Monday, April 8, 2013

10 Gujarat Muslim traders forced out of business take their plight to NCM.

At a time when western diplomats and investors are making a beeline to seek favours from Gujarat chief minister Narindra Modi, atleast 10 Gujarati Muslim traders have alleged having been forced to close down businesses over past one month. The latest complaint was been filed on Thursday by hotelier Mustafa Patel, who claims to have shut down his Jyoti Hotel on Viramgam highway, 90 minute drive from Ahmedabad, after receiving threats.

According to Patel, local politicians forced him to close down his business on February 9.
His petition says that despite court orders police has refused to provide him protection.
Confirming that the Commission has received complaints related to preventing people to operate their businesses, chairman Wajahat Habibullah said he has sought reports form Gujarat government.

Earlier the Commission had received complaints from nine traders of Chhota Udepur, alleging their businesses have been ruined. The complaint says, that sarpanch of village Baroj, Jayanti Rathwa engineered a riot in the area to take away the luxury transport business from his competitor Irfan Abdul Ghani. The region witnessed communal clashes on February 12 following a minor altercation between Adivasis and Muslims.

“On February 12, many minority industries were attacked, set to fire. SP, DIG went there, FIRs were lodged but till today no one has been arrested,” adds the complaint.

According to a report earlier released by an NGO Anhad, the miscreants in the area, burnt down plastic godown. Despite being named in the FIR, they have not been arrested owing to their allegiance to a local don with strong political backing, the report alleged. When the trader from minority community had attempted to restart his business, the godown was set to fire once again on March 8. Three days after fields belonging to Muslims caught fire and a person responsible was caught red handed.

“He had come with 3-4 people. His initial statement indicated that someone had asked him to do this but the local police told him to record on video that he dropped a beedi by mistake and it caught fire,” said the complaint filed before the NCM. The traders say,
Muslims and Advisasi have lived together in the area for centuries and smell a conspiracy to create bad blood by forcing minority community out of business in the region.

Those who have been forced to close down their business are Kasim Ahmed (scrap dealer), Ahmed Airf (minerals), Farooq Bhai (power production unit), Yakub Mohammad (mineral production), Saifudin Ali (power production), Ahmed Khoka (power), Shabir Bhai (mineral production), Majid Khan (power) and Harun Abdul Malajher (mines).

Reacting strongly to the complaints to the NCM, Gujarat government spokesperson and state finance minister Nitin Patel refuted all the claims. “There are thousands of minority traders and merchants prospering in Gujarat. Hundreds are doing their business in the walled city areas of Ahmedabad.

No such incidents have happened in the state, where traders or any other person has been forced to shut down their business just because they belong to minority community.

This is Gujarat and traders of all the communities and religions have flourished here without any bias of discrimination. This is an effort to malign Gujarat’s image,” said Patel.

Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1817054/report-10-gujarat-muslim-traders-forced-out-of-business-take-their-plight-to-ncm

Freedom fighter, 87, called an ISI agent by Gujarat police

Cops barge into Santosh Saha�s home; he sends legal notice to government.

An 87-year-old freedom fighter has accused the Sabarmati police of harassing him by alleging falsely that he belongs to Bangladesh and has links with the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI.

The octogenarian, Santosh Kumar Saha, has sent a legal notice to the state�s home secretary, the director general of police (DGP) and the Ahmedabad police commissioner, about the alleged police harassment. Saha has alleged that he was called to the Sabarmati police station for questioning.

Saha is a freedom fighter who participated in the Quit India movement in 1942 on the call of Mahatma Gandhi. Even the state government pays him a freedom fighters� pension, after an order was passed by the Gujarat high court in this regard in 2007.

He now lives alone in the Sabarmati area of the city, as his wife died some years back. His son, who was an engineer with the Ahmedabad Electricity Company (AEC), died while still young. In the legal notice, Saha�s lawyer, SH Iyer, has called the behaviour of the police worse than that of British rulers. The notice alleges that, on November 10 evening, two policemen barged into Saha�s house.

Before he could understand what was going on, they started questioning Saha, claiming that they had received some �information� about his being a Bangladeshi�. The policemen asked him to present himself before the police inspector of the Sabarmati police station.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1311491/report-freedom-fighter-87-called-an-isi-agent-by-gujarat-police

The Muslim Question: Stories of false terror. (A Compilation of cases by Tahelka)

