Beijing: A Chinese daily has slammed India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj for her strong criticism of Pakistan for harbouring terrorists, saying it is “politically imbecilic and unsophisticated” to think that Islamabad exports terrorism.

The editorial in state-run Global Times defending Pakistan against its failure to flush out terrorists is not surprising as China has always lavished praise on its “all-weather ally” for being at the “forefront” of tackling terrorism.

The newspaper, run by the Communist Party, said Sushma Swaraj’s speech at the UN reflected India’s arrogance and “bigotry” towards Pakistan.

Sushma in her address last week at the UN General Assembly tore into Pakistan for sheltering terrorists.

“Why is it that today India is a recognized IT superpower in the world and Pakistan is recognized only as the pre-eminent export factory for terror?” she had said.

The newspaper asked what makes Sushma Swaraj believe that Pakistan exports terrorism and India is an IT superpower?

“There is indeed terrorism in Pakistan. But is supporting terror the country’s national policy? What can Pakistan gain from exporting terrorism? Money or honour? Is India really an IT superpower that produces engineers and doctors when it is hell-bent on believing Pakistan is evil?”

“It is politically imbecilic and unsophisticated for Indian elites to conclude that Pakistan exports terrorism. They should have seen the efforts and sacrifice that Pakistan has made to rid the world of terrorism and refrain from mixing disputes over terrorism with their own historical disputes,” the editorial said.

China has steadfastly shielded Pakistan from criticism from India, the US or any other country, and told them not to single out Islamabad on terror.

In fact, China has repeatedly blocked India’s resolution at the UN to declare Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as an international terrorist.

The newspaper also mentioned that the Minister in her speech took a “dig at China for blocking international efforts to blacklist Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar”.

“By trumpeting India’s justice and grandeur while rebuking its neighbour’s foolishness and ugliness, the minister (Swaraj) seems to have moved herself and the whole country.”

“But it is a grave disaster when Indians are confident in their rightness and their neighbours’ wrongs while super-proud of India’s capabilities in cultivating engineers and doctors. A country that despises others can hardly seek agreement over conflicts.

“India’s bigotry toward Pakistan doesn’t match its much-vaunted ambition to be a world power. By inflaming nationalism in the Indian public, Indians become more determined to make India first than even US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’.

“With the smooth development of its economy and foreign relations in recent years, an arrogant India has looked down on Pakistan and assumed a haughty air with China.

“It takes for granted that it should be feared by neighbors and wooed by the US and Europe. If smart enough, India should befriend China and respect Pakistan, preventing disputes from spilling over,” it said.

(IANS)

Rights group says India uses ‘security threat’ to justify plans for mass deportation of approximately 40,000 Rohingya.

by Al Jazeera

Amnesty International has initiated an online campaign and petition calling for people’s support to stop India’s plan of deporting thousands of Rohingya refugees living across India.

Characterising Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers as illegal immigrants and deeming them “security threats” will expose them to grave risks if forcibly returned, the rights gourp said on Monday, while pushing the #istandwithrohingyarefugees campaign online.

Last week, India’s government said it had evidence showing some Rohingya in the country have ties to “terror organisations” and pose a security threat that justifies a mass deportation of the approximately 40,000 Rohingya.

“In terms of India’s position, it is their legal and moral obligation to not allow the expulsion from happening,” Arijit Sen, project manager at Amnesty International India, told Al Jazeera.

“They have been in India for a while, taking small steps, living their lives with dignity. If India has any security concerns, they should understand that not all of them can be viewed through one lens.

“These people are in danger back in Myanmar and need support.”

India’s Supreme Court is hearing an appeal lodged on behalf of Rohingya against the deportation plan proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

Al Jazeera tried to reach out to the ruling party office for a comment but a spokesperson declined to speak on the issue.

A majority of the Rohingya are Muslim, who have often been described as “the world’s most persecuted minority”.

They have lived in Myanmar for centuries in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they have faced growing violence, with hundreds of thousands being forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as “illegal immigrants”, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.

More than 800,000 Rohingya currently live in Bangladesh, nearly 600,000 arrived in the last one year.

