Morning Digest: Armed militants attack train in Pakistan, 80 hostages freed; Ukraine backs U.S. proposal for 30-day ceasefire in war with Russia, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on March 12, 2025

Pakistani troops freed dozens of train passengers taken hostage by armed militants in the country’s southwest on Tuesday (March 11, 2025), with hundreds more still being held in the deadly siege. Security sources said that heavy gunfire was ongoing between security forces and the militants. The driver of the train, a police officer, and a soldier were killed in the assault, according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam, both at Mach railway station.

Ukraine endorsed an American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia in pivotal talks in Jeddah on Tuesday (March 11, 2025) after three years of grinding war. In the first high-level U.S.-Ukraine meeting since President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House dressing down, the Americans agreed to restore military aid and they pledged to conclude a deal on Ukrainian minerals “as soon as possible”, a joint statement said. “Today we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Pitching India to be termed only as ‘Bharat’, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale questioned if anywhere in the world a country has two names, one in Hindi and the other in English. Hailing the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Prime Minister’s invitation card for G-20 printed as ‘Republic of Bharat’, Mr. Hosabale urged people to call India only as ‘Bharat’.

Three persons died in a fire that broke out in a makeshift hut in east Delhi’s Anand Vihar in the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, said a senior police officer. The deceased have been identified as Jaggi, 30, Shyam Singh, 36, and Kanta Prasad, 37, all residents of Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh. Shyam and Kanta were siblings. Nitin, 32, a Ghaziabad resident who was also in the hut when the fire broke out, managed to escape with injuries, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam.

An Indian Air Force aircraft on Monday (March 10, 2025) evacuated 283 Indian nationals who had fallen prey to fake job offers in Southeast Asian countries. The victims were forced to work in fraudulent call centres operating in regions along the Myanmar-Thailand border and were subsequently made to indulge in cybercrime and other fraudulent activities. Another Air Force aircraft is expected to evacuate more Indians on Tuesday (March 11, 2025) or Wednesday (March 12, 2025).

Maintaining his position that the three-language formula in the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 is different from the policy implemented by the Congress government in 1968, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the Tamil Nadu government not to create impediments to the aspirations of the students in the State. 

Five Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, were killed by Israeli forces in Jenin over the past 24 hours, the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday (March 11, 2025), adding to a growing toll from one of the largest operations seen in the West Bank in years.