On March 25, 2013, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde promised fast-track courts to try Muslim citizens accused of terrorist activities. Even as a stated intent, this is a watershed moment in the battle to secure justice for hundreds of innocent Muslims rotting in prisons despite a complete lack of evidence. Since 2001, when SIMI, a radical Muslim students’ outfit, was banned, young Muslim boys have been arrested as a cynical default mode, prejudged and condemned by the media, public and security establishment even before trials could begin. The poisonous idea that “Every Muslim is not a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim” had seeped into the country’s consciousness. No one was interested in the facts.
This began to change substantially in August 2008, when Tehelka began to publish a series of in-depth investigations into such cases. The colossal scale of abuse and injustice was brought into the public domain for the first time. Over the last five years, Tehelka’s reporters, Ashish Khetan, Ajit Sahi, Rana Ayyub, Harinder Baweja, Baba Umar, Imran Khan, Brijesh Pandey, G. Vishnu and Zahid Rafiq have exposed hundreds of such cases. Here is a compendium of this reportage. Tehelka’s pathbreaking coverage on the subject has undoubtedly changed the discourse on counterterrorism in India. But the battle for justice will remain unfinished until all the accused who are innocent are absolved of false charges, rehabilitated and compensated for their terrible suffering. And the guilty get punished.

The fight for Muslims is fundamental for the survival of our democracy

~Tehelka Coverage~

EXPOSÉ: The SIMI Fictions
In a crucial investigation over three months, Editor-at-Large Ajit Sahi tracked the SIMI fictions across 11 cities —Trivandrum, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Udaipur, Bhopal, Mumbai, Delhi, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Gorakhpur. His findings are alarming and distressing. They demand urgent introspection and corrective action. Read More>
In The Words Of A Zealot…
ON 18 DECEMBER 2010, a team of CBI sleuths escorted an elderly Bengali man Naba Kumar Sarkar, 59 — popularly known as Swami Aseemanand — from Tihar jail to the Tis Hazari court in Delhi, where he was produced before metropolitan magistrate Deepak Dabas. Aseemanand is the key accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast that killed nine people. This was his second court appearance in a span of little over 48 hours. On 16 December, Aseemanand had requested the magistrate to record his confession about his involvement in a string of terror attacks. He stated that he was making the confession without any fear, force, coercion or inducement. Read More>
An Angry Hall Of Fall Guys. And Unfair Arrests
A dangerous prejudice had slipped into the Indian criminal justice system: if there was a blast, a Muslim was behind it. For this, these 32 Muslims had to pay for blasts done by Hindutva extremists. Ashish Khetan reports.
Read More >

Chilling Confession

The Gujarat Police took quick credit for arresting the masterminds behind the July 2008 blasts in Ahmedabad. Rana Ayyub tracks the police’s star witness to find he has been tortured into falsely implicating the ‘masterminds’. An exclusive report
Read More >

Malegaon Files

The blasts chargesheet is silent on the role of other right-wing groups, says Rana Ayyub
Read More >

Deceptive Piety

Is Goa blast accused Sanatan Sanstha merely a harmless religious organisation or a dangerous cult that will stop at nothing? Rana Ayyub finds out.
Read More >

Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah Called Cops Arrested For Killing Tulsi Prajapati

Rana Ayyub gets hold of crucial call records on which the CBI is building its case.
Read More >

BREAKTHROUGH EXPOSÉ: So Why Is Narendra Modi Protecting Amit Shah?

‘The calls made by the minister are not part of official decorum. Their frequency is unnatural and uncommon in nature.’ — Gujarat CID report on Amit Shah’s calls to encounter cops Read More >

First On Tehelka: Amit Shah In The Dock

Former Home Minister Amit Shah will be questioned by the CBI between July 28 and July 30 in Sabarmati Jail. The CBI has obtained permission for the interrogation to be recorded on camera – to guard against future retractions. Tehelka first retrieved the call records that implicated Shah in the encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Kauser Bi. Read More >

Malegaon. Mecca Masjid. Ajmer Sharif. Why Are Tapes Implicating Ultra Hindutva Outfits In Terror Blasts Gathering Dust?

Tehelka has accessed 37 audio tapes, two videos and several witness statements that cast further light on the Malegaon blasts case of 2008 Read More >

Together, They Ran The Home Ministry. If Amit Shah Is In The Dock, Modi Cannot Remain Unscathed

SINCE THE sensational arrest of Gujarat junior Home Minister Amit Shah last week, the BJP has been crying hoarse about a Congress conspiracy; about the CBI being a “Congress bureau of investigation”; and of how the case against Shah is built on legally flimsy grounds. Read More >

The Unturned Stone

The Malegaon blast probe threw up 37 audiotapes in which ultra-Hindu groups plot terror attacks. These tapes expose a shocking nexus between Military Intelligence men and the outfits. Two years later, why is this still unexplored, asks Rana Ayyub Read More >

The Terror. The Threat. The Twist

Rana Ayyub examines the phenomenon of the Indian Mujahideen.
Read More >

Hoisting An Old Trick

The BJP in Karnataka is fanning communal fears to consolidate the Hindu vote, reports Imran Khan
Read More >

Who Will Pay For Injustice Done To These Nine Men?

