Video games, foreign movies, and music have been outlawed in Afghanistan under the Taliban government because they are considered to be anti-Islamic. This ban is first imposed in the western city of Herat in Afghanistan. More than 400 firms in Herat had to shut down as a result of the sudden ban enforced by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
According to Maulana Azizurrahman Mohajir, the provincial head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the establishments were shut down after several parents complained about how their kids were wasting time there. He said, “These shops were selling films that depicted and promoted Indian and Western values and culture, which are very different from Afghan culture and traditions.”
Reiterating that the Taliban considers such activities un-Islamic, he added, “The films they were selling did not have women in hijab, which is against Sharia. This is why the sale of such films is prohibited.”
The ban came after restrictions on other pastimes and types of entertainment that go against the Taliban’s radical Islamic Sharia law. The Taliban, earlier this month, prohibited women and families from accessing the garden restaurants in Herat.
The Taliban closed hookah facilities across the nation in October 2022. Smoking hookah is an everyday pastime for Afghan men. The Taliban closed down eateries owned and run by women in the city of Herat earlier in May 2022 and forbade men and women from dining together there. The Islamist group, has forcefully imposed severe constraints on how Afghans can behave and how men and women can interact with each other.
Earlier yesterday, leftist propaganda outlet The Wire, infamous for its Tek Fog and Meta hitjobs, published a video of Karan Thapar interviewing former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik.
Karan Thapar, a known Modi baiter whose pathological and irrational hatred of the current dispensation is well-documented, found in Satya Pal Malik a fitting ally to propagate the Left’s anti-Modi propaganda that has come to define his brand of ‘journalism’ and his organisation, The Wire’s predilection for attacking the BJP and shielding terrorism and corrosive Islamist mentality underpinning it.
While the interview covered a broad range of topics and events, one thing that stood out in the interview was Satya Pal Malik’s comments on the Pulwama attack and Karan Thapar’s alacrity to perversely interpret them to show the Modi government in a poor light and give a free pass to terrorists and Pakistan-based terror organisations that were responsible for the death of 40 CRPF personnel in a suicide bombing attack in February 2019.
And on expected lines, the interview had the ‘liberals’ bouncing off the walls as they enthusiastically shared the video and hailed Malik and Thapar for ‘speaking truth to power’ and ‘hard-hitting journalism’—word salads that the Left ideologues often resort to—to aggrandise malicious sensationalism that aides them in their ultimate goal of undermining their beté noire, the Modi government.
Satya Pal Malik, a mediocre administrator by all accounts, was until a few months back an object of criticism for the liberal ecosystem because he represented the Modi government. However, the change in the attitude of the Left came about after his fallout with the Centre. Moreover, his recent interview with the propaganda website The Wire washed him off of his past “sins” and firmly embedded him as the toast of the liberal firmament, with liberal ideologues and their trolls bending over backwards on social media platforms to exalt the former J&K governor.
Even though Karan Thapar and Satya Pal Malik touched upon various issues, their evident bonhomie and assistance to each other during the interview gave one an impression that the proverbial ‘you scratch my back, I will scratch yours’ sentiment was at play. Malik, who had fallen out of favour with the current regime owing to his mediocre handling of responsibilities entrusted to him, was the perfect stick for the Left to beat the Modi government, especially when preparations for the all-important 2024 general elections are already underway.
Malik, on the other hand, was seeking recognition and acknowledgement and perhaps even political revival by making statements that were music to Thapar and were in line with the leftist worldview. Toward the latter part of the interview, the mask of neutrality and objectivity eventually falls off as Thapar prompts and hints Malik towards answers that reinforce the Leftist canards against the Modi government, most notably over the Pulwama attack.
Satya Pal Malik blames Centre for the Pulwama attack
In his interview, Malik blamed the Modi government for the Pulwama attack—a line of argument long parroted by the Left—describing it as a false flag operation months before the 2019 general elections. Malik hews to the liberal narrative, claiming that the Home Ministry under the Modi government refused permission for airlifting of the CRPF personnel to Kashmir, which he claimed ultimately led to the ensuing tragedy.
“The CRPF people had asked for aircraft to ferry their people,” said Malik, to which Thapar promptly asks if they asked him for providing an aeroplane for the transfer of the soldiers. “No, they did not ask me. They asked the concerned departments, which are the Home Ministry and the Defence Ministry, which refused to provide them with aircraft to ferry the soldiers.”
“That very same evening I told the Prime Minister that the attack has taken place because of our fault. If we had provided aircraft to the CRPF convoy, this attack could have been avoided. But he asked me to remain silent,” Malik goes on to say.
“Even Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor who was once my classmate, told me to remain silent on the issue. I then realised that the onus of the attack will now be shifted to Pakistan,” Malik added.
“So it was the policy of the government to blame Pakistan for the attack and it will help us in elections,” said Thapar, elaborating upon Malik’s claims.
Insinuating that the Pulwama attack was an inside job, Malik claimed that the road meant for the CRPF convoy was not properly sanitised. “There were 8-10 link roads on that specific stretch where the tragedy took place, and none of them was manned by police or Indian armed forces,” he said.
Subsequently, Thapar tries to absolve Pakistan of the attack, slyly asking Malik if they were indeed involved in the attack or wrongly blamed by the Centre for electoral gains in the upcoming general elections.
“Pakistan was involved in the attack. The amount of RDX that car was carrying could not have been internal, but we are responsible for not locating the car that was laden with such quantities of explosives running around in Kashmir,” Malik said.
Thapar’s interaction with Malik provides a fascinating insight into the two personalities. Malik’s ‘conscience’ to come out clean was awakened only 4 years after the incident and conveniently just a year before the next general elections, posing obvious questions on the timing and his political expediency over the matter. If he felt the government had erred on the matter, what took him so long to come out and express his opinions on the matter? If he were really a conscientious politician as he casts himself to be, why did he keep mum on the turn of events that allegedly took place in the wake of the Pulwama attack in February 2019?
Secondly, Thapar’s reaction, which was predictable owing to his political leanings and ideological moorings, reinforces the Left’s position on the stand, which had always been on the prowl to give a clean chit to Pakistan and pin the blame of the attack on the Centre as an “insider job” carried out to reap electoral benefits in forthcoming general elections in May 2019. It shows that the Left is yet to reconcile itself to the fact that an overwhelming majority of the country, cutting across religious and caste distinctions they had fomented, voted for the Modi government in the 2019 general elections.
Malik’s contentions gloss over the role of Islamist ideology that underpinned the Pulwama attack
In essence, the conversation between Karan Thapar and Satya Pal Malik held the Indian government and its concerned institutions responsible for the Pulwama attack that led to the death of 40 CRPF personnel because they had allegedly turned down the request to fly the soldiers directly to their desired destination.
What such spurious arguments do is that it provides a free pass to the terrorists and Pakistan-based terror outfits and shifts the onus of responsibility for the attacks on the victims. In this case, India and the Indian government suffered a terrible blow when a convoy of vehicles carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel to Srinagar via National Highway 44 came under a suicide bombing attack on February 14, 2019.
A 22-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist from Kakapora in Jammu and Kashmir, rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying the CRPF personnel, resulting in the death of 40 jawans.
Tellingly, the Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist even shot a video of himself justifying his act before carrying out the suicide attack against CRPF personnel. In the video released following the attack, Adil Ahmad Dhar referred to Indians as “Gaay ka Peshab Peene Wale(People who drink cow urine)”. Boasting about the terror attacks carried out by Jaish-e-Muhammad, Adil said those who committed such acts got Hoors in the afterlife and insisted that he would be in heaven by the time this video is released to the public.
Dar’s video laid bare the religious undertones of the attack and the extent of indoctrination carried out by Pakistan-based terror outfits against India, a Hindu-majority country. It also underlined the longstanding goal of Pakistan to continue sponsoring and carrying out terror attacks in India.
While Malik claims that the terror attack took place because the Home Ministry refused aircraft to CRPF personnel, the religious fanaticism reflected in Dar’s video and the history of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir reveal that the attack would have taken place regardless of the Indian government’s permission to CRPF. If the paramilitary forces had opted to fly through to their destination, Dar, like scores of other Pakistan-trained terrorists, would have attacked other police or military contingent to continue perpetuating their Islamic jihad in India.
In a nutshell, blaming the refusal of permission to CRPF to airlift their personnel is akin to blaming the creators of Mumbai for having turned a place on the Arabian Sea shore into a city that enabled Pakistani terrorists to carry out 26/11 attacks. Surely, Mumbai could have been a land-locked city, the Left would argue, and it was because of its proximity to the sea that Ajmal Kasab and his fellow terrorists managed to enter India. Such arguments take the onus away from the anti-social elements responsible for wreaking havoc and instead pin the blame on the administration for the attack, which is what happened during Satya Pal Malik’s interview with The Wire’s Karan Thapar.
Hours after The Wire published Satya Pal Malik’s interview, the Pakistan state media used it to give a clean chit to the country from its involvement in the Pulwama attack. Quoting Malik, the Pakistan state media claimed that it was immediately clear from the Pulwama attack that it was aimed at blaming Pakistan and advancing BJP’s gains in the elections.
The former governor says that in February 2019, Modi prevented him from revealing the truth about the Pulwama attack and it was immediately clear from the Pulwama attack that the attack was aimed at blaming Pakistan and benefiting the BJP in the elections. pic.twitter.com/P7FXTR65d7
How the Indian Left continues to act as toilet cleaners of terrorists and Islamists
Indeed, the Pulwama attack underscores the shocking failure of India’s intelligence agencies in sensing and warding off a devastating terror attack. But it in no way eclipses the role of Pakistan and radicalised youth in Kashmir, who are willing to offer themselves as suicide bombers and killers to achieve the mirage of Islamic supremacism, first in Kashmir and then in the rest of the country.
However, Thapar and Malik conveniently gloss over the scourge of Islamism facing the country and went on to blame the Indian government for the attack because it simultaneously allowed them to discredit the Modi government’s victory in the 2019 general elections and act as the toilet cleaners of the Islamists and terrorists. Such a lucrative opportunity could not be missed when PM Modi and the Centre could be blamed for the Pulwama attack over an administrative decision while terrorists and terror outfits based out of Pakistan could be exculpated for attacking the CRPF personnel.
Islamic terrorism emanating from Pakistan and growing radicalisation among the youth remains at the top of the list of the security challenges faced by India. By downplaying these grave security challenges, Malik and Thapar are not only shielding Islamist mentality and undermining India’s security apparatus but also providing ammunition to Pakistan and local non-state actors to continue inflicting wounds on the country with impunity as they are there to shift the blame on the Centre for any untoward incident in the future.
The Left often wrongly blames the Centre for exploiting the dead bodies to bolster its electoral prospects. But if the recent interview of Satya Pal Malik is anything to go by, it is the Left ecosystem, which feels no compunction in using dead bodies, that too of our soldiers, and in whitewashing Islamist criminality in their pursuit to malign the Centre and attack their ideological and political opponents.
On Saturday, April 15, 2023, the Bharatiya Janata Party held a press conference in Delhi and implied that Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is the kingpin of the liquor scam in the national capital. BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia, who addressed the press conference, said that the moment Arvind Kejriwal was called for questioning by the CBI, he started trembling with fear. Gaurav Bhatia said that it’s quite clear that Arvind Kejriwal is the kingpin of the liquor scam.
In this press conference, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said, “We have five questions in front of you. You were heading the meeting in which this whole liquor scam was developed. Why should you not be probed? Vijay Nair is the leader of your party. It has also now appeared that you have conversed with Sameer Mahendru who is one of the accused in this case. You talked to him on Facetime through Vijay Nair. You told him that this Vijay Nair is my man. So you also tell us whether you did converse with Sameer Mahendru on the Facetime call?”
Gaurav Bhatia further said, “Our third question is what is your relationship with the liquor traders? Our fourth question is if your liquor policy was so good then why was it withdrawn? We also have the fifth question. In October 2021, your government issued a notice to Sameer Mahendru’s company saying that his companies are blacklisted and he should give an answer within a week. They did file an answer, but what action did the government take against them? It proves that Arvind Kejriwal’s only work is loot, extortion, and corruption. Arvind Kejriwal is a staunch cheater.”
Bhatia added, “If Arvind Kejriwal has guts, he should answer at least one question out of these five questions. But he is a corrupt leader and will not answer any of them. He and AAP leaders will beat around the bush. Manish Sisodia, whom Arvind Kejriwal calls a staunch honest, went to the Supreme Court asking for relief but the court denied it. Then 14 parties went to court saying that agencies were being politically misused. The court also said that there could be no separate rule for politicians.”
Gaurav Bhatia also quoted the court’s observations about Manish Sisodia. He said, “Sessions court rejected Manish Sisodia’s bail on 31st March 2023. The court said in the order – Manish Sisodia called the then excise commissioner personally to grant L1 to Indo Spirit’s Sameer Mahendru. Why will a former liquor minister pressurize the excise commissioner to give a license to a particular trader? It is because Arvind Kejriwal has taken a bribe of Rs 100 crores. And we are not saying this on our own. The court has also mentioned that. It is the same Sameer Mahendru. You can connect the links. Arvind Kejriwal talked to him through Vijay Nair and told him that ‘he is my man, do as per he instructs. Consider it as my instruction only’.”
Gaurav Bhatia further said, “There is another big revelation in this order. A former deputy chief minister who is being called a staunch honest man is destroying his mobile phones which is important evidence. Why he is doing so? When he was interrogated, it was revealed that he had four mobile phones. When agencies asked for his four mobile phones, he provided only one and destroyed the other three. Why? If he was a staunch honest, he would have provided the three other mobile phones. Did he destroy them fearing that Arvind Kejriwal will also be caught? What kind of honesty is this?”
Concluding the address, the BJP spokesperson said, “Most importantly, the court said – thus it is clear from the above discussion that the applicant had played the most important and vital role in the above criminal conspiracy and he had been deeply involved. If you have not done anything and you do not fear anything then go and answer the questions asked by the agencies. Why does one new spokesperson come every other day and beats around the bush? Applying your standards to yourself, you should take a polygraph test. Take a lie detector test. But you won’t do that as you are afraid. If you answer any of the five questions in your press conference, we will continue this press conference and ask you more questions.”
The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to question him in connection with the Delhi Liquor Policy scam case. According to the news agency ANI, the AAP convenor has been asked to appear before the CBI on 16 April, Sunday.
Senior AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has already been arrested in connection with the case. The AAP govt is accused of changing its excise policy to benefit select business houses.
On Saturday, the dead body of Asad Ahmed, the 19-year-old son of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad Ahmed was buried at Kasari Masari graveyard in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. Asad and his close aide Gulam, both wanted in the murder case of Umesh Pal, were killed by the UPSTF in an encounter in Jhansi on 13 April.
According to additional police commissioner Akash Kulhary, Asad’s family decided to take him swiftly to the Kasari Masari cemetery. Asad was laid to rest at the Kasari Masari cemetery where all of his earlier other relatives, including his grandparents have been buried. Reportedly, the grave of Asad has been positioned next to that of Atiq’s father, Feroz Ahmad.
#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Last rites of Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's son Asad being performed at Prayagraj's Kasari Masari graveyard.
Atiq’s attorneys meanwhile had arrived at the Kasari Masari cemetery to demand that the burial be postponed until the Prayagraj district court opened to hear the incarcerated politician’s request to be permitted to participate in the final rites of his son.
The body of Ghulam Hasan, who was also killed in the Jhansi encounter by the UP STF, was also transported to Prayagraj’s Mehendauri cemetery for burial.
As per the reports, entry into the Kasari Masari cemetery has been restricted and security guards are on high alert. Only about 20 individuals have been permitted to attend the burial at the Kasari Masari cemetery. Drones were employed by authorities to maintain a vigil around the cemetery. The event has been captured on tape by security guards.
This is a day after Atiq pleaded with officials to let him attend the last rites of his son. He and his brother Ashraf were also interrogated by the police for nearly 23 hours. He repeatedly begged for forgiveness for his family throughout the questioning and asked to go to his son’s burial. Around 10 night, the mafia was transported shackled to Prayagraj’s Colvin Hospital as his condition began to deteriorate due to stress.
Atiq, according to reports, had refused to eat. However, he ate the medications and dal-roti afterwards. Atiq meanwhile admitted to taking a shipment of weapons from Pakistan during interrogation and claimed to have called an ISI operative from within the jail.
Asad Ahmed and Gulam Muhammad, both wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, were killed in a police encounter at Jhansi on April 13. They were travelling on a two wheeler when the UP STF traced them, and opened fire on the police when asked to surrender. The police shot at them in reply, killing them.
In the CCTV footage of Umesh Pal’s murder, Asad Pal was seen chasing and attacking Pal with a pistol. Ghulam Muhammad, son of Maksudan, was a gunman who fired shots during the Umesh Pal murder.
As reported earlier, Asad and Ghulam were constantly moving around to avoid capture by police and had reached Jhansi to meet someone, in preparation for leaving the state. UPSTF received information about the same and launched an operation. They had been tracking the two for 3 days before they were encountered.
On the basis of a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered against Atiq Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Gulam and nine others.
The Police earlier killed one of the prime accused, shooter, Mohammad Arbaaz, 24, in an encounter in Prayagraj, three days after the murder. The Uttar Pradesh STF team led by Dy SP Navendu and Dy SP Vimal at Jhansi confirmed the encounters meawhile and said that sophisticated foreign made weapons were also recovered from the spot after the encounter.
On Saturday, April 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to post a video of some individuals singing bhajans and playing the manjira (hand cymbal) on board a special train to Somnath in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district. The people who started their journey from Madurai in Tamil Nadu are on their way to attend the two-week-long ‘Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam’ event, which begins on April 17.
While re-sharing the video, initially posted by ST Sangamam, the PM praised the vibrancy and the festive mood around the journey to the Sangamam. “Lovely! The enthusiasm towards #STSangamam is clearly building,” tweeted PM Modi.
PM Modi’s words of appreciation infuriated numerous Muslim Twitter users, who landed on his timeline almost immediately to play the victim card.
Islamists declared that Modi harbours prejudices towards Muslims in the country and would have reacted differently if they had offered Namaz in the same way.
“But a Muslim can’t perform Namaz #peacefully,” bemoaned Mohammed Shakir.
— Mohammed Shakir | محمد شاكر (@myself_shakir) April 15, 2023
Several other Islamists also towed a similar line, jibing perfectly well with the hackneyed liberal propaganda of portraying the Modi government as the enemy of the Muslims.
Some left-leaning ‘liberals’ joined the Islamists to spew hatred by conjecturing that the Muslims would have landed up in jail if they dared to do something like this in Modi’s India.
“Hey Modi, if this act was done by Muslims they would have been end in the jail,” tweeted one @chethankyt.
Hey Modi, if this act was done by Muslims they would have been end in the jail. https://t.co/TXriR00F4w
— ಚೇತನ್ ಕ್ಯಾತನಹಳ್ಳಿ | Chethan Kyathanahalli (@chethankyt) April 15, 2023
“Hope your ಚೇಲಾs appreciate same when Muslim do rather than going in hunting mode modi ಅವರೆ,” tweeted user @PNagarika.
Hope your ಚೇಲಾs appreciate same when Muslim do rather than going in hunting mode modi ಅವರೆ https://t.co/VdXO9JyAvY
Gujarat is hosting the Saurashtra-Tamil Sangamam event from April 17 to 26 under the central government’s Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat initiative which aims to celebrate ancient relations between Saurashtra and Tamil Nadu. The programme will not only look at cultural programmes, but it will also link people through art, food, artisans, education, literature, and sports, to name a few.
Special trains will operate to get people from Tamil Nadu to the state of Gujarat for the event.
Notably, earlier in the day, PM Modi had taken to Twitter to praise the flagging off of the special train from Madurai in Tamil Nadu carrying the first batch of ST Sangamam to Gujarat. The Prime Minister tweeted, “On the special occasion of Puthandu, a special journey commenced from Madurai to Veraval. The #STSangamam is one of the most anticipated events and has created a very positive atmosphere.”
On the special occasion of Puthandu, a special journey commenced from Madurai to Veraval. The #STSangamam is one of the most anticipated events and has created a very positive atmosphere. https://t.co/IDtxHRu6QS
As part of the Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam initiative to celebrate ancient relations between Saurashtra and Tamil Nadu, a sports festival will be organised in Gujarat under the Olympic associations of the two states. According to an official release from the state government, the sports festival, the Sports Challengers Trophy, will include competitions in tennis, table tennis, kabaddi, swimming and volleyball.
The 10-day event, which will see the Ministry of Education and Culture collaborate with the Government of Gujarat, is expecting invitees between 3000 to 5000.
In a landmark decision, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday announced to conduct Constable (General Duty) examination for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in 13 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English.
The examination in 13 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English will be conducted from January 1, 2024 onwards, mentioned an MHA statement. In addition to Hindi and English, the question paper will be set in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri and Konkani.
The decision will result in lakhs of aspirants taking part in the examination in their mother tongue and regional language and improve their selection prospects.
The historic decision has been taken at the initiative of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give impetus to the participation of local youth in the CAPF and encourage regional languages.
Constable GD is one of the flagship examinations conducted by the Staff Selection Commission attracting lakhs of candidates from across the country.
States and Union Territory governments are expected to launch wide campaign encouraging local youths to use this opportunity of taking the examination in their mother tongue and participate in huge numbers to make a career serving the country, said the MHA.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guidance of Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah is fully committed to encourage use and development of regional languages,” added the MHA statement.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
On Saturday, the Japanese Police detained a young man who has been charged with throwing an explosive towards Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a political event in the city of Wakayama in Japan. The name of the suspect has not yet been revealed publicly, but several uniformed and plain-clothed police officers held him down before being hauled to the side, as reported by the local media channels.
Police said they have arrested a man who appears to have thrown a bomb at Prime Minister Kishida Fumio when he was about to give a speech.
The explosion that occurred on Saturday in Wakayama at a rally of the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, did not result in any injuries. At around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, a loud explosion was heard accompanied by white smoke at Saikazaki Port in Wakayama City. The PM was immediately surrounded by security personnel, evacuated and safely transported to an unknown location by Japanese officials.
#DEVELOPING: A man has been arrested following a loud explosion at a port in Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was visiting. #9News
A number of witnesses say they saw someone throw a silver, cylindrical object and that it must have exploded.
After the blast, the Japanese PM took to Twitter to affirm that he will continue to stand on the stage of street speeches. “We are now holding elections, the most important part of democracy for our country. I have to ask each and every one of you, who are the main players in this country, to clearly show your thoughts. With that thought in mind, I continue to stand on the stage of street speeches. I am determined to carry this important election through to the end, working together with the people,” he said in his first tweet since Saturday’s explosion.
As reported earlier, there was the sound of an explosion at the location. Kishida reportedly sought sanctuary at the venue and escaped unharmed.
The video footage of the incident was made public by the Japanese media in which several police officers could be seen protecting the Prime Minister while others who had gathered at the scene for the speech could be seen fleeing for safe shelter.
The event occurred a few months after Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan, was tragically assassinated in July 2022 while giving a campaign speech before the Upper House election.
Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed, who are accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, will be booked under the Unlawful Activities Preventions Act (UAPA). The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has gathered clues regarding Atiq Ahmed’s connection with Pakistan’s ISI, and the Islamist terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which led to the UAPA charge.
This comes after Atiq Ahmed confessed in a statement given to the Uttar Pradesh Police that he has direct connections with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terror outfit LeT.
In his statement included in the police chargesheet, Atiq Ahmed said, “I have no dearth of weapons because I have direct connections with Pakistan’s ISI and the terror organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. Weapons from Pakistan are dropped on the Punjab border with the help of drones and local connection collects them. Terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir get weapons from this consignment. If you take me with you, I can help you recover the money, arms, and ammunition used in the incident.”
Ahmed has also revealed that he had informed his wife Shaista Parveen, who is a co-accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, about the plan to murder Umesh Pal, including how the weapons will be procured and kept. Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen is currently absconding.
Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were brought to Dhoomanganj Police Station in Prayagraj last night.
#WATCH | UP: Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were brought to Dhoomanganj Police Station in Prayagraj, last night (14/04) pic.twitter.com/0oNisVPldJ
Reportedly, Asad Kalia, a close aide of Atiq, and his brother Faizan were also arrested from Umri village. According to reports, Asad Kalia was wanted in a number of cases and had a Rs 25,000 bounty declared on his head.
In addition to this, disclosures regarding the cash that was retrieved from Atiq Ahmed’s office have been made by the UP police and STF. Atiq Ahmed’s office was searched on March 21 and ten illegal firearms and cash worth Rs 74 lakh 62 thousand were found.
According to the investigation, Atiq’s son Asad, who was gunned down in an encounter, received 80 lakh rupees from a Lucknow builder by the name of Mohammad Muslim. Two days prior to the encounter, Asad received the cash. The money was supposed to be distributed among the accused who shot down Umesh Pal.
Umesh Pal murder case
Umesh Pal, a key eyewitness in the 2005 murder of the then BSP MLA Raju Pal, was shot dead at his residence in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on February 24. He was taken to a hospital immediately, but he passed away while receiving treatment. After reviewing the CCTV video from the crime scene, the Prayagraj Police identified the criminals. Based on the complaint by Umesh Pal’s wife Jaya Pal, police booked Atiq Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, his wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.
It is notable that on April 13, 2023, Asad Ahmed, the third son of Atiq Ahmed was gunned down by the UP Police STF in an encounter at Jhansi. Along with Asad, his associate Ghulam Muhammad, son of Maksudan, a gunman who assisted Asad in killing Umesh Pal and 2 other police personnel, was also killed.
Surender Matiala (60), a Kisan Morcha leader of the Delhi BJP, was shot dead on April 14. He was seated in his office when at around 7:30 pm two armed strangers burst in and started shooting at him. His office is located under the Bindapur police station area of Dwarka, Delhi.
The whole incident was captured on the CCTV camera in which two assailants can be seen entering his office and shooting him in the presence of others. The assailants arrived on a two-wheeler and wearing helmets, ensuring their faces are not captured by cameras.
The accused fled the spot after shooting at Surender Matiala and the politician was rushed to a neighbouring hospital where he was pronounced ‘brought dead.’ He was shot six times, which resulted in injuries to his chest and stomach.
He had run for councillor and was a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Matiala in the 2020 assembly elections. He was currently the incumbent president of BJP Kisan Morcha of Najafgarh district.
Correction: Deceased Surendra Matiala was not an ex-councillor but contested the municipal elections.
Surendra Matiala was shot multiple times, as per the preliminary investigation, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) M Harshavardhan of the Dwarka district. “The probe is ongoing. If any new information surfaces, immediate action will be undertaken,” he remarked.
The official informed, “Several police teams are working on the case. The crime branch has been called for an inquiry. The police are looking for the motive behind his murder. Police are looking into everything. The cops are currently in charge of the dead body and it is being sent for postmortem.”
The police have sealed the place of the incident and are exploring CCTV evidence. Police stated that statements of people who were present at the scene at the time of the incident are being recorded, and conveyed that his family has not so far raised any suspicions against anyone.
Authorities added that a murder case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered and sections of the Arms Act have also been invoked.
The deceased cousin Ram Singh noted, “Around 7:30 pm, two unidentified miscreants entered the office with helmets in hand and suddenly they started firing indiscriminately, the miscreants fired several rounds, out of which 4-5 bullets hit Surendra. After committing the crime, the miscreants fled from the spot. The people present inside the office helped admit Surendra to the hospital where the doctor declared him brought dead.”
“A total of 4 people were present inside the office when the miscreants carried out the incident in which I and two other people were sitting and talking while Surendra Matiala was watching TV. By the time I could understand anything, Surendra Matiala had already been shot,” he continued.
The BJP leader enjoyed a positive reputation, “The image of Surendra Matiala was very good in the area and some people of the area cannot digest that so someone decided to shoot and kill him,” a local asserted. The incident has created panic in the area.
In Kenya’s Kilifi County, four individuals are believed to have died from severe fasting (starvation) while 11 others were rescued on Thursday, April 13, after police stormed a home in Shakahola village. The four people who passed away, three men and a woman, were members of the contentious Good News International Church of Pastor Paul Mackenzie.
According to reports, Pastor Makenzie Nthenge is believed to have advised his followers in Kilifi’s coastal region to starve themselves in order to enter heaven more quickly and meet Jesus. Police prepared the raid for the next day after receiving a tip about the purported prayer session.
The Police officers investigating the case stated that 15 people were recovered in a very bad state during the raids however, only 11 could make it to the hospital. “We can confirm that four of them died while others are being treated at Malindi Referral Hospital,” said a security source involved in the operation.
The Police also revealed that the accused pastor, identified as Makenzie Nthenge, had brainwashed the victims and had asked them to starve to death in order to meet Jesus.
Since the majority of the deceased lacked both identifying cards and cell phones, their fingerprints were collected for identification. However, those admitted to the hospital have been identified as Allan Obiero (17), Wycliffe Waimoi (43), Mercy Aoko (35) from Kisumu, Paul Karisa from Kilifi and Jane Nyambura (38) and Alfred Shitemi (32) from Vihiga, Felix Wandera (37) from Busia, David Abuhaya (49) from Vihiga, Collins Kabaye (22) from Busia, Monica Masika (36) from Kakamega and an unknown adult female.
This is not the first time individuals have been persuaded to join risky, unmonitored churches or cults in Kenya, a country with a strong religious tradition.
More than ten residents of Kilifi’s Shakahola and Msimba villages suffered significant injuries earlier this month as a result of attacks by neighbours who identified them to be members of the controversial church.
Meanwhile, two weeks after a Malindi court ordered it, the remains of two children who were reportedly starved to death by their parents have still not been unearthed. Reports mention that the absence of a government pathologist is what has caused the delay.
In an interview, Pastor Mackenzie had claimed to have had visions of “Jesus” and that he thought he possesses spiritual prophetic abilities. This, according to him who is the father of seven, is the foundation of his version of Christianity, but he claimed to have ceased preaching in 2019.