Muslims deported?

In a previous Al Jazeera story, Rohingya refugees in India said they were being targeted because they were Muslim.

“It fits into the larger policy that any Hindu coming from anywhere is welcome and can get a long-term visa, but if a Muslim is coming then there is a difficulty,” Mohammad Haroon, who runs a small grocery store, told Al Jazeera.

Rights activists have criticised the government over a controversial citizenship law that includes a provision for welcoming refugees facing persecution, specifying “Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan”, but notably excludes Muslims.

“The Citizen Amendments Bill allowed persecuted people from the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths to get Indian citizenship, but Muslims were not allowed even if they were persecuted,” Apoorvanand Jha, an academic and activist based in the Indian capital, New Delhi, had told Al Jazeera.

Modi visited Myanmar in the first week of September – his second visit in three years – and held talks with Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

A joint statement issued at the end of their talks failed to mention the brutal military crackdown on the Rohingya.

Gear up to showcase your dance moves as ‘Dance India Dance 6’ auditions comes to the city of BENGALURU on 27th September

The very first platform on Indian television to give dance its due respect, the show that revolutionized dance in India and made it a mainstream career choice for millions … the show that continues to create dance legends of the country … the mother of all dance shows is all set to give birth to India’s next dancing superstar yet again! THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER… Dance India Dance announces auditions for Season 6! The platform has introduced some spectacular talent each season – Be it Dharmesh, Shakti Mohan, Punit J Pathak, Salman Yusuf, RaghavJuyal or Prince, each of them has gone on to carve a niche for themselves and become a name to reckon with in the entertainment fraternity. Carrying on a legacy of excellence right since its launch in 2009, DID has emerged as the biggest and the most definitive platform for young and aspiring dancers from across the country. So, if you haven’t compromised in pursuing your passion for dance, your training or in terms of your choice of dance as a career, then why compromise on the platform?

So if you think you have got the moves to set the stage on fire, if you are passionate enough to battle all the odds and showcase your true talent, if you are craving recognition and have spent endless hours practicing your steps to perfection, then put on your dancing shoes and show us what you have got! Participate and prove your mettle as Zee TV announces the nationwide auditions for their ultimate dance reality talent hunt show, Dance India Dance Season 6. An aggressive hunt for India’s next dancing superstar across 15 cities in India begins this September and is travelling to the city of Bengaluru.

The Dance India Dance Season 6 auditions will travel to Bengaluru on Wednesday 27th September at,Mount Litera Zee School,1st Main, Ramanna Garden, Ramchandrapura, Vidyaranyapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka, starting 8 AM. Dance India Dance Season 6 will open its audition gates to every passionate dance enthusiast in and around Bengaluru in the age group of 14 – 35 years and welcome them to showcase their passion and talent.

Zee TV is conducting auditions for Dance India Dance Season 6 across the length and breadth of the country in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ranchi, Patna, Jaipur, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, Indore, Ahmedabad and Dehradhun. Participants are required to carry their proof of age and nationality like a voter’s ID, Passport, Driving License, etc. In addition, the participants also need to bring along an audio CD or a pen drive with the track on which they wish to perform. It’s finally that time of the year when talent and hard work will make it to the hall of fame. So, put on your dancing shoes and land up at the venue to give it your best shot!

New Delhi: The ED today attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

The agency said it has issued a provisional attachment order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) attaching assets “of Karti in the form of fixed deposits and balance in saving bank account to the tune of Rs 90 lakh approximately.”

The central probe agency added that another Rs 26 lakh fixed deposits in the name of a firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) has also been attached under provisions of the anti-money laundering law.

This firm is allegedly linked to Karti and the Enforcement Directorate said it was “controlled” by him through another person.

The ED also alleged that Karti had “disposed” off a property in Gurgaon and had “closed certain bank accounts and attempted to close other bank accounts in order to frustrate the process of attachment” under the PMLA.

The agency is probing the Aircel-Maxis deal after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR in the case.

(PTI)

Chandigarh: Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging a special CBI court’s verdict sentencing him to 20 years in prison for raping two disciples.

