India's opposition leader Narendra Modi sought to ally fears Wednesday about his communal credentials, pledging harmony during an election rally in the country's only Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Hindu nationalist hardliner Modi said he would promote democracy and equality if he came to power at elections starting next month, during his first rally in the troubled region since polls were announced.

The split between the old and new guard of India's hardline Hindu opposition, tipped to win national elections, burst open Monday after it refused to field one of the party's founders in the polls.

Jaswant Singh, 76, who served as both foreign and finance minister in a previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, announced he would stand as an independent from his home state of Rajasthan in northwestern India.

Indian police Sunday said they had arrested a key terror suspect of the home-grown Islamist militant group the Indian Mujahideen, blamed for a string of deadly attacks across the country in recent years.

The arrest comes as India is on high security alert ahead of next month's general election with police saying they had prevented a new terrorist strike.

India must stop its doctors prescribing "irrational" treatments to cure tuberculosis, medical humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said Saturday, warning the practice is increasing drug-resistant strains of the disease.

India is already home to the highest number of tuberculosis (TB) sufferers globally with two million cases every year and drug-resistant strains are on the rise, Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF said in a statement ahead of World TB day on Monday.

A Sikh man was jailed for 10 years in Britain on Friday for slashing the neck of the Indian general who oversaw the 1984 Amritsar Golden Temple assault.

Retired lieutenant general Kuldip Singh Brar, 78, was attacked as he walked through the West End district of London with his wife Meena in September 2012.

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of India's remote Nicobar Islands on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, while local authorities reported two other quakes.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The Maldivian elections commission said Friday it planned to go ahead with this weekend's parliamentary polls despite the islands' new president expressing doubts over whether the vote can be conducted.

President Abdulla Yameen told a public rally in the capital island Male on Thursday night that a depleted Elections Commission may not be able to conduct the vote which is due to take place on Saturday.

An Indian court handed down life sentences Friday to three gang-rapists who attacked a photographer and a phone operator in an abandoned mill compound in the center of Mumbai.

Mohammed Salim Ansari, Vijay Mohan Jadhav and Mohammed Kasim Hafeez Shaikh were given the sentences a day after their conviction for the attacks in July and August last year which triggered worldwide headlines and reignited anger about women's safety in India.

A Mumbai court convicted four men on Thursday over the gang-rape of a photographer on assignment in the city last year, a case that reignited nationwide anger over women's safety.

The court found the men guilty of raping the 22-year-old in August last year at an abandoned mill compound, where she had gone to take photos with a male colleague, close to an upscale area of the financial city.

Millions of Indians splashed bright colors on each other Monday to celebrate the popular Hindu festival of Holi, which marks the start of spring.

The 'Festival of Colors' saw revelers pour onto streets across the country, smearing and splashing powder, known as 'gulal', and water on others to celebrate the triumph of good over evil.