Tuesday night in Gaya during Durga Visarjan on Vijaya Dashami, stones were reportedly pelted on the procession as well as on the police when it reached the Jama Masjid area. As per reports, the police, while trying to control the crowd, used force and expletives, following which the devotees got angry.
The videos which have gone viral on social media show stones being pelted at the procession.
— Bhardwaj Priye Ranjan (संतोष) (@BhardwajPriye) October 9, 2019
Locals report that things got a little tensed when the Durga Visarjan procession reached Dukharni crossing in Gaya and police reached the place immediately. Upon reaching, the police started beating up the devotees in the pandal and even arrested some. In another video, one can see police brutally beating up people with sticks.
— Bhardwaj Priye Ranjan (संतोष) (@BhardwajPriye) October 9, 2019
As per reports, the police indulged in lathicharging indiscriminately. Till now, 12 people have been arrested. As per reports, the police claims that five of them had consumed alcohol. Bihar is a dry state where there is alcohol prohibition. OpIndia tried to reach out to Gaya Police for a statement, but they were unreachable. We shall update the report once we hear from them.
Yesterday we had reported how stones were pelted on Durga Visarjan in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh as music was not stopped while passing by a mosque.
In a spine chilling incident, Bandhu Prakash Pal, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, his pregnant wife and their six-year-old son were found murdered in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the reports, 35-year old RSS worker Bandhu Prakash Pal, his wife Beauty Pal (30) and their eight-year-old son Angan Pal were brutally murdered at their residence in Murshidabad, West Bengal. Bandhu’s wife Beauty Pal was eight-months pregnant.
Reportedly, Bandhu Prakash was a school teacher who worked in Gosaigram Sahapara Primary School. He also worked as an insurance agent in the locality.
This beautiful family of a primary school teacher was brutally murdered yesterday along with an unborn baby by a jehadi mob in Murshidabad, Bengal. The deceased:
1. Prakash Pal
2. His pregnant wife
3. His 6 year old son pic.twitter.com/i1rIfUgbMv
According to the police officials, the Pal family was murdered by unidentified miscreants on Tuesday. As the family did not make it to the Durga puja pandal on Vijayadashami, the neighbours visited the Bondhu Prakash Pal’s residence, only to find that the door was locked from inside.
One of the neighbours informed the police after they heard loud sounds from Pal’s house. A neighbour has also informed that some people were seen rushing out of the house. Pal was last seen by his neighbours at around 11 am on Tuesday when he was returning from the local market.
The neighbours barged inside Pal’s residence and found the body of Bandhu Prakash and his son Angan on the floor while the body of the wife was lying in another room. A sharp weapon was reportedly found next to the bodies.
The police have stated that while Pal and his wife were killed with sharp weapons, their son Angan was strangulated with a towel.
Bandhu Prakash’s Facebook profile was reportedly full of videos of Durga Puja pandals and selfies of the family. He had uploaded his last post on the early morning hours of Sunday.
However, the police officials have yet to ascertain the reason for the brutal murder of the family. Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem. No arrests have been made yet. The family had moved to Jiyaganj almost six years ago. They lived in a single storied house at Kanaiganj-Lebutala
The police have begun their investigations and a case has been registered at Jiyaganj Police station.
Some sections of social media are indicating that the murder of RSS worker and his family have a communal angle to it as Murshidabad has been many such cases in the past, but no such angle has been reported in the case yet. The police have stated that an investigation is underway.
Pakistan government has claimed that they have reached a ‘verbal agreement’ with micro-blogging company Twitter that the latter shall not suspend pre-approved accounts on Twitter. Following the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Twitter had suspended over 200 Pakistani accounts for hateful conduct and abuse of Twitter as platform. Moreover, Twitter had suspended over 50 accounts from Pakistan for impersonating Indian Army officers.
According to Shabahat Ali Khan, CEO, National IT Board, Pakistan, Twitter has agreed that it will not suspend government-approved accounts without prior intimation and consultation with Pakistan government.
According to reports, the Pakistan Army had hired more than 200 handlers to make sleeper account on Twitter impersonating top officials of Indian Army in order to spread its fake propaganda with an aim to malign India. India Army which has been keeping a close watch on the nefarious activities of Pakistani agencies informed Twitter and other social media platforms about these fake accounts, following which Twitter blocked over 50 bogus accounts.
