NEWS
DIGEST, Afternoon
21 March 2019: 13 Rajab 1440:Vol: 11, No:156
INDIA
NIA unlikely to appeal against Samjhauta blast
acquittal
New Delhi: NIA is unlikely to appeal against
the acquittal of the accused in the Samjhauta blast case, sources said adding
that the agency’s investigations into “Hindu terror cases” are over and there
was possibility of any fresh evidence cropping up. NIA’s investigators and
legal team had decided not to go on appeal against the acquittal of the
accused, including Swami Aseemanand, in Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blast cases in
2017 and 2018 respectively as evidence in all the cases was similar. The agency
is likely to take the same stand over the Samjhauta blast case, sources
said.Sources said two accused persons — Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange
— in these cases are still absconding but there is no aspect of alleged “Hindu
terror probe” is pending any more.Panchkula court’s verdict also means that
Swami Aseemanand, who was once described as the mastermind of 3 blasts carried
out by ‘Hindu’ extremists, is now a free man.TOI
Terror alien to Hindu culture, an effort to
distance it from jihadi terror: Jaitley
new delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on
Thursday attacked Congress-led UPA accusing it of proposing several
"contrarian theories" to target BJP-led government at Centre. In his
blog, Jaitley attacked the UPA government for coining the 'Hindu terror' theory
and for theorising that the 2002 Godhra train burning incident carried out from
inside of the train."The vicious theory of ‘Hindu terror’ was coined
during the UPA Government by important UPA Ministers and leaders. It was an
effort to distract attention from Jihadi terror," he wrote.Arguing that
terror is alien to Hindu culture, the Union minister said that the Wednesday's
verdict in the Samjhauta train blast case has "judicially put the last
nail in the coffin of the so-called ‘Hindu terror theory’."TOI
68 killed, all acquitted. BJP calls it
‘historic’
Pakistan Accuses India of 'Protecting Hindu
Terrorists' After Samjhauta Verdict, Summons Envoy
New Delhi: Pakistan government summoned the
Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad to protest against the acquittal of all
four accused in Samjhauta Express blast case, and accused the Indian government
of promoting and protecting ‘Hindu terrorists’. Ajay Bisaria was summoned by
the acting Pakistani foreign secretary, who lodged a strong protest against the
verdict, saying that Pakistan had consistently raised the "lack of
progress and the subsequent, concerted attempts by India to exonerate the
perpetrators of this heinous terrorist act in which 44 innocent Pakistanis lost
their lives." Sources said Bisaria rejected the assertions. "The issue was raised repeatedly,
including at the sidelines of the Senior Officials, Heart of Asia Meeting in
2016. Formal demarches were also lodged regularly with India on the lack of
progress and acquittal of the accused in other cases," Pakistan said in a
statement on Wednesday. The acquittal, Pakistan said, "makes a travesty of
justice and exposes the sham credibility of the Indian courts and belies the
rampant Indian duplicity and hypocrisy where India reflexively levels
allegations of terrorism against Pakistan, while protecting with impunity,
terrorists who had publicly confessed to their odious crimes." The
Pakistani government has further accused India of being insensitive to the
plight of the 44 families of the deceased Pakistanis and alleged that the
verdict was reflective of "Indian state policy of promoting and protecting
Hindu terrorists." Before pronouncing the verdict, NIA special judge
Jagdeep Singh dismissed the plea filed by a Pakistani woman for examining some
eyewitnesses from her country. News18
Samjhauta blast: Mehbooba Mufti questions
leniency towards saffron terror after court acquits all accused
Srinagar: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti
questioned the grounds on which the accused in the Samjhauta blast case were
acquitted by a court."Despite damning evidence, the accused, including a
former RSS member, have been acquitted. God forbid, had they been Kashmiris/Muslims,
they would be pronounced guilty and imprisoned without even a fair trial. Why
such double standards and leniency towards saffron terror?" former Jammu
and Kashmir chief minister asked.PTI
Samjhauta Express blast case: No one knows who
killed 68 people, says Kapil Sibal
New Delhi :A day after a special court
acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in Samjhauta Express blast case,
senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal Thursday remarked on the verdict that “no
one knows” who killed 68 people, it must be a “proud day” for the criminal
justice system.Sibal tweeted: “2007 : Samjhauta Express Bomb Blast, 68 killed.
