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp, Hamas said. Two of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the attack and a third was wounded, Hamas media said. In Brief: Viral encephalitis has caused at least 56 deaths in Gujarat, forcing authorities to step up surveillance for the disease caused by a viral infection, often spread by sand flies and ticks. Viral encephalitis, which can cause high fever and in many cases affect the brain, is common in several parts of India during the monsoon season, but many of the deaths in Gujarat were caused by the Chandipura virus, that is known to affect mostly children under 15. Of the 56 dead over the last month, a quarter were confirmed to have died from the Chandipura virus, Gujarat Health Commissioner Harshad Patel said. “Almost all the patients are children. As far as I know, this virus affects only children,” Patel said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 31 July 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( Wayanad landslide: Rescue operations stepped up as death toll crosses 200 The [death toll in the landslides that devastated Chooral Mala and Mundakkai areas near Meppadi in Wayanad district of Kerala crossed 200]( as the search and rescue operations gained momentum on July 31. Personnel of the Army, Defence Security Corps (DSC), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the Forest and Fire and Rescue Service picked through the [debris strewn across the affected areas]( with the support of volunteers and rescue equipment, including earth movers. Searing visuals of bodies being pulled out of the rubble, people desperately searching for their loved ones and terrified survivors recounting their ordeal filled television screens and social media platforms through the day. A total of 167 bodies and 61 body parts were retrieved by July 31 evening. As many as 191 persons were reported missing. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said 1,592 persons were rescued from the ravaged sites in two days and admitted to various hospitals. Ninety-nine persons were undergoing treatment and the remaining people were shifted to various relief camps. The heavy layer of slush and the slippery terrain adversely affected the progress of the search on July 31. A makeshift bridge, constructed by soldiers, to cross the river for rescue operations was submerged in rainwater by evening. Meanwhile, the Army started building a 190-metre Bailey bridge across the Punna River, a tributary of the Chaliyar River, to connect the affected areas. The bridge would have a carrying capacity of 20 tonnes and the construction would be completed by August 2 evening. The parts of the bridge were being brought from Delhi to Kannur airport by flight and it would be transported to the site by 15 trucks. Materials for the purpose would also be brought from Bangalore. Kerala and Karnataka sub-area General Officer Commanding (GOC) Major General V.T. Mathew is coordinating the Army’s rescue operations. Gen Mathew said 100 more soldiers would soon join the rescue operations at Chooralmala. Three sniffer dogs of the Army would be brought from Meerut in a special flight of the Air Force to locate people buried under the debris, he added. The district administration is considering the feasibility of modern techniques such as ground mapping and use of the ground penetrating radar to retrieve the bodies buried deep in the debris. Air Force helicopters dropped food materials including drinking water provided by the Kozhikode district administration in the affected areas of Chooralmala and Mundakkai and transported injured citizens to hospital. CM Vijayan said, before leaving for Wayanad, that efforts were on to relocate citizens, including tribals from landslide-prone areas. He said more than 8,000 persons had been shifted to 82 relief camps in Wayanad district. As many as 1,167 rescue workers were involved in the search operations. The Chief Minister added that three teams of the NDRF and units of the Madras regiment, DSC, Navy, Coast Guard and the dog squad of the Kerala Police as well as Special Operations Group and High Altitude team were working in tandem with State departments and agencies. More forensic teams have been deployed to conduct post-mortem of the bodies recovered from the landslide debris and samples of body parts were being sent for DNA analysis. Meanwhile, Wayanad District Collector D.R. Meghasree declared a holiday on August 1 for all educational institutions, including professional colleges, in the district since major tributaries of the Kabani River, including Mananthavady and Panamaram rivers, are in spate, threatening to inundate low-lying areas. Delhi coaching centre deaths: Court rejects bail pleas of SUV driver, basement co-owners A court in Delhi on July 31 [rejected the bail pleas of an SUV driver and four owners]( of the coaching centre basement in the Old Rajinder Nagar area which was flooded with rainwater and led to the death of three civil services aspirants. Judicial Magistrate Vinod Kumar rejected the bail plea of driver Manuj Kathuria and basement owners Tejinder Singh, Parvinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, and Sarabjeet Singh. “All the bail applications are dismissed,” the judge said. Kathuria has been accused of driving his Force Gurkha car through the street that was flooded by rainwater, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storey building and inundate the basement. The four co-owners have been charged with abetting the offences. The five accused were arrested on July 29. Earlier on July 28, a magisterial court had sent to 14 days judicial custody Rau’s IAS Study Circle owner Abhishek Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh. Police have registered an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106(1) (death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide), 115(2) (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt)and 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings). UPSC cancels Puja Khedkar’s candidature for CSE 2022, debars from all future exams The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on July 31 cancelled [Puja Khedkar’s provisional candidature for the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2022](. “She has also been debarred permanently from all the future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC,” the Commission said. The UPSC stated it neither has the mandate nor the wherewithal to check the veracity of thousands of certificates submitted by the candidates every year. “However, it is understood that scrutiny and verification of genuineness of certificates is carried out by the authorities mandated with the task,” the UPSC said in a statement. In the backdrop of Puja Khedkar case, the UPSC has thoroughly examined the available data of more than 15,000 recommended candidates of the CSEs from the year 2009 to 2023 i.e. for 15 years with respect to the number of attempts availed by them. After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE Rules. “In the lone case of Ms. Khedkar, the Standard Operating Procedure [SOP] of the UPSC could not detect her number of attempts primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents’ name. The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future,” the Commission said in a statement. Congress moves motion against PM Modi for sharing Anurag Thakur’s speech on X amid caste row Congress MP [Charanjit Singh Channi on July 31 moved a Privilege Motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi]( for sharing portion of BJP MP’s Anurag Thakur speech from July 30 Lok Sabha proceedings, that was later expunged from the record. The BJP member had made remarks