Two months after she was discharged from a hospital, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is shifting to Jaipur temporarily till the air quality improves in Delhi. Ms Gandhi suffers from respiratory problems and doctors have advised her to temporarily move to a place where the air quality is better. 

The Air Quality Index for Delhi on Tuesday was 375, which is in the ‘severe’ category, while the figure for Jaipur was 72, which is in the ‘moderate’ category, according to private air quality monitoring website aqi.in.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is addressing rallies in various states where the assembly elections will be held later this year, will visit Ms Gandhi in Jaipur on Tuesday night before heading to Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. He will go back to Jaipur and continue with his scheduled rallies in the state on Thursday.

Ms Gandhi had been admitted to Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in September after showing symptoms of fever and had been discharged a day later. She had also been admitted to a hospital in January because of respiratory issues.

This is not the first time that the former Congress president has had to move to another city to avoid the pollution in Delhi. In the winter of 2020, Ms Gandhi had gone to Goa on the advice of her doctors. 

The maximum temperature in Delhi was recorded three notches below normal at 25.9 degrees Celsius, the weather office said on Tuesday. The forecast showed partly cloudy skies later in the day.

The minimum temperature settled a notch below normal at 12 degrees Celsius on a cold morning in the national capital.

The relative humidity stood at 97 per cent at 8.30 am and 70 per cent at 5.30 pm, according to India Meteorological Department data.

On Monday, the city registered a low of 11.8 degrees and a high of 27.3 degrees Celsius.

The pollution level worsened in the morning amid unfavourable meteorological conditions in Delhi. 

The NIA on Tuesday attached properties of two key Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who allegedly helped Pakistani terrorist Naveed Jatt escape from police custody from a Srinagar hospital in 2018 by attacking a police team.

In a statement, the agency said, “Going full throttle against terrorist organisations and operatives operating in Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) attached the properties of two key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives in the 2018 case relating to the forcible release of a terrorist through a fatal attack on a police party at a Srinagar hospital.” It said eight properties — five belonging to Mohd Shafi Wani and three to Mohd Tikka Khan, both residents of Singoo Narbal in Pulwama — have been attached under Section 33 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act following recent orders from the NIA Special Court, Jammu.

The case involved the killing of two personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir Police in firing on a police party escorting LeT terrorist Jatt alias Abu Hanzla to SMHS Hospital, Srinagar, for a medical examination on February 6, 2018.

The NIA said Jatt, a terrorist of Pakistani origin, was forcibly released in the attack, which was carried out by the two accused, along with others, on orders from their Pakistan-based LeT commanders. Jatt was killed in an encounter with security forces later in 2018.

Jatt was believed to have been behind the killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari outside his office at Residency Road in June 2018.

“The attached immovable properties of Mohd Shafi Wani and Mohd Tikka Khan, both identified as overground workers of the LeT, include various plots of land. The residential house of Shafi has also been attached,” the agency said.

The two accused were arrested from their Pulwama homes on February 8, 2018, and were also found to be in the possession of weapons. They were charge-sheeted on August 3, 2018, and are currently facing trial before the NIA Special Court in Jammu under several legal provisions, it added.