Mob Attacks Mosque, Toll Rises to Five; Curfew Imposed in Nuh; Internet Services Suspended in Sohna, Pataudi, and Manesar
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the recent violence in Haryana, terming it a “terror attack.”
The violence erupted during a religious procession in Nuh district, resulting in the death of five people, including the killing of a mosque’s naib imam in Gurugram.
Haryana’s Home Minister, Anil Vij, claimed that the violence was “engineered.” As a response, the Haryana government has sought 20 companies of the Rapid Action Force from the Centre to maintain law and order in Nuh district.
Curfew has been imposed in Nuh, and internet services suspended in certain areas. Police and administration are holding meetings with prominent community members to ensure peace.
VHP activists plan to hold protests across the country against the attacks on Hindus in Haryana. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has appealed for peace and brotherhood in the region.
Kolkata: Even as a controversy broke out over what political rivals saw as an attempt to usurp the legacy of national poet Rabindranath Tagore by the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a speech here on Tuesday to mark the Nobel Laurette’s birth anniversary pointedly spoke about his secular vision and his use of Raksha Bandhan to promote Hindu-Muslim unity.
Analysts saw this as thinly veiled attack on the BJP and Home Minister Amit Shah who is in the city to pay homage to the poet at a function organised by a BJP supported cultural NGO. TMC has long accused BJP and its top leadership of promoting a political ideology opposed to the tenets of secularism.
“We hardly have the qualifications to define the Poet Laurette he is in our soul, he is the poet of the freedom movement, the poet who stood against communal disharmony, who stood for Raksha Bandhan (Tagore tied Rakhis on the wrist of Muslim leaders to unite them with Hindus in the struggle against the British move to divide Bengal in 1905),” Banerjee said.
She also said that many things are being bandied about for the sake of electoral calculations such as that “Tagore was born in Santiniketan”.
“We should not think that for the sake of elections we can purchase someone spending Rs 5, or mistakenly we can say that Rabindranath Tagore was born in Santiniketan,” Banerjee said.
The TMC had two-and-a-half years ago gone to town with a screenshot of a tweet by BJP’s Bengal unit quoting the party president J P Nadda as making the claim as against the fact that he was born in Kolkata at Jorashankho Palace, where Shah had gone Tuesday morning. It has also long been claiming that the BJP hired people for its rallies and processions.
She also pointed to an incident which occurred a few years back when a bust of Bengal renaissance icon and educationist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was destroyed in a college in Kolkata during a BJP rally some years back, shocking people in the state.
“We should not think that one can vandalise the bust of Vidyasagar,” Banerjee said.
“Those who have Tagore in their hearts always feel him. If ‘Ravi-upasana’ (Rabindranath homage) is done from the bottom of your heart, then that will be the real homage to the real Rabindranath,” Banerjee added.
Earlier in the day, one of Banerjee’s lieutenant’s, state urban minister Firhad Hakim alleged that the BJP was trying to reap benefits from Tagore’s cult status in the state by organising a visit by Shah’s to pay homage to the poet.
Hakim said, “The BJP is trying to woo Bengalis before next year’s Lok Sabha polls. But Rabindranath Tagore should not be used for political reasons or electoral benefits.
He said that Tagore’s ideology of secularism, humanism needs to be understood. “You need to follow his path of tolerance, harmony among all religions, which the BJP does not,” the minister said.
CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim also alleged that both TMC and BJP were trying to use Tagore politically.
“Today those who are playing with religion, are trying to use Tagore for their divisive politics. Tagore was against all this. Neither BJP’s nor TMC’s ideologies match with that of Tagore,” Salim told reporters.
The headlines on Friday when the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ( SCO) met in Goa India, changed quickly. The killing of five soldiers in the Kandi area of Rajouri, a border district along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, in an encounter with the terrorists who had attacked an army vehicle and killed five soldiers on April 20 in the same belt, altered the headlines. The dateline also shifted from Panaji to Panaji to Rajouri. The SCO meet and its conclusions, which could have been the banner headlines were diluted as the killing of soldiers made it to the headlines in a way that no one had anticipated.