The CBI court in Panchkula on August 28 had sentenced Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison after his conviction.

“We have filed an appeal today in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Through this, we have challenged the order of the CBI court,” defence counsel Vishal Garg Narwana said here.

He said the CBI verdict has been challenged on several grounds.

“One of the grounds was that there was a delay of more than six years in recording the statements of the women (victims) by the CBI after the incident,” the defence counsel said.

The CBI had claimed that the two women followers were sexually exploited in 1999 and the agency recorded their statement in 2005, Garg said.

He alleged that the CBI had also concealed some portion of the victims’ statement.

Ram Rahim was convicted by the special CBI court on August 25, following which violence and arson had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa districts which left 41 people dead and scores of injured.

The judge pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two rapes that date back to 2002.

The controversial sect head is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak district of Panchkula.

In April 2002, an anonymous letter was written to the then chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, complaining about the alleged sexual exploitation of woman followers at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa.

In May 2002, the high court directed the Sirsa district and session judge to probe the allegations in the letter. In September 2002, the high court handed over the matter to the CBI after the district court indicated the possibility of sexual exploitation

In December 2002, the CBI registered a case of rape, criminal intimidation against Ram Rahim.

The CBI filed a charge sheet against the Dera head in Ambala court in July 2007. The charge sheet mentioned the sexual exploitation of two ‘sadhvis’ between 1999 and 2001.

In September 2008, the special CBI court framed charges of rape and criminal intimidation against Ram Rahim.

(PTI)

Bengaluru: The Income Tax Department raids on Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) retail chain since Thursday found Rs 650 crore concealed income from the documents seized, said an official on Sunday.

“Documents seized from the search operations at 25 places of Cafe Coffee Day and its group companies in Karnataka, Mumbai and Chennai have revealed concealed income of over Rs 650 crore,” a senior tax official told IANS here.

The search and seize operations, which began on September 21, concluded on Sunday evening in the offices of the group involved in coffee, tourism, IT and other areas.

“The searches concluded with the group’s officials admitting to concealed income exceeding Rs 650 crore and the detection of undisclosed income, which is expected to be a much higher figure,” said another tax official in an e-mail to IANS.

The offices and residence of CCD’s founder owner V G Siddhartha and its other officials in Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Mysuru across Karnataka were also searched during the last four days. Siddhartha is the elder son-in-law of former External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who was also Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004 but earlier this year left the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“There are a number of other issues, including violations of other statutes on which there is no disclosure but relevant evidence has been found. These will be pursued effectively as part of our investigation,” added the official in the e-mail.

The raids were conducted under the directions and supervision of the Income Tax Department’s Investigation Cell Director-General B.R. Balakrishnan.

The corporate office of the Amalgamated Bean Coffee (ABC) Trading Company, which runs the CCD’s retail outlets across the country, its branch offices at Chikkamagaluru, Mudigere and Sakeleshpur in Karnatakas’ Malnad region were also searched during the exercise.

“Though we have found and seized a number of documents related to properties, business transactions and other dealings, they are subject to scrutiny for violations, if any,” added the official.

(IANS)

New Delhi: India has stepped up security along its largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh and is using “chilli and stun grenades” to block the entry of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in their homeland of Myanmar, officials said on Friday.

Border forces in Hindu-majority India, which wants to deport around 40,000 Rohingya already living in the country, citing security risks, have been authorised to use “rude and crude” methods to stop any infiltration attempts.

“We don’t want to cause any serious injury or arrest them, but we won’t tolerate Rohingya on Indian soil,” said a senior official with the Border Security Force (BSF) in New Delhi.

“We’re using grenades containing chilli spray to stop hundreds of Rohingyas trying to enter India … the situation is tense,” added the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.

More than 420,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when a coordinated attack by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces triggered a counteroffensive, killing at least 400 people, mainly militants. The United Nations has called the assault a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Densely populated Bangladesh is struggling to shelter all the refugees desperate for space to set up shacks, sparking worries in India that the influx could spill into its territory.

R.P.S. Jaswal, a deputy inspector general of the BSF patrolling a large part of the border in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, said his troops were told to use both chilli grenades and stun grenades to push back the Rohingya.

