AIMIM chief Asauddin Owaisi addressed a public meeting in Nanded, Maharashtra yesterday ahead of the assembly elections in the state. In his speech, Owaisi was seen asking for the consolidation of Muslim votes to elect Muslim people to power. He insinuated that the community needs to start voting for and electing people on the basis of religion.
Interestingly, Owaisi, who keeps hailing the Indian constitution and democracy in his parliament addresses, was urging people to vote on religious lines. Ironically, he also kept bashing other parties and the opponents of AIMIM candidates for considering religion as a basis of ticket distribution.
In reply to a Congress leader who had reportedly denied ticket to a Muslim candidate, Owaisi said that it is the Muslims who had made Rahul Gandhi win Wayanad. He stated that Rahul won Wayanad and lost Amethi because Amethi does not have a 40% Muslim population.
Owaisi stated that in 2014 general elections, 37% Hindus had voted for the Modi government. He further claimed that in 2019, 44% Hindus had voted for the same modi government. He added that a journalist had asked him about the vote shares of Muslims for the Modi government.
Owaisi claimed that the percentage of Muslims who had voted for Modi in 2014 was 6% and that percentage has remained the same in 2019 too. He further added that the number 6 is called ‘Chhakka’ in cricket, hinting at a colloquial derogatory slang for transgender persons, he stated that they dont have anything to do with the ‘Chhakkas’ who had voted for Modi.
Owaisi was in nanded yesterday..
while reacting to aadarsh kaka’s statement that H ppl dnt vote M candidate so he did nt gave ticket to M man from nanded south..
In a speech that was replete with insinuations for Muslims to ignore everything and vote solely on the basis of religion, Owaisi further claimed that Muslims have been ignored and treated unjustly in the country. He even lamented the death sentence awarded to Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon. He claimed that Muslims were unable to save Yakub Memom from being hanged because they were not in power.
Owaisi urged Muslims to ‘forget about secularism’ because it is the responsibility of Congress party and claimed that it is the Muslims who have borne the burden of secularism in the country. Peddling victimhood over riots and outbreaks of violence where thousands, irrespective of their religion have died in the past, Owaisi insinuated that it is only the Muslims who have suffered.
Adding that the central government has the power of commuting the death sentence awarded to a convict into a life term, Owaisi lamented that because there were not enough Muslims in power, Yakub had to be hanged.
Owaisi said do away with Secularism. We want Muslims in govt. We couldn’t save Terrorist Yakub Memon as we were not united.
In short he means demography is changing and he is dreaming to making India ISLAMIC Nation.
He stated that only AIMIM had spoken for Yakub and had worked to save his life. He further added that if there were at least 40-50 Muslims in the parliament, Yakub Memon could have been saved.
Owaisi was campaigning for AIMIM’s candidates in Nanded and Parbhani yesterday. The AIMIM is contesting for 44 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly. Unlike the 2019 general elections, there is no official coalition with the Prakash Ambedkar-Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi this time.
On 8th October, a Durga Puja Visarjan procession in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh came under attack by a strong Muslim mob. The mob attacked Hindus with bricks, stones, swords and sticks. Raghav Bahl’s The Quint is, however, ready to dance on the dead bodies of Hindus in an attempt to whitewash the Islamist attack on Durga visarjan.
The Quint report on Balrampur, headlined “Balrampur Puja Procession Violence Pre-Planned? Cops Deny Claims”, the report starts off with a shameless toning down of the entire incident. The Quint deemed it fit to describe the incident as “clashes between two groups”.
It writes:
“As the 10-day Durga Puja festival came to an end with devotees across the country bidding farewell to Goddess Durga, an incident has come light from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district where clashes broke out between two groups during a Durga Puja procession”.
The emphases in the above paragraph are not mine. The Quint while reporting the Islamist attack in Balrampur thought it fit to emphasise and put in bold, the phrase ‘two groups’ as if to ensure the reader doesn’t miss the fact that they have deliberately tried to gloss over the fact that a Muslim mob went on a rampage against Hindus, almost like the Nazis denied the Holocaust ever happened.
Even traditionally ‘secular’ media portals like Times of India and Indian Express reported that it was a mob that pelted stones at the visarjan procession in Balrampur. While Indian Express chose to whitewash the crime in their own way, by increasingly harping on how reportedly, the stone-pelting happened because while crossing the mosque, Hindus did not switch the music off, it still did mention the mosque and the fact that it was a mob that pelted stones. The Quint, however, chose to downplay the entire siege in Balrampur by calling it a ‘clash between two groups’. This, when there is no evidence that the Hindus instigated or participated in any form of violence whatsoever.
Further, the aim of the Quint article was not to bring about the details of the horrific incident itself or ask pertinent questions like why a peaceful procession came under siege by a Muslim mob, but to “fact-check” OpIndia which had first reported that the Additional Superintendent of Police had categorically hinted that the attack was pre-planned.
On 9th October 2019, a day after the procession came under attack, OpIndia reached out to the Additional SP (ASP) of Balrampur to get a better sense of what transpired in the area. The ASP categorically told OpIndia that the procession came under attack when it was crossing the Mosque and that they might have pre-planned the attack. The ASP’s exact words were, “Pehele se hi prepared the or whatever it is”.
The Balrampur police’s Twitter handle, which is presumably run by some PR agency and not the police itself quoted a tweet by Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma who had plugged the OpIndia article and denied that the ASP had ever made the statement. To this, OpIndia editor and the correspondent who reported the crime, Nupur Sharma responded saying that OpIndia is the possession of the recorded conversation where the ASP has categorically hinted that the entire siege could have been pre-planned.
Now deleted tweet by Balrampur police
In response to this, since the PR agency was hell-bent on brazening out their lie, OpIndia uploaded the audio of the conversation between Nupur Sharma and the ASP.
Here is full audio of my conversation with Additional SP of Balrampur. I did not want to make this public because I have deep respect for the police force, however, I cannot let a PR agency get away with lying repeatedly. Listen to what ASP says at 3:15https://t.co/Bk9qF1mGq2
After the audio of the conversation was made public, Balrampur police Twitter handle quietly deleted the tweet where they had denied the comment being made by the ASP. As one can see from the screenshot below, the tweet by the police handle to which Nupur Sharma responded has been deleted.
Balrampur police delete tweet
There were other tweets too that the Balrampur police’s Twitter handle silently deleted. It had also quoted the Twitter handle of OpIndia Hindi and made the same statement. A couple of other tweets making the same statement against the OpIndia report were also deleted by Balrampur police Twitter handle.
Under these circumstances, it becomes evident that the PR agency that handles the Twitter handle was unaware of the fact that the ASP had made this statement to OpIndia. Perhaps, their brief was to stick to the video of the official police statement and deny all other details. However, the audiotape released by OpIndia and the fact that Balrampur police’s Twitter handle deleted their accusations proves that the ASP had indeed made that statement to OpIndia.
Raghav Bahl’s The Quint, however, had different plans. Before this entire fiasco, it is pertinent to note that The Quint had not even covered the crime at all. It did not think it was necessary to cover how a Muslim mob went on a rampage against Hindus. Interestingly, this was an ANI feed that is often copy-pasted and run as-is by all news portals. This particular news, though, was censored by most summarily and deliberately. Quint, which even publishes Kerala lottery news thought it best to ignore the news of Hindus coming under siege.
Either way, The Quint, after declaring that this was a ‘clash between two groups’, went on to claim that OpIndia was spreading fake news and that the Additional SP never said that the siege may have been pre-planned. This assertion was made long after the audio of the conversation had already been released and Balrampur police had deleted several tweets that contested the OpIndia report.
In the article, after falsely claiming that the SP had never made such a statement despite the audio of the conversation being out, The Quint writes:
“Further Balrampur police took to Twitter to clarify that the police is taking all the necessary steps to ensure law and order”.
Interestingly, there was nothing to “clarify” here. The news that 8 people had been arrested and that the police claims it has deployed 4 units to track down the absconding accused was reported by OpIndia. We had also reported that the police says the law and order situation is normal in the area with heavy police presence. In fact, OpIndia had also done aa comprehensive story of an eye witness account, where an injured Hindu also said that the Balrampur police is doing its job diligently. This word-chicanery by Quint only aims to sow seeds to doubt and discord, not bring facts to the fore.
After vilifying OpIndi, The Quint absolutely had to vilify the Hindus too.
In the concluding paragraph of The Quint report, the portal writes:
“We also spoke to a local journalist who said that the clashes broke out between the two sections when the procession allegedly didn’t stop the loud music and splashed colours while crossing the mosque. But it remains unclear as to who instigated the violence”.
The police and the supposed local journalist have claimed that the Muslim mob may have gone on a rampage after the music was not stopped while the procession crossed the mosque. Interestingly, the ASP, while confirming the music angle had not said anything about the gulaal that was apparently splashed by Hindus.
The eye-witness account by a Hindu man who was allegedly attacked with a sword and injured, though, contests this claim. Suraj Pandey says that every year, the procession passes from the same route and there has never been a problem between the Hindus and the Muslims. Every year, the Hindus on their own switch the music off while crossing the Mosque, however, this time, the Hindus did not even have the opportunity to switch the music off. Suraj says that they have set up a divider and when they reach the divider, they switch the music off and then resume when they turn the corner. This time, even before they could do that, the Muslim community first threw garbage at the Hindus and then, within minutes, started attacking them with stones, sticks and swords.
Suraj also narrates an incident that hints at pre-planning. He says that on 8th morning, he was passing through the lane and one Zulfikar threw a stone at him from his house. While the incident was let go off after Zulfikar’s old mother pleaded with Suraj, he considers this as an indication that the Muslims of the area had planned the siege meticulously.
These details of the Islamist attack in Balrampur, though out and reported extensively by OpIndia, were not even mentioned by The Quint.
The Quint doesn’t stop there and proceeds to whitewash the crime further. In the end, they declare that ‘it remains unclear as to who instigated the violence’.
Sample this – Hindus of the area took out a Durga Puja visarjan procession that they do every year in Balrampur. There was no deviation from the route and supposedly, there is no evidence yet to suggest that the Hindus did anything differently this year. Yet, the Muslim mob evidently pre-planned a siege against the Hindus. The procession was attacked with stones, bolsters, sticks and swords. Suraj himself claims that he was injured by a sword attack. There were women, children and “Mullahs from Mosques” attacking Hindus from all corners, who hid for their lives. The only fault of the Hindus appears to be that they wanted to celebrate their festival like they do every year. Or perhaps, their only fault was that they were Hindus, to begin with.
After all these facts are on the public domain, Raghav Bahl’s The Quint proclaims that it is unclear who instigated the violence in Balrampur. Bahl’s portal almost declares that even if we consider the ‘music and gulaal’ argument to be true, that is reason enough for Hindus to be attacked with stones and swords. Them being Hindus and daring to celebrate their festivals in an area that happens to have a Mosque is reason enough for the blood of Hindus to be shed. Hindu lives are that cheap. Hindus are just that dispensable according to The Quint.
The Quint’s grouse seems to be that the lynching of Hindus with stones and swords was called ‘pre-planned’ by Opindia. Let us assume for a moment that OpIndia had not made that claim at all. That we had not quoted the ASP or had the conversation recorded. Can The Quint perhaps explain how a strong mob of Muslims in Balrampur gather thousands of stones to attack Hindus spontaneously? Can The Quint explain how hundreds of stones reached the rooftops of Muslim houses spontaneously and in the spur of the moment? Is The Quint implying that Muslims are always battle-ready? Because if they are, they are not only dancing on the dead bodies of Hindus but are also bigoted towards Muslims in general.
These questions would, of course, never be answered by The Quint that has a history of shielding the Muslim community. In fact, this The Quint report on Balrampur seems trivial compared to their whitewashing of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist-in-chief who was killed by American forces.
The ‘Liberal’ media often brazenly and rather shamelessly whitewashes Islamist crimes against Hindus. Most of these crimes are never reported by them to begin with. If they are, they are reported with an attempt to pacify the Islamists and demonise the Hindu victims all in one stroke, like The Quint seems to have done here, even if they have to take the help of blatant lies and half-truths.
During the Hauz Qazi violence, where a Muslim mob had desecrated a temple in a tiny bylane of Chandni Chowk in the heart of Delhi, OpIndia had reported how in the communal flare-up, a young Hindu boy was missing for 3 days. When OpIndia had visited the area, the parents of the boy were clutching on to the FIR they had filed and wailing in the middle of the road. They were even threatening to commit suicide. They argued with the police at length. This was all on camera. None of the Lutyens media bothered to report the disappearance of the Hindu boy. The parents were initially convinced that their boy was kidnapped by the Muslim mob who had attacked the Hindus. When the boy was later found, NewsLaundry published a report questioning OpIndia, Swarajya mag and Organiser. They asked us why we reported the Hindu boy missing at all because ‘he was found alive’. It was almost as if NewsLaundry was claiming that crimes against Hindus must be reported only after the Hindu turns up dead. There was an FIR and Lutyens media wanted us to not report it because it inconvenienced the Muslims.
In all of these cases, one wonders how NewsLaundry or even The Quint would report if the tables were reversed. How would they report had Hindus been the aggressors and Muslims the victims? Would The Quint write this shoddy report downplaying the Balrampur siege? Would NewsLaundry not report an FIR that claimed a Muslim boy was missing after Hindus attacked a Mosque?
The media essentially likes to dance on the dead body of Hindus. They regularly bake their pie on the funeral pyres of hapless Hindu victims who have been abandoned by the very institution that should be speaking up for victims. All to shield one community. One people. Hindus are children of lesser Gods who should walk on egg-shells around the ‘superior race’. Celebrate their festivals in silence, side-step Mosques, appease Muslims, offer the other cheek, be willing to be vilified, demonised, shut down, beaten, attacked with swords, pelted with stones, and then, be called the aggressors.
This is what The Quint facilitated with its report on Balrampur:
Tweet quoting The Quint article
“Looks to be the fault of those who were involved in Visarjan and did not follow protocol”.
Yes. Hindus must follow ‘protocol’. That they were pelted with stones and attacked with swords is their fault. The poor Muslim was bound to get offended, as it does, ever so often. There is still no surety who instigated the violence, but, the Muslims must have had a reason to kill those fascist Hindus daring to celebrate their festival.
Congratulations, Quint. You have made Raghav Bahl proud.
On Tuesday, a 35-year-old man was arrested after his 22-year-old wife filed a police complaint against him and his family members in Trichy for abusing and threatening her.
According to the reports, a woman from Thanjavur Road accused her husband R Rowthar Kani and his relatives from Aranthangi in Pudukottai district of subjecting her to cruelty, criminal breach of trust, criminal intimidation and child marriage. Rowthar is a Tamil Muslim community spread across Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
A case was registered against husband Rowthar Kani, his mother 56-year-old R Samsath, his father 69-year-old Raja Mohammed at Fort all-women police station. The Police then arrested Rowthar and produced him before a court, which remanded him in judicial custody.
According to the FIR, the accused Rowthar Kani had married the victim woman on January 28, 2015. Since then, the couple was living in a joint family in Aranthangi. Later one day, the victim caught her husband talking to another woman.
When she questioned him on it, he got angry and allegedly beat her up. His family members also joined Rowthat Kani to allegedly attack her and then forced her out of their house in September 2017. Since then, the woman was living with his parents in Trichy.
Reportedly, Rowthar Kani later went to Saudi Arabia for work. In her complaint, the woman has said that her husband returned from Saudi to their house. While the woman was expecting a compromise from her husband, she was informed that her husband had married a 17-year-old-girl at Beema Nagar in Trichy on September 23.
The woman questioned her husband but was threatened with dire consequences. However, she lodged a complaint and the police arrested him. They are on the lookout of others.
Meanwhile, social workers belonging to Sevai Childline finally rescued the 17-year-old-girl from her house and produced her before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Wednesday. According to reports, the girl denied the allegation that she was married to Rowthar Kani. The committee has now sent the minor girl to a government reception home to stay until further orders.
Tuesday night in Gaya during Durga Visarjan on Vijaya Dashami, stones were reportedly pelted on the procession as well as on the police when it reached the Jama Masjid area. As per reports, the police, while trying to control the crowd, used force and expletives, following which the devotees got angry.
The videos which have gone viral on social media show stones being pelted at the procession.
— Bhardwaj Priye Ranjan (संतोष) (@BhardwajPriye) October 9, 2019
Locals report that things got a little tensed when the Durga Visarjan procession reached Dukharni crossing in Gaya and police reached the place immediately. Upon reaching, the police started beating up the devotees in the pandal and even arrested some. In another video, one can see police brutally beating up people with sticks.
— Bhardwaj Priye Ranjan (संतोष) (@BhardwajPriye) October 9, 2019
As per reports, the police indulged in lathicharging indiscriminately. Till now, 12 people have been arrested. As per reports, the police claims that five of them had consumed alcohol. Bihar is a dry state where there is alcohol prohibition. OpIndia tried to reach out to Gaya Police for a statement, but they were unreachable. We shall update the report once we hear from them.
Yesterday we had reported how stones were pelted on Durga Visarjan in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh as music was not stopped while passing by a mosque.
In a spine chilling incident, Bandhu Prakash Pal, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, his pregnant wife and their six-year-old son were found murdered in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the reports, 35-year old RSS worker Bandhu Prakash Pal, his wife Beauty Pal (30) and their eight-year-old son Angan Pal were brutally murdered at their residence in Murshidabad, West Bengal. Bandhu’s wife Beauty Pal was eight-months pregnant.
Reportedly, Bandhu Prakash was a school teacher who worked in Gosaigram Sahapara Primary School. He also worked as an insurance agent in the locality.
This beautiful family of a primary school teacher was brutally murdered yesterday along with an unborn baby by a jehadi mob in Murshidabad, Bengal. The deceased:
1. Prakash Pal
2. His pregnant wife
3. His 6 year old son pic.twitter.com/i1rIfUgbMv
According to the police officials, the Pal family was murdered by unidentified miscreants on Tuesday. As the family did not make it to the Durga puja pandal on Vijayadashami, the neighbours visited the Bondhu Prakash Pal’s residence, only to find that the door was locked from inside.
One of the neighbours informed the police after they heard loud sounds from Pal’s house. A neighbour has also informed that some people were seen rushing out of the house. Pal was last seen by his neighbours at around 11 am on Tuesday when he was returning from the local market.
The neighbours barged inside Pal’s residence and found the body of Bandhu Prakash and his son Angan on the floor while the body of the wife was lying in another room. A sharp weapon was reportedly found next to the bodies.
The police have stated that while Pal and his wife were killed with sharp weapons, their son Angan was strangulated with a towel.
Bandhu Prakash’s Facebook profile was reportedly full of videos of Durga Puja pandals and selfies of the family. He had uploaded his last post on the early morning hours of Sunday.
However, the police officials have yet to ascertain the reason for the brutal murder of the family. Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem. No arrests have been made yet. The family had moved to Jiyaganj almost six years ago. They lived in a single storied house at Kanaiganj-Lebutala
The police have begun their investigations and a case has been registered at Jiyaganj Police station.
Some sections of social media are indicating that the murder of RSS worker and his family have a communal angle to it as Murshidabad has been many such cases in the past, but no such angle has been reported in the case yet. The police have stated that an investigation is underway.
Pakistan government has claimed that they have reached a ‘verbal agreement’ with micro-blogging company Twitter that the latter shall not suspend pre-approved accounts on Twitter. Following the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Twitter had suspended over 200 Pakistani accounts for hateful conduct and abuse of Twitter as platform. Moreover, Twitter had suspended over 50 accounts from Pakistan for impersonating Indian Army officers.
According to Shabahat Ali Khan, CEO, National IT Board, Pakistan, Twitter has agreed that it will not suspend government-approved accounts without prior intimation and consultation with Pakistan government.
According to reports, the Pakistan Army had hired more than 200 handlers to make sleeper account on Twitter impersonating top officials of Indian Army in order to spread its fake propaganda with an aim to malign India. India Army which has been keeping a close watch on the nefarious activities of Pakistani agencies informed Twitter and other social media platforms about these fake accounts, following which Twitter blocked over 50 bogus accounts.
Following the abrogation of Article 370, Pakistan has indulged in social media warfare. The not-so-friendly neighbour country has used the social media platform to spread fear and rumours about the situation prevalent in the valley. Days after the Article 370 was abrogated, a pro-separatist Twitter account (@WithKashmir_), also believed to be operated by Pakistani’s ISI and army, was found sharing maliciously edited video of Republic TV’s editor Arnab Goswami. An old video of Arnab Goswami from February 2019 in the wake of Pulwama attack was promoted by that Twitter handle and spread by many Indian ‘journalists’ to project that Arnab had asked for the genocide of Kashmiris. After Republic TV threatened legal action, the account was deleted.
The CRPF and Jammu & Kashmir Police had both on separate incidents called out Pakistan’s lies and propaganda on social media which were being spread through accounts which were verified by Twitter and had blue ticks. Pakistani journalists and politicians have indulged in sharing fake news regarding the situation in Kashmir.
The agitated Muslims in Uttar Pradesh’s Roorkee launched a protest against the screening of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board Chairman Wasim Rizvi’s movie ‘Aisha-The Mother of Believers’. Several members of Muslim community came out on the streets to demand a ban on the screening of the movie.
A procession was carried out by them to the Joint Magistrate’s office where they handed over a memorandum addressed to the President. The protestors also burnt the effigy of filmmaker Wasim Rizvi at Chandrashekhar square.
The demonstrators alleged that the movie ‘Aisha- The mother of the believers’ has objectionable scenes which hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community. Some of the protestors contended that the movie touches upon sensitive issues and might give a wrong message about the Muslims to the world. They strongly expressed registered their condemnation for the movie.
People of the Muslim community sent a memorandum to the President through Joint Magistrate Nitika Khandelwal about the film’s protest and demanded a ban on it. On this occasion Arif, Asif Khan, Mohammad Asif Ahmed, Mohammad Sarfaraz, Aamir, Salim, Shaheed, Shahid, Rohit Singh, Saadab, Usman, Sameer, Asad Khan, Naushad, Farid, Armaan, Monu, Amit, Mustakim, Rahul, Ram Avatar etc. were present to express their disapproval of the contentious movie’s release.
The protest against the movie started gathering steam ever since the trailer of the movie was launched. Muslims at various places in the country strongly objected to the trailer stating that the movie’s aim is to widen the chasm between Sunni and Shia sect within Islam.
Earlier Wasim Rizmi had made a movie titled ‘Ram Janambhoomi’, which had also ran into troubles.
The Wire journalist Arfa Khanum, who has often taken up the cudgels for radical Islamists, found herself under the firing line of the same zealots after she uploaded a picture of herself wearing a Bengali saree on the occasion of Dussehra.
“The greatest jihad (struggle) is to battle your own soul, to fight the evil within yourself.”
Prophet Muhammad
PBUH
Dussehra is a celebration of victory of the good over the evil.
Let’s continue with the same spirit. #HappyDussehra#VijayaDashami
Two years ago with @sonia_26pic.twitter.com/xnaMNChqL2
Yesterday, Khanum shared two-year-old pictures of her with her fellow colleague with a caption-“The greatest Jihad is to battle your own soul, to fight the evil within yourself”, attributed to Prophet Muhammad. She further added that Dussehra is a celebration of the good over the evil. No sooner did she upload the pictures on her Twitter page that scores of online jihadis descended upon her post, reminding her of ‘actual’ jihad and making derogatory remarks about her appearance.
One of the abusive radical Islamist, apparently a female Twitter user, commented “Chakka(Eunuch)” on Arfa’s Dussehra greetings post.
Another intolerant bigot schooled Arfa on jihad, stating that her tweet on Dussehra had nothing to do with jihad. He further enunciated that Islam should not be talked along with “these things”.
One Twitter user mocked traditional Bengali attire and appearance of the ladies in the pictures, apparently quoting Prophet Muhammad to say that destiny of such women would be hell because of their sins.
However, this is not the first time that a certain section of society took umbrage over calling for celebrations of Hindu festival by Arfa. Earlier this year, on the occasion of Holi, Arfa Khanum had shared stating that she would play Holi saying “Bismillah”. This tweet did not sit well with enraged fundamental Muslims online who got triggered into posting objectionable replies to Khanum’s tweet. Not only was she slammed for allegedly insulting Islam but some rabid Islamists even wished death upon her.
Recently, TMC MP Nusrat Jahan was also censured by fundamentalist elements for partaking in celebrations of Durga festivities. One Assam Congress supporter had said that he wants to ‘quickly’ kill Nusrat Jahan for being a bad Muslim. A Muslim cleric from Darul Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against the TMC MP for attending Durga Puja and grimly suggested her to convert her religion and name.
Though some journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai proposed that such religious hatred peddled by ‘unknown’ personalities should be brushed aside, the obnoxious responses to Arfa’s tweet underline the growing intolerance of Islamists and their utter contempt of Hindu festivals. However, ironically often Arfa is been seen passionately defending regressive Islamist practices such as nikah-halala.
Arfa had also demonised Hindus by giving credence to the fake news of a teenager being set on fire on his refusal to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. Here, Sherwani had displayed a total disregard of journalistic ethics of verifying the news with the particular police station before putting out her tweet.
The Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of 5,300 Displaced Person (DP) families of Jammu & Kashmir-1947 who initially opted to move outside the state of Jammu & Kashmir but later on returned and settled in the state, in the Rehabilitation Package for Displaced Families of PoJK and Chhamb under the PM’s Development Package 2015 for Jammu & Kashmir. Initially, these families were kept out of the Rehabilitation Package approved by the Union Cabinet on 30.11.2016. The families will receive ₹5.5 lakh as compensation under the package.
The government stated that in the wake of the 1947 Pakistani aggression in J&K, 31,619 families migrated from Pakistan Occupied Areas of J&K (PoJK) to the state of J&K. Of these, 26,319 families settled in the state of J&K and 5300 families initially opted to move out of the state to other parts of the country. Furthermore, during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 10,065 more families were displaced from the Chhamb Niabat area. Of these 3,500 families were displaced during the 1965 war and 6,565 families were displaced during the 1971 war.
The government further stated that 36,384 displaced families covered under the package approved by the Cabinet on the 30th of November, 2016 included 26,319 displaced families from PoJK settled in J&K and 10,065 Displaced Families displaced from Chhamb Niabat area. The 5,300 DP families of PoJK who had initially opted to move out of the state of J&K to other parts of the country were not included in the approved package. Now those DP families who had moved out of the State but later returned and settled in the state are being included in the package.
The government said that the inclusion of these Families in the existing scheme will enable them to earn a reasonable monthly income and become a part of mainstream economic activities. It will also improve the Government’s capacity to respond effectively to such families who are in need of financial assistance. The requirement of funds will be met out of the already sanctioned funds for the existing scheme.
After the abrogation of Article 370 and the decision of the Union government to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, the government has announced various administrative reforms directed towards improving the circumstances in the state. The latest move towards the inclusion of DP families in the rehabilitation package is further directed towards improving the living conditions of people in the state.
High tension prevailed in Barpeta town in Assam after a Lakshmi temple was vandalised and looted by a Muslim man today. Apart from vandalising the temple, it was also torched by the man.
According to reports, the idol of Goddess Lakshmi at the historical temple in Keotkuchi area in Barpeta was damaged by one Rafiqul Ali in the early morning on 9th October. He had also looted the temple and damaged the floor tiles and other items kept at the temple. Rafiqul also tore banners and posters, and damaged decorations, which were put up at the temple for the upcoming Lakshmi Puja on 13th October (in Assam and some other eastern states Lakshmi puja is celebrated on the full moon after the Vijaya Dashami, while Kali Puja is celebrated on Diwali after a fortnight).
After vandalising the temple, Rafiqul Ali had proceeded to torch various items of the temple, along with cloths of the Lakshmi idol. Seeing fire coming out of the temple, locals arrived at the scene and caught the perpetrator red-handed, who was hiding in a corner of the temple. Gold and silver jewellery and other valuables were found with him which he had looted from the temple. A dagger was also found which he was carrying.
The local people have handed over the man to the police, who surprisingly remained in the temple after vandalising and looting it, instead of attempting to flee. He was identified as Rafiqul Ali, a resident of Shantipur in Bhella area of the Barpeta town.
Additional police forces have been deployed at the area to prevent any communal conflict as a result of the incident.
