Asia
Pakistan denies Israel trade after businessman's export
Pakistan on Sunday denied rumors of trade with Israel following a Jewish businessman’s tweet about successfully exporting food samples to Jerusalem and Haifa.
Fishel Benkhald, a Pakistani Jew based in the southern port city of Karachi, went viral for tweeting about his first kosher food shipment to Israel. The two countries do not have diplomatic ties.
“Congratulations to me as a Pakistani. I exported the first batch of Pakistan food products to Israel market,” he said last week.
Benkhald shared a video clip showing his visit to an Israeli market. He walks past stalls with containers of dates, dried fruit and spices with product tags in Hebrew.
Also read: Rare shipment from Pakistan reaches Israel
Pakistan denied having any diplomatic or trade relations with Israel. “There is no change in the policy,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told media in response to queries about bilateral trade.
Pakistan officially backs a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has a longstanding position of non-recognition of Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established within the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Pakistan’s Commerce Ministry said rumors of bilateral trade were “sheer propaganda.”
“Neither do we have any trade relations with Israel nor do we intend to develop any,” it said in a statement.
Benkhald, who is part of a dwindling Jewish community in the Muslim majority-nation of 220 million, had his religion status in his national Pakistani documents corrected from Islam to Judaism in 2017.
Although a statement on his Pakistani passport says the document is valid for travel to all countries except Israel, he is the first Pakistani to have officially performed a pilgrimage there with the permission of Islamabad.
“Food, trade, music and tourism bring people together. Let’s build bridges,” Benkhald said in his tweet.
Benkhald sent food samples to three businesspeople in Jerusalem and Haifa through the United Arab Emirates, where he met them at food exhibitions, according to the Commerce Ministry. The ministry said the shipment was not supported by the Pakistan government and no banking or official channel was involved.
The American Jewish Congress earlier welcomed news of the shipment, saying it could have wider implications for the two countries’ economies and for the region at large. It said Benkhald was at the heart of a small, but growing Pakistani kosher industry exporting food to different destinations.
But there were mixed opinions in Pakistan about Benkhald’s venture. Shireen Mazari, a key leader from ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party and former minister for human rights, criticized the government and asked how a Pakistani citizen was exporting to Israel directly and visiting the country on a Pakistani passport.
But an interfaith representative from the current administration, Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, said Benkhald was permitted to visit Israel during Khan’s tenure.
South Korea, US, Japan hold anti-North Korea submarine drill
The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese navies began their first anti-submarine drills in six months on Monday to boost their coordination against increasing North Korean missile threats, South Korea’s military said.
The two-day drills come as North Korea’s recent unveiling of a type of battlefield nuclear warhead prompted worries the country may conduct first nuclear test since 2017.
The maritime exercises in international waters off South Korea’s southern island of Jeju involved the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and naval destroyers from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Also Read: Kim wants N. Korea to make more nuclear material for bombs
The training was arranged to improve the three countries’ capacities to respond to underwater security threats posed by North Korea’s advancing submarine-launched ballistic missiles and other assets, the statement said. It said the three countries were to detect and track unmanned South Korean and U.S. underwater vehicles posing as enemy submarines and other assets.
Submarine-launched missiles by North Korea are serious security threats to the United States and its allies because it’s harder to spot such launches in advance. In recent year, the North has been testing sophisticated underwater-launched ballistic missiles and pushing to build bigger submarines including a nuclear-powered one.
Last month, North Korea performed a barrage of missile tests in response to the earlier South Korea-U.S. bilateral military drills. The weapons tested included a nuclear-capable underwater drone and a submarine-launched cruise missile, which suggest North Korea is trying to diversify its kinds of underwater weapons.
Also Read: North Korea test-fires 2 more missiles as US sends carrier
Photographs in North Korea's state media last week showed about 10 capsule-shaped, red-tipped warheads called “Hwasan (volcano)-31” with different serial numbers. A poster on a nearby wall listed eight kinds of short-range weapons that can carry the “Hwasan-31” warhead. The previous test flights of those weapons show they are capable of striking key targets in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.
Some observers say the warhead’s unveiling may be a prelude to a nuclear test as North Korea's last two tests in 2016 and 2017 followed the disclosures of other warheads. If it does conduct a nuclear test, it would be its seventh detonation overall and the first since September 2017.
