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Hyderabad Liberation Day, Partition Horrors Remembrance Day: Why India needs to scrape away the whitewashing and look at the dark realities of its past

Sanghamitra
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Hyderabad Liberation Day, Partition Horrors Remembrance Day: Why India needs to scrape away the whitewashing and look at the dark realities of its past

On 12th March, the Ministry of Home Affairs declared that every year henceforth, the 17th of September will be observed as the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’. Noting that the erstwhile territory of Hyderabad did not get independence as the rest of India for 13 months after August 1947 and it was only on 17th September 1948 that the Nizam rule ended and Hyderabad officially became a part of India, the MHA highlighted the importance of ‘Operation Polo’.

Marking September 17th as the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ is an important step towards truth and reconciliation, as important as marking August 14th as the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. In August 2021, the Modi govt announced August 14th as the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, a day when the nation remembers the dark reality of partition.

Both the days, and the above-cited incidents that they commemorate are crucial in modern India’s history, for they have shaped our past, present and future.

Operation Polo has been a largely ‘unknown’ affair for most Indian youngsters through the decades. For generations of Indian children, the school books never mention this aspect of our history. They don’t know how there existed a Muslim-ruled kingdom, with a ruthless militia unleashing a regime of horror and torture on its Hindu majority citizenry. The Muslim ruler was considered one of the wealthiest men in the world and wanted the kingdom to merge with Pakistan. Imagine a territory of that size, right in the middle of the Deccan Plateau, being a part of Pakistan.

The erstwhile Hyderabad state under Nizam shahi

The British, with expert diplomacy and tight control over the then so-called leaders of India, had left so many open wounds to bleed India for centuries. The creation of Pakistan on religious lines, the haphazard separation of houses, cattle, villages, and families on a whim, just to appease the Islamic demand for a separate country and accommodate the political ambitions of some ‘elite’ Indians like Nehru was a recipe to inflict enough damage on a newborn geopolitical entity to obliterate itself in a matter of few years.

It is almost a miracle that India exists the way it does today. Looking back, it seems unbelievable how Sardar Patel managed to not only keep the broken pieces together, but he used all the available resources, diplomacy, and force when needed, with a decisiveness so absent in leaders of that era, to glue the pieces together into a formidable nation-state. We were broken, bleeding, and fighting a dozen battles at once, but India endured through it all. And here we are today, after 75 years, stronger than ever.

Why was Operation Polo crucial?

Multiple generations of Indians grew up without knowing about Operation Polo, about Direct Action Day in 1946, without the slightest idea about the Navy rebellion of 1946, that forced a struggling World War II-battered British empire to its knee, making them realise that they could no longer ‘control’ India. Very few of us realise that if we had leaders who loved the country more than their personal ambitions and habits, the partition could have been prevented. All this memory-loss is not some organic eventuality, it has been so by design.

The political, educational, and media narrative in post-Independence India has been manipulated, controlled, and carefully designed to whitewash the ugly realities of pre-independence India, and the events after Independence. We were made to forget, made to grow up without knowing who we were and how we came to be. We were fed with the potion of “दे दी हमें आज़ादी बिना खड्ग बिना ढाल, साबरमती के सन्त तूने कर दिया कमाल”.

We were made to believe that India became Independent through some otherworldly ‘non-violent’ protest magically carried out by Gandhi and his followers. We were made to believe that Nehru became the PM of independent India through his sheer talent and charisma, and apart from some inconvenient clashes and violence around the creation of Pakistan, mostly because it would have been impossible to ignore Pakistan and the wars India fought with it, we just went to sleep on the night August 14th 1947, and woke up nice, happy and Independent on the next morning.

Razakar atrocities against Hindus

Operation Polo wasn’t a one-day affair, it needed meticulous planning, vision, and some hard decision-making that only Sardar Patel could do. To suppress the Hindu majority’s growing desire for acession with India, Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan had allowed the Razakars to raid, rape, kill and pillage Hindus across the state, unleashing a regime of terror and murder. violating the ‘standstill agreement’ with India, he secretly loaned Rs 15 million to Pakistan and raised a semi-private militia of the Razakars in Hyderabad. Had Operation Polo not happened, and not concluded the way it did, India would have had another sizeable Pakistan literally ‘inside’ Indian territory.