This change in headlines substantiated the Indian view that how terrorism was keeping it away from direct or indirect talks with Pakistan in resolving issues between the two countries bilaterally. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar did not mince words in calling out his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Zardari Bhutto as the “spokesperson of industry of terrorism, the mainstay of Pakistan.” He underscored his message in the phrase, “The victims of terrorism and perpetrators of terrorism cannot sit together”. This was a clear message to Pakistan that it cannot hope India to talk and improve ties while terrorism from across the border continued to bleed the country. The killing of five soldiers on Friday in Rajouri lent strategic, diplomatic, and political meat to this assertion.
Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, who projected himself as the son of Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated by terrorists in December 2007, tried to convince the SCO and India, in particular, that Pakistan also is a victim of terrorism, and it has suffered the maximum number of casualties due to acts of terror. It is a fact but this doesn’t grant Pakistan a license to export and unleash terrorism in India. The real victims of terrorism empathize with the fellow victims, not inflict terrorism on them.
This is not the first time that the headlines changed in this manner. At a time, way back in December 2015, when it was hoped that a new chapter of friendly ties between India and Pakistan might open with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lahore, to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, things turned sour with terror attack on Indian Air Force Station in Pathankot. This was like the Lahore turned Kargil moment during the Vajpayee era in 1999. The headlines don’t change for days or weeks, but these leave a legacy of chilling reminders of what had happened. These are dark spots in the history, which cannot be obliterated. These spots have an unfortunate tendency to recur as necessary lessons are not learned in time, and the temporary wake up calls turn into sleepwalking after few weeks or months.
As the operations are underway to trace and neutralize the terrorists who mounted these attacks, it is hoped that the army would be successful in neutralizing the terrorists involved in these two incidents, in which 10 soldiers have died with zero casualty on the other side so far. This is a very heavy toll, as it is far beyond the normal and acceptable ratio; one to four. That is four terrorists against each soldier. By that count, the number of terrorists killed in these operations should have been 40. But there are certain constraints. It is not always possible to maintain this ratio as the situations and terrains are difficult. The army has an added constraint, it has to navigate its operations without causing collateral damage – no civilian casualty is the mantra. There may be an argument that how could there be civilian losses in high and rocky terrains, but this is not the case. During this time of the year, shepherds are in the upper reaches with their herd. The gunbattles and operations restrict their movement and they have to stay within specified spaces. This is the geographic challenge.
The nation is waiting for the outcome of the ongoing operations in the mountains dotted with dense forests. That will add yet another headline. The real threat of headlines of this nature is that they overshadow the rest of the stories emanating from the ground. Positive optics take a back seat not only in the captions and headlines but also in the minds of the people.
New Delhi: Each organisation in India faced an average of 2,108 weekly attacks in the first quarter of 2023, around 18 per cent higher than that in the year-ago period, a Check Point report said on Friday.
Cybercriminals are misusing legitimate tools like ChatGPT for code generation that can help less-skilled threat actors effortlessly launch cyberattacks, Trojanizing 3CXDesktop app for a supply chain attack etc for malicious gains, the report said.
“During the first quarter of 2023, India average weekly attacks rose by 18 per cent in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022, with each organization facing an average of 2,108 weekly attacks per organization,” the report said.
Global weekly attacks rose by 7 per cent during the reported quarter versus same quarter last year with each organization facing an average of 1,248 attacks per week.
Globally, the education and research sector faced the highest number of attacks, rising to an average of 2,507 attacks per organization per week, marking a 15 per cent increase compared to March 2022 quarter, the report said.
“APAC region experienced the highest YoY surge in weekly attacks, with an average of 1,835 attacks per organization, marking a 16 per cent increase 1 out of every 31 organizations worldwide experienced a ransomware attack every week,” the report said.
SRINAGAR: A little girl’s playful afternoon turned into a nightmare when she was viciously attacked by a group of stray dogs in the south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. In her desperate attempt to escape, she fell into the water and suffered life-threatening injuries. She was shifted to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SHMS) Hospital where she is battling for her life.
Dr Salim Khan, the head of Community Medicine at GMC Srinagar, took to Twitter to express his sorrow regarding the recent dog attack. He wrote, “Another dog-bite victim, a 7-year-old girl from Kulgam under intensive care at Children Hospital Srinagar, having septicemia as she fell in water while running away from attacking stray dogs.”
The alarming rate at which the dog population is increasing in Kashmir has resulted in frequent incidents of dog bites and attacks. Over the past few years, a large number of such incidents have occurred, with children under 10 years of age being the most vulnerable group. As a result, there has been a significant increase in anxiety disorders among children, which has had a direct or indirect impact on the quality of life of the Kashmiri population.
According to the records from SMHS in Srinagar, an average of 30 to 35 cases of dog bites are reported daily to the anti-rabies center. Shockingly, the Kashmir valley recorded a staggering 6,800 animal bite cases between April 1 last year to March 31, with more than 80% of them being caused by stray dogs. This is the highest number in the past three years, and it has raised concerns among experts who question the delay in completing the much-awaited animal birth control (ABC) centers in Srinagar city.
The Anti-Rabies Clinic at Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar’s SMHS, has treated 6,855 animal bite cases from across the valley during this period, with 4,912 of them being reported from the city alone. The number of cases in 2021-22 was 5,629, and it was 4,798 in 2020-21. Over the past six years, there have been 37,467 animal bite cases in the Kashmir valley, with 72% or 26,742 cases occurring in Srinagar alone.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Dr. Mohammad Salim Khan revealed that out of the 6,855 animal bite cases treated at SMHS; approximately 5,700 of them were caused by dogs. Recent data from the Anti-Rabies Clinic at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital indicates that from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, there were 4,695 dog bite cases in Kashmir. Srinagar alone reported 2,890 cases from January to December, with Ganderbal district reporting 269 cases, Budgam 218, Baramulla 131, Bandipora 126, Kulgam 10, Pulwama 106, Shopian 107, Kupwara 64, and Anantnag 43.
According to a recent study conducted by the Department of Community Medicine GMC Srinagar, dog-bite victims in Kashmir are not only physically injured but also suffer from profound psychological and emotional instability. Many of them experience depression, feelings of defeat, and social disgrace. The study, titled ‘The Lived-In Experience and Psychological Recount of Dog Bite Victims Visiting the Anti-Rabies Clinic in Kashmir: A Qualitative Study,’ sheds light on the emotional toll of dog attacks on victims.
The study aims to draw the attention of policymakers and planners towards the importance of implementing low-cost mass dog vaccination programs in order to reduce the incidence of dog bites and prevent the psychological distress faced by the victims.
The study further states that there is a need to pay attention to the dog bite victims’ lived experience, and health care professionals need to support them through education, and counselling. “The policymakers should devise other supportive programs to minimize the psychological trauma caused by the dog bites, apart from enhancing measures towards elimination of dog mediated human rabies,” States study.
Srinagar Municipal Corporation’s Veterinary Officer, Dr Tawheed, said, “We have to function according to the law. We cannot kill dogs nor can we shift them from one place to another. We are following the Animal Birth Control and Anti-rabies Vaccination Programme (ABC&ARV), under which we are sterilizing stray dogs and giving them anti-rabies vaccines as well.”
The sterilization facility at Shuhama, which is running in collaboration with Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology (SKUAST), is functional. “We are performing 10-12 sterilizations a day at the Shuhama centre, and our second ABC centre in Srinagar at Tengpora, with more than 200 kennel capacity, is also completed and will be operational soon. Our ABC centre at Chattarhama is also under construction,” said Tawheed.
He further remarked that those involved in the meat and poultry industry engage in irresponsible disposal of waste, despite the fact that SMC offers free waste management services.
The alarming increase in dog bites and attacks in Kashmir has become a major concern for the local population, especially children who are the most vulnerable group. The emotional and psychological distress experienced by dog-bite victims has highlighted the need for policymakers to implement low-cost mass dog vaccination programs and supportive programs for victims. While the Srinagar Municipal Corporation has initiated an Animal Birth Control and Anti-rabies Vaccination Programme, it is imperative to promote responsible waste disposal practices and create awareness among the public to ensure the safety and well-being of the Kashmiri population.
Hindutva organisation Bajrang Dal members entered the Congress party office and vandalised as well as attacked party members in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.
Ever since the Congress Karnataka unit declared to ban Bajrang Dal in its manifesto if voted to power, a similar demand has emerged in Madhya Pradesh.
कांग्रेस ने कर्नाटक में हुड़दंगबाज संगठन बजरंग दल को बैन करने की घोषणा की, इधर बजरंग दल के कार्यकर्ता जबलपुर स्थित कांग्रेस कार्यालय में घुस गए और तोड़ फोड़ करने लगे। क्या इन आतंकवादियों पर बैन नहीं लगना चाहिए? pic.twitter.com/xY5i8hy9K1
— Shyam Meera Singh (@ShyamMeeraSingh) May 4, 2023
According to local reports, more than a dozen Bajrang Dal members entered the Congress party office shouting Jai Shree Ram carrying large sticks and faces covered with saffron cloths.
They damaged the roof and threw stones at the office.
Condemning the attack, Jabalpur Congress Dinesh Yadav compared the act to impotence. “This is not a protest. It is impotence. The police are also to be blamed for not acting swiftly,” he said.
Another Congress leader Anand Jat said that the true face of Bajrang Dal was exposed to the public. “This is absolute hooliganism and anti-social activity. The BJP will lose the elections here,” he said.
On May 2, the Congress party released its manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka promising to ban the Hindutva organisation Bajrang Dal if voted to power.
It identified and compared Bajrang Dal to the same lengths as the banned Islamic organisation PFI (Popular Front of India).
It created a stir in Karnataka politics as well as outside with many leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and RSS charging that the Congress is a threat to India’s sovereignty and integrity.
“This is the last election for the Congress party. If they are defeated, they will go straight to their houses. This is a do-or-die situation for them. It is indeed a dying situation for Congress,” Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai slammed the Congress party.
Rampur: Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Monday launched a scathing attack on the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and said they should understand that “if good people did not survive, then how will the bad people survive”, asserting that the “revenge of nature is brutal”.
Addressing a public meeting in support of party candidates of Rampur Nagarpalika Parishad in Nalapar area here, the former Rampur MLA also targeted the state police and said, “The next time (in 2027), the Samajwadi Party government is going to come… The policemen who had broken the doors of your house, they will stand here and salute you with this boot.”
Khan also said that nobody knows when the roti will turn on the griddle. “See these officials are with those, who are in the government. They now know that the leaders can do high-handedness till this limit. The future government will be doing more than this…(you) must have understood what I mean. See, a line has been drawn, and when the government changes a longer line will be drawn,” he said.
When the SP leader asked the crowd that who will draw the longer line, the public shouted, “Azam Khan”.
“Those who think they will always remain in power, they should understand that if good people did not survive, then how will the bad people survive? We have seen the era of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, and everyone knows what happened to them… Not a single piece of Rajiv Gandhi’s body was found,” the SP leader said.
“The revenge of nature is brutal,” he added.
Recalling a helicopter accident in which he was involved, Khan said, “When Allah is ‘meharbaan’ (benevolent) on someone, he survives even after a wing of the helicopter gets broken at a great height.”
The SP leader, who faces nearly 90 cases including that of corruption and theft, was disqualified as an MLA in October last year after the Rampur MP-MLA court convicted him in a 2019 hate speech case and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment.
He had won from the Rampur Sadar Assembly seat in the UP Assembly polls for a record 10th time.
Attacks on Muslims continued well into the month of March in India, as violence against minorities went on unabated. March was already stained with more lynchings and the rise of cow vigilantes like Monu Manesar, Puneeth Karehalli and Radha Semwal Dhoni to name a few.
As Ramzan began in March, it also also welcomed Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanthi, both Hindu festivals sprinkled with hate speech and objection over namaz offerings in different places. The violence, which took place last year as well, created an atmosphere of anarchy and unrest amongst the minority community in non-BJP ruled states such as Bihar and West Bengal.
This article is a part of Siasat.com’s hate-crime tracker which chronicles atrocities against Muslims in India. The tracker chronicles everything from verbal discrimination, assault and lynching/murder each month of the year, and a report will be published.
March 2: A Mazar (Muslim shrine) was demolished by right-wing worker Radha Semwal Dhoni and her colleagues claiming it was built on state land. The incident happened in Uttarakhand. A video has emerged where two men are seen breaking the shrine with hammers.
Radha Semwal Dhoni with Hindutva priest Narsinghanand Saraswati
March 9: A 47-year-old Muslim man was lynched by a Hindu mob who accused him and his nephew of carrying beef. The incident happened in Rasulpur of Chhapra district, Bihar on March 7.
In a press release, police said that three people have been arrested and the hunt is on for the remaining accused. According to Maktoob Media, the deceased Naseeb Qureshi and his nephew Firoz Qureshi were returning home when they were attacked by a mob of 10-15 people.
While Qureshi was brutally beaten with sticks and sharp weapons, his nephew managed to escape. However, when he approached the police to rescue his uncle, he received callous behaviour.
March 14: Fifteen people were detained by the police on Tuesday after alleged stone pelting was reported on a mosque, an Urdu medium school and a few Muslim houses during a Hindu bike rally to unveil the statue of Sangolli Rayanna in Haveri district, Karnataka. Reports suggest that a similar rally was carried out and a few members of the Muslim community were alleged to have pelted stones.
The mob allegedly also threatened the children going to the school and pelted stones at the nearby mosque, and the nearby Urdu school was also pelted with stones.
March 15: A case was registered in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar against suspended BJP MLA from Telangana T Raja Singh after a video of his vitriolic speech targeting Muslims went viral on social media.
Suspended Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh
“Whoever speaks against Hindus, we will not spare them,” Singh said to a rousing saffron crowd comprising mostly youth in Rahta tehsil. “In our Hindu Rashtra you won’t even get a loudspeaker to do what you do five times a day,” he said in an apparent reference to Muslims offering prayers.
March 17: Two meat vendors were allegedly beaten up and robbed by seven men, including three Delhi Police personnel, in east Delhi’s Shahdara, a senior officer said. The incident took place in the Anand Vihar area when the two meat vendors were travelling in their car and hit a scooter. The accused, alleged to be ‘gau rakshaks’, urinated on the victims’ faces and threatened to kill them, the police said.
March 19: Members of a right-wing group, Hindu Jan Garjana Morcha, attacked a women’s public washroom, among other acts of violence in an attempt to remove the name ‘Aurangabad’ from its board.
According to reports, the incident took place during a march organised by the Sakal Hindu Ekatrikaran Samiti. The rally witnessed speeches by the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News Suresh Chavhanke who used derogatory terms to address Muslims whilst slamming Aurangzeb.
“There is no body of Arungzeb in his grave, Marahatas have done with him what America did with Osama bin Laden,” claimed Chavhanke challenging history writers to dig up his grave.
March 25: Workers of the right-wing organisation Bajrang Dal allegedly assaulted a Muslim man who was with his Hindu female friend at a park in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. They accused him of promoting ‘Love Jihad’.
A video went viral on social media platforms wherein the Hindutva members can be seen questioning the young man while the girl pleads with them to let go.
March 27: After reports of a young Muslim man being arrested by the Vadgaon police in Maharashtra emerged, Hindutva groups took out a rally in Sawarde village demanding the accused’s family be exiled.
According to a local Marathi news Lokmat, the accused – Mohammed Momim – had put up a Whatsapp status on Mughal ruler Aurangzeb in reference to the recent name change of the city of Aurangabad.
Disturbing:-
A Muslim man in Kolhapur had kept a video as his WhatsApp status.
That video praised Aurangzeb.
The police arrested him and charged him for hurting religious sentiments.
Mohammed Momim was finally arrested by the police under Section 295 (Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code.
However, matters did not end here. Hindutva organisations took out a bike rally demanding the Sarpanch of the village declare Momim’s family as outcasts. They wanted the family to leave the village for good.
March 27: A group of right-wing organisation men objected to the offering of Taraweeh prayers by some Muslims in Lajpat Nagar of Moradabad district, Uttar Pradesh.
Rashtriya Bajrang Dal men, led by its state president Rohan Saxena, barged into the house of one Zakir Hussain who was praying along with his family. Saxena alleged this was creating an atmosphere of panic nearby. A notice was issued to one Zakir Hussain and nine others.
