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Kashmir truck attack victim dies, violence rages

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

England need 99 to win first Test

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Adil Rashid

Abu Dhabi: England need 99 runs in a possible 19 overs to win the first Test after Pakistan collapsed to 173 all out in their second innings in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

The Test was heading for a draw after England declared their first innings at 598-9, but they bowled with fire and employed aggressive field settings on a weary fifth and final day pitch at Sheikh Zayed Stadium pitch.

Spinners Adil Rashid (5-64) and Moeen Ali (2-28) did the damage while paceman James Anderson took 2-30.

(Agencies)

Growing intolerance: A letter to the president of India by creative and academic community of West Bengal

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pranab-mukherjee

To Sri Pranab Mukherjee

The President of India

Your Excellency,

As citizens of a democratic country, we are deeply concerned about the growing culture of murderous intolerance and the brazen assault on the fundamental right to life of those who maintain the core values of diversity, plurality and tolerance of which you yourself have recently reminded us. The targeting of innocents like the recent killing of Muhammad Akhlaq in Dadri and the series of attacks against rationalists and freethinkers including the gruesomely casual killing of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi has made us strangers in our own country. We are horrified at the callous lack of support and apathy of the state in finding and bringing the culprits to justice. The stifling atmosphere of fear and uncertainty is fatal to the freedom of expression that is at the heart of our shared lives, and it is for the restoration of this common fabric that we urge you to intervene.

On behalf of the freethinking, creative minds of India – indeed, on behalf of every citizen of India – we urge you, the guardian of the Constitution of India, to ensure that those who have infringed upon this founding document of the State with impunity, whether overtly or by silent complicity, be brought to justice. Throttling the right to free thought and expression threatens the very existence of our plural society. We demand your active intervention in protecting the basic freedom which is the right of all Indian citizens without discrimination by religion, caste, class or gender. We appeal to you to take firm and immediate steps to combat this well-planned conspiracy to endanger Indian democracy.

From the creative and academic community of West Bengal,

  • Nabaneeta Dev Sen
  • Nirendranath Chakraborty
  • Ashok Mitra
  • Shankha Ghosh
  • Alokranjan Dasgupta
  • Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
  • Pabitra Sarkar
  • Ipshita Chanda
  • Samaresh Majumder
  • Amiya Bagchi
  • Bibhash Chakraborty
  • Rudraprasad Sengupta
  • Swatilekha Sengupta
  • Bani Basu
  • Subodh Sarkar
  • Antara Dev Sen
  • Pratik Kanjilal
  • Nandana Dev Sen
  • Wasim Kapoor
  • Dipali Bhattacharya
  • Srijato
  • Sohini Sengupta
  • Emanul Haque
  • Bikashranjan Bhattacharya
  • Chitra Sen
  • Kaushik Sen
  • Reshmi Sen
  • Srikanta Acharya
  • Bijaya Mukhopadhyay
  • Sarat Mukhopadyay
  • Gargi Roychoudhury
  • Arna Sheel
  • Ujjwal Chattopadhyay
  • Meghnad Bhattacharya
  • Kishor Sengupta
  • Subrata Gangopadhyay
  • Samir Aich
  • Srabasti Basu
  • All Members of P.E.N International, India, West Bengal Branch
  • Krishna Bose
  • Ranjan Gupta
  • Shyamal Mukhopadhyay
  • Sugata Choudhuri
  • Arindam Acharjee
  • Barun Chakrabarty
  • Krishna Sen
  • All Members of SOI, Forum for Creative Women
  • Anjali Das
  • Jyotsna Karmakar
  • Sharmishtha Dasgupta
  • Maya Siddhanta
  • Dipanwita Roy
  • Chitra Lahiri
  • Chaitali Chattopadhyay
  • Sutapa Bhattacharya
  • Sanjukta Bandopadhyay
  • Esha De
  • Ishita Bhaduri
  • Kana Basu Misra
  • Susmeli Dutta
  • Deepshikha Poddar
  • Binata Roychowdhury
  • Pritha Bal
  • Dipannita Datta
  • Bubun Chattopadhyay
  • Banani Das
  • Swapna Bandopadhyay
  • Kasturi Chattopadhyay
  • Sanhita Bandopadhyay
  • Tanbir Nasreen
  • Kamalakkha Gangopadhyay
  • Manasij Majumder
  • Dhritikanta Lahiri Choudhury
  • Shankar Majumder
  • Pratibha Mandal
  • Bidisha Ghosh Biswas
  • Agnimitra Biswas
  • K. Biswanath
  • Anit Bose
  • Paushali Sengupta
  • Rangan Sengupta
  • Bipasha Raha
  • Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta
  • Arnab Dutta
  • Judhajit Sarkar
  • Nabin Mandal
  • Sheila Lahiri Chowdhury
  • Dipkanta Lahiri Chowdhury
  • Debjani Lahiri Chowdhury
  • Ridhi Sen
  • Pankaj Saha
  • Avery Chaurey
  • Indira Mukherjee
  • Riya Chatterjee
  • Kanai Barui
  • Bulbul Datta
  • S.N. Paul
  • Amitabha Mandal
  • Jharna Barui
  • Neelu Das
  • Sukanta Chaudhuri
  • Supriya Chaudhuri
  • Sounak Chakraborty
  • Sebanti Ghosh
  • Sudhir Chandra
  • Minati Chatterjee
  • Jayati Ghosh
  • Bikash Mukherjee
  • Sudip Nath
  • Indira Chakraborty
  • Amit Das
  • Nandita Kundu
  • Jhinuk Roy
  • Saumen Mukhopadhyay
  • Anish Sengupta
  • Mahashweta Samajdar
  • Anuttama Banerji
  • Soumyajit Paul
  • Soma Roychowdhury
  • Himanshu Biswas
  • Arpita Sikka
  • Prabhas Ghosh
  • Ayan Majumdar
  • Biswajit Bhowmik
  • Chaitali Chatterji
  • Sharmila Das
  • T.K. Mandal
  • Abhijit Ghosh
  • Yasodhara Roychowdhury
  • Upasana Mukherjee
  • Biplab Gangopadhyay
  • Amit Kr. Pandit
  • Gargi Sarkar
  • Debu
  • Sreyash Sarkar
  • Agomani Dasgupta Mukherji
  • Roshni Charaborty
  • Ajeya Sarkar
  • Sreyashi Musafir
  • Swapna Chakraborty
  • Sremayi Bhatta
  • Nilanjana Chatterjee
  • Sudakshina Bhagat
  • Swastika
  • Swapna Dutta
  • Sajal Samudra
  • Paula Sengupta
  • Abhimanyu Mahato
  • Pias Majid
  • Arvind Deb Sarkar
  • Alamgir Haque
  • Sharmila Sen
  • Pallabi Dey
  • Anamika Dutta Sarkar
  • Samapan Saha
  • Saumitra Polley
  • Anjan Achariya
  • Anirban Das
  • Amlan Chaudhuri
  • Md. Inasuddin
  • Biplab Kr. Pal
  • Swapan Bose
  • Ramkumar Acharya

Drone Papers ‘no surprise to Yemenis,’ says man who lost family

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“For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber.

"For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world. Slowly, the whole truth will come out," said Faisal bin Ali Jaber. (Photo: Reprieve)

“For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world. Slowly, the whole truth will come out,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber. (Photo: Reprieve)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

One man who lost family members to the covert U.S. drone war in Yemen responded Friday to The Intercept‘s explosive new exposé of the American “assassination complex” by proclaiming he is not surprised but now more hopeful “the whole truth will come out.”

“I read that the Americans have very little knowledge of the innocent civilians they are killing in Yemen,” said Faisal bin Ali Jaber, a Yemeni engineer whose nephew Waleed bin Ali Jaber and brother-in-law Salem bin Ali Jaber were killed in a 2012 U.S. drone strike attack on their village of Khashamir.

“This is no surprise to Yemenis,” he continued. “For years, we have been confused by the sharp contrast between what we see with our own eyes and what the U.S. government tells the world. Slowly, the whole truth will come out.”

“I hope that my American court case will help that happen. But how many innocent Yemeni men, women and children will die before it does?” Jaber added, referencing his months-long court battle for justice or, short of that, acknowledgment of his loss. The administration of President Barack Obama earlier this month rejected a settlement offer that would have required a formal apology for the drone strike that killed Jaber’s family.

Joe Pace, an attorney for the legal charity Reprieve who represents Jaber, said: “We were told that the drone program was ‘safe’ and ‘effective.’ When we raised concerns with the Administration that it was anything but, we were told ‘trust us.'”

“These leaked reports confirming the staggering inaccuracy of the U.S drone program may be news to the American people who have been lied to by this Administration, but there’s nothing revelatory for [Jaber] or the millions who live under constant threat of U.S. drone strikes,” Pace continued. “[Jaber] and countless others have witnessed their loved ones literally blown to pieces based on a toxic combination of garbage intelligence and U.S. indifference to foreign lives.”

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