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13 Solapur Muslim men acquitted from terror charges after 12 years

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Solapur: Thirteen persons, who were termed accused in a 2003 terror case under sections of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), were acquitted by a session court here.

They were booked under the various sections of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in a 2003 terror case. However, it is an irony that they were absolved of all charges after undergoing 11 long year’s ordeal.

Solapur Session Court Judge N N Dhend acquitted all the 13 accused for want of evidence as they were arrested by Maharashtra police on August 8, 2003 on the charges of plotting to make crude bombs for explosion. Police had allegedly recovered a small amount of explosive material from some of the accused. Soon after their arrest, police had invoked sections of POTA in the case. All the accused were released on bail after spending six months behind bars. Police produced 62 witnesses in the case but prosecution examined only 14 of them. However, all the witnesses were declared hostile by the court.

It is to mention here that the previous UPA government had scrapped dreaded law POTA in 2004 but not with retrospective effect. Because of this, many innocents have been languishing in jails.

Those, who got absolved of all charges, are Farooq Tabeeb, Imaan Nadaf, Hamid Mulla, Mahboob Daula, Anwar Shaikh, Mansoor Shaikh, Ghulam Shaikh, Mudassir Shaikh, Ibrahim Momin, Mubin Shaikh, Yaqub Saudagar, Jabbar Shaikh, and Rahman Shaikh.

World Cup 2015: New Zealand beat Australia by one wicket

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by Justin Goulding, BBC Sport

New Zealand survived a late collapse to beat Australia by one wicket in a thrilling World Cup Pool A game.

Chasing a meagre 152 to win, the Kiwis slipped from 131-4 to 146-9 as Mitchell Starc claimed 6-28.

However, Kane Williamson (45no) hit Pat Cummins for six to seal victory with 26.5 overs to spare in a wonderfully tense climax at Eden Park in Auckland.

Earlier, Australia lost eight wickets for 26 runs as they were bowled out for 151, with Trent Boult claiming 5-27.

New Zealand, who have won all four of their Pool A matches, need only one win from their remaining two group games – against Afghanistan and Bangladesh – to secure their place in the quarter-finals.

This was only the sixth one-wicket win in World Cup history, although such a slender margin of victory appeared unlikely in the extreme as Brendon McCullum flayed a 21-ball fifty to lead the Kiwi pursuit.

Even after he fell in the eighth over to spark a collapse of three wickets in five balls, few doubted the outcome.

Justice Amitava Roy sworn in as Supreme Court judge

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Supreme Court India

New Delhi: Justice Amitava Roy was Friday sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court.

With the elevation of Roy, who was chief justice of the Orissa High Court, the strength of the apex court has gone up to 29 against a sanctioned strength of 31 judges.

Justice Roy will have a tenure of three years.

Coming from a family of lawyers and judges from Kolkata, Justice Roy, born March 1, 1953, started practice in the district courts in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in Assam from 1976 to 1981, before shifting to the Gauhati High Court.

He was elevated as judge in the high Court Feb 4, 2002 and elevated as chief justice of the Rajasthan High Court Jan 2, 2013 and shifted to the Orissa High Court in the same capacity Aug 6, 2014.

(Agencies)

Sonia Gandhi pens emotional letter to Advani on 50th wedding anniversary

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New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi congratulated LK Advani on his 50th wedding anniversary, saying it was also a “special day” for her as it was on this day 47 years ago that she got married to Rajiv Gandhi.

“On the auspicious occasion of your 50th wedding anniversary, I send my warm felicitations to you and Mrs Kamala Advani. Over half-a-century you have enjoyed a close companionship, giving strength and support to each other through all life’s ups and downs and that is indeed a great blessing!” Ms Gandhi said in a letter to the BJP veteran.

The Congress President wished the two “many more years together” in good health and happiness. “February 25 is also a special day for me – the day Rajiv and I got married, and this year would have been our 47th wedding anniversary,” she said.

According to a report on Hindustan Times, Advani called up Gandhi and “profusely thanked” her after he received the letter.

