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Mehdi Masroor Biswas's police custody extended by 15 days

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Mehdi Masroor Biswas

Bengaluru: A court here Thursday extended the police custody of alleged Islamic State (IS) supporter Mehdi Masroor Biswas by 15 days for further interrogation on charges of waging war against a country which is at peace with India, police said.

“We produced Mehdi in the sessions court on expiry of his five-day custody to further interrogate him on his postings in the social media and Twitter handle (@ShamiWitness), as part of our investigation. We have secured his custody for another 15 days up to Jan 2,” city police commissioner M.N. Reddi told reporters.

Police registered a criminal case Dec 13 against Biswas under specific sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act for waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance or at peace with India.

A British news channel Dec 11 unmasked the city-based 24-year-old executive as a radical supporter of the IS through social media and Twitter.

“The investigation so far has revealed that Biswas is a propagandist of IS ideology and has been instrumental in influencing minds against our friendly countries and against whom the terror group is at war,” Reddi said.

Biswas, who hails from Gopalpur town in West Bengal’s Nadia district, is employed in the foods division of a Kolkata-based company in Bengaluru.

He confessed that he was operating the Twitter account after he got interested in the developments of the Levantine region comprising Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza Strip, Egypt and Libya.

His parents – Mikhael Biswas and Mamtaz Begum – who arrived in Bengaluru Wednesday from Kolkata, were allowed to meet their son at an undisclosed place, as he has been in police custody since Dec 14.

“His parents also met me and shared their concerns over his alleged involvement with the IS terror activities through the social media. I have assured them that our investigation would be impartial, unbiased and objective,” Reddi said.

(IANS)

Rajya Sabha logjam over conversion row persists for fourth day

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Conversion Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha was Thursday stalled for the fourth consecutive day over the conversion row as the opposition insisted Prime Minister Narendra Modi should reply to a debate on attack on the country’s secular fabric and the government blamed them for shying from the discussion.

The first adjournment came during zero hour, and then question hour saw a 15 minute adjournment even as the prime minister was present. At 1 p.m., still unable to take up the debate, the house was adjourned for lunch.

The post-lunch session saw a 15 minute break again before it was adjourned for the day.

Modi was present in the house during question hour, and despite Chairman M. Hamid Ansari allowing the debate, it could not be taken up as the opposition insisted on an assurance first that the prime minister would reply to the debate.

Later, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the prime minister could have intervened in the debate if it had been taken up while he was there in the house.

“In the pre-lunch session, there was a general consensus that a discussion should take place. PM was here. I would have replied, and wherever needed, if the members were not satisfied, PM could have intervened,” said Rajnath Singh.

“I am sorry that the PM was present but opposition did not allow the debate. There is some prestige of the prime minister’s post,” he said.

The house witnessed repeated disruptions, adjournments and angry exchanges between ruling and opposition sides.

Members from both the opposition and treasury benches created a din and the debate could not be taken up despite the chair repeatedly asking the members to start the discussion.

Congress leader Anand Sharma accused the government of heckling the opposition.

“Treasury benches are not allowing our members to speak. They are heckling us,” he said.

An angry Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi accused opposition benches of running away from the debate.

“Look at your members. You come out with a new condition every time. You are running away from a debate,” he said.

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley slammed the opposition, saying it appeared to be only interested in creating roadblocks in the functioning of the house.

“The notice for this discussion under Rule 267 (adjournment of question hour) came Monday. We agreed for a debate,” he said.

“But the opposition wants to decide how the debate will happen, who will respond,” he said.

He said even after the last statement by the prime minister, the house was not allowed to function.

“The (prime minister’s) response was conciliatory. It indicated the house should go on. But someone said this is not acceptable, and that is where competitive politics of disruption started,” said Jaitley.

(IANS)

Will finish Christianity and Islam in India by 2021: Dharma Jagran Manch leader Rajeshwar Singh

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Rajeshwar Singh

by Mariam Shaheen, ABP

New Delhi: Dharm Jagran Manch leader Rajeshwar Singh, of the Aligarh Christmas conversion programme fame, has raked up a new controversy with a fresh dose of vitriol.

