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Nizamuddin Markaz to reopen for Shab-e-barat after Delhi HC orders, had become the first epicentre of Covid-19 outbreak in India

OpIndia Staff
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Nizamuddin Markaz to reopen for Shab-e-barat after Delhi HC orders, had become the first epicentre of Covid-19 outbreak in India

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday has given a nod to reopen the Nizamuddin Markaz which remained closed since March 2020 for a day on occasion of Shab-e-barat. It was the same site where the Tablighi Jamaat congregation was held which resulted in a mega-spreader of the Covid-19 virus in India, with attendees hiding from authorities and carrying the infection to almost all states in India. 

The Single-member bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri removed the restriction for a congregation liming only 100 people on one floor and has agreed to open the three floors at the Markaz. The Court has ordered the management to look after the strict obeyance of Covid-19 protocols and social distancing to be followed when devotees offer namaz on the campus. The decision came with Shab-e-Barat, the Islamic festival for the remembrance of ancestors is around the corner on March 18-19.

The Delhi High Court has permitted to open the ground floor and other three floors in the building at 12 PM on March 18, which will be closed at 4 PM the other day. This came as a response to an application filed by Delhi Waqf Board seeking to open the Markaz which opens up as a mass congregation space during Shab-e-Barat and during the month of Ramzan, commencing on April 2. The matter for re-opening the mosque during Ramzan has been listed for March 31.

The Court has addressed the issue of foreign nationals and OCI cardholders willing to offer prayers at the Mosque, and the condition remains that they will not be allowed to do so inside the Markaz premises. While the advocate for Delhi Police Rajat Nair argued that no Tablighi activities should be allowed to take place, it was later agreed that the Mosque will be only used for offering prayers.

The High Court before giving permission to the Delhi Waqf board had asked its lawyer Waqeeh Shafiq to file an application before the SHO of the Nizamuddin Police Station seeking permission to open the floors for the congregation at the Markaz. Citing High Court’s order on April 15, 2021, the Police was ready to allow 50 persons on the first floor of the Mosque and the same number at Masjid Bangley Wali to offer prayers five times a day. The Centre, in its recent affidavit, had also opposed the full re-opening of the Markaz on religious festivities.

In September, against the plea by the Waqf board to restore the full gathering at the Markaz, The Centre filed an affidavit asserting the premises are under a serious investigation following the outbreak of Covid-19 cases from the precinct all over the country in March 2020. “The present premises has been kept under lock and key in view of the fact that the organisers of Markaz and the masjid are under investigation in an FIR… and the said case is under investigation wherein notices have already been served seeking details of plot/plots related to Masjid Banglewali Markaz, Kashif-ul-Uloom madarsa, Basti Nizamuddin to provide ownership documents etc,” said the centre in its affidavit.

However, the Waqf board lawyer cited that the Omicron strain of Covid-19 was not as fatal as the earlier ones, and now that other spaces of public gathering have opened, there should be no impediment to direct reopening of this waqf property. The decision finally came in favour of the Waqf board with an understanding with the Delhi Police over the strict imposition of Covid-19 protocols.

Nizamuddin Markaz and coronavirus outbreak in 2020

In last week of March 2020, hundreds of Tablighi Jamaat attendees were found living inside the markaz, many of which were in violation of their visa rules. Many of the attendees were found to be covid-19 positive and despite showing symptoms had continued to stay there or move to interiors of country without getting themselves tested. Subsequently many were moved to quarantine centres to ensure treatment and arrest the spread of virus. However, even then, many Tablighi Jamaat attendees had attacked healthcare workers and even created ruckus at quarantine centres.

UP: Gaming addict married woman runs away to be with her PUBG lover

OpIndia Staff
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UP: Gaming addict married woman runs away to be with her PUBG lover

On March 3, a married woman from Uttarpradesh’s Maharajganj left her home in the night to meet her new lover in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The woman found her new love online while playing the online game PUBG (PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds).

According to Police reports, the incident took place in Maharajganj’s Badhara Baraipar village. A resident of the village, a woman often passed her time playing PUBG online and became addicted. Soon, she found a co-player from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and fell in love with him. The online multiplayer game uses the geostatic location of the player to locate nearby players during the game. On the night of March 3, The woman left her house to meet her new love from Bihar, whom she met during many a game.

After the woman went missing, her husband filed a missing report in Shyamdeurwa police station in Maharajganj on March 4. The Police investigation started soon after the case was registered. According to SHO Anand Gupta, A woman named Sushmita Sarkar developed an addiction to PUBG while being alone in her house. During a game, she met a boy living in Muzaffarpur, Bihar and started talking to him on a daily basis. To meet her newfound love, Sushmita left her home on the night of March 3.

The Maharajganj Police found Sushmita through surveillance and she has been handed over to her family. According to the SHO, Sushmita and her husband were originally from Bengal and were living in Maharajganj for a long time.

