Home Blog Page 4739

Shiv Sena leader who vandalised Karachi Sweets seeks to get 55 criminal cases withdrawn: Her is how he plans to use new state policy

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Shiv Sena leader who vandalised Karachi Sweets seeks to get 55 criminal cases withdrawn: Her is how he plans to use new state policy

Shiv Sena leader Nitin Nandgaonkar, who was recently seen threatening the owner of sweets shop to change the name of the shop, is trying to get all the criminal cases filed against him withdrawn. According to the Hindustan Times, Nandgaonkar has 55 criminal cases filed against him. The Maharashtra cabinet had cleared a proposal on December 2 allowing for the withdrawal of cases registered for social and political agitations filed in last five years till December 31, 2019. Nandgaonkar has asked his lawyers to initiate the process for withdrawal of the cases against him.

“I have no regrets for having criminal cases registered against me. Most of the sections under which cases are lodged against me are non-bailable, but every time, I have been given bail by honourable courts as they believed by intention. In none of the cases was I imprisoned. All my agitations are for social causes and against injustices to common man. In most of the cases- be it overcharging by autos or inflated bills by hospitals during the pandemic- the results were seen”, he said. Nitin Nandgaonkar said that the cases pending against him were fit for withdrawal under the policy. Nandgaonkar had reportedly thrashed a few auto drivers for rigging their meters and also attacked a molester from Matunga. He has cases filed at various police stations.

The government prosecutor said that cases for social and political protests are withdrawn under section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure only after the approval of public prosecutors and trial courts.

Nandgaonkar had threatened Karachi Sweets shop owner to change the name of his shop

Last year in November, a video of Nitin Nandgaonkar threatening the owner of Karachi Sweets shop located in Bandra West to change the name of his shop had gone viral on social media. He told the shop owner that Karachi is in Pakistan which is a country of terrorists. He said that he did not want anyone to use the name Karachi to run a business in India. Following his threats, the shop owner had to hide the name of his shop by covering it with newspapers.

Two Hindus found hanging inside police officer’s room in Pakistan’s Sindh, activist says they were tortured before being murdered

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Two Hindus found hanging inside police officer’s room in Pakistan’s Sindh, activist says they were tortured before being murdered

The horrifying atrocities meted out against the minorities in Pakistan continues unabated. Just days after a historic temple in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was razed and torched by a rabid Islamist mob, two Hindus have been found hanging inside a law enforcement official’s room in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

According to the reports, two Hindus—Babita Meghawar and her relative Dongar Meghawar—were found hanging from the ceiling in a room of a police officer ASI Gul Mohammad Sand in Mithi, Tharparker, Sindh. Pakistani activist and lawyer Rahat Austin has reported that Babita was the sister-in-law of Dongar Meghawar and they both were tortured before being murdered.

Minorities in Pakistan persecuted because of their faith

The minorities in Pakistan suffer a perennial threat of persecution, both from the non-state actors as well as the Pakistani establishment. Recently, a rabid Islamist mob destroyed a Hindu temple in northwestern Pakistan by setting it on fire.

The Krishna Dwara temple, which is situated in Karak’s Teri union council, came under attack by hundreds of residents who set fire to the building, then razed it down with hammers and crude weapons.

Reportedly, the temple was built after Guru Shri Paramhans Dayal was laid to rest at the site in July 1919. However, the Muslim residents of the area had closed the temple after the Partition in 1947. In 2015, the Krishna Dwara temple was restored on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Rohit Kumar, an advocate and the Hindu activist said the residents violated the agreement by vandalising the temple. Earlier, Hindus and the Muslims of the village had signed an agreement on December 22 agreeing that the renovation of the temple would not exceed the specified area.

However, the Muslim residents of the area had alleged that that the Hindu community was illegally expanding the temple building. They said the matter was reported to the police too.

According to the Muslims, as police did not take action against the Hindus, they themselves took the law into their hands and demolished the temple.

Minority girls, especially Hindus, targeted, abducted and converted to Islam in Pakistan

The death of the two Hindus came on the heels of an Associated Press report which said that more than 1,000 girls, a majority of them Hindus, are abducted, raped and converted to Islam every year in Pakistan. The report suggests that as many as 1000 Christian, Sikh and Hindu women between 12 and 25 years are abducted, raped, married, and forced to convert to Islam. Due to limited financial means of the families of such victims, many cases go unreported.

