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When 200 Hindu women were raped by Muslims: Read why HM Amit Shah mentioned the Bhola violence in Bangladesh

Sanghamitra
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When 200 Hindu women were raped by Muslims: Read why HM Amit Shah mentioned the Bhola violence in Bangladesh

On 9 December 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah had tabled the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha. During his speech on the bill, the Home Minister highlighted the injustice, persecution and violence that the minority Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan are subjected to.

The Home Minister also mentioned an incident in Bhola, Bangladesh, stating that after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in Bangladesh, a wave of violence, torture and persecution against minorities that had started there, had broken the backbone of the minority communities in that country.

Shah added that in Bhola, under a well-articulated attack, over 200 Hindu women were raped and tortured by Muslim men in Bangladesh.


The Bhola rape and violence incident that the Home Minister mentioned had occurred in 2001, just after the Bangladesh National Party under Begum Khalida Zia came to power. After the election victory, the BNP and Jamat-e-Islami goons had wreaked havoc over Hindus in Bangladesh.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts

In several places, like Bagerhat, Barisal, Bogra, Brahmanbaria, Chitgaon, Fani, Ghazipur, Jesor, Khulna, Munshiganj, Bhola, Narayanganj, and Sirajganj districts, Hindus were targeted in orchestrated attacks by Muslim gangs.

Read: Cultural Marxism: Liberals oppose the CAB because of Hinduphobia which dictates that Hindus must never be recognized as Victims

In October 2001, in Bhola districts, Lalmohan region, Hindus were attacked by Muslims. The attackers rushed into Hindu homes, looted their belongings, cut down their trees, destroyed their crops. In Bhola’s Char Fasson, BNP supported Muslims had attacked and raped over 200 Hindu women. The youngest victim was 8. The eldest was a 70-year-old woman.

2001 post-election violence by Muslims in Bangladesh, via Revolvy.com
The Bhola violence and rape of Hindu women as described by Mohammad Badrul Ahsan in The Daily Star, titled “The Night of The Lost Nose-pins’, via hvk.org

Years later, a Judicial Commission inquiry in Bangladesh had concluded that over 25,000 leaders and local party workers of the then ruling BNP and Jamat-e-Islami were involved in the attack against Hindus and other minorities that had led to hundreds of deaths, injuries and had forced the Hindus in Bangladesh to flee into India.

Bhola is an island district in southern Bangladesh. The population is 96% Mulsim. Hindus were just 4%. Incidentally, 2001 was not the first time. Hindus were targeted there by Muslims in 1996 too. The purpose of the attacks was to loot their property and force them to flee so the local Muslims get to claim their houses and lands.

This year, in October, a Hindu boy named Biplab Chandra was targeted. His Facebook account was hacked, and ‘anti-Muslim’ posts were shared. When Biplab was at the police station reporting the hacking, the hackers had reportedly called Biplab and asked for ransom. Using the ‘anti-Muslim’ posts as an excuse, Muslims in the area later torched 12 houses of Hindus in Bohranuddin area in Bhola district.

Not just the mentioned incidents, Hindus in the Bhola district have been repeatedly subjected to attacks, false accusations, and violence. A report by the Bangladesh Minority Council states that over the past 45 years, a silent ethnic cleansing of Hindus has been going on in Bangladesh.

Headlines from November 10, 2017, in India Today and November 2016, in Economic Times

It also says that in rural areas, the minority Hindus face an immense pressure to convert into Islam. Rape and forced conversion are being used as a ‘cleansing tool’. Much like the targeted abduction and forced conversion of Hindus in Sindh province of Pakistan, Muslim hardliners have been waging a war against the minority Hindus in Bangladesh.

It is notable here that targeted rapes of women belonging to minority communities is something consistently seen in radical Islamist violence. Be it Kashmiri pandits, Yazidi genocide by ISIS, the rape gangs of Britain, Cologne attacks in Germany or the ethnic cleansing of minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh, targeted rape, sexual assault and violence against women is one tool which has been consistently used by adherents of radical Islam to propagate their ideology and terrorise minorities.

The CAB tabled by the BJP government aims to provide Indian citizenship to the persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring Islamic countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who have been staying as refugees in India.

