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‘Would have attacked PM Modi too if he had challenged us like Kirit Somaiya’: Shiv Sena leader Dipali Sayyed

OpIndia Staff
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‘Would have attacked PM Modi too if he had challenged us like Kirit Somaiya’: Shiv Sena leader Dipali Sayyed

On April 23, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya’s car was attacked as his car passed through the Khar Police station in Mumbai. Somaiya was on his way to meet the Rana couple who was locked inside the Khar Police station for planning to chant Hanuman Chalisa in front of CM Uddhav Thackeray’s home Matoshree. Shiv Sena leader Dipali Sayyed has now commented that even Modi would not have been spared if he had challenged Matoshree the way Kirit Somaiya did.

“Balasaheb (Thackeray) has taught us – The one who challenges should be broken. Had there been Modiji’s car around that time, then that would have been attacked too,” asserted Shiv Sena leader Dipali Sayyed while talking to the media on Tuesday. Sayyed was seen complaining about MP Navneet Rana and MLA Ravi Rana’s designs to chant Hanuman Chalisa as a protest in front of Matoshree. She justified the attack on BJP leader Kirit Somaiya by Shiv Sena leaders as a way Shiv Sena plays its game. She reiterated her previous comment that the Ranas are Modi’s monkeys who have suddenly descended upon in Maharashtra.

“There was no restriction to recite Hanuman Chalisa anywhere. But the proposition to do it in front of Matoshree was wrong,” Sayyed said. She alleged that the BJP wants to disturb the law and order situation because it wants to enforce President’s rule in the state.

Attack on Kirit Somaiya

On Sunday, when the BJP leader was in his way to meet Ravi Rana and Navneet Rana who were booked under sedition charges in the jail, his car was attacked by Shiv Sena leaders with stones. Somaiya posted a video on Twitter where he had blood on his face. On the attack, he said, “This is the third time Uddhav Thackeray’s goons tried to kill me, first at Vashim than Pune and now at Police Station (Khar, Mumbai) itself.”

It is to be noted that Dipali Bhonsle nee Sofia Jahangir Sayyed started off as a Marathi film actress and joined the Shiv Sena in 2019. She contested against NCP’s Jitendra Awhad in the 2019 assembly elections from the Muslim-dominated Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Mumbai and lost with heavy margins. Her open target against PM Narendra Modi has sparked wide criticism in the political annals of Maharashtra.

Congress panel recommends suspension of Ex-PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, removal of KV Thomas from all party positions for anti-party activities

OpIndia Staff
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Congress panel recommends suspension of Ex-PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, removal of KV Thomas from all party positions for anti-party activities

The Congress Disciplinary Committee suggested on Tuesday that former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sunil Jakhar be suspended for two years from the party. The disciplinary committee also recommended the removal of Kerala leader K V Thomas from all party positions for anti-party activities.

The Ak Antony led-committee also recommended the suspension of five party MLAs from Meghalaya who had supported the state’s ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) while ignoring party directives.

According to sources, the committee has made its recommendations to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who will take necessary action soon.

The five-member committee was chaired by senior party leader A K Antony, other panel members included Tariq Anwar, JP Aggarwal, and G Parameswar. Ambika Soni was not in attendance for the meeting.

The panel’s proposal to suspend Jakhar came after Punjab AICC in-charge Harish Chaudhary wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, drawing her attention to some of Jakhar’s recent remarks. Sonia Gandhi then referred Chaudhary’s letter to the Antony-led disciplinary action committee.

“You have made derogatory statements against Congress leaders and also attributed motives to the leadership of thinking on communal lines while deciding the leadership of CLP Punjab,” Tariq Anwar, member secretary of the disciplinary action committee, said in a show-cause notice issued in response to Chaudhary’s letter.

The notice further stated that Jhakar’s remarks were also found to be a blatant violation of the party’s ethos. “The committee deliberated and decided to give you an opportunity to explain your action and decided to issue (a) show cause notice (to you on) why action should not be taken as per the Party Constitution XIX(f)(5),” the notice read.

Soon after the recommendations of the Congress disciplinary panel, Jakhar wished his party “good luck” while refusing to share his own plans.

“I wish the Congress good luck,” Jakhar said when reporters sought his reaction to the panel’s recommendation. He refused to comment when asked what would be his next step.

Jakhar had stated ahead of the Congress disciplinary committee meeting that those who still have a conscience would be punished.

“Aaj, sar kalam honge unke jinme abhi zameer baaki hai. (Today, those with a conscience will be beheaded). (My apologies to Javed Akhtar Saheb),” Jakhar said in a tweet.

After Congress lost the state to the AAP, Jakhar slammed former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, calling him a liability for the party and claiming that the party decided against his own candidature as chief minister since he is a Hindu.

Source: Twitter user Supriya Bhardwaj

The remark had come after the Congress party suffered a humiliating defeat in the Punjab assembly polls. Out of the 117 seats, it managed to win a meager 18 seats, with CM Channi losing from both the seats he contested. He lost to AAP’s Labh Singh Ugoke in Bhadaur, in Chamkaur Sahib he was defeated by AAP candidate Charanjit Singh.

Thomas, a former union minister and a senior leader from Kerala, had attended a CPI(M) seminar in the state on April 9 against the wishes of the party, and local state leaders had sought action against him.

The five Congress MLAs in Meghalaya had joined the state’s BJP-backed ruling alliance, for which they were served with a show-cause notice and asked to explain their actions.

According to them, the state unit of Congress had also sought strict action against the MLAs for supporting a BJP government in the state.

The legislators joined the MDA in February, bringing the two old enemies together in a ruling alliance and enraged Congress leaders.

The disciplinary panel had served Jakhar, Thomas, and the five MLAs with a show-cause notice, asking them to explain why action should not be taken against them for their activities.

Foreign-based organisations linked to Pakistan and ISI lobbying against India on global forums, reveals Disinfo Lab report

OpIndia Staff
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Foreign-based organisations linked to Pakistan and ISI lobbying against India on global forums, reveals Disinfo Lab report

On April 25, Investigating Info-warfare and Psy-war OSINT Disinfo Lab published a report on the investigation it had done that revealed a 50-year old plan hatched by Pakistan to harm India’s interests in global forums. Codenamed Operation Tupac, it is an ongoing military-intelligence contingency program that has been active since the 1980s and is run by the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan.

In its report, Disinfo Lab stated that various organisations linked to Pakistan and its notorious intelligence agency ISI were responsible for the ratings India got in the recently released United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) annual report. India was grouped as a Country of Particular Concern along with Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and 11 other nations.

There are three particular segments in the report that were used to tarnish the image of India: Fascism, Genocide and Islamophobia. Disinfo Lab pointed out that when it comes to India, there is a particular set of organizations that show their concerns about the alleged human rights violations in the country. Some of these organizations are IAMC, Kashmir Civitas, OFMI, London Story, Polis Project, HfHR, Equality Labs, SWK and others.

Interestingly, all these organizations are located in the US or the UK. The OSINT claimed that all these organizations have interlinked members or are operated by the same members with different names. From Arundhati Roy to Peter Friedrich, Harsh Mandar, Bhajan Singh Bhindar, Abdul Malik Mujahid, and many others have been directly or indirectly lobbying against India on the International platforms.

The umbrella group Justice For All(JFA) and its links with Islamist organisations

All these people and organizations have one single link that is a Pakistan-backed and Chicago-based umbrella group Justice For All (JFA). The organization was formed in 1999 by Abdul Malik Mujahid. He was head of Jamiat-e-Talaba, which is the student wing of Jamaat in Pakistan, between 1975 to 1977. He also led the Islamic Circle of North America, Jamaat’s US wing.

In 1988, Mujahid, the multimedia wing of Mujahid, had formed Sound Vision which is ICNA’s multimedia wing. It supports JFA. To make it simple, ICNA can be termed as a brainchild of Jamaat in South Asia and Muslim Brotherhood in West Asia. The aim of the formation of ICNA was to provide soft power to the Radical Islamists.

Initially, JFA was named Kosova Task Force by ICNA, with Muslim Brotherhood in the front via an organization named Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Later, it was named JFA. The organization provided support information on many fronts, including the Burma Task Force.

Between 2018 and 2020, BTF lobbied USCIRF via Fidelis Govt Relations (FGR) to nominate India as a Country of Particular Concern. As per Disinfo Lab, BTF collected $267,000 in the name of Rohingyas and Uyghurs and paid to FGR.

Members of JFA and Sound Vision

The director of JFA is Hena Zuberi. She is a Pakistani journalist and relative of former Pakistan Army official Colonel Kaleem Zuberi. Hena is editor-in-chief of the propaganda portal MuslimMatters.org. She had extended support for Aafia Siddiqui, infamous by the name Lady Al-Qaeda. Hena also provided aide to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of the 9/11 attack.

Mohammad Khalid Riyaz, Secretary of Sound Vision, is the founder of the Pakistani-American Political Committee or PAK PAC. The group has been described by former Prime Minister Imran Khan as the most powerful and influential Pakistani group overseas. Notably, Riyaz is also linked to Pakistani Physicians of North America or APPNA, which is another powerful lobby front.

In 2019-2020, AAPNA had raised $351,753 via PAK PAC. Out of these funds, $330,740 was spent on lobbying activities. As per the report, politicians like Jim Banks, Sheila Jackson and Ilhan Omar were influenced by this group and motivated to raise their voices against India, especially on the Kashmir issue. Not to forget, Omar recently visited Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and expressed her “concerns” over the alleged “atrocities against the Muslim population” in the valley on the Indian side.

Notably, in 2012 JAF started a campaign called Bangladesh Alert. Instead of raising a voice and demanding justice for the war crime victims of the Bangladesh war of 1971, the organization aimed the campaign at saving and seeking “justice” for war criminals like Motiur Rahman Nizami. Notably, Nizami was executed by Bangladesh for his involvement in war crimes.

Here, it is essential to point out that Motiur Rahman Nizami was awarded by ICNA for his “outstanding contribution to Islam.” Nizami was named for several crimes, including the murder of around 400 people, the rape of 40 women and the deportation of villagers. He had delivered inciting speeches during the war that incited mobs to rage war against the Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh.

On the Sound Vision website, there is a profile dedicated to another war criminal of Bangladesh, Khurram Murad. The website called him a scholar, thinker and prolific writer. Interestingly, another war criminal of Bangladesh, Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, was a founding member of the Burma Task Force, which has links to IAMC, the organization that has lobbied against India in USCIRF.

The curious links to Pakistan

During the 1990s, the JFA website openly flaunted links to the Pakistani government and think tanks. Two particular names shine from that period are Ghulam Nabi Fai of the Kashmiri American Council and Mushtaq Jeelani of the Kashmiri Canadian Council.

In 2011, Fai had pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from the Pakistani Secret Services Agency ISI to lobby against India on the Kashmir issue in front of US politicians. During the investigation, Disinfo Lab found that Jeelani was funding Relief Organization for Kashmiri Muslims (ROKM), which was Jamaat’s charitable trust via KCC.

The website flaunted links to Pakistani government websites and Pakistani think tank websites such as YesPakistan.org.

Another name that was linked to the think tanks mentioned on JFA’s website was Human Development Foundation or HDF. It is a project by the Pakistani Army. Former president of APPNA and Director of SV Muhammad Khalid Riyaz was one of the co-founders of HDF. Three fronts were named for being linked to HDF that was AAPNA, SIH and Noor Foundation.

SIH was run by Zaheer Ahmed, an associate of Fai and ISI, as per the FBI. Notably, Ahmed was in touch with Osama Bin Laden and was convicted of financial fraud of his organization.

The interlinked network against India

JFA has a well-positioned and highly sophisticated web of contacts to target India. The organizations linked to JFA include IAMC, South Vision, ICNA, APPNA, Noor Foundation, SIH, Kashmiri Canadian Council, Kashmiri American Council, Kashmir Information Network, and Institute of Policy Studies Pakistan, Institute of Regional Studies Islamabad, Bosnia Task Force and many others. With the help of these fronts, JFA continuously spreads misinformation and lobby against India.

IAMC was also linked to the infamous conference ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva‘ under Hindus for Human Rights or HfHR. It was also linked to the Organization for Minorities of India or OFMI. The organization was formed by Bhajan Bhinder, a Khalistani ISI handler, along with Khalistani supporter Pieter Friedrich. Notably, Pieter’s role was exposed during Farmer Protests, and it was revealed that he was on security agencies’ radar for a long time.

HfHR’s founding member Raju also heads EKTA. It is an associate organization of IAMC. The sole purpose was to have Hindus on the panel to project that the Hindus, in general, were against Hindutva. Interestingly, HfHR ran Facebook ads to promote previous USCIRF reports.

Disinfo Lab mentioned that another front linked to these organizations and individuals was Equality Labs Thenimozhi Soundararajan. Earlier, they flaunted OFMI and Bhinder’s names on their website, but after Disinfo Lab’s earlier expose, they removed his name.

Pakistan-backed JFA, IAMC, & HfHR had co-sponsored India Genocide Summit 2022. Initially, the Genocide in India narrative was pushed by JFA in 2019 with the help of Genocide Watch founder Gregory Stanton. For the 2022 Summit, speakers included former SIMI founder SQR Illyas, Aakar Patel, Safoora Zargar, Teesta Setalvad, and Kancha Illaiah. All of them have been accused of involvement in anti-India activities.

The complete report by Disinfo Lab can be seen here.

USCIRF recommended India be added to CPCs

In its 2022 report on Religious Freedom, USCIRF has recommended India be added to the list of Countries of Particular Concerns. In its report, the organization alleged India is indulged in atrocities against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and other minorities. The Organization mentioned several cases like of Naxal sympathiser Father Stan Swamy, tightening rules of FCRA and others as the basis for the recommendation.

West Bengal: Police use water cannon to disperse BJP protest rally against Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Police use water cannon to disperse BJP protest rally against Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government

West Bengal police Tuesday, used water cannons to disperse BJP workers who were taking out a protest rally against Mamata Banerjee-led state government. The rally, led by party MP and BJYM national president Tejasvi Surya and state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar was moving from Karunamoyee towards Bikash Bhavan in Kolkata when the state police intercepted the rally and used water cannons to disperse them.

The state’s opposition party was protesting a variety of issues, including an alleged teacher-appointment scam.

Reacting to the incident, Tejasvi Surya told the reporters, “Land of Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore, land that had guided the country in education in the context of the freedom movement is now sinking as far as the education system is concerned. Yuva Morcha is protesting against the politicisation & corruption in our education system”.

“Mamata Banerjee has killed democracy in West Bengal. We told Police to arrest/detain us but not resort to a lathi-charge. But they did. Male cops attacked our women workers. As per my info, four workers need hospitalisation, one already hospitalised,” lambasted BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar.

The West Bengal state government has often been on the radar regarding the issue of recruitment in various appointments including SSC, TET and SLST. Last year, OpIndia reported how political parties in West Bengal exploited the police recruitment drive to make religious reservations. The merit list of a recruitment drive published by the West Bengal Police Recruitment Board then showed that apart from one or two individuals, all of them were Muslims. The same had happened in 2019 as well.

The situation has deteriorated to the point where the Calcutta High Court has instructed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into the majority of these instances.

Google turns woke, launches ‘prompts’ to suggest ‘politically correct’ words

OpIndia Staff
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Google turns woke, launches ‘prompts’ to suggest ‘politically correct’ words

The Search Engine giant Google has gone woke. It has introduced ‘prompts’ that would inform the Google Workspace users about possible ‘politically correct’ phrases that they can use while writing a document. The ‘inclusive language’ function would tell the users to change words like ‘chairman’ to ‘chairperson’ or ‘housewife’ to ‘stay-at-home spouse’. As per reports, it also suggests alternate for words like ‘landlord’ as ‘property owner’ or ‘proprietor’ as the word ‘landlord’ may not be ‘inclusive to all readers’.

Keeping the gender-specific terms in check, it suggests alternates for ‘policeman’ as ‘police officers. The word ‘manned’ suggests ‘crewed’ as an alternate. The feature is currently available for enterprise-level users. Though the computer document systems offer spelling and grammar checks, critics claim to force users to choose ‘woke language’ is an attempt to impose the gender norms followed by the company on its users.

The flaws in the system raised eyebrows

As per Dailymail, the system suggested changing President John F Kennedy’s inaugural address from ‘for all mankind’ to ‘for all humankind’. Interestingly, it suggests alternates for words like Blacklist and even Motherboard.

The system did not leave the ‘Son of God’ Jesus Christ. According to New York Post, it suggested that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus should have used ‘lovely’ instead of ‘marvellous’.

In a statement, Google said, “Potentially discriminatory or inappropriate language will be flagged, along with suggestions on how to make your writing more inclusive and appropriate for your audience.”

Speaking about the problems with the system, a Google spokesman said, “Assisted writing uses language understanding models, which rely on millions of common phrases and sentences to automatically learn how people communicate. This also means they can reflect some human cognitive biases. Our technology is always improving, and we don’t yet [have] a solution to identifying and mitigating all unwanted word associations and biases.”

Love Jihad in MP: Illegal house of Imran who feigned as Raju to marry a Hindu girl demolished; his brother and a Maulana had raped the victim

OpIndia Staff
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Love Jihad in MP: Illegal house of Imran who feigned as Raju to marry a Hindu girl demolished; his brother and a Maulana had raped the victim

In a first, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has demolished the illegal house belonging to a youth named Imran, also an accused in a purported case of Love Jihad. The action was taken after the crime was brought to light following a complaint submitted by the victim’s kin to the Gwalior police. When police started investigating the case, it was revealed that the accused had been living in an illegally constructed house.

The staff members of the municipality including Tehsildar Deepak Shukla, SDOP Vivek Sharma, station in-charge reportedly reached Imran’s house in Jangipura, Dabra with demolition orders. A large police contingent was also deployed in the area.

Since Imran’s house was inside a narrow bylane, the bulldozer could not reach his house. As a result, the municipal officers at first got the house evacuated, then demolished it with the assistance of labourers.

Officials said that Imran’s illegal house has been demolished as part of the anti-mafia operation.

The action was taken after a girl, a resident of Gol Paharia in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh accused Imran, a resident of Dabra of enticing her into friendship and then marriage by posing as a Hindu. The girl told the police that she had met the accused at some event in January 2021. He introduced himself as Raju Jatav. The couple fell in love and began dating each other.

The girl further said that when she became pregnant with his child, Raju alias Imran forced her to get an abortion done. On September 18, 2021, the accused took her to a Sitala mandir and married her according to Hindu rituals.

Love Jihad: Woman forced into embracing Islam, raped by Imran’s brother a Maulana, pushed into prostitution

She learned about her husband’s true religion and real name, Imran, after they got married. When she began living with Imran, a maulana arrived and informed her that the marriage was invalid and that they needed to marry according to Muslim rituals for which she needs to convert to Islam.

She claimed that when she refused to change her religion, her brother-in-law and the maulana raped her on the night of the marriage itself.

The woman further accused the in-laws of beating her up after the marriage and keeping her hostage for 7 months. She stated that her mother-in-law, Suga Begum forced her into prostitution. She was kept locked in a room, and several youths would come in and rape her. On April 20, the door of the room was accidentally left open. She took advantage of the opportunity and fled to her parents’ house. She then narrated her ordeal to her family, who in turn, filed a complaint with the Gwalior police on Saturday (23 April 2022).

The girl also met Gwalior Superintendent of Police (SP Gwalior) Amit Sanghi and demanded security. The SP assured the family of a speedy and fair probe in the case. He said that a case has been lodged against the purported husband Imran, brother-in-law Aman, Punni, Maulana Osama Khan, and two unidentified others based on the complaint. In the case, police have arrested two suspects, Imran and his mother Suga Begum, while three others are still at large. They are being questioned, he informed.

Did Prashant Kishor just refuse to be Gandhis’ scapegoat for the 2024 Lok Sabha loss?

Amit Kelkar
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Did Prashant Kishor just refuse to be Gandhis’ scapegoat for the 2024 Lok Sabha loss?

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has declined the Congress offer to join the Empowered Action Group (EAG) 2024 of the Congress party. He was invited to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. The offer from the Congress side was made after Prashant Kishor gave a long presentation to the senior leadership sharing his master plan to revive the comatose party.

Declining the offer, Prashant Kishor said, “I declined the generous offer of #congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections.”

Further, he added, “In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms.”

Many are seeing this offer from Congress to Prashant Kishor as just an attempt to find the scapegoat for the Gandhis when they lose yet another Lok Sabha election under the family leadership. By appointing Prashant Kishor to the EAG and making him the face of their election campaign, Gandhis could have avoided direct responsibility in case of another electoral reversal.

Under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi (and since 2019 Priyanka Gandhi Vadra), Congress has suffered a drubbing in both the 2014 and 2019 General Elections. Not only that, Congress has kept losing state after state to Narendra Modi-led BJP and has been reduced to state governments in only 2 places, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. It is a minor ally in Jharkhand and Maharashtra governments as well.

While the Gandhis have managed to keep their hold on the party so far, another drubbing at the hands of Narendra Modi in 2024 maybe a bit too much for the Congress workers. So far, despite some dissent from “G-23“, Gandhis have maintained their stranglehold on the party. To continue their run at the helm of Congress in case of yet another defeat, they need someone who can be thrown under the bus after the 2024 elections.

Passing the blame on to the others and keeping hold of the party has worked very well for Gandhis so far. Even after the humiliating defeat in 5 assembly elections, Gandhis came under no criticism whatsoever while state presidents of all 5 states were asked to tender their resignations. Even though the entire campaign was run by Rahul and Priyanka, the blame was for state presidents to take.

Prashant Kishor was the ideal man for that job, he is very high profile, he claims credit for every win by any of his clients, even if that client was always going to win anyway, so he could have been blamed for the electoral loss as well. Gandhis would have said that they just followed the plan shared by Kishor and it didn’t work so he is the one to blame for any loss. However, Kishor seems to have avoided the trap and has steered clear of Gandhis’ intention to thrust the responsibility of the Lok Sabha election on him.

Prashant Kishor won’t have been the first scapegoat for the Gandhis

This wouldn’t have been the first time when Congress would have blamed an external consultant for their electoral reversals. Back in 2019 when Narendra Modi returned to power with a thumping victory, Congress had tried to pass the blame to Data Analyst Praveen Chakravarty.

Chakravarty, who was the Head of the Congress Data Analytics Department ahead of the 2019 elections, was called BJP mole in Congress office after the party’s defeat in 2019. He faced all the criticism for the party’s disastrous campaign and the subsequent defeat. However, after blaming him for the poor showing, Congress promoted him a few months later, perhaps a reward for shielding the Gandhis from direct blame.

However, looks like Prashant Kishor is in no mood to serve as the Gandhis’ scapegoat, and is happy with his regional clients.

Watch: Hijab-clad woman blows up a van carrying Confuscious Institute director Ding Mupeng and 3 others in Karachi attack

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Hijab-clad woman blows up a van carrying Confuscious Institute director Ding Mupeng and 3 others in Karachi attack

On Tuesday (April 26), a massive explosion took place near a vehicle outside the Commerce Department of Karachi University, Pakistan. It has now been reported that the blast was a suicide attack, the responsibility of which is claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army.

CCTV footage of the suicide bomber has been obtained in which the woman who has been identified as Shari Baloch can be seen blowing herself up as the van passes through the road. The woman can be seen standing near a turning where a white coloured van carrying officials of the Chinese Confucius Institute was attacked with the bomb. The slain victims include Huang Guiping, director of Confucius Institute, two other Chinese citizens including Ding Mupeng, Chen Sa and their local driver Khalid.

As per preliminary reports, the blast occurred around 2:30 PM. The Dawn reported that the vehicle was turning towards the Confucius Institute when the explosion took place. While rescue teams speculated a cylinder blast as the cause of the attack, Karachi Police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon’s assertion that it might be a suicide blast executed by a burqa-clad woman has come true.

A Twitter user from Pakistan has shared the picture of the suicide bomber who has attacked and killed Chinese officials outside the Karachi University.

The BLA has issued a statement following the attack, identifying the bomber as Shari Baluch or Bramsh and stating that she was the group’s first female bomber. The attack marks “a new chapter in the history of Baloch resistance,” the statement said.

This is not the first time that Chinese nationals have come under attack in a country known for its precarious security apparatus. Additionally, Balochistan has constantly been a boiling pot, with its inhabitants being involved in a continuous insurgency against Pakistan and have accused Islamabad of forcibly occupying their territory and using repression to squelch their dissent.

The first major attack on Chinese nationals took place in Pakistan at Dasu in the northwest in July 2021 that killed nine Chinese nationals. However, that attack wasn’t claimed by the Baloch militants. The Pakistani Taliban had claimed the attack in which 4 people had died.

‘Too much English on sets, scripts should be in Devanagari’: Nawazuddin Siddiqui criticises lack of Hindi in the Hindi film industry in viral video

OpIndia Staff
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‘Too much English on sets, scripts should be in Devanagari’: Nawazuddin Siddiqui criticises lack of Hindi in the Hindi film industry in viral video

Slamming the ‘Bollywood film industry’ for holding the English language high in regard and ignoring Hindi, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Saturday stated that the ‘Bollywood’ industry lacks in maximising creative talents because the communication among the artists is never clear which leads to confusion in the execution of the required actions.

He was speaking at the special session named ‘Aspiration to Action’ at Times Network India Economic Conclave on April 23.

“The directors and producers make the film in Hindi but prefer to communicate in English on the sets. Even the scriptwriters, costume designers, production designers, and screenwriters speak in English. Sometimes they all tend to discuss the same character but fail to understand each other’s point. The actor also gets confused. Performance gets affected”, he said highlighting the need for usage of the Hindi language on the film sets.

The video of the incident got viral over social media on Tuesday where the actor could be seen stating the importance of clear communication for superlative results. When asked about what aspects would he like to change in the ‘Bollywood film industry’, he said that the first and foremost thing everybody must do is call it a ‘Hindi film industry’. “What is the point in making a Hindi film if nobody in the practical job even speaks Hindi”, he reiterated.

He compared the Hindi film industry to the Tamil or Kannada film industry and said that ‘those films are best in performance as they all proudly speak in one local language’. “The directors, producers, make-up artists, screenwriters, actors, all speak the language in which the film is made. This helps everybody working on that project to understand every minute detail. No doubt, those films work well on the creativity graphs”, he added.

Scripts have to be in Devanagari

Siddiqui stated that while the movies are made in Hindi, the scripts the actors get are printed in ‘Roman letters’. He added that he would prefer to read scripts written in Devanagari, which is the common script for so many Indian languages.

Siddiqui also stated that many of the talented actors who come from the theatres, are not from the posh urban backgrounds and are not comfortable in spoken modern English. He added that if everyone on the set communicated in Hindi, it would be really easy for the actor to understand what is required of him in terms of performance.

Siddiqui meanwhile also commented on whether films have become a novel political tool or not. “Film is a Film. All kinds of films were made in the past, are made, and will be made in the future. It depends on the audiences how they perceive it, how they take it”, he said. He also said that he was disappointed by the kind of films that succeeded at the box office in recent times.

It is important to note that Home Minister Amit Shah also had pressed upon the usage of Hindi over English on April 9. “People of different states should communicate with each other in Hindi, and not English. Now the time has come to make the official language an important part of the unity of the country. When citizens of States who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India”, he had said.

He had also clarified that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative only to English, and not to local languages. “Hindi should be made more flexible by accepting words from other local languages”, he had suggested.

Disgruntled Navjot Singh Sidhu posts selfie with ‘old friend’ Prashant Kishor hours after poll strategist rejected Congress’ offer to join party

OpIndia Staff
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Disgruntled Navjot Singh Sidhu posts selfie with ‘old friend’ Prashant Kishor hours after poll strategist rejected Congress’ offer to join party

Disgruntled Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday posted selfie with celebrity poll strategist Prashant Kishor hours after the latter rejected Congress’ offer to join the party in official capacity.

In a tweet, Sidhu said, “Had a wonderful meeting with my old friend PK … Old wine , Old gold and Old friends still the best !!!”

This tweet comes hours after Prashant Kishor took to Twitter to announce he has rejected Congress’ ‘generous offer’ to join the party. In a tweet, he said, “In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms.”

Sidhu, former Punjab Pradesh Congress President had harboured hopes of becoming the Congress Chief Ministerial candidate for recently concluded state assembly elections. However, Rahul Gandhi, Wayanad MP, had chosen the then CM Charanjit Singh Channi as the CM face. Soon after the election results, Sidhu had resigned as party president.

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