At least 18 killed in explosion at ‘illegal’ coal mine in Meghalaya
An explosion in an illegally operated rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district killed 18 miners on Thursday (February 5, 2026), officials said. This is one of the biggest mishaps since July 2012, when 15 miners died in a flooded mine in the State’s South Garo Hills district. Two years later, in 2014, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned the hazardous mining method.
Kuki-Zo groups boycott tribal MLAs in Manipur government, accuse them of ‘betrayal’
Kuki-Zo tribal groups declared a social boycott on Thursday (February 5, 2026) of Kuki-Zo legislators who have joined the newly formed Manipur government of Yumnam Khemchand Singh. The boycott and a dawn-to-dusk “total shutdown” across the hills inhabited by the Kuki-Zo people, to protest “betrayal” by these MLAs, were enforced hours before the seventh session of the 12th Manipur Assembly began with an address by Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
Opposition has defiled the temple of democracy: Modi
