Late night on Saturday, panic gripped across Pakistan after the country suffered yet another blackout. According to the reports, major Pakistani cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Multan plunged into darkness following massive power outage.
The blackout was also seen in Pakistan occupied Kashmir affecting critical services like healthcare, communications, etc. Operations at country’s major airports were also hit by the blackout.
However, as soon as Pakistan got hit with another blackout, the poor citizens of the country became panic-stricken as they expressed fear about another surgical strike by the Indian Armed Forces inside their country.
Several social media users, fearing another attack, scrambled on Twitter to know from their fellow citizens whether they were under attack from India again. Following the blackout, Reham Khan, the former wife of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted asking whether it was a ‘war’ in Pakistan.
Reham Khan’s tweet
Similarly, another user also expressed fear questioning on Twitter whether their country was not yet again at the receiving end of Indian Armed Force’s anti-terror operation.
More panicked Pakistanis
Zaid Hamid, who is considered to be Pakistan’s equivalent to Pro-AAP vZalogger Dhruv Rathee, too thought that the blackout was nothing but a prelude to a war between Indian and Pakistan. He asked Pakistan Air Force to be red alert following the power breakdown.
Zaid Hamid panicking
Panicked Pakistanis
While most of the social media from Pakistan feared about a strike from India, some also put out their apprehensions about the internal aggression within Pakistan by the Pakistan Army to snatch the power from the elected government. Pakistani netizens got all nostalgic and asked whether the power outrage was just a reason for carrying out coup by the Pakistan military against the Imran Khan government.
Pakistanis being nostalgic about the Musharraf led coup
Another social media user declared that Pakistan was already under the military rule claiming that General Bajwa removed Imran Khan from power after declaring Martial Law in the country.
Pakistanis wilding on Twitter
Nevertheless, Pakistan who are almost at war all the time against somebody or the other, seems to be habituated with such blackouts, coup, terror strikes etc. However, as far as Indian concerned, there has been no anti-terror operations being carried out against terrorists inside Pakistan. So far, at least, the Indian Armed Forces have not confirmed about any such surgical strikes.
However, not all was lost for Pakistan. Some of them resorted to dark humour (pun intended) and make fun of their own poverty and otherwise terrible lives.
Meanwhile, power has been restored in most part of Pakistan. As per Pakistani Energy Minister, the power breakdown was caused after the frequency in the national power distribution system suddenly fell from 50 to zero. The reason for such drop was currently being investigated.
Another case of grooming jihad has come to light in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. As per the reports, a 26-year-old Dalit woman has committed suicide on Friday. In a suicide note that she has left behind, she has named one Adil Khan as responsible for her death.
Woman blamed Adil in the suicide note
The woman lived in the TT Nagar area. She was found hanging in her room. The police found a suicide note in the room where she had accused one Adil Khan of her death. “My name is Puja. I am going to commit suicide. Adil Khan, s/o Khalik Khan, is responsible for my death,” she wrote in her suicide note.
Her family filed a complaint against Khan after which the police arrested him under relevant sections, including abetment of suicide.
Adil Khan changed the name to befriend her
According to the victim’s father, the accused had allegedly deceived the woman by changing his name and presenting himself as Hindu. He said that Adil Khan told his daughter that his name is Babloo to befriend her. He added, “When my daughter came to know that he lied she tried to distance herself from him and in return he physically and verbally assaulted her.”
The duo were friends since past 8 years. Puja’s brother said that on Friday evening Puja went to her room and locked herself in. Everyone was present in the house. When she did not open the door upon being asked by the family members, they forcefully opened the door and found her hanging.
Puja’s brother informed that Adil regularly forced her to convert to Islam. When she refused to convert to Islam, Adil got engaged to another girl. This upset Puja, who then committed suicide.
The family of the victim has demanded that Adil Khan must be booked under the new anti-conversion (love jihad) law in the state. However, the police have not confirmed if the case can be registered as forced religious conversion. The accused has been booked under Abetment to Suicide case and has also been booked under Prevention of Protection Act SC-ST Act.
Madhya Pradesh’s anti-forced conversion ordinance
Madhya Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel gave assent to the anti-forcedconversion ordinance passed by the state government on Saturday. The new law has been brought to put a stop on the forced religious conversions through fraudulent means. It will include the cases where conversion has been put on the table as one of the conditions of marriage.
If someone is found guilty under the new ordinance, the person(s) involved will face up to 10 years of imprisonment and/or fine. A similar ordinance was brought in Uttar Pradesh as well. There has been a spike in grooming jihad cases in recent past that had raised the demand of anti-conversion law to stop alleged conversion nexus. Last year Uttar Pradesh police had found several grooming jihad cases in a single area in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh after which state government formed SIT for the investigation.
Earlier this week, Whatsapp forced its users to agree to the new privacy rules or else lose access to the app. An in-app notification popped up as soon as the app was opened and it informed users on the changes made in the new privacy policy.
According to the popular messaging app, the company’s new terms of service and privacy policy will come into effect on 8 February 2021. To continue using the app, WhatsApp users will have to accept the terms and conditions. If the users do not accept the new terms of service, they will lose access to the app. In other words, updated policy no longer indicates that users would be able to choose whether they want their data to be shared with Facebook or not.
In its notification, the Facebook-owned messaging app conveyed that as a part of the policy update, it will share user data with other Facebook companies. It elaborated users on how Whatsapp handles the data, how it would partner with Facebook to facilitate integration across Facebook Company Products and how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage.
Detailed overview of privacy policy changes made by Whatsapp
Meanwhile, Whatsapp has updated its website with a detailed overview of what the changes in the policy of the app meant for the users.
“Our Services have optional features which, if used by you, require us to collect additional information to provide such features. You will be notified of such a collection, as appropriate. If you choose not to provide the information needed to use a feature, you will be unable to use the feature. For example, you cannot share your location with your contacts if you do not permit us to collect your location data from your device. Permissions can be managed through your Settings menu on both Android and iOS devices,” Whatsapp wrote.
The Facebook-owned messaging service also expanded on how much of the data is collected automatically by the app. “We collect information about your activity on our Services, like service-related, diagnostic, and performance information. This includes information about your activity (including how you use our Services, your Services settings, how you interact with others using our Services (including when you interact with a business), and the time, frequency, and duration of your activities and interactions), log files, and diagnostic, crash, website, and performance logs and reports,” WhatsApp said.
“This also includes information about when you registered to use our Services; the features you use like our messaging, calling, Status, groups (including group name, group picture, group description), payments or business features; profile photo, “about” information; whether you are online when you last used our Services (your “last seen”); and when you last updated your “about” information,” WhatsApp added.
Whatsapp is the largest messaging service in the world with over 2 billion monthly active users. However, an insidious in-app notification, forcing users to accept the new privacy policy has set off alarm bells ringing for the privacy-conscious users, who are now making a beeline to dump the app and shifting to more secure and reliable alternatives. Messaging apps Signal and Telegram are the two frontrunners that have caught the fancy of these set of disenchanted Whatsapp users who are looking to migrate to other platforms amidst the growing privacy concerns.
Let’s take a look at how the two alternative apps, Signal and Telegram, fare in terms of Security and Features as against Whatsapp:-
Signal
Signal is an open-source messaging app that is privacy focused and is widely used by journalists, security experts, and academics across the globe. It instantly shot to fame after Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged his followers on Twitter to use the app in the wake of the notorious privacy policy changes made by Whatsapp.
The laconic endorsement made by the world’s richest man was enough to spur a large number of users to download and sign-up for Signal, forcing its servers to crash temporarily. The messaging app took to Twitter to acknowledge that it was getting many new requests for new join-ins and this unexpected surge has led to delays in verification codes from network providers. The glitch was soon fixed, and the users were able to register without any hiccups thereafter.
On January 9, the official Twitter account of Signal tweeted that it is listed as the top free app on Apple’s App Store charts in India, Austria, France, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.
Signal places a high premium on the user’s privacy. It uses the open-source Signal Protocol to implement end-to-end encryption which covers all forms of communication on Signal. The Signal Protocol also underpins Whatsapp’s end-to-end encryption.
Though Whatsapp encrypts calls and messages, Signal goes a step further and encrypts metadata too. In addition to this, Signal uses Sealed Sender to communicate between the sender and the recipient. Sealed Sender is a protocol developed by Signal, through which no one will be able to determine, not even Signal, who is messaging to whom.
There is an array of other privacy features on Signal too such as locking the app with passcode or biometrics. Then there is a two-factor authentication option to block screenshots within the app and the recent screen. Similarly, Signal recently also added a new feature of blurring faces automatically before sending images to make the messaging experience even more private and secure.
Privacy tab on Signal messaging app
Signal also allows users to hide their IP address. One can even enable incognito keyboard while typing on Signal, delete old messages, apply dark mode and blur faces and private information from its in-app photo editor.
In terms of features, Signal provides secure messaging, voice, and video calls. Users can also have a group chat and Signal had recently added group calling feature as well, something which was missing for a long time. Furthermore, the app also packs features such as disappearing messages which was recently added in Whatsapp. However, unlike Whatsapp, Signal does not offer broadcast messaging services.
Although Signal might fall short on the features, it more than makes up with an impressive set of privacy features. The app has not only been endorsed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk but also recommended by whistleblower Edward Snowden. When asked by a Twitter user why should one trust Signal, Snowden responded: “Here’s a reason: I use it every day and I’m not dead yet.”
Signal app is administered by Signal Foundation, a non-profit organisation. The Foundation was set up by Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the Signal app, and Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp. Acton had left WhatsApp over dispute with Facebook over monetization of WhatsApp, and had alleged that Facebook executives had forced him to mislead European Union authorities regarding Facebook’s intention to merge Facebook and WhatsApp user data.
Telegram
Besides Signal, another messaging app that is being viewed by a lot of people as a credible Whatsapp alternative is Telegram. In terms of security, Telegram also offers a bunch of privacy and security features but it is not as secure as Whatsapp and Signal. For instance, Telegram offers end-to-end encryption of communication but only when the user is using its secret chat feature.
E2E on Telegram is only possible by enabling the secret chat feature
The E2E encryption on Telegram is not enabled by default. This basically means that when a user is using a secret chat feature, the messages are encrypted on his/her mobile phone and then decrypted on Telegram’s server. Again, the messages are encrypted on the server and sent to the recipient for final decryption. As evident, Telegram has encryption keys on the server-side and can, in theory, access regular chats of users.
However, Telegram claims that it stores messages and decryption keys in such a manner that one would require court orders from multiple legal systems around the world to access user’s data. The company also claims that it has so far shared 0 bytes of data with third-parties and sovereign governments.
Telegram uses its home-made encryption protocol MTProto for encrypting messages sent on secret chats. However, it is a close-sourced protocol and therefore security researchers can’t vouch for the validity of the claim made by Telegram. However, they believe that it would have been much better to use an open-source protocol such as the Signal protocol that using a proprietary closed-source encryption protocol as is used in Telegram. In other terms, privacy features on Telegram are not as robust as on Whatsapp and Signal.
While Whatsapp is ideal in terms of the number of features it offers, Telegram is overloaded with a ton of features. Identical to Whatsapp, users get run-of-the-mill features such chat, group chat and channels. However, while the group limit in Whatsapp is 256, Telegram offers support for groups with more than 200,000 members.
Telegram also packs group-specific features such as bots, quizzes, hashtags and many more which considerably enhances users’ group experience. Another unique feature that Telegram offers is the self-destructing messaging feature which could come in handy for users who do not want to keep their messages for eternity on someone else’s cellphone. The app also provides support for features such as editing messages, message scheduling, sharing uncompressed media, assorted themes, and many more. Also, the size limit for sharing files on Telegram is a whopping 1.5 GB.
WhatsApp issues clarification, says changes impact business chats only
After the backlash against WhatsApp on social media, the company issued a clarification today. The company says the latest change is only applicable for business chats on the platform. The company claimed that the update does not change WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices with Facebook, and it does not impact how people communicate privately. In a statement, the company said:
As we announced in October, WhatsApp wants to make it easier for people to both make a purchase and get help from a business directly on WhatsApp. While most people use WhatsApp to chat with friends and family, increasingly people are reaching out to businesses as well. To further increase transparency, we updated the privacy policy to describe that going forward businesses can choose to receive secure hosting services from our parent company Facebook to help manage their communications with their customers on WhatsApp. Though of course, it remains up to the user whether or not they want to message with a business on WhatsApp.
The update does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook and does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world. WhatsApp remains deeply committed to protecting people’s privacy. We are communicating directly with users through WhatsApp about these changes so they have time to review the new policy over the course of the next month.
Taiwan has claimed that China is attempting to spy on other nations by backing private investment in Pacific undersea cable networks following a Reuters report in December 2020 that said that the USA has warned Pacific Island nations against security threats posed by a Chinese company.
Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou toldNewsweek on the 18th of December that China wants to “monopolize” communication networks in the Pacific to steal data from rivals. Reuters had reported a day earlier that the USA is concerned about Chinese involvement in the Kiribati Connectivity Project (KCP) that seeks to improve connectivity with Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).
Huawei Marine, recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd but majority-owned by another Chinese firm, had submitted bids for the project which is backed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). USA has communicated to FSM that Chinese firms are required by law to share information with Chinese intelligence and security agencies. The Nauru Government had also warned FSM, as per the report.
The FSM government told Reuters that it is talking to bilateral partners in the project, “some of whom have addressed a need to ensure that the cable does not compromise regional security by opening, or failing to close, cyber-security related gaps.” A Nauru Government spokesperson said that bids were being examined and “technical and administrative issues” were being addressed.
The project is reported to be further complicated by its planned connection to the HANTRU-1 undersea cable, primarily used by the US Government and Guam, a US territory with significant military assets. Huawei Marines is now majority-owned by Shanghai-listed Hengtong Optic-Electric Co Ltd, part of Hengtong Group. However, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd continues to retain a small stake in the firm.
China, for its part, claims that the USA is attempting to smear Chinese companies. Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were singled out for their allegations China was attempting espionage through the project.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, “The Senators you mentioned will oppose whatever China does. They are always making up lies to smear China to seek political gains. Their allegation is pure slander aimed to justify the wanton US suppression of high-tech Chinese companies.”
China further stated, “It is the United States that has been conducting massive cyber theft all over the world, even on its allies, since PRISM came out. It is a real empire of hacking and theft. The world can see through the US trick of smearing others and beautifying itself.”
The development comes at a time when there is increasing tension between the two countries after US President identified China as the greatest threat to the current world order, a euphemism for American hegemony. With Joe Biden set to enter the White House on the January 20th, it is expected that the turbulence will recede to a certain extent.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which developed India’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, has clarified that the death of a 42-year-old volunteer from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, who took a dose of the indigenous Coronavirus vaccine in the clinical trial of the vaccine, was “not related” to the vaccine or placebo.
They informed that the volunteer who participated in the Phase III trial of Covaxin on December 12, 2020 was reported to be healthy in all follow-up calls until seven days from the date the vaccine was administered to him.
“The volunteer, at the time of enrolment, had fulfilled all criteria to be accepted as participant in Phase III trial and was reported to be healthy in all site follow up calls post seven days of dosing and no after-effects were observed/reported,” the Bharat Biotech statement read.
The volunteer, at time of enrolment, had fulfilled all criteria to be accepted as participant in Phase III trial & was reported to be healthy in all site follow up calls post 7 days of dosing & no after-effects were observed/reported: Bharat Biotech on a death in Phase III trial pic.twitter.com/RMZsE02WmF
“The volunteer passed away nine days after the dosing and preliminary reviews by the site indicate that the death is unrelated to the study dosing. We cannot confirm if the volunteer received the study vaccine or a placebo as the study is blinded,” the company added.
The volunteer passed away nine days after the dosing and preliminary reviews by the site indicate that the death is unrelated to the study dosing. We cannot confirm if the volunteer received the study vaccine or a placebo as the study is blinded: Bharat Biotech
As per post-mortem report by Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal that the site received from Bhopal Police, the probable cause of death was due to cardiorespiratory failure as a result of suspected poisoning and the case is under police investigation as well, furthered the Hyderabad based company.
As per post-mortem report by Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal that the site received from Bhopal Police, the probable cause of death was due to cardiorespiratory failure as a result of suspected poisoning and the case is under police investigation as well: Bharat Biotech https://t.co/u9otZgir0T
Deepak Marawi (42), the volunteer from Bhopal Madhya Pradesh, died 10 days after he had participated in the clinical trial for the vaccine at a private hospital. The doctor who administered the vaccine said that Marawi was kept under observation for 30 minutes after the trial as per the guidelines before being allowed to go. “We monitored his health for 7 to 8 days,” he added.
Speaking about the unfortunate incident, Madhya Pradesh Health Minister Dr Prabhuram Choudhary said: “The after-effects of the vaccination are visible in a person within 30 minutes. No side-effects were seen even between 24 and 48 hours of vaccination. The post-mortem report suggested poisoning,” he said.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan urged people to desist from spreading misconceptions on the vaccine. Chouhan stated that the matter must be handled sensitively so that the vaccination rollout may not be affected. He added that the state government is awaiting the deceased’s viscera test reports.
“Report will come but I’m confident that if there’s after-effect it shows in 24 hrs or 2-3 days, not after several days”, opined Chouhan.
Viscera sent for testing. I urge all to take this matter sensitively so that no unnecessary misconception on vaccine is formed that’ll affect vaccination. Report will come but I’m confident that if there’s after-effect it shows in 24 hrs or 2-3 days, not after several days: MP CM https://t.co/IAoaV4TmkPpic.twitter.com/dyoPlGJniS
It is notable that after the Bharat Biotech vaccine was approved by authorities, opposition parties and left-liberals had attacked the govt, alleging that the safety of the vaccine is not proven yet. After the death of the trial participant, the matter was used by them to further spread propaganda against Covaxin. But it is notable that it is not known whether the man received the vaccine or placebo. As a standard practice in clinical trials, only 50% of the participants get the vaccine, while the rest 50 get a placebo. The allocation of vaccine and placebo is done in a randomised process, and the recipients of the same are kept confidential.
COVAXIN developed by Bharat Biotech gets Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) nod
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech successfully developed COVAXIN™ in collaboration with the ICMR and National Institute of Virology (NIV). The SARS-CoV-2 strain was isolated in NIV, Pune and transferred to Bharat Biotech for the effort.
It is pertinent to note here that on January 3, 2021, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the manufacture of Coronavirus vaccine by Serum Institute of India (SII) and Indian company Bharat Biotech.
Covaxin is an “inactivated” vaccine developed by chemically treating novel coronavirus samples to make them incapable of reproduction. This process leaves the viral proteins, including the spike protein of the coronavirus which it uses to enter the human cells, intact. Given as two doses, three weeks apart, the viral proteins in the vaccine activate the immune system and prepare people for future infections with the actual infectious virus.
A study on the Phase 1/2 trial had shown that the therapeutic doesn’t cause any serious side effects.
There is an image circulating on social media that purportedly shows Cloudfare announcing on Twitter that they are terminating their service for 4Chan and other “far-right communities”. The image shows that the apparent tweet was made on the 8th of January.
The Cloudfare image is going viral at a time when social media platforms and internet services are purging Donald Trump and his supporters from their platforms. Cloudfare is an American web infrastructure and web security company.
The image that is going viral
4Chan is an image based bulletin board platform where users do not need to log in or create an account for posting. Due to its anonymous nature and is absolutist position on free speech, it is a website that attracts all kinds of people and is a hotbed for discussions that normally cannot occur on other social media platforms.
Over time, it has acquired a lot of notoriety as critics have accused it of fueling right-wing radicalism in western countries. Thus, under current circumstances, it has been claimed that Cloudfare was terminating its services for 4Chan.
However, a quick check of Cloudfare’s Twitter account reveals that the claim is likely a hoax. The latest tweet from the company is from the 7th of January. There are no recent tweets announcing that it is terminating its services for 4Chan.
Cloudfare Twitter account has no such tweet
Austin Walker, a host at Vice Games, had tweeted a screenshot of the same claim before proceeding to say that he was not sure if it was true. Then, he proceeded to confirm that it was not.
Austin Walker proceeded to confirm that the Cloudfare claim was not true
Top Google search results for related search terms only contain Cloudfare’s decision to terminate its services for 8Chan. Given the current climate, it could very well be that discussions to remove 4Chan are being held. However, as of this moment, everything points towards the fact that it was a hoax.
The Kalabagan police in Bangladesh have arrested one Fardin Iftekhar and three others for the brutal gangrape and gruesome murder of a 17-year-old girl in Dhaka. The minor girl was an ‘O’ level student at the Mastermind School in Kalabagan area. News 24 reported that the Fardin was the victim’s boyfriend and they have been in a relationship for 2 months.
On Thursday night, the accused lured the victim to his house in the absence of his family members. Reportedly, Fardin brutally gang-raped her along with his friends and then murdered the victim. The victim bled profusely and became unconscious. Caught in a state of fix, the accused decided to take the victim to the hospital. Her body has now been sent for post-mortem.
(Video Courtesy: News 24)
Victim’s mother speaks out about the incident
Jamuna TV reported that the girl had gone out to attend a group study session with her friends when she was lured by Fardin to his house in Kalabagan. “Children don’t die if they get into a relationship? Why did my child die? Is she was not sexually assaulted, why would she die? Why would she bleed so profusely?” the victim’s mother said.
She denied claims made by the accused that Anushka was in a relationship with him. “When I saw my daughter, her face had turned pale. She was bleeding excessively.” Jamuna TV further informed that there were injury marks on her stomach. Following a complaint by the father of the victim, the police swung into action and arrested Fardin and three other accused. The main accused has confessed to his crime, in a statement to the police.
(Video Courtesy: Jamuna TV)
Accused confesses before Magistrate, sent to jail
On Friday, Fardin was produced before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court wherein he gave his confessional statement under Section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The police had sought for 10-day custody for Fardin in the gang rape-murder case of Anushka. The District Magistrate Judge Mamunur Rashid sent the accused to jail after his statement was recorded.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that India’s vaccination program against Covid-19 will start from 16th January. The vaccination will start after the forthcoming festivals across the country including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc.
The PM said that priority will be given to doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers including Safai Karamcharis in providing the vaccines. It is estimated that initially around 3 crore frontline workers will receive the vaccine. After that, people above 50 years of age, and people below 50 with co-morbidities, estimated around 27 crore, will be selected for vaccination.
On 16th January, India takes a landmark step forward in fighting COVID-19. Starting that day, India’s nation-wide vaccination drive begins. Priority will be given to our brave doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers including Safai Karamcharis. https://t.co/P5Arw64wVt
Two vaccines have been granted Emergency Use Authorisation or Accelerated Approval by the authorities in India. They are, Covishield developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech.
The Prime Minister today chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of COVID vaccination preparedness in the country. The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to PM, Health Secretary, and other senior officials concerned. It has been decided that the vaccination program will be conducted under the principles of people’s participation (Jan Bhagidari); utilizing experience of elections (booth strategy) and Universal Immunization Program (UIP); no compromise of existing healthcare services, especially national programs and primary health care; no compromise on scientific and regulatory norms, other SOPs; and an orderly and smooth implementation driven by technology.
The Co-WIN Vaccine Delivery Management System had been developed to coordinate and monitor the vaccination program. The unique digital platform will provide real time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccine. This platform will assist the program managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification and for generating a digital certificate upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule. More than 79 lakh beneficiaries have been already registered on the platform.
As a preparation for vaccination program, a training program of vaccinators and vaccine administrators has been conducted. 2,360 participants were trained during national level Training of Trainers which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners etc. Apart from that, more than 61,000 programme managers, 2 lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained so far as part of trainings at States, Districts and Block levels.
Moreover, 3 rounds of dry run have been conducted to check the preparedness of the program. The third dry run was conducted yesterday across 615 districts covering 4895 session sites in 33 States/UTs.
A video posted by YouTube channel ‘National Dastak’ is now going viral on social media. In the video, protesting farmers are shown making comments that reveal their virulent hatred for Prime Minister Modi. One of them also showers great love on Pakistani PM Imran Khan while slandering Narendra Modi. The YouTube Channel has over 4 million subscribers on the platform.
At the beginning of the video, a man in traditional Sikh gear says that Imran Khan has become the Prime Minister on his own ability while Narendra Modi has become the Indian Prime Minister by washing dirty tea cups. He also says that Imran Khan has been very good for them and falsely attributed the opening of the Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib to him.
The man also says that Modi after his death will not go to heaven or hell but continue to lurk on Earth (as a ghost). Another man says that Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister by hacking EVMs. Such conspiracy theories about EVMs were initially peddled by opposition party politicians, especially the Congress party, to cast aspersions on the BJP’s victory.
So much love for Pakistani PM. Now if you question their patriotism Khalistani Kutte will come into your comments & abuse you.
The protesters also made an effigy of a donkey and pasted a photo of PM Modi on its face. Pictures of Mukesh Ambani were pasted on its body. They also call the Prime Minister a ‘kutta’ (dog). The video was captured at Singhu Border and published on YouTube on the 6th of January.
Such hatred for the Prime Minister has been observed earlier as well. The farmer wing of the Left Front was seen singing a song asking the Prime Minister to die. On Friday, India Today Editor Preeti Choudhry had revealed that female reporters are being sexually harassed by a section of protesting farmers. She said that their buttocks were being pinched.
On Saturday, the Delhi police arrested 11 people for defacing two signboards, bearing the name of Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb, in Tughlaq Road, Delhi.
As per reports, the police received information about a few people, defacing the Aurangzeb Lane signboard at around 5:40 am in the morning. On reaching the spot, the cops apprehended a total of 11 people who had pasted a poster of Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur Lane on one of the signage.
#JUSTIN: Eleven people, including a 30-year-old advocate, from Haryana’s Karnal have been detained by the @DelhiPolice after they defaced Aurangzeb Lane signboard and instead pasted a poster saying Guru Tegh Bahadur Lane in Tughlak Road.@IndianExpres, @ieDelhi
According to a senior police official, the group was led by a 30-year-old advocate and a resident of Karnal in Haryana, Anuradha Bhargav. The cops detained the accused at the Tughlaq police station and initiated an investigation in the case.
Shiv Sena to rename Aurangabad to ‘Sambhaji Nagar’
A day after Congress state president and Maharashtra cabinet minister Balasaheb Thorat opposed the rebranding of Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana published an editorial on January 2 in which it made an emphatic case for renaming the city.
“Babur is not the father of the Muslims in India, just as the sinful Aurangzeb is not the uncle of the Muslims here. Babur was buried in Ayodhya and the Ram temple is standing there. Neither Islam was endangered there, nor anyone’s secularism was eroded. If anyone thinks that Aurangzeb’s graveyard is a symbol of secularism, then he is making a mockery of India’s identity,” the article read.
“The Muslims of this country have forgotten Babur and the Muslims of Maharashtra have forgotten Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb and Aurangabad are no longer the subject of votes. The Muslims in Maharashtra have supported the Shiv Sena by adopting the path of nationalism,” it stated.
