The Telangana High Court on Thursday extended its order to halt tree felling on 400 acres in Kancha Gachibowli near Hyderabad Central University (HCU) to April 7.

The High Court resumed hearing on Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by HCU students and Vata Foundation.

Appearing on behalf of the state government, Advocate General Sudershan Reddy sought time to file a counter to the PILs.

In a tragic incident, four people were killed on the spot after their car was hit by a luxury Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus, Airavat, on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway here on Thursday.

The accident occurred at the highway exit near Tubinakere village, close to Mandya city.

The deceased were identified as 51-year-old Satyananda Raje Urs, his wife, 45-year-old Nischita, 62-year-old Chandru, and Chandru's wife, 50-year-old Suvedini Rani.

According to police, the accident took place when the car driver, while traveling on the expressway and attempting to exit onto the service road, suddenly re-entered the highway, failing to notice the speeding bus approaching from behind.

One person was killed while three others were injured when a speeding car lost control and rammed into a group of pedestrians in Chennai's Teynampet area on Thursday.

The deceased was identified as Babu, a resident of Nandanam.

Three others sustained severe injuries and are currently undergoing treatment.

Abis Ahmed, who was driving the car, has been arrested.

After eight people died in a blast at an illegal firecracker factory at Patharpratima in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, the role of the local panchayat has come under the scanner of investigating officials.

The blast took place on Monday night. District administration sources said that it had been revealed that the Banik family, at whose residence the illegal firecracker was being run, had secured an ordinary trade license from the local panchayat, which did not come with the permission to run a firecracker manufacturing unit.

Now, questions are being raised about how even that ordinary trade license was granted by the local panchayat, especially in the backdrop of criminal antecedents of one of the two arrested accused in connection with the blast, Chandrakanta Banik.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said on Wednesday that the Pakistan Army intruded into the Indian side and also violated the ceasefire by opening fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

“The violation took place at 1.10 p.m. on Tuesday, and the Indian troops responded with controlled and calibrated retaliation,” the spokesman said.

The defence spokesman made no mention of any casualties on the Pakistani side of the LoC due to Indian retaliation, but official sources said five enemy soldiers were injured in the explosion and the subsequent firing between the two sides.

Two Maoists have been neutralised in a major encounter near the Kanha Tiger Reserve in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.

According to police sources, both individuals were women and had been involved in nefarious Maoist activities. A significant cache of weapons was recovered from the location.

The Director General of Police, Kailash Makwana, confirmed the incident on his X handle, stating, “Two female Naxalites were killed in a police-Naxalite encounter this morning under the jurisdiction of Bichhiya police station in Mandla district. Recovered items include an SLR rifle, another rifle, a wireless set, and various daily-use items. The search operation is still underway.”

At least 18 workers were killed following an explosion at a firecracker factory located on Dhunwa Road in Deesa town of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district. The death toll may further rise as rescue operations are underway.

The blast caused a massive fire, leading to chaos in the area as emergency teams struggled to douse the flames and recover survivors from the rubble.

Reacting to the tragedy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called for strict enforcement of safety regulations in firecracker factories. In a statement on social media, he expressed condolences to the affected families and demanded a thorough investigation to hold those responsible accountable.

“Such accidents frequently occur in these factories, and poor workers lose their lives while earning their livelihood. Safety rules must be strictly enforced, and clear accountability must be established to prevent such tragedies,” he wrote on X.

The bodies of a woman and her two children were discovered in a village in Jharkhand's Giridih district on Tuesday, officials said.

The deceased have been identified as Renu Tudu and her six-year-old son, Sachit Hembram, who were found hanging from a tree near the pond in Bardauni village in Tisri block of Giridih. The body of her eight-year-old daughter, Sarita Hembram, was found floating in the pond’s water.

Police said they have detained the woman’s husband, Charo Hembram, in connection with the case.

The incident came to light when villagers noticed the bodies hanging from a tree. As the news spread, a large crowd gathered at the scene. Soon after, the body of the girl was spotted floating in the pond, and the villagers themselves retrieved it.

Upon receiving the information, Lokai-Nayanpur police reached the site and later detained Charo Hembram for questioning.

A mine blast occurred near the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K’s Poonch district on Tuesday, leading to retaliatory firing from the Indian Army personnel in the area, officials said.

Officials said that a mine blast occurred under suspicious circumstances near the LoC in the Krishna Ghati (KG) sector of Poonch.

The army resorted to retaliatory firing. There is no casualty or damage reported from anywhere in the sector so far," an official said, adding that the cause of the suspicious blast is being ascertained.

The Poonch incident came amid an extended anti-terrorist operation going on in the Kathua district since March 23.

Following the reports of three terrorists still remaining untraced in Kathua, security forces have heightened vigil in the border districts of Poonch, Rajouri, Samba, Jammu, and Kathua districts of Jammu division.

Two terrorists were killed in the forest area of Saniyal in Kathua, where a group of five terrorists had been spotted.

Women participating in a Kalash Yatra in Chhatarbar village in Jharkhand's Koderma district were attacked with stones on Tuesday.

The women, carrying urns on their heads as part of a religious ritual, were seeking alms when unidentified individuals pelted stones from rooftops, damaging several urns.

Upon learning about the incident, hundreds of villagers gathered on the spot in protest, escalating tensions in the area.