The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that an inquiry into a US attack in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of civilians showed no breaches of policy or deliberate negligence. The probe concentrated on a March 18, 2019, attack on an Islamic State stronghold in Baghouz by a special US team operating in Syria.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin directed the probe in November of last year after the New York Times reported that the US military had covered up scores of non-combatant fatalities during the original strike. According to the report, the strike killed 70 individuals, many of them were women and children.
The investigation discovered that the military’s initial evaluation of the incident was carried out erroneously at various levels of command, causing reporting delays and information gaps. According to three people knowledgeable about the findings, the bulk of those killed in the attack were most certainly Islamic State fighters, and military troops did not wilfully breach the laws of war or conceal casualties. Based on the findings, no disciplinary action was recommended.
Refuting the charges of attacking civilians, Gen. Michael X. Garrett, who headed the enquiry, claimed that commanders followed procedures to determine that no civilians were in the blast zone before the strike. On the other hand, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby claimed that the U.S. ground commanders made the best decision they could with the information they had at the time. He said, “Yes, we killed some innocent civilians, women and children. We actually do feel bad about this.” But he immediately proceeded to defend by saying, “It was in the midst of combat, in the fog of war.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd J Austin instructed the military on Tuesday to change how it analyses complaints of civilian casualties following the investigation.
The Syrian strike in March 2019
According to a New York Times story published on November 13, 2019, a US F-15E fighter jet dropped a bomb on a huge throng of women and children gathered against a riverbank near the Syrian town of Baghuz on March 18, 2019, and then continued to drop several more.
According to one officer who was around, uniformed officers watching the live drone footage inside the US military’s hectic Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar stared on in utter astonishment. According to the report, a legal official classified the attack as a probable war crime that needed to be investigated. However, the military made almost every attempt to conceal the devastating strike.
According to the NYT report, the strike was ordered by Task Force 9, a covert American special operations force in command of combat operations in Syria. The task force operated in such secrecy that it did not even tell its own close allies of its operations at times. The American Air Force headquarters in Qatar had no clue the Baghuz bombing was going to happen.
In a shocking incident, a Hindu woman from Tamil Nadu attempted to set herself on fire in front of the Ramanathapuram Collector’s office after being forced to convert to Christianity.
A video had gone viral recently on social media platforms in which a woman from Tamil Nadu, identified as Valarmathi, a resident of Pacheri village, tried to self-immolate after a person named Devdas reportedly harassed the Hindu woman and her family to convert to Christianity.
According to the reports, Valarmathi alleged that Devdas, a Christian, had been torturing her and her family since 2019 for refusing to convert. The woman said that the police also did not take any action, hence she attempted to set herself on fire. She has alleged that religious conversion has been happening in her village.
Woman tried to self-immolate in front of Collectorate, Ramanathapuram, TN citing harassment to convert to Christianity and inaction by Police.
Sought @India_NHRC‘s directions to DGP Tamil Nadu to register FIR against persons & NGOs involved in this Fundamental Rights violation. pic.twitter.com/QBNvcs8JyV
— சட்ட உரிமைகள் பாதுகாப்பு மன்றம் | LRPF (@lrpftnunit) May 18, 2022
On May 15, Valarmathi reached the Ramanathapuram collector’s office to submit her complaint. As officials did not respond to her grievances, she tried to set herself on fire. However, the local police and the public who were present on the premises stopped her.
“Devdas’s family had blocked the path to my house and filed false cases against me. We went to the court, which ruled in our favour. Then they tried to run me over with a Tata Ace as well. So, I approached the police, Valarmathi said. She also accused Devdas of hitting her son, along with other men on the East Coast Road (ECR) road, but he was rescued by the public.
Meanwhile, the India Today report claimed that the issue between Devdas and Valarmathiwas is based on land disputes. The report also added that an enquiry had been ordered by the Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police (SP) over the issue. The report said that the families of Valarmathi and Devdas had a dispute over a piece of land for more than a decade.
The Cyber Crime Branch of Ahmedabad Police on Thursday arrested All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) leader Danish Qureshi in Gujarat for posting derogatory remarks against Hindu Gods and Goddesses on social media. Qureshi in his tweet disrespected Hindu sentiments and questioned the Shivling found in the Gyanvapi Mosque in Uttar Pradesh.
Danish Qureshi had posted an extremely offensive comment on Shivling on social media, taking a dig at the discovery of the Shivling inside the disputed structure of Gyanvapi mosque. While he had added a rider that his intention is not to hurt the devotion of anyone and he only wants to enhance his knowledge, his subsequent test made it clear that his only intention was to insult the concept of Shivling in Hinduism.
“His tweet has hurt the sentiments of Hindus,” the police said adding that the tweet was made from the handle @danishqureshi. “The content of the tweet hurt the sentiments of the majority community and so the team started a technical search of the Twitter handler”, Cyber Crime’s Assistant Police Commissioner J.M. Yadav was quoted.
Image source- Social Media
According to the reports, the police arrested Danish Qureshi from Shahpur after two separate complaints were lodged against him with Naroda and Vasna police stations. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad filed an official complaint at the Naroda police station while the other complaint at Vasna police station was lodged by Jaideep Singh Vaghela, a resident of Ahmedabad. Vaghela condemned the tweet and demanded his arrest.
Also, several Hindu leaders like Yogi Devanath, and Dr. Jyotir Nath Swami condemned the tweet and demanded stern action against the AIMIM leader. They also have stated that Qureshi should publicly demand an apology for demeaning the Hindu religion and hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.
In one similar incident, the Himachal Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested BJP Minority Morcha Paonta President Naseem Naaz and Armaan Malik (Mehboob) in Sirmaur for using abusive language for Lord Shiva and demeaning the Hindu religion on the social media. Naaz and Malik had compared the Shivling to a toilet seat and remarked that the Hindu devotees were unnecessarily happy over the discovery of the Shivling in the disputed structure of the Gyanvapi Masjid in Uttar Pradesh.
Recently, a court-monitored survey of the disputed Gyanvapi structure found a Shivling inside the Wuzukhana of the mosque. The apex court on Tuesday issued orders to protect the site where the Shivling was discovered from the disputed structure. The order denied entry of Muslims in Wuzukhana, disallowing washing of their feet and spitting on the Shivling. Supreme Court however maintained that the order in any manner should not restrict or impede the right of the Muslims to use the Mosque for religious purposes.
The Police in the recent case has charged AIMIM leader Danish Qureshi under section 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and section 295 A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code. Qureshi has also been charged under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
The Sokoto administration in Nigeria has imposed a curfew in the northwestern Nigerian city after hundreds of protesters came out on the streets demanding the release of culprits who had been arrested after a Christian student named Deborah Samuel was brutally murdered over allegations of ‘blasphemy’.
On May 14, hundreds of people came out to protest against the arrest of two students in the case where Samuel was murdered over alleged blasphemy. Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto, said, “Everyone should, please, in the interest of peace, go back home.” Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. It is roughly divided between Christians and Muslims. Religious tensions and communal riots are common, especially in the Muslim-majority north.
Reportedly, they also surrounded the palace of Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and the highest spiritual figure among Muslims in Nigeria, as he had condemned the murder of the young girl and demanded action against the culprits. Basically, the protestors were in support of the murder and were demanding that the local authorities release the murder accused.
The protesters were asked by the security personnel to stay away from the palace, which further irked the mob. The Police had to use teargas shells against the mob. They also fired warning shots in the air to disperse the crowd.
The mob then attacked the shops belonging to Christians in downtown and looted them, as per some reports. They were removed by the security forces.
In a statement, Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, strongly condemned the murder of the woman. He said, “I strongly condemn the resort to self-help by the mob in Sokoto, resulting in violence, destruction and in the very tragic killing of Deborah Samuel, following an allegation that she had blasphemed Muhammad (SAW), the Prophet of Islam.”
He added, “The news of the killing of the young lady by fellow students is a matter of great concern, and there must be an impartial and extensive probe into all that happened before and during the incident. No person has the right to take the law into his or her own hands in this country. Violence has and never will solve any problem.”
The murder of Deborah Samuel
On May 12, a Christian student named Deborah Samuel was beaten to death by an Islamic mob over an allegation of blasphemy in Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto. Reports suggested that the violent mob, comprised of Deborah’s fellow students in a WhatsApp group, was upset over some of her comments and had declared her a ‘blasphemer’. They stoned Samuel to death and burnt her body while chanting Allah-Hu-Akbar.
Some reports mention that Deborah had only objected to religious content being shared in a college WhatsApp group. There were attempts to rescue the victim, but they did not succeed because of the size of the mob.
Following the incident, Police arrested two men and initiated a search for other suspects based on the footage circulating on social media. After the protesters took to the streets demanding their release, an additional police force was deployed in the city.
The Aam Aadmi Party had launched the Parivartan Yatra on 15th May 2022 to reach out to the voters of 182 constituencies ahead of the assembly elections in Gujarat. However, the rallies during the Parivartan Yatra looked empty and the meeting places were also deserted. Most of the vehicles and people spotted in the rallies were from Punjab. People shared various videos on social media saying that this Parivartan Yatra was a flop.
The Aam Aadmi Party has gone into action mode over the Gujarat assembly elections. Parivartan Yatra was organized to contact the voters in all the 182 legislative assemblies of the state. In this effort, on the 15th of May, Gopal Italia started the Parivartan Yatra from Somnath Temple, and Isudan Gadhvi started the Parivartan Yatra from Dwarka. In addition, the yatra was also started in 6 different places in the state.
But the Parivartan Yatra of the Aam Aadmi Party did not get much response from the Gujarati people. As the leaders of Aam Aadmi Party already knew this, they had already called a large number of cars and people from Punjab for the yatra. At some venues of the Yatra, there were very few people while at some other venues the Parivartan Yatra witnessed a deserted rally place. AAP leader and former journalist Isudan Gadhvi was tired of showing his hand at the rally but no one seemed to respond to him in front.
As AAP’s Parivartan Yatra proved to be just a fiasco, people posted on social media to show the mirror to the Aam Aadmi Party and AAP leaders. There were plenty of reactions on Twitter on the subject.
Netizens react to AAP’s Parivartan Yatra
Twitter was flooded with reactions to this effect after the Aam Aadmi Party’s Parivartan Yatra proved to be a fiasco. Vijay Patel (@vijaygajera), a well-known investigating journalist from Gujarat, shared a series of videos and photos of his visit to Porbandar, in which vehicles and people from outside Gujarat called for the yatra were seen and the venues were empty. Their photos and videos went viral on Twitter.
AAP Gujarat is not getting support from Gujarati people so AAP has arranged people from Punjab in their rallies!
Even the main vehicle for the AAP CM candidate has been arranged from Punjab! pic.twitter.com/SqmOKOPGBh
In the tweet along with a photo of the Parivartan Yatra, he wrote, “AAP Gujarat is not getting support from Gujarati people so AAP has arranged people from Punjab in their rallies! Even the main vehicle for the AAP CM candidate has been arranged from Punjab!” Here he also allegedly called Isudan Gadhvi the AAP’s Gujarat chief ministerial candidate. Also, many cars with Punjab passing can also be seen in the photos attached to the tweet.
This was the AAP Rally in Gujarat where the candidate is on a truck waving away to the trees on the roadside, no crowds on the streets??? pic.twitter.com/oQNpkEFRBh
Another Twitter user @SortedEagle shared another video of Isudan Gadhvi’s Parivartan Yatra and mocked it and wrote, “This was the AAP Rally in Gujarat where the candidate is on a truck waving away to the trees on the roadside, no crowds on the streets.” In the video, Isudan Gadhvi is seen waving his hand up, but there is no crowd or people on the opposite side.
આના કરતા તો વધારે ભીડ અમારે ત્યાં સોસાયટીના ગણેશ વિસર્જનમાં હોય છે. ? https://t.co/YlPzCGE5sh
Commenting on the same video, another Twitter user @himani411 wrote, “We have a bigger crowd than this at the Ganesh Visarjan program of the society.”
પરિવર્તન યાત્રાની ફૂટેજ છે. સાચું કહેજો કે જનતાનો રિસ્પોન્સ કેટલો છે? આપ નેતા બિચારા હાથ હલાવી-હલાવી થાકી ગયા, પણ જનતાને AAP માં કોઈ રસ નથી. આપ નેતાની બોડીલેંગ્વેજ નોટિસ કરો કે અંદરખાને તે પણ નિરાશ છે,પણ કહે કોને. AAP મોટી-મોટી ફેંકવામાં નંબર વન છે,મરી જશે પણ સત્ય સ્વીકાર નહિ કરે pic.twitter.com/S4tRpq5L14
— Dixita Viral Joshi (@iamdixitajoshi) May 17, 2022
Twitter user @iamdixitajoshi also shared the video and took a jibe at the Aam Aadmi Party and wrote, “There is footage of the Parivartan Yatra. Tell me the truth, what is the response of the public? The poor AAP leader is tired of waving hands but the public is not interested in AAP. Notice the AAP leader’s body language which tells that he is also disappointed inside, but whom to tell? AAP is number one in throwing big fat lies, will die but won’t accept the truth.”
Massive crowd in support of AAP in Gujarat!
One of the CM candidate Isudan Gadhvi welcomed by a huge crowd. This could be a Guinness book world record! pic.twitter.com/YHFoRoQxOr
@vijaygajera shared another video in which Isudan Gadhvi is seen walking towards the auditorium to hold a meeting after the rally but no one came there to listen to him. Only a handful of Aam Aadmi Party people are seen there. Vijay Patel wrote in a tweet, “Massive crowd in support of AAP in Gujarat! One of the CM candidate Isudan Gadhvi welcomed by a huge crowd. This could be a Guinness book world record!”
ઇસુદાન નેય ખબર છે ગુજરાતમાં 24 કલાક વીજળી હોય છે!?
@vijaygajera shared another video in which Isudan Gadhvi is already sitting down as a precaution as an electric wire comes in the middle of the rally route. Commenting on this Patel wrote, “Even AAP politicians of Gujarat know that Gujarat has 24×7 electricity!”
This is hilarious ? AAP Gujarat CM candidate(unofficially) Is claiming that the people of Punjab have the same power as CM now! They can directly suspend any officers!
Sharing a video of Aam Aadmi Party’s Isudan Gadhvi’s speech at the meeting, Patel wrote, “This is hilarious. AAP Gujarat CM candidate(unofficially) Is claiming that the people of Punjab have the same power as CM now! They can directly suspend any officers! He is giving a tough fight to Bhagwant Mann! Obviously in cracking jokes.”
Thus this entire Parivartan Yatra is proving to be a lesson for the Aam Aadmi Party that they have not yet been accepted so much by Gujaratis. And this is known internally by the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders, which is why they felt it necessary to call men from Punjab.
‘It was a Mistake’ – is what all it took for Journalist Saba Naqvi to get away with her casual exercise in Hinduphobia. Naqvi had shared an obnoxious meme stating it as a WhatsApp forward on Twitter. When the news of the Shivling being found in the disputed Gyanwapi structure came, India’s left intelligentsia got themselves an opportunity to ridicule the ‘false gods’ of the heathen Hindus.
For them, the only reality is the Mosque. That is the only truth they subscribe to. The only principle Islamic propagandists like Saba Naqvi adhere to is defending their religion and ideology, at all costs. And if reality serves a different picture, an engagement with the fact without ridicule, mockery, and denial doesn’t go far away. Earlier, Naqvi had tweeted an image comparing a Shivlinga with that of a reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai.
Saba Naqvi, Islamists mock Hindu Gods after the discovery of Shivling at Gyanvapi structure
Mocking the development at the Gyanwapi site, Naqvi along with her ideological ilk mocked the presence of the Shiva icon at the disputed site. It is noteworthy, that the Shivlinga was found inside the Wuzukhana section of the present-day mosque, where worshippers wash their hands and feet with water before offering the prayers. The Kashi Vishvanath, who is one of the utmost sacred Gods in the Hindu cosmos, was left to be the victim of such unholy treatment from Islamist occupation over the centuries.
Screengrab of the deleted tweet Saba Naqvi
Saba Naqvi, with her tweet, did a no different thing. Her ridicule of Shiva was a testament to her entitlement as a practising Abrahamic, to whom the Hindu gods and their idols are false. Naqvi washed her hands of the Shiva, the way her (male) Islamic compatriots would do at the Wuzukhana – given that she would not be allowed to do so physically. However, when questions were raised on how one easily gets away after offending the belief of Hindus, she deleted the tweet with an excuse that it was a WhatsApp forward.
Screengrab of the ‘apology’ by Saba Naqvi on Twitter
While Naqvi was surely not the only one to have suffered a meltdown, the Islamists, ‘secular’ intellectuals and journalists from the Left indulged in making casual Hinduphobic remarks and mocking Hindu deities in an attempt to discredit the recent discovery of the Shivling. While the other habitual offenders are yet to chart an apology, it was for Saba Naqvi to sit on a proverbial aisle and simply ascertain her mocking tweet as a mistake. The making up came as a given because she knew she could get away with it.
The willful ignorance, obfuscation of history and mockery of religion came bundled in the Hinduphobia, although the collective ‘liberal’ morality still continues to approve of it. The dangerous precedent of gaslighting especially when it came to coming to terms with the atrocities by Islamic invaders in India, was already laid down in the annals of history. The destruction of temples was justified by the middle-eastern coloniality as idolatry was haram in Islam. The present-day bigotry is hence, only an offshoot of what rulers from Qutb al-Din Aibak to Ahmed Shah Abdali did in the history with the idols of Hindu Gods and their hallowed abodes.
How Kishan Bharwad from Gujarat was shot dead by Islamists for sharing a message on Prophet Muhammad
Now if in this case, the tables are to be turned, and if the Islamic almighty has to be questioned with the slightest of rhetoric, it would account for blasphemy. The political conscience in India has half-forgotten the murder of 27-year-old Kishan Bharwad from Gujarat, yet another victim of gory Islamic violence. Bharwad was shot dead by radicals inspired by Islamic clerics who had instigated them to carry out the ‘Jihad’ of killing a man who had ‘blasphemed’.
Kishan had shared a video which showed an image of Prophet Muhammad. Muslims firmly believe that the visual depiction of Muhammad is forbidden. Islamists believe that such a visual depiction is blasphemy and an ‘insult’ to Muhammad, and the beheading of the one who blasphemed is the appropriate punishment. On 25th January 2022, days after he shared a video that depicted Prophet Muhammad, Dhandhuka youth Kishan Bharwad was shot dead by two bike-borne Islamists.
A similar fate befell the Hindu Samaj Party leader Kamlesh Tiwari, who was assassinated at his Lucknow office by Ashfaq and Moinuddin from Surat in 2019. Tiwari was murdered in broad daylight for his remarks on Prophet Muhammad, made more than 4 years ago and for which he was imprisoned for several months. Yet, the Islamists deemed that the criminal justice system of the country that had incarcerated Tiwari for months for his remarks against Prophet Muhammad was insufficient and the only way the affront could be avenged is by killing the said person.
Tiwari was killed for his remarks on Prophet Muhammad and Kishan was shot dead over a video message, but none of the prominent Muslim leaders condemned the violence or expressed solidarity with the family of the decedents who were targeted and killed over ‘blasphemy’. More recently, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, the chief abbot of the Dasna Devi Temple, attracted clarion calls of ‘Sar Tan see Juda’ for exhorting people to express their views on Prophet Muhammad just like the way they do for any other Hindu God. The Islamists, including Delhi AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, considered it an insult to Prophet Muhammad, prompting calls for the beheading of the Hindu priest.
For Islamists, having an open discussion of the teachings of Islam or the characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad is a strict no-go zone. Islamists and their allies in the form of left-leaning liberals have upheld Islam, and public scrutiny of the Islamic religious texts has attracted both—intellectual opposition as well as crude one—in the form of violence and intimidation.
Anyone who speaks against Islam or broaches the topic of Prophet Muhammad has to face severe backlash from the liberal intelligentsia, who are quick to ostracise such individuals and brand them as Islamophobic bigots. Their counterparts, in the form of Islamists, then dish out threats against them and some of them even go to the extent of killing the “offenders” so as to discourage others and instil fear among them to speak on Islam.
Insulting Hindus and Hindu Gods is par for the course while ridiculing other faiths is a forbidden act
While it is a strict no-go zone for people to mock Islam or scrutinise its religious texts and theological commandments, it is par for the course for them to mock, denigrate and vilify Hinduism and Hindu Gods. For a long time now, mocking Hindus, Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hinduism has become a hallmark of the Indian Left. They leave no stone unturned to subject Hindus and their faith to contempt, all under the tenuous pretext of “Freedom of Expression”. This freedom, predictably, does not extend to criticising other faiths.
From raising the false bogey of “saffron terror” to concocting the imaginary construct of “rising intolerance”, liberals felt no qualms in painting Hindus as aggressors so that their objective of toppling the Modi government could be fulfilled. The hatred for Hindus has inevitably extended to their beliefs, Gods and traditions, underscoring the deep-seated and institutionalised antagonism harboured by the Left for the country’s majority. Those who blatantly indulge in Hinduphobic activities are not only celebrated but are also professionally rewarded, with many of them receiving affirmation from liberal ideologues and employment at sundry leftist organisations and online rags.
Today, many including Naqvi get validation from their ecosystem for mocking the Hindus. However, Kishan was no liberal icon. He was not the one to whom the tenets of Free Speech would apply. Abiding by the Jihadist cry ‘Gustakh-E-Rasul ki Ek hi saja, Sar tan se juda’, the murder of Kishan Bharwad was executed brutally, with an alleged link from Pakistan’s Tahrik-E-Labbaik.
The offender of one religion meets with a tragic end, while the other gets to walk the carpet, basking in the liberal sunlight. To expect that principles should be applied equally would be asking too much, especially when doorkeepers of the erstwhile establishment would stop not to insult the indigenous values. Unfortunately in India, the burden of upholding secularism rests solely on Hindus, who are expected to put up with their places of worship being defiled, desecrated and illegally occupied by adherents of other faiths, while others still continue to remain “secular” despite hurling insults, throwing barbs at Hindus and mocking their Gods.
An unverified video of a group of school girls attacking each other, reportedly in front of the prestigious Bishop Cotton Girls’ school in Bengaluru has gone viral on social media.
In the video, the schoolgirls were seen in uniform indulging in a dirty street fight with their schoolmates near Vittal Mallya road on Tuesday. The reason for such a brawl is yet to be known. However, screenshots from social media allege that the cause behind the incident was a fight between two girls over one of their boyfriends and a fake date.
The young girls can be seen slapping each other and pulling each other’s hair. One girl can be seen taking out a baseball bat to beat others. While a number of boys and some women try to pry them apart, two girls drag each other down a staircase. With kicks, punches and plenty of hairpulling around, some people watch helplessly as the schoolgirls indulge in what seemed like a gang war between two school groups.
— Harsha H Hanumegowda ™ (@Harsha_Reports) May 18, 2022
The fight continued for some time, as young school girls from Bishop Cotton Girls’ school could be heard shouting and shrieking. The bystanders, including some schoolboys, tried to stop the girls from fighting. However, the girls continued to hit each other.
Another video shows a girl bleeding from her nose after being pushed towards the barricades.
— Harsha H Hanumegowda ™ (@Harsha_Reports) May 18, 2022
According to the reports, the school authorities did not intervene to stop the street fight. The Bishop Cotton Girls’ school has also not issued any statement so far. The videos are doing rounds on social media and are becoming meme material.
On Thursday, various farmer unions from the state of Punjab camped up at the Chandigarh-Mohali border to stage protest against the Aam Aadmi Party led Punjab state government. They carried ration, beds, fans, utensils, and cooking gas cylinders and stationed at the border to press the AAP government to fulfill their demands.
According to the reports, the farmers belonging to various farmer unions are demanding increased bonus on wheat and permit to paddy sowing schedule from June 10. Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal warned on May 18 that if all the grievances of the farmers are not redressed, they will break the barricades and move towards Chandigarh. “It is the start of our struggle in Punjab and it will continue till our demands are met. Only 25 per cent of farmers have come here so far. More will come on Wednesday. It is a do or die battle,” the leader was quoted.
Punjab | Morning visuals from Chandigarh-Mohali border where farmers are sitting on a protest against the state government over various demands. They were stopped by the state police from entering Chandigarh, yesterday, May 17 pic.twitter.com/fUnr0bwz4Z
The leader further said that the protestors had recieved call from the Chandigarh DGP that a meeting with CM Mann had been fixed on Wednesday at 11 am. But he called again to inform that CM Mann had gone to Delhi and that the chief secretary was available for the meeting. The protesting farmers were not hopeful of getting their issues redressed by meeting a government official. This led to the protests at Chandigarh-Mohali border.
The protesters gathered on May 17 and marched from Gurdwara Amb Sahib towards the border. They broke the first layer of barricades set up at YPS Chowk and moved towards the other barriers put up by the Mohali Police near the Chandigarh-Mohali border. They were stopped by the police on May 17 near the Gita Bhawan where leader Dallewal urged the protesters not to break the second layer of barricades and instead begin the protest there peacefully.
Punjab | Farmers sit on a protest at the Chandigarh-Mohali border against the state government after police stopped them from entering Chandigarh
“Our protest will continue until our 11 demands are fulfilled,” says a farmer pic.twitter.com/AIWGrrKvGJ
The farmers are protesting against the state Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over the nonfulfillment of their demands. Apart from bonus on wheat and preponement of the paddy sowing schedule from from June 18 to June 10, the farmer’s demand list includes guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 23 crops including maize and green grams, uninterrupted power supply, and removal of the ban on the export of wheat.
As reported earlier, the farmer’s unions had held talks with CM Mann about their demands but there was no resolution. Following the failure of the talks, the farmers decided to take out the protest march. Reportedly, CM Mann left for Delhi to meet AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal leaving farmers in the state unattended. Taking to Twitter, Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira said, “The way Bhagwant Mann left the farmers in lurch and unattended by leaving for Delhi to meet Arvind Kejriwal it shows how much concern he has for the farmers of Punjab!
However, this is not the first time that the farmers from Punjab are protesting against the government for pressing their demands. Earlier, the farmers had protested against the Central government who had passed the three farm acts in September 2020. The AAP government had also supported the farmers and had urged the centre to immediately resume talks with farmers and accede to their demands. “Aam Aadmi Party extends support to call given by Samyukt Kisan Morcha to observe a countrywide protest on 26 May marking the completion of 6 months of their Andolan. We urge the centre to immediately resume talks with farmers and accede to their demands. AAP stands firmly with the farmers,” AAP’s Raghav Chadha had tweeted.
Khaira slammed the AAP for leaving the farmers unattended at the Chandigarh-Mohali border and accused that all the AAP’s support for farmers’ agitation in Delhi was politically motivated and only for political gains.
The way @BhagwantMann left the farmers in lurch and unattended by leaving for Delhi to meet @ArvindKejriwal it shows how much concern he has for the farmers of Punjab! It means all the Aap support to farmers agitation in Delhi was politically motivated and for political gains!
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) May 17, 2022
At present, heavy police force has been deployed at the border who is trying to take the control of the situation. While the aggressive farmers carrying ration, beds, fans, utensils, and cooking gas cylinders have decided to protest for long, AAP’s Punjab unit chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang has stated that the government is committed to the welfare of the farmers and it will address farmer’s genuine demands.
Former Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Regional Director Dharamveer Sharma has said that Qutub Minar was actually Surya Stambh. He claimed it was not built by the Mughals but by Emperor Vikramaditya. He further said that the structure was not built in parts as the historians suggest.
Sharma said the tower was an observatory to count constellations. There are 27 binocular locations in the Minaret to calculate 27 constellations. He further claimed that on the third floor of the Minaret, there is a mention of Surya Stambh.
Dharamveer Sharma is one of the most respected archaeologists in India. He has served as Superintending Archaeologist in the Delhi division of ASI three times. As per a report in Hindi daily Jagran, he had worked extensively on the conservation of Qutub Minar and went inside the Minaret multiple times. He said he had seen Devanagari writing in the inner parts of the minaret. Every year on June 21, he takes astronomers to the complex.
Sharma said that based on the archaeological evidence, Qutub Minar used to be a large observatory, and it was built by Emporer Vikramaditya. He presented a 20-point fact sheet to prove his theory that Qutub Minar was an observatory.
The construction of the Minar is based on astronomy.
The Minar was built above the Tropic of Cancer.
It was constructed to calculate the activity of the sun.
At 12 PM on June 21, the shadow of the tower did not fall on the ground.
It is five degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer.
Emperor Vikramaditya built it on Vishnupad hill and it was named Surya Stambh.
There were bells, climbers etc., made on the Minaret that point toward Hindu architecture.
Not even a single name of a Muslim appeared on the Minaret constructed it.
It was built under the leadership of astronomer Varaha Mihir.
There is no roof on the observatory.
The main gate of the observatory opens in the direction of the pole star.
Till the year 968, there used to be a stone in front of the main gate of Qutub Minar. It was cut in a U shape. If someone placed his/her chin on the stone, he/she would see a pole star in front.
There are 27 niches in the Minaret. In those niches, words like Pal and Ghati are written in Devanagari.
The niches have holes that would fit binoculars. Every niche can accommodate three people.
Several inscriptions inside Minaret are written in Devanagari, dating back to the seventh and eighth centuries.
Leaving the main gate, all the gates of the Minaret open towards the east, making it easier to observe the rising sun.
If someone shouts inside Minaret, the sound will not go out. Thus, it cannot be used to give Azaan.
The Minaret was built in one go, contrary to the Historians’ claims that it was built by several Mughal rulers.
Farsi can be found only on the outer side of the Minaret.
There used to be 27 constellation temples around the Minaret. They were demolished by the Mughals.
NMA asked to move Hindu idols from the Qutub Minar complex
Recently, it was reported that the National Monuments Authority (NMA) has asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to retrieve two Ganesha idols placed in the Qutub Minar complex. The NMA chairman wrote to ASI late last month, requesting that the two Ganesh idols called, Ulta Ganesh and Ganesha in cage, be removed from the Qutub Minar complex and relocated to the National Museum. He believed that the “placement of the idols is disrespectful,” and that it should be changed.
Court rejected a plea to restore temples destroyed to build Qutub Minar Complex
In December 2021, a Delhi Court had rejected a plea to restore 27 temples destroyed to build Qutub Minar Complex. The court accepted that the temples were destroyed, however, the court had refused to admit the petition because it was scared of “disturbing peace”.
On Wednesday, the Sirmaur Police in Himachal Pradesh arrested BJP Minority Morcha Paonta President Naseem Naaz and Armaan Malik (Mehboob) for using abusive language toward Lord Shiva and demeaning Hindu religion on the social media. Naaz and Malik had compared the Shivling to a toilet seat and remarked that the Hindu devotees were unnecessarily happy over the discovery of the Shivling in the disputed structure of the Gyanvapi Masjid in Uttar Pradesh.
The incident pertains to Paonta Sahib located in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, where radical Muslims made derogatory remarks on social media about Shivling, leading to tension in the area. According to the reports, two accused, Paonta Minority Morcha President Naseem and Salon shop owner Armaan Malik were arrested by the police for making controversial statements regarding Shivling in Majra under Paonta Sahib police station. Angered by this, Muslim fundamentalists surrounded the police station and attacked it with swords and sticks. Meanwhile, as Hindus came to know about the incident, hundreds of them reached the police station to confront the lumpen Muslim radicals.
Minority Morcha leader Naseem Naaz had claimed in a Facebook post that there is no Shivling in Gyanvapi, saying that no proof of the existence of the Shivling has been found. He had said the claim of Shivling is just propaganda spread by the media. He added that there is a stone in his toilet too, and if searched, some important clue will be found.
“My toilet seat is also made up of stone. Please check that too. You never know that could also mosque, be a Shivling”, Malik addressed the Hindu devotees while commenting on the Facebook post posted by Naseem Naaz that made similar derogatory remarks. Communal tensions escalated in the area as Islamist people gathered around the Paonta Sahib Police station in Sirmaur and raised anti-India and anti-Hindu slogans. They carried swords and lathis and protested against the arrest of Malik and Naaz.
Image source- Social media
According to the reports, several Hindu people then gathered in the areas and demanded discontinuance of the anti-India and anti-Hindu slogans being raised by the Islamists. The members of the Hindu organisation, Sanjay Singhal, Ajay Sansarwal, Vivek Saini, Mayank Mahawar, Hemant Sharma, Sachin Oberoi, Vaibhav Gupta and Garvit Gupta registered an official case against the duo for demeaning Lord Shiva and the Hindu religion. “The comment has hurt the sentiments of the Hindu people. Action must be taken against such people. The Shivaling, the form of the adorable deity Shiva, has been attached to a toilet in a very messy and indecent manner”, the members noted.
“Such remarks have been made deliberately to incite riots and social discord. Today on one hand, while the whole of the world is paying respect to Hindu deities, there are some anti-social elements who are making such remarks to incite riots. If action is not taken on this then Hindu society will be compelled to take to the streets”, they warned.
Copy of official complaint (Image source- Dainik Bhasker)
Nazeem Naaz suspended from BJP
The Sirmaur Police deployed a heavy police force in the area on May 17 and tried to pacify the situation, but to no avail. The brawl continued for more than three hours from around 9 pm till Thursday midnight. The situation was mollified only after the Deputy Commissioner, the Deputy Superintendent of Police and BJP MLA Dr Rajiv Bindal arrived at the spot.
Reports further mention that while Malik has been arrested, Paonta Sahib BJP President Arvind Gupta temporarily has suspended BJP Minority Morcha Paonta President Naseem Naaz. His BJP membership has also been suspended amid the police investigation in the case that is underway.
Image Source- Dainik Bhasker
Shivling found in disputed Gyanvapi structure-
Recently, a court-monitored survey of the disputed Gyanvapi structure found a Shivling inside the Wuzukhana of the mosque. The Wuzukhana is a place inside a mosque where Muslims wash their hands and feet before offering namaz. The apex court on Tuesday issued orders to protect the site where the Shivling was discovered from the disputed structure. The order also denies entry of Muslims in Wuzukhana, disallowing washing of their feet and spitting on the Shivling. Supreme Court however also maintains that the order in any manner should not restrict or impede the right of the Muslims to use the Mosque for religious purposes.
