NEWS
DIGEST, EVENING
12 May 2019:
06 Ramazan 1440:Vol: 11, No:199
INDIA
Expedite India’s red notice requests, CBI
tells Interpol
New Delhi:Rishi Kumar Shulka, the director of
CBI , on a recent visit to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France, is believed
to have asked the international police organisation to expedite India’s “red
notice” requests against high profile fugitives, a CBI officer familiar with
the matter said on condition of anonymity.Shukla, the officer said, asked
Interpol’s senior functionaries to take a decision on the red notice requests
from India for about a dozen top economic offenders including Nitin Jayantilal
Sandesara, his brother Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, and the latter’s wife Dipti
Chetan Sandesara; Winsome group promoter Jatin Mehta, his wife Sonia and son
Suraj Mehta; and Zakir Naik.The director travelled to Lyon in the second week
of April to attend the annual conference of the National Central Bureaus
(NCBs). NCBs are the Interpol’s zonal offices in 194 member countries. In
India, it is run from the CBI’s headquarters.HT
ED may invoke the Fugitive Act against Zakir
Naik
So far, Indian authorities have failed to
convince Interpol to issue a red corner notice against Zakir Naik. They could,
however, nail him in a money-laundering case, thereby initiating a move to
bring him back from Malaysia to India. “The Enforcement Directorate is
considering invoking the Fugitive [Economic Offenders] Act against him,” ED
director S.K. Mishra told The Week. On May 2, the agency named Naik in its
charge-sheet, saying it had identified Rs 193.06 crore as the proceeds of
crime. The ED’s investigation is based on a NIA probe on Naik for spreading
communal disharmony, misusing funds for terror activities and money laundering.
It is the ED’s second charge-sheet in the case; the first one did not name
Naik.theweek
I worry about our family back home: Zakir
Naik's wife Farhat
Strong, articulate and educated, Farhat is a
few months older than her husband Zakir Naik. In an interview with The Week,
she spoke about Naik and her worries about returning to India and her
unflinching faith in God. Farhat said, "We had left home on a 15-day tour
for umrah, and while we were there, we came to know that we could not go back
home. It did come as a shock, but thanks to God almighty, things are all right
now. The belief in Allah makes us stronger each day. The only pain I feel today
is for the people back home and the kind of harassment they are going through.
Mainly the family members, like his brother, sister and all his family members.
Even my family members, like my brothers were called and interrogated all the
way from Pune to Mumbai and Delhi. It is really painful to see them going
through this. Otherwise all of us have taken it in our stride and we feel this
is part of the test from Allah. Their phones are being tapped so we don't even
talk to them, that saddens us. The good work that was going on has also
stopped." She further said, "There is nothing in this world a woman
cannot do, except for a few things the Quran does not allow. The media
portrayal of women in Islam not being able to do certain things and being
backward is wrong. Islam gives her the right to do everything. There are
certain things which Quran does not allow even for men, such as acting,
dancing, singing and working in pubs. When you are among women, swaying or
singing is fine, but if you are doing it in front of other men, it is
exhibiting your physical qualities in front of them and it is not right. Women
have a lot of important roles to play. A teacher, engineer, or doctor undergoes
many years of training, but unfortunately, a woman is simply pushed into
motherhood. How many years of training does she have? She is creating the most