Foreign experts debate whether North Korea has functioning nuclear-armed missiles. But South Korea’s defense minister, Lee Jong-Sup, recently said the North’s technology to build miniaturized warheads to be mounted on advanced short-range missiles was believed to have made considerable progress.
North Korea could carry out new missile tests in response to the South Korea-U.S.-Japan drills because it views such training as a security threat. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called recent South Korea-U.S. exercises “reckless military provocations” that disregarded North Korea's "patience and warning.”
In remarks carried in the Defense Ministry statement, Rear Adm. Kim Inho, chief of the South Korean forces involved in the trilateral drills, said “We’ll decisively respond to and neutralize any type of provocation by North Korea.”
In addition to anti-submarine drills, the three countries will practice humanitarian search-and-rescue operations, including saving people who fall into the water and treating emergency patients. It would be the three countries’ first such training in seven years, the Defense Ministry statement said.
Taliban close women-run Afghan station for playing music
A women-run radio station in Afghanistan’s northeast hasbeen shut down for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, a Taliban official saidSaturday.
Sadai Banowan, which means women’s voice in Dari, is Afghanistan’s only women-run stationand started 10 years ago. It has eight staff, six of them female.
Moezuddin Ahmadi, the director for Information and Culture in Badakhshan province, said thestation violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” several times by broadcastingsongs and music during Ramadan and was shuttered because of the breach.
“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives aguarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” saidAhmadi.
Station head Najia Sorosh denied there was any violation, saying there was no need for theclosure and called it a conspiracy. The Taliban "told us that you have broadcast music. We havenot broadcast any kind of music,” she said.
Sorosh said at 11:40 a.m. on Thursday representatives from the Ministry of Information andCulture and the Vice and Virtue Directorate arrived at the station and shut it down. She saidstation staff have contacted Vice and Virtue but officials there said they do not have anyadditional information about the closing.
Many journalists lost their jobs after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Media outlets closedover lack of funds or because staff left the country, according to the Afghan IndependentJournalists Association.
The Taliban have barred women from most forms of employment and education beyond the sixthgrade, including university. There is no official ban on music. During their previous rule in thelate 1990s, the Taliban barred most television, radio and newspapers in the country.
Pakistani police arrest 8 after deadly Ramadan food stampede
Pakistani police on Saturday arrested eight people in the southern port city of Karachi after a stampede killed 12 people at a Ramadan food and cash distribution point a day earlier.
Hundreds of women and children rushed to collect free food and cash outside a factory in an industrial area of the city on Friday. Business owners during the Islamic holy month often hand out cash and food, especially to the poor. An initial report from the police says nine women, aged between 40 and 80, and three children, aged between 10 and 15, died in the crush.
Police said the eight arrests include the factory manager, who did not tell local authorities about the Ramadan alms giving.
“Factory management did not open the inside gate of the factory and, due to the narrow street, the people at the tail of the line pushed elderly women and children,” Superintendent of Police Investigations Dr. Hafeez Bugti told the media during a visit to the site. “As a result, pressure increased enormously, and women and children became the victims of the stampede.”
Police say they issued and publicized an order saying that any person or organization planning to distribute food or other things to the poor must inform authorities in advance.
The chief minister of Sindh province, where Karachi is located, announced compensation for people injured in the stampede and relatives of the victims. Murad Ali Shah said each family who lost a loved one will receive 500,000 rupees, while everyone injured will receive 100,000 rupees.
Funerals were held Saturday for some of the deceased: Naseem Begum, 50, and Ma’afia Begum, 55, were buried in Karachi’s Orangi Town neighborhood. Shehzadi Umar, 60, was laid to rest in her hometown of Mirpur Mathelo, some eight hours from Karachi.
At least 23 people have died in Ramadan food stampedes since the start of the holy month. On Saturday, police fired tear gas at crowds who gathered to receive free flour bags in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Cash-strapped Pakistan launched an initiative to distribute free flour among low-income families to ease the impact of record-breaking inflation and soaring poverty during the holy month.
While Friday’s stampede was not part of that government program, crowds have swelled at the distribution centers in recent days. The free flour distribution initiative was launched by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. His coalition government is facing the country’s worst economic crisis amid a delay in getting a key $1.1 billion tranche of a $6 billion bailout package originally signed in 2019 with the International Monetary Fund.
Weekly inflation is 45%, unseen since Pakistan got its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Rising food costs and soaring fuel bills have raised fears of public unrest.
Neither Sharif nor Pakistani President Arif Alvi have commented on Friday’s stampede.
As summer looms, India orders coal power plants to max out
For the second year in a row, India’s government has ordered the nation’s coal-fired power plants to run at full power. But this year’s order is even more sweeping than last year's — all coal and oil-fired generators will be maxed out for the entire summer, from April through June. Analysts say it will dramatically increase India’s already sky-high greenhouse gas emissions.
Seventy miles from Kolkata in India’s West Bengal state, 48-year-old Kakali Halder knows the reason for the order. She and several hundred other seamstresses at Mathurapur Sanghati Swayamber Sangha, a group that make clothing items and share the proceeds between them, have struggled to get orders out when they can’t rely on the electricity.
Despite their proximity to the megacity of Kolkata, they lost power almost daily over part of last year’s blistering summer. The machines would go quiet, stopping progress on the uniforms they were on contract to deliver.
“Sometimes there were power cuts for up to 12 hours. We had to use the manual tailoring machines and stitch with our hands,” said Halder, the secretary of her group. They lost money they couldn't afford to lose and endured pain working extra to complete work that should have taken half the time.
Cooling systems across the country, now more urgently needed as climate change turns up the heat on already sweltering temperatures, were exhausting the grid. Several northern states including West Bengal, Rajasthan and Gujarat faced regular power outages. The government order to keep the coal plants running is an example of a warming planet prompting action that further aggravates climate change.
India is the world’s second-largest country by population, and the third-largest emitter. It relies on its abundant coal — plus some imports — for some 70% of electricity. India has hundreds of coal-fired plants and mines dotted around the country. The government expects power demand to reach a high of 229 gigawatts in April.
India “has to ensure there is energy security as this is critical for the country’s development and growth,” said Alok Kumar, the most senior official in India’s federal power ministry. He said India is achieving its climate goals fully and will continue to do so.
But others see national politics influencing the call to run the generating stations — including the oldest or dirtiest-burning — at full power for the duration of summer. Major regional elections in the politically important southern Indian state of Karnataka will be held on May 10 and the national elections to elect a new prime minister will be held next year.
“There is a strong political incentive to ensure regular electricity supply this summer,” said Aditya Lolla, an energy policy analyst at the London-based environmental think tank, Ember.
Electricity availability and electricity subsidies acutely affect election results in India and incumbent political parties strive to provide uninterrupted supply, especially when there are elections around the corner.
Climate change doesn't just make daytime heat waves hotter. It also often means that temperatures don't cool down as much at night. That's driving up demand for cooling in the evening hours, Lolla said.
India’s power consumption grew 10% this February compared to last. Records could be broken in the coming weeks.
India currently meets about 10% of its power need with renewable energy. While there is rapid growth in clean energy, it's nowhere near enough to meet peak demand.
One thing experts agree is needed is a massive amount of new energy storage, usually large arrays of batteries. The idea for storage is that batteries charge from excess power on the grid during hours when demand is low. Currently, India has only 3 gigawatts of storage, or enough to serve about 3 million homes for a year.
“Energy storage is important to ensure uninterrupted supply during extreme weather as well as to shift firmly towards clean energy,” said Ammu Jacob, a scientist at the think tank Center of Study of Science, Technology and Policy. Jacob said without more storage it will be harder to integrate wind and solar energy into the grid even if new renewable energy projects come up, because of its intermittency.
One problem for building out storage has been cost, but costs are coming down, Jacob said. And the alternative, damages to lives and livelihoods due to climate change-driven extreme weather, is expensive too.
To accelerate India’s energy transition, “international climate finance is essential,” said Lolla of Ember.
The country will need to install more than 40 gigawatts of clean energy on average every year to meet its 2030 goal. But it needs a parallel plan to phase down coal-fired power, said Lolla of Ember. India has announced a net zero target for 2070, but its path to get there is still unclear, Lolla said. India fell just shy of meeting its target of 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022.
But for those like Kakali Halder, the more urgent hope is that last year’s power cuts don't return.
“All our customers are local and they understand if orders are delayed, but at the same time no one waits forever,” she said.
China, Singapore upgrade ties; establish all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership
China and Singapore have agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to an "All-Round High-Quality Future-Oriented Partnership", reflecting both countries' desire to set the strategic direction and chart the development of bilateral relations going forward.
At the invitation of Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong made an official visit to China from March 27 to April 1, 2023.
During the visit, Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, met with the prime minister of Singapore.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Singapore PM Lee held a bilateral meeting. Prime Minister Lee also met with Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and Wang Huning, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
A joint announcement was released today by China and Singapore on the establishment of the all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership.
Singapore reaffirmed its support for China's pursuit of high-quality development and welcomed China's continued commitment to reform and opening up.
China spoke highly of Singapore's longstanding participation in China's modernisation journey, which has laid a strong foundation for bilateral cooperation, and expressed support for Singapore's continued growth and prosperity.
Both sides took stock of the commendable progress of bilateral cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). On the important occasion of the tenth anniversary of the BRI this year, both countries will take the opportunity to broaden and deepen high-quality cooperation that benefits our peoples and region.
In line with the two countries' commitment towards collaboration that is of a high standard and quality, both sides welcomed the substantive conclusion of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) Work Programme for Subsequent Negotiations, which was launched pursuant to the Protocol to Upgrade the CSFTA signed in 2018.
This upgrade will allow the CSFTA to provide for more business-friendly, liberal, and transparent rules as well as improve the market access for our businesses to trade and invest in each other's markets. Both sides looked forward to the signing of the Protocol for the CSFTA Subsequent Negotiations as soon as possible this year.
Building on the "High-Quality" and "Future-Oriented" approach to bilateral cooperation, both sides looked forward to strengthening the comprehensive and innovative cooperation between China and Singapore in areas including trade and investment, green and digital economies, food security, financial sector, aviation, and people-to-people exchanges.
Both countries will work together to harness synergies in new fields like digital transformation and unlock new growth opportunities geared to the future development. Both sides looked forward to pursuing new areas of cooperation, making full use of intergovernmental mechanisms such as the existing annual Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation, as well as the eight Provincial Business Councils in China.
China and Singapore reaffirmed the continued strengthening of ASEAN-China relations and cooperation under the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Singapore welcomed China's support for the importance of maintaining ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture.
China and Singapore will work together for the effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), and advance preparations for the further enhancement of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA 3.0) to drive mutually beneficial economic growth.
They reaffirmed their shared commitment to multilateralism, support for the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, adherence to international law, and would continue to maintain close communication and cooperation at the United Nations and other multilateral organisations.
China and Singapore will continue to work together to uphold the rules-based multilateral trading system as embodied by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), maintain an open and inclusive global economy, and ensure the stable and smooth operation of global supply chains, so as to jointly meet global challenges and make economic globalisation more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.
Taiwan leader scrambles for allies in Central America visit
As Taiwan’s diplomatic partners dwindle and turn instead to rival China, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is aiming to shore up ties with the self-governing island’s remaining allies during a trip this week to Central America.
Tsai touched down in Guatemala on Friday afternoon, walking from the plane along a red carpet alongside Guatemala's foreign minister.
In a speech addressed to leaders of Guatemala and Belize shortly before departing on her visit, Tsai framed the trip as a chance to show Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values globally.
“External pressure will not obstruct our resolution to go on the world stage. We will be calm, self-confident, we will not submit but also not provoke,” said Tsai, who will also meet with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a stopover in the United States.
But the trip also is aimed to solidifying ties in Latin America as China funnels money into the region and pressures its countries to break off relations with the self-governed democratic island.
In Guatemala and Belize, Tsai is expected to bring an open checkbook. But in a region under growing Chinese influence, analysts say that Taiwan may already have lost the long game.
“These countries, they are symbolic. And I don’t think Taiwan wants to lose any of them,” said June Teufel Dreyer, a political scientist at University of Miami. “But if China is going to indulge in checkbook diplomacy, I don’t think Taiwan can compete and it knows it.”
The visit comes just days after Honduras became the latest country to break with Taiwan in favor of establishing ties with China.
Honduras follows in the footsteps of Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Costa Rica in ditching Taiwan. In some cases, China was said to have dangled hefty investment packages and loans in exchange for switching allegiances.
As the Asian superpower has sought to isolate Taiwan and expand its power on the global stage, Chinese trade and investment in Latin America has soared.
Between 2005 and 2020, the Chinese have invested more than $130 billion in Latin America, according to the United States Institute of Peace. Trade between China and the region has also shot up, and is expected to reach more than $700 billion by 2035.
Honduras’ move came in conjunction with the construction of a hydroelectric dam project built by the Chinese company SINOHYDRO with about $300 million in Chinese government financing.