(PTI)

Review: Dum Laga Ke Haisha is an endearingly heart touching movie

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Dum Laga Ke Haisha

by Shaheen Raaj

Producer: Aditya Chopra & Maneesh Sharma
Director: Sharat Katariya
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, débutante Bhumi Pednekar along with Sanjay Mishra, Alka Amin, Sheeba Chaddha, Seema Pahwa & Kumar Sanu
Music: Anu Malik & Andrea Guerra

Sharat Katariya in his debut directorial outing ’10 ML Love’ had seemed totally out of focus. No wonder the film had nosedived at the box office turnstiles. Perhaps Sharat learnt his lesson and mended his directorial ways and how? So in his 2nd directorial outing ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’, strongly backed by Yash Raj Films, Sharat has crafted an endearingly heart touching movie which comes once in a while like a breath of fresh air and leaves a million dollar smile on your countenance even after you walk out of the darkened auditorium.

The scenario of ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’s plot opens (set in circa 1995 in Haridwar), with a self introduction of a neither qualified nor talented Prem Prakash Tiwari (Ayushmann Khurrana), a high – school dropout & a die – hard fan of crooner Kumar Sanu. He confesses that he has only 3 weaknesses in his life namely exam’s English question paper, his father’s slippers & Kumar Sanu’s melodious voice.

This eventually leads to his matrimonial meet, where his parents meet the parents of the ‘B.Ed graduate but fat’ Sandhya Verma (Débutante Bhumi Pednekar), who wants to become a teacher. Seizing the opportunity, Prem’s parents especially his father Chandrabhan Tiwari (Sanjay Mishra) gets him married to Sandhya, even though Prem is least interested in her because of her fat figure. When a very disinterested Prem does “nothing” on their wedding night, this news reaches the ears of both the families, thus making them nervous and also scared about the couple’s future relationship.

Sandhya, on the other hand, who genuinely loves Prem, on the insistence of her mother Subhadra Rani, even tries to seduce him with a ‘foreign waali VCD’. Meanwhile, a certain incident happens between Prem and his friends, in which Prem confesses his utter disliking for Sandhya, which co – incidentally, Sandhya overhears. This leads to her filing for a divorce with Prem. As a legal formality, the court decides a time of 6 months for the couple to spend time with each other, in case they have a change of mind. Amidst all this chaos, their village announces the annual competition named ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’, in which the husbands have to carry their wives on their back and run till the finishing lines, despite all the man made hurdles. Again, on his family’s insistence, a very reluctant Prem agrees to carry the ‘moti saand’ (fatso) Sandhya on his back and take part in the competition.

Director Sharat Katariya is in full bloom in his 2nd directorial offering ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ thereby displaying his sparkling directorial brilliance which touches your heart strings in both the romantic & the melancholic moods of the movie. It seems that Bollywood heroines with svelte figures & sexy persona may now have to take a walk with the arrival of an unconventional heroine like Bhoomi Pednekar. Sharat also deserves a pat on his back for his minutest detailing in the entire film in lieu with each & every character in tandem with their performances. Kudos to Aditya Chopra & Manish Sharma (Producers), Anu Malik & Andrea Guerra (Music Scorers), Varun Grover & Chinni Prakash (Choreographers), Manu Anand (Cinematographer), Shajith Koyeri (Sound), Meenal Aggarwal (Production Designer) and above all brickbats to Namrata Rao (Editor).

Performance wise it is the débutante real & reel life actress Bhumi Pednekar who outshines, but never over shadows the entire cast of the talented & the gifted actors. Bhumi displays her natural flair for acting as if possessing an inborn talent. But her real test in histrionics will be her subsequent outings. The next in line actor who has delivered a par excellence performance is of course Ayushmann Khurana. But a cautionary advice to him, at this juncture will not be out of place, is to take care of his stereotypical expressions & mannerisms mostly in close shots. While the remaining cast members which comprises of Sanjay Mishra, Alka Amin, Sheeba Chaddha, Seema Pahwa et al have once again proved that they still are and will always be stalwarts in the histrionics arena.

Tailpiece: It needs a little more “word of mouth” push to come out as a winner with flying colours. Don’t miss out on this honestly made fare.

Church Street blast: 2 men lodged in Patna jail brought to Bengaluru for questioning

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PTI Photo

PTI Photo

Bengaluru: The city police on Thursday night brought two suspects from Patna to the city in connection with the Church Street blast on December 28 last year.

The police acquired a body warrant for Haidar Ali and his associate Umar Siddiqui, both suspects in jail for their alleged role in the serial blasts at the Hunkar rally of Narendra Modi in Patna in October 2013.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Alok Kumar, who is heading the Special Investigation Team that is probing the case, said: “CCTV footage and call records have yielded little results,” he said. Explosives used in the Hunkar rally blasts and the Bodh Gaya blasts in Bihar were similar to those used in the Church Street blast. This has led the city police to bring the two suspects to the city and grill them for any information that may provide a lead.

The two suspects, however, were not involved as they were in NIA custody, the day of the Church Street blast.

(Agencies)

Review: Ab Tak Chappan 2 leaves you dazed and confused

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by Shaheen Raaj

Producer: Raju Chada & Gopal Dalvi
Director: Aejaz Gulab
Cast: Nana Patekar, Gul Panag, Tejas Jagirdar, Ashutosh Rana, Vikram Gokhale, Mohan Agashe, Govind Namdev, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Raj Zutshi et al
Music: Sandeep Chowta & Amal Mallik

Debutante director Aejaz Gulab in his debut directorial offering ‘Ab Tak Chhapan 2’ tries his utmost best to live up to the legacy of the prequel ‘Ab Tak Chhapan’ directed by Shimit Amin, but he seems to be bowed down under a lot of pressure to live up to the expectations of everyone concerned especially its lead character Sadhu Agashe (Read Nana Patekar).

The film is a sequel to ‘Ab Tak Chhappan’ and the story revolves around Inspector Sadhu Agashe (Nana Patekar) from the Mumbai Encounter Squad. It is inspired by the life of Police sub-Inspector with the Mumbai Police force Daya Nayak. The film carries forward from the prequel where Saadhu Agashe’s wife is shot dead. The scenario opens with Saadhu Aagashe back and taking the encounter count beyond Chappan with ‘Ab Tak Chappan 2’. The sequel of the much applauded film has the Home Minister Janardhan Jagirdar (Vikram Gokhale) along with Chief Minister Anna Saheb (Dilip Prabhawalkar) pledging to eradicate the menace caused by underworld don Rawale (Raj Zutshi) who is operating from Bangkok and don Rauf Lala who is operating from Mumbai. Knowing that the ‘Gandhian’ approach won’t tackle the problem, the Encounter Squad is back to bring justice. A reluctant Saadhu Agashe, due to his son’s (Tejas Jagirdar) insistence, agrees to join the force and do what he does best, remove the pests of the society for good, no pun intended. But will an encounter squad with a clean slate manage to eradicate the menace? At what price would peace be got? Will peace ever come? These are some of the queries that only the filmmakers and above all only Nana can answer.

Debutante director Aejaz Gulab indeed had a gripping story to go ahead but sadly enough with his stuntman oriented background and not to forget his amateurish directorial skills, he fails to deliver the goods. The way he has handled the plot is absolutely confusing. No doubt there is a dirty politician in the midst of this huge mess, but what the actual conspiracy he was involved in remains a mystery even when the end credit title rolls. Either it was a case of the plot being so complex that it was impossible to unravel, or, more likely, it didn’t exist at all.

Performance wise Nana Patekar of course stands apart with his par excellence and unmatched acting skills. Yet it is high time he drops his sometimes stoic and sub-standard expressions especially in close ups. The other veteran actors like Dilip Prabhawalkar, Mohan Agashe, Vikram Gokhale, Raj Zutshi, Govind Namdeo et al lend Nana an able & adequate support to carry on the never ending mysterious plot ahead. Gul Panag appears more like a walkie talkie screeching glamour doll. Ashutosh Rana leaves an impact in his rivalry scenes with Nana. A special noteworthy mention goes to Tejas Jagirdar who leaves a lasting impression with his brief role as Nana’s son.

Tailpiece: Strongly recommended for die hard Nana Patekar fans and for the rest of the mass & class audience too, it will be a sheer waste of time & money too.

My government's only religion is 'India first', only religious book is Indian Constitution: PM Modi

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File photo

File photo

New Delhi: Breaking his silence in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday denounced communalism and asserted that his government stood for unity wherein all religions prosper within the framework of the Constitution.

“My government’s only religion is ‘India first’, my government’s only religious book is ‘Indian Constitution’, our only devotion is ‘Bharat Bhakti’ and our only prayer is ‘welfare of all’,” he said in Lok Sabha while replying to a debate on President’s Address.

He declared that as the Prime Minister, it was his “responsibility” not to allow “anaap shanap (ridiculous) comments in the name of religion.

“Nobody has the right to discriminate on the basis of religion… “No one has the right to take law into his hands,” the Prime Minister said.

His statement assumes significance as the government has been under attack over certain communal remarks made by some BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders.

“Communalism for political reasons has destroyed the country. Hearts have been broken,” Modi said, asking why questions are being “posed to us”.

Insisting that “We want all religions to prosper”, the Prime Minister said it is possible only in India under its Constitution which has been prepared with the thinking of thousands of years of the country’s history.

“This nation full of diversity. We are for unity in diversity, not disunity. All religions should flourish. It is the uniqueness of India because of its Constitution,” he said.

“We want to take the nation forward within the framework of the Constitution,” Modi said, adding he saw only the “tricolor” and “no other colour”.

Recalling his election rally in Patna in October 2013 which was rocked by serial bomb blasts, Modi said he had then “asked who should Hindus fight with — with muslims or poverty? I had asked muslims, do you want to fight with hindus or poverty. We have fought enough. Now let us unite and fight against poverty.”

Referring to his slogan of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’, he said he sought the cooperation of the opposition also for the benefit of the country.

(PTI)

UN reveals 'credible and reliable' evidence of US military torture in Afghanistan

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New report finds U.S.-backed Afghan government still committing widespread torture

UNAMA Human Rights Director, Georgette Gagnon (left), and Special Representative Nicholas Haysom. Photo: (Photo: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi)

UNAMA Human Rights Director, Georgette Gagnon (left), and Special Representative Nicholas Haysom. Photo: (Photo: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

The United Nations revealed Wednesday it has “credible and reliable” evidence that people recently detained at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan have faced torture and abuse.

The UN’s Assistance Mission and High Commissioner for Human Rights exposed the findings in a report based on interviews with 790 “conflict-related detainees” between February 2013 and December 2014.

According to the investigation, two detainees “provided sufficiently credible and reliable accounts of torture in a U.S. facility in Maydan Wardak in September 2013 and a U.S. Special Forces facility at Baghlan in April 2013.”

The report states that the allegations of torture were investigated by “relevant authorities” but provided no information about the outcome of the alleged probes or the nature of the mistreatment.

This is not the first public disclosure of evidence of torture during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, now into its 14th year. The U.S. military’s Bagram Prison, which was shuttered late last year, was notorious for torture, including beatings, sexual assault, and sleep deprivation, and further atrocities were confirmed in the Senate report (pdf) on CIA torture, released late last year in a partially-redacted form. Afghan residents have repeatedly spoken out against torture and abuse by U.S., international, and Afghan forces.

The Senate report on CIA torture, released late last year in a partially-redacted form, exposes U.S. torture at black sites in Afghanistan and around the world.

Moreover, residents of Afghanistan have testified to—and protested—torture by U.S., international, and Afghan forces.

Beyond U.S.-run facilities, the UN report finds that torture and abuse have slightly declined over recent years but remain “persistent” throughout detention centers run by the U.S.-backed Afghan government, including police, military, and intelligence officials. Of people detained for conflict-related reasons, 35 percent of them faced torture and abuse at the hands of their Afghan government captors, the report states.

According to the report, prevalent torture methods used by Afghan forces include, “prolonged and severe beating with cables, pipes, hoses or wooden sticks (including on the soles of the feet), punching, hitting and kicking all over the body including jumping on the detainee’s body, twisting of genitals including with a wrench-like device, and threats of execution and/or sexual assault.”

UN: Turkey hosts largest number of refugees in the world

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A Group of Syrian Kurds, who were sheltering in Turkey as a result of ongoing clashes between ISIS and Kurdish armed groups, return to their hometown Kobane from Sanliurfa, Turkey on February 25, 2015. Anadolu/Halil Fidan

A Group of Syrian Kurds, who were sheltering in Turkey as a result of ongoing clashes between ISIS and Kurdish armed groups, return to their hometown Kobane from Sanliurfa, Turkey on February 25, 2015. Anadolu/Halil Fidan

Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world amid a “staggering” growth in displacement from Syria, the UN high commissioner for refugees said Thursday.

In a briefing to the United Nations Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, the high commissioner, Antonio Guterres, said the Syrian refugee crisis overwhelmed existing response capacities, with 3.8 million refugees registered in neighboring countries.

“Lebanon and Jordan have seen their populations grow, in the space of a few years, to a point they were prepared to reach only in several decades,” said Guterres. “Meanwhile, Turkey has now become the biggest refugee-hosting country in the world.”

According to the UN refugee agency, Turkey is hosting over 1.6 million Syrian refugees, who have fled a war that has paved the way for extremist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to gain a foothold in the region.

Syria has been gripped by almost constant fighting since peaceful protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 turned into an armed insurgency.

Urging the international community to share the burden, Guterres said the refugee influx had severely damaged the economies of Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

“The nature of the refugee crisis is changing” and called for “massive international support” for countries that have opened their borders to fleeing civilians,” he explained.

“As the level of despair rises, and the available protection space shrinks, we are approaching a dangerous turning point,” he added.

Lebanon’s population has grown by nearly 25 percent since the war in Syria began in 2011, with over 1.5 million Syrian refugees sheltered in a country with a population of 4 million, making it the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world.

The refugee influx has put huge pressure on the country’s already scarce resources and poor infrastructure, education and health systems, and has also contributed to rising tensions in a nation vulnerable to security breaches and instability.

Meanwhile, Guterres warned that almost two million Syrian refugees under the age of 18, many without access to education or jobs, “risk becoming a lost generation” and over 100,000 children born in exile could become stateless.

“If this is not addressed properly, this crisis-in-making will have huge consequences not only for the future of Syria but for the whole region,” he said.

Moreover, Guterres commended a temporary protection decree issued by Turkey last year to provide Syrians with access to the country’s labor market, as well as free education and health care.

“But despite this positive development in Turkey, it is no surprise that growing desperation is forcing more and more Syrian refugees to move further afield,” he said.

He said Syrians accounted for a third of the nearly 220,000 migrants who arrived in boats to European shores last year.

“Since the start of 2015, over 370 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean — that’s one person drowning for every twenty who made it,” he said.

He warned that thousands more could face death unless Europe decides to “step up its capacity to save lives, with a robust search and rescue operation in the Central Mediterranean.”

According to a December report by Amnesty International, wealthy nations have only taken in a “pitiful” 1.7 percent of the millions of refugees uprooted by Syria’s conflict, placing the burden on the country’s ill-equipped neighbors.

At the time, the London-based rights group blasted as shocking the failure of rich nations to host more refugees.

Amnesty said it was calling for the resettlement of five percent of Syria’s refugees by the end of 2015, and another five percent the following year.

In addition to those who fled the war-ravaged country to become refugees, the UN says more than seven million Syrians are internally displaced.

The refugees face poverty, illness and growing tensions with host communities in their already-impoverished temporary homes.

As the conflict rages, there is little prospect that the more than three million Syrians who have fled to neighboring countries and beyond will be able to return home any time soon.

(Anadolu, AFP, Al-Akhbar)

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