Frightened by the growing awareness amongst the Hindu population in Hyderabad, Nizam Khan ordered the formation of a semi-private army called ‘Razakars’ to suppress the agitations. The Razakars were a wing of the Majlis-e-Itihadul Muslimeen (MIM, or AIMIM as it is presently known). The Razakars managed to raise 1 lakh Jihadis in their army within a span of days.

Historian Frank Moraes records, “From the beginning of 1948 the Razakars had extended their activities from Hyderabad city into the towns and rural areas, murdering Hindus, abducting women, pillaging houses and fields, and looting non-Muslim property in a widespread reign of terror.”

Nehru was aware of all this, but exercising the classic Nehruvian aloofness, he kept ignoring the problem. He was afraid that any attack on the princely state would attract retaliation from West and East Pakistan. Nehru was hesitant to take the decision of storming into the state and annexing it.

Finally, he had to give in, under Sardar Patel’s guidance, the might of the Indian Army fell upon Nizam. It took 5 days, but the Nizam bowed down, and Hyderabad became Indian territory officially, not just geographically.

Take a moment and imagine the consequences of having a ‘central Pakistan’ inside India, apart from West and East Pakistan flanking India on both sides. That is what Operation Polo prevented.

How did the whitewashing work? And how does it continue to this day

When PM Modi announced that 14th August would be observed as the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, the first reaction from Congress party, India’s ruling party for decades after Independence and for nearly 60 years, was, “Pakistan will feel bad”.

Chidambaram’s tweet from 2021

As per the senior Congress leader, India should just ‘forget’ that millions of Hindus were slaughtered in a prolonged, planned massacre right under their own leaders, while the ‘Sabarmati ka Sant’ did nothing, and while their beloved Nehru sat on the throne in Delhi. Millions of Hindus had become homeless overnight, displaced from the lands of their ancestors and looted of their belongings because the ‘government’ that was supposed to take care of them, just left them to die and rot.

Last year, Manickam Tagore, the Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar raised concern over CBSE’s decision to hold exhibitions on the theme of partition saying that such a move would instill hatred into the minds of India’s younger generations. Tagore urged the Centre to ‘preserve’ social harmony by withdrawing its decision in this regard.

The rot of whitewashing runs so deep that there was a veritable trend among ‘secular liberals’ to object to Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. They made statement after statement as if Partition and the violence it unleashed on millions of Indians was just a figment of Modi’s imagination, a minor inconvenience that should remain buried and never remembered.

Some victims of partition are still alive, it is not that old an incident that we just forget and pretend it never happened. The demand for a separate Muslim nation took away one-third of India’s land territory and caused a genocide of millions, it gave us hostile borders on the west, north west, north and east. It took away crucial coastal territory, forests, rivers, farmlands, mineral wealth, and sacred mountains from us and cursed us to perpetual wars for decades.

What kind of justice will we ensure to our citizens if we just forget their sufferings? What sort of future will we build for our children if we annihilate the realities, the mistakes, and the pains of the past and make them believe they just got prosperity by sheer benevolence and brilliance of some specific leaders?

How do we protect the territorial integrity of our nation if we choose to forget how hard it was to obtain in the first place? We have got what we have today through centuries of bloodshed, struggle, poverty, and famines. Every inch of India has been secured through pain and sacrifice and we need to remember that very well.

Pseudo-secular whitewashing of India’s unpleasant realities

The attempts at whitewashing are not limited to Hyderabad liberation, partition, or Direct Action Day. Multiple generations of Indians were made to believe that the Khilafat movement was ‘patriotic’ Muslims protesting against the British rule, not Indian Muslims demanding the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate and venting their anger against the British for sacking the Turkish Caliph. We were told that the Moplah riots were peasants protesting against landlords, who just happened to be Hindus. We were never told that the so-called ‘peaceful’ Congress leaders, firmly believing in the Ahimsa principle of MK Gandhi, had massacred, lynched, and assaulted thousands of Brahmins across Maharashtra after Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi.