against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s caste during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lower House on July 30. Amid the row over the BJP MP’s remark, PM Modi shared a video of Thakur’s speech on X and said, “This speech by my young and energetic colleague, Shri @ianuragthakur is a must hear. A perfect mix of facts and humour, exposing the dirty politics of the INDI Alliance.” Jalandhar MP and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has submitted a complaint to the Lok Sabha secretary general. In his complaint, Channi said there were “many objectionable remarks” made by the BJP MP in the Lok Sabha. Some of the remarks were later expunged from the records by the Lok Sabha Chair. “It is, however, shocking to note that these expunged portions had been tweeted by the Prime Minister on ‘X’ along with the whole speech video,” Channi wrote. Participating in the discussion on the Union Budget on July 30, Thakur questioned the Congress’ credentials on providing reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Gandhi, however, said that though he had been insulted, the INDIA bloc would ensure that the caste census was conducted, and he did not need an apology. The Hamirpur MP’s remarks led to an uproar among Opposition MPs with many members trooping into the Well of the House demanding an apology. Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, expunged the BJP MP’s remarks. ISIL-K seeks to recruit lone actors through India-based handlers: U.N. report Terror group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant — Khorasan (ISIL-K) [seeks to recruit lone actors through their handlers based in India]( despite not being able to conduct large-scale attacks in the country, a U.N. report has said. The 34th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team about ISIL (Da’esh), al-Qaeda and associated individuals and entities, released in United Nations on July 30, said that member states registered ongoing concern that terrorism emanating from Afghanistan will be a driver of insecurity in the region and further afield in most scenarios. “Despite not being able to conduct large-scale attacks in India, ISIL-K seeks to recruit lone actors through their India-based handlers and released a booklet in Urdu magnifying Hindu-Muslim antagonism and outlining its strategy as regards India,” the report said. It also said that ISIL-K remains the most serious threat in the region, projecting terror beyond Afghanistan, while “al-Qaeda exercises strategic patience”, prioritising its relationship with the Taliban. It further said there is increased support and collaboration between Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), sharing manpower and training camps in Afghanistan and conducting more lethal attacks under the banner of Tehrik-e Jihad Pakistan (TJP). “Therefore, TTP could transform into an umbrella organisation for other terrorist groups. In the medium term, a potential merger of TTP and AQIS could escalate the threat against Pakistan, and eventually India, Myanmar and Bangladesh,” it said. It added that despite Taliban attempts to exercise control over al-Qaeda, greater collaboration among al-Qaeda affiliates and TTP could transform the latter into an “extra-regional threat”. It said that in the short term, ISIL-K will preserve battle readiness, increase revenue generation, and enhance recruitment by attracting renegades from other terrorist groups and the Taliban. ISIL-K also recruits disaffected individuals unknown to security and intelligence services, and in the midterm, will continue low-impact attacks, combined with sporadic high-impact operations against soft targets to boost its media propaganda, undermine economic and political interests, and humiliate the Taliban, the report said. In the long term, the group will strive to drag Afghanistan into turmoil and gain and hold territorial control while expanding to northern regional countries and beyond. Some member states estimate that ISIL-K has increased from 4,000 to 6,000 fighters despite the loss of territory and attrition among leadership, while others assess its strength as remaining at between 2,000 and 3,500 fighters, it said. The ISIL-K strategy of embedding covertly in al-Qaeda-affiliated groups makes it difficult to estimate accurate figures and to which group fighters are loyal. TTP has an estimated strength of between 6,000 and 6,500 fighters, accompanied by approximately 14,000 family members. Asserting that member states continue to be highly concerned about the situation related to foreign terrorist fighters, the report said, “Several member states note an increase in travellers of Arab and Central Asian nationalities to Afghanistan and some Indian nationals.” Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh killed in Iran Palestinian militant group Hamas said July 31 its political leader, [Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran]( where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president. “Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the movement said in a statement. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was killed along with a bodyguard. “The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website. Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on reports of Haniyeh’s death. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring back all hostages taken during the October 7 attack, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. The attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead. Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal, but was already a well-known figure having become Palestinian prime minister in 2006 following an upset victory by Hamas in that year’s parliamentary election. Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lived in exile and split his time between Turkey and Qatar. He had travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey during the war, meeting both the Turkish and Iranian presidents. Haniyeh was said to maintain good relations with the heads of the various Palestinian factions, including rivals to Hamas. He joined Hamas in 1987 when the militant group was founded amid the outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, which lasted until 1993. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,400 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths. Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It has hailed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel but denied any involvement. Earlier on April 10, three sons of Haniyeh were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamist group and Haniyeh’s family said. The three sons — Hazem, Amir and Mohammad — were killed after the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp, Hamas said. Two of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the attack and a third was wounded, Hamas media said. In Brief: [Viral encephalitis has caused at least 56 deaths in Gujarat]( forcing authorities to step up surveillance for the disease caused by a viral infection, often spread by sand flies and ticks. Viral encephalitis, which can cause high fever and in many cases affect the brain, is common in several parts of India during the monsoon season, but many of the deaths in Gujarat were caused by the Chandipura virus, that is known to affect mostly children under 15. Of the 56 dead over the last month, a quarter were confirmed to have died from the Chandipura virus, Gujarat Health Commissioner Harshad Patel said. “Almost all the patients are children. As far as I know, this virus affects only children,” Patel said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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