Following the victory of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the West Bengal polls, the rival political workers have been targeted with violence, rapes, and social and economic boycott. On Tuesday (June 15), Aaj Tak Deputy Director Anupam Mishra shared a video, wherein a Trinamool Congress panchayat Pradhan was seen threatening Indian Secular Front (ISF) workers in Bhangar in South 24 Parganas of West Bengal.
According to Mishra, the TMC leader had threatened to not allow ISF workers in 100 days work, if they did not defect to Mamata Banerjee-run- party. “I am telling this very clearly, with a cool-head, and repeating the same again and again. Work in co-operation with our party workers. Discuss issues with them and work. Whatever you have done until now is a matter of the past. Forget it and join us. We won’t mind taking you back. Unlike other places, we did not commit atrocities on you here. We are only telling you to come and join us and live in peace in the area,” the Panchayat Pradhan was heard as saying.
TMC Panchayat Pradhan threatens ISF workers if they don’t join TMC they will not be allowed in 100 days job. Bangor is the only seat which ISF won in 21 assembly elections. pic.twitter.com/1ZWcNL5xED
In the said video, TMC leader and former MLA Arabul Islam was seen sitting right next to the panchayat Pradhan. It must be mentioned that Islam’s supporters had earlier vandalised and burnt down the TMC party office after he was denied a ticket from Bhangar in the 2021 West Bengal Vidhan Sabha polls. It must also be mentioned that ISF, led by Abbas Siddiqui, had managed to win its maiden seat from the Bhangar Vidhan Sabha constituency. Md Nawsad Siddique from Rashtriya Secular Majlis Party, an ally of ISF, had won the Bhangar seat in the elections.
60-year-old woman gang-raped in front of her grandson by TMC goons
Earlier, a 60-year-old woman narrated how she was brutally raped in front of her six-year-old grandson. She said that after the results were declared, TMC workers forcefully entered into her house and raped her. The incident happened on the intervening night of May 4 and 5, just two days after the election results were declared. The TMC workers also allegedly robbed her of the valuables.
She further added that despite the victory of the BJP in Khejuri constituency, a mob of about 100-200 TMC workers gathered and threatened to bomb her house. Next day, her daughter in law fled the house fearing for her life. A day later, some TMC workers barged into her house and gangraped her, she said in her application to the SC.
Her neighbours found her unconscious the next day and took her to a hospital. When her son in law approached the police for an FIR, the police refused to do so. She said that the ruling party workers used rape as a weapon of revenge to humiliate and silence political rivals.
Let me start by explaining why I am writing this letter today and why I have decided to write these letters to you at least once a month. When I joined OpIndia we were an extremely small entity and therefore, the interaction with readers was not just regular but the conversations we had with our readers were far more personal and fruitful. As we grew, the line of communication between us and the readers began to diminish.
With social media as the only medium through which we connected, and social media being the vortex that it is, communication started to dwindle, messages began to get lost and the loop, at least from where I see it, ended up being completely broken. With the workload increasing and the resources mostly staying the same, every member of the team regularly works till the end of their tether.
These letters are hopefully, a new beginning, I know it might not facilitate a two-way communication logistically, but it is an attempt to have an honest dialogue with all of you and to genuinely attempt to keep you in the loop. Tell you what is happening internally, as much as possible. Tell you about our triumphs and struggles, if any. Alternate media does not have the luxury of sitting in an ivory tower, rightly so. Its very existence is meant to be an antithesis of legacy media that is opaque at best, dishonestly translucent at worst.
The last few months, I won’t lie, has been a bit of a struggle. As we grew, the expectations from us grew as well. On the one hand, it is a matter of pride. From a blog being run by freelancers we have managed to, in a short span of time, elevated ourselves enough for our readers to expect so much more from us. On the other hand, meeting the expectations are also a struggle considering the resources we have to meet them remain the same, more or less,
Think of it as a vicious cycle. We don’t know how to get more resources unless we do the things that need more resources.
While we struggle to figure the economics of it all, we made more enemies than we had bargained for. At least, more than I had bargained for. You see, I joined OpIndia because I loved to write and I had no idea when it snowballed into something far greater than me. I can’t speak for others, but I am sure several members of the team feel the same too. There are certain projects you take up for yourself and before you know it, it becomes a cause that must be upheld. That is what OpIndia is today.
While we continue to fight some cases in court, including one that has been filed by India Today, one by a has-been journalist that became a prestige case for us, one by a Jihadi and a couple of others, including the court case for my family and I were interrogated, another battle with Facebook has been brewing for weeks.
The OpIndia Hindi page is on the verge of getting unpublished and while we have been going back and forth with the Facebook team for weeks, a resolution has not been reached. And the reasons are petty and appear motivated on the face of it as well. As if, there is an invisible hand that has not only decided to curtail the reach of OpIndia but is also hell-bent on finding loopholes in their arbitrary, butterfly-esque standards to penalise those who they don’t agree with.
