The United Nations today condoled the death of 39 Indian nationals abducted by Islamic State in Iraq, saying the tragedy is yet another example of the 'barbarism and cruelty' of the notorious terror outfit.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament in New Delhi that the 39 Indians abducted in 2014 by the Islamic State terrorists in Mosul city were dead and their bodies had been recovered.

"I was deeply saddened by the announcement today that the 39 Indian nationals who were abducted by the now defeated Islamic State elements three years ago in Iraq have now been confirmed dead," said Jan Kubis, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq.

Kubis said the incident was 'yet another example of the barbarism and cruelty of this terrorist organisation', according to a statement from the UN Secretary General's spokesperson's office.

"Kubis extended his deepest sorrow and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and Government of India," it said.

A total of 40 Indians were originally abducted by ISIS in 2014 from Mosul but one of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj said.

The DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation has established the identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she added.

Led by its elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS had seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014, before being pushed back by the security forces backed by a US-led coalition.

They are accused of mass killings of innocent civilians including many foreigners.  -- PTI

Photograph: PTI Photo

A day after skipping the first year celebrations of the Yogi Adityanath government, sulking alliance partner Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party today announced its MLAs would back Bharatiya Janata Party candidates after its leader met saffron party chief Amit Shah in New Delhi.

"I have met BJP President Amit Shah, who noted points raised by me and said he will visit Lucknow on April 10 and will sit with me, BJP state president and chief minister to get my problems redressed. We have decided to vote for the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls," SBSP president and cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar told PTI over the phone.

Polls to 10 Rajya Sabha seats from UP are scheduled on March 23.

Earlier, Rajbhar had sent shock-waves in the ruling dispensation as he made his displeasure with the senior ally known by skipping the celebrations held on the completion of one year of the Yogi Adityanath regime.

"We have made this government and it is our duty to repeatedly point out shortcomings...Holding celebrations is not going to serve the purpose. Building temples in Mathura and Kashi will not give education to the poor, or toilets and pension to them," Rajbhar had said yesterday.

"We are in an alliance, but the alliance dharma is not being upheld by the BJP. In one year their role has not been good for us," he had rued.

Rajbhar also threatened that his party's four MLAs would boycott the coming Rajya Sabha election in case 'big brother' BJP does not redress its problems.

The SBSP has considerable presence in pockets of Purvanchal in eastern UP.

BJP has fieled has fielded nine candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections.

The party is sure of victory in only eight seats.  -- PTI

Noted music composer Illaiyaraja, Hindustani classical singer Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Hindutva thinker P Parameswaran, Kerala Bishop Philipose Mar Chrysostom and 39 other prominent personalities were conferred the prestigious Padma awards for 2018 by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi today.

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministerial colleagues, and several other dignitaries attended the function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Keeping its promise of honouring 'unsung heroes', the government this year honoured with Padma awards several personalities who served the poor, set up free schools and popularised tribal arts globally.

Illaiyaraja, the president of Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari Parameswaran, and Hindustani classical singer Ghulam Mustafa Khan were conferred the Padma Vibhusan awards.

Emeritus Metropolitan bishop of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church Philipose Mar Chrysostom, historian and archaeologist  Ramachandran Nagaswamy, legal scholar Ved Prakash Nanda, and Hindustani classical musician and sitar player Pandit Arvind Parikh were conferred the Padma Bhushan awards.

Among the 37 prominent personalities who were given the Padma Shri awards are Arvind Gupta, an IIT Kanpur alumnus who inspired generations of students to learn science from thrash, Lakshmikutty, a tribal woman from Kerala who prepares 500 herbal medicine from memory and help thousands of people, especially in snake and insect bite cases.

The other Padma Shri awardees include internationally-acclaimed Gond artist Bhajju Shyam, who is known for depicting Europe through Gond paintings, a tribal style of painting of Madhya Pradesh; Somdev Kishore Devvarman, Indian tennis player who became the only collegiate player to have made three consecutive finals at the National Collegiate Athletic Association; and Subhasini Mistry, a poor woman from rural West Bengal who toiled 20 years as housemaid and daily labourer to build a hospital for poor in the state.

Assam's Arup Kumar Dutta, who has written 16 books for adults and 17 adventure novels for young people; Tamil Nadu's Rajagopalan Vasudevan, who is known as plastic road-maker of India, developed a patented and innovative method to reuse plastic waste to construct roads; and noted Kashmir theatre artist Pran Kishore Kaul, who shot to fame with his screen play of famous TV serial Gul Gulshan Gulfaam, were also conferred the Padma Shri awards.

Nonagenarian farm labourer Sulagatti Narasamma, who provides midwifery services in backward region of Karnataka without any medical facility, too was awarded the Padma Shri.

This year, as many as 84 Padma awards were announced, including two duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one). The list comprises three Padma Vibhushan, nine Padma Bhushan and 72 Padma Shri awards.

The awards -- Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri -- are announced on the eve of the Republic Day every year.

They are given in different fields and disciplines such as art, literature and education, sports, medicine, social work, science and engineering, public affairs, civil service, trade and industry.

The remaining awardees of the Padma awards 2018 will be conferred with the honour at another special function to be held on April 2.  -- PTI

Actor Rajinikanth today dismissed claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party was behind his political entry and said he was driven by only the God and the people.

"They are saying from the beginning that BJP is behind me. Only God is behind me and after that people are behind me. Okay," he told reporters in Chennai.

He was replying to a question about a 'row' over his meeting with some local BJP leaders in Uttarakhand despite maintaining that he was not a full time politician yet.

Rajinikanth has in December last announced he will launch a political party and contest the next assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and declared that 'spiritual politics' needs to be ushered in, sans shades of any caste or religion.

The actor who had embarked on a spiritual tour of the Himalayas on March 10 returned to Chennai today.

Asked on his friend and actor politician Kamal Haasan saying that he had not expressed views on key issues like Cauvery, Rajinikanth denied it.

"I have given my view before. I have already said Cauvery Management Board should be set up following the Supreme Court order," he said.

Blaming the Centre for 'delaying', the constitution of the CMB, he said the state government should exert 'more pressure', on the union government.

"All steps should be taken for setting up the CMB as soon as possible," he added.

On his spiritual journey, he said he felt refreshed after his tour.  -- PTI

A shooting erupted at a high school in the eastern United States state of Maryland today, but the event was 'contained', officials said.

There were no immediate official reports of casualties in the shooting at Great Mills High School, located about a 90-minute drive southeast of Washington, DC.

St. Mary's County Public Schools said on its website that the school was on lockdown and the incident had been 'contained' but provided no further details.

It said law enforcement was on the scene.

'It happened really quickly, right after school started' after 8 am (1200 GMT), a student at the school, told CNN.

"The police came and responded really quickly," he said.  -- Agencies

The Ministry of External Affairs has released the names of 39 Indians who were killed in Iraq.

Of the 39 deceased, 27 are from Punjab, six are from Bihar, four from Himachal Pradesh and two from West Bengal.

Here is the list of the deceased:
Dharminder Kumar (Punjab)
Harish Kumar (Punjab)
Harsimranjeet Singh (Punjab)
Kanwaljit Singh (Punjab)
Malkit Singh (Punjab)
Ranjit Singh (Punjab)
Sonu (Punjab)
Sandeep Kumar (Punjab)
Manjinder Singh (Punjab)
Gurcharan Singh (Punjab)
Balwant Rai (Punjab)
Roop Lal (Punjab)
Devinder Singh (Punjab)
Kulwinder Singh (Punjab)
Jatinder Singh (Punjab)
Nishan Singh (Punjab)
Gurdeep Singh (Punjab)
Kamaljit Singh (Punjab)
Gobinder Singh (Punjab)
Pritpal Sharma (Punjab)
Sukhwinder Singh (Punjab)
Jasvir Singh (Punjab)
Parvinder Kumar (Punjab)
Balvir Chand (Punjab)
Surjeet Mainka (Punjab)
Nand Lal (Punjab)
Rakesh Kumar (Punjab)
Aman Kumar (Himachal Pradesh)
Sandeep Singh Rana (Himachal Pradesh)
Inderjet (Himachal Pradesh)
Hem Raj (Himachal Pradesh)
Samar Tikadar (West Bengal)
Khokhan Sikder (West Bengal)
Santosh Kumar Singh (Bihar)
Bidya Bhushan Tiwari (Bihar)
Adalat Singh (Bihar)
Sunil Kumar Kushwaha (Bihar)
Dharmendra Kumar (Bihar)
Raju Kumar Yadav (Bihar) (to be verified).

IMAGE: Family of Aman Kumar from Himachal Pradesh. Photograph: ANI

Accusing the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government of playing politics in the name of religion, a Union minister said today that Scheduled Castes of Veerashaiva/Lingayat sects would lose reservation benefits if the demand for a separate religion tag was accepted by the Centre.

This was the main reason cited by the then United Progressive Alliance government in 2013 while denying a separate religion status to Veerashaiva/Lingayat sect, the minister said, adding that the Congress party was overturning its own decision for 'political gains' ahead of assembly polls in Karnataka.

Yesterday, the Karnataka government accepted a proposal to grant a separate religion status to the Lingayat community.

"In November 2013, the then Mohanmohan Singh government had decided that giving separate religion tag will split the society further and affect SCs professing Veerashaiva/Lingayat Dharma," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal told reporters.

Quoting the November 14, 2013 letter to the Karnataka government, he said the Registrar General of India had said, "Veerashiva-Lingayat is a sect of Hindu and not an independent religion."

"The demand made by All India Veershiva Mahasabha is apparently not logical and correct. Therefore, no separate code/column was proposed to be assigned for persons returning their religion as Veerashiva-Lingayat during the Census of India, 2011," the letter said.

The Registrar General had also said, "If Veerashiva-Lingayat is treated as a separate religion by providing separate code/column than Hindu, all SCs professing the Veerashiva-Lingayat  sect will lose their Constitutional status, since SC can be only from Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh alongwith their sects."

The minister alleged that 'the Karnataka government is playing politics. The only reasons they are pushing for separate religion status is to stop Lingayat BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa from becoming chief minister.'

The central government decision on this issue is very clear and there won't be any change in that, he added.

Union Minister of State of Drinking Water and Sanitation Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi was also present at press conference.

Speaking separately, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said, "SCs following Veerashiva-Lingayat dharma will lose their rights if a separate religion status is given.

"The Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka is adopting Britisher Robert Clive's divide and rule strategy ahead of assembly polls. The Congress is doing vote-bank politics. This will not benefit them. It will boomerang," he added.  -- PTI

Anguished over disruptions in the working of the Rajya Sabha, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today cancelled a dinner he was to host for members of the Upper House tomorrow.

According to sources, preparations for the dinner were completed last week.

Naidu had even spoken to the President, the prime minister, the Leader of the House, the Leader of Opposition and floor leaders of various parties whom he had invited.

Invitation cards were kept ready. Naidu had expected the House proceedings would normalise by today.

At a meeting with the floor leaders of various parties in his chamber today, the RS Chairman conveyed anguish over the ongoing stalemate in the House and informed them of his decision to cancel the dinner.

Naidu was of the view that it would not be appropriate to go ahead with the dinner with the House not functioning for over two weeks, the sources said.

He had planned an Andhra Pradesh special dinner, with specialist cooks called from the state.

It is learnt that he also refused to inaugurate a badminton tournament for members of Parliament at the Constitution Club last week.  -- PTI

Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Atul Johri was today arrested for allegedly sexually harassing several women students, police said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi Range) Ajay Chaudhary confirmed his arrest.

He was later produced in a court.

Students, professors and women rights organisations have been protesting demanding his arrest, after some students accused him of sexual harassment.

A first information report was filed against the Life Science professor based on one of eight complaints from women students.

After JNU students held a mass protest outside Vasant Kunj Police Station yesterday, women rights organisations including All India Democratic Women's Association and All India Mahila Sanskritik Sanghatan today held protest outside the police station demanding arrest of the professor. -- PTI

Update: Four terrorists killed in the encounter which broke out in Kupwara's Halmatpora, operations underway.

More details awaited.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweets on 39 Indian hostages killed in Iraq.

"Every Indian grieves with those who lost their loved ones in Mosul. We stand in solidarity with the bereaved families and pay our respects to the Indians killed in Mosul," he  tweeted.

"The MEA (ministry of external affairs) and particularly my colleagues Sushma Swaraj ji and V K Singh ji left no stone unturned in trying to trace and safely bring back those we lost in Mosul.

"Our government remains fully committed towards ensuring the safety of our sisters and brothers overseas," PM Modi tweeted.

The Establishment may not be particularly fond of Harjit Masih, who managed to flee Mosul after the ISIS gained control of it and spoke of the 39 other Indians who were killed long before Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj admitted to their deaths on Tuesday, but this article in Fountain Ink from July 2015 leaves no doubt about what Masih had been saying all along.   

Chairman of the Rajya Sabha M Venkakaih Naidu has gifted the MPs  with a Saregama Carvaan radio which has been liked by many, especially the retiring MPs.   

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala reacts to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarj's remarks on his party.

"The Congress has expressed grief at the death of 39 Indians in Iraq. The Narendra Modi government has passed all limits of heartlessness, when whole world was saying they have died, the Indian government assured the country and the kin seven times that they are alive."

"Unfortunately the one who is playing politics on this issue is Sushma Swaraj ji. She misled the parliament and kin seven times. Today Martyrs Foundation announced they will hold media briefing on the issue, so as a result the government panicked and announced before them."  -- ANI

The Central Bureau of Investigation has said that it has today filed an appeal in the Delhi high court in 2G spectrum case.

The trial court judgment in the case was examined and it was found that there are strong grounds for an appeal, the CBI said.

More details awaited.

An Army jawan today allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service pistol in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district.

One Jawan Naresh Yadav was found dead with bullet injuries in the Maheswar area, Senior Superintendent of Police Samba Anil Magotra told PTI.

The body has been recovered and sent to post mortem, he said, adding that initial investigation points towards suicide by him with his service pistol and an investigation is on.  -- PTI

Just In: Mrinal Pande has been appointed group editor of the Congress party's National Herald newspaper.

For all those wondering what's up with Anna Hazare, whose anti-corruption rally at New Delhi's Ram Lila maidan, calling for the appointment of a Lok Pal, weakened the UPA government, here's an update.   

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has decided to adjourn the Lok Sabha sine die on March 21, Friday, at noon, if the AIADMK and TRS don't cooperate with  the chair to smoothly conduct the proceedings of the House.

Here's the official break-up of the 39 Indians who have died in Iraq at the hands of the Islamic State, according to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. 

Goa Congress President Shantaram Naik today resigned from his post, saying he was "inspired" by Rahul Gandhi's speech at the party plenary about making way for younger leaders.   

Those of us on this side of Wagah know him as the frontman for the sufi rock band Junoon who mesmerised us with songs like Saiyyoni.   

A statue of social reformer and Dravidian movement icon E V Ramasamy, popularly know as 'Periyar', was found damaged in a village in Pudukkottai on Tuesday, the latest in a series of similar incidents of vandalism.  

Indian Air Force Hawk aircraft meets with accident after taking off from airbase in Kalaikunda in WB, pilot ejects safely. 

Former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf was not only issued a new passport two months before the expiry of his travel document but it was again a diplomatic passport that he was entitled to being a former head of state, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal confirmed to Dawn on Monday, reports Baqir Sajjad Syed.     

'Facebook recently announced that group content will receive more prominent placement in the News Feed and that groups overall will be a core product focus to help reverse an unprecedented decline in active users in the US and Canada. The unintended consequence is that the more than a billion users active in groups are being placed on a collision course with the hackers, trolls, and other bad actors who will follow Facebook's lead and make groups even more of a focus for their activities,' writes Craig Silverman in Buzzfeed, here.

Another day, another washout. 

Governor S C Jamir of Odisha completes his five-year tenure today, becoming the UPA government's last gubernatorial appointee to bow out of office, after spending the last four years of his term under the NDA government.   

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has confirmed the worst. 

Commuters on the Central Railway line in Mumbai at many spots got off the trains and have begun to walk on the lines as the services have halted between Matunga and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in the city.