ASHISH KHETAN exposes the elaborate and cynical charade of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad to implicate a bunch of Muslim men in terrorist strikes aimed at members of their own community
Read More >

Not Just A Confession. Forensic Evidence Piles Up Against Hindutva Terror

Over the past three years the evidence gathered by the agencies against a team of RSS pracharaks and lunatic Hindutva groups like Abhinav Bharat and Jai Vande Matram is compelling
Read More >

Ghost Of Fake Encounters Comes Back To Haunt Gujarat

A CBI progress report on the four fake encounters of 2004-2007 in Gujarat establishes what TEHELKA has been saying all along. Now, senior policemen and IB officials face arrests in these cases, says Rana Ayyub
Read More >

Dead Man Talking

It’s not just Ishrat Jahan. Rana Ayyub accesses exclusive intelligence inputs and pieces together a damning trail on another encounter in Gujarat. The story of Sadiq Jamal’s death raises uncomfortable questions the government might find difficult to answer.
Read More >

More Questions No Answers
IN MORE placid times, Motilal Nagar, No. 2 would be just another by lane in one just another one of Mumbai’s suburbs — one with a predominantly Muslim population. However, it has been attracting continuous media attention for the last couple of months ever since one of its residents — 37-yearold Faheem Ansari — was taken into custody by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch for his role in the terror attacks of 26/11.
Read More>

How Do You Keep The Faith?
TEHELKA BEGAN 2011 with the publication of Swami Asimananda’s stunning confession (In the words of a zealot, by Ashish Khetan, 15 January), which not only changed the terror discourse in the country but also the lives of seven Muslim men who were arrested after the 2006 blasts that took 37 lives in Malegaon, Maharashtra. Last week, six of them, hailing from different strata of Muslim society, returned home to a rousing welcome after getting bail. But the family of Mohammad Zahid, the poorest of the lot, will perhaps have to wait longer.
Read More >

‘I’m Jobless. I Can’t Start A Business Also Because Friends Refuse Me Loans’
SYED WASIF HAIDER, a resident of Kanpur, UP, was jailed for eight years, before the courts finally acquitted him of all charges on 14 August 2009. As a part of the delegation meeting the president on 18 November, he had only one thing to say: “Please stop the media from defaming me. I was declared innocent in 2009. Yet, the local media drags my name in whenever there’s a blast. I’m facing a social boycott. Children in the locality don’t play with a ‘terrorist’s’ daughters. Relatives feel police will hound them for visiting me.”
Read More >
From Death To Acquittal, A Journey Of Two Men
THEY HAD been handed out the harshest sentence the penal code allows — death. But on 22 November, 16 years after they were charged, the Delhi High Court set aside their death sentences, acquitting Mahmud Ali Bhat, 43, and Mirza Nissar Hussain, 32, of any involvement in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blasts.
Read More >

‘My Family Saw A Disorder In Me, But That Had Become My Order’
SYED MAQBOOL SHAH of Kashmir has a similar story of injustice and wrongful incarceration. In the bylanes of Srinagar’s Lal Bazaar, Shah’s two-storey decrepit house in Jan Mohalla has become a wellknown structure. Those looking for direction to this house are guided till the gate.
Read More >

‘Justice Made Me Realise That I Was Guilty Until Proven Innocent’
FOURTEEN YEARS is a long time. Wiping away the tears streaming down his cheeks, Mohammad Aamir recounts his experience of when he stepped out of the Rohtak Jail on 9 January 2012.
Read More >

Terror That Wasn’t
THE SPECIAL CELL of the Delhi Police was formed in 1986 as a counter-terrorism force. It shot into prominence in the late 1990s, claiming to have killed many terrorists and to have solved several cases. In time, some of its officers began to figure in extortion cases and dubious encounters. Tellingly, over the last four months, lower courts in Delhi have acquitted nine “terrorists” arrested by the Special Cell. Four such “terrorists” were arrested after an encounter in southwest Delhi in March 2005. Police claimed they had averted a major terrorist attack on the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun. Five years later, all four men were acquitted. Brijesh Pandey profiles the four terrorists who never were.
Read More >

The Storyteller Becomes The Story
ON 13 FEBRUARY, Syed Ahmed Kazmi was sitting in television news studios as an expert on Iran soon after the bombing of the car carrying the Israel Defence Attaché’s wife in New Delhi. Kazmi, who had widely reported on West Asia, fearlessly spoke his mind, rubbishing Israel’s claim that the attack was masterminded by Iran.
Read More >

‘I Was Picked Up Because I Lived In The Same House As The Other Accused’
Muthi-Ur-Rahman Siddique, a journalist with the Deccan Herald in Bengaluru, was arrested last year, along with 14 others, in an alleged plot to assassinate prominent Right-leaning journalists and politicians in Karnataka. The National Investigating Agency (NIA) took over the case from the Karnataka police two months ago and dropped charges against Siddique and a co-accused, Yusuf Nalband. Siddique was released on 25 February. In a conversation with Imran Khan, Siddique shares his six-month ordeal behind the bars, and how the tag of a ‘mastermind’ affected his life and family.
Read More>

Tihar jail has 53 Kashmiris. Like Dar, most were framed
GHULAM MOHIDEEN Dar suffered for no cause, no idea, no movement — just for being a Kashmiri. A thought that haunts him as he adjusts to new realities of life after being freed from a long incarceration. Dar contested the 2004 Parliamentary election from the Pulwama-Islamabad constituency as an independent candidate and later joined the Congress. He was also a dealer in Gulnar tea, and frequently came to Delhi on business. On one such trip on 15 June 2005, Dar met the then minister of state for defence and also sought an appointment with the President.
Read More >

‘I Was Forbidden From Receiving Religious Books In Jail’
Forty-nine-year-old Anjum Zamarud Habib, founding member of the Hurriyat Conference, was falsely implicated under POTA. Habib’s memoir Prisoner No 100 is a rare and shocking account of a tortured five years in Tihar jail and a critique of the judicial system. She talks to Yamini Deenadayalan on a visit to Delhi (a place she “never feels free in and fears”). Edited excerpts.
Read More >

How Police Hid The Truth For 15 Years

In 1996, four people were bundled into a police van. One escaped, while there’s still no news of the other three. Baba Umar travels to Bhaderwah to expose the cover-up
Read More >

‘I Don’t Feel Any Purpose In Life Now’

Mirza Iftikhar Hussain, 40
Namchebal, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir by Baba Umar
Read More >

Came For Work, Got Sentenced Instead

Shakeel Ahmad Khan, 50
Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir by Baba Umar
Read More >

Life In Jail Was Hell, It Is No Better Outside

Syed Maqbool Shah, 32
Lal Bazaar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir by Baba Umar
Read More >

Grounded For 5 Years, Will He Ever Fly Again?

Imran Ahmad Kirmani, 29
Nelipora hamlet, Handwara Jammu & Kashmir by Baba Umar
Read More >

‘I Was Forbidden From Receiving Religious Books In Jail’

Forty-nine-year-old Anjum Zamarud Habib, founding member of the Hurriyat Conference, was falsely implicated under POTA. Habib’s memoir Prisoner No 100 is a rare and shocking account of a tortured five years in Tihar jail and a critique of the judicial system. She talks to Yamini Deenadayalan on a visit to Delhi (a place she “never feels free in and fears”). Edited excerpts. Read More >

The War On Terror & Its Collateral Damage

Over 10 years in jail. For a crime they did not commit. Baba Umar on the Muslims whose lives became hell in false terror cases
Read More >

‘I’m Jobless. I Can’t Start A Business Also Because Friends Refuse Me Loans’

Syed Wasif Haider
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh by Baba Umar
Read More >

‘My Family Saw A Disorder In Me, But That Had Become My Order’

Syed Maqbool Shah
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh by Baba Umar
Read More >

From Death To Acquittal, A Journey Of Two Men

The acquittal of two men on death row raises questions on the process of terror probes in India, says Baba Umar
Read More >

The fight for Muslims is fundamental for the survival of our democracy.

The fight for Muslims is fundamental for the survival of our democracy

Despair can turn you from citizen to perpetrator. From the hunted to the hunter.