One of the posts that Facebook took umbrage to was a report that detailed how BJP workers were being brutally murdered in West Bengal in the worst form of political violence that we have seen recently. Why, you ask? Well, Facebook already disables the ‘instant article’ feature at whim for posts they might not like, politically or otherwise, but this time, they threw our featured image in our face.
The post Facebook took down
Why did Facebook remove a post that reported the death of a BJP worker who was found hanging from a tree? Why did Facebook think this post went against their community guidelines? Because they thought that the image of the article “promoted and glorified violence”. It did not. It was as a representational image that was used.. not the image of the actual victim and the actual crime. It had no face. It did not celebrate violence. It reported violence.
After a constant back and forth, all we got was a link by Facebook that contained the arbitrary guidelines to begin with. The robotic response perhaps shows how little they care about publishers who refuse to align with their political bias.
Facebook has also been doggedly hounding the OpIndia English page. Why? Because the “fact-checkers” who are empanelled with Facebook have decided that OpIndia needs to be silenced. With emails that read like they were written by a 13-year-old spoilt brat, Facebook and their ‘fact-checkers’ have joined hands to lie about and humiliate publishers they don’t align with.
To make matters worse, even if we give Facebook the benefit of doubt, they have no mechanism for publishers to reach out to Facebook directly. What publishers need to do, when these brats they have empanelled act out, is beg and plead the brats to understand why they were wrong.
After several meetings, emails and conversations where we urged Facebook to ensure that there is a mechanism where publishers could escalate grievances to Facebook itself instead of ‘fact-checkers’ who were politically motivated and biased. It fell on deaf ears.
Either way, the battle will go on. We will keep going back and forth and we will escalate the matter to authorities as and when we deem fit, but what we are now deeply aware of is that it has now become an Us vs Them fight. Perhaps it always was, but as we climb the latter, the realisation just becomes stronger. The intensity of the forces that we seem to be up against hit us like a ton of bricks, almost every week.
While all of this was on, a video of a lunatic calling us “bastard” emerged and I was suggested that perhaps approaching the NCW (National Commission for Woman) would be an appropriate response. Of course, based on blatant lies, the abuses flowed freely in that video. However, personally, I don’t think that is what we should do. NCW should be working for women who have been truly affected. Victims of domestic violence, women who are being threatened, women who have been disenfranchised etc. I will, personally and OpIndia as an organisation, always stand against using these institutions as a means to extract our pound of flesh.
We will fight. But we will fight with our dignity intact and our honour upheld.
So much more to say, but perhaps it is time to stop before what is meant to be a letter, becomes a long-winded rant.
Until next month.
Keep reading us. Keep supporting us. You are the only force that keeps us going.
On Friday (June 11) night, a group of police officers in Pakistan illegally detained 19 employees of a fast-food joint for refusing to serve them free burgers. The incident took place in DHA Phase-6 in Lahore city of Pakistan.
Reportedly, some police officers had visited the said branch of fast-food joint ‘Johnny and Jugnu’ a few days before the incident. They had demanded free burgers from the eatery staff. On being refused service, the cops left the food joint in rage. However, on Friday night, they came back and detained all the employees over ‘baseless and unjust’ reasons for 7 hours. Thus, the restaurant was left with hungry customers and unattended kitchens. Reportedly, most of the staff members were young individuals, including several university students.
Eatery speaks out against the harassment meted out to them
In a statement on Facebook on Saturday, Johnny and Jugnu branch in Lahore said, “We are writing this with a lot of disappointment, anger, and pain. The incident that took place yesterday was not the first time it happened and we are sure it’s not going to be the last. Not until we find it in ourselves to raise our voice, to fight.. against the injustice that prevails, against the abuse of power against a common man. Our teams work tirelessly day in and out, we work tirelessly, all of it just to make this a better place for our people, our society.”
“And this is what we get in return, injustice, unfair treatment. Our innocent teams being dragged to the police station because they refused to give free burgers to someone “very special”. We’re not ones to stop, we’re not ones to give up. And we will fight. We will fight against the unjust systems. We will fight against the tyrants, against the status quo, against people who misuse their power and influence against innocent people. And we ask you to stand with us, to support us,” it added.
The eatery further emphasised, “Raise your voice and help us take on this fight. A fight to make this horrible place better, a fight to make things right, a fight to change the toxic culture of this society and the ones that control it. We, as common people, ask you to help us in our cause. Today and till the day we succeed. Do your part.” It has called upon individuals, small businesses, and artists to reach out to them and raise their voice against police hegemony.
9 police officials suspended for abuse of power
The incident drew the ire of netizens, prompting the Lahore police to immediately swing into action. In a tweet, Punjab police informed, “IG Punjab Inam Ghani has taken notice of the Johnny and Jugnu restaurant incident and has suspended the SHO Defence C and the staff of the police station involved.” A total of 9 police officials have been suspended for abuse of power. IG Ghani had also directed Lahore CCPO to initiate departmental and legal action against the accused.
IG Punjab Inam Ghani have taken notice of the Johnny and Jugnu restaurant incident and have suspended the SHO Defence C and the staff of the police station involved. No one is allowed to take law into his own hands. Injustice will not be tolerated. All of them will be punished.
— Punjab Police Official (@OfficialDPRPP) June 12, 2021
The tweet further added, “No one is allowed to take law into his own hands. Injustice will not be tolerated. All of them will be punished.” Reportedly, Punjab police officials are often accused of corruption and soliciting money and food from small businesses. Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had called for a reform in the police force, highlighting that cronies are appointed by politicians to take control of police stations.
The public skepticism surrounding the United States’ policy on censorship, surveillance,and foreign regime change interventions has existed for a long time. At a time when alternate news sources and social media platforms have surpassed their mainstream counterparts, Mint Pressreported that the US military might be on a mission to exploit the popular social media platform Reddit for its gains.
At the heart of the controversy is an ‘unusual’ appointment of foreign policy expert Jessica Ashooh as the Director of Policy of Reddit in 2017. Ashooh hails from a prominent family in New Hampshire, with her uncle Richard serving as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration under the former US President Donald Trump. Unlike her Republican uncle, she has a strong leaning towards the Democratic party and has donated to anti-Trump groups.
The foreign policy hawk has shown support for the contentious Right Side PAC and the Lincoln Project but has occasionally showered praise on prominent Republicans such as George W Bush. She had even written her doctoral thesis on Bush’s foreign policy in the Middle East while she was a student at the Oxford University. In Washington, her political views lie in the centre of the neoliberal blob. But, unlike other appointees to the senior roles in Reddit, Jessica Ashooh did not have any relevant experience in the field of tech or marketing.
Screengrab of the Linkedin profile of Jessica Ashooh via Mintpress News
Interestingly, Jessica Ashooh has been a member of the Atlantic Council, which is the foreign policy arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Mint News reported that the Atlantic Council receives funding from the US military, US government, big tech firms, weapon manufacturers, and even the Middle Eastern nations. The Board of Directors of the think tank has high-profile Statesman such as Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Condolezza Rice, 7 former CIA directors, and senior military commanders.
Others occupying senior management roles in Reddit have worked with companies such as Snapchat, Yelp, and Expedia. As such, Ashooh’s appointment was a departure from normal practice in Reddit. While speaking about the development, journalist and researcher Tom Secker commented, “That someone whose entire career has been in international relations and foreign affairs is now the senior policy wonk at Reddit is simply bizarre. Given her ties to the CFR, Atlantic Council, and the like, it’s downright suspicious.”
Ashooh’s appointment as the Director of Policy of Reddit happened in 2017 when the Senate Select Intelligence Committee had demanded additional control over the social media site for ‘spreading disinformation.’ It has been 4 years since Jessica Ashooh took over the role. She is in charge of overseeing government relations, the public policy of Reddit, besides advertising and content management. Despite the appointment of such a high-profile foreign policy hawk, Mint Press found negligible coverage in the press between late 2016 and early 2017. All of this added to the long existent suspicion of a close-knitted nexus between Silicon Valley and the US deep state apparatus.
Screengrab of the 2017 news report by The Hill
Jessica Ashooh is a strong proponent of the ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria
According to the LinkedIn profile of Jessica Ashooh, she worked as the Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council in its Middle East Strategy Task Force. During that time, she worked under Stephen Hadley and Madeline Albright. While Hadley was the senior national security advisor to George W Bush during the Afghan and Iraq wars, Albright oversaw the Oil for Food Program and the sanctions of Iraq under the Bill Clinton administration (both deemed as genocide by the United Nations).
Mint Press reported that Ashooh’s area of ‘expertise’ is the war in Syria. She has been a vocal proponent of US intervention in the country to overthrow Bashar-al-Asad’s government. During an interview with Al Jazeera in 2015, she had justified the decision of the UK government’s bombing in Syria and that it will help in gaining international consensus on foreign government intervention in the country. She had emphasised the need for ground troops and claimed that there was no political solution without military intervention. The Atlantic Council hawk had expressed her support for rebel forces in Syria who were supposedly ‘uniting’ against the Assad regime.
Despite no clear distinction between ‘moderate’ rebels and ‘militant jihadists’ by 2016 in Syria, she had condemned Russia likening the rebels to terrorist groups such as ISIS, AL-Nusra, and Jaysh-al-Islam. A report published by the Washington Post in February 2016 had conceded that many of the ‘moderate rebels’ had joined hands with Al-Nusra and it was difficult to set them apart. However, Ashooh had continued to urge the then US government to provide weapons to the rebels. “As long as [Assad] remains in power and remains the figurehead of the Syrian government…this conflict won’t end,” she had called for a regime change war.
Atlantic Council operative worked with the most regressive forces in Middle East
Between 2011 and 2015, she was working with senior decision makers of the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to Jessica Ashooh, she was involved in policy analysis and providing strategic advice, primarily focussed on Syria. The situation by then had become so grim that the then Vice-President Joe Biden said, “The Saudis, the Emiratis, what were they doing?…They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”
VP Joe Biden later apologised for his comments. Prior to joining Reddit as the Director of Policy in early 2017, Jessica Ashooh was seen criticising Barack Obama for his ‘softness’ on Syria. She had also urged Donald Trump to order targeted, punitive strikes against the Assad regime and restore the credibility of the US. In an article in the Washington Post April 2017, the Atlantic Council hawk had revealed how she was travelled to Istambul in 2013 to coordinate with the leaders of the Syrian Opposition and plan a response to a ‘chemical weapons attack.’
Screengrab of the article in the Washington Post
While she was advising the US on the Middle East, UAE was accused of transporting Al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders into Yemen to continue the Saudi-led genocide and smuggling US weaponry to the jihadist outfits. Even though Ashooh tried to draw a distinction between ‘moderate’ and ‘extremist’ rebels, Mint Press reported she ended up working for the entities which eventually joined hands with the most regressive forces in the Middle East.
Jessica Ashooh and her penchant for regime change wars
The Atlantic Council operative had supported the idea of regime change wars. Besides Syria, she had suggested overthrowing the Iranian government in 2017 but lamented that such an idea was a distant policy. In an Atlantic Council report, Jessica Ashooh emphasised, “Iranian interference in the Arab world must be deterred…America’s friends and partners must be reassured that the U.S. opposes Iranian hegemony and will work with them to prevent it.”
While it might appear that she is opposed to the idea of military dictatorships, however, this is far from reality. In 2016, she had accompanied her bosses Albright and Hadley to Saudi Arabia and heaped praise on the dynamic leadership of the dictator aka monarch for his dynamic leadership. She had applauded the Saudi government for bringing up a positive change in the region. Ashooh had also decided to look past the genocide committed by the Gulf nation in Yemen. On her public Reddit page (arabscarab), she had also tried to deflect the issue of ill-treatment of women in Saudi Arabia.
Jessica Ashooh’s Reddit account via Mint Press
Ashooh had also worked for the Iraqi Ministry of Planning on strategic and economic development issues as an advisor in 2010. Her Linkedin profilestated that her consultancy agency provided managerial and strategic advice to the ‘Ministry of Planning of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq.’ Mint Press reported the lead partner in the consultancy firm is an ex-Army captain and the organisation is connected with the US military.
The growing influence of the Atlantic Council over social media firms
The think tank behind NATO, Atlantic Council, had been gradually increasing its control over social media firms. After successfully planting Jessica Ashooh in Reddit, it had partnered with Facebook in 2018 to delete low-quality or fake news and promote trustworthy sources. As such, traffic to alternate media was throttled while mainstream sources such as CNN, Fox News, and New York Times were given preference. “Given the Atlantic Council’s funding and the identities of those on its board, their control over social media is tantamount to state censorship on a global level,” said journalist Alan MacLeod of Mint Press.
Facebook had also hired Ben Nimmo, a NATO press officer, as its Intelligence chief. Nimmo had earlier courted controversy for identifying a Welsh pensioner and a Ukranian pianist as ”Russian bots.’ Twitter had also hired Gordon MacMillan, an officer of the British Army’s 77th Bridage was ousted from active duty, in 2019 despite his tainted past. No major news portals covered the story and the journalist who covered the story for a major US outlet resigned a few days later, over censorship concerns. Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit had earlier admitted to deleting accounts linked to sources in Russia, China and Iran, and other enemy nations of the US.
While speaking on the development, journalist Tom Secker emphasised, “The mainstream media-politik establishment has managed to get a hold over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — shadow-banning and downrating posts considered ‘Russian propaganda’ or whatever other excuses they use to marginalize perspectives and content outside of the mainstream. Audiences for this sort of content are increasingly pissed off and alienated by the major social media sites.” Mint Press reported that several news items, often dubbed as Russian propaganda, find their origins in documents of the Atlantic Council.
Reddit and the US security state propaganda
Mint Press reported that Reddit played a crucial role in peddling propaganda against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2019. Prior to the UK General elections, Corbyn had highlighted documents leaked on Reddit which showed UK PM Boris Johnson negotiating with American companies for the sale of Nation Health Service. It was a game-changer, noted Mint Press. However, Reddit dubbed the leaked documents as part of the ‘Russian disinformation campaign.’ Mainstream media had then tweaked its headlines from ‘Boris Johnson is selling off the NHS’ to ‘Corbyn promotes Russian disinfo.’
According to Mint Press, the ‘anti-war’ Jeremy Corbyn lost while the Conservative Party rode on the Anti-Russia narrative. It said, “…an outcome the hawks at the Atlantic Council were no doubt relieved by, given Corbyn’s open skepticism about war, empire and nuclear weapons.” Although Reddit started off as anti-establishment and libertarian, it went to extremes in supporting free speech. The social media site was soon flooded with child pornography. Following extensive reporting by CNN, Reddit protected offensive communities such as /r/BeatingWomen and /r/CoonTown.
With the arrival of Jessica Ashooh in 2017, Reddit experienced an overhaul in its policies. While the social media site would earlier protect offensive communities that would bring bad publicity, the new content policy ensured the deletion of such communities. In 2020, the Atlantic Council hawk oversaw the banning of over 2000 communities in a single day including those of /r/ The_Donald and left-leaning /r/ChapoTrapHouse. While the new content policy has ensured more revenues for the social media platform since 2017, the objective of free flow of ideas and expression has certainly diminished.
On Monday (April 14), miscreants pickpocketed AAP MLA and State-in-charge Gulab Singh Yadav and four others during Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Ahmedabad ahead of the 2022 Gujarat State Legislative polls.
Reportedly, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had visited the city on Monday to start off his campaign ahead of the Vidhan Sabha polls in Gujarat. He was there to inaugurate the new party office in the State. While the Delhi Chief Minister was busy cutting the ribbon, the pockets of Gulab Singh Yadav and four others were picked. The miscreants posed as AAP supporters to mingle with the crowd. Yadav is Delhi MLA and AAP’s Gujarat in-charge.
So far, the cops have detained a suspect for the theft in this case and lodged a First Information Report (FIR). Navrangpura Station Police Sub-Inspector, RJ Chudasama, confirmed that a case of theft has come to light and that an FIR had been registered. It was also reported that during the inauguration ceremony, the AAP workers did not wear masks and openly flouted the social distancing guidelines amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.
Arvind Kejriwal to field candidates in 2022 Gujarat Vidhan Sabha polls
During his one-day visit to Ahmedabad, Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with senior party leaders at the Circuit House. He has vowed to field AAP candidates during the State Legislative polls in Gujarat that are scheduled to be held next year. Kejriwal had accused the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress of the problems in the State. Interestingly, the Delhi CM who has been vocal against PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah refrained from attacking the duo in their Home state.
Note: Later reports suggests the main accused’s name is Parvez Gujjar and not Parvesh Gujjar.
Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday expressed his disappointment over brazen communalisation of an unfortunate criminal incident that took place in Uttar Pradesh.
Sharing a picture of clarification issued by Ghaziabad Police, Naqvi tweeted that a dangerous conspiracy was hatched to tear apart the fabric of communal harmony. Naqvi also highlighted the names of the accused in the case, all of whom were Muslims, to allege that a malicious attempt was made to communalise the incident.
दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण क्रिमिनल घटना पर कम्युनल तड़का, सांप्रदायिक सौहार्द के ताने बाने को छिन्न -भिन्न करने की खतरनाक साजिश, ऐसे अपराधियों पर कानून का शिकंजा कस चुका है, फिर भी कुछ के नाम भी देख लें, साइबर साजिश के सूरमा … pic.twitter.com/HNVCynAv1T
Naqvi’s tweet was in reference to fake news peddled by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who took to Twitter to claim that an elderly Muslim man, Abdul Samad Saifi, in Ghaziabad was assaulted and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair tries to defame Jai Shri Ram over a petty squabble
Zubair had tweeted, “An elderly man, Sufi Abdul Samad Saifi was attacked by five goons in Loni, Ghaziabad. He was threatened at the gunpoint, beaten, assaulted, and they forcefully chopped off his beard.” In a video shared by the ‘fact-checker’, the victim could be seen being thrashed with sticks by the culprit. His beard was also cut forcibly using a scissor.
Here is a video of Abdul Samad Saifi narrating the complete incident. He claims he was forced to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ by the goons. pic.twitter.com/QPfJwNBJEs
While speaking about the matter, Abdul Samad Saifi claimed that he was about to board an autorickshaw but was stopped by the accused. He said that his face was covered with a handkerchief and taken to an undisclosed location. Saifi alleged that he was locked inside a room and brutally thrashed. He also claimed that the miscreants had forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ at gunpoint. “They told me that they have killed several Muslims in the past and will do the same to me,” Saifi further alleged.
The video of Saifi testifying that he was assaulted in the name of Jai Shri Ram was shared by AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who has a knack of peddling lies and misinformation on social media platforms.
It is noteworthy to mention that the video of the assault does not contain any audio, which can verify the claim that Saifi was coerced into chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Ram Ram’. Moreover, the victim had alleged that a gun was used by the accused to intimidate him although it wasn’t visible in the video footage.
Many social media warriors and prejudiced journalists nonetheless bought into this fiction and started sharing the video online to vilify Hindus and allege that an elderly man was browbeaten, threatened, assaulted and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
Ghaziabad Police issues clarification after the case is brazenly communalised on social media
In a tweet, Ghaziabad police informed that three accused had been arrested in the case. According to the police, the incident took place about 10 days ago on June 5, 2021. The victim Abdul Samad Saifi had travelled to the Loni border from Bulandshahr, where he was escorted to the house of accused Parvesh Gujjar in Banthala in Loni. After some time, the co-accused, namely, Kallu, Poli, Arif, Adil aka Mushahid arrived at Parvesh’s house and began thrashing the victim.
