Pioneer in short
Astronauts return after lunar flyby
Amid claps and cheers, four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis-II mission splashed down in the Pacific ocean after a historic flight to the moon — the first by humans in more than 50 years. “The path to the moon is open but the work ahead is greater than the work behind,” Amit Kshatriya, Indian-origin NASA Associate Administrator told a press conference shortly after the Artemis-II crew returned to earth off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 eastern time on Friday.
Asha Bhosle rushed to hospital
Legendary playback singer Asha Bhosle was admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on Saturday evening after suffering cardiac arrest, sources said. The 92-year-old singer also had pulmonary issues, they said. Bhosle, with a career spanning eight decades, is known for her versatility. She is the younger sister of the late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar. Some of Bhosle’s popular songs are ‘Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko’, ‘Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar’, ‘Intaha Ho Gai Intezar Ki’, among others.
Mob attacks Hindus in Bangladesh again
A Muslim spiritual leader was hacked to death for allegedly insulting Islam while shops and households owned by Hindus were vandalised in two separate mob attacks in western Kushtia and northwestern Rangpur in Bangladesh on Saturday. An irate mob attacked several Hindu households and businesses in pre-dawn hours over the death of a Muslim youth
in their neighbourhood in Rangpur, about 300-odd kms northwest of Dhaka.
A “third party” carried out the vandalism to divert the case and police’s attention from the overnight murder of a person named Rakib Hassan, police claimed. Prothom Alo newspaper said more than a hundred members of the Hindu community live in the Daspara market area where Hassan was murdered allegedly by drug peddler Mohammad Momin over a previous dispute. Police said the attack took place even when the deceased youth’s family said the Hindu community had nothing to do with his murder. “We have no issues with them (Hindus),” Hassan’s mother Nur Jahan Begum told the local reporters. “But we are tracking down the real killers. We have also identified who have vandalised the Hindu households andshops,” Rangpur’s police commissioner Mohammad Majid Ali told reporters.