It left Taiwan with no more than 13 official diplomatic partners. More than half of those are small countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Belize, Guatemala, Paraguay, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Read more: Taiwan's president begins US visit to shore up support
At the same time Chinese influence has grown, lagging spending by the U.S. — Taiwan’s primary ally and source of defensive weaponry — has caused its sway in Latin America to slip.
For decades, China has claimed Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, but the Taiwanese public overwhelmingly favors the current state of de-facto independence.
China has spent a great amount of effort in its campaign to diplomatically isolate Taiwan ever since Tsai’s election in 2016, successfully convincing nine countries to break off relations with Taipei since she has been in office.
China’s government views Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party as separatists.
In recent months, tensions have only intensified as relations between Beijing and Washington have spiraled. As a result, regions like Central America have grown in geopolitical importance.
“While our policy has not changed, what has changed is Beijing’s growing coercion – like trying to cut off Taiwan’s relations with countries around the world,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech about China relations last year.
Guatemala and Belize are among those who have remained steadfast supporters of Taiwan, Guatemala’s government reaffirming in March its “recognition of Taiwan as an independent nation with which democratic values and mutual respect are shared.”
Yet analysts say their allegiance is also a political calculation.
Tiziano Breda, researcher at International Affairs Institute, said that position will likely be wielded politically, used as a potential shield against pressure from the U.S.
The U.S. government, for example, has been highly critical of the administration of President Alejandro Giammattei for not doing enough to crack down on corruption.
“It’s a card these countries wait to play,” Breda said.
Dreyer of University of Miami said many of Taiwan's allies will use their relationship with both China and Taiwan as a “bargaining chip” to seek greater investment and monetary benefits from both countries.
She said in Ing-wen’s meetings with Guatemala and Belize, the president is likely to offer investment and development projects contingent on maintaining good relations with her country.
But Dreyer noted that given the power China wields on a world stage, it’s only a matter of time before the economic superpower pulls Taiwan’s final diplomatic partners onto their side.
The Chinese "are not only willing to wait, but eager to wait until they think the time is ripe,” Dreyer said. “They want the most auspicious moment possible.”
Stampede at food distribution center kills 11 in Pakistan
At least 11 women and children were killed in a deadly stampede at a Ramadan food and cash distribution center in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Friday, police and rescue officials said, as the country struggles with surging food prices.
The stampede happened when hundreds of women and children panicked and started pushing each other to collect food outside a factory in a well-known industrial area, known as SITE or Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate.
Business owners during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan often hand out cash and food, especially to the poor.
As the stampede began, some women and children fell into an open drain, local police official Mughees Hashmi said. Residents said a wall also collapsed near the drain, injuring and killing people. The incident left the street that leads to the factory littered with wounded people and dead bodies.
Several people were also injured in the stampede. Hashmi said eight women and three children died.
A survivor, Baby Khursheed, 35, said she went to the factory to collect supplies with two of her elder sisters, Sabira Khatoon and Naseem Bano, who both died in the incident. “There were hundreds of women in the street, the factory staff was allowing only a few of them at a time to collect rations,” she said. The street where people had gathered was narrow, she added.
Khursheed, who had bruises, said that as the crowd swelled, a water pipe burst. Cries for help went up and the factory staff tried to control the situation by opening a gate along the street, she said.
Murad Ali Shah, the top elected official in the Sindh, has ordered an investigation into the deadly stampede that resulted. He also asked charities and business owners to inform police before organizing such Ramadan handouts.
Shortly after the incident, police detained some of the factory's employees for questioning.
It is the deadliest stampede at a food distribution point since the start of fasting during Ramadan. With the latest incident, the death toll from stampedes at free food centers across the country has risen to at least 21 since last week.
Hashmi said the factory owner who organized the food distribution center had not alerted police about the plan. He said local police were unaware of the distribution, otherwise they might have deployed forces.
Local resident Mohammad Arsalan said he lives near the factory where people had gathered since the morning to collect the free food. He said he did not know what exactly caused the incident, but “we heard cries and later learned about this stampede.”
Friday's incident comes a day after authorities ordered deployment of additional police at Ramadan food distribution centers to avoid dangerous overcrowding.
Cash-strapped Pakistan launched an initiative to distribute free flour among low-income families to ease the impact of record-breaking inflation and soaring poverty during the holy month. While Friday’s incident was not part of that government scheme, crowds have swelled at the distribution centers in recent days.
