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Al-Qaeda’s Zawahiri calls for ‘guerrilla war’ in Syria

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Online audio message by Zawahiri calls on opposition to prepare for ‘long war against Crusaders and their Shia allies’.

Ayman al-Zawahiri had not spoken publicly for several months, and has not been seen on camera for some time [EPA/SITE Institute]

Ayman al-Zawahiri had not spoken publicly for several months, and has not been seen on camera for some time [EPA/SITE Institute]

by Al Jazeera

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on the armed Syrian opposition to wage guerrilla warfare against the government of Bashar al-Assad and its allies.

In an audio tape titled “Syria will only bow to God”, released on the internet on Sunday, Zawahiri urged Syrian rebels to “have patience and prepare themselves for a long war against the Crusaders and their Shia allies”.

He urged them to adopt a “guerilla warfare” strategy because it would “weaken and drain the enemy”.

The rebels’ enemies “are targeting them because they are trying to establish an Islamic rule in Syria, as the West and its allies were doing everything they can to stop it”.

Al-Nusra Front, a rebel group, announced in July 2016 that it was ending its formal ties with al-Qaeda and changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or the Conquest of Syria Front.

On January 28 of this year, it merged with four other groups to form a new organisation called Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham, or the Assembly for the Liberation of Syria.

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, said that Zawahiri was attempting to throw al-Qaeda into the spotlight.

“Certainly with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) being the star, if you will, in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, al-Qaeda is trying to be relevant at a time when it is no longer relevant,” he said.

“Al-Qaeda itself has changed over the last decade. Once upon a time, it used to be a hierarchical group whereby Zawahiri’s boss, Osama bin Laden, used to give orders and orders used to be carried through. Various organisations joined the franchise because they knew there was some sort of a hierarchy.”

Bishara explained that the organisation has become segmented over the past decade, with ideologically linked al-Qaeda groups from Yemen to Iraq acting with autonomy.

“These are very autonomous groups and they are not taking any instructions from Ayman al-Zawahiri or from any headquarters in Pakistan, Afghanistan … Syria is where there could be a turning point.”

China bans Muslim names for babies in Xinjiang

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[AFP]

[AFP]

Beijing: China has banned Islamic names for babies in Muslim-majority Xinjiang region, home to the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.

According to the move, children with the banned names like Saddam or Midina will not be able to get a residence permit called “hukou”, which is required for access to medical and educational services, it said in a statement.

“This is just the latest in a slew of new regulations restricting religious freedom in the name of countering religious extremism,” the HRW said.

The Xinjiang government claims the names were banned because of their religious connotation, which can “exaggerate religious fervour”, Efe news reported.

On April 1, the authorities in Xinjiang had also imposed new rules banning “abnormal” beards or a full veil and warned people of punishments for refusing to watch state TV or radio programmes.

Conflicts between the Uighur and the Han, the majority ethnic group in China and who also control the government, are common.

Beijing usually attributes the violence to Islamist groups and secessionists whereas Uighur groups in exile consider the conflict to be a result of repression by the Communist regime.

“Violent incidents and ethnic tensions in Xinjiang have been on the rise in recent years, but the government’s farcically repressive policies and punishments are hardly solutions,” said HRW.

“They are only going to deepen resentment among the Uighurs,” it added.

(IANS)

IPL: Rohit fined for confronting umpire

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rohitsharma

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma was fined 50 percent of his match fees for disputing the umpire’s decision during the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Rising Pune Supergiant at the Wankhede Stadium here.

The incident occurred during the final over of Monday night’s match which Mumbai lost by three runs. Needing 161 for the win, Mumbai could only manage 157/8 in their 20 overs.

“Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians captain, was fined 50 percent of his match fee for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision during his team’s VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 match against the Rising Pune Supergiant at the Wankhede Stadium,” the IPL governing body announced in a statement on Tuesday.

“Sharma admitted to the Level 1 offence 2.1.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct for players and team officials. This is Sharma’s second Level 1 offence this season.

“For Level 1 breaches of the IPL Code of Conduct, the match referee’s decision is final and binding,” the statement added.

Rohit, who was the highest scorer for Mumbai with 58 runs off 39 balls, got into an argument with umpire S. Ravi with the hosts needing 11 runs from four balls when Pune pacer Jaydev Unadkat bowled a slower delivery which was slightly outside the off-stump.

Probably judging that the delivery will be called a wide, Rohit decided not to offer a shot. But the umpire decided to adjudge it a legal delivery which prompted the Mumbai captain to protest the decision.

Rohit gesticulated animatedly and remonstrated with Ravi before square-leg umpire A. Nand Kishore stepped into to break up the argument.

This is the second time during this year’s IPL that Rohit has shown dissent at an umpire’s decision. He had earlier disagreed with the umpire’s decision during the match against Kolkata Knight Riders a couple of weeks ago.

However, he was let off with a reprimand by the match referee on that occasion.

(IANS)

6-year-old girl’s body retrieved from 400 feet borewell

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belagavi-borewell-girl

Bengaluru: Kaveri, a 6-year-old child, who fell into a 400-foot-deep borewell in Athani Taluk of Belagavi district in Karnataka on Saturday evening was declared dead on Monday after being taken out by the rescue team. The 48-hour-long massive operation to rescue Kaveri ended in tragedy with rescuers retrieving the girl’s lifeless body from the 20-foot deep open borewell where she had been trapped midway.

The incident happened at Jhunjarawadi village in Athani taluk of the district when Kaveri was playing with her friends near the dry borewell, which was left open and fell into it.

According to officials, the girl was stuck at around 20 ft. in the 400-ft. open borewell and they had locked her arm with a rope to prevent her from slipping further down.

The news came as huge shock to the family of Kaveri and villagers who had been waiting with bated breath since Saturday night hoping to see rescuers pull the child out alive.

This is not the first time that a child falling into an uncovered borewell in India. Due to the negligence on the part of authorities, several children have fallen into deep open borewells.

Borewells are often illegally dug up to extract water in areas where the water tables are depleting.

(Agencies)

Malegaon terror attack: HC grants bail to Sadhvi Pragya, rejects Purohit’s plea

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Sadhvi Pragya Thakur

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Takhur, accused of plotting the 2008 Malegaon blast, but denied any relief to co-accused former Lt Col Prasad Purohit.

The court directed Sadhvi Pragya to surrender her passport to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and not to tamper with the evidence. She has also been asked to report to the NIA court as and when required.

“The appeal filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur is allowed. The applicant (Sadhvi) is directed to be released on bail on a surety of Rs 5 lakh. The appeal filed by Prasad Purohit stands dismissed,” said a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi. “We have said in our order that prima facie there is no case made out against Sadhvi,” Justice More said while refusing to stay today’s order.

Eight persons were killed and nearly 80 others were injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle had exploded in Malegaon on September 29, 2008. Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit were arrested in 2008 and are in jail since then. Welcoming the order, Sadhvi’s brother-in-law Bhagwan Jha said the family will celebrate nationwide. “Finally, we have won. Nine years she was in jail without evidence. Now we will celebrate nationwide,” he told reporters outside while distributing chocolates. The court was hearing the appeals filed by Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit challenging an earlier order of a special court rejecting their bail pleas.

The families of the victims, who had filed an intervening application challenging Sadhvi Pragya’s bail plea, today sought from the court a stay on its order so that they can appeal against it in the Supreme Court. According to the investigating agencies, the blast was allegedly carried out by right-wing group Abhinav Bharat and a total of 11 persons are at present in jail in the case, including Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya.

In her appeal, Sadhvi Pragya argued that the lower court failed to take cognisance of the change in circumstances in her case considering that NIA had declared in its charge sheet that it had not found any evidence against her and that prosecution against her be dropped. The NIA, which was handed over the case much later, had earlier submitted to the high court that it has “no objections” to Sadhvi’s plea. When asked by the court for its opinion, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had said that the ball was now in the NIA’s court and it wasn’t the prerogative of the terrorism squad anymore to support or oppose the plea.

The families of some of the victims of the blast argued that the plea be denied for there exist ample evidence in the ATS’ charge sheet to establish that Thakur was one of the main conspirators of the blast. The NIA had opposed Purohit’s bail plea and argued that there was prima facie evidence in the form of audio and video recordings, call data records and witness statements that prove his involvement in the case.

According to NIA, Purohit had taken active part in the conspiracy meetings and even agreed to arrange explosives to be used in the blast. Purohit had argued that the NIA was “selective” in exonerating some accused persons and that the agency had made him a “scapegoat” in the case.

(Agencies)

7 year jail to gangster Chhota Rajan in fake passport case

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Chhota Rajan

New Delhi: A special court today awarded seven-year jail term to gangster Chhota Rajan and three retired public servants in a fake passport case.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal awarded the sentence to Rajan and others for offences including forgery of valuable security under the IPC which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Besides him, the other persons who have been convicted are three retired government servants — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan. Rajan is lodged in Tihar Jail here. The other three persons, who were out on bail, were taken into custody yesterday after the verdict was announced.

The court had on March 28 reserved its judgement in the case in which Rajan allegedly procured a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar with the help of the three government officials.

Lakshmanan had approached the high court to transfer to Bengaluru her trial in the case but the petition was rejected on January 9 on the ground that a district court here could also hear the matter.

During pendency of the plea, the high court had ordered a stay on pronouncement of verdict in the case by trial court. However, the high court later rejected the plea.

All the four persons have been convicted of offences under sections 420 (cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 467(forgery of valuable security or will), 419(cheating by impersonation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and section 12 (offences and penalties) of the Passport Act.

Deported after being on the run for 27 years, the 55-year old gangster, once a close aide of fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was brought to India to face trial in over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug smuggling in Delhi and Mumbai.

Rajan was deported to India after his arrest in Bali in October 2015.

(Agencies)

Court Rejects Bomb Naga’s Interim Bail Application

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bomb naga

Bengaluru: Sessions court here in the state capital has rejected the interim bail application filed by Bomb Naga and adjourned its hearing to April 27 on Monday. The public prosecutor objected the bail application stating that Bomb Naga has been hiding at an unknown location after unaccounted cash worth in crores and documents related to unaccounted properties found in his residence last week during a police raid.

Ex-rowdysheeter, Bomb Naga reportedly hiding in a unknown location after police found crores of unaccounted cash in the denomination of banned Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. As many as 44 police cases have been registered so far against the accused.

(Agencies)

Deadly Israeli strikes target Syria’s Quneitra province

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Deaths of fighters reported as government positions in Golan Heights are targeted for second time in recent days.

[AP]

[AP]

by Al Jazeera

Israeli forces have attacked pro-Syrian government groups in the countryside of Quneitra, two days after carrying out similar strikes in the same region.

An Al Jazeera correspondent said Sunday’s attacks targeted fighters loyal to the Syrian government in the Naba al-Fawwar area of Quneitra province, which is located in the 30 percent of the Golan Heights that is not under Israeli occupation.

Three fighters from the pro-government National Defence Forces (NDF) were killed and at least two more were wounded in the attack, an NDF official told AFP news agency.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the attack but did not have additional details.

Rebel forces and other armed groups battling Syria’s Bashar al-Assad government and its allies control much of the Quneitra area.

The Israeli army said on Friday that it had targeted positions inside Syria in retaliation for mortar fire that hit the northern part of the occupied Golan Heights.

“The Israeli army targeted the source of the fire,” an army statement said without giving further details.

An army spokeswoman told AFP that she was unable to elaborate on how Israel retaliated or to identify any targets that were hit.

Syria’s official news agency SANA said Israel struck a Syrian army position in Quneitra province on the Golan plateau on Sunday, “causing damage”.

SANA said the Israeli fire came “after a bid by terrorist groups to infiltrate Syrian military positions was foiled”.

Technically at war

The Syrian government labels rebels and other armed groups “terrorists” and accuses Israel of backing them.

Israel occupied 1,200sq km of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

About 510sq km of the Golan are under Syrian control.

The two countries are still technically at war, although the border remained largely quiet for decades until 2011, when the Syrian conflict broke out.

The Israeli side is hit sporadically by what are usually deemed to be stray rounds, and Israel has recently taken to opening fire in retaliation.

PDP leader Abdul Gani Dar shot dead by militants in Kashmir

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Abdul Gani Dar

Srinagar: Militants today shot dead the PDP district president for Pulwama, Abdul Gani Dar, in the south Kashmir district, police said.

Gani was shot at by the militants in Pinglena area of Pulwama district, 31 kms from here, this afternoon, a police official said.

Dar, an advocate by profession, was referred to SMHS Hospital here but succumbed to injuries.

The PDP leader was shot at three times from a close range with an AK assault rifle, he said, adding two bullets hit him in the chest and one in the shoulder.

No militants outfit has claimed responsibility for the killing so far.

This is second political killing in south Kashmir in a week.

On April 17, militants had shot dead a former public prosecutor affiliated with opposition National Conference in Shopian district.

Before joining PDP on November 1, 2014, Abdul Gani Dar had been associated with Congress party in various capacities.

(PTI)

Chhattisgarh: Naxals kill 24 CRPF personnel in encounter

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sukma naxals

Raipur: As many as 24 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have been killed in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Monday.

Earlier, it had been reported that seven CRPF personnel had been injured in an encounter with the rebels. Six of them are said to have been airlifted by helicopter to a medical facility for emergency treatment.

Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh cut short his New Delhi visit and rushed to Raipur. He has called an emergency meeting.

The encounter took place around 12:25 pm between the Burkapal-Chintagufa area of the worst Maoist violence-affected district in south Bastar area of the state.

“The Naxals fired at a patrolling party of the CRPF near Burkapal village leaving six personnel injured,” Special Director General (anti-Naxal operations) of Chhattisgarh Police, D M Awasthi told PTI.

The jawans are from the 74th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), including an Inspector-rank officer.

Reinforcement parties from the nearest CRPF camp were also rushed in, the officer added.

Twelve personnel of the CRPF were killed in the same district early this year in a deadly Naxal ambush.

(Agencies)

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