A stampede that killed dozens at a south India political rally happened after a crowd of thousands waited hours in baking heat without sufficient safeguards, officials and witnesses said Sunday.Some 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in hopes of seeing popular actor-turned-politician Vijay on Saturday, but panic broke out and 39 were killed, authorities said.Witnesses cited hours of delays, insufficient police presence and people falling from a tree branch onto the audience as contributing to the tragedy.Deadly crowd incidents happen repeatedly during mass gatherings in India, often blamed on lax safety measures. Vijay, known by one name, was addressing the rally when the crowds surged suddenly, forcing him to halt his speech in Karur district. Videos on social media showed him tossing water bottles to supporters shortly before the panic broke out.”My heart is shattered at this tragedy,” the 51-year-old star said in a statement. State Chief Minister M.K. Stalin told reporters on Sunday that 39 people had died, raising an earlier toll of 36.Nine children were among the dead, he added, announcing a judicial enquiry into the disaster.State police chief G. Venkataraman said crowds had been waiting for hours under hot sun without sufficient food and water after the public was informed that Vijay would arrive at the venue by noon.”The crowds started coming in from 11 am. He came at 7:40 pm. The people lacked sufficient food and water under the hot sun,” he told reporters.He added 10,000 people were expected but some 27,000 turned up.Vijay launched his own party in 2024 and has drawn huge crowds at campaign events ahead of state elections due next year.”I was pushed down by the crowd all of a sudden. There was absolutely no space to move,” B. Kanishka, a survivor, told the Hindu newspaper. “I subsequently fainted.” Others said poor organisation and an hours-long wait left people restless before the situation spiralled dangerously out of control.Karthick, a survivor, told the publication that the situation could have been prevented “if people were not forced to wait for hours together”.”Poor planning and execution of the programme and lack of police personnel at the spot were also the reason,” he said.The Indian Express newspaper said panic spread after supporters who had climbed onto a tree branch fell onto the crowd below.In January, 30 people were killed in a crush at a major religious fair, and last year 121 died during a Hindu prayer meeting in Uttar Pradesh.In July last year, 121 people were killed in northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.

India’s remote high-altitude desert region of Ladakh has been in turmoil since four people were killed in violent protests demanding greater political autonomy for the Himalayan territory.Growing resentment with New Delhi’s direct rule over the territory, and fears of losing livelihoods boiled over on Wednesday as crowds took to the streets in the main city Leh, torching a police vehicle and the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Initially police said five people had died but later revised the toll to four.The sparsely populated region, home to some 300,000 people, borders both China and Pakistan and is a strategic enclave for India. Around half of Ladakh’s residents are Muslim and about 40 percent are Buddhist. AFP looks at some of the issues.Why are people protesting?Modi’s government split Ladakh off from Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019, imposing direct rule on both after cancelling the region’s partial autonomy.Since then, resentment has been growing in Ladakh over Delhi’s rule, with concerns about losing traditional livelihoods, land rights, and cultural identity.Residents say the end of semi-autonomy stripped them of protections over land, jobs, and resources.Decisions on development are made in Delhi and implemented by officials sent from outside, leaving the local elected council sidelined.”All the protections we had within Jammu and Kashmir were all gone,” lawyer Mustafa Haji told AFP.Who is leading the demonstrations?The Apex Body Leh, led by veteran leader Chering Dorjay, has become the main voice of the protesters.”We have been used like slaves,” Dorjay, 77, said, vowing to continue the struggle in the days to come.Wednesday’s demonstrations were also organised in solidarity with prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on hunger strike for two weeks.New Delhi blamed the unrest on “provocative speeches” by Wangchuk who was detained by police on Friday.What are the core demands?The protesters are demanding protection of land rights and to stop outsiders from buying property in Ladakh.They also want constitutional autonomy under the “Sixth Schedule” of India’s constitution, which would allow a local legislature to make laws on land use and jobs.Constitutional protections sought by Ladakhis may seem far off, but sustained negotiations with New Delhi have yielded some “small victories”, Dorjay said.The government has already reserved 85 percent of jobs for locals and frozen acquisition of domicile status for Indians from outside Ladakh until 2036.But Dorjay says “there is a long way to go.”Why is land a sensitive issue?The government has announced large-scale solar projects and industrial plans in Ladakh that require thousands of acres of land. Locals fear this will endanger grazing grounds critical for pashmina goat herding, already under pressure from climate change and military buffer zones established with China. “The danger to this centuries-old livelihood undermining lives of thousands of pashmina goat herders is another issue now,” Dorjay said.Ladakh is heavily militarised, with Indian troops guarding its disputed borders with Pakistan and China.Tensions soared after deadly clashes with Chinese forces in 2020, and new buffer zones have further reduced land available to herders.”A situation where you don’t have any protection for your land and identity is not a happy one,” lawyer Haji said. How do Ladakhis view relationship with India?Unlike in Kashmir where opposition to Indian rule runs deep, Ladakhis have historically aligned with India, backing its troops in past conflicts with Pakistan and China. But many now say they feel betrayed. “For 70 years we have helped protect India’s borders,” Haji told AFP. “Now we want ourselves to be protected.”