The free flour distribution initiative was launched by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif last week, although his coalition government is facing the country's worst economic crisis amid a delay in getting a key $1.1 billion tranche of a $6 billion bailout package originally signed in 2019 with the International Monetary Fund.
On Friday, Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that a key tranche from the IMF loan will be released soon.
Sharif visited a wheat flour distribution center in Islamabad on Friday and met women who had come to collect flour. The premier asked authorities to ensure that people are treated well and there are no further incidents.
There was no comment from the prime minister’s office on the deadly Karachi stampede. “That is a provincial subject,” a government official told The Associated Press. “CM Sindh can respond,” the official added, referring to the region’s chief minister.
Weekly inflation is 45%, unseen since Pakistan got its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Rising food costs and soaring fuel bills have raised fears of public unrest.
35 bodies found inside well after collapse at Indian temple
Thirty-five bodies have been found inside a well at a Hindu temple in central India after dozens of people fell into the muddy water when the well’s cover collapsed, officials said Friday.
Video of Thursday’s collapse at the temple complex in Indore in Madhya Pradesh state showed chaos afterward, with people rushing toward the exits. An excavator pulled down a wall of the decades-old temple to help people flee.
Nearly 140 rescuers, including army personnel, used ropes and ladders to pull the bodies from the well after pumping out the water. A narrow path and debris in the well made the task difficult.
Witnesses said a large crowd of devotees had thronged the temple to perform a fire ritual and celebrate the festival for the deity Rama.
Dozens of people fell into the water when the structure over the well collapsed and were covered by falling debris, police Commissioner Makrand Deoskar said.
Kantibhai Patel, president of a residents' association, told reporters that authorities were slow to react and the first ambulance reached the spot an hour after the alert.
The structure apparently caved in because it could not handle the weight of the large crowd, said the state's top elected official, Shivraj Singh Chauhan. He ordered an investigation.
"We have so far recovered 35 bodies and the rescue operation is continuing," said Ilayaraja T., a district administrator. The effort was continuing Friday.
A team of army rescuers joined the operation on Thursday night. The Times of India newspaper reported the rescue work was expedited after underwater cameras showed bodies floating in the muddy waters of the well.
Chauhan said 33 of the bodies had been identified and one person was unaccounted for. Sixteen of the people who were injured remained hospitalized Friday.
Temple authorities had stopped using the well years ago and covered the mouth with iron grills and tiles.
Municipal authorities in January ordered temple owners to remove the covering of the well because it was an unsafe and unauthorized structure, but temple authorities ignored the warning, the newspaper said.
Building collapses are common in India because of poor construction and a failure to observe regulations.
In October, a century-old cable suspension bridge collapsed into a river in the western state of Gujarat, sending hundreds of people plunging into the water and killing at least 132 in one of the worst accidents in the country in the past decade.
Covering over well at Indian temple collapses, killing 35
Army soldiers and other responders found 35 bodies inside a well after a structure built over it collapsed as a large crowd of Hindu faithful prayed at a festival for the god Rama, a state government official said Friday.
Nearly 140 rescuers used ropes and ladders to pull out the bodies from the well after pumping out the water. A narrow path and debris in the well made the task difficult.
Dozens of people fell into the well in the temple complex in Indore in central Madhya Pradesh state when the structure collapsed Thursday and were covered by falling debris, police Commissioner Makrand Deoskar said.
Witnesses said a large crowd of devotees had thronged the temple to perform a fire ritual and celebrate the Hindu festival.
The structure apparently caved in because it could not handle the weight of the large crowd, said the state's top elected official, Shivraj Singh Chauhan. He ordered an investigation.
"We have so far recovered 35 bodies and the rescue operation is continuing," said Ilayaraja T., a district administrator, on Friday. A team of army rescuers joined the operation on Thursday night.
Chouhan said 18 people were rescued and hospitalized with injuries.
Temple authorities had stopped using the well years ago and covered it with the structure.
The Times of India newspaper said the rescue work was expedited on Thursday night after underwater cameras showed bodies floating in the muddy waters of the well.
The mouth of the well was covered using iron grills and tiles several years ago. Municipal authorities in January ordered temple owners to remove the covering of the well because it was an unsafe and unauthorized structure, but temple authorities ignored the warning, the newspaper said.
Building collapses are common in India because of poor construction and a failure to observe regulations.
In October, a century-old cable suspension bridge collapsed into a river in the western state of Gujarat, sending hundreds of people plunging into the water and killing at least 132 in one of the worst accidents in the country in the past decade.