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Sri Lanka: Police inaction as Muslim shops torched by Buddhists

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[File: AP]

by Al Jazeera

Sri Lanka imposed a curfew in a central town popular with tourists after days of unrest between religious communities with a Buddhist man killed and Muslim businesses set ablaze.

Police said on Monday there had been riots and arson attacks since the weekend in Kandy district, while sources told Al Jazeera the violence was spreading throughout the South Asian island nation.

“The curfew was imposed to control the situation in the area,” said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera.

Police officers were placed on heightened alert in Kandy to ensure the “situation does not spiral into inter-communal conflagration”, the government said in a statement.

Mobs set fire to Muslim-owned businesses and attacked a mosque in the east of the country.

Local officials said more than two dozen suspects had been detained by police in connection with the spate of arson attacks, while senior officers also launched an investigation into the conduct of the police.

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights Sri Lanka, condemned the “unfathomable police inefficiency” that he said led to the violence.

“Social media pages rallied Sinhalese mobs to assemble in Teldeniya town at 10am. At 11am, there was a proclivity for violent confrontations to take place as mobs gathered. The destruction of Muslim properties started taking place from around 1pm,” Tennakoon told Al Jazeera.

Kandy is the latest region to be plagued by religious and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, a nation of 21 million people.

Najah Mohamed, secretary of the National Front for Good Governance party in Sri Lanka, told Al Jazeera attacks are spreading all over the country, not just in Kandy.

“We are facing the same situation that we had experienced with the previous government with tension, hate, and violence against Muslims are rampant especially where they are a dispersed community,” said Mohamed.

Religious and ethnic violence can turn deadly in Sri Lanka, where Muslims account for 10 percent of the population and Buddhists Sinhalese make up nearly 75 percent.

Some observers blame the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) group for the ongoing violence.

“The violent BBS mobs manipulated the situation to fuel attacks against Muslims in an unprecedented way and started attacking people. In the afternoon the police and curfew were here, but there are still rising underreported incidents taking place,” Mohamed said.

Religious violence is not new to the island. An anti-Muslim campaign was launched following the deadly Aluthgama riots in June 2014.

President Maithripala Siresena had vowed to investigate anti-Muslim crimes after assuming power in 2015, but no significant progress has been reported.

Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe are yet to make an official statement on the recent unrest.

India lose to Australia, still winless in Azlan Shah

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India remained winless in the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament after losing 2-4 to Australia in their third match here on Tuesday.

Ramandeep Singh (52nd and 53rd minutes) scored twice after Australia were 4-0 up, thanks to Mark Knowles 28th minute, penalty stroke), Aran Zalewski (35th), Daniel Beale (41st) and Blake Govers (43rd, penalty corner).

(IANS)

Gauri Lankesh murder: Suspect acquired live bullets from UP

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Bengaluru: Naveen Kumar, the suspect who is being investigated for his charged in connection with the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh, has revealed that he had sourced the bullets from Uttar Pradesh.

According to SIT sources “He said a man from a neighbouring state assured him to get bullets from Uttar Pradesh for 1,000 each. As indicated by his statements, Naveen conspired to execute the journalist. We have sufficiently gathered material confirmation to demonstrate it in court. Naveen claims that it’s his first mission, however, we are not persuaded. It’s not an easy job for a first-timer to contact professional arms dealers and buy live bullets. Naveen is no beginner and this has made us presume his part in the Gauri case,”

Naveen Kumar the right-wing activist from Maddur in Karnataka’s Mandya region who is presently in the custody of the special investigation team (SIT), was caught from a KSRTC bus stop on February 18. Fifteen live bullets were seized from him. His striking resemblance to the CCTV footage of the biker roaming close to Gauri’s home on the day she was killed and two days before landed him in SIT custody.

A target practice camp is said to have organised by Naveen for four individuals in Kollegal forest, sources said they required more opportunity to remark on it. “Naveen claims that he was just going by a relative’s farmhouse in Kollegal. We are doing examinations at the forest and farmhouse,” another officer said.

(Agencies)

Lenin statue in Tripura razed, CPI-M accuses BJP as post-poll violence continues

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Agartala: The post-poll violence in Tripura continued for the fourth day on Tuesday even as the administration, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) urged everyone to maintain peace.