‘Activists’, ‘Intellectuals’ join ‘Liberal’ mob to oppose Citizenship Amendment Bill, write another ‘letter’: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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‘Activists’, ‘Intellectuals’ join ‘Liberal’ mob to oppose Citizenship Amendment Bill, write another ‘letter’: Read details

As the historic Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 is scheduled to be tabled in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday after getting passed in Lok Sabha, unsurprisingly the cabal of self-proclaimed ‘intellectuals’, writers, ‘activists’ have now returned back to their usual modus-operandi of fear-mongering and inciting public by indulging in half-truths and misleading information pertaining to Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Reportedly, more than 600 self-proclaimed ‘intellectuals’, including writers, filmmakers and academicians, who are known for their hatred against Prime Minister Modi has now together to publish a statement opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, claiming that it will alter the “character of the Indian republic”.

Another group of over 200 intellectuals and civil society members have also written a letter of opposition against the Bill, that grants citizenship to persecuted minorities of three neighbouring countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The statement of appeal signed by 625 individuals says, “The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 tears to shreds the inclusive, composite vision of India that guided our freedom struggle,” adding that, “It is a Bill that will alter, fundamentally, the character of the Indian republic.”

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts

“For the first time since the founding of our free and secular republic, the Bill makes religion the key to citizenship… For the first time, there is an attempt, by statute, to exclude Muslims from the possibility of amnesty and citizenship — for no reason other than their religion,” the statement read.

Unsurprisingly, the statement has been signed by the none other than Nayantara Sahgal, Ashok Vajpeyi, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, TM Krishna, Atul Dodiya, Vivan Sundaram and Sudhir Patwardhan. Filmmakers such as Aparna Sen, Nandita Das and Anand Patwardhan along with ‘scholars’ like Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik and Ramachandra Guha have also joined them.

Shockingly, members belonging to Congress ecosystem and people associated with during the UPA government like Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy and Bezwada Wilson have also joined the mob to oppose the historic legislation to grant citizenship for persecuted minorities in the three neighbouring Islamic countries.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill has exposed Indian ‘liberals’ like never before

Retd Justice AP Shah, political activist Yogendra Yadav, and former IAS and ex-Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah have also signed the statement.

Interestingly, most of these self-proclaimed activists and intellectuals have been in the business of writing open-letters, release political statements, inciting violence and fear-mongering for years now to express their opposition to the ruling regime BJP, especially Narendra Modi.

Even in this case as they protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill, the so-called ‘intellectuals’ have made vague accusations and claims to not only discredit the legislation but also instil fear among the public by claiming that the proposed legislation would be harmful to one specific community, despite having no proof to substantiate the claim.

The letter also indulges in a false narrative against the proposed legislation by claiming that it will undermine the character of the Indian Republic even thought Union Home Minister Amit Shah has clarified in the Parliament that the proposed legislation has nowhere violated any provisions of the constitution.

Read: Harish Salve defends CAB, says bill not anti-Muslim, does not violate articles 14, 15 or 21 of the Indian constitution: Read details

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also categorically stated that the proposed legislation has nothing do with Indian Muslims and had clarified that the bill is stated to give citizenship to persecuted individuals of the other countries rather than taking away of rights of any individuals. He had also stated that there was no violation of fundamental rights under Article 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian constitution.

There has been a concerted campaign against the historic Citizenship Amendment Bill which grants citizenship to minorities belonging to the three countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to give Indian citizenships to religiously persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

People belonging to Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikhs, Parsi or Christian communities from these three countries who had come to India before 2014 can apply for Indian citizenship after the bill becomes law.

Read: Cultural Marxism: Liberals oppose the CAB because of Hinduphobia which dictates that Hindus must never be recognized as Victims

It is pertinent to mention that the same group of intellectuals have been associated with various political movements and hit jobs against the ruling BJP government since it came to power in 2014. The campaign which started with Award Wapsi and ‘Intolerance’ movement, has now shockingly reached to an extent that these ‘activists’ are even willing to join hands with anti-Indian forces in a bid to discredit Narendra Modi government.

In the past, there have been several such open-letters, statements, which has been devoid of facts and any rationale, issued against the government as part of their political propaganda. The same set of people had recently written a letter claiming that atrocities against ‘Muslims and Dalits’ have increased in India. The letter had also claimed that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a ‘provocative warcry’ and this is helping the lynching incidents against Muslims and Dalit.

Interestingly enough, Anand Teltumbde, an alleged Urban Naxal accused in the Elgar Parishad case, was also a signatory of these letters.

The so-called celebrities and intellectuals have also not cared to note that many of the ‘hate crimes’ have turned out to be fake. In many incidents, the so-called victims had been found to falsely claim that they were being forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

This is, however, not a recent phenomenon. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, there were multiple attempts by the so-called intellectuals and celebrities to claim ‘minorities are under attack’ and ‘democracy is in danger’. However, the people of India overlooked and rejected these prejudiced campaigns against the ruling dispensation and voted the BJP back to power.

Police investigation reveals the reasons for the horrific Delhi Anaj Mandi fire that claimed 43 lives: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Police investigation reveals the reasons for the horrific Delhi Anaj Mandi fire that claimed 43 lives: Read details

On Tuesday, the Delhi Police revealed that illegal power connections and several illegal sub-meters caused a ‘short circuit’ triggering the fire incident that occurred on Sunday at a luggage manufacturing factory in Anaj Mandi area that killed 43 people injuring several others.

According to the reports, the Crime Branch of Delhi police has revealed that the building owners had four power connections along with sub-meters illegally installed to every tenant causing a short circuit, which led to breaking out of the fire in the building killing more than 40 people.

“Investigation has revealed there were four power connections and further illegal sub-meters were installed for tenants, this aspect is being investigated,” police said.

Reportedly, the property was purchased by prime accused Mohammed Rehan’s father and father-in-law in 2004, when it was only three storeys tall. The accused Rehan allegedly constructed two more floors without laying a lintel. The accused had let out 15 of the 18 rooms in the building to 15 tenants, who had installed illegal meters in the building to run their power units.

The accused had allegedly installed illegal 18 sub-meters for all 18 rooms in the building. One of the survivors revealed to the police that around 10-12 industrial sewing machines were installed in the building and direct connections from the main meter on the ground floor were drawn using naked wires. Each floor had six sub-meters. He added that they had seen sparks at these sub-meters in the past, which was ignored by the owners.

Addition to these violations, the building also housed over a dozen illegal manufacturing units and warehouses which was run from congested and ill-ventilated rooms filled with combustible materials. These units had just one narrow entrance to the building spread across an area of 500 square yards, which ensured that fire trucks and officials did not have proper access to the site.

Read: Delhi: PM Modi announces ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to kin of 43 killed in Anaj mandi fire, Rs 50,000 to those seriously injured

Reportedly, the fire officials claimed that they had received fire calls quite often from the area. However, the concerned authorities could not take any action against the illegal factories because their vehicles could not pass these narrow lines as they were congested.

Atul Garg, Delhi’s Chief Fire Officer, said that there were no windows or any source of ventilation, making it difficult for the firefighters to make their way in through the thick smoke. Only one window on the first floor could be opened. He also added that the building did not have a fire clearance certificate and no fire safety equipment was found installed in this premise.

“There was an internal staircase connecting the two plots but it was blocked by goods and cartons leaving no room for anyone to escape,” said Garg.

Read: Anaj Mandi Fire: Factory owner Mohammed Rehan detained by Police, the building didn’t have fire clearance and fire safety equipment

BSES officials, who also visited the site, said prima facie it appeared that the fire in the internal wiring system of the building. “Electricity meters on the ground floor are absolutely intact. The moment we got information about the fire, our team rushed to the site and the supply was disconnected immediately,” said BSES in a statement.

The Delhi Police have now said that they will conduct a 3D laser scanning of the ground and the first floor of the building to probe the fire incident. They added that the debris at the place will be cleared tomorrow by the municipal corporation after the visit of the CFSL team.

“Post mortem of 40 deceased has been done. Three more are left now. The visit of Central Forensic Science Laboratory, (CBI) Team has also been fixed for tomorrow,” it added.

As many as 43 people were killed and 62 others were injured in a massive fire at the factory in Old Delhi’s Anaj Mandi in the wee hours of Sunday. Most of the people who lost their lives were labourers who were sleeping at the factory in Anaj Mandi on Rani Jhansi Road when the fire broke out at 5 am.

An FIR has been registered in connection with the fire incident and the case has been transferred to the crime branch for further investigation. The factor owner Mohammed Rehan has now been detained by the Police. The Delhi police have begun their search operations to find other two accused Suhail and Imran, both are on the run since the incident.

Unnao rape case: Accused claims he was in hospital when the December rape was committed, medical officer says documents are fake

OpIndia Staff
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Unnao rape case: Accused claims he was in hospital when the December rape was committed, medical officer says documents are fake

A day after the Unnao victim was set ablaze by the five men, one of the two accused in the gangrape has filed a document in court claiming that he was admitted to the local Primary Health Centre (PHC) on the day of the rape.

According to the Indian Express report, Hari Shanker, father of one of the accused Shubam Trivedi, had presented the “medical registration slip” to the High Court seeking the removal of Shubham’s name from the FIR on the gangrape. Hari Shanker is also one among the five men under arrest for setting the Unnao woman on fire.

The medical registration slip claimed that Shubham was admitted to the PHC on December 10, 2018, and was only discharged five days later. The woman in her complaint had stated that she was gang-raped by Shubham and his friend Shivam, on December 12 last year. The FIR was registered on March 5 this year.

Rejecting the claims of the accused, the officials at the Sumerpur PHC confirmed that the purported “medical registration slip” in the name of Shubham Trivedi is “fake”. In fact, the officials also said that no patient by that name was admitted to the hospital on those dates.

Read: Unnao case: All you need to know about a ghastly crime born out of a troubled relationship

Dr Jitendra Yadav, Medical Officer (Ayush), who is now in charge of the PHC after checking the records confirmed that he can confidently say that there was no patient by the name of Shubham Trivedi in the In-Patient Department (IPD) on the mentioned dates.

“It is clearly an OPD slip and doesn’t mention the name of the doctor. Also, the signature with the PHC stamp is neither of MO (Medical Officer) Dr Rahul Verma or MO 2nd Dr Sagar Singh, who was posted here in December last year. Another important thing is that the serial number mentioned on the slip is 28290 — there is no way that many patients can be admitted in a PHC in one year,”  Yadav said while adding that the PHC does not admit any patient for more than 24 hours as it “neither has the facilities nor the specialists”.

The Medical officer also confirmed that the PHC has only six beds and around 14-15 medical staff, including four doctors, but no surgeons. The PHC has an operation theatre which is used mainly during monthly sterilisation camps.

Rajesh Singh, the Investigating Officer (IO) in the gangrape case, said he is aware of the purported “medical slip” but it was not investigated as it never officially came to him. He further added that Shubham’s father submitted the slip to the High Court, along with a writ petition which was ultimately cancelled by the court.

Read: ‘Save me, I don’t want to die, want to see them sentenced to death’: Unnao rape victim dies of cardiac arrest after suffering 90% burns

“Shubham’s father Hari Shankar had earlier given an affidavit to the Rae Bareli Superintendent of Police Swapnil Mamgain, claiming that on the day of the gangrape, his son was in Lucknow to appear for a competitive exam. When the case was transferred to me, I asked the father to provide me proof, like an, admit card, to support his claim, but they failed to provide that,” the Investigating officer said.

On the early hours of Thursday last week, Tthe 23-year-old rape survivor was set on fire by pouring kerosene on her by five men, including the duo who are accused of raping her a year ago. The incident occurred at Sindupur village under the Bihar police station area on the wee hours of Thursday and has caused tension in the area.

The rape accused and his friends dragged the woman outside of her village, took her into the fields and doused her in petrol before setting her on fire. She was raped by the five men in March while the police could manage to arrest only three of them and two others were still on the run.

Reportedly, the Unnao rape victim survivor was going to Raebareli with her parents to pursue the case at 4 am on Wednesday when she was attacked. The survivor was immediately rushed to the district hospital and then referred to Civil Hospital in Lucknow after her condition deteriorated.

All the five accused, including Hari Shankar Trivedi, Shivam and Shubham Trivedi, have been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police.

Harish Salve defends CAB, says bill not anti-Muslim, does not violate articles 14, 15 or 21 of the Indian constitution: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Harish Salve defends CAB, says bill not anti-Muslim, does not violate articles 14, 15 or 21 of the Indian constitution: Read details

Harish Salve, one of India’s biggest names in national and international law, has stated that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is not anti-Muslim and it does not violate the Articles 14, 15 and 21 of Indian constitution as being claimed by naysayers.

Speaking with Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar, the senior lawyer explained that the communities named in the CAB are the minorities in the three neighbouring nations, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. He added further that the CAB is a narrow-tailored law specifically meant for religiously persecuted minorities in the 3 specified countries.


Harish Salve explained further that the CAB aims to provide the persecuted minorities in these 3 countries a special status in the naturalisation process and it does not mean in any way that other communities or people will not be naturalised at all, for other communities the rules of general asylum process will be followed. So there is no violation of Article 14 here.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts

Salve further added that as far as Article 15 is concerned, it is applicable only for Indian citizens and not people from other countries. One becomes an Indian citizen after they are naturalised, not before.

Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is concerned with the right to life. Salve stated that it provides a right to life for those who live in India, not those who want to enter India.

Answering Shivshankar’s question on whether specifying Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians is discriminatory against Muslims, Salve explained that on the laws of equality does not mean having the same law for lions and lambs. He added that since the CAB has ‘religious persecution’ as the basis and is aiding those who are being religiously persecuted (the minorities in the specified Islamic countries) then the community which belongs to the majority religion in these countries cannot claim ‘religious persecution’. And since the CAB is not about political or economic asylum seekers, Muslims do not feature there.

He also asserted that the CAB does not undermine or interfere with the existing rules of asylum and Muslims can continue to seek asylum or apply for citizenship under the existing rules.

Read: Cultural Marxism: Liberals oppose the CAB because of Hinduphobia which dictates that Hindus must never be recognized as Victims

When Shivshankar asked whether the claims of Ahmadiyas, Hazaras, and in some cases Shias facing discriminations in their countries have been ignored in the CAB, Salve stated that the countries specified in the CAB have their own state religion and Islamic rules. He added that Islamic majority nations identify their people as per who follows Islam and who does not. Addressing governance problems in neighbouring countries is not the purpose of the CAB.

Replying to the question of why the CAB does not include Tamils in Sri Lanka, Salve stated that Tamils in Sri Lanka are not religiously persecuted. Over the issue of Rohingyas, Salve stated that a law that addresses one evil does not need to address all the evils in all countries. It is notable here that Myanmar, though a Buddhist majority nation, does not have a state religion and Myanmar does not feature in CAB.

For argument’s sake, Salve stated, if immigration or naturalisation facility is provided to the Rohingyas, it can also be argued that why people from African nations are not being included. “CAB is for the religiously persecuted minorities of the three specified neighbouring nations and it does not need to be applicable to all nations or all people in the world who have problems,” he added.

Salve also expressed confidence that if the CAB comes under judicial scrutiny, India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Attorney General KC Venugopal will defend it well.

Shekhar Gupta is wrong, the Citizenship Amendment Bill is exactly what BJP was voted to power for

OpIndia Staff
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Shekhar Gupta is wrong, the Citizenship Amendment Bill is exactly what BJP was voted to power for

The Citizenship Amendment Bill has been creating a furore in the ‘Liberal’ section of the population. Several untenable arguments against the bill have been made including the assertion that the bill is against the Constitution of India and is against ‘secularism’. People have also said that it is an ‘anti-minority’ bill. Most of these arguments are oft-repeated and have been countered threadbare earlier. The Bill does not violate the provisions of the constitution and since it is to give citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic countries, it is not ‘anti-minority’ or ‘anti-Muslim’ since Islam is the dominant religion in those countries. Tired of these oft-repeated statements, Shekhar Gupta of The Print decided to come up with a new argument.

Shekhar Gupta of The Print wrote a ’50 word edit’ in which he claimed that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is not what the BJP was voted to power for.


Shekhar Gupta in his edit says that the BJP is needlessly bringing back the ghosts of the partition. He also says that the fact that BJP is bringing this bill shows a bankruptcy of ideas for 2019 and that while the bill may pass through the parliament, it is not what the BJP was voted to power for.

While these conjectures might sound interesting and intellectually stimulating, they are far from the truth.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts

Firstly, the assertion that the bill brings up the ghosts of the past is an incorrect statement. The persecution that minorities face in the neighbouring Islamic nations of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are extremely real and present. Many Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist etc girls are abducted, sexually exploited, forcefully converted to Islam and then exploited further.

On the day that Shekhar Gupta wrote this edit, another Christian girl in Pakistan was abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and then forced to marry her abductor. What the minorities in Islamic nations suffer is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. That the crisis was born out of the ill-conceived partition on the basis of religion is secondary.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill has exposed Indian ‘liberals’ like never before

Further, Shekhar Gupta says that the BJP was not voted to power for the Citizenship Amendment Bill. He could not be further from the truth.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was mentioned rather explicitly in the BJP’s 2019 manifesto.

BJP manifesto 2019

The manifesto of the BJP prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections clearly specifies that the BJP is committed to the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill for the protection of individuals of religious minority communities from the neighbouring countries escaping persecution. It also said that it will make an effort to ensure clarity on the issue to the sections of the population from Northeast India.

In fact, in several speeches throughout the years, the BJP and its leaders including Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have reiterated their promise of passing the citizenship amendment bill. It is pertinent to note here that the BJP was elected to power with a greater majority in 2019 than in 2014.

Read: At the stroke of midnight, as Lok Sabha passed Citizenship Amendment Bill, ‘seculars’ can’t keep calm

With this being a prominent promise through 2014 to 2019, one wonders how Shekhar Gupta can claim that the BJP was not voted to power for the Citizenship Amendment Bill. While no one promise or agenda ever get a party to power and it is always a culmination of promises, the Citizenship Amendment Bill was one of the most prominent promises made by the BJP and it got the mandate to deliver on it.

It is evident that along with the other self-professed “liberals”, Shekhar Gupta is trying to further a narrative against granting citizenship to persecuted minorities of Islamic nations. The narrative is obviously not rooted in facts but does strengthen the ‘secular credentials’ of the ones who rather watch minorities in Islamic nations suffer than admit that the bill introduced by PM Modi addresses a humanitarian crisis that deserved attention long ago.

Pakistan: 14-years-old Christian girl in Karachi abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her abductor

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan: 14-years-old Christian girl in Karachi abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her abductor

The persecution of minorities in Pakistan continues unabated as another incident of abduction and forcible conversion of girls belonging to minority communities to Islam have come to the fore. Huma Younus, a 14-year-old Christian girl from Karachi was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her captor Abdul Jabbar.


According to the reports, Younas was kidnapped on October 10 by three men who waited on the girl’s parents to leave the house before forcibly abducting her. She was reportedly taken to Dera Ghazi Khan, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, about 600 Kms from her home.

The law enforcement officials initially rejected the numerous attempts made by the girl’s parents to file a complaint of abduction. However, after their persistence efforts, the police lodged a complaint on October 12.

A few days after her conversion, the family of the girl received conversion papers and marriage certificate. Her mother, Nagina Younas claimed that the papers are fake, as it takes several hours to reach where she was taken but the date of conversion on the papers was the same as the day of her abduction. She exhorted the Pakistani courts to intervene in the matter.

Read- It is considered as an achievement to convert a Hindu to Islam: Report of Members of European Parliament on religious minorities in Pakistan

After the court hearing, the victim’s distraught mother asked if the Christian women in Pakistan should kill their daughters if kidnapping and conversion are what they are destined for. The parents of the girl have created a video asking for the help of Pope Francis and in order to draw international attention to the plight of Christian girls in Pakistan. She has also pleaded to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, opposition politician Bilawal Bhutto and Pakistani Army Chief for help.


Lawyer Tabassum Yousaf, on behalf of the archdiocese of Karachi, is fighting the case of Huma. Yousaf claimed that five appeals made to the courts in Karachi have yielded no result. In fact, now the kidnappers have filed an appeal to the High Court, seeking liberation of the girl from her parent’s authority, claiming that she is of age.

As per International Christian Concern, there have been 34 incidents of abduction, forced conversions, rape and assault against children, women in the first nine months of 2019, displaying the vulnerability of Christians in Pakistan.

Girls from other minority groups aren’t safe in Pakistan either. In a similar incident, a young Hindu girl named Chandri Kolhi from Noukot, Mirpurkhas, was allegedly abducted, converted and married to Allah Dino recently.

Earlier, Jagjit Kaur, a Sikh girl was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam in Nankana Sahib which had caused a huge uproar. In another horrific incident, a 13-year-old Pooja Sotahar Kumari, daughter of Fatan Rathore, resident of village Bakhsho Laghari in Hyderabad district’s Hosri Taluka, was kidnapped, forcefully converted and subsequently married off to a man identified as Syed Irshad Shah.

Pakistan is notoriously infamous for its persecution of not only religious minorities but also ethnic minorities within their own country. The forceful conversion programmes have often been unleashed against the minorities especially Christians, Sikhs and Hindus living in Pakistan with utmost brutality.

Maharashtra: Amidst political turmoil, senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse meets CM Uddhav Thackeray, denies rumours of quitting BJP

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra: Amidst political turmoil, senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse meets CM Uddhav Thackeray, denies rumours of quitting BJP

Maharashtra BJP veteran Eknath Khadse, who has been critical of the state leadership after the assembly polls, met Maharastra’s newly appointed Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Maharastra’s Vidhan Bhavan today.


After the meeting, Khadse while speaking to media cleared the rumours of him quitting BJP, Confirming to news agency ANI that he was not planning to join Shiv Sena, Khadse said: “I am not upset with BJP party, I am just upset with 2-3 leaders of the party”.

This statement by Eknath Khadse seems to put an end to the speculation that he may leave Bharatiya Janata Party and join some other party.


Confirming his meeting with Khadse, CM Thackeray, earlier today, called Khadse an old associate. Thackeray also mentioned that he has a long-standing relationship with Khadse that goes beyond politics.

Speaking to the media, Thackeray said, “I will definitely meet Eknath Khadse (Khadse Bhau). In the current situation, I will call him my old associate. But apart from the political relationships, I have an old long relationship with him. I will meet him.”

The veteran BJP leader’s meeting with the Shiv Sena chief came a day after he met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in the national capital on Monday, where, the two held a closed-door meeting for around half-an-hour at Pawar’s residence.

Talking about the Khadse-Pawar meeting, NCP leader Nawab Malik said that the meeting was not political. “It was all about farmers and agrarian crisis in Maharashtra,” Malik added.

The BJP heavyweight Khadse, who was asked to quit as Maharashtra’s revenue minister in June 2016 amid charges of corruption in the Bhosari land scam, has been expressing his displeasure with Maharashtra BJP for some time. In an earlier statement, he had said that some BJP leaders in the state had played an active role in defeating OBC leaders in the recent state elections and that he had complained about it to state BJP president Chandrakant Patil as well. After this, rumours have been doing the rounds that Eknath Khadse may quit BJP as he feels that he has been steadily sidelined within the party after the graft allegations in 2016.

In fact, on Saturday, Khadse in a veiled threat said that he will be looking at other options if his “humiliation” at the hands of BJP leadership continued. “I am not God. I am a human being and have emotions. I don’t want to leave the party for whose growth I worked hard for more than four decades. I am still ready to work for the party,” Eknath Khadse had told reporters adding, “But If I continue to face the humiliation of being kept away from decision-making, I will have to think differently.”

In fact, if one’s to believe reports, NCP luminaries have also hinted that Khadse may quit BJP. Though BJP leader and former minister Ashish Shelar described the reports as baseless and false, Khadse himself remained non-committal then. “As of now, I am in the BJP, I do not know what will happen tomorrow. Prior to the assembly elections, I had an offer from both Congress and NCP, but at that time I did not accept it,” he was quoted by TOI as saying.

Earlier, Khadse confirmed agitated OBC leaders from the BJP had met him at his residence to discuss the “stepmotherly treatment given to the community by the BJP.” “The consensus was that prominent members of the community should unite and take up the cause of the community with the BJP leadership”, Khadse had said furthering that a meeting had been called to discuss these grievances on December 12 at the Gopinath Munde memorial in Parli.

According to sources, apart from Khadse, BJP leaders Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde have also been disgruntled with the party because they feel that they were sidelined in the 2019 Maharashtra State Elections. It is also alleged that the leaders feel that OBC candidates were particularly sidelined in the Assembly elections.

Sikh Uber driver racially assaulted in the United States, attacker released on bail after arrest

OpIndia Staff
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Sikh Uber driver racially assaulted in the United States, attacker released on bail after arrest

In a racial attack in the United States, one of the Uber passengers racially abused a Sikh driver and strangulated him. The assailant identified as Griffin Levi Sayers was picked up by the Sikh driver before he unleashed his onslaught on him. The incident happened along the Barkley Boulevard in Bellingham in Washington state.

According to the reports, the victim dialled 911 on December 5 to inform the police about the attack. Sayers was arrested police and lodged into Whatcom County Jail on December 5 on suspicion of second-degree assault and a failure-to-appear warrant for fourth-degree assault. However, he was released on the bail of $13,000 the next day.

The driver stated in his complaint that the assailant hailed the cab to make some purchases and then returned to the pick-up location. However, at this point, the passenger became abusive and pulled the driver by his collar and wrung it violently. In addition to this, the passenger also made racial remarks against the driver’s ethnicity, skin color and the turban he was wearing. The driver somehow managed to get out of the cab and made a call to 911. Soon after the driver’s call, the police arrived at the spot and found the assaulter nearby. He was arrested and taken to the police station.

Read: Racist attack on Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh, asked to ‘cut off’ his turban in Montreal’s Atwater Market

The racist attack on the Sikh Uber driver is currently being considered as a bias incident, while the Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is determining whether to charge the assault as a hate crime. A Bellingham Police officer told media, “this assault is being investigated as a bias incident, as Sayers maliciously and intentionally assaulted the victim because of Sayers’ perception of the victim’s race, national origin and religion. Additional charges by the prosecutor’s office for hate crime offence are pending.”

Following Donald Trump’s election as the President of the United States, there has been a spurt in the incidence of racial attacks against the minorities in the States. Sikhs have been the target of the racial attacks in the United States. As per a report published last month, Sikhs were the third largest groups behind the Jews and Muslims to be target of racial attacks. According to an FBI report, crimes against Sikhs rose by a whopping 200 per cent since 2017. Though Sikhs are evidently different from members of other communities, they are often mistakenly targeted because of their turbans.

National Conference to not participate in politics until Article 370 and statehood is restored to J&K, says Farooq Abdullah’s brother

OpIndia Staff
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National Conference to not participate in politics until Article 370 and statehood is restored to J&K, says Farooq Abdullah’s brother

The National Conference won’t participate in any political process until Article 370 has been restored in Jammu & Kashmir along with its statehood, senior leader of the party, Mustafa Kamal, has announced. In an exclusive interview with IANS, the brother of Farooq Abdullah announced that the party won’t take part in political processes that do not serve the interests of the people of J&K.

“They demolished the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. We can not take part in any political process in this system,” he stated. “New Delhi will like to manipulate us for changing the demography of Jammu & Kashmir and enslave the people.” Kamal also said that Article 370 was removed to alter the ‘Muslim-majority character’ of the state and make way for “demographic change”. He also said that his party won’t demand the extension of Article 371 to J&K either. Article 371 has special arrangement for some states, mostly from northeastern region.

Read- Farooq Abdullah’s brother, Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, questions Pulwama attack, gives clean chit to Pakistan

“We don’t want Article 371, those who want it, let them take it,” Kamal said. “They are talking about a third front, let them go with it, National Conference will not change its position.” He also said that he faith in the Supreme Court. “Our leaders met with (then) Governor Satya Pal Malik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both denied the Article was being revoked,” he said. Kamal remained optimistic that international pressure was mounting on India and that the current situation could not continue forever. Asserting that the senior Abdullah will not settle for a compromise, he said, “Farooq Abdullah has always stuck to his principles, why would he change his stand now?”

Article 370 and Article 35A, which gave a separate status to Jammu and Kashmir was abolished by the union government in August this year. Along with that, the state was bifurcated into two union territories, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

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