Notice to Zakir Hussain & 9 others for reading Namaz at Hussain’s godown. Notice says they might disturb peace and asks why shouldn’t they execute bonds with Rs. 5 lakh surety. So reading namaz at private property disturbs peace,but those protesting against it are ensuring peace. pic.twitter.com/DsdzsvgKJ8
March 27: Leaders from the ruling BJP delivered an Islamophobic speech in full swing at the Digital Hindu Conclave held on March 18.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra, Kajal Shingala aka Kajal Hindusthani and far-right author Kshitij Patukale compared minorities, particularly those belonging to the Muslim community, to snakes. She called for violence, as the only way to attain Akhand Bharat besides raising the topic of ‘Love Jihad.’
Kajal Shingala said that there can never be brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims and called out those who support secularism and peace between the two communities as a “sinking ship”.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra spoke about ‘Love Jihad’. Taking the recent murder of Shraddha Walker, whose live-in partner Aftab Poonawala stored her chopped body in a refrigerator, he said, “There will come a day when we will see ads like keep fruits in the fridge, not ‘Shraddha’.”
March 28: Amid the ongoing Hindu festival of Chaitra Navratri, cow vigilantes and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders forcibly shut down meat shops in several localities.
Videos of BJP leader Ravindra Singh on rounds in the Muslim locality Mandawali Fazalpur in Vinod Nagar of West Delhi surfaced on social media. He demanded local meat traders shut down all nine days of the Hindu festival Navratri which commenced on March 22 (Pratipada Tithi) and ended on March 30 (Navami Tithi).
Chicken shops in the Muslim locality of Mandawali Fazalpur in Vinod Nagar West, Delhi, have been shut down by BJP leader Ravindra Singh in honour of Navratri. pic.twitter.com/OZcIj5cfRj
March 30: A mob of more than 500 persons allegedly attacked policemen in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad wherein a few young men belonging to the Hindu and Muslim communities clashed, police said.
The incident took place in Kiradpura which has a renowned Ram Temple. People belonging to both communities shouted slogans followed by stone pelting at each other.
#Maharashtra | A clash broke out between two groups in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’s #Kiradpura area
Stones were pelted, some private & police vehicles were set on fire. Police used force to disperse the people and now the situation is peaceful. Police will take strict action… pic.twitter.com/vVoQK2chZk
March 30: Stones were hurled at a Ram Navami procession in the Fatehpura area of Gujarat’s Vadodara city. While some vehicles got damaged, no one was reported injured. The procession passed along its planned route under police protection.
Gujarat | Stone-pelting happened today in Vadodara during Rama Navami Shoba Yatra. As per the police, the situation is under control & peace is prevailing in the affected area. pic.twitter.com/5BGMpxivBy
March 30: The Tamil Nadu Police arrested seven persons including a juvenile for allegedly forcing a woman to remove her hijab at the Vellore Fort Complex in Tamil Nadu.
The woman had gone to the fort along with her friend when she was surrounded by the men who demanded her to remover the hijab. One of them shot the incident on a phone and uploaded it on social media platforms which went viral.
March 30: The Karnataka police lathi-charged Bajrang Dal and Hindu activists when their protest against the recital of the Quran at a historical Hindu religious fair turned violent in Beluru town.
The Hindu organisations had given a bandh call in Beluru town. The situation turned volatile when a Muslim young man raised the slogan “Quran Zindabad” amid the protest.
March 31: After Jalgaon and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Hindu and Muslim groups clashed in the minority-dominated Malvani area of the Malad west suburb during a Ram Navami procession after locals objected to loud DJ music played during the Hindu religious procession. Enraged, some of the participants allegedly indulged in pelting stones, sparking panic.
Location: Malad, Mumbai
People who were part of a Ram Navami rally stopped outside a mosque in Malwani and raised provocative slogans, causing tension in the area. Police resorted to lathicharge to bring the situation under control. pic.twitter.com/5I6GGgn0HE
Hyderabad: BJP leader K Laxman on Friday found fault with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for allegedly not responding to the release of former Bihar MP Anand Mohan Singh, who was convicted in the 1994 murder of an IAS officer from Telangana.
The Rajya Sabha MP termed as ‘shameful’ Rao not responding to the Bihar government’s decision to release the convict in the killing of G Krishnaiah, who hailed from Mahabubnagar.
Laxman, who is also National President of BJP’s OBC Morcha, said intellectuals, Dalit associations and all those who want democracy to triumph should condemn the decision of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The former chief of BJP Telangana unit, in a tweet, sought to know whether Chandrasekhar Rao would still be politically friendly with Nitish Kumar.
Reacting to the release of Anand Mohan, Laxman said, “I strongly, condemn the release of Anand Mohan who was sentenced to life imprisoned for the murder of Bihar IAS officer G Krishnaiah who hails from the Dalit community in Telangana.”
“Will KCR still be politically friendly with Nitish Kumar now or will he stand with the Krishnaiah’s family to ensure justice for the brave son of Telangana?,” he asked in a tweet.
Gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh, who was serving a life sentence, was released from Saharsa jail in Bihar on Thursday morning after being behind bars for 15 years.
The former Bihar MP was released under a jail sentence remission order after the Nitish Kumar government’s recent amendment of prison rules which allowed the early release of 27 convicts, including him.
Singh was convicted for his role in the 1994 murder of the then Gopalganj collector G Krishnaiah during the funeral procession of Muzaffarpur gangster Chotan Shukla.
Russian cruise missiles have killed at least 19 people in the central Ukrainian cities of Uman and Dnipro, days after Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, begged his allies for more air defence supplies.
The attacks were part of a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes in the early hours of Friday morning, the most intense aerial bombing of major Ukrainian cities in weeks.
In Uman, at least 17 people were killed including two children when a missile hit a high-rise building. The impact sheared off a column of apartments, reducing them to rubble at the base of the tower, and leaving nearby rooms on fire.
To the south, on the outskirts of the port city of Dnipro, a mother and her three-year-old daughter were killed in their home in a rural suburb.
Seven missiles targeted the city, Serhii Lysak, the head of the military administration for the Dnipro region told a news conference. Fragments of one of them, shot down by air defences, appeared to have fallen on the house, police told neighbours.
“It was loud enough to understand that someone was probably hurt,” said Oleksandr Kalinichenko, a neighbour who lives about 300 metres away.
map
Most of Russia’s attacks were intercepted, with 21 out of 23 missiles shot down by the Ukrainian military. The missiles that got through were a grim reminder of why the country is so vulnerable when Moscow aims its weapons at civilian targets.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted: “Missile strikes killing innocent Ukrainians in their sleep, including a … child, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives.”
Air raid alarms sounded across the country in the early hours of Friday, while explosions were heard in Kyiv, and southern Mykolaiv was targeted again.
Twenty-four hours earlier, another round of cruise missiles aimed at the port city had killed at least one person and ended nearly four months of relative calm there.
Ukraine strengthened air defences over the winter, with help from western allies, after a Russian bombing campaign against power stations and other civilian infrastructure tried to cut off heating and power to major cities.
However, leaked US military documents dated to February this year warned that by May the country risked running out of missiles and ammunition.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian officials pleaded with Nato allies for more supplies, the Financial Times reported, fearing large-scale Russian bombing campaigns could break through depleted systems.
The missiles launched on Friday were the first to target Kyiv in 50 days, although Iranian-made drones have tried to break the city’s air defences repeatedly in that time.
The wave of strikes comes as Moscow, and the world, wait for Kyiv to launch a spring counter-offensive against Russian forces.
The Ukrainian defence minister, Oleskii Reznikov, on Friday said it was close to beginning the assault. “As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it,” he told an online news briefing.
Ukraine was “to a high percentage ready”, he said, with new modern weapons to provide an “iron fist”.
On Thursday, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg,said almost all the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine by western allies had been delivered, putting Ukraine in a “strong position” to recover further ground.
Last year brought a string of humiliating military defeats for the invading army, but Russia still occupies nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, which Zelenskiy has vowed to retake.
Stoltenberg said the western allies had sent more than 1,550 armoured vehicles, 230 tanks and “vast amounts of ammunition” to Ukraine, Reuters reported. They have also trained and equipped about 30,000 troops, the equivalent of more than nine new brigades. “They will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory.” he said.
On Thursday, the Kremlin said it still needed to achieve the “aims” of its invasion, a day after China’s president, Xi Jinping, spoke to Zelenskiy over the phone for an hour.
Beijing, which has a close strategic partnership with Moscow, has drawn up a peace proposal for Ukraine, but there is no sign that either side is ready to stop fighting and come to the negotiating table.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