important product, which is the human life."theweek
Held as ‘Bangladeshi’, Assam villager returns
as ‘Indian’ after 3 years
Moments before he left the Goalpara Central
Jail in western Assam on May 7, Rehat Ali had promised the jail superintendent
he would not say anything bad about his “home” of more than three years.The
jail doubles as a detention centre — one of six in Assam — for people declared
foreigners by a quasi-judicial Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT). The State has 100
such tribunals that adjudicate the Foreigners’ Act of 1946 to decide the fate
of people suspected to be Bangladeshi by Assam Police’s border wing, formed in
1962 to initially prevent infiltration of Pakistani nationals.“I gave him my
word,” said Mr. Ali. “But it is better to be dead than live there like a laash
[corpse],” he added.Having dropped out of primary school almost 60 years ago,
Mr. Ali had such a poor knowledge of numbers that he never noticed that his
voter ID showed him to be a 55-year-old, which was at odds with the “66” that
he orally submitted as his age to the tribunal in 2015. The “discrepancy” in
age was a key reason that led FT at the nearest town Hajo, about 35 km west of
Guwahati, to doubt his citizenship.He could also not recall the date when his
father Muniruddin had shifted from Bagnapota, 20 km away in Nalbari district,
because the village was facing erosion by Brahmaputra. And his name was
recorded variously as ‘Rehat Ali’ and ‘Rehaja Ali’ in different documents.But
life in captivity taught him to count his days unlike four other inmates, who
died of depression during his stay. “How can I forget the number of days I was
deemed a Bangladeshi? They killed the Indian in me every day for 1197 days
before I walked to freedom,” he said.thehindu
Migration from drought-hit Kutch: 250 herder
families, 10000 cattle left high & dry in Sanand
Ahmedabad :Mohammed Soda used to work as a
driver till last year.This year, with severe drought ravaging India’s largest
grassland Banni, in Kutch district, Soda temporarily gave up his job to take
care of his family of five and the 50 cows and buffaloes he owns, and travelled
400 kms to Sanand in search of food and water. However, with Ahmedabad district
collector refusing to allocate fodder for cattle, an estimated 250 Muslim
families like Soda’s, who have migrated to Sanand with around 10,000 cattle are
uncertain about their immediate future.Temporary shelters made of wooden sticks
and gunny bags that mimic the traditional mud houses in Kutch locally called
“bhunga” have sprouted near Sanand alongside the Sanand-Viramgam highway. 30
families including that of Soda’s have made this plot of land their home for
the last 8 months. “The district administration has not given us anything so
far, and a few days ago they asked us to return to Kutch. How can we go back?”
Soda asks. “Each one of us has spent almost Rs 25,000 to migrate here with our
cattle. We cannot go back till the monsoon arrives,” he says, sitting under a
neem tree, sipping tea as his toddler plays with a wooden toy.“We have locked
our houses and come here.The least the government can do is to help us,
especially this year,” Soda said, referring to the poor rainfall that Kutch
received during 2018 monsoon. The district – where all the 10 talukas have been
declared drought-affected – received just 111 mm rainfall, way below the
district average of 417 mm and the state average of 831 mm.Haji Mustaqsad Khan
who joins Soda under the tree declares himself as the eldest of the migrating
group. “We have made a representation to CM and we also met the relief
commissioner in Gandhinagar a few days ago and apprised him of our situation
here,” says Khan. “We told them that there are 30 families from Mota Sarada
(near Hajipir in Kutch) who are living near Virochannagar with 1,700 cattle.
