In a shocking incident from Pakistan, two armed men raped a young woman in the famous Fatima Jinnah Park (also known as Capital Park and F-9 Park) in Islamabad while she was visiting with a male colleague. The incident took place on Thursday (February 2) in Pakistan’s capital city.
As per the reports from Pakistan, the two armed men forced the girl and her colleague into nearby bushes at gunpoint before separating them. The armed men then physically assaulted the woman when she pleaded with the two men and asked them to let her go. She even offered money to them to let her go but they didn’t relent.
The attackers even threatened the woman that they would call more ‘friends’ to attack her if she doesn’t stop raising her voice. The victim tried to run away but her attempts were foiled by the gun-toting attackers.
After raping her, the attackers returned all the things belonging to the two colleagues and even offered them a thousand rupees to keep quiet about the incident. Then, they told the victim woman that she should not have been in the park at that time of the night.
A case has been registered based on the victim’s complaint and the local police are investigating the matter. Police are examining the CCTV footage from nearby areas to try and identify the two accused. Meanwhile, the victim underwent a medical examination and the forensic checkup confirmed that she has suffered a sexual assault.
The 24-year-old victim even had marks of torture on her body. “There are injury marks on the leg, and face of the victim,” said sources in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMs).
The incident has led to widespread outrage in Pakistan as people spoke out about the unimaginable cruelty of the incident. Shama Junejo is just one of the 100s of social media accounts that have condemned the incident and demanded action from the authorities.
News about a heinous incident in Islamabad. A girl is raped by two armed men inside F9 park who told her after rape not to go for walk after sunset. What country Pakistan has become? How armed men entered Park & why no staff caught them@ICT_Police please find them & arrest then
Meanwhile, the Islamabad police said that its Gender Protection Unit is probing the harassment under CPO Operations Sohail Zafar Chattha. They are currently interrogating the park administration and the other people who were present in the park at the time.
Former Chief of Army Staff, Pervez Musharraf, breathed his last on Sunday (February 5). He was 79 at the time of his death.
He served as the 10th President of Pakistan between 2001 and 2008 after dethroning Nawaz Sharif in a military coup. He is known for his key role in masterminding the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers in Kargil, leading to the Kargil War of 1999.
He has been living in exile in Dubai since March 2016 after he left Pakistan for medical treatment.
Earlier, Parvez Musharraf in an interview admitted that Pakistan has trained Kashmiris to wage a war against the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir and has always taken pride in these ‘ Mujahideens’, touting them to be “Pakistan’s heroes’.
Terrorists like Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and others were always considered to be “Pakistan’s heroes”, confessed the Retd General.
In 2019, he was handed the death penalty for suspending the Pakistani Constitution and imposing an emergency in the country in 2007. The verdict was however annulled by the Lahore High Court a year later.
On Friday (February 3), ex-professional cricketer Vinod Kambli was booked for hitting his wife Andrea Hewitt in an inebriated state at his residence in Bandra (West) in Mumbai.
A police complaint was filed by Hewitt with the Bandra police wherein she accused him of hurling a cooking pan at her, resulting in head injuries. Accordingly, a case was registered against Vinod Kambli under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 504 (insult).
As per reports, the incident took place between 1:00-1:30 pm on February 3, 2023, when Kambli entered the Bandra flat in a drunken state. After hurling abuses at his wife, the ex-professional cricketer grabbed a cooking pan from the kitchen and hurled it at the victim.
Maharashtra | FIR registered against former cricketer Vinod Kambli at Bandra Police Station in Mumbai on the complaint of his wife Andrea. Her complaint stated that he verbally abused and thrashed her under the influence of alcohol. No arrest made yet: Mumbai Police
The 12-year-old son of the victim witnessed the incident. Andrea Hewitt underwent treatment at the Bhabha Hospital and then approached the police with her complaint.
In her complaint, she said, “Despite trying to pacify him, he abused me and my son for no reason. He charged at us. After hitting the cooking panhandle, he charged again with a bat. I managed to stop him before leaving with my son, and rushed to the hospital…The matter is getting sorted out.”
In February last year, Vinod Kambli was arrested by the Bandra police for hitting a passing car in a drunken state. He was charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section r.w. 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act (driving under the influence of alcohol).
He was later released on bail. It must be mentioned that Kambli played a total of 17 Tests and 104 One Day Internationals for India.
On Wednesday (February 1), a minor boy killed his mother over ‘honour’ in Satellite town in Gujranwala district in Punjab province of Pakistan.
As per a report by ARY News, the accused was identified as a 12-year-old boy. According to the police, the juvenile open fired at his mother while she was walking down the street in the neighbourhood. The victim allegedly had an affair with another man.
While the victim was killed on the spot, the accused’s aunt was injured during the attack. Reportedly, the juvenile was wearing a gown at the time of killing his mother.
The police arrested the accused and admitted his aunt to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. They have launched a probe into the matter and are conducting raids to nab the father of the 12-year-old boy.
Spike in crimes in the Gujranwala district of Punjab
On Friday (February 3), a Pakistani man named Mohsin Ejaz killed three of his relatives for breaking his engagement with his cousin. The victims included Ejaz’s uncle Attaullah Saveya, his aunt Safia and cousin turned love interest.
The incident took place in Mauza Nathosuya in the Gujranwala district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Reportedly, the accused tried to flee the crime scene but was overpowered by the locals. He was taken into police custody.
In June last year, a 17-year-old boy named Ali Haider murdered his mother after she refused to buy him new clothes. As per a report by Geo News, he hit the victim on her head multiple times with a stick, resulting in her death.
On February 3, Surat police arrested a ladies’ tailor named Tai Ibrahim of Bhaktinagar society in the Vijalpur area of Navsari for creating fake profiles of women and using them for sexual activities. As per the complaint filed by one of the victims Ramila (name changed) of the Varachha area of Surat, she came to know about a fake profile on her name in November 2022. Based on her complaint, police started a probe into the matter and nabbed Ibrahim.
Ramila was an active Instagram user. In November 2022, she came to know that someone had created a fake profile using her name and photographs. Shocked by the fake profile, she tried to find out who was behind the account. She messaged the account and asked who the person was. The accused made a video call and when Ramila picked she saw a naked man on the other end. She immediately disconnected the call and informed the family members about it.
The next day, Ramila approached the nearest police station and filed a complaint. The police started a probe into the matter under the IT Act. During the investigation, the police found out that Tai Ibrahim was behind creating the account. When questioned, Ibrahim admitted that he used to get aroused during tailoring work. He created fake Instagram IDs to satisfy his lust. Ibrahim told police that he used fake IDs of women to send sexual messages to women on Instagram.
Ibrahim admitted to creating fake IDs of at least 20 women. He is currently in police custody and further investigation is underway.
On Saturday (February 4, US local time) afternoon, an US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet shot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which had become the bone of contention between the two countries.
As per reports, the fighter jet fired an AIM-9X missile at the balloon, which was flying at 65000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of South Carolina. The Pentagon informed that the US Navy ships are now recovering the surveillance equipment from the debris, which is reportedly spread over 7 miles.
A video of the incident has now surfaced on social media. While speaking about the matter, US President Joe Biden said, “They decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water. They successfully took it down.”
GREAT VIDEO of Chinese Spy Ballon being shot down near Myrtle Beach. ✈️?? ?: B.Hall pic.twitter.com/eELaetdpH2
In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.”
He further emphasised, “The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters.”
The decision to take down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon did not go down well with Chinese officials, who expressed strong dissatisfaction for supposedly using force against a ‘civilian unmanned airship.’
If what we’re being told is correct and the Air Force just shot down a Chinese military aircraft, that’s an instance of physical warfare breaking out on US territory. People seem thrilled by this: absolutely salivating for war against China, with Russia thrown in for good measure
It must be mentioned that the military action disrupted air travel on the US East Coast. Reportedly, the Federal Aviation Administration shut down airspace in North and South Carolina for several hours, resulting in flight delays at 3 commercial airports.
The Background of the military intervention
The Pentagon announced on Thursday (February 2) that it was tracking a Chinese spy balloon that was floating high over the United States. The incident accelerated tensions between the two sides.
According to defence authorities, the balloon has been monitored for a few days after it entered US territory and began flying at a great height.
It has been traced recently when it passed over Montana, which is home to some of the US’s silo-based nuclear missiles and has been observed using a variety of techniques, including manned planes. Flights from Billings Logan airport were halted on Wednesday out of caution.
Another spy balloon was spotted flying in the skies of Latin America on Friday (February 3). In a statement, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson said, “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it as another Chinese surveillance balloon.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Antony Blinken postponed his visit to Beijing in response to a separate high-altitude Chinese balloon intruding into US airspace.
On January 31, the largest Pakistani refinery wrote a letter to the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) informing them that from February 2, 2023, to February 10, 2023, the refinery would remain shut due to a shortage of crude oil. Cnergyico PK Head of Consumer Sales Syed Adeel Azam said in the letter that the shutdown was in line with the ‘crude oil vessel arrival timeline’. The refinery has a processing capacity of 1,56,000 barrels per day.
A week before, Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) had written a letter to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) informing the body about the crisis the industry was facing. OCAC said in the letter that the industry was on the brink of collapse and immediate steps were needed to be taken to “arrange financing to ensure imports”.
Pointing out the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee and its effect on imports, OCAC said, “Due to the increase in oil prices and successive depreciation of Pakistani rupee over the last 18 months, the trade finance limits available from the banking sector have become inadequate. As a result of the recent devaluation alone, the LC (letter of credit/ import) limits have shrunk overnight by 15-20%.”
It added, “It is requested that the banking sector be immediately requested through the State Bank of Pakistan to enhance the limit of our member companies (including Cnergyico).”
Not only had the economic condition of the country but the floods in 2022 hindered the transport of crude oil to the refinery as the roads and bridges were washed away. Though alternate routes were adopted the losses continued to rise.
As per the Geo News report, cash-strapped Pakistan’s government removed the dollar cap to the conditions laid down by the International Monetary Fund. It resulted in the historic fall of Pakistani currency in the interbank market. Currently, it is trading at 277.81 Pakistani rupees per US Dollar. Removing the dollar cap was one of the conditions to resume the bailout. Other conditions included easing fuel subsidies and more.
As per reports, the letters of credit (LCs) were also restricted by the government amidst the falling foreign exchange reserves. As of January 27, Pakistan’s USD reserve was as low as 3,086.2 million which could only be enough for 18 days’ worth of imports.
Energy imports comprise a major share of the country’s import bills. Over one-third of the annual power, demand is met by imported natural gas. Since the Russia-Ukraine war started, its price has skyrocketed in the international market creating a dominos effect in the cash-strapped neighbouring country.
Notably, Pakistan is using frequent blackouts leaving millions of people in dark to save fuel. Furthermore, in a recent order, the government of Pakistan ordered businesses, restaurants, malls and marriage palaces to shut down early to save electricity. Amidst the crisis, the country’s luxury car imports continued to make a dent in the foreign reserves.
The Karnataka Congress official website was hacked and a fake site was created with images of party leaders, clickable links, but with content labeling the party as communal, criminal, and corrupt.
The hackers also created a fake website (kpcc.in) featuring images of Congress leaders, clickable links, and content that labels the Congress as communal, criminal, and corrupt. It includes contentious statements about the Congress and its leaders.
Here’s what the landing page of the spoof website of Karnataka Congress unit appears after it was hacked:-
The hacked homepage of official website of Karnataka Congress describes party leaders as corrupt, criminal, and communal
The official website and domain server ID of the organization have been hacked, resulting in a “suspended” status. The hackers not only hacked the website but also added a switch to toggle language for English readers on the top of the right-side.
One of the pages on the hacked pages shows a picture of senior Congress leader D Shivakumar outside the Enforcement Directorate office. The label to the image reads “corrupt”.
Another page of hacked Karnataka Congress website
Another page of the spoof website showed three broad categories, namely “Popular Scams”, “Major Crimes”, and “Communal Accomplishments. The labels to the three categories read, “National Herald Scam”, “Azad Maidan Riots”, and “Batla House Encounter” respectively.
Hacked page of Karnataka Congress’ official website
In the webpage providing information on Congress’ “Frontal Organisations”, Islamist website Popular Front of India, “Tukde Tukde Gang”, “Urban Naxals”, and “Anti-nationals”.
Hacked page of Karnataka Congress’ official website
The message displayed on the official website (inckarnataka.in) reads: “This account has been suspended. Please contact your hosting provider for further information.”
A counterfeit letter, addressed to Sonia Gandhi in the Kannada language and bearing a forged signature of former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, was also posted on the fake website a few days prior.
Due to the suspension of the official website, the fake website of the Karnataka Congress is appearing on search engines.
Based on a complaint from the Congress, the Bengaluru cybercrime police have registered a case against unknown individuals.
More than a dozen women got into a huge brawl on a flight to Brazil, screaming and slapping each other in front of bewildered passengers, and the situation quickly spiralled out of control. According to reports, a confrontation between two families broke out on Thursday just before the take-off of flight G31659 of Gol Airlines Salvador to Sao Paulo.
The fight ensued after a mother asked another passenger whether she could switch seats with her child who has special needs. When her request was ejected, she had a violent breakdown and started attacking the latter’s family after she refused to exchange seats.
During the tumultuous scene on a Gol Airlines flight from Salvador to Sao Paulo on Thursday, the video shows the women beating one other and yanking each other’s hair as flight attendants unsuccessfully attempted to separate them.
In the midst of the brawl, women were slapping one other and bending over the distressed flight attendants. The women were pulling the hair of others and climbed over the seats to attack the other side. The flight attendants kept trying to stop the fight, by holding them back and trying to pull them away.
The fight was so intense that one of the women lost her strapless top and she was having to cover her bare breasts with her hands.
Following nearly two hours of delay, the crew was able to take control of the situation and remove the 15 unruly passengers from the aircraft, after which the plane was able to continue to its destination.
A cabin crew member described the fight’s progression as, “I was already closing the doors when I saw the two slapping each other in row 20. I ran, as soon as I got there, I already got between the two, but what happens: One family had five people and the other 10. The two families started slapping each other, cursing each other.”
As per her account, the women were screaming, slapping, and cursing at each other during the ugly altercation. The hair pulling and striking each other caused a passenger wearing a white bandeau top to fall out of the strapless garment at one point, forcing her to cover her breasts, the crew member said.
“Gol informs that the scene in the video circulating on social media took place before the takeoff of flight G3 1659 this Thursday (02/02) between Salvador (SSA) and Congonhas (CGH), in São Paulo. Everyone involved at the scene of violence [was] disembarked and did not continue their journey. The company regrets any act of violence and reinforces that the actions taken by the crew team were taken with a focus on safety, Gol’s number 1 value,” the airliner later said in a statement.
Two men got into a similar argument in 2021 on an American Airlines aircraft and started punching each other over a reclining seat. Later, when the jet from New Orleans landed in Texas, they were detained.
A Delta Airlines passenger was arrested in October 2021 after he argued with the passenger sitting behind him just before take-off. The argument centred on his fellow traveller putting something in the seatback pocket.
On a Tunisair trip that same year, an argument about overhead storage led to physical confrontation. Cabin crew members who tried to stop a group of passengers from pushing and yelling at one other were also insulted and attacked.
Bharat Jodo Yatra, the 3,800 km-long political foot pilgrimage (padyatra) of Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, came to an end on January 30 this year at Sher-E-Kashmir stadium in Srinagar.
With dwindling electoral success, the defection of its top leaders to rival parties, and loss of touch with the common people, the Bharat Jodo Yatra was in a way the last resort of the Gandhi dynast to revive the Congress party’s political fortunes.
For a change, Rahul Gandhi managed to stick to one task for a whopping 135 days and tried to shed his image as a ‘part-time’ politician. Thanks to his coterie of supporters on social media, including top activists, and friendly journalists who had taken upon the task of executing an ‘image makeover’.
Be it the portrayal of Rahul Gandhi as the ‘ideal son and brother’ or a macho man who can ‘handle rain, snow and hail’ with ease, the Congress ecosystem has left no stone unturned in the hopes of reviving his political career.
Now, the same coterie is desperately trying to convince the new age electorates that Rahul Gandhi is no more the ‘Pappu’ that he once used to be in the political sphere of India.
Leading the pack was none other than the ‘Radia Tapes’ fame journalist, Vir Sanghi. In a propaganda piece in The Print, he made a strong case for Rahul Gandhi and dubbed him as a politician who finally has a shot at defeating the incumbent Narendra Modi.
‘There was no way a flailing dynast could have taken on a leader like Narendra Modi. But now, with the change in the way he is perceived, Rahul Gandhi finally has a shot.’@virsanghvi writes in his column #ToThePoint
Nidhi Razdan, a former NDTV ‘journalist’ who never went to Harvard, also claimed that Rahul Gandhi had been successful in destroying his ‘Pappu’ image. “Even the Congress’ staunchest critics would admit it has been a remarkable feat. The “Pappu” image created by the BJP is gone,” she announced.
How Rahul Gandhi turned the corner with the Bharat Jodo Yatra . Even the Congress’ staunchest critics would admit it has been a remarkable feat. The “Pappu” image created by the BJP is gone. But can the Congress turn this into an election win? My piece https://t.co/V8tlDHoOsy
‘Journalist’ Swati Chaturvedi, often mistaken as a Congress troll, also did not mince any words in declaring that Rahul Gandhi has finally won the war of perception.
“Walking 4,080 kilometres, Rahul Gandhi has comprehensively (demolished) the “Pappu” image that the infamous IT cell has created for him Congress cadre now knows what Gandhi stands for & is enthused by him. Another first this was Gandhi’s politics of conviction,” she said.
Even the news agency, Press Trust of India (PTI), could not help itself and cited experts to announce the ultimate ‘de-pappufication’ of the Congress scion.
“A day after the Kanyakumari to Kashmir campaign ended here on Monday, several experts, however, agreed his “coming-of-age” look reflects the larger image transformation he has undergone in terms of people’s perception,” the article read.
Many may argue with the stereotypes of both images he had — the pre-yatra image and the one he acquired as the march progressed — but that is the thing with images. They tend to stick irrespective of whether they represent the reality or not.https://t.co/hFGWouK6Tr
It may be recalled that Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor and Congress sympathiser, was the first to point out that Rahul Gandhi is not a ‘Pappu.’ In an interview with India Today, Rajan said, “I have spent a decade interacting with #RahulGandhi and he is not a ‘pappu’. He is smart.”
Rahul Gandhi reinforced his ‘Pappu’ image during Bharat Jodo Yatra
While Congress stooges may want us to believe that 52-year-old Rahul Gandhi has really ‘come of age’, his actions during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ reflects why ‘de-pappufication’ is far from reality.
It may be recalled how the ‘daring’ and ‘brave’ Congress leader counted not wearing a sweater in Delhi’s winter as an achievement. “I do not wear a sweater because I am not scared of cold. You wear one because you are scared,” Rahul Gandhi told a reporter in December last year.
During the Haryana leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, he made another bizarre claim when he said, “Rahul Gandhi is in your head. I have killed him. He does not exist anymore. He is not in my mind. He is gone. Gone. The person you are seeing is not Rahul Gandhi.”
This statement even confused AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who was forced to inquire whether the Congress leader was a Jinn. On January 8 this year, Rahul Gandhi drew bizarre analogies between the Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and the Swayamvar of Draupadi from ‘Mahabharata.’
“The story of Arjuna (not announcing his plans in advance like me) has a profound meaning. It is also mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. You focus on the work and do not think about the results. This is the thinking behind the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he claimed.
The Congress scion’s ignorance of Mahabharata is not surprising, but his assumption that others share his ignorance of the Hindu epic is staggering.
Not only that, Rahul Gandhi had everyone in splits after he demonstrated martial arts and ‘the energy absorption’ technique to ward off ‘physical attacks’ by the BJP and RSS.
The martial arts ‘expert’ asked a Congress leader to sit on his knees and then proceeded to push him from the front. When the said leader failed to maintain his balance, Rahul Gandhi suggested a way to take the opponent’s energy instead (referring to the BJP).
Not just through martial arts, he also amused the internet by claiming that even ‘dogs, cows, buffaloes, and pigs’ attended the Bharat Jodo Yatra without any harm.
#WATCH | In Bharat Jodo Yatra, dogs also came but no one harmed them. Cow, buffaloes, pigs, all animals came. This Yatra is like our India, no hatred, no violence: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in Delhi pic.twitter.com/2eGIujo8jJ
He had announced, “I don’t know if you have noticed it or not, but in this campaign(BJY), dogs participated, but no one killed them. Cows, buffaloes, and pigs also joined in, I saw them. All animals came. This Yatra is like our India. There is no hatred or violence here.”
The greatest highlight of his padayatra was perhaps the unhinged rant against Pooja (Hindu form of worship) while trying to promote his latest avatar as Tapasvi ( an ascetic).
While speaking to the media in Samana near Kurukshetra, Rahul Gandhi claimed that BJP is a party of ‘Pooja’ while Congress is a party of ‘Tapasya.‘
Upon realising that he may have upset his Hindu voters by taking potshots at their religious practice, Rahul Gandhi tried to undo the damage but ended up causing more harm to his party. “There are two types of Pooja – the normal one and the one done by RSS,” Rahul brazened it out.
“RSS wants people to forcibly worship them(do their Pooja). The response to such a form of worship can only be tapasya,” Rahul said. he also claimed that lakhs of people are doing ‘tapasya‘, along with Congress, to counter the effects of the ‘pooja’ of BJP and RSS.
The Congress ecosystem is hell-bent to convince voters that Rahul Gandhi has changed for the better and that his unkempt beard is symbolic of his maturity, and he is no longer a ‘Pappu’. But for someone who has followed his political journey over the last decade, the contemporary version of ‘Pappu’ is no different from the ‘Pappu’ of the past