A chilli grenade makes use of a naturally-occurring compound in chilli powder to cause severe irritation and temporarily immobilise its target.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government is growing increasingly hostile towards the Rohingya in India, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh calling on Thursday for their deportation as illegal migrants.

Fresh fires, bomb

blast in Rakhine

Twenty homes caught fire and a bomb was detonated near a mosque in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the government said Friday, the latest unrest in a region that has seen hundreds of thousands of Rohinyga Muslims flee in under a month.

The violence comes days after Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi declared that the military had ceased its “clearance operations” in the border area.

The army claims it is trying to flush out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25.

But civilian refugees streaming into Bangladesh say they were terrorised by soldiers and vigilante Buddhist mobs who torched their villages to the ground.

The testimony, alongside satellite images of some 200 villages reduced to ash, have fuelled accusations that Myanmar’s army is systematically purging a Muslim minority haunted by years of persecution.

The UN has described the military campaign as “ethnic cleansing”.

The latest violence saw 20 homes catch fire in Maungdaw’s Kyain Chaung village on Thursday night, according to a statement posted by the government’s Information Committee.

“Security members went and checked the fire and are investigating its cause,” said the statement, adding that the flames burned through a community previously hit by fire.

The following morning a bomb detonated outside of a mosque in Mi Chaung Zay village in nearby Buthidaung township, according to the government.

The statement said “terrorists” were to blame for the blast, without specifying if they were linked to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – the Rohingya militant group behind the ambushes on police posts. No deaths or injuries were reported in either incident.

Bangladesh’s PM at

UN urges ‘safe zones’

Bangladesh’s prime minister on Thursday proposed creating UN-supervised safe zones inside Myanmar to protect Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing a military crackdown to seek refuge in her country.

“These people must be able to return to their homeland in safety, security and dignity,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the UN General Assembly.

The United Nations says more than 420,000 Rohingya have fled for safety to Bangladesh in the face of an army campaign in northern Rakhine state that includes rape and the burning of villages.

The military operation was sparked by attacks carried out by Rohingya militants on police posts on August 25.

Hasina accused Myanmar authorities of laying landmines on the border to prevent the Rohingyas from returning and said the United Nations must take immediate measures to find a solution to the crisis. The prime minister laid out a five-point plan that called for the protection of the Rohingyas in “safe zones that could be created inside Myanmar under UN supervision.”

The United Nations has described the military operation as “ethnic cleansing” and French President Emmanuel Macron went further, describing it as a “genocide.”

Rohingya refugee camps on the brink of a ‘health disaster’: MSF

Bangladesh’s refugee camps are on the brink of a “public health disaster,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned, saying filthy water and faeces flow through shanties bursting with Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar.

Nearly 430,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in under a month, seeking refuge from an army-led crackdown across the border in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which the UN has described as “ethnic cleansing”.

The weary and wounded arrivals have shocked the world with stories of Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs driving them out of their homes with gunshots and arson attacks that have razed entire villages to ash. While Bangladesh has offered sanctuary from the terror, there are dire shortages of nearly all forms of relief in what has become one of the world’s largest refugee settlements in a matter of weeks. MSF on Thursday warned that a “massive scale-up of humanitarian aid is needed in Bangladesh to avoid a public health disaster”.

“We are receiving adults every day on the cusp of dying from dehydration,” said Kate White, the group’s emergency medical coordinator.

“That’s very rare among adults, and signals that a public health emergency could be just around the corner.”

UN needs $200 million for ‘catastrophic’ influx

The United Nations will need $200 million over the next six months to face the “catastrophic” influx of more than 420,000 Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh, a top UN official said Friday.

The Rohingya Muslims, escaping ethnic unrest in Myanmar, have overwhelmed Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar in under a month. The UN made an emergency appeal for $78 million on September 9, but UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, Robert Watkins, said much more would be needed as the exodus grows.

“Our best estimate at this point is $200 million. We are putting together a plan right now that will be ready in about four or five days,” Watkins told AFP.

(Reuters/AFP)