Rajeshwar Singh has said that they plan to root out Christianity and Islam from India by December 31, 2021, adding that Christians and Muslims essentially have no right to live in the country.

“India’s inner voice has spoken. Just wait and watch. 31 December 2021 is the last for Christianity and Islam in this country. We will finish Christianity and Islam in this country by 31 December 2021. This is our aim,” Rajeshwar said.

Such comments are not new to the saffron leader, and he has been in the news for voicing similar views earlier as well.

His organisation had planned a mass conversion programme in Aligarh on Christmas. After widespread outrage over it, the future of the plan remains undecided.

Pak court approves bail of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in Mumbai attacks case

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Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi

Islamabad: Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one of the main accused in the Mumbai attacks case, was granted bail on Thursday by an anti-terrrorism court.

The Federal Investigation Agency’s prosecutor disagreed with the bail plea. However, Advocate Rizwan Abbasi, the lawyer representing Lakhvi, stood before the court as the bail was approved.

The court has directed Lakhvi to pay surety bonds worth Rs. 500,000 before he can be released on bail.

Lakhvi is among the seven persons charged with planning and helping carry out the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The six other men facing trial in Adiala Jail for their alleged involvement in Mumbai attacks are Hammad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Younas Anjum, Jamil Ahmed, Mazhar Iqbal and Abdul Majid.

At the time of the attacks, Lakhvi was believed to be the operational head of the banned Laskhar-i-Taiba (LeT) that has been accused by India of carrying out the attacks in Mumbai.

Lakhvi along with Zarar Shah was allegedly the key planner of the attack that killed 166 people.

The acceptance of his bail plea came as Pakistan is mourning the deaths of school children and other victims of Tuesday’s Taliban massacre and New Delhi has showed solidarity with Islamabad.

The proceedings of the case began in 2009 at the ATC in Rawalpindi and the case was transferred to the ATC in Islamabad the next year.

In April this year however, proceedings came to a virtual standstill as special judge of the ATC expressed his inability to conduct the trial of the seven suspects due to security reasons. This came following a terrorist attack on the district courts in Islamabad in the month of March.

According to a report by The Times of India, the government is working on preparing a strong response against bail of the LeT commander.

Church blast cases: HC Commutes Death of 8 Deendar Men

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Church blast cases

Bengaluru: Partially reversing the judgment delivered by the special court three years ago relating to setting off blasts in three different churches in the state during year 2000, the high court converted death sentences awarded to eight of the accused into life imprisonments. At the same time, the division bench of the high court chaired by Justice N Kumar and Justice N Rathnakala confirmed the life imprisonments imposed on the other 12 accused.

These persons, who belong to the organization, ‘Deendar Anjuman’, had made an effort to ignite communal clashes between Hindus and Christians by setting of blasts in churches.

‘By attacking churches, the accused tried to destroy the fabric of communal harmony in the society. They also posed serious threat to the unity and integrity of the nation. This was a despicable act executed by perverted criminals to destroy the exalted principles practiced by the country, which has held norms of unity in the midst of diversity high and noble,’ the bench observed.

The bench also observed that the pamphlets and books seized from the possession of the defendants have proved that they wanted to spread Islam all over the country and convert India into an Islamic nation. ‘They wanted to warn the entire world to accept Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) as the only guide and Guru. The literature confiscated from them also prove that they firmly believed that nine lac believers (Pathans) can invade South India, and then take control of entire India’, the bench observed. The bench noted with regret that this plan only depicts the stupidity of these people.

22 persons of the said organization had planted and set off bombs in three churches in the state 14 years back. The special court, which found 20 among them guilty, had awarded death sentence to eight of them, and life term to the other 12, through a judgment delivered on November 11, 2008. Out of them, one had died in bomb blast, while the other died during the hearing of the case. The accused had appealed against the special court’s judgment in the high court.

Ijahar Baig, Sayyed Abbas Ali, Muhammed Sharfuddin, Muhammed Khalid Choudhary, Sheikh Hasim Ali, Muhammed Akheel Ahmed, Sayyed Muniruddin Mulla Sayyed and Muhammed Ibrahim are the lucky persons who were spared the noose by the high court.

DYFI launches matrimonial site to promote ‘secular’ marriages

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dyfi

Thiruvananthapuram/PTI: CPI-M’s youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India, has launched a matrimonial website exclusively to promote ‘secular’ marriages.

The website, “www.secularmarriage.com,” will function as a unique platform for liberal-minded people to find their partners irrespective of caste, creed and religion, DYFI sources said.

The site, launched by celebrity couple–director Ashiq Abu and actress Rima Kallingal at Kochi yesterday, was, however, hacked allegedly by some fundamentalist groups this morning.

“We are trying to set it right today itself,” DYFI state secretary M Swaraj told PTI.

“The hacking of the site itself proves that how deep-rooted is fundamentalism in our society. Secularism, one of the key foundations of our democracy, is at stake nowadays. A fundamental group hacked the site as they cannot digest the concept of secular marriages,” Swaraj alleged.

He said the core objective of the website is to create a secular space at a time when marriages are becoming more religion and caste oriented.

“We hope, the site can perform a significant role in helping those who want to find their partners irrespective of caste, creed and religion,” he said.

Unlike most other matrimonial websites, there is no space to mark bride’s or groom’s caste or religion in the new site, he said.

Interested youth, who want to tie the knot in a secular way, can register on the site and search for their partners there. They can make the alliance after enquiring about the background of the registered members, Swaraj said.

He claimed that they had received several threat letters against launching the site but would go forward with firmness to achieve the mission.

Raul Castro urges US to lift embargo on Cuba

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Cuban leader says Obama’s decision to renew ties deserves respect, but urges US to lift embargo against his country.

US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro during the official memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro during the official memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

by Al Jazeera

Cuban President Raul Castro has hailed the mutual decision to re-establish the US-Cuban diplomatic relations, but urged Washington to lift the five-decade-long embargo against his country.

On Wednesday, the countries agreed to restore diplomatic ties that were severed more than 50 years ago, and US President Barack Obama called for an end to the economic embargo against its old Cold War enemy.

“President Obama’s decision deserves the respect and acknowledgement of our people,” Castro said in a televised address, while warning that the embargo, which he calls a “blockade”, must still be lifted.

“We have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations, but this does not mean the principal issue has been resolved: The blockade which causes much human and economic damage to our country should end,” he said.

He challenged Obama to modify the policy, which is rooted in US law, with executive action.

Obama said on Wednesday that the US was changing its relationship with the people of Cuba.

“We will begin to normalise relations between our two nations. Through these changes, we intend to create more opportunities for the American and Cuban people and begin a new chapter,” he added.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said the trade embargo imposed on Cuba after ties were severed can only be lifted by Congress.

“Senior administration officials tell me they don’t think Congress is going to lift the embargo. We have seen several members of Congress come out and call the president’s moves ‘outrageous’,” she said.

Republican condemnation

Republicans, who will control both houses of Congress from January, oppose normal relations with the Communist-run island.

“Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalised, until the Cuban people enjoy freedom – and not one second sooner,” said House Speaker John Boehner.

“There is no ‘new course’ here, only another in a long line of mindless concessions to a dictatorship that brutalises its people and schemes with our enemies.”

A day earlier, after 18 months of secret talks, Obama and Castro agreed in a phone call on a breakthrough prisoner exchange, the opening of embassies in each other’s countries, and an easing of some restrictions on commerce.

Havana released a US citizen, Alan Gross, who had been jailed for five years in Cuba, and an intelligence agent who had spied for the US and was held for nearly 20 years.

Cuba’s jailing of Gross, convicted for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine internet service for Cuban Jews, had been a major obstacle in improving ties.

The US in return freed three Cuban intelligence agents who had served 16 years in US jails for spying on Cuban exile groups in Florida.

