Archives for July 2017

New Delhi: Eighteen opposition parties have decided to field former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their joint candidate for the post of vice president, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said here today.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s name was endorsed by all 18 opposition parties, including the JD(U), which is backing the NDA’s candidate in the presidential poll.

“The 18 opposition parties have unanimously agreed to field Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their joint candidate for the vice presidential election. We spoke to him. He has agreed to be the joint opposition candidate,” the Congress president said after the meeting.

Opposition leaders, including AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and TMC’s Derek O’Brien, called the former governor from the meeting to seek his consent.

The vice presidential election, if required, will take place on August 5. Votes will be counted the same evening.

(Agencies)

Amarnath: As a group of terrorists surrounded a bus with 61 Amarnath pilgrims on Monday night and fired indiscriminately, driver Sheikh Saleem Gafoor Bhaikept kept driving. In inky darkness, he drove on through the hail of bullets and didn’t stop until he spotted an army camp.

“God gave me strength to keep moving, and I just did not stop. The firing went on and on, so I didn’t stop. I kept driving,” said Saleem, who is being held up by many as an example of humanity beyond religion.

Seven pilgrims returning from the Amarnath shrine were killed and 20 wounded in the terror attack in Anantnag, one of the worst in the Kashmir Valley in recent years. Pilgrims on the bus were mainly from Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Had Saleem stopped or panicked, more lives would have been lost, believe those who survived the attack.

“My driver was so brave…he drove on,” said an injured woman at the Anantnag district hospital.

“There was firing from all three sides. Our driver managed to take the bus a few km ahead. He saved us,” said another injured pilgrim.

The attackers were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, the police in Kashmir told NDTV. They had fired at an armoured police car and a security check-post before surrounding the pilgrims’ bus on three sides and firing. The bus was not meant to be on the highway after 5 pm, given security restrictions, but it was delayed by more than two hours, reportedly because of a flat tyre.

“We were driving at 70-80 speed when firing suddenly started. I said let’s keep going until we see the army,” said Saleem’s helper.

Bhagya Mani, who lost her sister-in-law, said: “The driver drove the bus for a kilometer. It was pitch-dark and we could see nothing.”

At 9.30 pm, around an hour after the terrorists struck, Saleem dialed his cousin to share his horror.

“He couldn’t save seven lives but managed to move some 50 people to a safe place. I am proud of him,” said Javed Mirza.

Saleem deserves an award, said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. “I want to thank the bus driver for saving the lives of people even when there was firing going on. I will nominate his name for a bravery award,” he said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The police on Sunday once again claimed that the lynching of Junaid had nothing to do with beef. Addressing a press conference after the arrest of the key accused, Government Railway Police SP Kamaldeep said he has confessed to stabbing the 16-year-old on the Delhi-Mathura train during police interrogation, but did not give any statement on beef. “There is no case about beef,” he said.

Naresh Rath, a security guard who worked in Delhi, was arrested on Saturday from Maharashtra’s Dhule after police received a tip-off that he had been hiding at a relative’s house there for the past two weeks. The SP said that police will produce him before a magistrate here on Sunday and will seek three-days in police custody.

Junaid’s murder, on a local train near Ballabgarh on June 22, had triggered nationwide outrage with several coming out on the streets in protest.

The 16-year-old boy had succumbed to his injuries after nobody helped him reach a hospital, according to his brother Haseeb. Haseeb also said that his skull cap was flung, his beard pulled, while the crowd hurled abuses at them.

According to the police, Naresh, who is in his thirties, has confessed that the knife with which Junaid was stabbed was in his hand. However, the murder weapon has still not been recovered.

He told the police that he was from Faridabad and took the local train in which the crime took place on a daily basis. He had boarded the local on that day from Shivaji Bridge station and had an argument with Junaid and his brothers Haseem and Shakil over the seats.

Haseem said that even after the matter was resolved, Naresh and the others followed him to the other compartment and passed racial slurs like ‘anti-national’ and ‘beef-eater’ at them. He added that the men also accused them of carrying beef.

It was Haseem who helped identify Naresh, after which cops prepared a sketch. Police said that they will now put him in a line-up before the eyewitnesses to confirm that he was at the crime scene. The police may also take a ride on the local train to construct a sequence of events.

