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From ‘private terror group’ named Outfit X to ‘Pathaan ka vanvaas’, the film trailer is a cringe fest

Amit Kelkar
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From ‘private terror group’ named Outfit X to ‘Pathaan ka vanvaas’, the film trailer is a cringe fest

Yash Raj Films dropped the official trailer of Shah Rukh Khan – Deepika Padukone starrer Pathaan that is slated to release on January 25.

The film also sees return of actor John Abraham on the big screen after a long time.

The two minute thirty four second trailer starts with a logo which reads ‘YRF Spy Universe’. It seems the ‘Astraverse’ hangover from the assault on our senses that Brahmastra was is still not over. There are cinematic shots of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and streets of Dubai where a man stands in middle of the road wearing mask and blows up an SUV. That man is revealed to be John Abraham.

Voiceover Dimple Kapadia takes over who then explains to viewers that there is something called ‘Outfit X’, a ‘private terror group’ which terrorises for money. So terrorists have moved on from killing innocent non-believers who practice other religions on instructions of their holy books to terrorising for money. Politically correct pro max ultra. The private terror group does not have any aim, but works on contract, we are informed.

The ‘Outfit X’ is planning a massive terror attack, this time on India. Missiles are being activated and moved and there are palm prints being taken to show off missiles. John Abraham informs how this will be such a massive terror attack which India would have never ever thought of. In a video message/live video with people who appear to be Indian Defence Force heads and politicians and tells them how this is not a negotiation but an ‘ultimatum’. Abraham is wearing suave outfit and sitting in a plane instead of being bearded, wearing suicide vests and holding a gun in his hand. This shows terror has gone sophisticated.

We’re not informed what their demands are but there is an ‘ultimatum’. So Indian intelligence agencies get moving and invoke ‘Pathaan’ who now must return from ‘vanvaas’. It appears ‘vanvaas’ is a codename for some undercover work where Shah Rukh Khan, as Pathaan is fighting people in closed tin vans and suddenly flies helicopter inside a building and shoots some ammunition from that helicopter at other people. When Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan did the same in his movie MSG Lion Heart, he was mercilessly mocked at.

MSG Lion Heart – Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (Right)

Deepika Padukone then enters screen in various getups and informs how she’s also a ‘soldier’ just like Pathaan and they should collab to fight the Outfit X, the private terror group. There is a lot of flying around, where SRK and Deepika are hanging from ropes from a flying plane, then some other people are flying ahead of a plane in the V-shaped geese formation leading the plane, it seems.

And at some point, John and SRK have a faceoff. They fight on top of buses, while hanging from planes, while skiing, on bikes, and then at some point they have these gadgets on their backs and they’re flying freely like Ironman does. And then Pathaan shuts up John with a final Jai Hind as a soldier never asks what country can do for him but what he can do for the country.

The movie, ahead of its release, has courted quite a few controversies where some netizens had raised objection over the raunchy song ‘Besharam Rang’. Censor Board had advised the filmmakers to make certain changes in the film including songs ahead of the release.

Dehradun: Hashim lures a married Hindu woman under the pretext of getting her a job, converts her and her three minor children to Islam

OpIndia Staff
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Dehradun: Hashim lures a married Hindu woman under the pretext of getting her a job, converts her and her three minor children to Islam

Despite the anti-conversion law being in place, forced religious conversion is still rampant in the state of Uttarakhand. In yet another case that has come to the fore, a scrap dealer named Hashim has been accused of converting a married Hindu woman and her three minor children to Islam. The matter is related to the Nehru Colony police station area in Uttrakhand’s capital city, Dehradun.

According to reports, Hasim not only duped the woman and her children into accepting Islam by luring her with a job, but he also sent the three minor children to a Madarsa following the conversion. After the incident came to light, the Dehradun police began an investigation into the matter by filing an FIR against Hashim.

The matter came to the fore after an old woman approached the police with a complaint against Hashim. She stated in her complaint that her daughter married a man named Sonu Verma in Dehradun roughly 9 years ago. Thereafter, they became parents of three children. The children are currently aged 8, 6, and 3 years.

The victim’s mother further said that a few years later, her daughter and son-in-law started quarrelling over petty issues, because of which her daughter moved in with her.

In her complaint, the woman further stated that Hashim used to frequent her home in Nehru Colony, where he got acquainted with her daughter and her three children. Hashim started getting irked whenever Sonu Verma visited the house to meet his children. He use to beat up the complainant’s daughter whenever he visited the house. One day, Hashim took the victim along with her three children with him under the guise of getting her a job.

The old woman further said that whenever she urged Hashim to let her meet her daughter and grandchildren, he used to give her uncertain responses. When Hashim was pressurised, he informed that the victim’s three children were studying in a madarsa in Chandpur, Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. The complaint said that after Hashim revealed the truth, she immediately rushed to Uttar Pradesh to bring back her grandchildren. When they returned, the three minor children narrated their ordeal to their grandmother. They revealed how Hashim forcefully converted them and sent them to the Madarsa.

It is believed that Hashim and the woman desired to live together, which is why they sent the children to a Madarsa. Meanwhile, the police have opened an investigation into the incident under the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act 2018 and other relevant provisions of the IPC. Hashim, the accused scrap dealer, has been missing since a complaint was filed against him. The police, meanwhile, have assured that the accused would be apprehended soon.

PUCL, which earlier called for PFI to be ‘un-banned’, says Muslim students face discrimination when asked to wear school uniform instead of hijab

Anurag
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PUCL, which earlier called for PFI to be ‘un-banned’, says Muslim students face discrimination when asked to wear school uniform instead of hijab

The Karnataka chapter of the controversial organisation People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has claimed in a report that Muslim students continue to ‘face discrimination’ by being asked to wear school uniform instead of hijab. As per the report, the team of PUCL-K visited five districts of the state, Raichur, Udupi, Hassan, Shivamogga and Dakshina Kannada, where they interviewed faculty, students and district authorities. Following their visits, they came to the conclusion that Muslim girls and women are “facing harassment” even a year after the hijab controversy.

Titled “Closing the Gates of Education: Violations of Rights of Muslim Women Students”, the report talked about the “harassment” of Muslim students by the college administration. The report claimed that the students were compelled to shift from government institutes to minority institutes.

The report read, “Students from marginalised communities, religious minorities, and Adivasis have repeatedly shared their experiences of discrimination in classrooms and how it adversely affects their self-confidence and inhibits their aspirations for higher studies and sense of freedom. A divided and discriminatory educational space directly galvanises the establishment of a further divided society.”

The report quoted a student, “I left my college and searched for other colleges that allowed girls to wear hijab. There was free education in government colleges, but the travel expense to my new college was high. I wanted to pursue MSc, which is not possible now. It feels that my dreams are now shattered.”

The report further claimed the students were forced to seek support from their own community because of the “sudden change in behaviour of fellow students and neighbours”. It quoted a student as saying, “In rural Udupi, a student said that since there was a sudden change in the attitude of their neighbours and friends, many Muslim women sought support from within their community.”

Quoting more students, the report claimed that Muslim students even received death threats. It claimed that the presence of police on the campuses and confrontation by the male students made them uncomfortable. It also claimed that the male students threatened to kill female Muslim students.

Quoting students from Udupi, the report stated, “Police officials were posted inside the college campus throughout the period from the interim order to the final verdict. Hindu boys were posting threatening messages on WhatsApp groups. They said that they wanted to punish us and kill us. We were scared and isolated throughout, with no one to assure our safety.” The report did not include any screenshots of the threat messages on WhatsApp groups to back the claims.

Notably, the police were stationed outside the educational institutes to maintain law and order. The students who came in hijab were asked to wear school uniforms which were interpreted as “atrocities” in the report. Quoting students, the report read, “Police officials were stationed outside the college to stop us from entering the college with the hijab. Along with the media, they were also taking videos of all of us. It was rather scary to see police forces outside the college. We felt like criminals.”

Arvind Narrain, president of PUCL-K, said, “What the government of Karnataka has done is not uphold the right to education, but deny it. Many girl students did not appear for their final examinations and transferred to other institutions, prompting segregation of students based on religion.”

Blaming the government of “atrocities” for merely asking the students to follow the dress code, Poorna Ravishankar, a member of the PUCL team, said, “This is an unprecedented situation where the state machinery is actively trying to throw students out of classes and out of education.”

PUCL asked for lifting the ban on PFI

In September 2022, PUCL asked to lift the ban on the Popular front of India (PFI). Notably, the ban was imposed on PFI for five years by the Union Home Ministry for its involvement in anti-India activities. A statement said that a dialogue with the PFI should be started. The organisation demanded that the authorities refrain from using their arrest powers arbitrarily to target Muslim youths based on their involvement or support of the PFI and its affiliates.

It urged that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the NIA Act be repealed but that, in the meantime, the NIA Act be altered to guarantee that the State government concerned was contacted, and approval was obtained before the NIA conducted a search or arrest a resident of that State.

Furthermore, PUCL also condemned actions against dubious journalist Rana Ayyub who was accused of misusing money collected through donations during Covid, and former Amnesty India employee Aakar Patel and even the raids on The Wire’s office in November last year.

Co-education is swaying Muslim girls away from Islam, claims Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind’s Maulana Arshad Madani

OpIndia Staff
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Co-education is swaying Muslim girls away from Islam, claims Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind’s Maulana Arshad Madani

On Sunday (January 8), the President of the Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, courted controversy for claiming that co-education is leading to ‘apostasy’ (renunciation of Islam) in Muslim girls.

He made contentious remarks during the executive committee meeting of the Islamic organisation. “It has been started against Muslims in a planned way, under which our girls are being targeted,” Maulana Arshad Madani was quoted as saying.

“If immediate and effective measures are not taken to prevent this temptation, the situation may become explosive in the coming days and this temptation is being strengthened due to the co-education system,” he remarked.

“And that is why we opposed it, and then the media presented our point in a negative way and advertised that Maulana Madani is against the education of girls, while we are against co-education, we are not against girls’ education,” he brazened it out.

While calling for segregation on the basis of both gender and religion, the chief of JuH said, “If we have to defeat this silent conspiracy and achieve zenith of success, then we have to establish separate educational institutions for our boys and girls.” 

In a tweet on Monday (January 9), Arshad Madani claimed, “This game of religious extremism and hatred will destroy the country: Muslims are being politically and educationally marginalized.”

“Save Muslim girls from the temptation of apostasy, Muslims must open their schools and colleges,” he further added, suggesting that co-education and mingling with people of other Faiths are bad.

In July last year,  two warring factions of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH) announced their plans to join hands to fight ‘rising communalism’ and supposed ‘discrimination’ against Muslims in India.

The Islamic organisation had pinned the blame on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its members for fanning religious fanaticism and insulting religious leaders (an indirect reference to the Nupur Sharma case).

Joe Biden’s classified document from his time as VP discovered in a private office space

ANI
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Joe Biden’s classified document from his time as VP discovered in a private office space

President Joe Biden’s special counsel confirmed on Monday (local time) that classified documents from his time as vice president were discovered in a private office space and turned over to the National Archives in November, reported CNN. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the US attorney in Chicago to review documents marked classified that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, two sources with knowledge of the inquiry told CBS News. The roughly 10 documents are from President Biden’s vice-presidential office at the centre, sources said. CBS News has learned the FBI is also involved in the US attorney’s inquiry. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked the US attorney in Chicago to investigate the matter, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN, and congressional Republicans are also taking notice. 

It is unclear what the documents pertain to or why they were taken to Biden’s private office. Federal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends. 

“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement. 

“The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Centre in Washington. The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning. The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys,” Sauber added. 

“The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives,” he added. 

The classified materials included some top-secret files with the ‘sensitive compartmented information’ designation, also known as SCI, which is used for highly sensitive information obtained from intelligence sources, reported CNN. 

Notably, classified documents were similarly found outside the National Archives last summer when the FBI seized boxes of records from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. 

The Department of Justice is investigating Trump for his handling of classified information, though Trump has claimed that presidents can declassify documents “even by thinking about it.” 

It’s unclear if any investigation will be launched based on the discovery of records in the private office Biden used. 

The National Archives and the Department of Justice did not immediately return requests for comment.

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

Twitter Files: Tech giant furthered Pfizer’s financial interests, censored doctor’s tweet hailing natural immunity

Dibakar Dutta
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Twitter Files: Tech giant furthered Pfizer’s financial interests, censored doctor’s tweet hailing natural immunity

On Tuesday (January 10), a new tranche of ‘Twitter Files’ was released which exposed how a board member of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Dr Scott Gottlieb, influenced the content moderation decision of the social media giant. The revelations were made by reporter and writer Alex Berenson.

On August 27, 2021, Gottlieb flagged a tweet by American paediatrician Dr Brett Giroir, questioning the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine, and asked, “This is the kind of stuff that’s corrosive. Here he draws a sweeping conclusion off a single retrospective study in Israel that hasn’t been peer-reviewed.”

“But this tweet will end up going viral and driving news coverage,” he had said in an email to Todd O’Boyle who was the senior public policy manager of Twitter at that time.

Dr Brett Giroir had served as the Head of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), a post held earlier by Dr Scott Gottlieb. The latter realised that the tweet by the former could hurt the sales of Pfizer.

Screengrab of the email transcript by Scott Gottlieb

“It’s now clear COVID-19 natural immunity is superior to vaccine immunity, by ALOT. There’s no science justification for #vax proof if a person had prior infection. CDC Director, POTUS must follow the science. If no previous infection? Get vaccinated!” Dr Giroir had tweeted then.

According to Alex Berenson, the tweet by the American paediatrician was indeed correct as natural immunity following Covid-19 infection was more potent than vaccine-induced immunity.

“…The tweet actually encouraged people who did not have a natural immunity to Get vaccinated!” he emphasised. Berenson pointed out that the senior public policy manager of Twitter, Todd O’ Boyle, forwarded the mail of Dr Scott Gottlieb to the ‘Strategic Response’ team of Twitter.

Accordingly, O’ Boyle flagged the tweet by Dr Brett Giroir to the team without mentioning that Gottlieb had a financial interest in getting the tweet purged (given that he was a Pfizer Board member).

Interestingly, the Twitter team did not find a violation of any of its rules. “Yet Twitter wound up flagging Giroir’s tweet anyway, putting a misleading tag on it and preventing almost anyone from seeing it,” noted Alex Berenson.

He continued, “It remains tagged even though several large studies have confirmed the truth of Giroir’s words.” In September 2021, Gottlieb also tried to censor a vaccine sceptic named Justin Hurt who raised questions about the idea of vaccinating children (despite zero mortality rate).

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but a viral pathogen with a child mortality rate of ~0% has cost our children nearly three years of schooling,” Hart has tweeted.

At that time, Pfizer was working behind the scenes to get its vaccine approved for children between ages 5-11. Scepticism about the vaccine among the parents of the children had the potential to cost the pharmaceutical company millions of dollars.

When Gottlieb reached out to O’ Boyle again, the latter forwarded it to the Strategic Response team. “This time, though, Gottlieb’s complaint was so far afield that Twitter refused to act,” observed Alex Berenson.

Interestingly, the Pfizer Board member was seen mouthing platitudes about the need for ‘respectful debate and dialogue’ in October last year although he tried to censor American paediatrician Dr Brett Giroir’s tweet about natural immunity.

This was despite the fact that Giroir did not engage either in misleading dialogue or targeted harassment. “Gottlieb is not just a Pfizer board member,” Alex Berenson wrote.

“He is one of seven members of the board’s executive committee and the head of its regulatory and compliance committee, which oversees “compliance with laws, regulations, and internal procedures applicable to pharmaceutical sales and marketing activities,” he added.

“Pfizer has a long history of violating drug industry laws and ethics rules. In 2009, it agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in American history, for fraudulently marketing several drugs,” Berenson further added.

“In 1996, it conducted a clinical trial of an antibiotic in Nigeria in which 11 children died and which became the inspiration for John le Carre’s novel The Constant Gardner,” the writer concluded.

The ghost of Ajmer’s serial rape and blackmail scandal reappears, slain journalist’s sons avenge father’s murder after 30 years

OpIndia Staff
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The ghost of Ajmer’s serial rape and blackmail scandal reappears, slain journalist’s sons avenge father’s murder after 30 years

On January 7, former councillor Sawai Singh was shot dead at a resort in Pushkar. His death brought back memories of the infamous 1992 Ajmer Serial Rape and Blackmail Scandal. The accused, Surya Partap Singh and Dharam Partap Singh, are the sons of slain journalist Madan Singh, who was assassinated in 1992.

The police recovered a country-made pistol and three bullets from Surya Partap’s possession. Sawai Singh sustained bullet injuries on head and stomach. Surya escaped the scene but was arrested on January 8 by Pushkar police.

Surya Pratap got himself clicked with a wide smile on his face. He told the media he has no remorse for what he did. During interrogation, he admitted to having killed Sawai Singh to take revenge for his father’s murder. As per reports, Sawai Singh was in the Baseli village to distribute cards for his son’s wedding. Surya followed him consistently. Reports suggest that Surya and his brother Dharma Partap Singh followed Sawai Singh for over a week. They also sent their relative Vinay Pratap Singh to do keep an eye on Sawai Singh’s movements.

When Sawai stopped at Yuvraj Fort Resort for tea with his associates, Surya and two others opened fire at him. Sawai Singh’s associate Dinesh Singh also sustained a bullet injury and getting treated at a hospital. Dharam Partap Singh is still at large.

Madan ran a weekly newspaper back in the day and had covered the Ajmer rape and blackmail scandal extensively. As per reports, when the scandal was exposed, it was revealed that a local gang had raped and blackmailed numerous young women in Ajmer. The police allegedly stalled the matter due to the political pressure and involvement of Farooq Chishti, the head of the Ajmer Indian Youth Congress. Chishti belonged to the Khadims of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah.

Madan was threatened repeatedly for writing extensively about the matter. Madan was shot in 1992 on Srinagar Road in Ajmer. However, he managed to flee. He was rushed to the JLN Hospital in Ajmer. Later, while Madan was getting treated for the injuries, 5-6 assailants attacked him in the hospital and killed him.

The police charged now-dead Sawai Singh, former Congress legislator Rajkumar Jaipal, Narendra Singh, and others with murder. However, in 2012, the court found all the accused not guilty. When Madan was killed, his two sons, Surya and Dharma, were only 8 and 12 years old, respectively. After the court found the accused not guilty, Madan’s sons vowed to avenge the murder of their father. In the last decade, they attempted twice to take revenge but failed. However, this time Surya managed to kill Sawai Singh.

The 1992 Ajmer Rape and Blackmail Scandal

In the year 1992, it was revealed that over 250 girls were raped and blackmailed in Ajmer, Rajasthan. It all started with Farooq Chishti grooming a female student of Sophia Senior Secondary School and raping her. He took objectionable photographs of the minor and threatened her to introduce other girls to him. Later, those girls were raped and blackmailed.

Farooq Chishti was the president of the Ajmer Youth Congress while two other accused, Nafis Chishti and Anwar Chishti were the vice-president and joint secretary respectively of the city Congress unit.

Numerous girls were trapped, sexually exploited and blackmailed for years by Farooq Chishti and his gang, including many influential men in the area with political connections. Since the main culprits were associated with the Khadims, the religious caretakers of the Ajmer Dargah, and had power and political links, the matter was suppressed by the police. Reports mention that over the years, many victims had even committed suicide.

The gang and its territory kept growing, adding more pain and suffering. As per reports, all the girls were between the ages of 11 to 20. When the scandal got exposed, the police initially stalled the matter because of political pressure. However, the protests spread rapidly in the region, and eventually, police arrested several accused in the case. After years of investigation, eight of the accused were convicted, including Chishti.

There are speculations that the matter was suppressed to the point that many witnesses and victims turned hostile, and many details got buried. The witnesses and victims were threatened and blackmailed as well to stop them from coming forward. Some of them turned hostile due to social stigma. The case is often compared to the infamous Rotherham Child Sexual Exploitation Scandal.