The victim Saifi sold amulets for a living. According to the police, the accused were miffed after the amulet proved harmful to them. Unlike what the victim had alleged, the police said that he knew the culprits for a long time. Reportedly, Saifi had sold his amulets to several people in the village through the accused. The police had initially arrested Parvesh while Adil and Kallu were nabbed on Monday (June 14). A case has been registered against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The cops assured that the other culprits would soon be arrested.
37-year-old Marathi artist Mayuresh Kotkar has been arrested by Thane Police for posting an allegedly objectionable statement on social media against state cabinet minister and Shiv Sena leader and MVA minister Eknath Shinde.
Maharashtra: Thane’s Srinagar police arrested Marathi artist Mayuresh Kotkar for allegedly posting an objectionable statement on social media against state minister Eknath Shinde. He has been sent to judicial custody. Police complaint in this regard was filed by Shiv Sena workers
As per reports, Kotkar- a resident of Balkum in Thane, had posted an allegedly defamatory statement about minister Eknath Shinde on his social media profile on Friday.
Soon after, a complaint was lodged against Kotkar by a local Shiv Sena corporator named Yogesh Jankar.
In his complaint, Jankar alleged that Kotkar had posted a defamatory comment on the Facebook page of the minister. The content was not just defamatory but also inflammatory that could have led to a clash between two communities, Jankar added in his complaint.
Kotkar had posted a comment concerning the recent row over the naming of the international airport in Navi Mumbai, said the police.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of the IPC for defamation, intent to incite, and statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.
Kotkar has been sent to judicial custody and a probe is on by the Sri Nagar police in Thane.
Navi Mumbai Airport name proposal
As per reports, thousands of local residents and Navi Mumbai international airport project-affected people had formed a 12-km long human chain last week to protest against the proposal to name the upcoming airport after Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray.
Around one lakh villagers from the project area held placards demanding that the airport be named after the late Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP) leader and parliamentarian Dinkar Balu Patil, popularly known as DB Patil.
Kotkar too had made several posts on his social media demanding the airport be named after DB Patil.
A committee spearheading the agitation has warned that the protest will intensify if the demands are not met. A call to gherao Konkan Bhavan in Raigad district on June 24 has been given to press for the demand.
On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court granted bail to Jamia Milia Islamia student leader Asif Iqbal Tanha, far-left ‘activists’ Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal in the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots case.
According to the reports, the Delhi High Court granted bail to the UAPA accused Asif Iqbal Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita in the Delhi riots case. The Delhi Police had arrested the three far-left ‘activists’ in the case, and a case was registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their role in the anti-Hindu riots that was unleashed on the streets of Delhi in February last year.
A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup J Bhambhani granted the bail to the riots accused and asked them to provide Rs 50,000 and two local sureties. In addition, the accused have been asked to surrender their passports and not indulging in activities that would hamper the case.
The High Court has granted bail to the three accused in connection with the FIR 59 filed by the Delhi Police in the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots case. In the FIR 59/2020, a total of 15 people, including Asif Tanha, Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita, were named by the Delhi police. The police claimed that Tanha played an active role in orchestrating riots in Delhi during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Asif Tanha – the main conspirator behind Jamia riots
Asif, a Jamia Millia Islamia student and member of the Student Islamist Organization (SIO) since 2014, was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in May for purportedly being a part of a larger conspiracy behind the February riots in northeast Delhi.
In fact, Asif Iqbal had admitted to orchestrating riots and a march of 2500-3000 people from Gate no.7 of Jamia Millia Islamia on December 12. He revealed that Sharjeel Imam gave a provocative speech to encourage ‘protestors’ to execute a ‘chakka jam’ on December 13.
Asif confessed to organising a ‘Gandhi peace march’ on December 15 from the Jamia metro station to the Parliament via Zakir Nagar and Batla House. He stated that the purpose of naming it after Mahatma Gandhi was to lure more people into joining the march. Reportedly, the Delhi police had set up barricades near the Surya Hotel to prevent the ‘protestors’ from surging forward. Asif Iqbal confessed to provoking people to break through the police barricades under the impression that the cops lacked the ‘guts’ to stop them.
However, his plans did not succeed as the police soon resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the unruly mob. The Jamia students then resorted to stone pelting, setting buses on fire, and creating mayhem on the streets of Delhi. As such, both the policemen and the ‘protestors’ were injured during the course of the march.
Asif Iqbal provoked common Muslims to weaponise violence
Asif Iqbal further admitted that he delivered provocative speeches at several places in the country, including Kolkata, Kota, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ujjain, Indore, Jaipur, Patna, Sabzibagh, Araria, Samastipur, Ahmedabad. Reportedly, he urged common Muslims to protest against the Indian and not to shy away from engaging in violence if such a need arose.
Asif added that JNU activist Umar Khalid had suggested the idea of blocking roads and disrupting traffic during the visit of US President Donald Trump to India. The plan of action was then executed by the likes of Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar, which later culminated into violent riots. Besides his desire to turn India into an Islamic country, he considered the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as anti-Muslim and therefore joined the students of Jamia Milia Islamia in opposing it.