SOME YEARS ago, at a TEHELKA press conference, a young Muslim man walked up to TEHELKA Editor Tarun Tejpal and held his hand in deep gratitude. “If it had not been for your journalists, we would long have picked up the gun. Your work gives us hope, Sir,” he said. “You help us believe we belong to this country.” It was one of those rare moments of vindication journalists live for. The young man’s father, a respected maulvi, was falsely incarcerated then. We had just written his story. He would be acquitted a few years later.
In a sense, it is immaterial who that young man was. Over the past few years, TEHELKA journalists have documented hundreds of stories of innocent Muslims languishing in jails — often brutally tortured — on flimsy or false charges. It is easy to blank that phrase out, to be inured to it: “Hundreds of Muslims arrested on false charges”. But each case hides hair-raising stories about prejudice, incompetence and deliberate malafide. Each case also holds stories of pain, destroyed lives and hollowed futures.
Innocent Muslims have been jailed with impunity in India over the past decade because it was easy to jail them. Within hours of any terror attack, a bunch of Muslim boys would be arrested and their names aired in the media as “masterminds”. Then they would disappear from mainstream consciousness. Their guilt was assumed: it did not need to be proved.
Since 2001, a terrible maxim had seeped into the Indian mainstream: All Muslims may not be terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. It did not matter if you caught the wrong ones. No one needed veracity. Everyone only wanted the illusion of security and “action taken”.
It wasn’t easy to report on these stories and ask the hard questions. The few human rights and media groups who did, were scorned as “anti-national”. Or doctrinaire liberals. The key point was missed. It is no one’s position that those who plant bombs should go unpunished. Those, like us, who were raising flags had only two simple arguments to make. One, take the long route, catch the real culprits, remain constitutional: that is the only way to real security. Two: do not make false arrests and breed fresh despair, triggering new cycles of hate and revenge. In the clever calculations men make about security and State, they underestimate the power of human despair. When you lose faith that a system will play fair by you, it can breed fatal recklessness. It can make you abdicate from the rules that cement human relations. Despair can turn you from citizen to perpetrator. From the hunted to the hunter. Despair can be a deadly weapon.
Fortunately — even if slowly — this dangerous tide has begun to turn. The dogged exposés are paying off. Over the past few months, there have been some very significant developments. First, in November last year, nudged by a committed citizens’ group — People’s Campaign against the Politics of Terror — CPM leader Prakash Karat took a list of 22 Muslims to President Pranab Mukherjee and demanded the Centre take immediate steps to help such victims of “State-led injustice”. The demands included fast-track courts; rehabilitation and compensation for those falsely jailed; and a review of the UAPA Act. Most importantly, Karat’s delegation to the President made the idea of ‘justice for Muslims’ front-page news. The sound-proof towers had been breached.
In March this year, in another unprecedented move, in the Rajasthan High Court Infosys agreed to pay a compensation of 20 lakh to Rashid Husain, a young Muslim engineer who’d been questioned by the police and unfairly sacked from his job soon after. Hopefully, this will set a blueprint for all those whose lives and reputations have been similarly destroyed. Young men who’ve spent decades in jail; who cannot find jobs or houses to rent even when they’re acquitted; whose families find themselves ostracised and sisters find themselves unmarriageable because their brothers have been stigmatised.
Finally, in a potentially far-reaching move, this week — perhaps driven by cynical electoral concerns — Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde wrote to parliamentarian Mohammed Adeeb that the government was considering setting up fast-track courts to expedite trials of Muslims in terror cases. It is absolutely crucial that this letter of intent does not go into oblivion. The fight for justice for Muslims is not an act of chivalric charity towards minorities: it is a fundamental act of survival for Indian democracy.
TEHELKA has compiled all its coverage of this issue online as The Muslim Question. Do read it. You will understand why.
shoma@tehelka.com

Source: http://tehelka.com/the-fight-for-muslims-is-fundamental-for-the-survival-of-democracy/

PCI chairman Justice Katju directed the Tamil Nadu C.M. to suspend 30 policemen involved in the illegal arrest of an editor , or C.M. should resign.

Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju directed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to suspend 30 policemen involved in the illegal arrest of an editor of a daily nearly three years ago, or Chief Minister should resign during an opening hearing by the inquiry committee-II of PCI in Hyderabad on Friday. Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman Markendey Katju on Friday asked the Tamil Nadu government to quit or run the administration in accordance with the Constitution by immediately ordering the arrest, charge-sheeting and suspension of 30 policemen who had acted in a high-handed manner against the Editor of a Tamil daily and his son for writing against illegal granite mining.

The complaint of S. Manimaran, Editor of Tamil daily Dhinaboomi, Madurai, was among the 19 matters taken up by the the PCI’s Inquiry Committee which met here on Friday.

While counsel for the Tamil Nadu government was making his submissions, Mr. Katju expressed his ire at the inaction of the State government over the incident, which occurred on the night of July 21, 2010.

Thirty policemen had jumped the compound wall, entered his house, dragged him and his son. “I want them to be arrested,” Mr. Katju said. “Either you do it or resign,” he added.

When the counsel said he felt sorry, the PCI Chairman said, “Your sorry will not do. Let the Chief Minister say she is unable to run the government in accordance to the Constitution and submit resignation to the Governor.”

He also pulled up the counsel for not having made his client comply with the orders issued by the PCI in the past with regard to the case.

Later in his order, Mr. Katju said that very serious allegations have been made against the Tamil Nadu government with regard to illegal arrest, torture and harassment of the complainant due to his critical writings.

He said the complainant alleged that a lot of complaints were received from the local public regarding huge misappropriation in granite mining industry in Tamil Nadu.

The complainant’s son made an investigation and it was alleged that stones valued at Rs. 1,500 crore were illegally mined. Annoyed by the newspaper’s report, the president of the Granite Quarry Owners Association filed a false criminal case.

The police entered his house and took him and his son away without showing any arrest warrant. Police did not give any explanation nor did it furnish any copy of the complaint. They took them to the magistrate and got them remanded.

The PCI inquiry committee had passed two orders on April 27 and August 27 in 2012, Mr. Katju said deeply regretting that neither of the orders was complied with and total disrespect was shown to this committee by Tamil Nadu authorities.