Castro said the Cubans’ release was a cause of “enormous joy for their families and all of our people”.

He also praised Obama for agreeing to the prisoner exchange and pushing for a new relationship with Cuba.

Castro thanked Pope Francis, the Vatican and Canada for helping Havana and Washington reach their historic accord.

Obama said he had instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately initiate discussions with Cuba on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba, which were severed in 1961.

“In the coming months, we will re-establish an embassy in Havana and carry out high-level exchanges and visits between our two governments as part of the normalisation process,” Obama said.

EU court orders Hamas removed from terror list

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Court delays implementing the ruling to allow appeals, drawing ire from Israeli PM Netanyahu and praise from Hamas as a ‘human rights’ victory.

eu-hamas

by Barak Ravid, Haaretz

The General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg accepted the petition by Hamas in which it sought to have itself removed from the EU’s list of terrorist organizations.

The court postponed implementing the ruling for three months to allow for the EU commission or one of the EU’s 28 member states to petition the decision, which drew praise from Hamas and condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The hearing in the European court was technical and procedural, and did not stem from a change in the EU’s position regarding Hamas.

Although Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem played down the importance of the EU decision, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked it vociferously.

Netanyahu said Israel is not satisfied with EU explanations that removing Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations is solely a technical matter.

“The burden of proof is upon the European Union, and we expect them to immediately put Hamas back on the list, as anyone understand that it is an inseparable part of it,” said Netanyahu. “Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization, which states in its charter that its goal is to destroy Israel. We will continue to fight in with determination and strength so that it will never achieve its goal.”

A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, tweeted that the court decision is “a legal victory for Palestinian rights.” According to the Twitter post, the decision rights an injustice done to the Hamas movement, “which is a national liberation movement.”

The Palestinian terrorist group asserted in its petition that the decision to put it on the EU terror list was carried out without giving it an opportunity for a hearing and without sufficient evidence being presented. The European court accepted the petition based on the precedent of a similar case of the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka.

The court ruled in its decision that most of the evidence used to put Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations were from open sources – mainly press publications. The court made it clear that the ruling does not say anything substantial about the status of Hamas or the character of the organization’s operations.

Likewise, the three-month postponement also means that Hamas assets within the EU will remain frozen as well as sanctions against its members. During this period EU institutions or member states will be able to appeal the ruling or make a new decision within the council of EU foreign ministers, which would define Hamas as a terror organization based on stronger evidence.

The EU ambassador in Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, met Wednesday with the director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, who expressed great disappointment from the EU court’s decision, and demanded the EU act swiftly to reclassify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The ambassador made it clear in the meeting that there is no change in EU policy regarding recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization, and that the EU intends to use all means to reinstate the group on the terrorist list. The ambassador also stressed that the court’s decision has no immediate validity, and that there will be no change regarding freezing Hamas funds in Europe.

The EU also issued a special statment in response to the court ruling.

“This legal ruling is clearly based on procedural grounds and it does not imply any assessment by the Court of the substantive reasons for the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” read the statement. “It is a legal ruling of a court, not a political decision taken by the EU governments. The EU continues to uphold the Quartet principles.”

The statement continued, “The EU institutions are studying carefully the ruling and will decide on the options open to them. They will, in due course, take appropriate remedial action, including any eventual appeal to the ruling. In case of an appeal the restrictive measures remain in place.”

Israel detains Palestinian student, child as house demolitions continue

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Debris of a Palestinian building demolished by Israeli forces in annexed East Jerusalem on December 01, 2014. Anadolu / Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu

Debris of a Palestinian building demolished by Israeli forces in annexed East Jerusalem on December 01, 2014. Anadolu / Salih Zeki Fazlıoğlu

by Al Akhbar

Israeli forces detained a 17-year-old student and an 11-year-old child in Jerusalem, witnesses told Ma’an news agency Wednesday, as Israeli demolition orders could leave 70 Palestinians homeless.

That same day, Israeli soldiers arrested a former Palestinian prisoner who had been previously been released as part of a prisoner swap deal.

