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India: Officials Consider 5 New Plans to Rescue Men from Tunnel

Rescue workers stand at an entrance of the under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state on November 18, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
Rescue workers stand at an entrance of the under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state on November 18, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
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India: Officials Consider 5 New Plans to Rescue Men from Tunnel

Rescue workers stand at an entrance of the under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state on November 18, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
Rescue workers stand at an entrance of the under construction road tunnel, days after it collapsed in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state on November 18, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

Indian authorities were exploring five new plans to rescue workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in the Indian Himalayas after a week of failed attempts.
Forty-one men, stuck in the highway tunnel in Uttarakhand state since Nov. 12, are safe and being fed through a pipe, the authorities say. The cause of the accident has not been determined, although the hillside region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods.
Rescuers had been drilling horizontally through the debris toward the trapped workers in the 4.5-km tunnel until the auger drilling machine broke on Friday and a new one was flown in.
Drilling was suspended and it would take four or five more days "to get the good news", Bhaskar Khulbe, officer on special duty for the tunnel project, said on Friday.
Now the rescue team is considering alternatives including a perpendicular tunnel with two proposed routes and insertion of a pipe 15 cm wide as a lifeline, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters.
The trapped workers have received Vitamin C and medicines including anti-depression tablets, said RCS Panwar, a health official involved in the rescue efforts.

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Palestinian Student Remains Detained in Vermont with a Hearing Set for Next Week

Mohsen Mahdawi speaks at a protest on the Columbia University campus on November 9, 2023 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)
Mohsen Mahdawi speaks at a protest on the Columbia University campus on November 9, 2023 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)
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Palestinian Student Remains Detained in Vermont with a Hearing Set for Next Week

Mohsen Mahdawi speaks at a protest on the Columbia University campus on November 9, 2023 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)
Mohsen Mahdawi speaks at a protest on the Columbia University campus on November 9, 2023 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)

A large crowd of supporters and advocates gathered outside a Vermont courthouse Wednesday to support a Palestinian man who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University and was arrested during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident for 10 years, was arrested April 14 at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Colchester, Vermont, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He made an initial court appearance Wednesday during which a judge extended a temporary order keeping Mahdawi in Vermont and scheduled a hearing for next week.

Mahdawi’s lawyers say he was detained in retaliation for his speech advocating for Palestinian human rights.

“What the government provided thus far only establishes that the only basis they have to currently detaining him in the manner they did is his lawful speech,” attorney Luna Droubi said after the hearing. “We intend on being back in one week's time to free Mohsen."

In court documents, the government argues that Mahdawi's detention is a “constitutionally valid aspect of the deportation process” and that district courts are barred from hearing challenges to how and when such proceedings are begun.

“District courts play no role in that process. Consequently, this Court lacks jurisdiction over Petitioner’s claims, which are all, at bottom, challenges to removal proceedings,” wrote Michael Drescher, Vermont’s acting US attorney.

According to his lawyers, Mahdawi had attended his interview, answered questions and signed a document that he was willing to defend the US Constitution and laws of the nation.

“It was a trap,” his lawyers said.

They said masked ICE agents entered the interview room, shackled Mahdawi, and put him in a car. A judge later issued an order barring the government from removing him from the state or country.

“What we’re seeing here is unprecedented where they are so hellbent on detaining students from good universities in our country,” attorney Cyrus Mehta said. “These are not hardened criminals. These are people who have not been charged with any crime, they have also not been charged under any of the other deportation provisions of the Immigration Act.”

Mahdawi is still scheduled for a hearing date in immigration court in Louisiana on May 1, his attorneys said. His notice to appear says he is removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act because the Secretary of State has determined his presence and activities "would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest.”

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges.

According to the court filing, Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and was expected to graduate in May before beginning a master’s degree program there in the fall.

As a student, Mahdawi was an outspoken critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and organized campus protests until March 2024.

US Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, a Democrat, met with Mahdaw i on Monday at the prison and posted a video account of their conversation on X. Mahdawi said he was “in good hands." He said his work is centered on peacemaking and that his empathy extends beyond the Palestinian people to Jews and to the Israelis.

“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” Mahdawi said in Welch’s video. “This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country, because I believe in the principles of this country.”

Mahdawi's attorney read a statement from him outside the courthouse Wednesday in which he urged supporters to “stay positive and believe in the inevitability of justice.”

“This hearing is part of the system of democracy, it prevents a tyrant from having unchecked power,” he wrote. “I am in prison, but I am not imprisoned.”