There are about 250 families living with their cattle in and around Sanand.We
said some alternative arrangements should be made so that our cattle survive
this summer.” Families from Banni said most of them were observing “roza”
(fasting) due to Ramzan and were offering prayers in a small clearing that they
have made between overgrown “ganda bawal” (Prosopis Juliflora) plants. “We have
ensured that the local population does not get disturbed by our presence. We do
not even go to the nearby mosque to pray,” says 35-year-old Malek Jat who wears
a Pathani outfit and watches the younger lot play a game of cricket under shade
of a tree. indian express
Assam communal clash: Curfew extended in Hailakandi
district, Army stages flag march
Hailakandi district administration in Assam on
Sunday extended the curfew in the region till 7 am the following morning,
reports said. The curfew was imposed after a person was killed in a communal
clash in the area on Friday and 14 people were injured.Meanwhile, the Army
staged a flag march in the sensitive areas of the district during the day. The
authorities said no major incidents of violence have been reported in the last
24 hours.Barak Valley Divisional Commissioner Anwaruddin Chaudhary said
internet services have been suspended in the entire valley, Assam Tribune
reported. “Internet connectivity will be restored depending on the
law-and-order situation,” Chaudhury added. scroll
Hyderabad: Tensions continue at Amberpet
Mosque, Police arrests 10 youngsters
Hyderabad: Attempting to offer namaz in this
disputed site detained 10 youngsters after City Police took action against the
individuals.The Hyderabad Police took the ten individuals in police custody
after they tried to offer prayers at Ek Khana Masjid disputed site on Sunday
afternoon, TT reports.Tensions reportedly escalated in the area when a group of
youths from the Jama Masjid Amberpet after offering there prayers came on to
the road and started raising slogans marching towards the disputed site.Taking
action against the youths, the Commissioner’s Task Force teams arrested the
youngsters and took them to an undisclosed location in the waiting police van.A
call to offer afternoon prayers at the Ek Khana masjid in Amberpet by Darsgah
Jihad o Shahadat created tensions in the region with security beefed
up.Activists of Darsgah Jihad o Shahadat and Wahadat–e-Islami, head Maulana
Naseeruddin were taken into custody by the police in the morning.siasat
Hyderabad-based trust serves food to around
500 people every day during Ramzan
It's Ramzan time, the Muslim month when the
followers of the faith observe fast from before sunrise to sunset.Besides
fasting, the holy month is also about feasting from dusk to dawn. And in this
spirit of Ramzan, a Hyderabad-based trust provides food to almost 400-500
people every day- all without any funding from outside."We have been
serving the poor people for 17 years. On the first day of Ramzan, we distributed
ration consisting of various items to 1600 poor families and daily we arrange
Iftar for the poor people. Around 400-500 people come here to have Iftari
daily," Mohammed Nasiuddin Khan, a trustee of Mohammed Zaheeruddin Khan
Memorial Trust, told ANI.Charity is one of the five tenets of Islam. Feeding
the poor and needy, supporting orphans, relatives and travellers, spending in
the way of Allah, all these find references in Quran, the holy book of the
Muslims.Rich and well-off followers of the Islamic faith do charity during
Ramzan. Some give money to the poor, several others distribute food, clothes
and organise Iftars- the breaking of fast.ANI
Mumbai:Rich Muslims reach out to Mumbai's poor
with charity camps and free feasts for Ramzan
Mumbai: Braving the heat and fasting since
morning, around 300 women queued up at Maa Hoor Bai Hall in Dongri to receive
identical packets this past week. The packets carried flour, rice, khujoor or
dates, pulses, sugar, edible oil, vermicelli (sewaiyan) and just any other
thing needed for iftar and sehri, the pre-dawn light meal during Ramzan. This
is one of the many venues where philanthropist Razia Chashmawala distributed
"Ramzan ration" among needy. Charity, the cliche goes, begins at
home. And before preaching to others to give to the poor in this pious month,
Chashmawala thought of doing her bit first. "Similar initiatives are being
taken at many other venues in the city and at the far-off suburb Vasai too.
Instead of forcing the needy to go looking for free ration in the holy month,
we organise the camps to distribute ration among them," says Chashmawala
who is being helped by many including the Foundation's chairperson Nazia Yusuf
Mistry, Mistry's father Hassan mistry and Baba Bhai Sopariwala. Since a belief
has it that every good deed in Ramzan gets blessings 70 times more than in any
other month, Muslims do maximum charity in Ramzan. And distribution of ration,
food and holding feasts comprise a major part of their charity work. Former MLA
Yusuf Abrahni says that the rich mistakenly believe that they own the wealth.
"Quran clearly says that it is Allah who gives everything that we possess.
So where does ownership of wealth fall on humans?" asks Abrahni. It is in
the spirit of giving that Abrahni has also launched a campaign to help the
imams and muezzins, especially in Ramzan. "The needy in big cities somehow
get enough ration in Ramzan, many from multiple sources. But few reach out to
the dirt poor in rural belts. There should be a committee which prepares the
list of deserving families in rural areas and help should reach them before Ramzan
fasting begins,"suggests former MLA Sohail Lokhandwala who runs an NGO to
help cancer patients.TOI
J&K police say dead militant last member
of ISJK
Srinagar :Drawing a link with a militant,
Ishfaq Ahmad Sofi, who was killed in an encounter in Shopian on Friday, Islamic
State (IS) has claimed that it has established a “province” in India. J&K
Police rubbished the claim and said Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) has
been wiped out and Sofi was its last surviving member.“This (IS claim) is all
rubbish. There is nothing of that sort,” J&K’s DGP Dilbagh Singh said.
“Everybody would like to claim the person killed and put him on their list of
martyrs,” he said.Police said Sofi was arrested in 2016 for his association
with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. After his release in 2018, he went underground
and joined the ISJK.“We don’t see any direct link between the ISJK and Islamic
State. It seems that some youths were inspired by their ideology and set up the
ISJK,” said the senior police officer.While Hizbul Mujahideen and United Jihad
Council have said that there is no space for the IS ideology in the state, the
joint separatist leadership termed its act as “un-Islamic” after an IS flag was
raised inside Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.indianexpress
Country’s biggest drug haul from Greater Noida
house owned by IPS officer
New Delhi:In the country’s biggest ever
narcotics seizure, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has recovered 1,818kg of
pseudoephedrine from a house in Greater Noida and arrested two Nigerian
nationals, and one South African national.Officers said that the house, which
belongs to an IPS officer was being used as a drug-manufacturing unit. The
approximate value of the seized drugs are estimated to be more than Rs1,000
crore.Madhav Singh, zonal director, NCB, said the seizure is India’s
biggest-ever narcotics haul and the world’s largest pseudoephedrine seizure in
the past three years.According to NCB officials, on Thursday morning following
a tip off, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) intercepted a 31-year-old
woman passenger, Nomsa Lutalo, from South Africa, at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi
International airport.The woman was to board a flight to Johannesburg via
Dubai.“On checking her bags, they found 24.7kg pseudoephedrine from her bags.
On questioning, the woman said she had been handed the consignment in Greater
Noida by two people from Nigeria. She said she was asked to carry the same to
Johannesburg and was promised good money in exchange,” Singh said.Based on
Lutalo’s interrogation, an NCB team conducted a raid at the identified premise
in Sector P4 of Greater Noida the same day.“A man, Henry Ideofor (35) and a
woman, Chimando Okora (30) were living in the house. Both are from Nigeria.
During searches, we found several canisters and boxes in the house, containing
1,818kg of pseudoephedrine. We also recovered 1.9kg cocaine,” Singh said.HT
Jamia Millia Islamia to provide free UPSC
coaching, check how to apply
Jamia Millia Islamia’s Residential Coaching
Academy (RCA) has announced admission for the next batch of UPSC aspirants.
Desired candidates can apply online at the official website, jmicoe.in or at
the centre till June 25, 2019. indianexpress
ELECTIONS
Phase 6 Live: Overall 59% polling till 6 pm,
Bengal sees 80% turnout amid sporadic violence
An average of 59.75 per cent voter turnout was
recorded till 6 pm in 59 seats spread across UP, Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh
and Delhi in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha, as per the data compiled by the
Election Commission.In West Bengal, violence was reported in some areas even as
voters came out in good numbers to exercise their franchise.Elections are being
held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats in Haryana, eights constituencies
each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, seven seats in Delhi and four in
Jharkhand.State wise voter turnout till 5 pm: Bihar -55.04%, Haryana- 62.08%,
Madhya Pradesh- 59.96%, Uttar Pradesh- 50.62%, West Bengal- 79.94%, Jharkhand-
65.17% and Delhi recorded 54.82% of
voting today. indianexpress
Civil Society Members Demand Counting of 'All
VVPAT Slips' for 'Fullest Transparency'
New Delhi: Members of civil society have
released a statement demanding the counting of all VVPAT slips for the 2019 Lok
Sabha elections.Recommending that “VVPAT slips be recognised as the ballot
paper”, the statement calls for the counting of every voter slip.Asserting that
the vote is a “citizen’s basic right that gives legitimacy, strength and body
to the will of the people”, the statement – signed by Aruna Roy, Jayati Ghosh,
Justice A.P. Shah, Sanjay Parikh and Syeda Hameed – asserts that the “voter
cannot be compelled to repose her trust in an alien device”.Pointing out the
2009 verdict by a German constitutional court, that struck down the “exclusive
use of EVMs for recording and counting of votes and explained the rationale of
a paper ballot for purposes of transparency and credibility”, the civil society
members maintained that all ballots should be counted to “eliminate the doubts
that are raised about manipulation and malfunction of the machines”. Furthermore,
the members also suggested that to “strengthen transparency and voter
confidence”, in the future, “VVPAT slip should be generated and received by the
voter who will themselves drop the slip in the ballot box” as “the final act of
casting of the vote”.thewire
As Bhopal Votes, Gas Leak Survivors Say Modi
Govt has Failed Them
New Delhi: With Modi fighting the 2019
elections by raking up Rajiv Gandhi’s record as prime minister, it was only a
matter of time that after Bofors and the 1984 Sikh massacres, he would set his
sights on the Bhopal gas disaster.The
tragedy took place on Dec.1-2, 1984, when poisonous gases leaked from the
pesticide plant of Union Carbide Limited in Bhopal. The state govt claims that
3,787 people died. Over 5 lakh people were thought to have developed long-term
health conditions that have also been passed on to following generations.Last
month, Modi said at a public event:“Who will do Nyay to the victims of the
Bhopal gas tragedy—the world’s worst industrial catastrophe?That too happened
under Congress.”He used the word ‘nyay’ because it is the catchy acronym the
Congress has given to Rahul Gandhi’s universal basic income proposal, the
centrepiece of the party’s election manifesto.While International Campaign for
Justice in Bhopal says that both Congress and BJP have failed to bring justice
to the victims and their families even 34 years after the disaster, “BJP/NDA
has actually outdone Congress in terms of protecting the interests of US
multinationals and denying the rights to justice and a life of dignity to the
survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster.”The campaign says that
various central and state government were “cozying up to criminal corporations”
and neglecting victims of this corporate crime.The Wire
Decade after Malegaon blasts: ‘The girl in the
sky blue dress? She is dead’:By Smita Nair
Farheen is a 2×2 inch studio portrait. Tucked
away inside a booklet in her father’s shirt pocket, she only comes out on days
when investigators or journalists knock on his door. There is more of her, in a
metal trunk. Mostly otherwise, she is a memory.On the afternoon of September
29, 2008, Farheen was the happiest. After weeks of trying, she had finally
learnt to string together four words and make a sentence — her first in
English. After three incorrect attempts at spelling ‘hi’ as ‘high’, she had
proceeded to write a full sentence in her notebook. Neat, bold words, separated
by irregular gaps, she wrote: “Have… a… good… day”. She didn’t live to see the
day end. At 9.33 pm, she was dead.Her 10-year-old body had taken the maximum
impact of military grade RDX, ammonium and nitrate radicals packed into a
golden LML Freedom motorbike parked right at the curve of Malegaon’s Bhikku
Chowk. The bike and the conspiracy were later traced to Varachha, Surat, and to
Pragyasingh Chandrapalsingh Thakur. Thakur is now Sadhvi Pragya, the saffron of
her robes dominating the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Bhopal, with the
party pitting her against the Congress’s Digvijaya Singh.Over a decade after
the blasts, Farheen’s father Shaikh Liyaqat Mohiudeen, 60, clings on to
memories of his little daughter, the youngest of his five children. Mohiudeen,
a truck driver, says he always returned home from work to an excited Farheen.
Once home, the two always had their ritual. “She would be thrilled to see me
return…hear my stories from the road, and then take me out to the chowk to eat
tikkis,” he recalls. Evenings were reserved for walking through Malegaon,
sitting at the chowk’s tea stall, or picking bangles from shops that Farheen
thought made Malegaon shimmer at night.indianexpress
Hindutva exploits Hinduism for political
gains: Ashutosh
Ashutosh, well-known face of TV news in India,
joined AAP in 2013, but resigned last year. His political career may not have
taken off, but he seems to have put his time away from journalism to good use.
He’s written a book about the Sangh Parivar’s capture of political power,
titled Hindu Rashtra, which came out last month. In a freewheeling interview,
he spoke about, among other things, his disillusionment with politics, the
death of secularism, and the danger of an ideological state. He said, "there
is a difference between Hinduism and Hindutva. Hinduism is about our
Hindu-ness, whereas Hindutva is a political ideology that exploits Hinduism for
political gains. It has nothing to do with religion. We should all feel proud
that we are Hindus. We should take back our gods — the RSS can’t be the owner
of our Ram, our Krishna, our Shiva. As for those who say that Rahul Gandhi is
indulging in soft Hindutva, I can only say that these people are not willing to
learn from our history."thehindu
BJP, RSS activists sporting uniform of Central
forces used in West Bengal, says Mamata
KOLKATA:Reiterating that the BJP government
was using the Central forces to influence voters in West Bengal, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said she feared that BJP and RSS activists have
entered the state, sporting the uniform of the forces, to conduct polling.“I do
not disrespect the Central forces. But they are being instructed to influence
the voters. On the pretext of deploying Central forces in West Bengal, the BJP
is forcefully pushing BJP and RSS activists here.“I doubt that some RSS
activists in (Central forces’) uniform are being pushed into West Bengal,” Ms.
Banerjee said while addressing a rally in Basanti area of South 24 Parganas
district in Kolkata.PTI
UP’s Domariyaganj: Caste equations, Muslim
vote key as BJP faces alliance challenge
Domariyaganj :Vickey Yadav (21), a resident of
Domariyaganj tehsil, who is set to vote for the first time in a Lok Sabha
election, has a complaint about voting on the basis of caste equations.Vickey,
an undergraduate student, wants to consider all options when voting for a
candidate. But regardless of who he votes for, no one is going to believe that
he voted for a party other than Samajwadi Party (or this year the alliance)
candidate, according to Vickey.“In that case why shouldn’t I vote for the
candidate everyone will believe I actually voted for, instead of the candidate
who I probably think is actually better. Even if I vote for the BJP or the
Congress candidate and he wins, he would always think that I did not really
vote for him,” says Vickey.He is not the only voter in Domariyaganj Lok Sabha
seat who thinks on these lines, and like nearly every other election in the
state, caste equations in Domariyaganj are expected to play a major role in the
state.indianexpress
Muslim body for FIR on Congress’s Aurangzeb
jibe
Mumbai: A Muslim group has filed a complaint
at Ghatkopar police station against Mumbai Congress’s former president and the
party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai North West Sanjay Nirupam for calling
PM Modi the “modern avatar of Aurangzeb”. “Nirupam’s statement has hurt
millions of people who hold Aurangzeb in esteem. Unlike Modi, Aurangzeb was not
a jumlebaaz and laffaz (boaster and one who doesn’t keep promises). Aurangzeb
cannot be compared with Modi. I have requested the police to file an FIR
against Nirupam for hurting people’s sentiments,”said anti-terrorism crusader
and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate from Mumbai North Central Dr AR Anjaria in
his complaint. Nirupam, in his defence, has said that he drew parallels between
Modi and Aurangzeb only to show how Modi is “änti-Hindu.” TOI
Partition would not have occurred had Muhammad
Ali Jinnah been appointed PM, says BJP candidate
BJP candidate from the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha
seat in Madhya Pradesh, Guman Singh Damor, has said Partition would not have
taken place had Muhammad Ali Jinnah been made the prime minister of India after
Independence,ANI reported. Jinnah, who was an advocate and scholar, is the
founder of Pakistan.“Had Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru not insisted to be the first
prime minister at the time of Independence, then this country would not have
been divided into two parts,” Damor said at an election meeting. The sole
responsibility of Partition rests with the Congress.”scroll.in
WORLD
US sends Patriots, warship to Middle East amid
Iran tensions
US government has approved the deployment of a
Patriot missile defence battery and another warship to the Middle East amid
increasing tensions between the US and Iran. USS Arlington, which transports
marines, amphibious vehicles, and rotary aircraft, as well as the Patriot
missiles, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which already
passed through Egypt's Suez Canal on Thursday, and is currently sailing in the
Red Sea, according to CNN.US says the deployments of military hardware to the
region comes in response to "heightened Iranian readiness to conduct
offensive operations". Patriot missile system is a defence mechanism
against aircraft, drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, and is
currently deployed in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE." Acting
Secretary of Defense has approved the movement of USS Arlington (LPD-24) and a
Patriot battery to US Central Command (CENTCOM) as part of the command's
original request for forces from earlier this week," a Pentagon statement
said.
Rouhani: Iran may face conditions harder than
1980s war with Iraq
President Hassan Rouhani has called for unity
among Iran's political factions to overcome conditions which he says may be
harder than those during the 1980s war with Iraq.As Iran faces tightening US
sanctions, Rouhani said his country was under unprecedented pressure comparable
to when Saddam Hussein's army invaded Iran in 1980, which prompted eight years
of intense fighting and economic problems."Today, it cannot be said
whether conditions are better or worse than the (1980-88) war period, but
during the war we did not have a problem with our banks, oil sales or imports
and exports, and there were only sanctions on arms purchases," Iran's
state news agency IRNA cited Rouhani as saying. aljazeera
Syria's Assad silenced dissent in secret
torture prisons: Report
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government
has been running a network of secret torture facilities across Syria while the
country's civil war unfolded, a new report has found.In a lengthy report, the
New York Times found that the rate at which people are being detained in the
country is still increasing, despite Assad's military win in the bloody
conflict - now in its ninth year.In the report, several survivors shared
gruesome testimonies of how they were arrested and tortured across a number of
prison facilities run by Syrian intelligence.The survivors are just a handful
of hundreds of thousands of people believed to have passed through secret
prison system since Syrian uprising kicked off in 2011. aljazeera
Egypt: court jails 44 people for joining
Muslim Brotherhood
An Alexandrian criminal court on Saturday
sentenced five people to life in prison for membership of the Muslim
Brotherhood, and jailed 39 others for 15 years on the same charges.The case
dates back to 2018, where 44 people were arrested for vandalism and threatening
people with accelerants in the El-Soyoof area of Alexandria. The prosecution
charged the defendants with joining a banned group, possessing flammable
materials, setting cars ablaze, and assaulting citizens. The defendants can
still appeal the sentence. Ahram
Muslim app banned for containing anti-semitic
rhetoric
Google has removed an app from its online
store after The Sunday Times revealed it contained anti-semitic rhetoric. The
Euro Fatwa App, launched last month by the European Council for Fatwa and
Research (ECFR), based in Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, is said to be a guide for
Muslims based in Europe.The app’s introduction is written by Yusuf al-Qaradawi,
who is regarded as the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has been
banned from the UK and France for extolling extremist views. In the app’s
introduction, al-Qaradawi speaks about previous fatwas (Islamic law) during
which he makes a defamatory reference to Jews. The times
London protest demands Israel end
'unprecedented attacks' on Palestine
Thousands have demonstrated in central London
to demand an end to the “unprecedented attacks” against the Palestinian people
at the hands of Israel.Marching from Portland Place to Whitehall, a diverse
crowd chanted “Palestine will be free” and called for the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes, while holding banners calling on the UK to
stop arming Israel, as part of a demonstration organised by the Palestine
Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition, among others.Protesters
gathered next to the cenotaph to hear speeches from the Palestine Liberation
Organisation’s (PLO) representative, union officials, MPs and campaigners. Ahed
Tamimi, who became a symbol of resistance for the Palestinian people after she
was jailed for slapping soldiers outside her home in the West Bank, took to the
stage and said she refused to be defined as a victim, but instead a freedom
fighter.Richard Burgeon, the Labour MP, said: “Palestine has the right to exist
but sadly that is a right that is increasingly threatened … Palestinians should
be able to live free from ever expanding settlements on stolen land.”The
protest was timed to coincide with the 1948 Palestinian exodus in which
hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced from their homes during 1948 and
1967 wars that resulted from the state of Israel being created.theguardian
Thousands march in London to support
Palestinians after Gaza rocket exchanges
Saudi state media: 8 'terror suspects' killed
in Qatif
Eight members of what Saudi authorities call a
terrorist cell were killed on Saturday in a police raid in Saudi Arabia's
eastern Qatif region, a Shia minority stronghold, state media has reported.The
recently-formed cell was preparing to carry out "terrorist
activities" against the security of the country, official Saudi Press
Agency reported, citing a state security spokesperson.The spokesperson said the
men were killed after they fired shots at security forces, who had surrounded a
residential apartment in the Sanabis neighbourhood. aljazeera
Pakistan bans 11 groups for having links with
JuD, JeM groups
Pakistan government has banned 11 Lahore-based
organisations for having links with proscribed outifts JeM led by Masood Azhar,
JuD's Hafiz Saeed and the FIF.The decision to ban the 11 organisations was
taken during a meeting between Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan and Interior
Minister Ijaz Shah on Friday.All these groups are Lahore-based.PTI
Gunmen attack hotel in Pakistan's Gwadar, kill
five people
Islamabad: Gunmen have stormed a five-star
hotel in Pakistan's port city of Gwadar, killing at least five people,
officials said.In a statement, Pakistan's military said three armed men killed
a security guard as they attempted to enter the Pearl Continental hotel on
Saturday in the southern city.Local hospital officials say the death toll from
the Gwadar attack has risen to at least five."Five people were killed, and
there were six wounded," Abdul Latif, the chief of Gwadar's main
government hospital, told Al Jazeera by telephone. aljazeera
Rohingya girls rescued from traffickers in
Bangladesh
At least 23 teenage Rohingya girls have been
rescued after being brought from refugee camps to the capital, Dhaka, to be
sent to Malaysia by air, Bangladesh police said on Sunday.
Dhaka police also arrested four human
traffickers including a Rohingya couple and recovered more than 50 Bangladeshi
passports from them on Saturday. Police spokesman Mokhlesur Rahman said they
raided a residence in the northern part of the city and found the teenagers
hiding in a room behind a tailoring shop."They were promised jobs in Malaysia
and brought from refugee camps in Cox's Bazar," he told AFP news agency,
referring to the Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh's southeastern coastal
district. Aljazeera
Flash: views & NEWS
Hijab for safety of women, ensures they’re not
harassed:Asma Zehra
https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-hijab-for-safety-of-women-ensures-they-re-not-harassed-2748343
Unlike Radar and Clouds, PM Narendra Modi Can
Leap Over the Walls of Science:Vasudevan Mukunth
Explainer: Significance of the Supreme Court’s
Nod to Reservation in Promotions:The Wire Analysis
Qureshi butchers of East Delhi’s Ghazipur will
not vote in the Lok Sabha election?THE CARAVAN
World Exclusive: How Zakir Naik became a man
of contradictions
Modi’s Hindutva 2.0 written on Varanasi walls:
Temple restoration, not mosque demolition:SHEKHAR GUPTA
A radioactive doll, two blasts, East India
Company, and Abdul Kalam: the story of a con:Hamza Khan |indianexpress
Compiled and edited by
Anwarulhaq (Released at: 6:51 PM)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment