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Bengaluru: 3 children injured in gelatin stick blast in Sai Baba School

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Representational image. Photo: AP/File

Representational image. Photo: AP/File

Bengaluru: In a freak incident, three students of a private school suffered ‘minor’ injuries today when gelatin sticks they took from a waste dump exploded in their classroom, police said.

The children studying in the Sai Baba School at Madiwala had found the gelatin sticks lying in a waste dump while they were playing and carried them to their classroom, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Alok Kumar said.

The explosion occurred as soon as they switched on the electric panel into which they had stuffed the gelatin sticks, he said.

The injured children have been admitted to ESI Hospital and are undergoing treatment for minor injuries, he said.

(PTI)

Bangaloreans herald New Year amid tight security

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bangalore-new-year

Bengaluru: Thousands of Bangaloreans heralded New Year early Thursday, cheering, dancing, hooting, whistling, bursting crackers and greeting each other amid tight security across this tech hub.

Undeterred by the presence of hundreds of police personnel, heightened vigil and CCTV cameras in downtown, about 8,000 people ushered in 2015 by milling around the up-market M.G. Road, fashionable Brigade Road, posh Lavelle Road, serene Cubbon Road and the bustling Commercial Street, which were lit up for the occasion.

Braving wintry chill and overlooking restrictions imposed by police to maintain law and order, young techies, college students, professionals and boys and girls jostled for space to do a jig, dance to rock music or swing to lilting filmy songs.

“The New Year fest has been peaceful though noisy. No untoward incident reported from anywhere in the city. People dispersed orderly after partying without fear from public venues,” Additional Police Commissioner Alok Kumar told IANS later.

As a precautionary measure and in view of the Dec 28 minor blast near a restaurant on upscale Church Street in the city centre, police directed all pubs, bars, eateries and hotels to close at 1 a.m. instead of 2 a.m.

“We extended closure timing of pubs, bars, eateries and hotels to 1am from 11:30 p.m. Wednesday so as to allow people enjoy the New Year fest. It’s a great relief all agreed to abide by the order,” Kumar said.

About 3,000 police personnel, including contingents from the city armed constabulary, the rapid action force and the state reserve force were deployed in the central business district to ensure peaceful celebration of the New Year.

Apart from banning parking and vehicular traffic from 8 p.m. till 1 a.m. in downtown, major inter-sections and main thoroughfares, driving on all flyovers across the city were blocked till 6am to prevent drunken driving and drag racing.

(IANS)

Four ways to portray Muslims as India's biggest threat

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These four separate incidents in two states – Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh – were driven by just one motive: sparking communal disharmony through false information.

Muslims-in-India

by Aditya Menon, @adityamenon22

1. Abdul Khan, the fictitious ISIS Bangalore bomber: Until a day ago, the Twitter handle @LatestAbdul that ran tweets claiming responsibility for the Church Street blast in Bangalore, was speculated to belong to one of the radicalised Indian Muslim cadres of the ISIS. Now it turns out that the person behind the terror threats is a 17-year-old and reportedly not a Muslim. The police claims the teenager Satish (name changed) was mentally stressed. Going by the name Abdul Khan, Satish had been had been threatening to bomb a college for a while and had tagged members of the police force and politicians in his tweets.

On his Twitter timeline, Satish/Abdul had hurled abuses at a wide range of people such as Bangalore police commissioner MN Reddi, DCP (crime) Abhishek Goyal, Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had threatened to bomb the Alvas College in Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada if police did not release alleged ISIS sympathiser Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who ran the pro-ISIS Twitter handle @ShamiWitness.

On December 22, “Abdul” had tweeted to commissioner Reddi, “Let’s start the game, Karnataka Police cannot catch us.” He threatened that he would kill at least a thousand people. He had also claimed that he and ISIS members were seeking funds, to “blast all of India” if needed.

2. Desh Raj Singh the “professional riot-manufacturer”: On December 15, a buffalo carcass was found on the premises of a temple in Parsauli village in Budhana block of the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Also inscribed on the temple wall was an inflammatory message in support of the Islamic State. On December 20, parts of a buffalo carcass were found inside another temple in the area and an idol of Nandi was reportedly found missing. Budhana had witnessed communal violence during last year’s riots in Muzaffarnagar and the two incidents sparked tensions yet again. Union minister Sanjeev Baliyan, who is accused of instigating the riots, also visited the area.

The Uttar Pradesh police’s investigation revealed that this was the handiwork of 35-year old Desh Raj who wanted to instigate riots in the area. Apparently, Raj even confessed that he killed a dog and left its corpse hanging in a mosque to fuel tensions. According to the police, Raj claims that his aim was to ensure that “koi masjid na rahe, sirf mandir rahe (no mosques should remain, only temples should remain)”. Many Muslims who were displaced during the riots last year were settled near Parsauli village. Apparently, this demographic change in the area upset him. Desh Raj would have succeeded had the police not caught him and exposed his plan in time. Looking to fish in troubled waters, the UP unit of the Shiv Sena had threatened to hold a Hindu mahapanchayat in the district if the culprit was not caught.

3. A gang-rape that wasn’t: In August this year, we heard of the ghastly gang-rape of a Hindu girl at a madrassa in Meerut. With each passing day, more and more sordid details of the case started coming out: that the girl was gangraped and forcibly made to convert to Islam; that a flesh trade racket was being run from the madrassa, where she was an employee; that many women were held captive there and then sold off to rich men in Gulf countries. The allegations sparked an outrage and understandably so. Western Uttar Pradesh, which was already a communal tinderbox, came on the verge of another riot.

Two months later, the victim filed a report denying that she was gangraped or forcibly made to convert. She claimed that she had actually eloped from home with a Muslim boy. She wrote in the statement, “I was staying with my parents, but I ran away from home because I feel a threat to my life from my parents and relatives… I went with the boy belonging to a different community out of my own will”. Hindutva groups spared no effort in raking up the “Meerut gangrape” especially as it also came on the eve of crucial by-elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Each and every aspect of the entire tale – from the “forcible conversion” to the “madrassa gangrape”, and of course, “girls being sold in the Gulf” – were straight out of a Hindutva hate-monger’s playbook. Of course, no story involving a Muslim villain is complete without women being forcibly converted to Islam and sold to an Arab shaikh!

4. Pakistani flag, Hindutva flag bearers: In January 2012, six activists of the right-wing Sri Ram Sene were arrested for trying to instigate communal violence in the north Karnataka town of Sindhagi. Their modus operandi was unique. They hoisted the Pakistani flag on the mini Vidhan Soudha premises, blamed the act on the Muslims and, on the very next day, staged demonstrations in the town protesting against the delay in arresting those responsible! Like the young Satish, the Sene cadres were all aged between 18 to 20. The men, who saw themselves as defenders of Indian nationalism, actually took the trouble to stitch the Pakistani flag at their homes. Of course, this act of mischief hardly came as a surprise as Sene chief Pramod Muthalik was himself caught in a sting operation in 2010, discussing how his outfit could instigate a riot for a price.

These four separate incidents in two states – Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh – were driven by just one motive: portraying Muslims as the biggest threat to India.

Now, it is fortunate that the people responsible were caught in these four occasions and the respective state administrations deserve full credit for their work. But there could be numerous cases in which Muslims have been wrongfully accused. We know of the Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta attacks because of the investigation by the late Hemant Karkare and his team. But what about cases where the administration is not unbiased and where the investigation officers aren’t someone like Karkare?

This article first appeared on daily O.

Media reports on SIMI activist baseless, says cop

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PTI Photo

PTI Photo

Yadagiri: Police in Yadagiri have denied reports by some media groups that an alleged SIMI operative lived in the city or that NIA officers and Andhra Police had come looking for him.

“We have no information either about the reported existence of a SIMI operative in the district or the reported visit of NIA officers or Andhra Police to the district,” Superintendent of Police M Mutturaya clarified.

Earlier, a Kannada TV channel reported that Mohammad alias Guddu, a SIMI operative, had lived in Yadagiri for months and had purchased 20 mobile phone SIM cards. The report also said that the NIA officer visited some places, including a cloth store here.

The report came after a 17-year-old boy, said to be a Sangh Parivar activist, posting as a Muslim on Twitter claimed Bengaluru blast responsibility and threatened to carry out more such blasts.

Low-intensity blast kills one, injures three at busy Church Street in Bengaluru

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PTI Photo

PTI Photo

Bengaluru: A low intensity blast rocked Church Street in Bengaluru on Sunday December 28. The explosion, which was minor, took place outside Coconut Grove restaurant.

A woman was killed and three persons were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on the crowded Church Street at 8.35 p.m. on Sunday.

The deceased woman, hailing from Chennai, was identified as Bhavani Devi (38). The injured persons were identified as Karthick, Sandeep and Vinay. While Sandeep and Vinay were admitted to HOSMAT Hospital, Karthick and Bhavani Devi were shifted to Mallya Hospital.

No organisation has claimed responsibility for the blast so far.

The IED wrapped in a piece of cloth was placed behind an ornamental flower bush in front of Coconut Grove, a popular joint on the Church Street. The injured were pedestrians who were passing by. People ran helter-skelter after the blast while some others thought was a fire cracker burst. One of the persons injured was even thrown to a distance of over five feet, eyewitnesses said.

An auto driver named Narasimha Murthy rushed the injured to Mallya hospital in his auto, with the help of people who were at the spot.

Top police officials including city police commissioner M N Reddi rushed to the spot and are collecting evidence.

As soon as explosion took place, people were seen running helter skelter and eyewitnesses said that lot of confusion prevailed at the spot. The police have cordoned off the area.

M N Reddi said that additional police forces including the KSRP, canine squads and forensic experts have been pressed into action. He said the injured were hit by shrapnels from the IED.

Asked whether there were threats to the city, Reddi said there was a general threat perception due to the festivities, the New Year and recent happenings, but no definite threat, and the police have been alert.

The police commissioner has reportedly sent communique to all police stations, sources said and asked the Bengalureans to be on high alert. “One low intensity blast on Church Street. 2 injured, 1 serious. All requested to be alert & inform 100 if any unintended object found,” Reddi stated in his Twitter account.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today announced a compensation of Rs five lac to the kin of a woman who was killed in the low-intensity explosion outside a popular restaurant here that also left three persons injured.

Speaking to reporters after visiting the injured at a hospital here in the wee hours, Siddaramaiah said the government would provide a compensation of Rs five lac to the family of the woman, who succumbed to injuries sustained in the explosion last night.

(Agencies)

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)

Pro-IS tweeter Mehdi Biswas sent to five days police custody

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shamiwitness

Bengaluru: A local court Sunday sent pro-Islamic State (IS) terror group tweeter Mehdi Masroor Biswas to five day police custody for interrogation, a police official said.

“We had produced Mehdi before the sessions court, which remanded him to five day police custody till Dec 18 for interrogation by our investigation team on his unlawful activities,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Abhishek Goyal told IANS here.

Biswas was arrested early Saturday following a British news channel Dec 11 unmasking the city-based 24-year-old executive as a supporter of IS through social media and Twitter handle @ShamiWitness.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that Mehdi Biswas is a propagandist of IS ideology and has been instrumental in influencing minds against our friendly countries against whom the terror group is at war,” Additional Director General of Police Hemant Nimbalkar told reporters later.

Police registered a case against Biswas under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act.

“We are quizzing him on his virtual and actual relations with the terror group and checking his antecedents, including mobile calls, e-mails, chat sessions and postings in the social media like Facebook, blogs and Twitter,” Nimbalkar said.

A police team raided Biswas’ one-room apartment in the northern suburb early Saturday and apart from arresting him, seized two mobiles, one laptop, incriminating documents, religious literature, pictures, pen drivers and compact discs (CDs) from the premises.

“We are also probing if Biswas or the terror group has any local presence in the form of sleeper cells or networks,” Nimbalkar added.

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

He admitted to the probe team that he had been operating the Twitter account after he got interested in the developments of the Middle Eastern region.

He has about 17,000 Twitter followers and used to aggressively tweet by collecting information on regional developments.

Bangalore Police Comissinor Mr. M.N Reddy, said on Monday that Shamiwitness could have been anyone in the world, it is only a coincidence that he happened to be in Bangalore.

When Nasheman inquired about his Twitter being reactivated, Mr. Reddy smiled and said that he does not knows who did it.

(With inputs from IANS)

Mehdi Masroor Biswas aka @shamiwitness had no direct contact with ISIS

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shamiwitness

Bengaluru: Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who went by the nomme de guerre Shamiwitness was undoubtedly the most popular English voices of the Islamic State on Twitter, but the police interrogation since his arrest Saturday Dec 13th, has revealed that he had no direct contact with ISIS or any Jihadi groups.

Biswas was detained by Bengaluru police early Saturday morning, after Britain’s Channel 4 News had aired the report regarding the country’s IT capital’s link with the Twitter account that is followed by foreign fighters.

Mehdi, an electrical engineer from Kolkata, had moved to Bengaluru in 2011. He has two sisters and his father is a retired employee of the West Bengal state Electricity Board. He had been employed with the multinational corporation as a marketing executive since 2012 at an annual salary of Rs. 5.3 lakh.

Police interrogation after Mehdi’s arrest

Mehdi got interested in the developments in middle-east countries like Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza strip, Egypt and Libya since 2003. He used to work during the day and surfed internet on a 60 GB monthly plan late into nights.

During the initial questioning, he said that he mainly concentrated on Muslims living abroad “as the Indian muslims were incapable of Jihad.” It is also learnt that more than 17,000 followers in his twitter account were English-Speakers from Europe.

Most of his tweets have been deleted and the account was shut down after the report surfaced. Even the police have not found any activity against India or anti-India tweets so far. Also there is no evidence to prove that he had planned terror attack in India. He had no previous criminal record too.

Even though Mehdi had contact with English speaking ISIS men on twitter, he did not reveal his true identity to them. Mehdi was not involved in any of the activity in propagating the ISIS agenda. He was just translating the arabic tweets into English. He collected the data and videos of ISIS from cyberspace and then posted on the internet.

Police also said that Mehdi has not travelled outside the country neither he received any funds from ISIS.

Mehdi’s interview to UK Channel 4

Channel 4’s investigators, meanwhile, discovered that Mehdi aka @ShamiWitness had used a personal email address, ElSaltador@gmail.com, to set up a personal Twitter account, @ElSaltador. Based on this lead, the channel found out that the same email address had been used to open personal LinkedIn and Google Groups accounts. The data enabled them to contact Mehdi  in Bangalore.

Reached by Channel 4, he denied that he intended to win over recruits to the Islamic State, saying his tweets only expressed his opinion. “Just because someone follows me, it doesn’t mean that I am the reason for their joining ISIS,” he said in the audio interview that was telecast along with the report.

But in the Channel 4 interview, he made clear his support for Islamic State, adding that he was prevented from joining the group by his commitments to his family.

According to Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a graduate from Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an authority on the ongoing conflict in Syria, “It would not really be accurate to characterize Shami so much an ‘IS source’ as much as a ‘disseminator’, as Peter Neumann of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization puts it…If one looks back on Shami’s Twitter feed, as more and more official IS venues of information on Twitter emerged, much of the time he was simply retweeting. Shami’s role can therefore also be described as an ‘aggregator’ of IS content, something he also did in the days before official IS (IS) provincial news feeds and the like.”

Indian government sources said the UK’s intelligence services had been contacted for any information they might have on Mehdi, but were told he was not a person of interest for any ongoing terrorism investigation.

Mehdi Masroor Biswas, alleged owner of Twitter handle @shamiwitness detained by Bengaluru police

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shamiwitness

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have detained the alleged handler of the pro-ISIS twitter handle @ShamiWitness on early Saturday morning.

Top police officials confirmed the detention saying “we have the man”. But they declined to confirm whether he was arrested and under which sections was a case made out against him.

Until late on Friday, the police maintained that they hadn’t made any serious headway with the investigation and the city commissioner M N Reddi had said his team was on the job.

According to sources, the police have not been able to find evidence linking the youth directly to the @shamiwitness account or any subversive activities, but have detained him based on photographs of the suspect began circulating on the web.

“We have to wait for authorities in the US where Twitter’s servers are located to provide authentic evidence if any linking the youth’s computer systems to the @shamiwitness account,” police told the media here.

Mehdi, who spoke to The Indian Express on Friday night had expressed fears of being arrested. He claimed that he had given some information about his online activities to Channel 4 only to throw them off his back. He reportedly told the newspaper that he is not the owner of the account.

It was Sangliana's daughter, not the 'burqa-clad' women who started the altercation, say police

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Rachel Sangliana

Rachel Sangliana

Bengaluru: City Police Commissioner M N Reddy rubbished claims made by former city police commissioner H T Sangliana’s daughter Rachel, that she was racially abused by two unidentified women.

Reddy told reporters that it was not a case of racial abuse, but an altercation involving Rachel and the two women.

Citing a senior police officer, Deccan Herald reported that the police sent a team to the mall, where the incident took place. “Eyewitnesses told the police that it was Rachel who triggered the incident.”

“Rachel abused the women and they retaliated. Nobody in the mall ever indulged in racial abuse,” the police said.

“We requested her to lodge a complaint but she refused to do so. She said there was no need for the complaint, thanked the police and went away,” the officer is told to have said.

Rachel had earlier claimed that two burqa-clad women had attacked her at a mall. She had also claimed that she was beaten up and that she sustained injuries on the head and face. She alleged that the women had called her a Chinese woman and said that a lesson should be taught to outsiders in Karnataka.

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