NEW DELHI: The Assam Police on Tuesday launched another operation against the Popular Front of India (PFI) in various districts of the state.

Police has arrested 25 PFI activists in fresh crackdown in Assam. Hiren Nath, ADGP (Special Branch) of Assam Police told ANI that several people have been detained by police in various districts. Hitesh Ch. Roy, Superintendent of Police of Kamrup district said that the Kamrup District Police on Tuesday detained four persons linked with PFI from the Nagarbera area.

“Our operation against PFI is on in many parts of the district,” Hitesh Ch. Roy said. Earlier, Assam Police arrested 11 leaders of workers of PFI from various parts of the state and one from Delhi.

Continuing the crackdown on the organisation, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police arrested a man on Monday in connection with the nationwide crackdown on PFI. The arrested accused has been identified as Mohd Abed Ali.

The UP Police Special Task Form (STF) also arrested one person yesterday. The STF arrested a person identified as Abdul Majeed from the Vibhutikhand bus stand from Lucknow under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) when he was trying to leave the city, police said.

Earlier, the Karnataka unit of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a political wing of the Popular Front of India, on Monday condemned the raids conducted by the National Investigation Agency against its members, and asked why the central agency had not yet conducted raids on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliated organizations for “acts of communal hatred”.

The NIA had arrested over 106 members of the PFI during its largest-ever raids spread across 15 states on September 22.

Addressing a press conference here, State Principal Secretary of SDPI, Bhaskar said, “We condemn the unconstitutional raids by NIA. Why hasn’t the RSS been raided yet? We say that RSS is a non-registered organisation as well as a terrorist organisation. PFI is a registered organisation”.

Terming the NIA raids as a “ploy” to suppress a “strong voice”, the SDPI leader claimed that the government could not prove a single case against the political outfit.

“This is a ploy to suppress a strong voice. They have tried this for years, but they couldn’t prove a single case against SDPI. However, the communal fascist government is constantly carrying out such attacks to create hatred among the people against SDPI and PFI organizations,” the SDPI leader said.

“The biggest dangerous organization in this country is RSS and its organizations like Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Sri Ram Sena, etc. They are involved in acts of communal hatred. But they are never attacked by NIA,” the SDPI leader alleged.

The PFI was launched in Kerala in 2006 after merging three Muslim organizations floated after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 – the National Development Front of Kerala, Karnataka Forum for Dignity and Manitha Neethi Pasari of Tamil Nadu. After the demolition of the Babri mosque, many fringe outfits had surfaced in south India and PFI was formed after merging some of them.

Five PFI activists have been arrested from the Kottayam and Kollam districts of Kerala for allegedly engaging in violent activities during the state-wide hartal called by the organisation on September 23 pursuant to nation-wide raids on their offices and arrests of their leaders.

Four activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) were arrested from Kottayam on Monday for breaking the glass of a bakery and damaging a KSRTC bus, police said. From Kollam, a PFI activist was arrested on Monday for allegedly ramming into a police motorbike with his two-wheeler in his bid to escape the clutches of the police personnel.

The police were trying to catch him as he was allegedly intimidating and abusing those present along the Kottiyam-Pallimukku stretch of national highway 66 on September 23, they said.

In Udupi district, the police have taken four people in custody in connection with various cases. The raids were conducted at Hoode, Gangolli and Byndoor in the district. The detained persons are from Byndoor.

PAURI: In a major development in the the family of the 19-year-old woman receptionist who was killed in Uttarakhand allegedly by her employer refused on Sunday to conduct her last rites until they get the final postmortem details, even as a preliminary report said she died due to drowning.

The draft report released by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, also said antemortem injuries (injuries before death) have been found on Ankita Bhandari’s body, suggestive of a blunt force trauma. However, she died of drowning, said the preliminary report.

Bhandari’s body was recovered from the Cheela canal close to Rishikesh early on Saturday, six days after her parents found her missing from her room.

The postmortem was conducted by a four-member team of doctors at AIIMS on Saturday.

The details of injuries and other findings will be given in the final report, said the draft.

Ankita’s father and brother on Sunday refused to perform her last rites until they get the final postmortem report.

“I am not satisfied with the provisional postmortem report. Her last rites will not be performed until we get the final detailed report,” her father Virendra Singh Bhandari told PTI.

“We won’t conduct her last rites until her post-mortem report is given. We saw in her provisional report that she was beaten up and was thrown in a river. But we’re awaiting the final report,” said Ajay Singh Bhandari, brother of Ankita Bhandari. He also said that the provisional report is lacking in detail.

They also spoke against the demolition exercise carried out at the resort where she was working as a receptioninst. “It may be an attempt to destroy evidence,” Ajay said.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) in-charge of the Ankita Bhandari murder case, DIG PR Devi, told ANI that Ankita’s WhatsApp chats that have surfaced are also being probed.

As per reports, a WhatsApp chat has come to the fore in the investigation. According to police sources, in this chat, Ankita is telling her friend that the owner of the resort is pressuring her to provide ‘extra service’ to the guests.

As per a viral chat, it is alleged that it was being said that the guest would get ‘extra service’ for Rs 10,000.

An employee at the resort also alleged that Ankita Bhandari had called him crying on September 17 and asked him to take her bags out of the resort. He also confirmed that he saw Ankita at around 3 PM with three other people while only the rest of them returned except Ankita.

He also claimed that the owner Pulkit Arya’s brother Ankit Arya came at 8 AM on September 18 and talked about preparing dinner for four people and said that he would have dinner in Ankita’s room. The employee then had said that the service boy can make the dinner.

The resort’s helper meanwhile alleged that Ankit was trying to mislead the staff as Ankita had not returned.

DIG PR Devi said that every employee of the Vantra resort would be called to the police station. The statements of these employees would be recorded, the officials said. “We have called every employee in the resort to the police station. We will take everyone’s statements. We’re running a full background analysis on the resort,” said DIG PR Devi.

Earlier on Saturday, the Vanantara resort in Rishikesh owned by expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya, who is an accused in the Ankita Bhandari murder case, was set on fire by angry locals.

Anger over the horrific crime poured onto streets in other parts of Uttarakhand as well.

Protestors also gheraoed bus office and the District Magistrate’s office in Pauri.

The body of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari who was reported missing a few days ago was also recovered on Saturday from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh.

Three persons, including Pulkit Arya, were arrested on Friday after they ‘confessed’ to having pushed Ankita into the canal after an altercation.

NEW DELHI:  Prominent Opposition leaders on Sunday gave a fresh unity call ahead of the 2024 general election at a massive rally organised by the INLD in Haryana’s Fatehabad to commemorate the birth anniversary of the party’s founder Devi Lal.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar urged the Opposition to build a ‘main front’ of all parties, including the Congress, to defeat the ruling BJP while ruling out a third front.

He also stayed in denial on entering the prime ministerial race. “I am not a PM candidate. There is also no question of a third front. There should be one front, including the Congress and the Left,” he said, adding that they had even requested the Congress to participate in the rally. 

Not just the Congress, major parties like Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Trinamool Congress gave the rally a miss. However, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, CPI (M)’s Sitaram Yechury and SAD boss Sukhbir Singh Badal participated. Pawar, Yechury and Badal echoed Nitish saying the need of the hour is for everyone to come together to dislodge the BJP.

Trinamool, TRS, DMK no-show 
“Since West Bengal and Tamil Nadu CMs Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin skipped it, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao felt it wasn’t important enough to participate,” a party source said

MYSURU:  Karnataka’s cultural centre, Mysuru, is all decked up to herald the 10-day extravaganza of Dasara, which is slated to be inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu on Chamundi Hills on Monday.
With the President inaugurating the Nada Habba for the first time since Independence, security has been beefed up around the hill temple and entry for the public is restricted till 11.30 am.

Murmu will also be offering puja to the idol of the presiding deity, Goddess Chamundeshwari, which will be placed in a silver chariot. Though in the past, the then Vice-President Shankar Dayal Sharma and President R Venkataraman had participated in the Jamboo Savari in 1988 and 1990, respectively, for the first time now, the festivities will be inaugurated by the President, in Vraschika Lagna between 9.45 am and 10.05 am, after she has darshan at the temple.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, and cabinet ministers will receive the President in Mysuru. The tribal community in the region is elated at the maiden visit of the President, and invitations have been extended to select people on the occasion. The President’s Office has allowed 13 persons, including the Governor and Chief Minister and ministers, to share the dais.

The Dasara high-power committee has decided to celebrate the festival without compromising on tradition and culture, and has chalked out music and cultural programmes at the Mysuru Palace and other venues. 
Renowned singers and actors are also invited to perform at Yuva Dasara. Meanwhile, events such as wrestling, food mela, Raitha Dasara, and Mahila Dasara, are also being planned. Meanwhile, hectic preparations are on at the Mysuru Palace for the private durbar under the supervision of Pramodha Devi Wadiyar, wife of late Srikantadutta Narashimaraja Wadiyar. 

AHMEDABAD:  Monday is the start of Navratri, which is celebrated in Gujarat with a lot of fanfare. Because of COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown, this year’s Navratri is particularly significant for Gujarat because it has been two years since the previous celebrations. As the Gujarat election draws near, sources claim that PM Narendra Modi and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi may attend the Garba festival this year.

During Navratri, Gujaratis begin each day by worshipping Goddess Shakti. One of the primary attractions of Gujarat’s Navratri celebrations is the traditional dance known as “Garba,” “Ras-Garba,” or “Dandiya”.  People do dance while dressed in traditional Garba costumes and using dandiyas (sticks).

Additionally, they perform a number of mythical tales through dance. Mega-celebrations for Navratri have recently been planned where a sizable crowd of people attend. People gather and feast on their favourite meals after the Garba. This year, the Gujarat government was given permission to use loudspeakers even after midnight. Gujarat will also have open dining establishments and grocery stores till midnight.

Minister of State, Youth, Sports & Culture Harsh Shanghvi said, “In the festival of Durga, Navratri, which is an important part of the culture of Gujarat and the soul of every Gujarati, permission has been given to play loudspeaker for nine days till 12:00 midnight, giving priority to the joy, faith, and emotions of the people.”

This time Navratri is a few months before the Gujarat assembly elections, so political parties do not want to miss any opportunity to spread their election campaign through Garba, sources say. PM Narendra Modi will perform ‘aarti’ of Goddess Amba at Ambaji Temple in Banskantha district and will also witness people playing ‘Garba’ at Ahmedabad on the occasion of Navratri, during his visit to the state on September 29 and 30.

While Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s name has also been added to this list. According to the information, Priyanka will visit Gujarat during Navratri. She will do a road show by visiting Shakti Pith of “Mahakali goddess” in Pavagadh and will also attend a Garba in Ahmedabad.

After two years, Garba classes saw huge crowds as everyone wants to enjoy the festival to the fullest and show their dance moves during the Navratri. Anil Jariwala, who has been running Ras Garba classes in Surat for 32 years, said, “I have been running Garba classes for the past 32 years. The number of people who play Garba is increasing every year, but due to Corona, the people who played Garba had not left their homes for the last two years but this year a large number of people have come to the Garba classes.”

Aman, a 22 -year-old Garba enthusiast said, “This year, we will be enjoying Navratri after two years and hence I along with my society friends decided to make the most of it and we have learned various new steps.”

As Gujarat readies for famous Festival Navratri, Garba a part of Gujarat’s Navratri Celebration itself is inching closer to getting the coveted United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s tag for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The latest nomination will be considered for the next year’s cycle.

PM Narendra Modi to perform ‘aarti’
PM Narendra Modi will perform ‘aarti’ of Goddess Amba at Ambaji Temple in Banskantha district and will also witness people playing ‘Garba’ at Ahmedabad on the occasion of Navratri, during his visit to the state on September 29 and 30.

AHMEDABAD: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday targeted the ruling BJP as well as the Congress in Gujarat, where Assembly elections are due to be held in December this year. Kejriwal was addressing a gathering of youth in Ahmedabad, where he was accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. 

The Delhi Chief Minister told the attendees, “I saw a message shared in a WhatsApp group that said, ‘If you vote for Congress, then Sonia Gandhi’s son will prosper. If you vote for BJP, Amit Shah’s son will prosper. If you vote for AAP, then every single child of Gujarat will prosper.”

He added: “They compare me with a terrorist. Our events got cancelled at the last moment at 12 places. For this hooliganism, people of Gujarat will give an answer.” He hit out at the Opposition, calling the Congress “even worse”, and presenting the AAP as an alternative. He said: “Leaders of both the BJP and Congress have stolen so much public money that if their properties are sold, the entire debt of Gujarat can be paid.”

Mann also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said, “We do not just speak but listen to others as well, whereas the BJP just talks. They should listen to the public’s ‘mann ki baat’. But they have no habit of listening.” Kejriwal promised 10 lakh government jobs by filling teachers’ posts in schools, besides opening of new colleges and mohalla clinics, and providing more doctors and healthcare staff in hospitals, among others. He added that if the AAP comes to power in Gujarat, it will curb corruption.

BENGALURU: With brand Bengaluru taking a beating with the recent deluge exposing the city’s creaking infrastructure, former director of Infosys TV Mohandas Pai called on Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday and discussed various issues.

During the 30-minute one-on-one, the two discussed measures to develop Hubballi-Dharwad as an alternative to Bengaluru as a tech hub. The region has the potential to become an electrical vehicle manufacturing centre, Pai told Bommai and presented a clear proposal as to how to go about it, .

They discussed steps to attract more investment to Hubballi-Dharwad and Bommai responded positively, they added. Pai visited Hubballi-Dharwad recently and the meeting is the outcome of that tour. He has been lobbying to develop the north Karnataka region since his days at Infosys. Infosys Foundation’s former chairperson Sudha Murty too is from the region. In fact, Infosys started operations from its Hubballi campus on August 1.

NEW DELHI: Even as the eight Namibian cheetahs released into the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh on September 17 are gradually acclimatising to their new surroundings, state wildlife officials are “concerned” about the danger they might face from the large leopard population once they finally find their way into the wild a few months from now.

Speaking to this newspaper, Madhya Pradesh Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) J S Chauhan said, “We are preparing ourselves for kinds of challenges ahead, including the danger the cheetahs might face from about 98 leopards. That is the concern”. At least 25 leopards were removed from the area the cheetahs will occupy in the first six months and radio-collared for subsequent observation.

Wildlife Institute of India (WII) researchers – nine of them have been continuously observing the cheetahs since they were released into the quarantine zones — are also mindful of potential leopard-cheetah conflicts in the near future. According to the WII, the leopard population density at KNP is nine individuals per 100 sq km.

One WII researcher said that intensified observation of the cheetahs will begin once they are moved to the larger, 5-sq-km enclosure. “In the first four to five days, the cheetahs did exhibit aggression whenever vehicles or people went past their enclosures, but they have begun to adapt even in rainy conditions,” the researcher said.

Chauhan admitted that the cheetahs are “eating less” than usual in the first few days of their arrival at KNP but they will “stabilise soon”. The fastest land animals are being “served dressed buffalo meat twice in four to five days” with each cheetah “consuming an average of 1.5 to 2 kg buffalo meat per day”.

Around the middle of August, the cheetahs will be moved to the 5-sq-km zone with nine compartments. Chauhan said that two pairs of female and male cheetahs will be “put together” in one large enclosure while the rest will be in single enclosures. “Depending on their comfort levels, they will be in these enclosures for two to four months before they are allowed to roam free in the 748 sq km expanse of KNP,” Chauhan said.

Shinde, Uddhav battle over Dussehra rallies 
After Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena got permission for its annual Dussehra rally on October 5 at Dadar’s Shivaji park in the city, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde who was eyeing the same venue has decided to have his camp rally at BKC, Bandra.  Both factions are not vying against each other to get the maximum footfall for this rally so that they can proclaim mega success ahead of the BMC elections. Shinde has given instructions to his people each leader should bring at least 100 people from all part of the state. Shinde is relying on government machinery to get the crowd while Thackeray is relying on his local Shakha Pramukhs and worked to fill the ground.

Chavan gears up to welcome Rahul 
Former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan has been known for his precision in planning party affairs. With Rahul Gandhi’s padyatra is scheduled to pass through Chavan’s home Nanded district and adjoining Hingoli district, he has now sent his ten-member team to visit the route of the padyatra in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and get feedback from departments such as catering, media, accommodation and the like. Chavan has told the team to make detailed notes on what items were provided and what were left out by previous teams, so that the arrangements for the padyatra can be done to perfection.

In search of backers, Gehlot reaches Mumbai
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, before filing his nomination for the Congress party’s presidential elections, quietly made his visit to India’s financial capital and met the big corporate and business houses to get assurance from them as key help during his tenure as Congress president. Without the help of Mumbai’s backing, it will be tough for Ashok Gehlot to helm the grand-old party in its fight against the world’s largest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. It shows that the chief minister is gearing up for a tough fight for the presidential post. On Saturday, he also paid a visit to the Shirdi Saibaba temple in Ahmednagar in the state.