“In our opinion, filing a criminal case could not be made an excuse to escape action by the Press Council in connection with the freedom of the press. We had expected that by now the 30 policemen who had committed high-handed and illegal act of barging into the complainant’s house in the night would have been suspended, arrested and charge-sheeted, but that was not done. Even today, neither the District Collector nor Home Secretary appeared before us in sheer defiance of our orders”.

“In our opinion, if the Tamil Nadu government finds itself unable to run the administration in accordance with the Constitution, it has no right to continue in office.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/arrest-erring-cops-or-quit-katju-tells-tn-government/article4584593.ece

Delhi Police Special Cell Continue to fabricate terrorists.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police are believed to have rejected the Delhi Police’s claim of recovery of an AK-47 rifle from Kashmiri militant Liaquat Ali Shah alias Kaka Khan, claiming that they were waiting for his surrender when he was allegedly arrested near Gorakhpur, close to the India-Nepal border.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu that the Delhi Police were “under pressure” to hand over the detained militant to the J&K Police after the senior State Police officials in Jammu communicated to the Home Ministry that the story carried by the media regarding Liaquat’s arrest was “not perfectly correct.” The J&K Police officials are understood to have claimed that they were informed of Liaquat’s arrival at Kathmandu and his desire to surrender before Kupwara District Police 15 days ago.

“We had been informed of his [Liaquat’s] arrival along with his wife, son and daughter by air via Nepal some 15 days ago by his family members and other sources managing his surrender,” senior police officials said.

“We made it clear to the family that we could accept only the surrender of the militants who return from Pakistan and PoK, alone or along with their families, through the routes designated in the 2010 surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy of the State government. We made it clear to them that Nepal and Gorakhpur routes are not covered in the policy. But when they insisted, we decided to accept his surrender with the condition that he would not be entitled to the benefits of the surrender policy. Thereafter, we kept waiting for him till we got the news of his arrest by Delhi Police,” top ranking sources in the J&K Police said. According to them, seizure of AK-47 rifle and grenades from the detained militant at a hotel in Delhi was “doubtful.”

Director-General of J&K Police, Ashok Prasad, refused to comment. “This case is being handled by the Delhi Police,” he told The Hindu. He said that J&K Police CID was in touch with the Delhi Police on details about the detained militant.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Kupwara, Mohammad Irshad too declined to comment on the militant’s surrender and arrest. He, however, said that Liaquat of Dardpora village crossed the LoC and joined a militant training camp in PoK in 1995. According to him, he returned in 1996, remained active as a militant for about a year and went back to Pakistan in 1997. “In police records, he is missing since 1997 and married a Pakistani woman.” He said that there was no criminal case registered against him at any police station in Kupwara district.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/we-were-waiting-for-his-surrender-say-jk-police/article4539024.ece

SC stays execution of 8 on death row, cites Afzal Guru's case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of eight prisoners for a month after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected their mercy plea. The apex court has said that it wants to make sure whether the family has been duly informed and the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru episode isn't repeated.
The convicts' counsel had filed petitions challenging the rejection of their mercy plea. During the hearing, the bench said it wanted to ascertain whether proper communication had been sent to their relatives. The petitioners had apprehended that they would be executed following the rejection of their mercy petitions.
Seven cases of multiple murders, including one in which a convict, who was out on bail on rape charge, killed five members of the girl's family, were sent to the President for final decision in February. The recommendations in seven cases, involving nine people, were sent after the President took decision on mercy petitions of eight condemned prisoners including Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru - both whom have been hanged. While Kasab was hanged on November 21, 2012, Guru was executed on February 9.
The convicts whose mercy petitions were sent to the President in February with recommendations by the Home Ministry were:
- Dharampal from Haryana who had murdered five members of the family of a girl he had raped in 1993.
- Sonia, daughter of a former Haryana MLA and her husband Sanjeev, who drugged and killed eight of her family in Hisar in 2001 including her parents.
- Sunder Singh from Uttarakhand, who was convicted for rape and murder on June 30, 1989.
- Jafar Ali from Uttar Pradesh killed wife and five daughters in 2002.
- Praveen Kumar from Karnataka was convicted for killing four members of a family on February 23, 1994.
- Gurmeet Singh from Uttar Pradesh killed 13 members of a family on August 17, 1986.
- Suresh and Ramji, also from Uttar Pradesh, were convicted for killing five members of their younger brother's family.

Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news//sc-stays-execution-of-8-on-death-row-cites-afzals-case/383669-3.html

‘It’s tough for us to even book a train ticket’

THE AFTERMATH:Aijaz Ahmed Mirza, Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui, Mohammed Yusuf Nalband and Manisha Sethi of the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association at the release of a report on targeting of Muslims in terror cases, in Bangalore on Saturday.— PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTH

Forty days after journalist Muthi-ur-Rahman Siddiqui, Mohammed Yusuf Nalband and the former DRDO junior scientist Aijaz Ahmed Mirza — arrested by the police on the charge of being part of a terror module — were released from jail, they are yet to get back their identity documents from the police, making it difficult for them to carry out their day-to-day activities.

Revealing this at a discussion, ‘Needle of suspicion: targeting Muslims in terror cases’, jointly organised by a coalition of 17 organisations, the three said it was tough for them now even to book a train ticket.

“These days we need to carry an ID card if we are travelling on a reserved ticket. One of us paid a penalty of Rs. 540 recently for not furnishing the ID. How do we explain that our identity documents have been seized by the police?” Mr. Siddiqui said.

Pointing out that the stigma of being accused as a terrorist continued to haunt them even after being let off by the court, he castigated the hypocrisy of the media in demanding an apology and compensation from the State for his illegal incarceration, when the media itself was not willing to apologise for the malicious manner in which it portrayed him.

Mr. Mirza said he had lost his dream job with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), where he was one of the very few Muslims ever to be appointed. He also narrated the trauma that his family went through in trying to contact him after he was arrested.

A report on the targeting of Muslims in terror cases in Karnataka, Permanent Suspects: Framing Muslim Youth in Karnataka , was released.

Introducing the report, V.S. Sreedhara of Peoples’ Democratic Forum said the report documents the stigma attached to persons falsely charged in terror cases, and the loss of life, dignity and livelihood.

Advocate S.A.H. Razvi spoke about the manner in which most terror cases were concocted and innocent people were framed.

“This is best illustrated by the arbitrary manner in which investigations are conducted,” he said.

Manisha Sethi from Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association spoke about her experiences in documenting the numerous false terror cases heaped on innocent Muslim youth across Delhi.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/its-tough-for-us-to-even-book-a-train-ticket/article4590219.ece

SC slams Army over Pathribal fake killings!!

New Delhi: The Indian Army has been severely criticised by the Supreme Court for not deciding if it wants to take action against its officers involved in the Pathribal encounter case. The apex court on Monday issued a notice to the Defence Secretary and the Home Secretary in the March 25, 2000 encounter at Pathribal in South Kashmir in which seven people were gunned down for allegedly being Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists.

The court asked the Army if it will initiate court martial proceedings against the officers involved in the case. The Centre has to decide whether five Army officials including a serving Major General could be tried under the Army Act in the case.

A bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar gave the direction even as the Centre and the CBI continue to differ on the immunity enjoyed by the Army under the controversial AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) and other regular laws in encounter killings.

According to the Army officials, the seven people killed in Pathribal were allegedly responsible for the gunning down of 36 Sikhs at Chittisingpura in the same district on the intervening night of March 19-20, 2000.

The case was investigated by the CBI which filed its chargesheet in 2007 against five Army personnel including a Brigadier who later rose to become a Major General.

However, the trial in the case was stopped after the Army moved Supreme Court claiming immunity for its personnel under the AFSPA whereas the CBI contended that the five had allegedly indulged in murder of civilians for which the immunity could not be provided.

Additional Solicitor General PP Malhotra, on behalf of the Centre, had denied that any fake encounter killings had taken place in the specific cases pertaining to Kashmir and Assam pending before the apex court.

Source:http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sc-slams-army-over-pathribal-fake-killings/223547-3.html

Communal forces targeting Chhattisgarh Christians, alleges forum.

Sees conspiracy in arrest of head of children’s home, warden

The Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF) has alleged that the community is being systematically targeted by “communal and anti-national forces” by way of regular “attacks almost every month.”

In a press note, the forum charged the police with conniving with anti-Christian, fundamentalist forces to harass the community. It highlighted the recent arrest of the head of a children’s home and its warden in Durg district. The police had contended that Reverend Swaminathalu and warden J. Dilip Kumar of the Bethel Children Home were booked on the basis of “sufficient evidence,” it said.

The controversial Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was invoked against them for ‘coercive sex against minors.’ They were also facing charges of criminal intimidation and falsification of information.

They were charged under Section 23(cruelty to a child) under the Juvenile Justice Act. The anti-conversion law, 1968, which Chhattisgarh inherited from Madhya Pradesh, has also been slapped on them, the CCF noted.

The Sub-Divisional Officer (Police) of the Patan Block in Durg, Nivedita Pal, who is the supervising officer of the case, told The Hindu that the two were arrested on complaints from “minors from the children’s home.”

But a journalist from Durg, Dinesh Kumar, said the allegations were “concocted.”

“I spoke to the boys who were allegedly molested on Friday. They were eager to move back to their home from the rescue centre and said they had no complaint against anyone.

On Saturday, after recording their statement in the presence of senior police officials, the six boys were taken to the district general hospital for medical examination, where they told journalists that nobody molested them and that they were being coerced to give statements,” Mr. Kumar told The Hindu.

According to Mr. Kumar, Father Swaminathalu had said the children were compelled to frame charges against him. He also claimed that a local NGO “masterminded the conspiracy” against him and the warden.

According to Ms. Pal, there was “evidence” against Rev. Swaminathalu and Mr. Dilip Kumar.

“They were arrested on the basis of strong prima facie evidence,” she said. She denied the charges that they were “falsely implicated” in the case. Both Rev Swaminathalu and the warden were remanded in judicial custody.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/communal-forces-targeting-chhattisgarh-christians-alleges-forum/article4570865.ece

See how Modi served the Gujarat and, likewise he wants to repay the debt to 'Bharat Mata'.

AHMEDABAD: Chief minister Narendra Modi's supporters may feel that he has served Gujarat enough and now wants to repay the debt to 'Bharat Mata', but Gujarat's actual debt has mounted from Rs 45,301 crore in 2001-02, when he first came to power, and is projected to touch Rs 1.76 lakh crore by 2013-14, when he plans his flight to New Delhi.
As on 31-03-12, the revised estimates of total debt stood at Rs 1,38,978 crore. While two other states - West Bengal (Rs 1,92,100 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 1,58,400 crore) - have a higher debt, they aren't claiming they are a "model state". Besides, if Modi leaves for Delhi after "settling his debt" with Gujarat, he is leaving behind the highest ever per capita debt of Rs 23,163 - if the population is taken at exactly six crore.
The Gujarat government is paying a mind-boggling interest of Rs. 34.50 crore every day. By 2015-16, the debt would mount to Rs 2,07,695 crore as per the state government's budget estimates. A large chunk of the state's revenues go towards debt servicing. The state's total debt was less than Rs 10,000 crore when the BJP first came to power in Gujarat in 1995.
Critics have pointed out that much of the spending is on show-piece infrastructure projects, while overall spending on key areas like health and infrastructure remains low. The debt has mounted despite Gujarat having one of the highest VAT on petrol and also being the one of the few states to have VAT on fertilizers.
The latest CAG report tabled in the assembly last week stated, "As of 31 March 2012, the government had invested Rs 39179 crore in areas where the average return on investment was just 0.27 per cent in last five years while the government paid an interest of 7.75 on its borrowings during the same period." It said continued use of borrowed funds to fund investment which do not have sufficient returns will lead to an unsustainable financial position.
Source:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-06/india/38326369_1_capita-debt-gujarat-government-crore

Gujarat HC raps Modi govt. for ‘inaction’ during post-Godhra riots

Ahmedabad, February 8, 2012

PTI Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat High Court rapped the Modi government for "negligence” during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. File photo

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Narendra Modi government for “inaction and negligence” on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures.

A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG).

Inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the State government to prevent riots resulted in large-scale destruction of religious structures across the State, the court observed.

The government was responsible for repair and compensation for such places, it further said.

The court said that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

The court also ordered that principal judges of 26 districts of the state will receive the applications for compensation of religious structures in their respective districts and decide on it. They have been asked to send their decisions to HC within six months.

IRCG’s petition in 2003 had sought court’s directions to the government to pay compensation towards damage of religious places during riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

The state government had opposed the IRCG petition, saying it was a violation of article 27 of the Constitution.

The government further said that there was no policy with regards to compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during the riots.

Lawyer for IRCG, M.T.M. Hakim hailed it as a “landmark judgement” in the country, in which compensation has been ordered for destruction of religious structures.

“This is also probably for the first time that a court has held the State government responsible for inaction and negligence during the 2002 riots,” Mr. Hakim said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2871891.ece

Sunita Williams ignores Narendra Modi during Gujarat visit.

AHMEDABAD: Astronaut Sunita Williams hasn't spared time for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi during her current visit to Gujarat.

Instead, she was seen throughout the day in the company of Jagruti Pandya, wife of slain minister Haren Pandya and Sunita's first cousin.

Efforts were made by the chief minister's office to tie up a meeting between Modi and Sunita but she did not respond. As a result the Modi government has not extended her protocol as a state guest though police did provide her with a pilot vehicle.

Sunita declined offer by protocol officers to travel in a Gujarat government vehicle on her arrival at Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon.

During her last visit to Gujarat in September 2007 after she returned from her first space flight, Modi had attended a civic reception organized by his government in Ahmedabad in Sunita's honour.

He had praised her then but relations have gone sour since apparently because of the family's belief that Pandya's murder was more political than communal.

Source: http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Sunita-Williams-ignores-Narendra-Modi-during-Gujarat-visit/articleshow/19391675.cms

Monday, April 8, 2013

Sees conspiracy in arrest of head of children’s home, warden

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