The social stigma ran to such an extent that for years after the incident was exposed, people looking for prospective brides in the area used to ask, if the girl was one of “those victims”.

Kanpur: POCSO accused Mohammad Anas threatens to burn victim with acid after getting bail, arrested again for molestation

OpIndia Staff
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Kanpur: POCSO accused Mohammad Anas threatens to burn victim with acid after getting bail, arrested again for molestation

In UP’s Kanpur, a serial abuser named Mohammad Anas has been arrested again after he stalked his earlier victim to her school and threatened to rape and burn her with acid, just after he got bail. As per reports, Mohammad Anas stalked the victim to her college.

Anas then cornered the victim and threatened her to withdraw the complaints made against him and marry him. As per the victim, Anas threatened her that he will burn her with acid and behead her if she doesn’t do what he says. The abuser has also been accused of misbehaving and trying to molest the girl again.

As reported by ANI, Mohammad Anas was arrested by Kanpur police and sent to jail two years ago after a girl filed a molestation case against him. The victim, a school girl had filed a molestation case against a young man two years ago. 

The victim’s father has told Dainik Bhaskar that Anas used to be their neighbour. In 2020, when the victim girl was a minor and was studying in school, Anas had kidnapped her and had tried to rape her. Frustrated by his constant harassment, the victim’s family had to sell their house in the locality for a very low price and move elsewhere.

Following the incident, a case under the POCSO Act was lodged against Anas and he was jailed. Just a month ago, he managed to obtain bail after staying in jail for almost 2 years. Soon after getting bail, Mohammad Anas started stalking and harassing the same girl.

The victim, as per her family has been traumatised by the recent incident and has stopped coming out of her home.

Kanpur ADCP Ankita Sharma has informed the media that acting on the victim’s complaint, the accused Md Anas has been booked under Goonda Act. The accused has been jailed previously for harassing the same girl and has now been arrested again. Multiple FIRs have been lodged against Anas in the Railbazar police station.

Pujaris condemn Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Tapasvi vs Pujari’ anti-Brahmin comment

ANI
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Pujaris condemn Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Tapasvi vs Pujari’ anti-Brahmin comment

Priests from different parts of the country have condemned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his statement that India is a land of Tapasvis and not Pujaris. 

“India is a land of Brahmins. Without Brahmins, no auspicious work can be completed. Just like you can’t enter the cinema hall without a gatekeeper, similarly, no puja is complete without brahmins. The comments made against the Brahmins are totally wrong,” said Ujjawal Pandit, a Priest of Haridwar. “The manner in which Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi has insulted the Priests and has said that India is not a country of Brahmins is highly condemnable. He has insulted the customs, culture, and devotees of the country. Such people should leave India,” said Rawal Aurudh Aniyal, a priest of the Yamunotri Dham. 

Bhaskar Dimri, a priest from Badrinath Dham said “This is a country of Sanatan culture. I want to remind Rahul Gandhi that Pujaris mean Sanatan, Sanskrit, and Civilization (Sabhyata).” 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kurukshetra also said, “RSS people never chant ‘Har Har Mahadev’ because Lord Shiva was a ‘Tapasavi’ and these people are attacking India’s ‘Tapasya’. They have removed Goddess Sita from ‘Jai Siya Ram’. These people are working against India’s culture.” 

“Even Rahul Gandhi went and did Pooja & aarti in Kurukshetra,” said Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s reported ‘Tapasvi-Pujari’ remark. 

Earlier on Monday Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members Kauravas of the 21st century, who wear Khakhi half-pants, run shakhas, and work against the culture of the country. 

“Kauravas of the 21st century wear Khakhi half-pants and run ‘shakhas’. Besides them stand the country’s 2-3 richest people,” Gandhi said.

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

Pakistan flour crisis: Shortage, stampedes reported from several areas, armed guards escort vans distributing flour

ANI
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Pakistan flour crisis: Shortage, stampedes reported from several areas, armed guards escort vans distributing flour

Pakistan is facing its worst ever flour crisis with parts of the country reporting shortage of wheat and stampedes reported from several areas in Khyber Panhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan provinces 

Tens of thousands spend hours daily to get the subsidized bags of flour that are already short in supply in the market, according to a report in the The Express Tribune. Chaotic scenes are often witnessed as people gather around vehicles pushing each other as the mini-trucks and vans escorted by armed guards go about distributing the flour. A number of clashes have been reported at flour dealers and tandoors 

Prices of wheat and flour have skyrocketed amid the ongoing crisis in Pakistan, The Express Tribune reported. 

Flour in Karachi is being sold from Rs 140 per kilogram to Rs 160 per kilogram. In Islamabad and Peshawar, a 10 kg bag of flour is being sold at Rs 1,500 per kilogram while a 20-kilograms bag of flour is being sold at Rs 2,800. Mill owners in Punjab province have increased the price of flour to Rs 160 per kilogram. 

Balochistan’s Minister for Food Zamarak Achakzai has said that the wheat stock in the province had “completely ended.” He said that Balochistan immediately needed 400,000 sacks of wheat and warned that otherwise, the crisis could intensify. 

Similarly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been facing the worst-ever flour crisis as a bag of 20-kilogram flour is being sold for Rs 3100 after the government failed to control the price of the stable, The News International reported. 

A person died in the Mirpurkhas stampede during the sale of the Sindh government’s sale of subsidized flour to the people, The Express Tribune reported. The death occurred near the commissioner’s office when two vehicles carrying 200 bags each were selling flour outside Gulistan-e-Baldia Park. 

People gathered around the vehicles were pushing each other to take the bag as the mini-trucks were selling flour bags of 10 kg each at the rate of Rs 65 per kg, as per the news report. 

The police said that a 40-year-old labourer Harsingh Kolhi fell on the road during the chaos and was trampled upon by the surrounding people. Kolhi’s family has demanded action against the officials of the food department, as per The Express Tribune report. 

Similar scenes of chaos were seen in other parts of Sindh where flour was being sold through mini-trucks or vans. Two women and a minor girl suffered injuries when a stampede broke out outside a flour mill in Shaheed Benazirabad’s Sakrand town while purchasing flour at the government rate. 

Residents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have complained of wheat flour shortage calling on the government to end the crisis and provide subsidized flour, VOA Deewa said in a tweet. 

A resident in Peshawar has revealed that the people, including the poor and rich, have concerns regarding wheat flour, as per the tweet. The resident added that a person can purchase flour only once a week. 

The situation has angered people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the tandoors have also increased the price of bread, The News International reported. Apart from bread, all the bakery items are being sold at a high price. 

Thousands of people have to spend hours every day to get the subsidized bags that are already short in supply, as per The News International report. Prices of all the food items and other commodities have increased over the past couple of years and the governments have taken no measures to control the situation, as per The Express Tribune report. 

A number of clashes have been reported at flour dealers and tandoors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the past weeks over the issue of prices. A few days back, one passerby was killed in Pishtakhara when two locals clashed with a tandoor owner over the price of bread and then opened fire on him. Several others were injured during the distribution of subsidized flour. 

Sources have revealed that the tussle between the federal and Punjab governments was responsible for the wheat crisis in Pakistan, The Express Tribune reported. Sources added that the Punjab Food Department was unable to correctly estimate how much wheat was required to be imported, as per the news report. 

Meanwhile, Balochistan’s Minister for Food Zamarak Achakzai has revealed that the wheat stock in the province had “completely ended.” He stressed that the crisis for the commodity in Balochistan was “intensifying,” as per The Express Tribune report.

Speaking at a news conference, Zamarak Achakzai said that Balochistan did not receive the required stock of wheat. He said that Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi had committed to sending the complete stock. However, he did not fulfill the promise. 

Addressing a news conference on the issue, Zamarak Achakzai said that Balochistan had not received the required stock of wheat. He said that Balochistan was 85 percent dependent on Punjab and Sindh for wheat and added that both provinces had imposed a ban on the export of the commodity. 

“Out of 200,000 sacks of wheat, 10,000 sacks have been received,” The Express Tribune quoted Zamarak Achakzai as saying. “They had requested Punjab CM to send 600,000 sacks,” he added. 

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

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