The girls are mostly kidnapped by their own acquaintances and relatives or by older men looking for brides. Sometimes they are taken by powerful landlords as payment for outstanding debts by their daily waged parents. Police often look the other way, doing little to help these persecuted minorities. Once converted to Islam, the girls are quickly married off, often to older men or their abductors, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Pakistan has a history of committing atrocities against the minority community, especially Hindu girls where they are often kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam. Many of these girls are minors and are sexually exploited. In August this year, some unidentified men led by one Muhammad Adil barged into a Hindu family’s house in Sindh and abducted their daughter Kavita. She was later forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her abductor.

A minor Hindu girl was abducted in Jacobabad in June this year. Two minor girls, one Hindu and other Christian (hearing and speech impaired) were abducted on different occasions in May. In April, two Hindu girls were abducted from Sindh province and in January, a Sikh girl was abducted, followed by an attack on Nankana Sahib Gurudwara.

Associated Press claims ‘Muslims and Hindus live peacefully in Pakistan’, while reporting the Islamist attack on Hindu temple: Details

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Associated Press claims ‘Muslims and Hindus live peacefully in Pakistan’, while reporting the Islamist attack on Hindu temple: Details

Western Media has always had a soft sport for certain tyrannical regimes and the most intolerant and radical sections of the Islamic community. Therefore, quite naturally, they have a morbid affection towards Pakistan, as a consequence of which, the Islamic State’s terrible record on human rights, the state sanctioned persecution of its minority Hindu population and overt support for terrorism is whitewashed and brushed under the carpet.

It is this same tendency that was reflected in a recent report by the Associated Press (AP) on the destruction of a Hindu Temple in a Pakistan by an Islamist mob. The incident occurred at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district on Wednesday. The Krishna Dwara temple, situated in Karak’s Teri union council, was attacked by hundreds of residents. They set fire to the building, then razed it down with hammers and crude weapons.

Riaz Khan and Mohammad Farooq, reporting from Peshawar in Pakistan for the AP, wrote, “Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years. Most of Pakistan’s minority Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by Britain’s government.”

It is not surprising that Khan and Farooq are deliberately lying on the matter, that Hindus are permitted to live peacefully in Pakistan. They are probably Pakistani citizens, therefore it is only to be expected that they are being dishonest here. Denial of the atrocities against minorities is engraved into the national character of the Islamic State. What is really shocking here is that the report passed the editorial muster of the AP.

Less than seven days ago, AP published a report where it revealed that a thousand girls from minority religions in Pakistan are forcefully converted to Islam every year. The report suggested that as many as a thousand Christian, Sikh and Hindu women between 12 and 25 years of age are abducted, raped, married, and forcefully converted to Islam. Due to limited financial means of the families of such victims, many cases go unreported.

And now, the same news agency is reporting that “Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan”. Is this supposed to be some kind of twisted joke? In what world can both these statements be accurate? And given that we know the atrocities that are perpetuated against Hindus in Pakistan every single day of the year and the terrible circumstances under which Pakistani Hindus have to live, how could a news agency be deluded enough to make such a claim?

Furthermore, the AP was reporting on an attack on a Hindu Temple here and the fanatic manner in which the Temple was razed to the ground. Quite clearly, the motivation here appears to have been to give the Pakistan state a free pass for the atrocities committed against Hindus. The objective of the propagandists was to whitewash the Islamist mentality that prevails over much of Pakistani society and in the process, whitewash the truth that is observable to anyone paying attention.

Former CIA agent reveals how a Jihadi turned Al-Qaeda mole duped US Intelligence services and unleashed a terror attack: Read details

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Former CIA agent reveals how a Jihadi turned Al-Qaeda mole duped US Intelligence services and unleashed a terror attack: Read details

In a startling disclosure, a former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos revealed how a jihadi-turned-informant duped the US Intelligence Services to unleash a terror attack that left 7 CIA agents dead.

While speaking to CBS during the episode of ‘Intelligence Matters’, Marc Polymeropoulos talked about slain jihadi Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi who worked as a double agent for the Al-Qaeda as well as the CIA. Balawi, a doctor by profession, first came to the notice of Jordanian security agencies after he was found speaking against the West and hailing jihadist attacks on chat forums. Since Jordan is a counter-terrorism partner of the United States, Balawi was apprehended for exhibiting extremist tendencies by the agencies.

The Recruitment of Balwai to infiltrate Al-Qaeda

Marc Polymeropoulos stated that the Middle Eastern security agencies do not work like the CIA. “The Middle Eastern services are not necessarily like us in terms of our ability to kind of throw around a lot of money and it would almost be, using a different set of kind of motivations for recruitment. And a lot of it has to do with being a coercive threat against the family. It’s something that Middle Eastern services actually are quite effective at, especially the Jordanians,” he emphasised.

Polymeropoulos informed that Balawi was recruited by the Jordanian authorities to work for them and the CIA. He revealed, “It was relatively quick. I think it was probably not a lot of personal meetings. It was jailhouse recruitment and then it was some more meetings after his release and getting ready to deploy. Ultimately, it’s again, it’s not something unusual for a Middle Eastern service because the belief is always that they have leverage over an individual due to family members still being present.”

Balawi passes key information about Al-Qaeda

Balawi was then sent to South Waziristan in Pakistan in 2009 to infiltrate the Islamist terror outfit Al-Qaeda. He spent months growing his contacts with other jihadis so much so that the Pakistani Taliban invited him to stay with them.

The former CIA agent recounted, “He (Balawi) actually sends a video which shows him sitting next to a senior al-Qaeda member close to the leadership circles and in touch, this was pretty solid evidence. That one would hope to have received, that it had gained the trust of the rank and file, also of senior al-Qaeda.” Interestingly, Balawi had made an impact on the Al-Qaeda terrorists that there were chances of him treating Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian terrorist and leader of Al-Qaeda since 2011.

His inputs also corroborated with what the CIA and Jordanian authorities already suspected about Zawahiri’s medical condition. “Think about the hunt for Zawahiri was of such critical importance to the entire kind of global war on terrorism. And at that point, you start thinking that this is the best lead we’ve had to al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in years,” stated Marc Polymeropoulos.

Over-reliance and Security lapse on the part of CIA

However, over-reliance of Balawi proved fatal for the CIA. He turned out to be a double-agent. “The security protocols broke down and he was treated as almost a visiting dignitary,” the ex CIA agent remembered. As such, Balawi was successful in carrying out a suicide attack in Camp Chapman at a CIA base near Khost in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009.

“We let our guard down on this and how it happened is just something that I think we’ll never know. And I say this painfully, too, because I knew all the officers involved. There were top-notch people on the ground,” Marc Polymeropoulos emphasised. He added, “Right, so again, there were several rings of security where he should have been searched. He wasn’t. He comes up to a location in which I believe a dozen officers were present at that point. Our security team did ask for him to step out of the car and they were going to search him.”

Former CBI agent recounts the horror of 2009

“The problem is this was far too close to the kind of a team that was on the ground. And before they could disarm him in any fashion, he had a suicide vest on. He detonated himself and seven of them were killed. I’ve been to that location at coast base. In fact, I was there a year later and there was still shrapnel holes kind of in the car gated steel roof. I slept in a guest house right there on-site, which was certainly difficult psychologically for me. There was an attempt to search him at the last moment but it was far too late.”

The former CBI agent concluded, “He should have been searched by not only by U.S. personnel, frankly, by Afghan personnel in the outer ring of security. That should have been done far earlier and that was kind of normal protocols that for whatever reason, to this day, no one can really understand why they were not followed…”

US intelligence reports suggest China paid non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American troops

OpIndia Staff
-
0
US intelligence reports suggest China paid non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American troops

As per unconfirmed information received by outgoing Trump administration in the United States in December last year, China had offered to pay non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American troops in Afghanistan. According to CNN, the intelligence input was received by the President’s office during his daily brief on December 17. According to Axios, the information is been declassified by the Trump administration. The President’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien reportedly discussed the information with him. The information is uncorroborated as yet. Several agencies are reportedly working on corroborating these inputs.

Chins has denied the allegations as fake news

Spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin has dismissed the allegations as slanderous and had termed it ‘completely fake news’. He said that China had always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace and had never initiated a war to others and therefore funding non-state actors to attack other countries was not in question. “China supported the process of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, and does not get involved in the internal conflicts in Afghanistan”, he said.

A Defense official quoted by CNN said , “Our teams will seek to learn as much as we can about these allegations from the outgoing administration, and this is another illustration of why we need full cooperation, including from Department of Defense”. The Defense official said this in context of the ongoing transfer power between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The relations between Washington DC and Beijing have not been well of late with respect to trade, intellectual property and other issues. The US had also accused China of committing human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims.

Earlier there were reports of Russia funding Taliban to kill US troops

Last year, there were similar reports of Russia funding Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan that has resulted in deaths of several US troops. The number of US troops targeted under the programme and the date of the alleged casualties was not specified.

Does TMC still have majority? Bengal opposition parties speculate, push Mamata Banerjee for trust vote

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Does TMC still have majority? Bengal opposition parties speculate, push Mamata Banerjee for trust vote

The recent string of resignations has triggered speculations that Mamata Banerjee has lost the numbers in the Assembly, owing to which the demand for the CM to prove the majority on the floor of the Legislative Assembly of the state has started rising amongst some opposition parties in Bengal.

According to a report by TOI, CPM parliamentary party leader Sujan Chakraborty questioned the Mamata Banerjee government in a joint press conference on Thursday: “There are political rallies and meetings. Then why are restrictions imposed only in the case of an Assembly session? Is the government scared to face the Assembly because they do not have the numbers? Chakraborty asked.

“If the government lacks a majority, then why is the chief minister making public announcements?” said the CPM leader furthering that his party has written asking her to take a floor test, and if she fails to fulfil the demands, then they would be left with no other option but to go to the CM’s office in Nabanna, said Chakraborty.

Putting forward similar demands, Congress leader Abdul Mannan said: “We are hearing that many people have left Trinamool Congress and people are confused. Has the govt lost the majority? If they have enough MLAs they should go for a floor test immediately to win the confidence of the people”, opined the Congress leader, as per the TOI report.

BJP leader Dilip Ghosh is certain about Mamata Banerjee not having the numbers

Certain that Mamata Banerjee has lost the majority in the house after many Trinamool leaders ditched her to join other political parties, BJP Bengal President Dilip Ghosh also opined that since Trinamool has lost the numbers they are shying away from an assembly session. “There are none in TMC. They know if they go for a floor test, they will be exposed. They will go for a vote-on-account in the budget session, said the BJP leader, furthering “let them test their strength in the Assembly, everything will be clear”.

Miffed by the mudslinging, TMC hit back at the opposition parties. Bengal minister of state for parliamentary affairs Tapas Roy said: “This again proves that CPM, Congress and BJP are hand in glove against the WB Government. They oppose not for a reason but because they have to do that, else they would lose their relevance. Let CPM and Congress first give their test of popularity and then they should demand things from us. We will prove our majority to people and not to them”, said the TMC leader.

Questioned on the issue, Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee said: “I have not seen any notice so far. I cannot make a comment unless I have gone through the notice”.

TMC loses 5 leaders, gets one back amid exodus

Recently, Mamata Banerjee endured a string of resignation with as many as 6 MLAs resigning within 72 hours. Basically, the resignation of senior party leader Suvendu Adhikari had a domino effect with many other members exiting the party. Fortunately, Mamata Banerjee managed a save when one of them. Jitendra Tiwari had declared he was back in the party. However, reports suggest that many other resignations are taking place at lower tiers of the party.

The string of resignations, which comes ahead of West Bengal polls in April-May 2021, might bring in a lot of trouble for the chief of the ruling dispensation in West Bengal, who is eyeing at a third consecutive term. The political sphere is rife with rumours that the exodus of these TMC senior leaders are ascribed to Mamata Banerjee’s affinity towards election strategist Prashant Kishore and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

Suvendu Adhikari’s brother Soumendu Adhikari files petition in Calcutta HC against his removal from Contai Municipality by Mamata Banerjee govt

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Suvendu Adhikari’s brother Soumendu Adhikari files petition in Calcutta HC against his removal from Contai Municipality by Mamata Banerjee govt

Soumendu Adhikari, the brother of BJP leader Suvendhu Adhikari, on Thursday, filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging his removal from the post of administrator of Contai Municipality in Purba Medinipur district.

According to the reports, Soumendu Adhikari in his petition has said that he was illegally removed by the West Bengal government’s Municipal Affairs Department from the post of administrator of the civic body.

Challenging his removal in HC, Soumendu in his petition said, “I was removed without any chance of self-defence. Thus it violated the principle of natural justice, for which I moved the HC. I wrote to the DM and SDO, but did not get any reply.”

He added, “I got the removal order on Wednesday. On Thursday afternoon, I came to know that a gazette notification was issued by the state government.”

Soumendu Adhikari was removed the post of administrator

A week after Suvendu Adhikari joined BJP, Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal removed his brother Soumendu Adhikari from the post of Chairperson of Contai Municipality and replaced him with Siddhartha Maity. The decision was taken by Urban Development & Municipal Affairs ministry led by Firhad Hakim, who is a close aide of CM Mamata.

Adhikari was the chairman of Contai Municipality till the term of the board expired in 2019. He was then appointed as its administrator since elections were postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

It is being reported that Soumendu may follow his brother Suvendhu and join BJP in the coming days. It is interesting to note that just a few days ago, TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee had taunted Suvendu for failing to shift his father and brothers from TMC to BJP. Suvendu Adhikari’s father and Kanthi MP Sisir Kumar Adhikari, his brother and Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari, and Soumendu Adhikari are still leaders of TMC. However, now Soumendu will leave TMC and join BJP following his brother Suvendu.

Suvendu Adhikari quits TMC, joins BJP

On December 17, Suvendu Adhikari formally quit the Trinamool Congress and joined BJP in presence of Home Minister Amit Shah. Addressing his followers, Suvendhu Adhikari had written a letter blaming Mamata Banerjee for sidelining the party leaders and alleged that Mamata has betrayed the party ideals.

In his letter, he had said that a “deep rot and malaise” has set in the party, and asserted that “individuals in charge of the party currently are treating it as their personal fiefdom.

Pakistan Army Colonel converting UN mission employees, predominantly Christian, to Islam in Congo: Read details

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Pakistan Army Colonel converting UN mission employees, predominantly Christian, to Islam in Congo: Read details

A Pakistan Army Colonel deployed in the central African nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for United Nations duties has been found trying to convert the UN mission employees to Islam.

Islam is the minority religion in Congo, where a majority of the population is affiliated to different sects of Christianity.

According to reports, Colonel Saqib Mushtaqi, a deputy commander of the Pakistani contingent of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), is accused of trying to convert the local employees into Islam. The Pakistani Army personnel official reportedly approached a few Christian UN mission employees, asking them to embrace Islam.

An inquiry has been launched against a Pakistani Army Colonel after allegations of proselytisation were levelled against him. The General Headquarters (GHQ) has launched an internal inquiry to ascertain the truth behind the incidents. However, it is not clear yet what action will be initiated against the official if he is found guilty of trying to proselytise UN employees into Islam.

Not just converting UN mission employees to Islam in Congo: Pakistani forces tasked with UN duties under scanner for their illicit activities

It is also pertinent to note that this is not the first time that the Pakistani peace-keeping forces for UN missions have been accused of wrongdoing. In the past, too, Pakistani Army officials, who were a part of the UN missions, were accused of gross violations. In 2012, two Pakistani officials were accused of repeated sexual harassment of a 12-year-old mentally challenged boy. The incident had forced Islamabad to initiate court-martial proceedings against the officials. They were sentenced a year in prison by a Pakistani tribunal for raping an underage boy in Haiti.

During this revelation, it also came to light that Pakistani forces have been involved in incidents of sexual exploitation since 2005.

Another PR stunt? Deepika Padukone deletes Instagram and Twitter photos, netizens speculate

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Another PR stunt? Deepika Padukone deletes Instagram and Twitter photos, netizens speculate

Actress Deepika Padukone, who had earlier courted controversy in the Bollywood drug scandal, has now been the subject of speculation on social media.

In an unusual development, the actress has deleted all pictures from her Twitter and Instagram on New Year’s eve. This has left netizens wondering as to what might have gone wrong with her handles. It is important to note that Deepika has about 5.25 crore followers on Instagram and 2.77 crore followers on Twitter.

Screengrab of the Instagram profile of Deepika Padukone

As per reports, Deepika Padukone is starring in a multilingual film with Prabhas. She is also a part of the movie ‘Pathan’ featuring Shah Rukh Khan and ’83’ showcasing her husband Ranveer Singh as cricketing legend Kapil Dev.

Screengrab of the Instagram profile of Deepika Padukone

Netizens react after Deepika Padukone deletes all pictures

Social media is rife with speculations. Netizens are wondering whether this is one of the PR stunts employed by the actress ahead of her upcoming film projects. One user, Manali Gharat asked, “Happy New Year Guys!
So Deepika Padukone’s all Twitter and Insta posts are deleted, do you think this is a PR stunt or just trying to have a new beginning?”

Another user commented, “Good riddance! Maybe PR stunt,” while reacting to the new development.

Others wondered whether the act is an attempt to begin the New Year with a clean slate or one of the social media strategies to hog the limelight ahead of her movie projects. “Maybe bolegi new year, new start.. some self-righteous PR n sh*t like that,” one user tweeted. Another user asked, “Deepika deleted all her posts on Instagram Something Related to Pathan??”

Netizens float ‘hack’ theories

Several social media users wondered whether miscreants hacked Deepika’s Instagram and Twitter handles and deleted all her pictures. “IG account hacked or what? She deleted all posts??” one user asked while sharing the screenshot of her Instagram profile.

Others too were left speculating the same. Akanksha Mishra, another Twitter user, wrote, “Deepika Padukone has deleted all her post on Instagram and put India Today magazine cover photo as profile photo. Is her account hacked???”

PR stunt of Deepika Padukone ahead of ‘Chhapaak’

In January this year, during film promotion of her film ‘Chhapaak’, based on an acid attack survivor Lakshmi’s real-life story, Deepika Padukone had visited the JNU campus amid the protests wherein leftist students organisations had taken the varsity on ransom not letting students register for the winter semester. The actress was found posing with leftist Kanhaiya Kumar and JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh. Deepika’s PR stunt was even hailed by the Pakistani army’s ex-spokesperson.

Earlier, former RAW officer NK Sood on his Youtube Channel had alleged that Deepika Padukone received two calls before she visited JNU. One call was from Karachi, and the other was from Dubai. He said that either Mussarat himself or one of his associates urged Padukone to visit the university. He further alleged that she was paid Rs 5 crore by Mussarat to go to JNU.

Pakistan national Bano Begum becomes Etah district’s gram panchayat head, had forged Aadhar and voter ID: Read details

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Pakistan national Bano Begum becomes Etah district’s gram panchayat head, had forged Aadhar and voter ID: Read details

A Pakistani woman named Bano Begum who had come to India 35 years ago to attend a family wedding managed to get elected as the head of the village panchayat in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh. Begum, who came to India from Karachi, Pakistan, stayed back and married a person named Akhtar Ali. So far, she has got her long-term visa extended over and over again.

Bano Begum contested rural body polls

According to reports, Bano Begum contested the rural local body elections in 2015 and was elected as the member of the village panchayat in Gudau village under Jalesar tehsil. Apparently she enjoyed the support of people in the village and so she won the last rural body polls as well. After the pradhan of the village, Shahnaz Begum, passed away in January last year, Begum was appointed as the officiating village pradhan by Gudau village panchayat members.

This was brought to the notice of the District Panchayati Raj Officer (DPRO) Alok Priyadarshi by a local named Quwaidan Khan in December last year. Begum submitted her resignation from the post. However, the Priyadarshi raised the matter before the Etah District Magistrate Sukhlal Bharti who ordered an investigation and the filing of an FIR against Begum.

She had procured forged IDs

After the investigation, it was found that she was not an Indian citizen. She had procured fake voter ID and Aadhar card. It is alleged that Gagau village secretary Dhyan Singh had suggested the name of Bano Begum for the post of officiating village head. He has been shifted from Gudau village panchayat. An investigation is also reportedly being conducted against those who helped her procure the forged documents.

1...4,7384,7394,740...7,677Page 4,739 of 7,677