Multiple generations of Indians were kept in a state of post-lobotomy ignorance. The stories that connected us to the pain and realities of our struggle were painted over with a dead white coat of secularism. The intricate cultural, civilisational connections that defined our sense of belonging were severed just like Radcliffe’s pen dissecting the ancestral land of our forefathers into separate halves.

By commemorating the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’, and Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, the GOI is ensuring that the present generation of Indians knows how hard it was to secure a fragmented nation, how difficult it was to protect a wounded, bleeding country from enemies outside and inside, and how hard our predecessors fought for our sovereignty to build today’s India.

To know who we are, we need to face the reality. The white paint must be scraped off the wall and fragmented memories must be brought out to the sun for healing. The truth will not endanger us. Truth will make us stronger, and set us free.

Anti-CAA protests: 8 Fraternity Movement ‘activists’ arrested in Kerala, 70 detained from Delhi University, 40 NSUI members booked for blocking train and more

OpIndia Staff
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Anti-CAA protests: 8 Fraternity Movement ‘activists’ arrested in Kerala, 70 detained from Delhi University, 40 NSUI members booked for blocking train and more

Protests have been staged in different states nationwide after the Central government notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). On Tuesday (12th March), the ‘activists’ of the Fraternity Movement of India staged an anti-CAA protest in Kerala’s Kozhikode district. Following this, the police arrested 8 Muslim protestors out of the 9 booked. During the protest, the police lathi-charged around a hundred protestors outside the All India Radio (AIR) station in Kozhikode.

The accused have been identified as Fraternity Movement members Labeeb Kayakkodi (State Vice-President), Vaseem Ali (State Secretariat Member), Raees Ahammad (Kozhikode General Secretary), Aadil Ali (Kozhikode Vice-President), Nasim Abdul Latheef (Secretary, Area), and members Safin Sabeer, Hasanul Banna, and Muhammad Savad, along with Savad’s father, Anas, a member of Welfare Party of India.

The accused Fraternity Movement members have been booked under several IPC sections, including sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 143 (unlawful assembly), 283 (causing danger, obstruction or injury to any person in any public way) 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 ( voluntarily causing harm to deter a public worker from doing his duty) and 177(e) of Kerala Police Act 2011. 

Notably, a case against 124 protesters belonging to the Muslim Student Federation (MSF) and Congress-affiliation National Student Union of India (NSUI) was filed by Thiruvananthapuram Museum Police under Sections 143, 145, 147, 332 and 353 on 11th March. The protesters were also planning to march to Raj Bhavan. Furthermore, the Railway Police Force (RPF) filed a case against 40 NSU(I) members for blocking the train.

As reported earlier, anti-CAA protests erupted at the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in Delhi. Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) led the student protests at the campus.

Besides, around 60 to 70 students affiliated with the All India Student Association (AISA) were detained from the Delhi University Arts Faculty on 12th March over an anti-CAA protest.

In Assam, anti-CAA protests were staged by Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) and the Congress party. During the protests, effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were reportedly burnt. The Congress workers burnt the copies of CAA law as a mark of protest. In addition, CPI(M) workers also lead a demonstration in Kamrup’s Rangia town.

This comes after the Modi government notified CAA on the 11th of March 2024. Under the CAA people belonging to persecuted minority groups in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan—including Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs—who came to India on or before December 31, 2014, will be granted Indian citizenship.

Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast: NIA arrests key suspect Shabbir from Ballari

OpIndia Staff
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Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast: NIA arrests key suspect Shabbir from Ballari

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested the key suspect in the Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast case.

The accused has been identified as Shabbir, who was nabbed from Ballari in Karnataka, however, it is not yet clear if he is the same wanted suspected identified through the CCTV footage collected by the agency.

Shabbir is currently being interrogated. He reportedly belongs to the Cowl Bazaar area in Ballari.

Last week, the NIA and the Central Crime Branch detained a cloth merchant from Cowl Bazaar in Ballari and a PFI cadre in their joint investigation of the blast case.

The development comes days after reports of ISIS link to the Rameshwaram Cafe blast. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 8th March arrested four suspects in the case.

The arrested suspects were previously detained in December 2023 in the Ballari ISIS module case.

Moreover, the suspect in the cafe bombing had taken two intra-state government buses to get to Ballari before continuing to an unspecified location.