According to a leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the 11.5-feet fibre statue of Vladimir Lenin was brought down with a bulldozer by the BJP activists on Monday evening.

“The BJP supporters, chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, knocked down the statue of Lenin near a government college in Belonia,” CPI-M leader Haripada Das told the media on Tuesday.

He said the statue was set up a year ago in Belonia, South Tripura’s district headquarters, around 90 km from Agartala.

“We are getting huge number of reports from different districts on Tuesday about BJP and IPFT workers attacking CPI-M members and supporters and demolishing their various assets,” Das added.

Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy on Tuesday, in a tweet said: “What one democratically elected government can do another democratically elected government can undo. And vice versa.”

Roy is believed to have referred to instances of statues of leaders iconic to other parties demolished or defiled in the past in the state.

A media report said Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday spoke to the Governor and Tripura Police chief Akhil Kumar Shukla, requesting them to take steps to control the violence in the northeastern state, ahead of the swearing-in-ceremony of the new BJP government.

CPI-M Tripura secretary Bijan Dhar on Monday night alleged around 514 CPI-M supporters were injured in attacks by rival BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) party workers in more than 200 places across Tripura since Saturday, after the declaration of the poll results.

“Arsoning, attacks and loot were carried out in around 1,539 houses. Many rubber gardens and small vehicles, hundreds of small shops, were forcibly occupied, ransacked or burned at around 500 places,” Dhar told the media.

“We urge the administration and the BJP party leadership to take adequate measures to stop these post-poll violence immediately,” said Dhar, also a CPI-M central committee member.

Accusing the CPI-M for “deliberately provoking and indulging in violence and attacks on BJP supporters”, BJP Tripura Pradesh Vice-President Subal Bhowmik said according to the reports from different district party units, there have been 49 incidents of attacks on BJP workers and supporters by CPI-M cadres during the past 48 hours injuring 17 party men, who are now being treated in different government hospitals.

He warned all that law would take its own course against the attackers irrespective of party affiliations.

Meanwhile, following reports of clashes between the workers of the BJP and the CPI-M in different parts of the state, the district administration in several districts promulgated prohibitory orders and deployed additional security forces to foil the post-poll violence.

West Tripura district police chief Abhijit Saptarshi said police have arrested some people in Mandai in western Tripura for indulging in violence.

(IANS)

ICICI’s Chanda Kochhar, Axis’ Shikha Sharma summoned in PNB fraud case

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Mumbai: ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar and Axis Bank’s Shikha Sharma have been summoned by an anti-fraud agency in the bank fraud case involving jeweller Nirav Modi and his partner and uncle Mehul Choksi.

Kochhar and Sharma will appear before the Serious Fraud Investigation Office in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon, sources in the agency said.

The sources said the two top bank officials were summoned for giving loan facility to Gitanjali Group and would be questioned.

ICICI Bank is believed to have extended a loan of Rs 1,000 crore and Axis Bank Rs 700 crore last year to Gitanjali Gems of Choksi.

According to another source, officials of country’s largest lender State Bank of India have been called for questioning.

Both Modi and Choksi are alleged to have frauded Punjab National Bank with Rs 12,600 crore. They have since fled from country.

(IANS)

Sri Lanka declares national state of emergency over anti-Muslim riots

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Colombo: Sri Lanka Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency to quell anti-Muslim riots that have killed at least two people and damaged dozens of mosques and homes, a minister said.

“The cabinet of ministers decided on tough measures, including a 10-day nationwide state of emergency,” Minister of City Planning Rauff Hakeem said as police imposed a curfew in the riot-hit central district of Kandy.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday imposed fresh curfews and deployed heavily-armed police commandos to a central hill district popular with tourists where riots have left two dead and Muslim homes and businesses in ruins.

Earlier the day, police extended a curfew in parts of Kandy, home to famous tea plantations and Buddhist relics, after rioters disobeyed an overnight curfew and went on a rampage.

The body of a Muslim man was pulled from the ashes of a burnt building Tuesday, police said, threatening to further fuel communal tensions that have flared up across the country in recent weeks.

A police spokesman said hundreds of commandos from the police Special Task Force had been deployed to the troubled district to restore order and enforce the curfew.

Muslim homes, business and mosques were badly damaged in riots Monday triggered by the death of a Sinhalese man at the hands of a mob last week.