NIA charged 8 accused. “Verdict : No one knows who killed the 68 victims. Must
be a proud day for our criminal justice system !”.PTI
Samjhauta Express case verdict: NIA should be
held accountable, says former probe officer
Samjhauta Express blast:Who will answer for
death of my 5 kids asks Shaukat Ali
New Delhi :“Who will answer for the death of
my 5 children? Who killed them? The verdict has taken the life out of me. I was
never asked by anyone to testify in court,” Rana Shaukat Ali (61) said over
phone from his home in Pakistan’s Faisalabad.Ali and his wife Rubsana (54) lost
5 of their children in the Samjhauta Express blast. The couple survived with
their youngest daughter, Aksa Shehzadi, who is now 12. Now, they have another
daughter Khajija (7). “Hindu or Muslim, they were children after all. Who
killed them? You tell me,” said Rubsana.The couple said they had visited India
thrice after the blast, and not once were they intimated by Indian or Pakistani
authorities that they could testify in court. “If I could have given my
statement, maybe the trial could have taken a different turn,” Ali said.In
2007, couple and their 6 children visited Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar for a relative’s
wedding. “I still remember my children dancing. My eldest daughter Aisha
Tabassum (16) was to take her Class X exams. I remember brushing her hair,”
Rubsana said.Ali remembers that ill-fated journey. His sons Bilal (12)and Amir
(11) were tucked under blankets, and Aisha was chatting with her sister Asma
Shehzadi (8).When the blast took place, Ali jumped out of the train in the
chaos. His wife followed with their youngest daughter.“There was smoke all
over. My children burnt to death,” Ali said.Ali recalled that two men sitting
in his coach had been questioned by Railway Police. “They said they were going
to Ahmedabad, and the policemen asked them what they were doing on a train to
Lahore. They deboarded 10-15 minutes before the blast. I kept telling
investigators that I can identify them. No one listened.”indianexpress
Samjhauta case verdict: I feel humiliated,
says UP tailor Zakir who lost his parents
Lucknow:He remembers hearing a loud blast, and
waking up in a Delhi hospital with burn injuries on his hands and legs. Weeks
later, his brother came across the charred body of his mother. He still hasn’t
got the body of his father.On Wednesday, Mohammad Zakir, a 46-year-old tailor
from UP’s Bijnor, came to know from his friends and relatives in Delhi that an
NIA court had acquitted all 4 accused in the Samjhauta blast, which scarred his
life 12 years ago. “I feel humiliated,” he said.“I had got my statement
recorded before the court as a witness. I am not at all satisfied with the
verdict. I will file an appeal after consulting my family members. I lost my
parents in the blast and I will not let the accused go free,” he said.On
Feb.18, 2007, Zakir and his parents, Mohammad Saddiq (68) and Ashraf-un-Shah
(62), were travelling from Delhi to Lahore on Samjhauta Express to visit
relatives when the blast occurred near Panipat. Recalling the days after the
blast, Zakir said: “My elder brother Iftikar Ahmed (50) rushed to Panipat but
failed to get any information about my parents. He returned home and again went
to Panipat with copies of their visa and passports to show the police. They
collected his blood samples, which matched with DNA recovered from a charred
body… that was my mother. The body of my father could not be traced.”indian
express
Samjhauta Express blast: Anything could have
happened, say survivors
New Delhi: At first,Jamiluddin thought robbers
had stopped the train. When he looked out, he saw it was up in flames.“When I
saw the burning coach, I shouted to everyone to run for their lives,” said 74-year-old,
seated inside his 2-room house at Delhi’s Turkman Gate. “I was called around
two-three years ago to a Panchkula court to identify the accused. I really
don’t recognise anyone and that’s what I told the court,” said Jamiluddin, who
runs a shop. On Wednesday evening, his children dissuaded him from remembering
that night. “It disturbs him, he will fall sick,” said a family member.“I was
going to attend my grandson’s wedding in Pakistan and was carrying jewellery
and gifts for my daughter, sister-in-law and other relatives. I didn’t have
time to jump out with my bags and lost all the jewellery I had packed in them .
I also hurt my back but was relieved to be alive,” recalled Jamiluddin.He said
he has not followed the case and was “not bothered” by the verdict. Ishtikar
Ali, who is a resident of Ghaziabad was seated two coaches from the ill-fated
coach of Samjhauta Express when he was woken up by stone-pelting on the window
of the train. Also on the train was advocate Tahir, who was travelling with
wife Uzma to Lahore in Pakistan. He was woken by the chaos after the blast in
the train.“We got down hurriedly from the train with our luggage. The security
officials came and checked our passports. Anything could have happened,”
recalled Tahir.indianexpress
Samjhauta Express blast case: Owaisi expresses
dissatisfaction over aquittal
Hyderabad: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi,
expressed dissatisfaction on Swami Aseemanand and three others being acquitted
in Samjhauta Express blast case. He also called the acquittal as 'shoddy
prosecution'."68 dead and nothing to account for them, nothing to say that
justice has been done."How long is one going to hear of acquittals because
of deliberately shoddy prosecutions?," tweeted Owaisi.timesofindia
'No courage to say Muslim': Pakistan slams
India's condemnation of NZ attacks
On Wednesday, Qureshi, who is Pakistan's
foreign minister, accused the Indian government of omitting the words 'Muslim'
and 'mosque' in its statement condemning the terrorist attacks on mosques in
New Zealand.Dawn quoted Qureshi as saying New Delhi "did not have the
courage" to use the words 'Muslim' or 'mosque' in its condemnation of New
Zealand attacks. Qureshi even claimed that Pakistan would not distinguish
between the religion of victims of terrorism. "If, God forbid, there had
been an attack on a Hindu temple, Pakistan would have stood with India,"
Qureshi declared.“PM strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attack at the
places of worship in Christchurch,” ministry of external affairs tweeted,
adding the prime minister had sent a letter to his New Zealand counterpart,
expressing his condolences.theweek
Another terror attack on India will be ‘extremely
problematic’, US warns Pakistan
Washington:US has warned Pakistan that another
terror attack on India will prove to be “extremely problematic” and asked
Islamabad to take more “concrete and sustained” actions to rein in terror
groups, including JeM and LeT. At the White House, a senior administration
official said: “If there’s any additional terrorist attack without Pakistan
having made a sustained, sincere effort against these groups, it would be
extremely problematic for Pakistan and it would cause re-escalation of
tensions, which is dangerous for both countries.” Asked about the steps being
taken by Pakistan in the aftermath of the Balakot air strike by Indian fighter
jets, he said on the condition of anonymity that US and the international
community needed to see “irreversible and sustained” actions against the terror
groups.PTI
Resolve post-Pulwama differences bilaterally,
China-led SCO tells India, Pakistan
China-led regional security bloc, Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has said India and Pakistan should resolve their
differences in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack bilaterally, cautioning them
against any spillover of the animosity in the group.India and Pakistan also
have to remain committed to fighting terrorism, the newly appointed SCO
secretary-general, Vladimir Norov said.“Otherwise, it would be impossible for two
States to participate in the SCO,” he added.Norov said the SCO members were
“sincerely glad” that the “calls for restraint and a political and diplomatic
solution to bilateral conflicts from all SCO member states were heard by the
parties”.HT
NDA Government orchestrated Pulwama carnage
for votes: SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram
Gopal Yadav said that the Pulwama carnage was orchestrated by NDA government at
the Centre in order to win votes. He said he is saddened at the sacrifice of
the jawans for votes and questioned how it is possible that there were no
security blockades on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. He even claimed that senior
officials in the paramilitary forces had requested to be transported either by
air or in armoured vehicles but instead they were transported in normal buses.
“I’m sad that soldiers were killed just for votes, there was no checking
between Jammu and Srinagar. The soldiers were being transported in normal buses
– this is a conspiracy. I don’t want to say right now but there will be an
investigation when the government will change,” the veteran SP leader said.
Times Now
Kashmiri School Principal 'Brutally Tortured,
Burnt' Before Custodial Death
Srinagar: The family of the young school
principal from Awantipora who died in police custody claimed on Thursday that
the victim had torture marks all over his body. Preliminary post-mortem
findings have suggested that “profuse bleeding resulting from multiple
injuries” could have caused the death that triggered massive protests in
Kashmir.On Thursday, Rizwan Asad’s family members staged a protest on
Srinagar-Jammu highway at Awantipora Chowk, demanding that the state
authorities make public the postmortem report and book the accused who
“murdered our son”.“My brother (Rizwan) had been brutally tortured. He was
murdered in custody,” said Mubashir Hussain, Rizwan’s brother, who led the
protest. Scores of villagers, including Sikhs, joined him.According to
Mubashir, 30-year-old Rizwan had “multiple horizontal cuts” on both thighs.
“The thighs had turned black as if they had been burnt…there were cuts on the
thighs. He had a swollen and bruised abdomen,” Mubashir told The Wire.“Also, my
brother’s right leg had swollen heavily and it had turned dark red. I could
feel that the leg had been broken,” said Mubashir, adding that doctors at the
Srinagar hospital where Rizwan’s autopsy was conducted told them that he had
also suffered an injury to his spinal cord.Assadullah Pandit, Rizwan’s father,
added that his son had two or three stitches on his head, on the left side.
“His left eye was bruised and swollen, as if it had been hit with force,” said
Pandit.“People don’t die in custody, they are killed. My son was killed in
custody,” said Pandit, as he broke down during the protests. While doctors at
Government Medical College are expected to submit the post-mortem report by
Saturday, a senior official said the preliminary findings have suggested that
“profuse bleeding from vessels caused due to multiple injuries” could have
resulted in the death.“Extravasation of blood simulating antemortem bruising
could have become cause of his death. In such a case there is also a
possibility that severe internal bleeding blocks the vessels resulting in
kidney failure which results in death,” said the official.He corroborated the
statement of Rizwan’s family members that the victim had “multiple and deep
cuts on his bums” and injuries on other body parts including “heamatoma in right
leg arm and eye”. thewire
Custody death: Valley principal had ‘multiple
injuries’, says initial probe
Outraged Srinagar Protests Against Custodial
Death Of School Principal
Srinagar: Srinagar has been marred with
protests today against the custodial death of a school principal on Tuesday.
Awantipora, the hometown of the victim, Rizwan Asad Pandit, saw hundreds of
people visiting the family of the victim to stand in solidarity.The protests,
led by National Conference general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, were taken out
from the party headquarters. Police intercepted the march soon, after which the
protesters dispersed peacefully.Scores of activists and NC leaders demanded
stern punishment for the death of 29-year-old Rizwan Asad Pandit, a principal
of a private school at Awantipore, Pulwama.Showing photographs of the victim's
body on a mobile phone at a press conference in Awantipora, his brother
Mubashir said the family is even ready for exhumation of the body to show those
torture marks to anybody.ndtv
Shutdown in Kashmir to protest custodial death
J&K:Soldier killed in Pak ceasefire
violation in Rajouri
Jammu :An Army jawan was killed on Thursday as
Pakistani troops, in yet another incident of ceasefire violation, resorted to
mortar shelling and small arms fire, targeting forward Indian posts and
civilian areas along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sunderbani and
Nowshera sectors of Rajouri district. The deceased soldier Identifyied as
Rifleman Yash Paul, 24, of Chenani in Udhampur district.He is the second
soldier killed in unprovoked Pakistani firing in Sunderbani sector during the
last 3 days. indianexpress
Kerala:Jamaat-e-Islami Hindserves notice on
Malayali web portal
Kozhikode :Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Kerala, has
served a legal notice on Marunadan Malayali web portal.In a release,
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said that while carrying a news report on the ban on
Jamaa-e-Islami, Jammu and Kashmir, the portal carried a picture of their name
board. Both are different organisations. The organisation said it would
initiate steps to seek Rs.one crore in damages if the news report was not
removed and an apology not carried on YouTube channel.thehindu
Nearly 3 crore farm labourers lost their jobs
in last 4 years reports NSSO
The number of casual farm labourers has gone
down by 40% in the last four years, according to the Periodic Labour Force
Survey (PLFS) 2017-2018 report by NSSO which the government has declined to
release.The details revealed by the survey proves as completely false the tall
claims of the Narendra Modi government that it has brought ‘Achchhe Din’ (good
days) for the common men.According to the NSSO survey, as many as 3.2 crore
casual labourers lost their jobs in rural India between 2011-12 and 2017-18, of
these almost 3 crore were working on farms.As against 36 million families who
depended mainly on income from casual farm work in 2011-12, only 21 million
families now depend on farm work. This means 15 million families have moved
away from the farming sector.This indicates over 40% shrinkage in the casual
farm labour workforce since 2011-12. Casual labourers are those employed from
time to time when work is required to be done in farms.nationalheraldindia
Lok Sabha Elections LIVE: BJP declares first
list of LS candidates, PM Modi to contest from Varanasi
BJP declared its first list of 182 candidates
for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.The party’s Central Election
Committee had met for the third time in a week on Saturday to pick its
candidates for the April-May Lok Sabha elections, but stopped short of
announcing their names.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP Chief Amit Shah, Home
Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj and other senior leaders of the party sat for over four
hours to discuss the names of possible candidates in Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal.BJP has, however, named its candidates for some assembly seats for
Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the states where assembly
elections are being held simultaneously with parliamentary polls.HT
Satta bazaar in MP bets on BJP getting 246 seats
BHOPAL: Satta trends in Madhya Pradesh predict
a Narendra Modi comeback. Bookies are bullish on BJP, giving 246-249 seats to
the saffron party and 76-78 seats to Congress.The satta bazaar had come uncannily
close to predicting the scoreline in the 2018 assembly election — 116 for
Congress and 102-plus for BJP. But Lok Sabha election is a vastly different
ball game, and much has changed between the assembly polls and now. It's still
early days and the candidate lists are yet to be out, but MP punters are giving
21 of the state’s 29 LS seats to BJP Both Congress and BJP, however, are
confident they will get more.TOI
Dozen BJD lawmakers quit Naveen Patnaik’s
party in last 7 days
The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha has
suffered a serious setback with at least a dozen senior leaders, including 3
sitting MPs and 4 sitting MLAs, deserting the party in the last seven days.The
Naveen Patnaik led BJD was the first party to declare its list of candidates
for the first phase of the elections to the Odisha Assembly as well as Lok
Sabha elections. Odisha would see simultaneous polls to the Assembly and Lok
Sabha on April 11, 18, 23 and 29.Sitting MLAs from Dasapalla, Aska, Gunupur and
Nilagiri resigned from the BJD while sitting MPs from Kalahandi, Kandhamal and
Nabarangpur resigned from the party after being ignored during the nomination
process.HT
BJP MLA Yogesh Verma shot at during Holi
celebrations in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow:Unidentified gunmen shot at Yogesh
Verma, BJP lawmaker from Lakhimpur assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, on
Thursday during Holi celebrations. The incident happened around 3 pm while he
was on his way back to Rajgarh residence after celebrating Holi at his office
in Patel Nagar area of the city.When he reached near the Guru Nanak Inter
College, some unidentified gunmen shot at Verma. He was below his right knee,
Kheri police said. The attackers fled spot.HT
Former BJP MP Uday Singh joins Congress, may
contest Lok Sabha polls
Former BJP MP from Bihar's Purnia district,
Uday Singh, on Wednesday joined the Congress and is likely to contest the Lok
Sabha polls from the Purnia seat."I have joined the Congress and will do
whatever the party will ask me to do," Singh said at a press meet at the
Congress headquarters here.Singh said he was happy to return to the Congress.
He had joined the BJP in 2004 following the request of then Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee. He had contested the then Lok Sabha polls and won.nationalheraldindia
Karnataka: Muslim neighbours sponsor Hindu
girl's wedding
A poor Hindu girl’s wedding was organised and
sponsored by her Muslim neighbours. The incident has been reported from
Karuvelu near Uppinangady in Karnataka. The bride, Revati, works in a factory
and was in a relationship with Sharat, a resident of Salmara.Even though their
families were agreeable to the match, Revati’s family was unable to afford the
expenses due to a dire financial crunch. That’s when her Muslim neighbours
stepped in and extended help by talking to the boy’s family and finalising the
date. They also offered to make all necessary arrangements for the same.The
expenditure for the wedding including Mangalasutra and two sets of dresses for
the bride was borne by Latif K Aboobacker, owner of Niha Dresses, Shabeer,
Ashraf, Puttumonu and others.bangaloremirror
Mosque covered ahead of Holi in communally
sensitive Aligarh
The district administration on Wednesday
covered the decades-old Sabji Mandi mosque with a cloth in the
communally-sensitive Aligarh city. Authorities said the move was in line with
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath's last year's directions to all district
officials that, if required, all religious places should be covered with cloth
so that Holi colours could not be thrown on these. Such incidents in the past
have led to tensions between communities here. This particular mosque in the
area, which has a mixed population, was covered ahead of last year's Holi
too. BSP councillor Musharaff Husain
Mazhar, however, raised the questions to cover the mosque, saying no purpose
will be served. "Is the government trying to prove that Hindus create
tensions by targeting religious places of another community during
festivals," he said. Mazhar said he would speak to the administration as
such steps create divisions between the two communities. "We also
celebrate Holi and Diwali with our Hindu brothers, then why this divide is
being created by the government," he added. TOI
Rohtak: Muslim vendors allege goons cut their
beards
Rohtak: A Muslim father and son duo who sell
crockery in the streets were allegedly assaulted by goons and their beards
forcibly cut at Sanjarwas village of Charkhi-Dadri district. In their police
complaint filed on March 18, Uttar Pradesh residents Muhammad Indresh and his
son Mohsin, said that when they got off a bus at Sanjarwas village on March 14,
four-five youths asked them the purpose of their visit, thrashed them and
hurled abuses at them. They also said that the accused threatened them and
forcibly got their beards cut, and they were saved from their clutches by
passersby.The complainants added that they were so terrified that they returned
home that day without saying anything. Later they found out that the goons who
beat them were Rakesh Kumar, Harkesh Kumar, Attar Singh, Jonny Kumar, all
residents of Sanjarwas village. The complainant then approached the police and
sought strict action against the accused.
Police said they were probing the case.TOI
WORLD
Turkey calls OIC meeting on Islamophobia after
NZ attacks
Turkey has called an emergency meeting of the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the New Zealand mosque
attacks and "increasing violence based on Islamophobia".The country's
foreign ministry said in a statement published on Thursday that Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu would chair the meeting held in Istanbul on
Friday."Turkey, as the OIC Summit Chair, has called upon holding an
emergency meeting for discussing the increasing violence based on Islamophobia,
racism and xenophobia, in particular the terrorist attack that targeted two
mosques in New Zealand on 15 March 2019," the statement said.It also said
that apart from OIC members, the representatives of the UN, the European Union
and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were also
invited to the meeting.On Wednesday, the Labour party in the United Kingdom has
officially adopted the definition of Islamophobia, saying it was important to
to "build a common understanding of its causes and consequences, and
express solidarity with Muslim communities".The definition states:
"Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets
expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness." Turkey's announcement
came a week after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last Wednesday
that her foreign minister would travel to Turkey to "confront"
comments made by President Tayyip Erdogan on the Christchurch mosque shootings
that killed 50 people.Erdogan, while campaigning for March 31 local elections,
said on Tuesday that Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if New
Zealand did not.He presented the attack as part of an assault on Turkey and
Islam and warned anti-Muslim Australians would be "sent back in
coffins" like their grandfathers at Gallipoli - a blood-drenched World War
I battle.aljazeera
New Zealand bans assault weapons after mosque
massacre
New Zealand has banned the sale of assault
rifles and semi-automatic weapons after the country's worst-ever attack that
killed 50 Muslims in two mosques."Be assured this is just the beginning of
the work we'll be doing," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news
conference on Thursday."It's in the national interest and it's about
safety... to prevent an act of terror from ever happening again in our
country," she said of the ban.aljazeera
Man wanting Christchurch like attack in India
sacked, deported from UAE
Dubai: An employee of UAE-based Transguard
Group has been sacked and deported after he allegedly celebrated the massacre
of Muslims in New Zealand last week. He posted an insensitive comment on
Facebook expressing his approval of the terror attacks and also suggested that
such attacks should also happen in India."Over the weekend, a Transguard
employee made inflammatory comments on his personal Facebook account
celebrating the deplorable mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. This
prompted an internal investigation, which uncovered the fact that the
individual in question had been posting his views on social media under an
assumed name", the company said in a statement posted on its
website."After verifying this person’s actual identity, he was apprehended
by Transguard, stripped of his security credentials, terminated from our
employment and handed over to the relevant authorities as per company policy
and UAE Cybercrime Law", company said.ummid.com/
UK: Counter-terrorism officials investigate
overnight attacks at four Birmingham mosques
Counter-terrorism officers in England are
investigating overnight attacks on four mosques in Birmingham city following
reports that a man with a sledgehammer was seen smashing windows at 2 of them,
AFP reported on Thursday.Chief Constable Dave Thompson said the motive for the
attacks is not known yet. “What I can say is that the [police] force and the
counter terrorism unit are working side-by-side to find whoever is
responsible,” police said.The incidents came nearly a week after a 28-year-old
Australian citizen opened fire at two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch
city and killed 50 people last Friday.scroll.in
Officials: US will recognise Israel’s
sovereignty over Golan heights next week
Senior Israeli officials have reported that United
States may be preparing to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Syrian Golan
Heights, and suggested that the announcement could occur as early as next week.Speaking
on condition of anonymity, the senior Israeli officials stated that they
believe that the Trump administration is planning to formally recognise
Israel’s authority over the occupied Golan Heights after decades of
non-recognition by the US and others, according to a report released by Israel’s
Channel 3 this morning.The Golan Heights were captured by Israel during the Six
Day War in 1967 from the Syrian army, which used the strategic high ground
overlooking Galilee to launch attacks and retaliations on Israeli territory.
Since then, the area has been recognised as highly strategic in maintaining
Israel’s dominance over the Syrian border. Israel administered the Heights
through military law until 1981, in the same way in which it administered the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, before the Menachem Begin government directly applied
Israeli law and effectively annexed the territory to the Israeli state. middleeastmonitor
Palestine official renews rejection of
dialogue with US
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestine-official-renews-rejection-of-dialogue-with-us/1424928
Ramallah:Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for
the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), reiterated the PA’s refusal on
Thursday to hold dialogue with the U.S. administration. Abu Rudeineh attributed
the move to Washington's “recent retreat from its longstanding positions on
Jerusalem, [Palestinian] refugees and [Israeli] settlements”. At a press conference held at the
Palestinian Information Ministry’s Ramallah headquarters, Abu Rudeineh said the
Palestinian leadership “will not be cowed into accepting the so-called ‘Deal of
the Century’”.The “Deal of the Century” is a backchannel US plan to secure a
peace settlement between the Palestinians and Israel.Anadolu Agency
Israel bans Mother's Day event in East
Jerusalem
JERUSALEM :Israeli police on Thursday banned
an annual event marking Mother's Day at the French Culture Center in East
Jerusalem. According to witnesses, police detained at least one Palestinian
woman outside the center.Organized by the Jerusalem Girls Association,
Thursday’s event -- intended to honor prominent Jerusalem women and showcase
local handicrafts -- was timed to coincide with Mother's Day, which in
Palestine is commemorated on March 21.Israeli police, however, preempted the
event, surrounding the culture center and denying entry to would-be
participants.Anadolu Agency
Israeli forces kill Palestinian near
checkpoint in West Bank
A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli
gunfire in the occupied West Bank, marking the fourth Palestinian killed in 24
hours.The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its crew treated a man with two
bullet wounds at an Israeli military checkpoint near the city of Bethlehem on
Wednesday and that Israeli forces had shot him.The Palestinian Health Ministry
identified the man as 26-year-old Ahmad Manasra from the village of Wadi Fuqin
near Bethlehem.aljazeera
Bahrain NGO slams conference for inviting
Israelis
MANAMA :A Bahraini NGO has criticized Manama's
plan to host three Israeli speakers for the upcoming 2019 Global Entrepreneurship
Congress, which will be held in the Bahraini capital from April 15 to
18.“Bahraini people will not allow those responsible for killing our
Palestinian brothers to participate in an event on our territory,” the Bahraini
Society Against Normalization, which opposes diplomatic normalization with
Israel, tweeted Thursday.Using two Arabic-language hashtags, “Bahrain rejects
normalization” and “No to murderers’ entry into Bahrain”, NGO also retweeted posts by Bahraini
activists opposed to normalized ties with Israel.Anadolu
Dozens dead as ferry sinks in Tigris River
near Iraq's Mosul
At least 40 people die, officials say, with
most of casualties being women and children celebrating Nowruz holiday.Dozens
of people have died after a ferry carrying families celebrating the Nowruz
holiday capsized in Tigris river near the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to
officials.Husam Khalil, the head of Mosul's Civil Defence Authority, was quoted
as saying by news agencies that at least 40 people were killed in Thursday's
accident.Most of the casualties were women and children who could not swim,
Halil said.The apparently overloaded vessel is believed to had been carrying
around 200 people celebrating the holiday of Nowruz, which marks the Kurdish new
year and the arrival of spring, when it sank. The holiday is celebrated as the
Persian New Year in Iran.aljazeera
UAE’s bin Zayed ‘proposed killing Taliban
leaders’:Middle East Eye
Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu
Dhabi, offered to set up a covert assassination programme targeting senior
Taliban leaders during a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier
this year, Middle East Eye has learnt.Bin Zayed made the offer during Pompeo’s
visit to the United Arab Emirates on 12 January amid disagreements between the
pair over the progress of peace talks between US and Taliban
negotiators.According to a source with detailed knowledge of the meeting, bin
Zayed told Pompeo that Washington risked allowing Afghanistan to fall back into
the hands of the “backward, bearded bad guys” and proposed hiring mercenaries
to kill Taliban leaders to weaken the group’s negotiating position.Pompeo was
visibly taken aback by the offer, but said nothing, the source said.UAE has
previously supported US efforts to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, and
hosted a first round of face-to-face negotiations between the two sides on 20
Dec.last year in Abu Dhabi.But bin Zayed is understood to have been frustrated
that subsequent rounds of talks were moved to Doha, the capital of Qatar, at
the Taliban’s insistence.According to MEE’s source,bin Zayed also warned Pompeo
that withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan risked turning back the clock
to 2001, prior to US-led invasion that overthrew Taliban government in Kabul.US
hopes that a negotiated deal with Taliban, which continues to battle Afghan
government and international forces, could allow it to start withdrawing some
of its 14,000 troops still in the country before the end of 2019.Bin Zayed
suggested instead organising and funding what he described as a
“Blackwater-style” operation to “wage an assassination campaign against the
first-line leadership of the Taliban” in order to prevent it from achieving its
chief political demands, the source said.middleeasteye
Multiple blasts rock Afghan capital, 6 dead
KABUL:At least six people were killed and
close to 30 others wounded in multiple explosions in the Afghan capital Kabul
on Thursday, the country’s Health Ministry said.Baseer Mujahed, a spokesman for
the Afghan National Police in Kabul, said IED blasts rocked the Karta-e-Sakhi
neighborhood in west Kabul during the Nevruz celebrations marking the beginning
of spring.Earlier, Mujahed had said two people got killed and over a dozen more
were injured in these blasts. However, the Ministry of Public Health later
revised the death toll to 6 and injury toll to 29.Anadolu Agency
Russian airstrikes kill 5 civilians in Syria’s
Idlib
IDLIB:5 civilians were killed and five others
injured in overnight airstrikes in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, according
to sources with the White Helmets civil defense agency.Airstrikes that
continued until Thursday morning claimed the lives of four children and their
father in al-Faqie village, with the mother being rescued from debris, sources
said.The attacks taking place at dawn also targeted the villages of Frikeh,
Sheikh Mustafa, Al Hamidiyah, Hbit and the outskirts of the town of Kafr
Rumah.Anadolu Agency
ISIS territory nearly eliminated, will be
erased from Syria by today: Trump
Washington :US President Donald Trump said
Wednesday that the Islamic State's last bastion in Syria will be
"gone" by the end of the day.He showed off maps that illustrate the
dramatic shrinking of territory held by the jihadist group in the period from
his election in 2016 and now. In one map shown by Trump to reporters in
Washington and then again at a rally to factory workers in Lima, Ohio, IS
territory marked in red extends over large areas. A second map, he said, shows
the jihadist organization about to be wiped out."There is no red. In fact,
there's actually a tiny spot which will be gone by tonight," he
said.Fighting continued in Baghouz, Syria, on Wednesday, but the IS jihadists
are down to a tiny scrap of land, where they are surrounded and under heavy
fire from a US-led coalition of Kurds, Syrians and others.AFP/PTI
Syria rights group: Thousands killed by regime
at Al-Mezzeh ‘slaughterhouse’ Hospital
More than 6,000 people were executed in 21
months by the forces of President Bashar Al-Assad at Al-Mezzeh 601 Military
Hospital near Damascus, the Syrian Legal Commission (SLC) has revealed in a
memorandum to UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria,
calling the facility a “slaughterhouse”.The commission provided evidence of
widespread torture and extrajudicial killings committed by government troops al
the Al-Mezzeh base, including the testimony of a regime dissident and the names
of 43 soldiers and doctors who led the campaign of abuse.The defector stated
that some 70 bodies a week were transferred from the hospital in designated
trucks to a nearby crematorium where they would be burned so as to remove any
evidence of torture. The extent of the violence committed resulted in several
soldiers defecting from the military; however, the source said one was caught
prior to his escape and was also tortured to death.Much of the abuse took place
within the hospital’s trauma department due to its secluded nature and was
restricted to only intelligence officials. The 601 military bases is believed
to be one of the detention centres at which the Caesar photos were taken in
2014, which documented 11,000 victims who had died from torture during their
detention.middleeastmonitor
Pakistan: Sirajul Haq re-elected
Jamaat-e-Islami chief
KARACHI:Senator Sirajul Haq has been
re-elected as emir (chief) of Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) -- the country’s
mainstream religious party -- for another 5-year term, the party’s election
commission announced on Thursday. Announcing the results, Asadullah Bhutto,
JI’s election commissioner, at the party’s headquarters in northeastern Lahore city,
said Haq won the election with a “huge majority”.According to the JI
traditions, no one is actually a candidate for the top slot, however the
Majlis-e-Shoora (central executive council) gave 3 names to over 39,000 party
members -- male and female -- for “guidance purpose”.This time, apart from Haq,
the other two figures were party’s incumbent secretary general, Liaquat Baloch,
and deputy chief Professor Ibrahim Khan.Currently, Jamaat has over 39,124
members apart from hundreds of thousands of workers and supporters.Haq is the
JI’s fifth emir since its inception in 1941.Haq, 56, has been elected as the JI
chief for the second consecutive term.Anadolu Agency
Flash: views &
NEWS
The hypocrisy of New Zealand's 'this is not
us' claim:Is Brenton Tarrant really an aberration?Sahar Ghumkhor
Debate: Do Muslim Lives Even
Matter?Apoorvanand
Here's Why Investigators Saw Clear Hindutva
Link to Samjhauta Bombing:Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
Until we realise our several complicities, it
will continue to rage: Apoorvanand
If I Had Got More Than a Minute to Speak: Arun
Shourie on Rafale Proceedings in SC:Arun Shourie
Interview | 'Radicalism Is Spurred by
Nationalism More Than Religion': Fatima Bhutto
‘We will be targeted’: Mizoram’s plan to
initiate Assam-like NRC worries state’s Chakmas:Arunabh Saikia
Mullah Omar and the art of hiding in plain
sight - Q&A: Shereena Qazi
First the delay, and then the haste to appoint
the Lok Pal is suspicious:Uttam Sengupta
2014-2019: 14 instances when Intelligence
failures led to ghastly terror attacks
How A Teacher’s Death Revived Brutal Memories
of J&K’s Cargo Camp:JEHANGIR ALI
Compiled and edited by
Anwarulhaq (Released at: 8:10 PM)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment