In a major breakthrough, the Jammu and Kashmir police Friday busted a Jaish-e-Mohammad module in Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Six dreaded Jaish terrorists have been arrested during the anti-terror operation conducted in the south Kashmir district.
#InPics | Security forces bust a Jaish-e-Mohammad module with the arrest of six persons and recovery of a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Besides, a huge cache of arms and ammunition has also been recovered from them. The weapons recovered include eight magazines and 446 rounds of M4 rifles, a pistol, a pistol magazine and 18 pistol rounds and wireless sets amongst other things.
A hand grenade, four UBGL shells, 30 AK rounds, one magazine each of INSAS and AK rifles, two mortar shells, four walkie-talkie sets, and a wireless set were also recovered, according to officials.
Acting on specific information on subversive activities in the Mirhama and Damhal Hanji Pora areas, a joint team of police and the army arrested six terror associates, the Jammu and Kashmir police said.
According to a police spokesperson, a preliminary investigation revealed that the terrorists were in touch with their handlers across the border via several social media platforms.
“The arrested accused were hell-bent on vitiating the peaceful atmosphere in Kulgam district by carrying out grenade attacks, intimidating innocent civilians, standoff fire attacks on PRI (Panchayati Raj Institution) members, minority communities etc,” the spokesperson added.
The arrest comes in the wake of earlier reports that suggested that Pakistan has prepared a new blueprint to spread terror in India. The ISI has elaborate plans to boost terror funding by the way of smuggling narcotics and embarking upon an ambitious disinformation campaign to target the Modi government. The intelligence agencies have said that narcotics is one of the biggest routes through which ISI wants to once again develop its stranglehold in Kashmir and inflame separatist sentiments in the Valley against the Indian government and the Indian Armed Forces.
Finance ministers come and go. Governments too are not forever. But India is forever. And our interests, regardless of who is in power, are about the same given our state of development. To be fair to all parties, they have understood this imperative – only came up with different prescriptions depending on their ideological moorings and vote bank politics. I will not go too much into that other than to remark that the results speak for themselves. You can pore over statistics or just take a walk around wherever you are. The conclusions are inescapable.
When it comes to analysing the Budget presented by FM Smt. N. Sitharaman, the first thing one must keep in mind is that this is the last full Budget of the current government before the nation goes to polls in April 2024. The next budget is likely a smaller interim one with no big bang. The temptation to play to galleries is strongest. The disincentive to think long-term and keep national interest above party interest is huge.
Thanks to fiscal prudence especially during the COVID pandemic, her options were wider. Remember those days, when corrupt media coolies of dynasties and NRI charlatan economists were comparing with rich Germany or USA telling us we are spending too little – obviously waiting to attack yet again when bills fall due. Modi and NS held firm. So she could have really gone to town and spent hugely on stuff that shows up in results before April 2024.
And that is revenue expenditure. Because that can be doled out as freebies in myriad ways to hit our bank accounts and pocketbooks sooner.
Capital expenditure (CAPEX) on the contrary, takes far longer to take effect. Just preparing and publishing tenders, reviewing bids, issuing work orders and starting work may take anywhere from 2 years to more – even assuming land issues are not there.
But it is a no-brainer that CAPEX prepares us for the challenges ahead. Growth needs jobs, and jobs need investments. Investments need infrastructure. Our East Asian rivals like Indonesia are ahead because they built infra when we built a corrupt inefficient socialist state. We kept eating half chapathi and voted same family. Their land is cheaper and easier to get. They don’t need permission from Rihanna or NYT Editorial Board to formulate policies. You don’t see Washington Post editorials attacking Jokowi of Indonesia for banning exports of certain minerals.
And infra needs money. Money that we invest today and see results in 5 to 10 years. Not before spring 2024.
And to spend on it in 2023 just before the general elections takes courage. And faith in Indian voters and confidence that you can trust their intelligence.
IMHO the best benchmark to compare 2023 budget is with 2013 budget of P Chidambaram. Because UPA too faced the exact same problem – looming general elections. Obviously many things are different this time, COVID for one, but this comparison is as good as any other. It is also relevant because Indian voters face the exact same choice in 2024 they faced in 2014. Few things have changed.
You can see the table and do your own maths.
Let me highlight a few observations.
At the outset let me clarify a couple of things.
I am not an economist, statistician, or policy expert. I have taken figures from government websites and regret any error in the tabulation.
The blue highlight on the finance row is to say I am not sure of the figures – the problem is the list of ministries and the way information is presented is very different across years. I am not using those numbers.
I will be happy to stand corrected on facts. Always. Even if a 5-year-old points it out.
Obviously to be fair to PC, NS is working with a much larger economy thanks to ten years of nominal as well as real growth. So absolute comparisons are somewhat meaningless. Her total budget is about 2.7x higher. But one thing is clear – the percentage spent on capital is much higher – 22% vs 14%.
Second, please see the percentage on defence. 13% of spending vs 7.6%. I take this metric not the share in GDP because as FM there is only so much you can spend and you basically divide it among competing interests. GDP % is for analysts.
Again, whether revenue or capital, defence is something that gets a few claps during speech and everyone forgets – it doesn’t hit the voters’ pocketbook that much. My only concern is although total spending is 4.7x higher, revenue numbers are creeping up. That needs further research.
Road and railways get 9x the amount in total – CAPEX increases are even higher – 14x for road. Rail gets 9x capital increase. Yes, that is 9 times – or 9000%. Even allowing for a larger budget by 2.7x, that is a HUGE increase.
Communication too gets a huge bump – mainly spending on BSNL’s 4G/5G rollout. This again is a big investment in the future – when the rest of the developing world relies on Chinese equipment that comes with a huge strategic cost, India under Modi is charting a different course. Although I am against PSU dominance, in this case, it is good to keep a Plan B going in the public sector – it is too important to risk facing shutdowns if West holds back spares in future.
As I pointed out, all CAPEX by its very nature is an investment in the future. That is not to say revenue expenditure is bad. But the hands of most finance ministers are tied – pay, pension, and interest costs are huge and can’t be avoided. But it appears it is in control although regressed a bit – 2.9x or 24% of the total which is pretty close to the overall budget increase 2.7x and 22% under P Chidambaram. But it could be better. And we as citizens have to speak out if anyone wastes our tax rupees on vote bank politics like Old Pension Scheme.
Once again, these figures, looked at with perspective should give us the comfort that we have a team that thinks for India. And not for one family and its commercial interests. Yes, they can make mistakes and we point that out. But the niyat is good.
Amidst the free fall of Adani Group stocks in the wake of short-seller Hindenberg Research’s report, SBI, the country’s biggest lender, stated on February 3, 2023, that its total exposure to the Adani Group is 0.88% of its book value or approximately ₹27,000 crores.
SBI's total exposure to Adani Group is 0.9 per cent of overall loan book, says chairman Dinesh Khara
Dinesh Khara, the Chairman of SBI, stated that the bank does not anticipate any difficulties for the embattled ports-to-mining group, Adani, in fulfilling its debt obligations. He emphasized that SBI has not provided any loans collateralized by the group’s shares.
“Do not envisage any challenge from Adani Group to meet debt obligations; no lending against shares to conglomerate,” Khara said.
Khara mentioned that SBI’s loans to Adani Group projects are based on their tangible assets and sufficient cash flows, and noted that the group has a strong record of timely repayments. He added that the Adani group has not made any requests for refinancing.
The clarification from Khara came amid the stock market bloodbath suffered by Adani Group stocks. The Adani Enterprise stock on Friday opened at Rs 1,490 but dramatically fell to Rs 1,017.45 levels, where it saw resistance from the bulls. It made a sharp recovery and closed at Rs 1,565.25, marginally higher than its opening levels.
The stock market turmoil faced by the Adani Group stocks could be attributed to a report published by Hindenburg Research, a short-seller that accused the group of accounting fraud and stock price manipulation.
Hindenburg Research report accuses Adani Group of fraud and stock price manipulation
Hindenburg Research, which claimed of having conducted an investigation for the last two years, said Gautam Adani, the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, has a net worth of approximately $120 billion, mainly due to an 819% average stock price growth in the group’s seven most significant publicly traded companies over the last three years.
The research involved interviewing multiple individuals, including former senior executives of the Adani Group, examining thousands of documents, and conducting due diligence site visits in nearly a dozen countries, Hindenburg Research said.
“Even if you ignore the findings of our investigation and take the financials of Adani Group at face value, its seven key listed companies have 85% downside purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations,” said the forensic financial research company in its report.
Adani Group trashes Hindenburg Report as malicious misinformation
However, the Adani Group promptly trashed the Hindenburg Research report as a ‘malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations’. The Group stocks lost Rs 46,000 crores in market cap after Hindenburg claimed that the Indian giant had participated in a clear stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over decades.
“We are shocked that Hindenburg Research published a report on 24 January 2023 without making any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix. The report is a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India’s highest courts,” the Group said in a statement.
On Friday (February 3), Project Veritas released a never-seen-before clip of Pfizer Director Jordon Walker wherein he was seen raising concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine and its effect on the reproductive health of women.
“I hope nobody is growing three legs or something like that,” joked the undercover Project Veritas journalist. Jordon Walker casually responded, “Yeah or the entire next generation is super fucked up. Could you imagine the scandal? Oh my God. I would take Pfizer off my resume.”
“There’s something irregular about their menstrual cycle. We will have to investigate that down the line because this is a little concerning. And the vaccines should not be interfering with that,” the Pfizer Director rang the alarm over the Covid-19 vaccine adversely impacting women’s reproductive health.
“There is something happening. But we don’t always figure it out…Yeah that’s why I understand it’s weird. I don’t know what is going on there. I hope we don’t discover something really bad down the line,” he was heard as saying.
BREAKING: @Pfizer Director Concerned Over Women’s Reproductive Heath After COVID-19 Vaccinations
“There is something irregular about their menstrual cycles…concerning…The vaccine shouldn’t be interfering with that…It has to be affecting something hormonal…”#Pfertilitypic.twitter.com/XAuMPJNShD
“I hope we don’t find that somehow this mRNA lingers in the body and causes it. I mean it has to impact something hormonal to impact menstrual cycles. So somehow the vaccine must be interacting with the HPG (Hypothalamus, Pituitary and Gonads) axis to be causing problems with the menstrual cycles,” Jordon Walker emphasised.
On being asked whether the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccines are affecting fertility in women, he said, “Yes they can control the cycle. So if it is impacting that, it must be impacting these hormones somehow… The signalling starts in the brain but the vaccine does not cross the blood-brain barrier.”
Jordon Walker conceded that if people were to find out that there was something wrong with the vaccine, they would criticise the ‘big push’ tooth and nail. ” Because there was a lot of social pressure, government pressure, job pressure to get the vaccine,” he emphasised.
“If something were to go bad, then, the scale of that scandal would be enormous,” the Pfizer Director noted. On being asked whether the pharmaceutical company would be liable, he said, “I don’t think so.”
Jordon Walker added, “Because usually when you give drugs to people and there is a known side effect, it’s like encoded on the FDA level. But there could be a scandal.”
Jordan Walker and ‘Project Veritas’ sting operation
‘Project Veritas’, a conservative group known for undercover stories, had set up a date with Pfizer Director Jordon Walker and quizzed him about the vaccine developed by the pharmaceutical company. The first video was released on January 26, 2023.
Without realising that he was being recorded the whole time, Jordan Walker made damming revelations about the work undertaken by Pfizer and the lack of ethical checks and balances within the company.
He casually said that Pfizer was considering mutating the Covid-19 virus to develop a new version of the vaccines. “You have to be very controlled to make sure that this virus that you mutate doesn’t create something that just goes everywhere,” the Pfizer Director said.
BREAKING: @Pfizer Exploring “Mutating” COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines
“Don’t tell anyone this…There is a risk…have to be very controlled to make sure this virus you mutate doesn’t create something…the way that the virus started in Wuhan, to be honest.”#DirectedEvolutionpic.twitter.com/xaRvlD5qTo
He also accepted that the pandemic has been a ‘cash cow’ for Pfizer and will continue to remain so in days to come. “Yeah, it would be perfect,” Walker said on the idea of the pharma company making money from new Covid-19 vaccines.
He also seemed to affirm that the virus had come from the lab in Wuhan.
Jordan Walker also said that Pfizer has been a ‘revolving door’ for government employees who are in charge of reviewing drugs and how they later join the same pharma company.
“Because if the regulators who review our drugs, you know that once they stop being a regulator, they want to go work for the company…they are not going to be harsh on the company where they’re getting their job,” he added.
It is notable here that over the recent months, there have been a significant amount of details that indicate the possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic was a result of a ‘lab leak’ from the BSL4 research facility at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where a number of scientists, funded by USA’s Ecohealth Alliance, were engaged in ‘gain of function’ research of the SARS CoV-2 virus.
Actress Rakhi Sawant Fatima who recently lost her mother has issued a warning to her husband Adil Khan Durrani who she accuses of cheating on her. On Thursday, Rakhi Sawant was spotted outside a gym in Mumbai when she broke down while speaking to the media and warned Adil Khan that she will not settle the matter privately as Adil said as she does not want to end up in a fridge.
Rakhi here made a reference to the gruesome Shraddha Walkar murder case wherein the 28-year-old victim Shraddha Walkar was killed by her Muslim live-in partner Aftab Amin Poonawala, who dissected her body and dumped the pieces around the national capital.
The corpse of Shraddha, who had been murdered, was cut into 35 pieces and kept in a 300-liter fridge at Poonawala’s flat in Mehrauli, south Delhi, for over three weeks before being dumped around the city over a number of days.
In a video shared by paparazzi Viral Bhayani, Rakhi is seen crying as she accuses Adil Khan Durrani of cheating on her for another woman. Rakhi, however, did not reveal the name of the woman she was referring to.
“Your aunty and others asked me to give you a chance, I gave ten chances to Adil instead. Adil mend your ways. Tell that girl (the Adil is allegedly having an extramarital affair with) that a man who could not stick to his wife can never be loyal to anyone,” Rakhi said.
Furthermore, Rakhi added that she does not keep things about her issues with Adil Khan private as she does not want to end up in a ‘fridge’.
“You ask me why I speak to media, why not keep the matter at home, because by doing so, I don’t want to go into the fridge (Ghar Mei rehkhar mujhe bhi fridge mein nahi jana hai). I will fight for my marital rights and I will fight. That girl wants to pee on my head because Adil is with her, that is why she blatantly tells me that Adil will leave me (Rakhi) for her and marry me. She took advantage of the situation as I was inside the BiggBoss Marathi house and now she is threatening and blackmailing me,” Rakhi added.
Rakhi said that it was due to his alleged extra-marital affair that Adil wanted Rakhi to keep their marriage private for eight months, he even denied the marriage but later accepted it out of fear.
‘I made you famous in the country, and you gave me nothing but tears’
Rakhi said that it is because of her that people know Adil, she made him famous and also made him meet Bollywood celebrities like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and others.
“I made him famous, made him meet with all the celebrities like Salman bhai, Shah Rukh bhai, Ranveer Singh, etc. People say this is Rakhi’s drama, but this is my pain. “Yet despite claims to the contrary, Rakhi. I am changing my gym. I don’t want him to approach the media and gain publicity. He comes here to give media interviews,” Rakhi said.
Rakhi also claimed that Adil had despite taking a vow by keeping his hand on the Quran, Adil did not block the girl and now she is blackmailing her. Rakhi also added that she will not let Adil divorce her.
The BiggBoss fame actress also said that she is still ready to forgive Adil if he leaves the other woman and comes back to her.
Rakhi and Adil’s Nikah and Rakhi becomes Rakhi Sawant ‘Fatima’
Recently, Rakhi Sawant took the internet by storm by sharing several pictures and videos of her low-key Nikah ceremony that was held in May last year.
Soon after, pictures of Rakhi and Adil’s Nikahnama went viral on social media sparking a debate that Rakhi has converted to Islam. What prompted the discussion was Rakhi Sawant’s name on the Nikahnama, which was ‘Rakhi Sawant Fatima’.
As per the Nikahnama, the two got married on May 29 last year at her home in Oshiwara, Mumbai. The Nikah took place at 1:30 p.m., and the bride was given a meher (security deposit) of Rs 51,786. A Vakil (guardian) – Abdul Kadir Lokhandwala – and two witnesses, Kulsum Bi Naseeruddin Naik and Ahmed Riyaz Shaikh – were present at the Nikah. Apart from the Nikah, Rakhi Sawant and Adil Khan Durrani also had got their marriage registered. Rakhi had earlier reportedly converted to Christianity.
Nikahnama of Rakhi Sawant and Adil Khan Durrani (Image via Instagram)
Earlier Rakhi had said that after she returned from the BiggBoss Marathi season 4 house, she saw something on Adil’s phone which was beyond her tolerance levels.
Congress on Friday suspended Lok Sabha MP from Patiala and the wife of former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Preneet Kaur, for indulging in anti-party activities and helping the BJP.
The Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) has also asked her to appear before it within 3 days and to explain why she should not be expelled from the party.
According to the statement issued by Congress general secretary Tariq Anwar, party President Mallikarjun Kharge had received a complaint against the Patiala MP from State party chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.
“Congress President has received a complaint from Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, President, PCC Punjab alleging that Preneet Kaur, MP (Lok Sabha) from Patiala is indulging in anti-party activities to help BJP. Some other senior Congress leaders of Punjab also share this view,” the statement reads.
The complaint was referred to the AICC Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) for necessary action.
“The DAC carefully considered it and decided that Preneet Kaur, MP (Lok Sabha) from Patiala should be suspended from the party with immediate effect and she has been called upon to show cause within 3 days as to why she should not be expelled from the party,” the statement added.
Notably, former Congress leader and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh joined the BJP in September last year.
In September 2021, Amarinder Singh unceremoniously resigned from the Congress ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, floated his PLC, and then made an alliance with the BJP that had already made SAD (Sanyukt) its ally.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
The Gujarat High Court Thursday dismissed the bail application filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale in the case where he is accused of misusing money he had collected through crowdfunding. While dismissing the bail plea, the court observed that prima facie it appears that Gokhale had utilised the funds raised for his personal expenses.
“Appears funds raised were utilised for personal expenses”: Gujarat High Court denies bail to Saket Gokhale
Noting that the case is of the nature of fraud and cheating and that the investigation is still going on and that the necessary evidence is to be recovered, the court denied bail to the TMC leader.
On December 29, Gokhale was arrested in Delhi by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch. Gokhale is accused of misappropriating ₹1.07 crore collected from the public through crowd-funding. Saket Gokhale was charged under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), and 467 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code.
Gokhale had moved the High Court seeking bail after he was denied relief by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad Alkeshkumar Bhojak on January 12.
While rejecting his bail application on Monday (January 23), the Gujarat High Court said that the TMC spokesperson can apply for bail once the chargesheet is filed against him. Notably, the Gujarat police are yet to file a charge sheet in the case.
Single-judge bench of Justice Samir Dave, in the order passed on January 23, noted that there was a prima facie case against Gokhale and that the allegations against Gokhale were “serious” in nature.
“It appears that there are serious allegations against the applicant. The investigation is going on and the charge sheet is yet to be filed….it appears that funding raised for the welfare of the people was utilized by the applicant for his personal expenses,” the court stated in his order dated January 23.
The prosecution appears to have clearly built a prima facie case against the accused, the Court added while rejecting bail.
According to the testimony of witnesses, Gokhale received money not only from the complainant’s wife but also from 1,767 other people. According to the Court, these funds were collected through social media, with the majority of transactions taking place online.
“There are many transactions, which appear to have been done on prima-facie going through the bank account statement, so it cannot be denied that some transactions might be done for his personal usage or not, which is a question of fact and can only be decided by evidence at the time of trial and not at the stage of investigation when the charge sheet is yet to be filed,” the judge observed.
ED arrests TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale and his repeated arrests
TMC leader Saket Gokhale was arrested by the Gujarat Police in December last year for siphoning off money in the name of activism. The police had found accounts linked to Gokhale where he was receiving money, which he claimed was being used for legal fees for activism-related cases but was instead being used for personal expenses. Before that, he was arrested by Gujarat police for spreading fake news about PM Modi.
On January 25, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Gokhale under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in Ahmedabad and sent him to custody till January 31 by a city court.
Deepak Goyal, a representative of the Aam Aadmi Party’s youth wing, was arrested by the Khanna police in the Punjabi city of Ludhiana while in possession of 6 pistols, 22 live rounds along with 2 cars.
Police said that after acting on a tip, they had blocked down Malaudh GT Road on Republic Day. A white vehicle stopped there and was subsequently searched. They arrested Akashdeep Singh of the Malerkotla district after finding an illegal Austria-made Glock pistol, an imported and high-tech weapon that is typically used by the state police legally. During questioning, he revealed that he used to obtain guns from his accomplice on the orders of Parminder Singh, a native of Saharan Majra (Malaudh), who was arrested immediately.
According to the police, Singh revealed information during questioning regarding the local sarpanch who was then arrested in connection with the case. He disclosed Deepak Goyal’s name as the owner of illegal weapons.
He was apprehended after the Khanna Police’s Crime Investigating Agency (CIA) unit conducted a raid on his home and found five .32 bore pistols from his house.
According to local sources, Deepak acquired these weapons prior to the state elections last year. They continued by saying that the accused was at odds with a pradhan (leader) from Khanna and acquired guns both as a means of self-defence and as a result of this animosity.
According to AAP sources, Deepak and his father Sanjeev Goyal joined the party as workers prior to the state elections in the presence of Manwinder Singh Giaspura, an MLA from Payal, and Jarnail Singh, the AAP’s co-incharge of Punjab affairs. They further mentioned that the family, who owns seed and rice shelling businesses, had previously supported Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) before switching to AAP.
While five pistols were found with Goyal, one sophisticated Glock pistol was found from Akashdeep Singh. Police said a thorough investigation is needed to determine how the said pistol reached him. Police believe that weapons may also be imported from outside the country. The issue is given serious consideration.
Worker made grave allegations against the MLA
Deepak Goyal is allegedly involved in the distribution of illegal weapons. Manvinder Gyaspura, AAP legislator for Halka, has ties to illegal firearms. On Wednesday, Pamma, a local Aam Aadmi Party activist, levelled serious accusations against Gyaspura. Pamma claimed that three days before he was attacked, the criminals were loitering outside of his home with a speaker mounted on a vehicle.
Pamma, who is close to the arrested MLA, claimed that Gyaspura is connected to all of the people in police custody. They wanted to murder him. In this regard, he has also filed a complaint with the Khanna police. The accusation has been forwarded to DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) Payal, by SSP (Senior Superintended of Police) Khanna, Damya Harish Kumar Omprakash.
Deepak Garg joined AAP in 2022
He was admitted to the party by MLA Gyaspura in Minister Jarnail Singh’s presence. The image of him joining the AAP alongside MLA Gyaspura has also gone viral. Halka Payal, the leader of the AAP, is vehemently opposed to MLA Gyaspura.
The gangster Sukhpreet Budda is closely acquainted with both Akashdeep and Pindri. In order to avoid being arrested by the authorities, they both kept Budda’s friends with them. In the police stations in Malaud and Malerkotla, numerous cases involving Akashdeep have been filed. The police remained silent when asked about Deepak Goyal’s political affiliations.
His PA answered the phone when MLA Gyaspura was contacted to get his perspective on the situation. The MLA, he claimed, had gone to meet a minister in Delhi. He stated, that he would speak with the MLA and present his side. Once the number was dialed after some time, the PA had already turned off the mobile.
A video has gone viral on social media wherein a group of Islamists are seen vandalising one Ahmadi Mosque located in the Saddar area in Karachi, Pakistan. The incident reportedly took place on Thursday, February 2.
In the video of the incident, it can be seen that three masked men are standing atop the structure and smashing the tomb and the minarets with hammers. A large crowd has assembled to watch the men vandalise the structure. Towards the end of the video, a man can be seen trying to desecrate the kalima inscribed on it. According to reports, the incident occurred in front of several police officers, who did nothing to stop the miscreants from vandalising the Ahmadi place of worship.
After Punjab, demolishing the minarets of Ahmadi places of worship started in Karachi. Today, a group of people demolished the minarets of an Ahmadi place of worship in Saddar. Two weeks ago, another Ahmadi worship place’s minarets were also demolished in Martin Quarters. pic.twitter.com/X2EnUAtnVV
This attack was reportedly similar to that carried out in the Martin Quarters area in Pakistan on January 18, 2023. Pakistani media outlet Dawn then reported that Zaheer Ahmed, a member of the Ahmadiyya Centre, lodged the complaint, stating that he was present in his private office in Clifton at around 3:45 pm on Wednesday (Jan 18) when he received information that some 10-12 people wielding sticks and other objects had gathered at the centre’s gate and were chanting slogans.
They scaled the centre’s wall and ransacked it, as well as damaging the minaret (tower), he said, adding that by the time he arrived, the attackers had fled.
Ahmadis in Pakistan represent a persecuted minority and the exclusion of Ahmadis is even enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan. Ahmadis have also been excluded from the Pakistani government’s minority commission aimed at safeguarding the rights of the country’s minorities. An estimated 4 million Ahmadis face severe abuse and discrimination along with other minority communities like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians.
According to the Pakistani constitution, Ahmadis can’t call themselves Muslims, and they can’t call their place of worship mosques. Moreover, their places of worship can’t look like a masjid or mosque, and they can’t have a structure like minarets. Moreover, Ahmadis also can’t write the Kalima-e-Tayyiba on its walls.
For this reason, mob violence and killings against the Ahmadiyya community have become increasingly common in Pakistan.
Last year in the month of September, the Ahmadi community in Pakistan’s Punjab province sought justice from the Pakistani government after Islamists allegedly desecratedsixteen graves at a cemetery for placing Islamic symbols like verses from the Quran on gravestones.
On May 19, one Ishfaq Ahmed’s grave was desecrated in Peshawar. A 36-year-old Ahmadi man was brutally murdered in front of his two children.
Similarly in February 2022, nearly 50 graves belonging to the Ahmadi community were allegedly desecrated by the local police and Maulanas for using Islamic symbols on gravestones at a cemetery in Punjab, Pakistan.
On Friday (February 3), the Uttar Pradesh police initiated action against an Indian Youth Congress (IYC) leader named Vaibhav Upadhyay for spreading fake news on Twitter.
A day earlier, Upadhyay had shared the video of an assault on a woman, which took place in Madhya Pradesh in 2021, to falsely claim a case of caste conflict. He suggested that the incident was the handiwork of Hindutva forces in Uttar Pradesh.
“This video is not related to Uttar Pradesh but showcases a 2021 incident, the case of which is registered at Tanda police station in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. Legal action is being implemented against you for the misleading tweet,” the Uttar Pradesh police tweeted.
The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) leader, Vaibhav Upadhyay, tweeted on Thursday (January 2), “Until when these Hindutva goons will continue to spoil peace and harmony in the country? Yogi Aditynath (UP CM), tell us how long will Dalits need to tolerate this?”
He further claimed, “Under your rule, the murder of Indian constitutional rights is at its peak. How long will the ordeal continue, asks India with teary eyes?”
Screengrab of the tweet by Vaibhav Upadhyay
The archived version of the misleading tweet can be accessed here. At the time of writing, the tweet was viewed over 2.29 lakh times, shared by 5k users, and liked by 8000 others.
The Truth behind the viral video
As per a report by NDTV, the incident dates back to June 22, 2021, when the family members of two girls assaulted them for talking to their maternal cousins.
Both the victim and the accused are from the tribal community. The incident took place in Pipalwa village in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh. After the matter came to light, the local police sprung into action and admitted the two victims to a local hospital.
They also arrested 7 accused of assaulting the two victims in full public glare. It is thus clear that the heinous crime was not motivated by caste and had no involvement of the Brahmin or ‘Hindutva forces.’ However, this did not stop the usual suspects from vilifying them and making genocidal remarks.
