Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2015 / Archives for October 2015

Archives for October 2015

Over 10,000 refugees stranded in Serbia: UNHCR

by

A child waits in the rain on the Serbia-Croatia border, October 19, 2015. (AFP/File)

A child waits in the rain on the Serbia-Croatia border, October 19, 2015. (AFP/File)

by ITN

More than 10,000 refugees are currently stranded in Serbia because of restrictions imposed by countries further away in western Europe, according to the UN refugee agency.

“We can only say that there are more than 10,000 refugees in Serbia,” UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic was quoted by Reuters as saying from the Serbian-Croatian border.

“It is like a big river of people, and if you stop the flow, you will have floods somewhere. That’s what’s happening now.”

Sunjic said there was a shortage of food and blankets. “We are missing everything,” she said.

‘Dozens of ISIL fighters killed’ in air strike in Syria

by

At least 40 rebels killed after their convoy comes under attack by unidentified jets in Hama, monitoring group says.

The Syrian government has intensified bombing of rebel-controlled areas since Russia began air campaign on September 30 [Reuters]

The Syrian government has intensified bombing of rebel-controlled areas since Russia began air campaign on September 30 [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 40 fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been killed in an air strike on their convoy in the Syrian province of Hama, a UK-based monitoring group has said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that unidentified warplanes hit the 16-vehicle motorcade overnight on Sunday in Hama province.

The Observatory, which monitors the war in Syria and has a network of sources on the ground, was not immediately able to say whether the raids were carried out by Russian warplanes or Syrian regime ones.

“But they don’t belong to the coalition led by Washington,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency.

Rahman said that the convoy was hit as it was heading from the self-declared ISIL capital of Raqqa in northern Syria to the Hama countryside.

Russia, a key ally of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has been carrying out a campaign of air strikes against his opponents since September 30.

Last year, a US-led coalition launched an air campaign against the group which controls swaths of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Eritrean mistaken for Palestinian shot dead in Israel

by

Eritrean bystander shot by security guard and beaten by mob after deadly attack on Beersheba bus station.

Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhum, 29, reportedly was in Beersheba to obtain his visa [Screen grab via YouTube]

Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhum, 29, reportedly was in Beersheba to obtain his visa [Screen grab via YouTube]

by Al Jazeera

An Eritrean man has died after he was shot and beaten by a mob after he was mistaken for an attacker during a raid in southern Israel, Israeli police say.

The attack on Sunday night at a bus station in the city of Beersheba saw a Palestinian man armed with a rifle and a knife kill an Israeli soldier and wound about 10 other people.

The Palestinian attacker was killed, while a security guard shot the Eritrean bystander, identified by Israeli media as 29-year-old Haftom Zarhum, thinking he was an accomplice of the assailant.

A video circulating online (WARNING – graphic footage) shows that a mob also beat Zarhum, who later died in hospital.

At least one Israeli soldier was filmed kicking Zarhum in the head as he lay bleeding on the floor of the terminal. Another man lifted a bench and dropped it on Zarhum’s head as others tried to protect him by placing a bar stool over his body.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed Zarhum was “misidentified”.

“The man was hit by bystanders and individual civilians who were in the area. Police are looking into it now and have obtained the CCTV footage of the incident.”

The Israeli IBA network posted footage of the attack, purportedly recorded by a surveillance camera.

Rosenfeld said the “Palestinian attacker stabbed a soldier and stole his M-16 rifle,” opening fire on the crowd at the bus terminal. The soldier died in hospital.

The attacker was named by police as Muhand Alukabi, 21, a resident of Hura in the Negev.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, called the attack a “natural response” and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian group, said it was a “normal answer to Israeli crimes”.

Sunday’s attack brings the total number of people killed in the violence that erupted at the beginning of the month to 52: 44 Palestinians and eight Israelis.

The incident comes just a day after five Palestinians were shot dead during alleged stabbing attacks – three of them in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have disputed the police version of events in at least some of the cases.

Triggered by Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month, violence and protests against Israel’s occupation have increased in frequency across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Diplomatic moves to halt the more than two weeks of unrelenting violence has gained steam, with US Secretary of State John Kerry saying he plans to meet both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, rejected an idea from France that would see international observers sent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Israeli forces have responded with a crackdown on protesters, using tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition.

Checkpoints have been set up in the occupied East Jerusalem, where some of the attackers have come from, and about 300 soldiers on Sunday began reinforcing the police force.

African asylum seekers in Israel have long been the target of political incitement and discriminatory legislation.

In July, an Israeli court approved the deportation of refugees to countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, and gave a stamp of approval to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers who refuse deportation.

Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, a member of Netanyahu’s hardline Likud party, has in the past called African asylum seekers a “cancer in Israel’s body”.

Residences and schools servicing asylum seekers have also been targeted in attacks, including with firebombs, in recent years.

Kashmir truck attack victim dies, violence rages

by

Kashmir truck attack victim dies

Srinagar: Violence raged in parts of the Kashmir Valley on Sunday after a victim of a bomb attack on a truck in Udhampur on October 9 died in Delhi, police and residents said.

Zahid Rasool Bhat, who was being treated for serious burn injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, died early on Sunday, a police officer told IANS here. Some reports said Bhat was 16 years old, while other reports said he was in his early 20s.

Bhat and another Kashmiri from Anantnag district, Showkat Ahmad Dar, 35, sustained major injuries when a mob hurled a petrol bomb on their stationary truck at Udhampur on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

Udhampur District Magistrate Shahid Chowdhary on Sunday said that murder charges had been added to the FIR against the five attackers arrested earlier.

They were first accused of rioting and stoking communal passion.

The accused are Sandoor Singh, Danish alias Pamma, Harish Singh, Balbahadur Singh and Varinder Singh alias Kaka.

The accused were also booked under the Public Safety Act, normally used against terrorists in the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

The attack took place following a beef party hosted by independent legislator Engineer Rashid in Srinagar.

As news of the death in Delhi spread on Sunday, mobs took to the streets in the southern district of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley and blocked the Jammu-Srinagar highway by burning tyres.

The highway is the most strategic road link between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of India.

They also pelted stones at security personnel who tried to disperse them with tear gas, triggering street battles.

Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq meanwhile said the government was to blame for Bhat’s death as it failed to provide security to the truckers.

The separatists have called for a shutdown in the Kashmir Valley on Monday.

Both the victims of the attack were flown to Safdarjung Hospital which specializes in treating burn injuries.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed had visited them at the hospital three days back.

(IANS)

Derecognise Shiv Sena, book its leaders, demands AAP

by

Shiv Sena workers stormed the BCCI office in Mumbai and gherao BCCI Chief Shashank Manohar's desk. (ANI Photo)

Shiv Sena workers stormed the BCCI office in Mumbai and gherao BCCI Chief Shashank Manohar’s desk. (ANI Photo)

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded that the Shiv Sena be derecognised in the backdrop of the latter’s recent activities, including Monday’s protests at BCCI office in Mumbai, saying in its nearly 50 years of existence the regional party has only contributed to “politics of hate and goondaism”.

“It’s been nearly 50 years of Shiv Sena’s existence and other than politics of hate and goondaism it has not made one credible contribution to the nation,” AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon said.

Slamming the Sena, Menon said though the party has not ruled the state on its own even once, it claimed to be the voice of Maharashtra.

“Surviving on coalitions and politics of convenience, it has not ruled Maharashtra on its own even once, and yet poses as the voice of Maharashtra. It took more than two decades of existence for Shiv Sena to win one Lok Sabha seat and its best Assembly performance was 73/288 in 1995, after nearly 30 years of existence,” she pointed out.

“So what exactly is the Shiv Sena? It is just a front for goondas who earn their living by threatening harmless people like singers, writers and holding the financial capital to ransom with its threats of bandhs and riots,” she said in a statement.

In the last few weeks, the Shiv Sena has threatened and cancelled Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali’s concert and attacked the organiser of a launch event of a book, written by a former Pakistani minister. Today they have attacked the BCCI offices which has led to cancellation of the India- Pakistan cricket meet, Menon said.

“This is completely unacceptable. Civil society must come together and demand a ban on Shiv Sena, as they neither understand, nor participate in upholding our Constitution or our democracy. Instead they are always ready to precipitate tensions with neighbouring countries,” she said.

“The AAP demands that the Election Commission should take note of Shiv Sena’s illegal and dangerous activities and de-recognise them. The state government should book Sena leaders for inciting violence and destroying the law and order of the state,” she demanded.

“What is worse is that the BJP and Shiv Sena are together supposed to be governing Maharashtra. Instead they have spent the last year fighting each other the BJP banned meat and the Shiv Sena protested and sold meat. The Shiv Sena threatened the book launch and BJP protected and conducted it,” Menon said in a statement.

“The only thing they come together on is politics of hate. On October 17, 2015, a Muslim college student was picked up for no apparent reason, and thrashed all night by policemen in Bandra Police station, he was told to go to Pakistan,” she alleged.

“This is a huge blot on the nation. How can we trust a government who cannot control its own police force? Or is this what the government is encouraging the police to do?” she asked.

Maharashtra is reeling under drought, farmers are committing suicide, rampant corruption has forced a builder and a police inspector to commit suicide. The state is fast slipping into anarchy, she said.

It has been a dismal 12 months for Maharashtra as the BJP-Sena government has not delivered on a single poll promise but has wreaked anarchy in the state, she further alleged.

“The AAP feels that the government has lost its moral right to rule Maharashtra,” Menon said.

(Agencies)

Shiv Sena workers storm BCCI office, Shukla condemns attack

by

shiv-sena-bcci

New Delhi: Taking forward its campaign against Pakistani personalties, Shiv Sena workers today stormed the Indian Cricket Board headquarters in protest against planned talks with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Shaharyar Khan here for resumption of bilateral cricketing ties.

The noisy protests by over a hundred slogan shouting members at the Board office during which BCCI President Shashank Manohar was ghearoed forced the cancellation of the much-anticipated talks today between him and Khan.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla strongly condemned the attack on the BCCI’s headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium. “Strongly condemns the attack on BCCI Office by Shiv Sena,” Shukla, a top BCCI functionary, wrote on his twitter handle.

“BCCI is a responsible body and will not do anything against national interest. Cricketing decisions should be left to BCCI.”

“Cricket is a gentleman’s game and the spirit of the game expects same generosity and tolerance from those who love the game,” he further tweeted.

The proposed series is the latest to come under attack from the right-wing party which has been protesting anything that has to do with Pakistan.

The talks on the proposed bilateral series have now been rescheduled to be held in Delhi tomorrow.

“The talks have not been called off. Mr Manohar and Mr Khan will speak to each other in evening today and tomorrow they are coming to Delhi for another round of talks,” Rajiv Shukla told PTI.

The protesting Sena workers were later taken into custody by the police.

Shouting slogans against Pakistan and the PCB chairman, the Sena workers surrounded Manohar, asking him not to have any ties with the neighbouring country, which they said sponsors terrorism.

Waving black and saffron flags, the workers sought to know from Manohar if he would go ahead with his meeting with the PCB chief here.

Sena Vibhag Pramukh Pandurang Sakpal told reporters that his party is firm that there should be no cricket matches between the two countries.

Asked about Sena being a part of the Maharashtra government, Sakpal said, “The government will do its job, we will do ours.”

“What we did today is Sena’s stance,” he said.

Manohar had invited Khan for talks on the much-anticipated cricket series scheduled in December.

Khan and PCB’s executive committee head Najam Sethi are in the city for the meeting after discussing the planned series with BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur earlier on the sidelines of the ICC meeting in Dubai.

Thakur had assured him that a final decision could be taken later this month and conveyed Manohar’s invitation to visit India.

There is speculation that the two neighbours could play either a bilateral series in the UAE or agree to a possible triangular series in December also involving Bangladesh.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Congress leader Manish Tewari condemend the incident.

Tiwari described the incident as “abominable” and said law and order had completely broken down in Maharashtra.

He said Mumbai had been reduced to “mobocracy”, citing a spate of recent incidents, including the cancellation of ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s show due to Sena’s protests.

“It is extremely unfortunate… This is extremely abominable. Law and order has completely broken down in Maharashtra. The President of India should take cognizance of this,” he said.

In the recent days, Sena activists had blackened the face of former BJP strategist Sudheendra Kulkarni, Chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, over his refusal to cancel the book launch function of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, prompting strong condemnation from political parties.

The Shiv Sena also forced the organisers to cancel the Mumbai concert of renowned Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali.

(PTI)

Australian couple harassed for sporting ‘goddess’ tattoo on leg

by

Yellamma-Tattoo

Bengaluru: In a shocking incident, a group of miscreants, said to be Hindutva activists, abused and harassed an Australian couple at a restaurant here, even threatening to skin the young man’s leg, for sporting the tattoo of Hindu “goddess” Yellamma on his shin.

 

Their ordeal did not end there as the city police not only detained them but also forced the helpless man to apologise to the group of miscreants for ‘hurting their religious sentiments.’

The incident happened around 2 p.m. when Matthew Gordon (21) and his girl friend Emily Kassianou (20) from Melbourne were spotted by the group.

“One of them came to me and confronted me about my tattoo. Soon, they surrounded us and threatened to skin my leg and remove the tattoo,” a shaken Gordon, a law student, said.

The group soon called in more people and over 25 men gathered outside the eatery, not allowing the couple to leave. “A policeman arrived and said this is India and one couldn’t sport such a tattoo on the leg,” Mr. Gordon recalled.

(Agencies)

RSS justifies Dadri lynching, says Vedas encourage killing

by

rss-dadri

New Delhi: Justifying the brutal lynching of 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri over false beef rumours, the RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya recently carried a cover story stating that the Vedas permit the killing of “sinners” who slaughter cows.

In the article titled ‘Is Utpat ke Us paar’, writer Tufail Chaturvedi alias Vinay Krishna Chaturvedi slammed the writers for returning their awards and stated that while they expressed their resentment over the death of Akhlaq, they completely ignored that the latter had killed a cow.

The writer deliberately hid the fact that the assailants had falsely accused Akhlaq of killing a cow and storing beef in his home. Probe and laboratory tests had proved that it was not beef.

Citing several instances of Vedas that prohibit cow slaughter, Chaturvedi expressed that ‘cow slaughter is an issue of honour for Hindus and for social harmony it is important that we respect faiths of each other.’

The article also refrained from mentioning the fact that in several instances prominent Hindu religious scriptures including Vedas and Upanishads allowed and encouraged beef consumption.

People who kill the ‘sinners’ (one who slaughter cows) will be glorified and remembered by the society, claims the article.

The article also vouches that all the Muslims, including Akhlaq, were Hindus until a few generations ago.

(Agencies)

 

Ink attack on J&K MLA Engineer Rashid at Press Club of India

by

Engineer Rashid

New Delhi: Engineer Rashid, an independent MLA from Jammu and Kashmir, was attacked with ink and oil by three men at Press Club of India premises on Monday afternoon.

 

The attack took place minutes after Mr. Rashid addressed the media on the issue of death of one of the three persons attacked in Udhampur over beef rumours earlier this month.

Two people behind the attack in Delhi’s Press Club were detained by police.

According to news agencies, Vishnu Gupta-led Hindu Sena has claimed responsibility for the attack on Mr. Rashid.

The legislator later told the media that “the world will see what India has turned into.”

“They say Pakistan has been taken over by Taliban but look what’s happening here,” he said.

Only a few days back, Mr. Rashid was assaulted by BJP legislators in Jammu & Kashmir Assembly, for hosting a ‘beef party’.

Prior to the attack, Mr. Rashid had hit out at the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their “intolerance” towards the minority community. He had demanded that Mr. Modi apologise for the Dadri and Udhampur incidents.

The families of the victims have demanded compensation equal to that paid to the kin of the Dadri lynch victim. They have also sought that the case be fast-tracked and the guilty hanged soon.

(Agencies)

Ranji Trophy: Wasim Jaffer leads Vidarbha’s fightback against Karnataka

by

Wasim Jaffer and Ganesh Satish hit well-paced half centuries to lead Vidarbha’s reply to Karnataka’s first innings score of 350. Vidarbha reached 172 for two in 72 overs.

Wasim Jaffer scored 68 for Vidarbha against Karnataka on Friday.

Wasim Jaffer scored 68 for Vidarbha against Karnataka on Friday.

Bengaluru: Youngster Ganesh Satish and veteran Wasim Jaffer crafted well-paced half centuries to lead Vidarbha’s reply to Karnataka’s first innings score of 350 on the second day of their four-day Group A Ranji Trophy match at Chinnaswamy stadium here on Friday.

The former Mumbaikar, Jaffer, smashed a superb 68 runs while Satish remained unbeaten on 81 as Vidarbha reached 172 for two in 72 overs.

When the stumps were drawn, Satish and skipper Subramanium Badrinath were at the crease with Vidarbha still trailing Karnataka by 178 runs with eight wickets in hand.

Satish showed lot of patience and grit to build a 117-run partnership for the second wicket and brought the team back on the track after they had lost their first wicket on three in the very first over of Abhimanyu Mithun.

Satish, who migrated to Vidarbha because of difficulty in cementing a place in the defending champions’ side, and Jaffer, grinded the Karnataka bowlers and did not allow them to dominate them by grafting runs in a systematic manner.

The duo remained unseparated between lunch and tea, despite some loud appeals as the hosts went wicketless in the second session.

“There were some close calls, but things can go against us. Some things are not in our hands,” Shreyas Gopal said.

In the very second over after tea, Jaffer trying to change gears ended up giving a catch at mid-on to Karun Nair off left-arm spinner Jagadeesh Suchith. The flamboyant former Indian opener cracked ten boundaries in his 120-ball 68 runs.

“I don’t think Wasim Bhai threw away his wicket, it was just that he might have wanted to change the gear to get quick runs,” Satish told reporters after the day’s play.

After the fall of Jaffer, Vidarbha tightened their screws and made it difficult for the visitors to score runs. Satish and captain Subramanium Badrinath also did not want to lose further wickets as they dug their heels to end the day on a positive note.

“After the fall of Wasim Bhai’s wicket, it was really very difficult for us to score runs because of the close-in fielding. I and Badri decided to stay at the wicket and look for small partnerships to frustrate the home bowlers,” said Satish, who could muster 52 runs after tea with Badrinath.

Asked whether the team is planning to go for an outright victory and settle down for first innings points, Satish said, “We will think of it once we get past their total. Right now, we are focusing on batting.”

For Karnataka, Mithun and Suchith picked one wicket each and Vinay Kumar, S Aravind and Gopal — all went wicketless.

Resuming their overnight score of 298-6, Karnataka were bundled out for 350 runs in 102.4 overs, after wicket-keeper batsman Chidambaram Gautam scored 30 and Vinay 22.

Vidarbha pacer Ravi Thakur ended the innings, taking four wickets.

(PTI)

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives