Mohanlalganj Police arrested a Muslim cleric named Maulana Phakhare Alam on August 17 for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl under the guise of treating her with exorcism. As per reports, the cleric has confessed to the crime in front of the Police. A case against the cleric has been registered under Sections 406 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant Sections of POCSO Act.
UP | A Muslim cleric, Phakhre Alam, was arrested under sections of POCSO & 406, 376 of IPC for allegedly raping a minor girl at his house on pretext of religious treatment. He also threatened her to not tell anyone about it: Police Commissionerate, Lucknow (17.08) pic.twitter.com/xpyKcL5My6
Inspector-in-charge Kuldeep Dubey said in a statement that a 15-year-old teenager living in the village often went to Maulana Phakhre Alam, a resident of the Dariyapur Police Station area. In the complaint filed by the father of the girl, it was said that the cleric forcibly raped the girl. As per the complaint, four months ago, when the mother took the girl to the cleric, he took her into the room on the pretext of her exorcism and raped her. When the girl told her mother what had happened, she remained silent out of fear of society.
Around eight days ago, her father, who worked in Mumbai, came back home. The teenager informed him about the incident. On Tuesday, the father went to the Police station along with the girl and filed a complaint against the cleric. Upon receiving the complaint, Police raided several locations to arrest the cleric, but he was not found. Later, Police got a tip-off that the cleric was seen at the Railway Station trying to escape. When the Police reached the station, the cleric tried to run, but he was nabbed by Police and sent to jail.
On Tuesday, a Sadhu named Chetan Das was found murdered in Bhakhrawali village of Hanumangarh district, Rajasthan. He was stabbed several times and his various body parts were also injured. The incident came to light when the villagers saw his dead body lying outside his hut on Wednesday morning.
According to the reports, Sadhu Chetan Das was a resident of Bhakhrawali village and had been living in a small hut for around 25 years. He had good relations with the villagers and had no enmity with anyone. After he was found murdered outside his hut on Wednesday morning, the villagers immediately informed the Police who reached the spot for investigation.
Hanumangarh, Rajasthan | A Sadhu was found murdered in his house in the Bhakhrawali village of Hanumangarh on the morning of August 17. The sadhu was identified as Chetan Das. Further probe underway. pic.twitter.com/ThxRiE015I
The Police transported the dead body to a local hospital’s mortuary. The officers meanwhile also inquired about the Sadhu and his behaviour in the village. The Police are investigating the case to identify the accused murderers and the reason behind the murder.
According to the Sangaria police, Sadhu Chetan Das had been living in the village for around 25 years. Unknown assailants are suspected to have killed the deceased. On asking the villagers, the Police came to know that Sadhu had developed a good relationship with all the people of the village. He had no fights or disputes with anyone. Chetan Das was originally from Punjab and the villagers often used to serve him food and other things that he needed.
The villagers have condoled the killing of Sadhu Chetan Das and have demanded the police identify and arrest the murderers as soon as possible. At present, the police have kept the body of the deceased Sadhu in the Sangaria Hospital mortuary. Although the police are investigating the case from all the possible angles, no motive for the murder has been ascertained so far.
Police in New Zealand launched a homicide investigation after human remains were allegedly discovered stashed in suitcases in Auckland. According to reports, a family from Manurewa, South Auckland in New Zealand had won the two suitcases following a storage unit auction on August 11. Upon returning home, the family, to their horror, discovered human remains stuffed inside the suitcases.
Remains of two children found in auctioned suitcases, reports AFP News Agency quoting New Zealand Police
The post-mortem of the remains revealed that they belonged to two young children.
NZ Police Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Vaaelua said on Thursday that the bodies of the children, aged five to ten, may have been inside the suitcases for three to four years.
According to the New Zealand police, the family which purchased the items from the storage unit is not involved in any way.
The family had bid online on the contents of the storage locker, which is a common practice for storage sheds with unpaid rent and has even inspired a popular US reality TV show, Storage Wars.
Buyers are not permitted to thoroughly examine the contents prior to the auction, and it was only after the family returned home that they made the horrific discovery.
Meanwhile, NZ Police Detective Inspector Vaaelua stated that CCTV would be analysed, but that it would be difficult given the length of time the bodies had been in storage.
As per NewsHub, the New Zealand Police are trying to identify the dead bodies to notify their relatives about the unfortunate event.
“The priority for police is to confirm the identification of the deceased so that we can establish the full circumstances behind the discovery,” NZ Police spokesperson Anna Thompson said in a statement. Thompson added, “However, we are still awaiting the completion and results of the post-mortem examination so we are unable to comment.”
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has informed that 7 Indian and 1 Pakistan-based YouTube channel have been blocked under IT rules, 2021. The ministry has informed that the blocked channels had a combined viewership of over 144 crores, and a total of 85 lakhs 73 thousand subscribers.
The channels were blocked for airing fake anti-India content and earning money from it.
Blocked YouTube channels had over 114 crore views, and 85 lakh 73 thousand subscribers
Fake anti-India content was being monetized by the blocked channels on YouTubehttps://t.co/FHeROCOBrb
In its press release, the Ministry of I and B stated, “The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, utilizing the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021, has issued orders on 16.08.2022 for blocking of eight (8) YouTube-based news channels, one (1) Facebook account, and two Facebook posts. The blocked YouTube channels had a cumulative viewership of over 114 crores, were subscribed by over 85 lakh users”.
The statement added that the blocked channels were found to be airing fake, sensationalised content aimed at flaring religious hatred between communities and were frequently using fake, misleading content about Indian Armed Forces, Jammu and Kashmir and India’s foreign and domestic policy. They often used fake, sensational thumbnails using the logo of mainstream news channels and photos of popular news anchors to make the videos appear as legitimate news from reliable sources.
The PIB statement read further that with the latest ban on 8 YouTube channels, the government of India has now banned over 102 YouTube-based ‘news’ channels and their accounts on other social media sites since December 2021.
The names of the recently banned fake news channels are as follows
Loktantra TV with over 12.9 lakh subscribers
U&V TV with over 10.2 lakh subscribers
AM Razvi with over 95,900 subscribers
Gauravshali Pawan Mithilanchal with 7 lakh subscribers
SeeTop5TH with 33.5 lakh subscribers
Sarkari Update with over 80,000 subscribers
Sab Kuch Dekho with 19.4 lakh subscribers
News Ki Duniya (Pakistan) with 97,000 subscribers
Apart from the above Youtube channels, the Facebook account of Loktantra TV has also been banned. The detailed PIB press release can be read here.
On Wednesday, 24-year-old accused Hadi Matar who stabbed British Author Salman Rushdie lauded Iran’s former leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in an exclusive jailhouse interview with the New York Post. He called the leader a ‘great person’ in an interview that got published on August 17.
According to the reports, Matar while speaking to the interviewer said that he never thought that a British Author is a good person. “He’s someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems”, he said. Admitting that he had severely stabbed the author, he was surprised to know that Rushdie was still alive. “When I heard he survived, I was surprised, I guess”, he said while in the Chautauqua County Jail.
Praising Iran’s former leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the accused said, “I respect the Ayatollah. I think he’s a great person. That’s as far as I will say about that. I don’t like Salman Rushdie. He’s someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems”, he stated. In the video interview, he also said that he had watched Rushdie’s videos earlier and that he never liked him. “I saw a lot of lectures. I don’t like people who are disingenuous like that”, he noted.
He also referred to the book written by Rushdie named ‘The Satanic Verses’ and reiterated that the author had disrespected the religion of Islam. Talking about the attack, he said that he had read only a couple of pages of the book and not cover to cover. He said, on August 13, he took a bus to Buffalo, New York, and ordered a taxi to Chautauqua.
“I was hanging around pretty much. Not doing anything in particular, just walking around,” he was quoted as saying. He said he had slept on the grass the night before. Reports mention that Matar is doing well since he has been arrested for stabbing the 75-year-old author. However, he has complained about the food that is being provided to him in the prison. “A lot of the food they have given me is not allowed in my religion to eat”, he noted.
Earlier on August 15, Iranian media had extensively gloated over the attack and had called it ‘divine retribution’. Reacting to the media reports that Rushdie may lose one eye following the attack, Iran’s state broadcaster Jaam-e Jam said, “An eye of Satan has been blinded. Also, Nasser Kanaani Tehran, foreign ministry spokesperson of Iran blamed Rushdie for the attack and said, “In this attack, we do not consider anyone other than Salman Rushdie and his supporters worthy of blame and even condemnation. By insulting the sacred matters of Islam and crossing the red lines of more than 1.5 billion Muslims and all followers of the divine religions, Salman Rushdie has exposed himself to the anger and rage of the people”.
To note, Khomeini in the year 1989 had issued a fatwa to kill Rushdie. Also, multiple assassination attempts have been made on the Indian-born author’s life since then. The most recent happened last Friday when Matar attacked Rushdie in New York as he was ready to participate in an artistic freedom event.
On August 17, members of Hindu organizations in Barkagaon, Jharkhand, sat on a hunger strike against the attempts of forced conversion of Hindu girls Suman Kumari and her minor sister. As per reports, Suman, her mother Kiran Devi, and her minor sister were also sitting on hunger strike. Notably, on August 16, Hindu organizations including Bajrang Dal, VHP and others had threatened to sit on hunger strike if the accused in the case were not arrested in 24 hours.
Kiran Devi narrated the incident that had happened on August 10. She said the village chief Wasin, his son, and dozens of others came to her house at around 8:30 PM and forcibly took away both her daughters while using abusive language. They pressured them to convert to Islam and threatened to kill them if they refused to do so. “Both of my daughters were forced to do sit-ups and assaulted by them on the pretext of making videos viral,” Kiran Devi said.
She added, “The next morning, I met Sadar Mohammad Halil, Secretary Professor Farzuddin, and Panchayat Samiti member Shabnam Parveen’s husband Mohammad Irfan along with other people from the community to file a complaint in the matter. When the accused got information about the meeting, they again visited my house in the night and beat up my daughters.”
Sanatan Hindu Samaj Sangathan’s Aman Kumar said Police were not taking action in the matter. He said they filed an official complaint at Barkagaon Police Station and demanded security for the victim’s family. However, no concrete action was taken by the Police despite giving August 15 as the last date to arrest the accused. Hence, the Hindu organizations decided to sit on a hunger strike. He added that they would continue to sit on hunger strike till the family gets justice.
Station in-charge Vinod Kumar said the Police had initiated a probe in the matter, and two people have been arrested so far. “We are raiding the locations linked to the accused to find the rest of them. I appeal to everyone to have faith in the justice system. The culprits will be punished,” Kumar said.
Case filed against Suman Kumari and her mother
Earlier, it was reported that a case was filed by Barkagaon Police against Suman and her mother for provoking people on religious grounds. The case was filed under Sections 295(A) and 298 of IPC, Section 67 of IT Act based on the complaint of the Muslim side. The local villagers accused Police of giving protection to the accused.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, was reeling with the prospect of a serial killer going on a rampage, targeting Muslim men. Four Muslim men were murdered in broad daylight, as the Muslim community in Albuquerque lived in mortal fear. Mohammad Ahmadi was killed in November 2021, Aftab Hussein was murdered on July 26, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain was shot recently and the last murder was on an unnamed Muslim man. Amid cries of Islamophobia, on the 10th of August, the police nabbed the primary suspect in the killings.
Turns out, the primary suspect was a Sunni Muslim, targeting Shia Muslims. According to a press release mentioned by the New York Post, authorities charged a 51-year-old named Muhammad Syed for two of the four homicides. A report by the New York Times quotes Ahmed Assed, president of the Islamic Centre of New Mexico, saying that Syed, a Sunni Muslim, was upset that his daughter married someone who is a Shia Muslim. Syed is a “refugee” from Afghanistan, who has been living in Alburquerque for the past 5-6 years. Evidence has now emerged that Syed’s son, Shaheen Syed, was also involved in the murders.
Reportedly, Shaheen lied about the fact that he had accompanied his father to gun stories and also about his location. The prosecutors also said that on August 5, when Naeem Hussain was killed hours after attending a funeral for two of the most recent victims, cellphone tower data indicated that Shaheen Syed’s phone was in the general area of the funeral around 3:39 PM, but 20 minutes later had moved closer to the area where Hussain was killed in his car. The data also showed that Muhammad Syed’s phone was in the area of Hussain’s killing shortly after 4 PM.
The filing also noted that Shaheen Syed and one of his brothers, Adil Syed, were involved in a shooting at a Walmart in July 2021. During what Shaheen Syed had described as a road rage incident, Adil had fired a gun once at the car of a man who he and his brother said had also been armed. No one appeared to be charged in the incident.
There is clear evidence that this was a family full of hate and violent tendencies that have been expressed multiple times over the years. However, before this family was pinned by the police, one heard the usual cries of Islamophobia and allegations that the serial killings were the handiwork of “right-wing white supremacists”.
After the last murder in the string of murders, President Joe Biden made a statement calling the murders “hateful attacks” that have “no place in America”. In his tweet condemning the attacks, Biden ensures that he mentioned the fact that 4 “Muslim men” were killed, hinting, that these crimes could have been driven by Islamophobia.
Veteran propagandist, suspected to be on the payroll of ISI, went on to say that the New Mexico killings were probably done by white supremacists. He did not stop there. He went on to say that he would not be surprised if the murders were committed by Hindu nationalists – in New Mexico.
Tweet by CJ Werleman
Others stood with the Muslim community, claiming that “targeted communities” need protection. She decried Islamophobia, deciding, even before the investigation reached a conclusion, that the murders happened because non-Muslims hate Muslims.
Islamaphobia—like all toxic fear—thrives in times of darkness and lawlessness. We stand with the Muslim community in demanding a full investigation of the killings of 4 Muslim men in 9 months in Albuquerque, New Mexico and greater protection for targeted communities. #StopHatehttps://t.co/mI4XyNOdfP
Even a senator called it racist attacks, basically, mouthing the same trope that these were Islamophobic attacks because the victims were all Muslims.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain was a pillar in the UNM community and an incredible force for good.
I’m very concerned by law enforcement reports that his murder may be linked to two other murders of Muslim men in Albuquerque. Racist, hate-fueled violence has no place in New Mexico.
Islamist Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) was among Muslim advocacy groups that have condemned the killings as possible “sectarian hatred”.
As soon as the identity of the perpetrator was revealed, and the Shia-Sunni angle of the crime was being probed, all those who had spoken about Islamophobia went silent. No retraction. No comments. No apology.
After scores of articles talking about prevalent Islamophobia and the fear that the Muslim community was living, the media silently started taking a turn to cover up the hate within the Muslim community, where a Sunni Muslim hated Shia Muslims enough to go on a murderous rampage.
Reuters, which was gleefully counting Hindu dead bodies in India during the COVID wave, published an article about the Muslim community “rejecting the sectarian label” for the killings.
Article by Reuters
For weeks, the global propagandists, including Biden, decried these murders as sectarian and racist. Suddenly, the Muslim community that was living in mortal fear, was no longer in “fear” per se, because the murderer turned out to be an Afghan Muslim.
The Reuters report said that local Muslims have rejected the “sectarian violence” tag after the perpetrators’ real identity was revealed, saying that this could hurt the relations between the Shias and Sunnis who pray together at the local Mosque. “The simplicity of saying this is Sunni-Shia hate crime is so reckless,” said Samia Assed, a Palestinian-American human rights activist who hosted an interfaith vigil for the victims.
“It wasn’t Sunni and Shia, it was extremism,” said Kadhim, a Shi’ite who helped organize a Muslim unity march.
The change in sentiment of the local Muslim community is rather telling and indicates a pattern not just in the New Mexico case per se, but the world over.
When it was not known that the murderer was an Afghanistani Muslim, the local community was more than happy to talk about growing Islamophobia and how it was probably the whites (essentially non-Muslims) who were targeting the Muslims because of their faith and ethnicity. When making such baseless assertions, not too many local Muslims were worried about their relationship with the white community, the Christian community or the local non-Muslim community being tarnished by these assertions. In fact, the propaganda was so strong, that CJ Werleman managed to drag Hindus into the controversy, claiming that he would not be surprised if the Hindus murdered the Muslims because of their supposed, imagined hate for the community. When such statements were made, nobody pointed out that such assertions could ruin the relationship that Muslims had with Hindus.
However, when the murderer turned out to be a Sunni, going on a murderous rampage against Shias, the worry that it may draw chasms within the Muslim community started getting verbalised. The obvious conclusion here is that the Muslim community does not particularly care about their cordial or peaceful relations with non-Muslims as long as the global cabal can blame non-Muslims every time a Muslim is murdered, handing them the perennial victim card.
The local Muslim community was apparently more than happy when Hindus, Whites, Christians etc were being blamed for the murder of Muslim men, after all, it gave them the opportunity to play the part of the “Dara hue Musalman” – New Mexico version. They got the opportunity to paint the entire community as a scared minority, targeted for following a peaceful faith – a ploy used to whitewash Islamic extremism, radical hate and terrorism that the Islamist community heaps upon non-Muslims.
The fear, the cries of sectarian violence and Islamophobia suddenly disappeared when they realised that the murderer was Muslim himself. Almost nobody came up with terms like Shia-phobia and we hardly read articles talking about the fear that Shias live in because Sunnis want to murder them.
This phenomenon is not unique. In India as well, one recalls when the rape of a nun was willy-nilly blamed on Hindus. We heard wails of Islamophobia and en masse demonisation of Hindus because a “Muslim journalist” decided to use the heinous rape to score political brownie points against non-Muslims.
The column where Rana Ayyub called Hindus “terrorists” still exists on her timeline.
My column on nun rape and church vandalism : Mohan Bhagwat and Subramaniam Swamy are not fringe elements. http://t.co/q1FO77f7P1
Muslim journalist Rana Ayyub offered no apology for branding Hindus as terrorists when the nun was raped by Bangladeshi Muslims.
Here is an excerpt that still exists.
Article from DailyO
The people accused of the rape were 5 Muslims from Bangladesh – Salim Sheikh, Gopal Sarkar, Khaleda Rahaman Mintoo, Milan Sarkar and Ohidul Seikh.
It is, therefore, evident that the world over, every crime against a Muslim particularly, or any numeric minority, is considered an opportunity by the global cabal to demonise the majority population. In India, it is the Hindus. In the US, it was the whites and the Christians. Every crime is an opportunity to cry about the mythical beast of Islamophobia – a shot in the dark. If it works, they strengthen their propaganda used later to whitewash Islamic crimes, if it doesn’t, they can silently ignore the consequences because the global cabal will never question their own.
Union Minister of Communications, Ashwini Vaishnaw today took to made in India social networking site Koo to inform that the 5G spectrum assignment letters are issued.
He also directed the service providers to prepare for launch.
In his Independence Day address, PM Modi had said that the wait for 5G is over and the services shall be launched soon. While addressing the nation from the Red Fort, PM Modi said that India’s ‘Techade’ is here and soon every village in India shall be digitally connected. Some media reports had suggested that PM Modi will officially launch the 5G services during India Mobile Congress (IMC) in October this year.
The government sold the 5G spectrum to Jio, Airtel, Adani group and Vodafone Idea. It is expected Bharti Airtel will start rollout of 5G spectrum by end of this month and cover all towns and key rural areas by March 2024. Jio, too, is planning 5G coverage in top 1000 cities upon completion of trial of 5G telecom devices.
Kerala Governor Dr Arif Mohammad Khan has long been highlighting rampant nepotism and corruption in the state where the ruling CPM finds ways to appease its party workers by giving them government jobs. In a recent development, a controversy erupted when a candidate named Priya Varghese was selected as an Associate Professor of Malayalam at Kannur University.
Priya Varghese is the wife of KK Ragesh, a CPM leader and the private secretary of CM Pinarayi Vijayan. Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has used his powers as the chancellor of universities to cancel the appointment. The decision has come a day after Kannur University Vice Chancellor stated that there were no irregularities in the appointment process of Priya Varghese.
Using the specific provisions in the Kannur University Act, 1996, the Governor has stayed all further proceedings pursuant to the selection procedure for the appointment of the associate professor in the department of Malayalam, with immediate effect, until further notice. The governor has also sent show-cause notices to all stakeholders in the selection process.
Other candidates had higher scores
Many organisations, like the ‘Save Universities Campaign’ and candidates, had objected to Priya Vargheses’ selection for the post. A candidate named Joseph Scariah scored 651 and was in the second position in the list. Another candidate who had scored above Priya had also complained. It is notable here that Priya Varghese, the wife of the CPM leader had the ‘lowest score’ of 156 among 6 candidates, but she was declared the top candidate in the rank list after an interview conducted by a committee led by the vice-chancellor. An RTI query revealed that Priya was selected for the post despite the ‘lowest’ score.
The RTI also revealed that Priya’s non-teaching experience was included as teaching experience by the University.
The husband of a woman plaintiff in the Gyanvapi disputed structure case has lodged an FIR with Varanasi Police saying he received death threats from Pakistan. The victim Sohan Lal Arya is the husband of Laxmi Devi, one of the five women who are fighting for their right to worship at Gyanvapi.
Arya said in his complaint that he has been receiving ‘sar tan se juda’ threats since March, and the last threat call was received on July 20 from an unidentified caller using a Pakistani number. The caller was forcing the victim to take back the case. Station Officer (SO) Luxa, Anil Sahu, said in a statement that an FIR had been registered against an unidentified person(s) for issuing death threats to Sohan Lal Arya.
In a statement, Arya said, “The caller is threatening me with the slogan ‘sar tan se juda’ like the one Kanhaiya Lal got. The caller is issuing threats of dire consequences to pressurize us for withdrawing the case.” Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal was beheaded by the Islamists in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for allegedly publishing a post supporting former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
He received calls from 2306812337 and 923254713522. Arya said his wife uses his phone. As per Jagran’s report, Arya also said that he had noticed the movement of suspicious people around his house, and he felt they were doing receive. Following the complaint, two Police personnel were stationed outside Arya’s house.
He said, “They threatened us to take back the case. We replied that their threats wouldn’t scare us. August 18 is the next date in the case, and the judgment will be in favour of Hindus.” He further alleged some terrorist organizations were behind the threats. Arya served as VHP vice president in 1984 and was also associated with RSS.
Arya, while speaking to reporters, said that he was not afraid of the death threats. “It is our good fortune that we are fighting the case in court. I am not scared of death threats. We are under the protection of Bhole Baba.”
Arya said the first call came on March 19, and the last one was received on July 20. He added, “Laxmi Devi noticed a missed call on August 3 in the call list.” As the death threats continued, he decided to file a complaint in the matter with the commissioner of police and district magistrate.
The next day of hearing in the Gyanvapi disputed structure case on the maintainability of the case was set for August 18.