Misinformation plagued the first rollout of a vaccine to protect Pakistani girls against cervical cancer, with parents slamming their doors on healthcare workers and some schools shutting for days over false claims it causes infertility.The country’s first HPV vaccine campaign aimed to administer jabs to 11 million girls — but by the time it ended Saturday only around half the intended doses were administered.A long-standing conspiracy theory that Western-produced vaccines are used to curb the Muslim population has been circulating online in Pakistan.Misinformation has also spread that the vaccine disrupts the hormones of young girls and encourages sexual activity, in a country where sex before marriage is forbidden.”Some people have refused, closed their gates on us, and even hid information about their daughter’s age,” vaccinator Ambreen Zehra told AFP while going door to door in a lower-middle-income neighbourhood in Karachi.Only around half the intended vaccines had been administered, according to a federal health department official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.”Many girls we aimed to reach are still unvaccinated, but we are committed to ensuring the vaccine remains available even after the campaign concludes so that more women and girls get vaccinated,” they said on Friday.One teacher told AFP on condition of anonymity that not a single vaccine had been administered in her school on the outskirts of Rawalpindi because parents would not give consent, something she said other rural schools had also experienced.A health official who asked not to be named said some private schools had resorted to closing for several days to snub vaccine workers.”On the first day we reached 29 percent of our target, it was not good, but it was fine,” said Syeda Rashida Batool, Islamabad’s top health official who started the campaign by inoculating her daughter.”The evening of that first day, videos started circulating online and after that it dipped. It all changed.”A video of schoolgirls doubled over in pain after teargas wafted into their classroom during a protest several years ago was re-shared online purporting to show the after-effects of the vaccine.The popular leader of a right-wing religious party, Rashid Mehmood Soomro, said last week the vaccine, which is voluntary, was being forced on girls by the government.”In reality, our daughters are being made infertile,” he told a rally in Karachi.- ‘This will control the population’ -In 95 percent of cases, cervical cancer is caused by persistent infection with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) –- a virus that spreads through sexual activity, including non-penetrative sex, that affects almost everyone in their lifetime.The HPV vaccine, approved by the World Health Organization, is a safe and science-based protection against cervical cancer and has a long history of saving lives more than 150 countries.Cervical cancer is particularly deadly in low and middle income countries such as Pakistan, where UNICEF says around two-thirds of the 5,000 women diagnosed annually will die, although the figure is likely under-reported.This is because of a significant lack of awareness around the disease, cultural taboos around sexual health and poor screening and treatment services.It is underlined by the damaging belief that only women with many sexual partners can contract sexually transmitted infections.In Europe, where the HPV vaccine has been highly effective, there were around 30,000 diagnoses across all 27 EU nations in 2020, of which around one-third of women died, according to the European Commission.”My husband won’t allow it,” said Maryam Bibi, a 30-year-old mother in Karachi who told AFP her three daughters would not be vaccinated.”It is being said that this vaccine will make children infertile. This will control the population.”Humna Saleem, a 42-year-old housewife in Lahore, said she thought the vaccine was “unnecessary”.”All cancers are terrible. Why don’t we tell our boys to be loyal to their wives instead of telling our girls to get more vaccines?” she told AFP.Pakistan –- one of only two countries along with Afghanistan where polio is endemic -– remains stubbornly resistant to vaccines as a result of misinformation and conspiracy theories.After marking one year without polio cases for the first time in 2023, the crippling disease has resurged with 27 cases reported in 2025 so far.In response to overwhelming misinformation about the HPV vaccine, Pakistan’s minister of health, Syed Mustafa Kamal, took the bold move to have his teenage daughter vaccinated in front of television cameras.”In my 30-year political career I have never made my family public,” he told reporters.”But the way my daughter is dear to me, the nation’s daughters are also dear to me, so I brought her in front of the media.”zz-stm-sma-nz-ecl/dhw