The Sinhalese are a mainly Buddhist ethnic group making up nearly three-quarters of Sri Lanka’s 21 million people. Muslims are just 10 percent of its population.

More than two dozen arrests have been made and an inquiry opened into police conduct in Kandy, just the latest region to be plagued by religious and ethnic conflict.

Mobs set fire to Muslim-owned businesses and attacked a mosque in the east of the country last week after a Muslim chef was accused of adding contraceptives to food sold to Sinhalese.

The government dismissed the allegation as baseless and ordered the arrest of those fomenting unrest in the area.

Last November riots in the south of the island left one man dead and homes and vehicles damaged.

In June 2014 riots between Buddhists and Muslims left four dead and many injured.

That violence was instigated by a Buddhist extremist group whose leaders are on trial accused of spurring religious conflict.

(PTI)

Upendra quits KPJP, to float another party

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Photo credit: Filmibeat

Kannada superstar Upendra, who wanted to upset political equations in the state Assembly elections, resigned from the Karnataka Prajavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) on Tuesday and announced that he intends to create a new party instead. He has named the new party as ‘Prajakeeya’.

After many of his party colleagues came out against him on Monday, calling him a dictator, rumour mills were abuzz that Upendra might join the BJP on Tuesday. Several top BJP leaders, including Shobha Karandlaje and R Ashoka, had also invited him to the saffron brigade. But Upendra has politely turned down their offer.

(Agencies)

Swamy calls Adani ‘biggest NPA trapeze artiste’; group clarifies position

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New Delhi: BJP MP Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday dropped a bad loan bombshell on industrialist Gautam Adani, calling him the “biggest NPA trapeze artiste in PSUs”, but the group clarified that it had diligently and regularly serviced all its debt.

In a widely commented and shared tweet, Swamy said Adani, believed to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, should be made accountable or he would file a Public Interest Litigation in the court for recovery of bank loans from him.

“The biggest NPA trapeze artiste in PSUs is Gautam Adani. It is time he is made accountable or a PIL is inevitable,” Swamy tweeted.”

“The singular critical test for debt is its regular servicing — something which the Adani Group has implemented diligently, since its inception,” the company clarified in an official statement.

It said the group’s dependence on public sector banks for long-term borrowings is less than 50 per cent at about Rs 34,000 crore and it is regularly serviced.

“Adani Group has created world class assets and aggregate net asset block of Indian operations stands at over Rs 110,000 crore. Aggregate net worth of the listed entities stands at over Rs 40,000 crore and aggregate EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) stands at Rs 24,000 crore,” the company statement said.

Over the last 20 years, Adani Group has created “world class projects” in the areas of port and logistics, power generation, power transmission, agri business, mining and renewable generation.

The company statement said it provides direct employment to over 11,000 people and contributes “significantly to the exchequer and the economy”.

However, according to Bloomberg data, as of September 2017, Adani Power had a total debt of Rs 47,609.43 crore, Adani Transmission Rs 8,356.07 crore, Adani Enterprises Rs 22,424.44 crore and Adani Ports Rs 20.791.15 crore.

The ports tycoon and his family’s net worth was believed to be $11 billion in 2017 — making him the 10th richest man in India, according to Forbes.

(IANS)

MEP’s Dr. Nowhera Shaikh takes a jibe at Modi, asks where is acche din?

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All India Mahila Empowerment Party’s (MEP) President Dr. Nowhera Shaikh on Sunday took a jib at PM Modi’s now infamous phrase and asked quippingly, where the PM’s promised achhe din is.

Dr. Shaikh was addressing party workers at an election rally in Bellary.

Dr. Shaikh also said that MEP is not just a party for Muslims, but for everyone, irrespective of their caste and creed.

She said the party is contesting elections to create an impact in people’s lives, and promised interest-free loans for taxi drivers and farmers of the state if they come to power.

Mohammed Nalapad moves High Court, hearing scheduled to March 7

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Bengaluru: Mohammed Nalapad Haris, who was arrested for assaulting a youth in a pub on February 17, moved Karnataka High Court on Monday demanding his bail which was rejected by the 63rd Sessions Court.

The court has revealed that the case will be heard on March 7.

Mohammed Nalapad and six of his friends were arrested after brutally trashing a 24 year old youth Vidwath. Vidwath was admitted at Mallya Hospital in a severe condition.

(Agencies)

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