2 min readJun 4, 2026 06:46 AM IST
First published on: Jun 4, 2026 at 06:40 AM IST

Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal,will head the organisational wing of the new party the Akali dissidents propose to form. A consensus to this effect has been reached among the breakaway group’s senior leaders, and it was in accordance with this understanding that Captain Amarinder Singh, who resigned from the Barnala cabinet in protest against the police entry into the Golden Temple complex, was elected leader of the dissident Akali legislators.

All-party meeting in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan President J R Jayewardene announced his government’s acceptance of a proposal to convene a conference of all registered political parties to discuss the island’s ethnic crisis. The suggestion was made by the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) and subsequently endorsed by the ruling United National Party’s working committee. Addressing ruling party MPs, Jayewardene said the government had agreed to the proposal.

India’s dismay at China’s claim

India expressed dismay at China’s renewed claim to 90,000 square kilometres of Indian territory in the eastern sector. Although the statement by Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Shuquing merely reiterated the position taken by the Chinese delegation during border talks in New Delhi the previous November, its timing — just weeks before the next round of negotiations in Beijing — created difficulties for India.

6 children die in grenade blast

The lure of scrap metal from discarded ammunition led to the deaths of six children and prompted criminal proceedings against their parents in Bhandara village near the Babina Army firing range, about 42 kilometres from Jhansi. According to official reports, the children had picked up an unexploded hand grenade along with several empty shells. While attempting to break open the shells inside a hut, they struck the grenade, which exploded, killing all six children, aged between six and 10, and setting the hut on fire.