According to witnesses, Israeli forces detained Dalia Murad Mohammed Qarawi, 17, while she was on her way home from school in annexed East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces claimed Qarawi sprayed “a substance” on a police vehicle and was thus taken for interrogation at an Israeli police station on Salah al-Din street.

Meanwhile, 11-year-old Baraa Issam Shahin was detained by Israeli forces on Ein al-Luza street in the Silwan neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem and was taken to the Russian Compound detention center in West Jerusalem for interrogation.

It is still unclear why Shahin was detained.

Early December, Israeli forces detained two Palestinian children, 8 and 12, also in Silwan.

Unrest has gripped Jerusalem and the West Bank on an almost daily basis for the past five months, flaring up after a group of Zionist settlers kidnapped and burned a young Palestinian to death because of his ethnicity, and worsened by the deadly Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in July and August.

In late November, executive director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) Abdullah al-Zaghari said Israeli forces detained nine-month-old Balqis Ghawadra and two-year-old Baraa Ghawadra during a visit to see their jailed father. The two children were released the following day.

At least 600 Palestinian children have been arrested in annexed Jerusalem alone since last June.

According to a recent report by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC), nearly 40 percent of these children have been subjected to sexual abuse during arrest or investigation by the Israeli authorities.

At least 300 minors are currently behind bars.

Around 95 percent of detained children were subjected to beatings and torture by Israeli security personnel while in detention, while many were forced to make confessions under duress and undergo unfair trials, said Issa Qaraqe, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) committee on detainees.

More than 10,000 Palestinian minors in the occupied West Bank and annexed Jerusalem have been held by the Israeli army for varying periods since 2000, a PLO official said last month.

According to the UN children’s fund (UNICEF), over the past decade, Israel has detained “an average of two children each day.”

In its 2013 report, UNICEF added that Israel was the only country in the world where children were “systematically tried” in military courts and gave evidence of practices it said were “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”

A report by Defense for Children International (DCI) published in May 2014 revealed that Israel jails 20 percent of Palestinian children it detains in solitary confinement.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces on Wednesday arrested Ibtisam al-Issawi, 46, during a raid on her home in the Jabal al-Mukkabir neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

The head of a Palestinian committee dedicated to prisoners’ and detainees’ families, Amjad Abu Asab, told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided Issawi’s house before arresting her and taking her to the Russian Compound detention center.

Abu Asab added that Issawi was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal after spending 10 years in Israeli jails, and that she is married and has six children.

Issawi is one of more than 70 former prisoners released in the 2011 exchange that have been re-detained by Israel since the summer.

The deal traded Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas fighters on the Gaza Strip border in 2006, for 1,027 Palestinians and Palestinian with Israeli citizenship being held in Israeli jails.

The detention and retrial of the released prisoners is a breach of the deal and could potentially have wide-reaching consequences for other freed detainees.

More than 6,500 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said 21 Palestinian women, including three minors, are currently held in Israeli jails.

Israel threatens to demolish 62 percent of Silwan houses

Also in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, Israeli forces delivered Wednesday demolition orders to 11 Palestinian houses, some as old as 30 years, saying they have been built “without permits.”

Fakhri Abu Diab, a member in the committee for the Defense of Silwan Lands and Estates, told Ma’an that at least 70 people will become homeless if the houses get demolished.

Abu Diab said that in the past few days more and more orders have been delivered, and even in some cases to houses that were built before the 1967 occupation of Jerusalem.

Moreover, Abu Diab accused the Israeli authorities of seeking to displace Palestinian residents in order to take over the neighborhood, adding that over 62 percent of houses in Silwan are under the threat of demolition.

So far in 2014, Israel has demolished more than 543 Palestinian structures and displaced at least 1,266 people, according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Local and international watchdogs have widely criticized Israel’s home demolition policy, saying that it contributes to a cycle of violence and merely inflicts collective punishment on family members.

Besides demolishing Palestinian properties, Israeli authorities have allowed Zionist settlers to take over Palestinian homes, have announced plans to build thousands of settlements strictly for Israeli settlers, and have generally looked the other way at rising violence by Zionist settlers against Palestinians.

According to Abu Diab, many Israeli settlers build houses without permits but none received demolition orders.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

Jerusalem Palestinians also face discrimination in all aspects of life including housing, employment, and services, and although they live within territory Israel has unilaterally annexed, they lack citizenship rights and are instead classified only as “residents” whose permits can be revoked if they move away from the city for more than a few years.

Similarly, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank suffer from the demolition policy.

In May, the European Union missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah urged Israel to halt home demolitions in Area C of the occupied West Bank, describing such actions as “forced transfer of population.”

Israeli authorities rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in the Israeli-occupied areas, including in Area C, which amounts to 80 percent of the total land area.

The World Bank estimated in 2013 that Israeli control over Area C costs the Palestinian economy around $3.4 billion annually, or more than one-third of the Palestinian Authority’s GDP.

According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, the Israeli authorities have demolished at least 27,000 Palestinian structures in the West Bank since 1967.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-infamous “Balfour Declaration,” called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

(Al-Akhbar, Ma’an)

Hazlewood stars but Umesh gives India edge

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steve-smith

Brisbane: Debutant Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood’s five-for might have grabbed all the headlines but Indian quickie Umesh Yadav picked up three wickets to restrict Australia to 221 runs for four, in reply to India’s first innings score of 408 at stumps on the second day of the second Test here Thursday.

An unbeaten 64 from captain Steven Smith meant Australia are still 187 runs behind.

Things could have been a lot different for the hosts had the top-order batsmen not thrown their wickets away after making good starts.

After being 121 for three at tea, the final session belonged completely to Australia.

Smith along with Shaun Marsh (32) put on 87 runs for the fourth wicket as the hosts reduced at the deficit.

However, the timely wicket of Shaun, following a brilliant catch by Ravichandran Ashwin at slips, gave India the initiative again.

Bad light put an end to the day’s play with Smith and Mitchell Marsh (batting 7) at the crease.

Yadav was the pick of the Indian bowlers and got good support from offie Ashwin, who picked up a wicket too.

Varun Aaron bowled fast but without much luck. The pacer found the top edge of Shaun Marsh’s bat but Ajinkya Rahane grassed the chance.

Luckily for India the left-hander fell in the very next over to Yadav.

Earlier, a five-wicket haul by Hazlewood helped Australia bowl out India for 408 at the stroke of lunch.

India, who were in the driving seat at stumps on day one, managed to add only 97 runs to their overnight score of 311 for four.

The visitors were put on the backfoot almost immediately when Rahane (81) was dismissed in the third over of the day. His overnight partner Rohit Sharma (32) also didn’t survive much longer, getting dismissed six overs later.

After adding just 17 runs, India had lost both their overnight batsmen and had relinquished their strong position.

A 57-run partnership for the seventh wicket between skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (33) and Ravichandran Ashwin (35) stabilised the situation. But Ashwin’s wicket once again opened the floodgates as the visitors surrendered rather meekly in the end.

Dhoni looked good for a while but edged a Hazlewood delivery to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin while trying to leave the ball.

India’s tail failed to put up a fight and fell without much trouble for the hosts.

Australia, in their reply, came out all guns blazing with last match’s double-innings centurion David Warner (29) once again looking dangerous.

The hosts got off to a quick start, reaching 47 for no loss as Warner peppered the boundaries with some aggressive batting.

But a leading edge proved to be the downfall for the left-hander, giving India some reprieve.

Shane Watson (25) and opener Chris Rogers (55) were in no mood to hand the initiative back to India and took on the bowlers.

The duo shared a 51-run stand for the second wicket and scored at a fair clip, threatening to take the game away from the visitors.

But an overzealous Watson tried to take on Ashwin and was caught brilliantly by Shikhar Dhawan at mid-on.

Rogers kept the scoreboard ticking and was joined by new skipper Smith, forged a 23-run stand before gloving an Umesh delivery down the leg side to Dhoni.

(IANS)

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