Far-left activist – Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita accused in instigating Anti-Hindu riots
The Delhi police had also arrested two far-left activists of Pinjra Tod – Natasha Narwal and Devangna Kalita for their role in stoking communal violence during the anti-Hindu riots in North-East Delhi in February last year that claimed 53 people and left more than 400 injured.
On May 23, the Special cell of Delhi police had arrested two women named Natasha and Devangna in the North-East Delhi riots case. Both the women are founding members of Pinjra Tod, which was established in 2015.
Some citizens of Seelampur, Jafrabad, and Trans-Yamuna had accused Pinjra Tod and other elite civil society groups of inciting riots in the national capital.
Pinjra Tod claims to be an autonomous collective of women students fighting for a just, accessible, non-discriminatory University and affordable accommodation and has been involved in numerous protests and campaigns of a far-left nature.
Former Australian citizen and the first ‘ISIS Bride’ from Australia, Zehra Duman, has been living in Turkey with two children. In November 2020, she was released by the Turkish court. Notably, in September 2020, she was sentenced to almost seven years in a Turkish jail for being a member of a terrorist organization. Duman held dual citizenship of Australia and Turkey till mid-2019. She was stripped of her Australian citizenship over connections with Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
Duman and her children were among 70 Australian women and children taken to the al-Hawl detention camp in northeast Syria after the fall of IS in 2019. During an interview, she said she wanted to return to Australia. However, four months later, in a letter to Duman, she was informed by the Australian government that her Australian citizenship had been revoked.
Zehra Duman, an Australian woman who had joined ISIS and had called for genocide against non-Muslims, image via The Australian
The letter stated, “The Minister for Home Affairs has become aware of conduct because of which you, as a national or citizen of a country other than Australia, namely Turkey, have ceased to be an Australian citizen … Specifically, the Minister has become aware that you were in the service of Islamic State outside Australia.”
Later, Duman fled al-Hawl and entered Turkey with the help of smugglers. However, she was arrested while doing so. In September last year, a court in Sanliurfa, a southern Turkish city, sentenced her to six years and ten months in jail for being associated with ISIS. Two months later, she appeared before a court in Gaziantep, another southern Turkish City. The court released her as she was the only person able to take care of her children, Layla and Jarrah. Duman is enjoying her life in an unknown location in Turkey.
Duman’s statements in Turkish courts
ABC got access to the documents that allegedly had the statements made by Duman during the hearing in Turkish courts. According to ABC, it is unclear if Turkish authorities did anything to verify the statements. According to her statement, she was forced to remarry twice, and all her husbands were killed during the Syrian war. She alleged that ISIS jailed her in 2017 when she tried to leave the group. Her first child was born from the second husband and the second child from the third husband while she was in Syria.
Duman blamed her ‘problematic’ childhood
During the hearing, Duman blamed her childhood for her leaning towards Islam and ISIS. Her parents’ divorce, unhealthy relationships, breakups and depression during her teens allegedly pushed her towards Islam. During her late teens in 2014, Mahmoud Abdullatif, a party boy turned fundamentalist Islamist reached out to her. She said, “Mahmoud found me and got in touch with me through social media. He knew that I’m naïve and I had a tough life. He told me, ‘I’m going to give you a beautiful life.’ I believed in him.” At the age of 19, she travelled to Turkey and then Syria in 2014.
ISIS terrorist Zehra Duman in an old photograph with her mother, image via SBS
One Abu Bakr smuggled her into ISIS territory and placed her in one of the IS houses where unmarried women were kept. A month later, Abdullatif took her to Raqqa, and they got married. Where she lived, several Australian ISIS recruits, including Sydney-born ISIS terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, were also living. In January 2015, Abdullatif was killed in an airstrike.
After Iddah, a waiting period observed by Muslim women after a divorce or the death of their husband, she married Nedol. During that period, she travelled to Iraq. He was killed in an airstrike in 2016. She was pregnant at that time with Jarrah. She returned to Syria and gave birth to her first child. After the birth, she was left on the street. She tried to flee Syria but was recaptured by ISIS with the help of Turkish authorities.
When she was spending time in jail, an Arab-Australian man identified by her as Baran met her and offered to marry her. She got pregnant with her second child after she married, and in 2018, Baran was killed in the war. After ISIS’s fall, she ended up in the al-Hawl detention camp in Syria.
Duman was heavily radicalized
Notably, during the time she drifted towards ISIS, there were several incidents in her life that give a glimpse of her radicalization. She was best friends with Tara Nettleton, the wife of Khaled Sharrouf, another Australian who had joined ISIS. Duman was ‘famous’ for recruiting naïve minds for the terrorist organization.
Duman’s first husband Abullatif, who was soon killed in an airstrike, image via SBS
Duman had posted inflammatory content on her social media profiles, including tweets mocking western authorities, pledging to kill non-Muslims and photos of herself with guns. When she got married to Abdullatif, her husband had written, “I got married today. Alhumdolileh (praise be to god) I made hijra (pilgrimage) and got married here man, Insha Allah I receive a beautiful death as well.”
Soon after the wedding, she started to post notorious posts on social media platforms. In one tweet, she wrote, “US + Australia, how does it feel that all 5 of us were born n raised in your lands, & nowhere thirsty for ur blood?” In another tweet, she mocked security agencies and wrote, “catch me if you can”, and called for her followers to poison Kafirs (non-Muslims). She wrote, “Stab them and poison them. Poison your teachers, go to haram restaurants and poison the food in large quantities.”
In 2019, after the fall of ISIS, she said in an interview that she wanted to go back to Australia. She said, “Both of my kids are sick. [My daughter is] very malnourished, she’s … very skinny. I have no money, I’m not allowed to have money. They don’t give us food here and they don’t let us contact our families. I understand the anger that they have towards a lot of us here, but the kids don’t need to suffer. My kids have a right at least to be treated like normal kids.”
Duman was one of over a dozen Australians who were stripped of their citizenships by the Australian government for having connections to a terrorist organization. Notably, the Australian government revoked the citizrnship of only those terrorists who had dual citizenship. Those who only have Australian citizenship were left out.
Days after media reports emerged suggesting that the centre had decided not to allow the return of four Kerala-based women who had joined Islamic State (IS), the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Centre should decide their fate.
Amidst the calls by parents of the women terrorists to allow the return of their daughters back to India, the Kerala Chief Minister on Monday said that the centre will decide on bringing back these four Kerala women lodged in the Kabul jail.
Speaking to the media, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said the issue has to be decided by the Centre, and the state government has nothing to do with the issue. He said that the state government has no role to play in the matter. While PTI cited that Pinarayi Vijayan referred to ISIS terrorists as fighters, some local media reported that the Kerala Chief Minister did not use those words.
The Chief Minister also said that they needed to know whether the four IS terrorists are ready to come to India. Pinarayi Vijayan asked the centre to seek the opinion of the family members of the four Kerala-based IS terrorists.
The four women identified as – Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha, Merrin Jacob alias Mariyam, Nimisha alias Fathima Isa and Raffaela, had accompanied their husbands to join the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) in 2018. However, their husbands, ISIS terrorists, were killed in different attacks in Afghanistan.
Following their death, the Kerala-based Muslim women, along with thousands of other Islamic State terrorists, had surrendered before the Afghanistan authorities in November and December 2019.
Family of terrorists requests centre to allow their return
The latest controversy surrounding the return of Kerala-based IS terrorists comes amidst repeated requests by their family members to allow the return. Recently, the mother of one such terrorist had expressed hope that PM Modi will pardon her daughter.
Bindu Sampath, the mother of ISIS terrorist Nimisha Fathima, said, “I’ve heard that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a very kind-hearted person. I have full faith in him.” Bindu lamented that she had not received any communication from the Indian government so far. “But I am very positive because there will be other views also in the government. I am banking on that. I believe in God. I am sure that God will create a situation for her return,” she opined.
The mother of the ISIS terrorist wished to meet PM Modi and submit a memorandum seeking her daughter’s repatriation to India. Bindu emphasised that she would follow the legal route to bring Nimisha Fathima back.
Nimisha Fathima was a Hindu prior to her conversion to Islam. She adopted the name of “Fathima Isa” after her marriage to an ISIS terrorist. Along with 19 others from Kerala, she flew to Afghanistan in June 2016 to wage war against the US forces in ISIS-controlled Khorasan Province. She had given birth to a child there. After her terrorist husband was neutralised, she surrendered to the Afghan government in 2019.
According to the Hindu report, a senior government official confirmed that the four Kerala-based women, who had travelled to Nangarhar in Afghanistan in the years 2016-18, will not be allowed to return to the country.
The Indian investigation agencies had interviewed the four women living with children in Kabul. During the interview with the women, the investigation agencies had found out that they have a strong stance in favour of Islamic terrorism, and hence, India is likely to request the Afghanistan authority to prosecute the women there itself.
Four couples from Kerala had joined Islamic State: NIA
According to the charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2017, Sonia Sebastian had left India in 2016 to join the ISKP in Afghanistan along with a group of 21 men and women from Kerala. They had crossed over to Afghanistan on foot from Iran.
The NIA said Sebastian, from Kasargod in Kerala, left India on May 31, 2016, with her husband, Abdul Rashid Abdulla, from Mumbai airport. They had said the couple held secret classes supporting IS and jihad during the last part of Ramzan in Padanna and Kasaragod. Sebastian is an engineering graduate.
Another IS sympathiser, Merrin Jacob alias Mariyam, was married to Bestin Vincent, a resident of Palakkad. The couple escaped to Afghanistan in 2016 to live in the IS-controlled territory. Later, the Chrisitan couple converted to Islam after their marriage, and Vincent assumed the identity of Yahya. Vincent was later killed in Afghanistan.
Similarly, Vincent’s brother Bexon and his wife, Nimisha alias Fathima, also converted to Islam and escaped to Afghanistan with them.