Shabbir’s arrest from Ballari appears to have further strengthened the possible ISIS Ballari module link to the case.

CCTV videos of the prime suspect showed that he came on a public bus to the cafe. The investigating agency had also found his cap from near a mosque.

At least four people were injured in the blast at Bengaluru’s popular Rameshwaram Cafe outlet in Whitefield.

Arvind Kejriwal fear mongers about CAA and ‘additional votes to BJP’, launches tirade and brands persecuted Hindus from Islamic states as ‘Pakistanis’: What he said

OpIndia Staff
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Arvind Kejriwal fear mongers about CAA and ‘additional votes to BJP’, launches tirade and brands persecuted Hindus from Islamic states as ‘Pakistanis’: What he said

On 13th March, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, chose the path of fear-mongering against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Notably, the Government of India notified rules for CAA on 11th March and launched a dedicated portal for eligible candidates to apply for citizenship. Opposition parties, including AAP, are seeing it as a political agenda of the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and giving baseless and misleading explanations as to why CAA is bad for India.

What is perhaps most insidious, is the fact that Arvind Kejriwal also unleashed a tirade against the persecuted Hindus and other minorities of Islamic nations who were persecuted and found shelter in India.

Kejriwal released a 7-minute video on the matter in which he questioned the government of India’s intention of notifying rules just before the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. He claimed that if the BJP had done work over the past ten years, they would have showcased their achievements instead of notifying the rules for CAA. He accused the government of discussing CAA instead of solving problems such as soaring prices and unemployment.

Interestingly, Kejriwal completely forgot that his party leader and Delhi MLA Amanatullah Khan systematically settled illegal Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and Myanmar. AAP leaders have extended their support for illegal Rohingyas in and around Delhi. Despite the past actions, Kejriwal accused the government of doing vote bank politics over immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In 2022, the party was seen flaunting the “services” they provided to illegal Rohingyas.

Kejriwal further claimed that the BJP-led government wants to bring a large number of ‘minorities’ from the three countries and grant them citizenship with employment, housing and other facilities. He claimed that the government has failed to provide employment to the youth of India but wants to bring people from Pakistan and settle them here. He claimed that the facilities that rightfully belong to the people of India would go to immigrants. Throughout his speech, he repeatedly called the persecuted minorities from neighbouring Islamic nations, including the persecuted Hindus “ghuspathiyas” (illegal immigrants).

He further claimed that there are 2-3 crore minorities in these three Islamic countries that are very poor. He asserted that by using CAA, the BJP would let the poor people from the three countries enter India and settle there because it would translate to additional votes for the BJP. Arvind Kejriwal claimed to have spoken to many people over the issue, a claim that he has made over the past many times to justify his baseless theories and said they told him the immigrants brought in by BJP using CAA would be strategically settled to places where BJP has less vote share. He claimed that it would help them in the future. Sadly, he completely ignored the fact that CAA is meant for religiously persecuted minorities of the three countries mentioned irrespective of their financial conditions.

The notion that lakhs of poor immigrants would enter India after CAA Rules have been notified is false and misleading. CAA is meant for only those who entered India before 31st December 2014. There is no plan to extend the date. Furthermore, India has been providing citizenship to people from other countries irrespective of their religion. They have to follow some regulations like staying in India for eleven years or more and not indulging in illegal activities to become eligible for citizenship. The only thing that CAA has changed is that the waiting period for those who entered India on or before 31st December 2014 has been reduced to five years from 11 years. It has been done to help the persecuted individuals have a dignified life in the country, which Kejriwal does not seem to think they deserve.

While admitting that the citizenship under CAA would be granted only to those who entered before 2014, he consistently called them illegal immigrants. He forgot that many of these asylum seekers who entered India came on valid documents and a section of them overstayed. The Indian government, in most cases, extend the Visa and grants them time so that they can apply for citizenship. It is the same for all immigrants including Muslims. The only difference CAA makes is that it reduces the waiting period for persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It does not guarantee citizenship as it will only be provided once documents get verified by the authorities and there are no objections over the application.

While the narrative of Kejriwal fear-mongering about increased votes for BJP is insidious in itself, what is most dangerous is that he repeatedly launched a tirade against persecuted Hindus who are seeking refuge in India. The Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have been persecuted based on their religion ever since the partition. Kejriwal kept referring to them as “Pakistanis” in the hopes of creating a narrative against those persecuted Hindus, trying to send a message that these refugees are actually from an ‘enemy nation’, so to speak. It is tragic that these Hindus not only had to flee because of what the Islamists were doing to them, but even politicians in India like Arvind Kejriwal are trying to create hatred against them for their petty politics.

Kejriwal then accused Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma of cheating the people of Assam. Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the language and culture of the people of Assam have changed due to illegal migration from Bangladesh. However, he failed to mention that the citizenship under CAA is subjected to verification of the documents by the concerned authorities. It is not that every immigrant of the specified communities would get citizenship automatically.

Arvind Kejriwal, whose party came out in support of illegal Rohingyas on several occasions, is talking about the threat that immigrants coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh pose. Interestingly, the narrative that CAA is anti-Muslim is failing. It seems that this is the reason AAP has shifted gears and now claims that it would affect the people of India without mentioning their religion.

Appeasement galore: ​School timings for the month of Ramzan revised in Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, work hours of Muslim employees reduced in Telangana

OpIndia Staff
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Appeasement galore: ​School timings for the month of Ramzan revised in Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, work hours of Muslim employees reduced in Telangana

Congress-ruled Karnataka and YSRCP-ruled Andhra Pradesh have changed the timings of schools to suit the schedule of Muslim students observing a fast for the month of Ramzan.

As per reports, the Karnataka Directorate of Urdu and Other Minority Language Schools issued a circular modifying the Ramzan hours for Urdu primary and high schools from 8 am to 12:45 pm.

The Andhra Pradesh School Education Department has ordered a similar change in timings for Urdu-medium schools. Schools will now open from 8 am to 1:30 pm from 12th March to 10th April.

This comes after the Minority Teachers’ Association in Andhra Pradesh urged authorities to consider the requirements of children marking Ramzan.

The directive applies to Urdu medium primary and high schools as well as parallel sections and the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET).

In Telangana, the work hours for Muslim employees have been reduced for the month of Ramzan. This will apply from 12th March to 11th April.

Muslim government employees in Telangana can leave work at 4 pm for the month.

The outright communal nature of these decisions taken by the two Congress-ruled states of Karnataka and Telangana and the YSRCP-ruled Andhra Pradesh exposes the sheer appeasement politics being played by the parties.

What’s worse is that these pro-Muslim decisions come in the backdrop of the several anti-Hindu decisions taken by these very governments in the recent past.

On 27th January, the Karnataka Police removed a Hanuman flag hoisted on a 108-foot pole in Mandya district prompting protests against the Congress government.

The Telangana Revenue Department on 5th March issued a circular cancelling the 3-day holiday of its employees across Hyderabad on 8,9 and 10 March on account of Mahashivratri because the CM had visits scheduled.

The very next day, on 6th March, the Telangana government issued a circular that stated, “Government hereby permits the Muslim Government Service/Contract/Out-sourcing/Boards/Public Sector Employees/Schools working in the state to leave their offices/schools at 4 pm during the Holy Month of RAMZAN.”

This exposes a stark difference between the treatment to Hindus and Muslims under the Congress government.

Additionally, on 8th March, as devotees gathered to observe Mahashivaratri in Telangana, the police resorted to aggressive tactics, including baton-charging the crowd that was merely attempting to cross the barricades.

The lack of proper crowd management and empathy from the police led to chaos and unnecessary violence, tarnishing what should have been a joyous occasion of spiritual observance.

The Andhra Pradesh government too has in the past tried to interfere with a temple administration and was called out for the same by the High Court as well as the Supreme Court. In June 2022, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government launched a drone pilot training program, the ads for which stated that the program was only for candidates belonging to Muslim and Christian communities.

‘We Muslims just have fun with a cha**ri like you’: Muslim man pretends to be Hindu, rapes, forces victim to have abortion, says won’t marry a Hindu

राहुल पाण्डेय
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‘We Muslims just have fun with a cha**ri like you’: Muslim man pretends to be Hindu, rapes, forces victim to have abortion, says won’t marry a Hindu

Another Love Jihad case has come to light from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district. In this case, the accused Talib Hasan pretended to be a Hindu man named Ankit and trapped a Dalit girl who was a widow. As per the reports, the accused had been raping the victim for over four years by threatening to leak her obscene photos and videos. It is alleged that he deceivingly intoxicated her and recorded her obscene videos while sexually assaulting her in an OYO room.    

According to reports, the love jihad incident took place in the Crossing Republic police station area of Ghaziabad. The victim works as a security guard while the accused Talib Hasan works as a salesman in a medical company in Noida. The accused sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions and forced her to undergo abortions whenever he impregnated her. He also extorted Rs 2 lakh from the victim. 

When the victim learned about his real identity, she lodged an FIR against the accused Talib Hasan, and his family members on 9th March. The Police have shared details about the incident from the official X handle of Police Commissionerate Ghaziabad. 

In her complaint, the victim stated that in February 2020, she met Talib who introduced himself as Ankit. Talib, originally a resident of Moradabad, works as a medicine salesman in Noida. They soon developed a friendship which lasted for around 4-5 months. During this time, Talib maintained his false identity as Ankit and once proposed to the victim. But she rejected his proposal. 

Later when Talib promised to marry her, the victim fell for it. On one occasion, the accused called her to an OYO room and despite her reservations, she went there. As per the allegations, he gave her intoxicants after which he raped her and videographed the incident without her knowledge. 

According to the victim, the accused Talib Hasan raped her on multiple occasions by threatening to leak her obscene photos and videos. After being subjected to multiple sexual assaults, the accused got the victim pregnant in February 2021. The accused claimed that some compulsions were delaying their marriage and forced her to undergo an abortion on 14th March 2021.   

Later, the victim started pressing him to tie the marital knot. According to reports, one day when the victim was travelling in an auto, Talib dragged her out of the vehicle and started physically assaulting her. 

As per reports, the accused revealed to her that he is a Muslim and he was only using her while also hurling casteist abuses. 

The accused reportedly said, “I wanted to have fun with you, which I did. I have no intention of marrying you. I am a Muslim and you are a Hindu. Anyway, Ch***ri, you are of a low caste. Who will marry a cha**ri like you? At least I won’t. Now I have no interest left in you. Go and die somewhere. I will marry a Muslim girl of my choice. We Muslims are only interested in girls like you to have fun, not for marriage.” He also brutally assaulted her. 

When the girl went on to complain about him to his family members, they also hurled casteist abuses at her. 

While abusing the victim, Talib’s family members said, “Cha**ri, this dream of yours will never be fulfilled. A non-Muslim girl cannot come into our house. Whatever Talib did to you is not considered bad in our religion. It is considered our fashion to indulge in debauchery with Hindu girls.” 

According to reports, before these incidents, Talib had already forced the victim to undergo abortion 3-4 times. He had also extorted approximately Rs 2 lakh from her through blackmail.

In her complaint, the victim has also named Talib Hasan along with his mother Noorjahan, his sisters Gulfsha, Mumtaz, and Gulshan, his brothers-in-law Dilshad and Rashid, brother Aneesh and sister-in-law Sabina. All of them are accused of hurling casteist abuses and harassing the victim. Police have registered an FIR against all the accused under sections 328, 376, 313, 406, 423, 323, 504, and 506 of the IPC and the SC/ST Act. OpIndia has accessed the FIR copy. 

Meanwhile, Police have arrested the accused Talib Hasan and an investigation into this love jihad case is ongoing.

‘Red terror down down’: ABVP stages nationwide protest against SFI after torture by their members pushed a veterinary student to suicide in Kerala

OpIndia Staff
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‘Red terror down down’: ABVP stages nationwide protest against SFI after torture by their members pushed a veterinary student to suicide in Kerala

On 12th March, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), staged protests in various universities across the country after a 20-year-old student JS Siddharthan at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Kerala’s Wayanad committed suicide. Police have arrested six members of the leftist Student Federation of India (SFI) for torture and humiliation of the deceased victim.

The members of ABVP held protests at Banaras Hindu University, Delhi University, Osmania University, Hyderabad Central University, Rajasthan University, Annamalai University and Gujarat University demanding strict action against SFI members accused in JS Siddharthan’s suicide.

“ABVP condemns the violence perpetrated by SFI criminals and polluting the academic environment with severe violence and brutality. JS Siddharthan, a second-year student at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, was subjected to a brutal assault by SFI criminals, resulting in severe injuries and humiliation before he tragically took his own life. ABVP demands immediate action against the perpetrators and provides justice to Siddharthan and his family. Despite repeated incidents of violence and intimidation by SFI criminals, there has been a lack of concrete action by the authorities, which is unfortunate and deeply concerning,” ABVP said in a press statement.

During the protests by ABVP seeking justice for the deceased student, effigies of SFI were burnt amidst sloganeering, and “Ban SFI”, “Red Terror Down Down”, and “Justice For Siddharthan” posters were also put up.

Taking to X, ABVP wrote, “Activists of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Allahabad University, Prayagraj unit demand justice for the family members of the student who died due to inhuman atrocities committed by #SFI goons at KVASU, Kerala and strict action against the culprits. A protest was held.”

Speaking about the ABVP protests at the crossing near Ramjas College in Delhi University’s North Campus, Delhi University Student Union joint secretary Sachin Baisla said, “The leftist student union SFI has a long criminal history. Kerala’s educational institutions have become a safe haven for these criminals bred by CPI(M). Siddharthan’s case in Kerala and the ragging that led to his suicide bring back the danger that SFI and other leftist groups bring into the educational institutions’ campuses. SFI’s involvement in criminal activities in Kerala also underlines the criminal history of these unions. Today, ABVP burnt the effigy of SFI in Delhi University’s campus in protest against criminals of SFI as well as demanded a speedy and strict investigation against the perpetrators of this incident so that such unfortunate incidents don’t repeat.”

ABVP members stage protest at crossing near Ramjas College in Delhi University’s North Campus

Meanwhile, ABVP’s National Secretary Yagywalkya Shukla accused the leftist government in Kerala of “failing to protect educational institutions from rampant  violence, corruption, and hooliganism perpetrated by SFI criminals.”

This comes after 20-year-old JS Siddharthan (or Siddharth) was found dead in the KVASU hostel on 18th February. Several SFI members are accused of torturing the student for days leading to the suicide. Siddharthan’s death sparked an outrage in the state following which Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan suspended Professor (Dr) MR Saseendranath, the vice-chancellor of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. Moreover, 31 university students were also suspended on the recommendation of the anti-ragging committee for connections with the case.

As reported earlier, most members are members of the Students Federation of India (SFI), a student group affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). A total of 11 accused have been arrested so far, and 4 of them are leaders of the SFI.

Notably, JS Siddharthan’s body was found hanging in a toilet of the college hostel in the afternoon. His post-mortem report carried many revelations including that he suffered a severe beating before death. Furthermore, his stomach was empty and there were wounds on his body. He sustained head, jaw and back injuries. 

Afterwards, the police registered a case of unnatural death in this case. Twelve students comprising left-wing student leaders were also suspended from the college after its anti-ragging committee found the victim was brutally beaten up by fellow students days before his death. The arrested individuals are not among the suspended students who are evading capture. According to Sidharth’s father, left-wing students regularly tortured his son. The suspended SFI leaders and members include the college union president, a union member, and the SFI unit secretary.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case. Opposition parties and the father of the student had blamed the SFI for the death of the student.

Chaos over free haleem in Hyderabad after restaurant announcement goes viral: Police lathi-charge to disperse crowd

OpIndia Staff
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Chaos over free haleem in Hyderabad after restaurant announcement goes viral: Police lathi-charge to disperse crowd

On 12th March, a huge crowd gathered outside Azebo Bukhari Mandi Hotel in the Malakpet police station area in Hyderabad to get their hands on free haleem offered by the hotel for one hour on the first day of Ramzan, a Muslim festival. The crowd led to a traffic jam and police were called to disperse the crowd.

However, the crowd did not pay heed to the request by the Malakpet police officials who reached the scene and eventually the police resorted to lathi-charge to clear the area. Furthermore, the hotel also stopped giving free haleem as the situation turned uncontrollable.

Haleem is a mutton stew mixed with lentils, wheat and spices. The ingredients are slowly cooked on low flame for hours in Ghee which turns them into a thick paste. It is usually made during Ramzan.

Mismanaged PR for ‘free haleem’ offer

According to Navbharat Times, Azebo Hotel’s PR team ran a campaign to inform the customers about the free haleem offer on the first day of Ramzan. They included a large number of food bloggers from the city in their campaign. The information about the offer went viral on social media platforms leading to a large crowd reaching out to the hotel for their share of free haleem. Amidst all the ‘well-planned’ PR campaign, the Hotel management apparently forgot to inform the police and get permission to organise such an event which led to traffic jams and chaos.

Speaking to Times of India, Malakpet inspector U Srinivas said, “The hotel management did not inform or take prior permission to distribute free haleem. A case will be registered [against the hotel] for causing disturbance to free movement of the traffic.”

A case has already been filed against the hotel owner in the matter.

Several injured as TDP and YSRCP workers clash in Andhra Pradesh

OpIndia Staff
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Several injured as TDP and YSRCP workers clash in Andhra Pradesh

Several people sustained injuries in clashes between workers of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in Narasaraopet town in Andhra Pradesh, police said.

The incident unfolded on Tuesday evening when TDP candidate Chadalavada Aravinda Babu and party members visited the wards, according to a police official.

TDP and YSRCP workers hurled stones and bottles at each other, which resulted in serious injuries.

The injured members were promptly admitted to a private hospital for treatment. Narasaraopet MLA candidate Chadalawada Aravinda Babu sustained minor injuries.

An official said a case will be registered soon, and further details will be announced.

Meanwhile, in the run-up to the elections for the state assembly and Lok Sabha, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Jana Sena Party (JSP) sealed a seat-sharing pact in Andhra Pradesh on Monday.

TDP chief and former Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that his party has “forged a formidable seat-sharing formula” among its alliance partners.

According to the statement, the BJP will contest from six seats, the TDP from 17 seats and the JSP from two seats for the parliamentary elections.

In the assembly elections, the BJP will contest from 10 seats, the TDP from 144 seats and the JSP from 21 seats, as per the statement.

After the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) announced to contest the Lok Sabha Polls in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that he is ready to fight against the alliance and said that Chandra Babu Naidu’s cycle is rusted and therefore fetching support from other political parties.

“Elections are ahead. We are ready to fight against the alliance. YSRCP will stand with weaker sections,” he said.

The TDP, which was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance until 2018, expressed interest in reviving the alliance after suffering a crushing defeat in the 2019 elections. The state has 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 Assembly seats.

Elections for Lok Sabha polls are expected to be held in April-May. (ANI)

(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)

2018 Hapur lynching case: 10 persons convicted, get life sentence for murder of 45-year-old Qasim over claims of cow slaughter

OpIndia Staff
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2018 Hapur lynching case: 10 persons convicted, get life sentence for murder of 45-year-old Qasim over claims of cow slaughter

On Tuesday (12th March), a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur convicted and sentenced ten people to life in jail for lynching a 45-year-old ‘meat seller’ identified as Qasim Qureshi in June 2018 over claims of cow slaughter. The sentence was pronounced by the bench of Additional District Judge (POCSO) Shweta Dixit.

Another victim, 62-year-old Samaydeen, was hurt during the incident. As per the reports, the accused persons were convicted under sections 302 (murder) 149 (unlawful assembly), 307 (attempt to murder) 149, 147 (rioting), 148 (being armed with a deadly weapon), and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

All convicts Rakesh, Hariom, Yudhishthir, Rinku, Karanpal, Manish, Lalit, Sonu, Kaptan, and Mangeram of Dhaulana’s Bajhaida village have been sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 59,000 each.

Earlier, in a written statement to the Court, the primary accused, Rakesh Sisodia had denied any role in the attack and had claimed he was not present at the spot when the alleged lynching happened in the year 2018. Residents then stated that rumors of cow slaughter caused the lynching but the police dismissed the claim.

The complainant and victims were represented by Adv Vrinda Grover, Adv Soutik Banerjee, Devika Tulsiani, Haji Yusuf Qureshi (Late) and Mohd Furquan Qureshi.

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