Following the abrogation of Article 370, Pakistan has indulged in social media warfare. The not-so-friendly neighbour country has used the social media platform to spread fear and rumours about the situation prevalent in the valley. Days after the Article 370 was abrogated, a pro-separatist Twitter account (@WithKashmir_), also believed to be operated by Pakistani’s ISI and army, was found sharing maliciously edited video of Republic TV’s editor Arnab Goswami. An old video of Arnab Goswami from February 2019 in the wake of Pulwama attack was promoted by that Twitter handle and spread by many Indian ‘journalists’ to project that Arnab had asked for the genocide of Kashmiris. After Republic TV threatened legal action, the account was deleted.
The CRPF and Jammu & Kashmir Police had both on separate incidents called out Pakistan’s lies and propaganda on social media which were being spread through accounts which were verified by Twitter and had blue ticks. Pakistani journalists and politicians have indulged in sharing fake news regarding the situation in Kashmir.
The agitated Muslims in Uttar Pradesh’s Roorkee launched a protest against the screening of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board Chairman Wasim Rizvi’s movie ‘Aisha-The Mother of Believers’. Several members of Muslim community came out on the streets to demand a ban on the screening of the movie.
A procession was carried out by them to the Joint Magistrate’s office where they handed over a memorandum addressed to the President. The protestors also burnt the effigy of filmmaker Wasim Rizvi at Chandrashekhar square.
The demonstrators alleged that the movie ‘Aisha- The mother of the believers’ has objectionable scenes which hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community. Some of the protestors contended that the movie touches upon sensitive issues and might give a wrong message about the Muslims to the world. They strongly expressed registered their condemnation for the movie.
People of the Muslim community sent a memorandum to the President through Joint Magistrate Nitika Khandelwal about the film’s protest and demanded a ban on it. On this occasion Arif, Asif Khan, Mohammad Asif Ahmed, Mohammad Sarfaraz, Aamir, Salim, Shaheed, Shahid, Rohit Singh, Saadab, Usman, Sameer, Asad Khan, Naushad, Farid, Armaan, Monu, Amit, Mustakim, Rahul, Ram Avatar etc. were present to express their disapproval of the contentious movie’s release.
The protest against the movie started gathering steam ever since the trailer of the movie was launched. Muslims at various places in the country strongly objected to the trailer stating that the movie’s aim is to widen the chasm between Sunni and Shia sect within Islam.
Earlier Wasim Rizmi had made a movie titled ‘Ram Janambhoomi’, which had also ran into troubles.
The Wire journalist Arfa Khanum, who has often taken up the cudgels for radical Islamists, found herself under the firing line of the same zealots after she uploaded a picture of herself wearing a Bengali saree on the occasion of Dussehra.
“The greatest jihad (struggle) is to battle your own soul, to fight the evil within yourself.”
Prophet Muhammad
PBUH
Dussehra is a celebration of victory of the good over the evil.
Let’s continue with the same spirit. #HappyDussehra#VijayaDashami
Two years ago with @sonia_26pic.twitter.com/xnaMNChqL2
Yesterday, Khanum shared two-year-old pictures of her with her fellow colleague with a caption-“The greatest Jihad is to battle your own soul, to fight the evil within yourself”, attributed to Prophet Muhammad. She further added that Dussehra is a celebration of the good over the evil. No sooner did she upload the pictures on her Twitter page that scores of online jihadis descended upon her post, reminding her of ‘actual’ jihad and making derogatory remarks about her appearance.
One of the abusive radical Islamist, apparently a female Twitter user, commented “Chakka(Eunuch)” on Arfa’s Dussehra greetings post.
Another intolerant bigot schooled Arfa on jihad, stating that her tweet on Dussehra had nothing to do with jihad. He further enunciated that Islam should not be talked along with “these things”.
One Twitter user mocked traditional Bengali attire and appearance of the ladies in the pictures, apparently quoting Prophet Muhammad to say that destiny of such women would be hell because of their sins.
However, this is not the first time that a certain section of society took umbrage over calling for celebrations of Hindu festival by Arfa. Earlier this year, on the occasion of Holi, Arfa Khanum had shared stating that she would play Holi saying “Bismillah”. This tweet did not sit well with enraged fundamental Muslims online who got triggered into posting objectionable replies to Khanum’s tweet. Not only was she slammed for allegedly insulting Islam but some rabid Islamists even wished death upon her.
Recently, TMC MP Nusrat Jahan was also censured by fundamentalist elements for partaking in celebrations of Durga festivities. One Assam Congress supporter had said that he wants to ‘quickly’ kill Nusrat Jahan for being a bad Muslim. A Muslim cleric from Darul Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa against the TMC MP for attending Durga Puja and grimly suggested her to convert her religion and name.
Though some journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai proposed that such religious hatred peddled by ‘unknown’ personalities should be brushed aside, the obnoxious responses to Arfa’s tweet underline the growing intolerance of Islamists and their utter contempt of Hindu festivals. However, ironically often Arfa is been seen passionately defending regressive Islamist practices such as nikah-halala.
Arfa had also demonised Hindus by giving credence to the fake news of a teenager being set on fire on his refusal to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. Here, Sherwani had displayed a total disregard of journalistic ethics of verifying the news with the particular police station before putting out her tweet.
The Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of 5,300 Displaced Person (DP) families of Jammu & Kashmir-1947 who initially opted to move outside the state of Jammu & Kashmir but later on returned and settled in the state, in the Rehabilitation Package for Displaced Families of PoJK and Chhamb under the PM’s Development Package 2015 for Jammu & Kashmir. Initially, these families were kept out of the Rehabilitation Package approved by the Union Cabinet on 30.11.2016. The families will receive ₹5.5 lakh as compensation under the package.
The government stated that in the wake of the 1947 Pakistani aggression in J&K, 31,619 families migrated from Pakistan Occupied Areas of J&K (PoJK) to the state of J&K. Of these, 26,319 families settled in the state of J&K and 5300 families initially opted to move out of the state to other parts of the country. Furthermore, during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 10,065 more families were displaced from the Chhamb Niabat area. Of these 3,500 families were displaced during the 1965 war and 6,565 families were displaced during the 1971 war.
The government further stated that 36,384 displaced families covered under the package approved by the Cabinet on the 30th of November, 2016 included 26,319 displaced families from PoJK settled in J&K and 10,065 Displaced Families displaced from Chhamb Niabat area. The 5,300 DP families of PoJK who had initially opted to move out of the state of J&K to other parts of the country were not included in the approved package. Now those DP families who had moved out of the State but later returned and settled in the state are being included in the package.
The government said that the inclusion of these Families in the existing scheme will enable them to earn a reasonable monthly income and become a part of mainstream economic activities. It will also improve the Government’s capacity to respond effectively to such families who are in need of financial assistance. The requirement of funds will be met out of the already sanctioned funds for the existing scheme.
After the abrogation of Article 370 and the decision of the Union government to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, the government has announced various administrative reforms directed towards improving the circumstances in the state. The latest move towards the inclusion of DP families in the rehabilitation package is further directed towards improving the living conditions of people in the state.
High tension prevailed in Barpeta town in Assam after a Lakshmi temple was vandalised and looted by a Muslim man today. Apart from vandalising the temple, it was also torched by the man.
According to reports, the idol of Goddess Lakshmi at the historical temple in Keotkuchi area in Barpeta was damaged by one Rafiqul Ali in the early morning on 9th October. He had also looted the temple and damaged the floor tiles and other items kept at the temple. Rafiqul also tore banners and posters, and damaged decorations, which were put up at the temple for the upcoming Lakshmi Puja on 13th October (in Assam and some other eastern states Lakshmi puja is celebrated on the full moon after the Vijaya Dashami, while Kali Puja is celebrated on Diwali after a fortnight).
After vandalising the temple, Rafiqul Ali had proceeded to torch various items of the temple, along with cloths of the Lakshmi idol. Seeing fire coming out of the temple, locals arrived at the scene and caught the perpetrator red-handed, who was hiding in a corner of the temple. Gold and silver jewellery and other valuables were found with him which he had looted from the temple. A dagger was also found which he was carrying.
The local people have handed over the man to the police, who surprisingly remained in the temple after vandalising and looting it, instead of attempting to flee. He was identified as Rafiqul Ali, a resident of Shantipur in Bhella area of the Barpeta town.
Additional police forces have been deployed at the area to prevent any communal conflict as a result of the incident.
As Durga Puja, which is celebrated with fanfare by Hindus across the country came to a close, a visarjan procession in the bylanes of Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh came under siege by the Muslim residents of the area. Stones were pelted, Hindus were attacked and injured, some, allegedly even with swords.
The police have arrested 8 Muslim residents who were actively involved in the stone-pelting. Several others are absconding and the Balrampur police have deployed 4 units to look for the miscreants.
When OpIndia spoke to the police, the Additional Superintendent of Police expressed suspicion that the entire thing may have been pre-planned. When one looks at the video, one is convinced that the scale of mobilisation cannot be spontaneous. The police believe that the attack may have happened because the procession did not switch the music off while passing the local Mosque.
Suraj Pandey, one of the Hindu victims, however, has a different take. Suraj says that he was attacked with a sword and is currently injured. Speaking to OpIndia, Suraj was convinced that the Muslim residents of the locality had meticulously pre-planned this entire siege and the attack had nothing to do with the music not being stopped near the Mosque.
Suraj Pandey, a resident of the area is the one who had filed the complaint against 25 members of the Muslim community who had allegedly instigated and orchestrated this attack against the Hindu community.
Complaint filed by Suraj
According to Suraj, on the day the Hindus came under siege, he was walking through the same lane much before the procession was taken out. Suraj was walking through the same lane and was crossing house where a certain Zulfikar stays. According to him, while he crossed the house in the morning, Zulfikar threw a stone at him. This ensued in a mild argument which was then calmed down by Zulfikar’s old mother who asked Suraj to forgive the ‘young boys’ who were just doing mischief.
Suraj on his part paid heed to what Zulfikar’s mother was saying and did not make much of the incident. He proceeded home to prepare for the visarjan procession that was to be taken out later that day. “If I had told my people about this, maybe we would not have come under attack later. This was all pre-planned”, Suraj said. When the mother pleaded with Suraj to let go of the incident, he thought it must have been really been young boys were simply playing mischief, but the doubts were sowed. In retrospect, Suraj seems to believe that the incident was the first indication that the Muslim community was planning to attack the Hindu community and had started collecting stones and weapons in a pre-planned manner.
Suraj says that every year for the past several years, the Durga Puja visarjan procession has followed the same route with no deviation whatsoever. In the previous years, there has been no animosity between the Hindus and Muslims of the areas other than minor arguments that have always been resolved and ignored. Flummoxed as to why this year, the Muslim community decided to attack the Hindus, Suraj tells a scary tale of what ensued that fateful evening.
He claims that before the procession, the members of the Muslim community pretended to support the Hindus and display ‘brotherhood’, as they do every year. He says that in that locality, the Hindus and Muslims used to sit together and the Hindus used to even share ‘prasad’ with the Muslims. In fact, this time too, before they started pelting stones at the Hindus, several Muslims had walked with the Maa Durga murti till they started attacking the Hindus.
This year, however, the story was different as per Suraj’s claims. As soon as the procession turned the corner, at first the Muslim community started allegedly throwing garbage at the Hindus who were participating in the Durga Puja procession. Within minutes of throwing garbage, they started throwing stones, sticks and rods. Suraj says the stones were not just small stones, but heavy bolsters too.
Recalling the ordeal, Suraj tells OpIndia that in the process, he was attacked with a sword. Allegedly chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, stones and sticks came raining down on the Hindus from all quarters including the roof of the Mosque. While Muslim men, women and children, including “Mullas from the Mosques” continued to rain stones on the Hindus, the Hindus hid for their lives. “We had nothing except Maa Durga’s murti, what could we do”, says Suraj.
Upon being asked whether the Muslim community was enraged because the Hindus did not stop the music while crossing the Mosque, Suraj rubbishes the claims flatly.
He says that every year, the Hindus ensure that the music is stopped while crossing the Mosque out of respect. They have set up a divider near the Mosque. He says that while the procession is away from the divider, the Hindus usually dance and sing to their heart’s content. Upon reaching the divider, the music is switched off and then resumed once the Mosque is crossed. This time, however, the Hindus did not get the opportunity to switch the music off at all. Even before the Hindus could switch the music off, the Muslim community allegedly started throwing garbage at the Hindus and soon, started raining stones.
Suraj names three Muslim locals as the masterminds of the attack. Maqbool Haji, Najim and Langad. He says there are several others from the same area, but he doesn’t know them too well.
Suraj Pandey claims that he and his fellow villagers have no idea why the Muslims did what they did this year. “If they chant Hindustan Murdabad won’t we feel bad”, he says. “Nobody knows what is in the other person’s heart. We still don’t know why they attacked us”, he says.
Suraj, however, is satisfied with the action taken by Balrampur police. He says they are doing their job adequately and have arrested 8 people thus far, with others being on the run.
The police had released a press note that said that a complaint had been filed against 24 named people and several unnamed individuals. There are 4 units of the police who are currently looking for the absconding accused. The police have also said that the law and order situation is under control in the area and the visarjan was conducted peacefully after police intervention.
The BBC is back again with its overt display of Hinduphobia. In a cartoon mocking the Shastra Puja ritual conducted by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while receiving the Rafale jets in France, the Hindi branch of the news organization took a dig at the thousands of years old Hindu ritual in its efforts to take potshots at the Indian economy.
As part of the Shastra Puja ritual, two lemons were placed in front of the wheels of the aircraft. In the cartoon, two lemons were placed in front of the wheels which had ‘economy’ written on them. The cartoon carried the caption ‘Shayad isse kuch fark padh jaaye (maybe this could change the fortunes)’.
It is rather unthinkable that the BBC will dare to mock the religious traditions of any other religious community in such a manner. For a news organization that helped create an entire business out of the Islamophobia hoax, it is extremely revolting that they are attacking the sacred religious traditions of Hindus. The BBC, which hasn’t even made any effort to counter the ‘Hijab is a choice’ narrative, is busy mocking the religious faith of Hindus.
Such differential treatment of religious communities has become the hallmark of the Western media. While they mollycoddle radical Islamists and the fundamentalist sections of the Islamic community, they go out of their way to mock the religious traditions of other communities. Such differential treatment only further drives home the narrative that the western media has become the propaganda wing of Radical Islam.
Recently, the BBC Radio said that veteran show host Lord Singh talking about Sikhism would offend Muslims following which he quit in protest. Not too long ago, a producer at NPR was forced to resign after her Hinduphobic tweet went viral on social media. US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has often been attacked by western media due to her Hindu identity as well. The conduct of western media in recent times only shows that Hinduphobia is endemic in Western Media and it is making no effort at all to address the problem.
As for the BBC, it has a problem with anything that unites Hindus. Our readers would remember they had published a ‘research‘ linking Hindu Nationalism with the rise of Fake News in India, which ironically, was the biggest example of Fake News.
Several idols of Maa Durga were vandalized in Doimukh, Arunachal Pradesh. As per reports, some miscreants had on the intervening night between the 5th and 6th of October, had damaged several Durga idols of the Doimukh Bazaar Welfare Committee’s pandal.
The idols were decapitated and defaced. President of the welfare committee Dobum Robi said that the attack was unprecedented in the town’s history. The organisers of the puja committee have appealed for peace and requested people not to communalise the incident.
The Police have thus far arrested three miscreants for the hate crime. “The group of miscreants vandalized the idols of Goddess Durga and fled from the spot. They escaped in a Tata Tiago car which later helped police to identify and apprehend them,” SP Yupia said. The incident has created a furore on social media. Some people have pointed out that all the perpetrators in the incident belonged to the Christian community.
Papum Pare Superintended of Police Jimmy Chiram claimed that the issue was not communal in nature and was related to a personal dispute. “An FIR (u/s 295/448/427/34 IPC) was registered, statements were taken, and investigation initiated,” the SP said. “They entered the pandal and got into an altercation with the guard and vandalized the idols. They escaped in a Tata Tiago car. The police were able to identify the car and were able to apprehend the trio. The police have found no evidence to indicate a communal issue in the crime,” he added.
An appeal has been made to not communalize the issue. “The issue should not be communalized. We have organized different fairs and festivals involving all tribes and communities. Such an incident has not happened earlier. The enthusiasm is still the same among the devotees. We have managed to get small idols to continue the puja,” one of Puja committee members told the media.