Earlier, the police had arrested several people, including a 50-year-old Delhi government employee, in connection with the murder.

Junaid’s father Jalaluddin told CNN-News18 that he had just come to know of arrest and the police were bringing the accused back to Delhi. “I thank the media for continuously covering this story and the police for their pursuit of the murderer,” he said, adding that everybody who was behind his son’s killing should be arrested as soon as possible.

Exhorting the government to bring an anti-lynching law, Jalaluddin said: “I urge the government to ensure such incidents don’t occur again. It was my Junaid this time. It could be anybody’s Junaid next.”

(Agencies)

Panaji: Over 100 crosses and plaques at a cemetery in South Goa were desecrated in the wee hours of Monday, police said.

Police sources said that a CCTV camera installed at the Guardian Angel Catholic cemetery in Curchorem village, 45 km from here, was damaged before the vandals went around indiscriminately desecrating crosses and plaques fixed atop graves.

Speaking to IANS, Deputy Inspector General of Police Rupinder Kumar said: “We are at the site right now,” as he took stock of the situation.

This is the fourth such incident in the last one month involving desecration of religious artefacts.

The Goa Police has already formed a special team to crack the series of desecrations, which Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has said was being carried out by people with vested interests to disturb communal harmony in the state.

(IANS)

New Delhi: Delhi BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma came under fire from Twitter users for allegedly passing off a picture of the 2002 Gujarat riots as that of the violence in West Bengal’s Basirhat.

“Since trolls spent a sleepless night covering-up Basirhat violence, sharing media pics of the riots. Hope they report this to @WBPolice too,” Sharma posted on the micro- blogging site and attached an image of charred vehicles along with it.

The twiterrati, however, pointed out to her that the image was from 2002 and accused her of spreading a rumour.

Sharma, in a defiant tone, said the photo reflected the reality of Bengal, irrespective of the place. “I received a flyer from organisers of Save Bengal protests and I put it out. This has woken up the people in Lutyen’s Delhi who have maintained a stoic silence on Bengal till now,” added the leader. ”

Many Twitter users tried to draw the attention of the Delhi Police towards the tweet and demanded that she be arrested.

“Requesting @WBPolice to take my tweet as a Complaint against @NupurSharmaBJP for her fake and provocative posts and Arrest her immediately,” said a Twitter user. “Can’t trust any BJP handle these days. Films, old riots all is being passed off as Bengal,” said another.

Some even asked why Twitter didn’t take action against such people.

But, Sharma begged to differ on the subject. “There are questions being asked on the unrelated picture, but why is there reaction on the riots in Bengal or on minority appeasement that is happening there.”

(PTI)

New Delhi: Nearly 6,000 NGOs could lose their licence to receive foreign donations with the home ministry serving them show cause notices for not filing annual income and expenditure records for five consecutive years, an official said today.

The show cause notices were issued on July 8 and the NGOs have time till July 23 to give their reply.

In May this year, 18,523 NGOs were given a one-time opportunity by the home ministry to give details of their income and expenses by June 14.

These NGOs, registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, or FCRA, that allows them to receive foreign donations, were told to submit their annual returns for five years — 2010-11 to 2014-15.

The home ministry said in a circular that as a one time measure, all NGOs were given an opportunity for one month to file their missing annual returns by June 14 without paying any penalty. Email and SMS alerts were also sent to them regularly for one month beginning mid-May.

“However, in spite of sufficient and adequate notice, it has been observed that 5,922 associations have not uploaded their annual returns for three or more than three years within the stipulated time given in the notice,” the circular said.

All these NGOs were given show cause notices on July 8 on why their FCRA registration may not be cancelled under the FCRA.

The associations have been requested to furnish their replies, if any, by July 23, failing which it will be presumed that they have nothing to say and action as proposed will be taken by the home ministry as per FCRA, it said.

According to the FCRA, the renewal of registration for receiving foreign funds cannot be granted unless the annual returns are uploaded on the FCRA website by the organisation.

Over 20,000 NGOs are registered under the FCRA.

In November 2016, the government had directed more than 11,000 NGOs to file applications for renewal of registration by February 28, 2017.

Of the above, 3,500 NGOs filed applications for renewal till February 2017. Registration of more than 7,000 NGOs were deemed expired due to non-filing of renewal applications.

(Agencies)