Days after Anju from Rajasthan went to Pakistan to meet her ‘friend’ Nasrulla, it has come to the fore that she has been gifted money and a piece of land for converting her religion to Islam.
According to the reports, the CEO of a real estate company based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa named Mohsin Khan Abbasi offered her a cheque and also a piece of land in the presence of her husband Nasrulla.
Khan met Anju on Saturday, July 29, and presented her with a land document of a 10-marla plot to help her start her new life in Pakistan.
“Anju travelled all alone from India to this part of Pakistan and converted to Islam to start her new matrimonial life. We came here to welcome her to our religion and congratulate her on her marriage,” he said.
He said that the lady shall not face any difficulty while in Pakistan. Earlier, an anonymous businessman had gifted Anju a flat of Rs 40 lakhs.
Anju got married to her Pakistani ‘friend’ Nasrulla on July 25 and converted her religion to Islam. The lady, who is already married and a mother of two kids, named herself Fatima after converting her religion to Islam.
Notably, this comes days after Anju could be seen enjoying dinner with Nasrulla’s friends. She could also be seen wearing a burqa in the images.
Earlier, Anju had refuted the media reports that claimed that she had married Nasrulla. However, later the nikahnama of the duo was out in public which showed that the lady had married Nasrulla and changed her religion to Islam.
Anju’s husband in India, Arvind, stated that the woman had lied to him that she is going to Jaipur to visit her sister and the next thing he knew was that she is in Pakistan.
Now Arvind has stated that Anju’s Visa should be investigated and that her documents should be thoroughly checked. He also appealed to the Indian government to take strict action against the woman as he decides to part ways with her.
Earlier, it was reported that Anju travelled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan to meet her lover, 29-year-old Nasrullah, from Upper Dir. They met on Facebook four years ago and started liking each other soon. During questioning by Pakistani authorities, Anju claimed that she could not live without Nasrullah.
However, Anju in her last video said that she would return to India by August 20 and that she was just in the country to enjoy sightseeing.
In a horrifying incident of crime against women in Rajasthan, two minor sisters were allegedly gang-raped by two men for one and a half years in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, police said on Monday, 31 July. The police officials stated that both the accused were known to the victims. The accused used to work at a brick kiln. They reportedly worked alongside the father of the minor girls and are absconding ever since the news of this horrific incident came out.
The Police have registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. However, no arrests have been made so far in this case.
Alwar SP Anand Sharma said, “We have registered a case of rape under POCSO and IPC. Our teams are raiding places to nab the accused. Only after their arrest will it be clear if they are minors or above 18.” The police officials added that both the minor sisters are pregnant.
On Friday, 28 July, the minor girls’ father lodged a complaint at the NEB police station in Alwar. In his complaint, the victims’ father has said that his two daughters, whose ages are 15 and 13, were raped by two men named Sappi and Subhan. He also added that both the accused impregnated his daughters.
The father added that when he confronted the accused, one of them tried to force him to keep quiet and offered him Rs 2 lakhs as “compensation”. Following this, he went to the police demanding justice for his daughters.
The horrific crime was unearthed when the elder girl complained of abdominal pain and other health-related issues. The Police stated that when her parents took her to a nearby clinic, the doctor informed them that the minor girl was seven-and-a-half months pregnant.
A senior officer of the NEB police station said, “The girls’ father took care of the cattle and the two girls were engaged in taking cows and goats for grazing. The elder daughter complained of abdominal pain and her dad took her to hospital.”
Subsequently, the victim recounted her ordeal and stated that the accused had threatened to kill them if they told anyone about the incident.
As per the police officials, the medical test confirmed that both girls are pregnant and the younger victim in this case was two-and-a-half months pregnant.
The Police said, “When her parents questioned her, the girl then said two persons, Sappi and Subhan (age not verified) had raped her and her sister for more than 18 months. A medical examination was done on her sister and she was also found pregnant.”
Another incident of rape with a minor in Alwar
Another horrifying case of crime against a minor girl came to light in the district on Saturday, July 29. The schoolgirl’s family alleged that the victim was drugged and gang-raped by two bike-borne men. Both the accused abducted her at knifepoint when she was on her way to school on July 27.
Citing FIR, a senior Police officer said, “At knifepoint, she was forced to sit on the bike. She was then given sugarcane juice laced with drugs, taken to a room, and raped by the duo. When she regained her consciousness she found herself disrobed. Both the accused threatened her and asked her to keep quiet and claimed to have videographed the crime. They threatened to make the video viral if she told anyone.”
However, the ordeal for the survivor did not end there. The officials stated that the accused sent the schoolgirl home and summoned her back with a change of clothes and again gang-raped her.
The officer said, “She returned out of fear and was then taken to the Kothputli area on the outskirts of Jaipur where she was gang-raped again. At 8 pm on July 27, she was left at a police outpost from where she contacted her family.”
The incidents of love jihad and aligned religious conversion continue to emerge from the state of Maharashtra highlighting the urgent need of stringent law against forced conversion in the state. In a recent dreadful case reported from the Rahuri region of Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, a minor girl has registered an FIR against 8 individuals for love trapping her and then forcing to convert her religion to Islam.
The accused persons have been identified as Avej Nisar Sheikh, Kaif Sheikh, Sohail Sheikh, Heena Sheikh, Alisha Sheikh, Salim Pathan, Altaf Sheikh and Shakir Sayyed. The Police has also arrested four of these identified accused including two women and have booked the others under section 354, 354D, 109, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and under sections 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act.
FIR copy obtained by OpIndia
Accused teacher Heena trained Hindu girls to behave like Muslims
As per the complaint copy obtained by OpIndia, the incident is said to have happened in the Umbre village of the Rahuri, Ahmednagar. The victim girl in the complaint copy said that she along with her friends who study in standard 10th had joined tuition classes at accused Heena Sheikh’s home. The girls had joined the tuition classes in the year 2021 and continued to attend the classes until the true face of the accused teacher Heena Sheikh got exposed.
The accused teacher allowed other boys from her community to enter the tuition and also allowed them to gather around the classes in presence of the Hindu girls. She used to ask the girls to be friends with them and speak in Hindi only. The victim girl in the complaint said that the boys (other accused booked) had nothing to do with the tuitions but were allowed to sit with them given the permission of accused Heena Sheikh.
The teacher also asked the girls to behave like Muslim girls and wear burqa. She also wanted the girls to stop wearing bangles and apply kumkum on their foreheads. She allowed other accused boys named Avej, Kaif, Sohail and others to sit in the tuitions with the Hindu girls.
Avej trapped a minor girl and forced her to run away with him, wear burqa
“One day while I was going home, one of the accused Avej stopped me and told me that he liked me. Initially he showed so much respect towards women so I decided to be friends with him. Later he began establishing casual contacts with my brother and then began coming home. In the due period he also told me that he loved me and that he could not stay without me,” the victim girl said in the complaint.
Accused persons named in the FIR
The accused then began messaging the girl on her phone and also showed her fake concern regarding her safety. The girl also said in the complaint that Avej had forced her to send some of her photographs to him. She says that later he used the images to blackmail her for his benefits.
“I also had started believing him. One day he told me to quit Hindu religion and run away with him. He said that many people from his community in the village knew about our relation and that they were all ready to help us with money, home and other resources. All he wanted is just me to say yes. But I didn’t. The next thing I knew is he cut his hand and pressured me to talk to him and convert my religion to Islam,” the girl was quoted as saying.
Avej’s friends, sister interfered and helped him to trap Hindu girls
As per the FIR, accused Avej asked his sister Alisha to interfere and convince the victim girl. Accordingly, Alisha met the victim girl and told her that Avej was madly in love with her and that he wanted to talk to her. Alisha then helped Avej to be in touch with the victim girl. Avej also used to message her on Instagram and blackmail that he would viral her photographs if she refused to talk to him.
“One day during the tuition hours, I heard Kaif and Sohail talking to Avej. The duo were provoking Avej to abduct me. They said that they would manage home and some money for us and that abducting me was the only good option. I felt something serious wrong was happening here and so I stopped talking to Avej,” the girl said.
He continued though to message me on Instagram but I stopped responding. “This happened somewhere in 2021. I was too scared to tell this all incident at home. After that my father took away my phone and asked me to concentrate on exams,” the victim added.
The girl registered complaint on July 26 after another girl from her tuition filed a police complaint against Avej. The victim then told her parents about Avej and his behaviour with her for past two years. The complaint was then registered also against Kaif, Sohail, Heena, Alisha, Salim Pathan, Altaf Sheikh and Shakir Sayyed.
3-4 girls from tuition exposed Avej, teacher Heena; accused them of imposing forced practices
The victim girl also mentioned in the complaint that she was forced to wear burqa by Alisha and Avej and told to behave like Muslim girls by her tuition teacher Heena.
As per the sources, the around 3-4 girls from the same tuition have come forward and accused Avej of trapping them in love affair separately and then forcing them to respond to his ‘proposal’ leading to forced conversion.
OpIndia has obtained three different FIR copies in which it the three victim girls have mentioned that Avej first trapped them in love affair and then made plans with his friends to abduct them.
Teacher Heena helped the boys to attain photographs of the girls which were used to blackmail them
Also, it has come to fore that accused tuition teacher Heena helped the boys in attaining the photographs of the Hindu girls from the tuition. “She used to offer us Shirkhurma on Eid and say that it is mandatory in their religion to click selfie after having Shirkhurma. And then our images were morphed and misused to blackmail us to be in relation with the Muslim boys,” one of the victims in her complaint filed on July 29 said.
OpIndia talked to one of the girls who confirmed the incident. She said that around 7-8 girls have been targeted till date but only three of us have registered official complaints. She said that she and also other girls had to go through a lot due to the tuition teacher and the accused boys.
Sources said to OpIndia that initially no complaints were registered in the case. The administration acted swiftly only after BJP MLA Prasad Lad raised the issue in the State Council and demanded action in the case.
BJP MLA Prasad Lad condemned the incident and said that the local administration also brutally assaulted some of the local people and members of local Hindu organization who tried to reach to the truth of the case. He said that the CCTV footage of the event is also available.
Counter FIR filed by accused Salim Pathan against 25 Hindu members
Reportedly, a counter FIR has been filed by one of the accused Salim Pathan who said that the members of the Hindu organization attacked his place of work and barged into a nearby Masjid further creating ruckus in the premises. Pathan also claimed that the Hindu members broke damaged the Masjid using rods and sticks. Based on the complaint, the Police has booked around 25 Hindus under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Bombay Police Act.
Sources revealed to OpIndia that the Hindu members have been booked under ‘false’ allegations and that the locals had gone just to seek answers that why were Hindu girls trapped and taken to Masjid.
FIR copy obtained by OpIndia
Hindus deliberately targeted, assaulted; false case, says Hindu activists
Members of the Hindu organization also stated that the police has booked around 25 Hindus but that many people were not present when the incident happened. “This is all a part of plan. 25 active Hindu activits have been deliberatly targeted and these people have nothing to do with the case in first place. Also some of the Hindu members were brutally beaten by the local police while they had gathered to meet the victim girls and help them. The CCTV footage of the incident is available. Also MLA Lad has raised this issue in the Council and sought attention,” sources said.
At present, four of the accused including Heena Sheikh and Avej have been arrested by the Police based on the complaint filed by the minor Hindu girls. Also, 14 out of 25 Hindu members have been taken into custody based on the counter complaint filed by accused Salim Pathan in the case. Further investigations in the case are underway.
Arguing on behalf of Insar Hussain, one of the eight accused in the Rochdale child sexual abuse case, Meyrick Williams on 27th July said the victim, called Girl A, displayed “a vivid imagination”. The trial in the Rochdale grooming gang scandal has been ongoing at the Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, United Kingdom. Eight men, all but one being Muslims, are being tried for raping minor girls over a period of four years. But the chilling facts of the case tell that the abuse gangs are not new to the UK and the exploitation has been ongoing unabated for decades.
Rochdale grooming gangs are known for the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal which dates back to earlier than 2008. The grooming gangs largely comprised of men of Pakistani descent, who raped young girls and supplied them to their connections further to be raped and abused for years. The organized gangs continue to be active to this day.
The Rochdale scandal came at a time when the UK was still struggling to crack down on the paedophilic gangs of Rotherham, known for the Rotherham sexual abuse scandal, which was active from the 1980s to 2013. The paedophiles of Rotherham too were Pakistanis. Similarly, more than 1000 children were exploited in the Telford abuse scandal which went on for years as authorities turned a blind eye.
Rochdale, Rotherham, Oxford, Telford, Leeds, Birmingham, Norwich, Burnley, High Wycombe, Leicester, Dewsbury, Middlesbrough, Peterborough, Bristol, Halifax, Newcastle, Huddersfield, and Hull are only some of the regions in the United Kingdom where the largely Islamist grooming gangs freely went about their perversion.
The ongoing Rochdale trials continue to serve as a chilling reminder of the Rotherham horror even as political correctness has shielded the Islamists and delayed justice for victims. The leftist British media too has been complicit in this crime of diverting focus from the plight of the victims by brushing the Pakistani Muslim identity of the accused under the carpet.
The Islamist appeasers are complicit in denying justice to the victims and rubbing salt in their wounds when they cry racism every time the identity of the accused Pakistanis is revealed. Here is the two-part story of the scandals that gripped many British towns, and how delayed justice has exposed the Islamist apologists of “great” Britain.
Rochdale, Telford, Rotherham…or the entire UK?
It all began in the 1980s in the town of Telford. Vulnerable children as young as 11 were picked up, raped, beaten, sold, and killed by grooming gangs for a full forty years. The young girls were tossed from one rapist to another, most of whom were from the Muslim community of British Pakistani origins, and worked in an organized manner. Three girls were murdered and two others died in tragedies linked to the scandal. As many as 1,000 girls suffered in a town of 170,000 people.
A similar racket was unfolding in Rotherham parallelly. Around 1,500 girls were raped, abused, sold, and bought by men of Pakistani descent in a town of 260,000 people. Many victims were gang-raped. The abuse went on unabated from 1997 to 2013.
In Rochdale, the horror began in 2002. At least 47 young girls were subjected to abuse. Such has been the response of administrative and legal authorities that the grooming gangs continue to walk freely on the streets of “great Britain”.
Convicted predators of Rochdale. (Top L-R) Adil Khan, Mohammed Amin, Abdul Rauf, Mohammed Sajid; (Bottom L-R) Abdul Aziz, Abdul Qayyum, Hamid Safi, and Kabeer Hassan. (Source: The Guardian)
Many victims were living under the care of social services. Young and impressionable girls from vulnerable backgrounds were the usual targets of the jihadi abusers who brainwashed their victims. A love/grooming jihad-like pattern had emerged wherein the victim was befriended by the abuser to gain her trust and manipulate her into believing the savages.
An investigation by the Newcastle police codenamed Operation Sanctuary was launched in 2013 and it revealed that more than 700 girls were reportedly enslaved and abused for years. Minor girls were taken to parties and ladened with drugs like cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, or mephedrone before being raped and abused. One of the victims was under the care of the Newcastle council when she was raped.
Those prosecuted were largely British-born Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Iraqi, Iranian, and Turkish, with the exception of one Indian, most were living in the West End of Newcastle. The conspirators not only perpetrated and abetted rapes but also arranged the transport of the victims to the rapists, arranged premises to perpetrate the crime, and dealt with drugs.
The gangs put their hands on every minor girl they could. In Huddersfield, one victim attempted suicide, another had an abortion, and two had learning disabilities. Despite the distressing nature of the crimes, the investigations have been so painfully slow that in Rochdale eight more men were charged as recently as on 27th July this year.
In Telford, the Pakistani perpetrators were running a rape house while they made the victims believe they were in love. They bought alcohol and cigarettes to lure the children. The accused working as taxi drivers or food delivery drivers would target the victims by offering them a lift, buying them fast food, and topping up their mobile phones to eventually make them believe that they were “lovers”.
Studies call this “the boyfriend method” or “the loverboy model”. It is better known as love jihad or grooming jihad in India wherein the accused is almost always a Muslim and the victim a non-Muslim and the act even has religious sanction.
What sends chills down the spine is the added vulnerability of the victims primarily due to an unbothered administration. Authorities in Telford came under heavy criticism for “ignoring” obvious signs of child sexual exploitation. Inquiry into the decades-long scandal revealed that probe agencies did not coordinate efficiently on the details of the cases. Some agencies also dismissed the exploitation and even blamed the victims while the accused jihadis were on the loose.
Furthermore, institutions and persons in professions that dealt with children were discouraged from reporting the abuse. Police and the Telford council “scaled down specialist teams to ‘virtual zero – to save money”. The inquiry findings say that this turning a blind eye to the cases only emboldened the rapists who continued to go on a spree despite some victims approaching the police. The extent of the assault was so damning that the abuses had become “a way of life to which they (the victims) had become accustomed”.
Picture of rape victim Lucy Lowe with her daughter Tasnim. Lowe was 14 when she was made pregnant by rapist Azhar Ali Mehmood. She, along with her mother, sister, and her unborn child, was killed in a house fire set by Mehmood. (Source: Sunday Mirror)
Threatening the victims with murder and threats of harming their families if they complained led many victims to suffer silently at the hands of the Islamists. The accused used the mind-boggling case of Lucy Lowe, who was murdered alongside her mother, sister, and unborn child in August 2000, to tell the other girls that they would meet the same fate if they spoke about the rapes to anyone. “Every boy (accused) would mention it”, the report read.
Azhar Ali Mehmood, predator who raped Lucy Lowe and murdered her along with her mother, sister, and her unborn child by setting fire to their house in Telford. (Source: Sunday Mirror)
In a trial at the Worcester Crown Court, evidence showed that one victim was raped while she was four months pregnant. The report said that many of these crimes of brutal rape racket and murder could have been avoided had the “West Mercia Police done its basic job”.
The fact that this inquiry report on the Telford child sexual abuse racket was published only on 12 July 2022 proves just how lightly the cases were taken to be dragged for decades, delaying justice to the victims, and giving a free hand to the criminals.
Lucy Lowe’s daughter Tasneem Lowe had survived the fire set by her mother’s abuser. (Source: BBC)
For example, it was only this year that the Lancashire police admitted the possibility of a link between the disappearance and gruesome murder of Charlene Downes and grooming gangs. The 14-year-old’s body was allegedly minced into pieces and served as kebabs to customers at a takeaway restaurant in her hometown in Blackpool.
Charlene Downes was 14 when she disappeared from her hometown in Blackpool, Lancashire in the UK. (Source: Breit Bart)
In Rotherham, the child sexual abuse scandal had been running for three decades until the 2012 trial which brought it to light. This was followed by an expose of how the authorities put a lid on the cases for years.
It took a public outcry for the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to commission an independent inquiry in October 2013. In at least two cases where the fathers approached the police, they ended up being arrested themselves while absolutely no action was taken against the perpetrators.
The inquiry report terms the number of victims (1,400) as a “conservative estimate” hinting that the actual scale of the exploitation could be far bigger. Victims were gang raped, raped by multiple men, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated.
“There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone”, the report reads. It further added that the abuse was still continuing.
According to the report, the perpetrators usually targeted children’s residential units and residential services for caregivers. Victims from dysfunctional families in need of attention and affection were often the easy targets. They were picked up by taxi drivers from outside homes, children’s shelters, and schools, which also raised alarms over the same.
The grooming began with a young boy who would first approach the victim and would befriend her over a period of time. The accused would then start introducing the victim to older men and distance them from their families and friends.
With technology, it got easier for jihadis to identify and target their victims. Some of these children were moved to accommodations where they became more vulnerable to the perpetrators. The unaffected approach of authorities abetted for decades the already long-running brutal gangrape of minors by British-Pakistani predators.
The 2013 report mentioned the shocking case of a 12-year-old victim who was made to have sex with five men but a Criminal Investigations Department officer claimed that it should not be categorized as sexual abuse because the girl had been “consensual in every incident”.
Despite there being evidence of child sexual exploitation from the beginning, the inquiry report mentioned that there was a “blatant collective failure of political and officer leadership”. The scale and seriousness of cases were downplayed by senior managers within the social care system, police did not act on the complaints of victims, and reports were suppressed leading to cover-ups.
Left to right: Abdul Rehman, Nahman Mohammed, Mohammed Kammer, Wiqas Mahmud, and Mohammed Imran Ibrar (Source: The Yorkshire Post). 42 men have been jailed so far in the Huddersfield grooming gang cases
In some cases, the victims were young boys, which was also underreported. “One young person told us that ‘gang rape’ was a usual part of growing up in the area of Rotherham in which she lived”, the report reads.
Another report published in August 2017 exposed how the victims were repeatedly let down by investigation agencies. It said that on several occasions, the police did not believe the victims. “They were threatened with wasting police time, they were told they had consented to sex and, on occasion, they were arrested at the scene of a crime, rather than the perpetrators.”
In Hull, the gangs targeted primary school girls as young as 9 years old. Jim Gamble, the former head of the child exploitation and online protection service in Hull, told Sky News, “It’s not just about exploitation, it is about rape by appointment.” Recalling the horror, one of the victims said, “I’ll never forget that girl I saw sat there in a primary school uniform, probably eight or nine years old. She was there with her sister, who was a little bit older, and I remember her screaming in that bedroom.”
Rochdale was witness to two child abuse scandals; one which started after 2000 and the second after 2010. In 2008, the case of the grooming gangs of Rochdale came to light only after the police received calls about a 15-year-old smashing a takeaway joint. At the outset, the cops dismissed the incident as an act of vandalism and arrested the teen.
In the course of her six-hour-long statement, the rape victim poured her heart out about the abuse she was being subjected to and the consequent act of vandalism was the release of pent-up frustration.
A grooming gang of nine pedophiles had repeatedly intoxicated, raped, and threatened the victim with violence, known as Girl A. She was driven to and from pedophiles across the north of England. Girl A was only one among many white girls to be abused at the hands of the barbarians.
One of the accused was a Muslim preacher while many others were married Pakistani men with children. At least 47 victims were identified. Victims were also used to recruit other girls for the violent sexual pleasures of the perpetrators. The victims were taken to rooms above takeaway shops, and driven across towns to be raped by gangs of Muslim men.
In Rochdale, a lackadaisical administration compelled whistleblower (Margaret) Maggie Oliver, a former cop with the Greater Manchester police investigating the abuses, to resign and turn campaigner to expose the full scale of the scandal, a work which she continues to this day. A more detailed account of whistleblowers will follow in part 2 of the report.
The pattern of crime resembled across cities as did the pattern of botched-up investigations, political correctness, victim shaming, and delayed justice. As we delve further into the details of the investigation in the second part of this report, here are the names of the accused, at least those identified, from across several UK cities to set the record straight:
Abdul Qayyum, 44
Kabeer Hassan, 25
Qamar Shahzad, 30
Abdul Rauf, 43
Mohammed Shazad, 39
Abdul Aziz, 41
Adil Khan, 42
Mohammed Sajid, 35
Liaquat Shah, 41
Hamid Safi, 22, from Afghanistan
Mohammed Amin, 45
Shabir Ahmed, leader of the Rochdale child sexual abuse racket
Azhar Ali Mehmood
Mohammed Ghani, 38
Insar Hussain, 36
Ikhlaq Yousaf, 38
Jahn Shahid Ghani, 50
Martin Rhodes, 39
Ali Razza Hussain Kasmi, 36
Aftar Khan, 34
Mohammed Iqbal, 67
Wayne Ellis, 53
Maqsood Khan, 41
Asif Khan, 39
Abdul Rob, 46
Benjamin Tyrrell, 40
Itfaq Hussain, 42
Arshad Hussain, 45
Dave Lawton, 37
Ahdel Ali, 23
Mubarek Ali, 28
Ali Sultan, 24
Tanveer Ahmed, 39
Mahroof Khan, 33
Noshad Hussain, 21
Mohammed Islam Choudhrey, 52
Nashir Uddin, 35
Saiful Islam, 35
Yasser Hussain, 28
Mohammed Azram, 35
Jahangir Zaman, 44
Mohammed Hassan Ali, 34
Badrul Hussain, 37
Abdul Sabe, 40
Mohibur Rahman, 44
Habibur Rahim, 34
Carol Ann Gallon, 22
Abdulhamid Minoyee, 34
Taherul Alam, 32
Monjur Choudhury, 33
Nadeem Aslam, 43
Prabhat Nelli, 33 (Indian-origin)
Eisa Mousavi, 42
Redwan Siddique, 32
Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, nicknamed ‘Pretos’ (converted from Islam to Sikhism)
Irfan Ahmed, 34, nicknamed ‘Finny’
Zahid Hassan, 29, nicknamed ‘Little Manny’
Mohammed Kammer, 34, nicknamed ‘Kammy’
Mohammed Rizwan Aslam, 31, nicknamed ‘Big Riz’
Abdul Rehman, 31, nicknamed ‘Beastie’
Raj Singh Barsran, 34, nicknamed ‘Raj’
Nahman Mohammed, 32, nicknamed ‘Dracula’
Mansoor Akhtar, 27, nicknamed ‘Boy’
Wiqas Mahmud, 38, nicknamed ‘Vic’
Nasarat Hussain, 30, nicknamed ‘Nurse’
Sajid Hussain, 33, nicknamed ‘Fish’
Mohammed Irfraz, 30, nicknamed ‘Faj’
Faisal Nadeem, 32, nicknamed ‘Chiller’
Mohammed Azeem, 33, nicknamed ‘Mosabella’
Manzoor Hassan, 38, nicknamed ‘Big Manny’
Niaz Ahmed, 54, nicknamed ‘Shaq’
Mohammed Imran Ibrar, 34, nicknamed ‘Bully’
Asif Bashir, 33, nicknamed ‘Junior’
Mohammed Akram, 33, nicknamed ‘Kid’
UK has sung “God Save The Queen” for a good 70 years and has made its colonies sing the same in the past centuries. Despite having snatched civilizations off of their resources, if this so-called developed nation cannot even muster the will to save its children, then God and God alone can save them; although their God too might have to fight a battle of his own with the accused who acknowledge no other God but their own. Till then, the future of the UK’s daughters will continue to hang by a thread.
The showpiece event of the cricketing world, the ODI World Cup is set to be hosted by India during the months of October and November this year. The 2023 edition of the tournament is supposed to begin on October 5 at Ahmedabad with a game between defending champions England and New Zealand, and conclude on November 19 at the same venue. However, thanks to BCCI’s excellent organisation, we can’t be sure about the dates and timings of any other match even though the tournament is just 9 weeks away.
The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) initially announced the schedule for the biggest tournament in the cricketing cycle at the end of June, just over 3 months before the actual tournament. Such a late announcement of the schedule for such a big event has made it really tough for international fans to come to India for the tournament to support their teams. Planning your holidays, plane tickets, hotels, visas etc at such short notice is a nightmare, as anyone who has ever travelled out of one’s country to watch a tournament will tell you. If that wasn’t bad enough, we have now found out that even that schedule isn’t final. So the ones who have managed to sort out their papers and holidays to watch the tournament – losers!
the schedule is apparently set for a change now. 3 cricket boards have written to BCCI to change their schedule due to the lack of a rest period between some of their matches. Reportedly, BCCI has accepted the request and a new schedule is going to be announced. Changing dates for 3 boards will mean changing dates for everyone as well and the entire thing will have to be reworked. Even that may not be the final schedule as some boards may have a problem with the revised schedule as well and we may see further revisions. A problem that could easily have been avoided by preparing a schedule well in advance. BCCI has known for years that they were going to host this tournament, it wasn’t sprung on them at the last minute.
Another reason why the tournament schedule is going to see a change is that BCCI has suddenly discovered that Gujaratis celebrate Navratri with great fervour. The marquee India-Pakistan clash is currently scheduled for October 15 in Ahmedabad when the Navratri celebrations will be going on. To ease the burden on security forces during their busiest period of the year, now that match will have to be moved to a different date, again having a domino effect on the rest of the scheduling and changing it.
Interestingly, BCCI hasn’t yet realised that October and November are the months of smog in Delhi when even normal breathing is difficult and have scheduled 5 matches in Delhi during that period. Either we are going to see yet another change or we are going to see players coughing for 100 overs trying to perform at the top level while struggling for Oxygen. Delhi pollution has stopped a Test match once earlier, maybe it is the time for a One Day International this time.
One good thing that BCCI has done though is that they haven’t sold any tickets yet. Under normal scenarios, this would have been incompetence but now that the schedule isn’t finalised, at least the fans can be grateful that they aren’t left holding tickets for dates when the matches aren’t going to take place.
Reportedly, the tickets are going to go on sale from August 10, less than 8 weeks away from the tournament opener. However, one can’t be certain of that date as well because how can they sell tickets when even the schedule hasn’t been finalised. Even considering August 10, it leaves precious little time for fans to organise everything if they want to follow their team around India watching all their matches. Another interesting thing is that BCCI has announced that e-tickets won’t be accepted at the stadiums and you have to collect physical tickets and then present them at the stadiums. So, you get to risk a stampede twice, once while ticket collection, and the other time at the stadium when verification of physical tickets will slow everything down.
It all comes down to one thing, BCCI doesn’t care about fans and takes them for granted. They are certain that all Indian games will be full house and nobody will come to see other teams play anyway so why bother with anything that can make a fan’s experience more comfortable? The money has already come from the TV rights and sponsors, and the crowd at the stadium is more of a nuisance for BCCI than anything else. As it is, watching a cricket match in India in a stadium is a poor experience and most stadiums are so unwelcoming. Still, the cricket craze in the country means India plays in front of packed houses, at least in ODIs and T20s. The biggest Test series in India’s calendar, Border Gavaskar Trophy with Australia, was played in empty stadiums earlier this year, maybe that is what BCCI wants for World Cup as well looking at the way how difficult they are making it for fans.
On Monday, July 31, a Railway constable went on a shooting spree killing 4 people, including an Assistant Sub-Inspector, in a Jaipur-Mumbai-bound train. The incident happened in coach B5 of the Jaipur-Mumbai Express (12956) while it was running between Bhayander and Mira Road stations.
According to reports, the accused, RPF Constable Chetan Singh, opened fire from his official automatic gun inside the moving train after it crossed Palghar Station at around five in the morning. He first shot his escort duty in charge ASI Tika Ram Meena. Then went to the other bogie and shot three passengers before pulling the chain and jumping out of the train near Dahisar Station, the Chief Public Relations Officer of the railways said. He was caught by police at Mira Road with the help of Government Railway Police and RPF officials.
RPF Constable Chetan Singh opened fire on Jaipur-Mumbai bound train (Source: NDTV)
“Four casualties, including the ASI, have been reported in the firing incident inside the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express (12956). The accused has been arrested. DCP North GRP has been informed,” the Railway Protection Force has said.
Chetan Singh, the RPF employee, was said to be upset and mentally disturbed as a result of his recent transfer from Gujarat to Mumbai, according to the investigating team. The new position had upset him because it had caused issues in his family. The attack, which resulted in the deaths of four people, including his superior, is thought to have been motivated by mental tension and rage over the development.
Government Railway Police and RPF officials arrested the accused RPF official (Source: NDTV)
The bodies of the deceased were sent to Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital at Kandivali.
The next of kin of the late ASI Tika Ram will receive an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh. The Railway Surksha Kalyan Nidhi would also provide the grieving family with a sum of Rs 15 lakh.
In addition, the Railway would give the ASI’s family a death cum retirement gratuity (DCRG) of around Rs 15 lakhs in addition to funeral costs.
On the 85th episode of the ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash, UP CM Yogi Adityanath discussed the issue of the Gyanvapi disputed structure and made some significant statements.
In a short clip shared by ANI, UP CM Yogi Adityanath was seen saying that calling the structure a ‘masjid’ is a mistake, because anyone can see that it is not.
“There are idols of Hindu gods and goddesses carved on the walls. There are Trishuls and other Hindu symbols all over it. Anybody who has eyesight can see that. There is a Jyotirling. The walls of the structure are screaming the truth. I think now is the time the Muslim society should come together and acknowledge that historical mistakes have been made, and make amends”.
The short clip shared by ANI also shows the UP CM saying that his state has not witnessed a single riot in the last 6.5 years and despite holding large scale elections at all levels, there have been no law and order issues in the state. He has also discussed the lawlessness seen in West Bengal and says that the Opposition wants the entire country to suffer what Bengal has been suffering.
On the issue of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance, he says that just changing a coat won’t change the past deeds of the Opposition parties.
ANI will stream the entire episode of the Podcast with Smita Prakash at 5 pm today 31st July. It can be watched here.
On 30th July, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh called out the United Kingdom for denying a visa to Khalistani terrorist Avtar Singh Khanda’s kin to attend his funeral scheduled for 5th August. Reportedly, Khanda’s mother, 65-year-old Charanjit Kaur, and sister, 32-year-old Jaspreet Kaur, had sought a visa to attend the funeral, but the UK embassy denied it.
Khanda was living in the UK under the guise of political asylum. He died on 15th June this year following a brief illness in the Sandwell Hospital in Birmingham.
Khanda was chief of the banned Khalistani organization Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). He was also an associate of the banned Khalistani terrorist organization Sikhs For Justice (SFK) chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannu. He was under Indian intelligence agencies’ radar for his involvement in anti-India activities. He was the main handler of a pro-Khalistani preacher and chief of Waris Punjab De Amritpal Singh, who was arrested for his anti-India activities. Amritpal is currently lodged in an Assam prison. Khanda played a vital role in the formation of Waris Punjab De with Deep Sidhu. However, after Sidhu’s death, Khanda pushed Amritpal’s name to become the organization’s chief.
Initially, Khanda’s mother and sister sought permission from the Indian government to bring his body to India. However, they did not get any response from the Indian mission in the UK. Then they moved to Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking permission to bring Khanda’s body to India for his funeral at Moga, Punjab, where he was born. They also wanted to immerse his ashes in Kiratpur Sahib. However, they did not get any relief. Earlier, Amritpal Singh’s wife Kirandeep Kaur was also stopped at the Amritsar Airport as she tried to go to the UK to allegedly attend Khanda’s funeral.
SGPC came out in support of Khanda’s mother and sister
After the UK embassy denied their visa, Akal Takht Jathedar came out in their support and called the embassy’s action a ‘human rights violation’. In a video message, he said, “It is a matter of distress that they (Avtar Singh Khanda’s kin) have been denied a visa. This is a sheer violation of human rights,” said Takht Jathedar in a video statement. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and other organisations should make efforts to take up the issue with the UK government and ensure that a visa is issued to his mother and sister.”
Shiromani Akali Dal urged the UK mission to issue a visa
Shiromani Akali Dal’s Delhi unit chief Paramjit Singh Sarna has also supported Khanda’s mother and sister. He has urged British High Commission in India to issue them visas to attend Khanda’s funeral citing universal human rights. He said, “We saw disturbing reports about Khanda’s family being denied UK visas. The British High Commission should honour the international covenant on human rights and let his family attend the rituals and service in the UK.”
UK police not looking into Khanda’s death
Earlier, West Midlands police confirmed that they were not investigating Khanda’s death and deemed it “suspicious”. Speaking to the Times of India, a police spokesperson said, “He [Avtar Singh Khanda] was in hospital when he died. It was not deemed to be suspicious at the hospital, and his death was referred to the coroner. The police were only even made aware of this because of allegations he was poisoned, but he was in hospital for a reason — and that was not poisoning. Our involvement was only because of these allegations. His death is not deemed to be suspicious.”
On Thursday (27th July), the Kerala Police informed that they booked over 300 persons and arrested five youth wing members of the Indian Union Muslim League for raising anti-India and anti-Hindu slogans during a protest march against Manipur violence in Kasargode.
The rally, where the contentious slogans were raised, was held on 25th July this year. Videos of the rally went viral on social media, wherein the youth wing members were seen raising anti-India and anti-Hindu slogans, including threats to hang Hindus in front of temples and burn them alive.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered in the matter on 26th July, 2023. As per the FIR accessed by OpIndia, Abdul Salam, Faisal Babu (Youth League Secretary), Azeez Kolathur, Musthafa Thayannur, Kunhammu Kolavayal, Samad Kolavayal, Rafeeque Kothikkal and 300 identifiable persons were booked in the matter by the police under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 143 (unlawful assembly) and 147 (punishment for rioting) and 149 of the Indian Penal Code.
While speaking to Mathrubhumi, an officer of Hosdurg Police Station said the arrested persons include members of the youth wing and its parent organisation. The case was registered on the complaint filed by Vaishak PK, president of BJP’s youth wing Yuvamorcha’s Kanhangad Mandalam.
Anti-India slogans at IUML youth wing rally
On 25th July, IUML’s youth wing members raised anti-India slogans at a rally against Manipur violence. BJP’s IT Cell chief Amit Malviya shared the video of the incident and criticised the Kerala government for its inaction. He reminded me how a 7-year-old boy had raised anti-Hindu slogans last year during a PFI rally in Kerala. “Kerala is now the new pit of rabid radicalisation,” he said.
In the under 30-second video that has gone viral on social media, slogans like ‘Ambalathil Ketti Thooki’ (We will hang you in the temple) and ‘Pachakkittu Kathikkum’ (We will burn you alive) were raised.
The complete slogan was “Without reciting the Ramayana, Will be hanged in Temple, will be burnt unto death”. The slogan meant without allowing to recite Ramayana, Hindus will be hanged in front of Sanctum Santorum. They will be burnt there unto death. Other slogans included ‘Youth League Zindabad’ and ‘Muslim League Zindabad’.
Youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the Congress, held a rally in Kerala’s Kasargode, and raised vile anti-Hindu slogans, threatening to hang them (Hindus) in front of Temples and burn them alive…
IUML’s top leadership condemned the slogans and claimed the party provided slogans beforehand to the participants and that the anti-India slogans were not part of them.
On Sunday (July 30), BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia slammed veteran Congress MP P Chidambaram for misleading people about the number of airports built and operationalised under the Modi government.
In a tweet (archive), P Chidambaram alleged, “The claims of the government that they had built “74 airports in the last 7 years” are hollow and untrue. Only 11 new airports were built since May 2014 and which are operational. The 74 “airports” include 9 helicopter stations and two waterdromes.”
“The waterdromes closed down soon after the ‘inauguration’! Out of the 74 “airports”, 15 are no longer in use because there are no flights! The BJP-NDA government launched 479 new “routes”. Out of these, 225 are no longer in operation!” he further claimed.
The claims of the government that they had built "74 airports in the last 7 years" are hollow and untrue
Only 11 new airports were built since May 2014 and which are operational
The 74 "airports" include 9 helicopter stations and two waterdromes. The waterdromes closed down…
The Congress leader thanked the controversial left-propagandist newspaper for providing him with the information about the airports. “Each scheme of the government can be exposed as partly true and mostly false. Boast and exaggeration are the hallmark of the present government,” P Chidambaram claimed.
Soon after, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation debunked his claims on social media. Jyotiraditya Scindia remarked, “The Govt. under the visionary leadership of PM Modi has “operationalised” 74 airports, some of which had been lying unutilised for decades & were national liabilities, thanks to zero initiative taken by the previous UPA govts! Therefore, the list of 74 includes, both, erstwhile unutilised airports, as well as new airports.”
He emphasised, “The Ministry of Civil Aviation has under the Greenfield Airports Policy 2008, operationalised 12 Airports in the country since 2015. Operations in Hirasar (inaugurated this week) will begin shortly. For your information, only 3 greenfield airports were built in the last 65 years!”
“Operation of a route is completely dependent on market demand (airlines assess the feasibility of operation on a particular route and bid under the scheme). Airport infrastructure can be utilised as and when demand picks up. Also, as airlines create capacities and demand for air travel picks up, many discontinued routes are being bid for again by airlines under new rounds of the UDAN scheme,” he further informed.
1. The Govt. under the visionary leadership of PM Modi has “operationalised” 74 airports, some of which had been lying unutilized for decades & were national liabilities, thanks to zero initiative taken by the previous UPA govts! Therefore, the list of 74 includes, both,… https://t.co/RivHygyqys
— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) July 30, 2023
Jyotiraditya Scindia stated, “Under the UDAN scheme, 74 Airports/Heliports/Water Aerodromes have been revived/upgraded and operationalised since the inception of the scheme. More than 1.23 crore people and 2.23 lakh flights have flown under the UDAN scheme – the possibility of which was NIL during the UPA regime. And that’s a FACT that can’t be washed away by sensationalist Twitter posts.”
The Union Aviation Minister added that the efforts undertaken by the Modi government demonstrate its commitment to expanding infrastructure, providing accessibility to remote areas and supporting regional development.
“The UDAN scheme is also the sole reason behind the birth of many regional airlines that cater to such routes…These developments have involved incurring unprecedented capital investment – almost Rs 75000 crore in the last 10 years – which is directly linked to the growth of employment in the country and has a deep social impact apart from meeting the growing aspirations of all the strata of the society to undertake air travel, ” he added.
Scinidia concluded, “What earlier governments failed to achieve in 70 years has been achieved in merely 9 years! P Chidambaram ji, clearly, fact-checking is not the current Congress’ strong suit. Desperation for survival and relevance have hit senior discerning leaders such as yourself. Please do not perpetuate half-baked truths!”
Jyotiraditya Scindia hits out at political opportunism of I.N.D.I.A. parties
Hitting out at the opposition’s I.N.D.I.A. alliance, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that parties “who used to hate each other” are now coming together “like a family.”
“Under the leadership of PM Modi, the country is touching new heights of development. The ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party is based on Jan Seva (service of people), Jan Kalyan (upliftment of people), and Gareeb Kalyan (upliftment of the poor). Opposition is upset and that’s why those parties who used to hate each other and couldn’t face each other, are now coming together like a family,” he said while speaking to reporters here on July 27, 2023.
He said the people of the country have faith in PM Modi and the BJP. “I am surprised that the ideology which was rejected by the people of India several times is being touted again and again by the opposition”, said Scidia hitting out at the opposition.
Further, the Union Minister said, “I am confident that the country will elect the BJP again” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The statement came following the I.N.D.I.A. alliance’s protest in the parliament on July 27 this year.