The PUBG menace

Online Gaming application PUBG, operated by a South Korea based corporation has found millions of subscribers worldwide while some countries have banned it citing over-addiction among citizens. On September 2, 2020, invoking the IT act under Section 69A, The Central IT ministry banned 118 malicious Chinese apps including PUBG which operated in India through its Chinese franchise Tencent Games. Apps users across the globe have been seen crossing all limits to access the game at their might.

There were reports of a 21-year-old son killing his father for stopping him from playing PUBG in Karnataka in 2019. The Government of Pakistan in July 2020 banned the app after two youths committed suicide after being stopped from playing the game in Pakistan. PUBG has launched again in India – both in Android and iOS versions after the operations were taken over by a gaming company Krafton.

Man accused of planting a bomb outside Mangaluru airport gets 20 years imprisonment

OpIndia Staff
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Man accused of planting a bomb outside Mangaluru airport gets 20 years imprisonment

On Wednesday, a Karnataka court sentenced one Aditya Rao to 20-year imprisonment under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for planting an explosive near the departure gate of Mangalore International Airport in 2020.

According to the reports, the fourth judicial district court has sentenced Aditya Rao to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and slappedRs.10,000 in the airport bomb planting case.

It may be recalled that Aditya Rao was accused of placing a bag containing a bomb near the ticket counter of the airport terminal building on January 20, 2020, and fled in an auto-rickshaw. The bag reportedly carried a low-intensity IED and had all components, excluding the triggering material.

Aditya had later surrendered at the office of the state director-general of police in Bengaluru.

In addition to his 20-years imprisonment, the court has also ordered five years of imprisonment under Section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act 1908, along with Rs 10,000 fine. His sentence will be extended by another six more months if Aditya fails to pay the fine. Both the sentences will run concurrently.

Tripura: 45-year-old man who sexually assaulted a minor girl beaten to death by local women

OpIndia Staff
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Tripura: 45-year-old man who sexually assaulted a minor girl beaten to death by local women

On Wednesday, a 45-year-old man was aggressively attacked by a group of women for attempting to rape a minor girl at Debnathpara of Gandacherra in Dhalai district. The man was tied to a tree by a group of women who thrashed him and left him unconscious. He was taken to the hospital by the Police where the doctors declared him dead.

The deceased has been identified as Ratan Acharjee. According to the reports, Acharjee was unemployed and had already served eight years of rigorous imprisonment in a murder case. On Tuesday, he attempted to molest a five-year-old girl in Dhalai.

The girl had accompanied her mother to Debnathpara of Gandacherra for a religious function. He deceptively took the girl in absence of her mother to the nearby forest and attempted to rape her. The family and the locals reached the spot to rescue the girl after she cried aloud for help. Acharjee had fled the spot till then.

The villagers tried to trace him throughout the night but to no avail. According to the Police, a group of women protested against the incident and blocked the Gandacherra-Amarpur highway. The accused was spotted by the locals in a nearby village on Wednesday morning. He was then tied to a tree and beaten by the women and other locals.

The Police arrived at the spot and saw Acharjee in a critical state. He was immediately taken to the hospital where the doctors declared him dead. The Police have so far interrogated four persons in the case. No one has been detained. The investigations are underway.

AAP likely to send former cricketer Harbhajan Singh to Rajya Sabha: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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AAP likely to send former cricketer Harbhajan Singh to Rajya Sabha: Reports

Speculations are floating around that the Aam Aadmi Party may send former cricketer Harbhajan Singh to Rajya Sabha. According to ANI’s report, Bhagwant Mann, the newly-elected Chief Minister of Punjab, might put Singh in-charge of the sports university that he had promised to set up in Jalandhar.

Notably, Singh had taken to Twitter to congratulate Mann after the victory. He said, “Congratulations to Aam Aadmi Party and My friend Bhagwant Mann on Becoming our New Chief minister. Great to hear that he will be taking oath as the new CM in Bhagat Singh’s village Khatkarkalan, what a picture…this is a proud moment for Mata Ji.”

Harbhajan Singh and history of controversies

Former cricketer Harbhajan Singh has a history of controversies. In June 2021, he was called out by netizens for glorifying Khalistan terrorist Bhindrwanwale on the anniversary of Operation Bluestar. He had to apologise after the backlash. The ace spinner had slapped Indian pacer Sreesanth and was accused of making a racially motivated slur towards Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.

Bhagwant Mann swore as CM

On March 16, AAP’s Bhagwant Mann was sworn as Chief Minister of Punjab. The party had won 92 out of 117 Assembly seats in the recent elections. The Election Commission has already announced the dates for biennial elections for Rajya Sabha, and the voting, if required, will take place on March 31. Currently, there are three AAP members in Rajya Sabha, which is expected to rise to eight after the polls.

My Lai massacre: Over 500 innocent villagers, including women and children, were slaughtered by US troops on March 16, 1968

Suyash
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My Lai massacre: Over 500 innocent villagers, including women and children, were slaughtered by US troops on March 16, 1968

War is in the news, again. Amid all the discussions over wars and conflicts that have shaped geopolitical scenarios in the last few decades, the Vietnam war is one of the most significant. In the March of 1968, amidst the continuing US-Vietnam War between 195s and the 70s. The massacre perpetrated by US troops on the villagers of My Lai and My Khe of southern Vietnam goes down as the darkest episode in the history of the War.

The Vietnam War

My Lai, a village in Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam was a stronghold of the National Liberation Front (VC) a communist group that advocated for the reunification of North and South Vietnam. In the twenty-year-long Vietnam War, the US supported the independent government of South Vietnam, which had been loyal to the Western bloc in the Cold War. Its Quang Ngai province which saw many communist rebellions was always a frequent target of the US. In March 1968, a part of the American Division’s Infantry brigade called ‘Charlie Company’ took the village of ‘Son My’ under its control.

Owing to Charlie Company’s quick success, it was sent on a search-and-destroy mission in the Son My area. Upon the onset of the Tet Offensive the very last month, The Charlie company had faced big blows from the communists while losing 28 of their commanders in the defence. With now over a close battalion of 100 men, US army commanders shared a wrong correspondence of active Vietnamese Liberation Front (VC) sympathizers present in the nearby villages of Son My with the Company.

North Vietnam (Pink) and South Vietnam (White)

The My Lai Massacre

The Charlie Company battalion led by Captain Ernest Medina entered the nearby village of My Lai on the morning of March 16, 1968, and found a quaint village with women, children and old people sitting outside their homes, some cooking breakfast in their outdoor yards. To the surprise of the soldiers, they could find no VC sympathisers in the village but only common people after individual homesteads were inspected by the US army in the hamlet. However, according to some reports, Medina was quoted saying, “They are all VCs, now go and get them.”

Alarmed by the sudden firing by US troops, the villagers started running to and fro finding shelter in the fields from the interior. The killings had already started without warning. Lt. commander William Calley started shooting men, then women and children were also not spared. Innocent children running barefoot were kidnapped and were tied to trees alongside their mothers. The entire village was set on fire including the homes. The ones who tried to escape were gunned down.

Bodies of women and children at My Lei

Machine guns were pointed en masse with sparing no one. All of this was based on speculation that VC sympathisers are hidden within the village. The US troops spared none – including the old people, unarmed women and children. Apart from this, the raping of countless women by the troops was also reported. Lt. Calley is supposed to have executed the harshest crime of dragging dozens of young children into a ditch at My Lai and then executing them with a machine gun. A few Old men were thrown into a well and a grenade was dropped into it to destroy them.

More than 500 people were killed, raped, slaughtered or gunned viciously by the American army. In all, 182 women – 17 of them pregnant, 173 children of which 56 were infants, and a total of 504 people were counted to be dead.

The Ccover-up of the brutal massacre

Being well aware that the massacre at My Lai wound ring international alarms amidst the ongoing war, the US troops started tuning a different narrative to cover up their deeds. Initial reports of the incident including the one featured by the Stars and Stripes magazine said, “U.S. infantrymen had killed 128 Communists in a bloody day-long battle.” The US Army was successful in covering up its war crime by hailing it as a military victory against its opponents in South Vietnam.

Six months later, a young soldier, Tom Glen wrote to US Military General Creighton William Abrahams describing the American brutality on Vietnamese civilians which he personally witnessed. He wrote, “It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbours such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character, yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs.” He added that this is a problem that cannot be overlooked.

However, it was only when Ron Ridenhour, a soldier in the 11th brigade began to bring the details of the massacre with its documented reports. After writing several letters to President Nixon, the Pentagon and several State Department Chiefs, he finally gave an interview to Journalist Seymor Hersh who broke the horrors committed by America before the world in 1969. After the revelation, the US Army started its private investigation with a motive to cover up the war crimes.

The enquiry which concluded charged 28 officers for their involvement in the war crimes. Later, 14 names were dropped while Ernest Medina and Col. Henderson were acquitted. William Calley was initially sentenced for his life for being found guilty of carrying out unintended shootings. Later his punishment was reduced and commuted by Nixon and he just served 3 years under house arrest. The investigations which found the light of the day later, found that My Lai was not an isolated incident in the history of the Vietnam War. The massacres at My Khe village, in the Mekong delta, were to be revealed soon before the world.

Second hijacker of IC 814 killed? What we know about this viral claim

OpIndia Staff
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Second hijacker of IC 814 killed? What we know about this viral claim

On Wednesday, social media platforms were rife with reports that the second hijacker of Indian plane IC-814 – Zafarullah Jamali, has been killed in Karachi by some unknown people.

There were reports that some unidentified men riding a motorcycle had killed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Zafarullah Jamali last week in Karachi. The reports claimed that the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Jamali, who had led the IC-814 hijacking, had killed an Indian passenger – Rupin Katyal when the plane was in Dubai, where the terrorists had forced the plane to land in December 1999.

Social media users and security experts claimed that the assassination of Jamali was the second assassination of IC-814, which came after the killing of another hijacker Zahoor Mistry who was killed on March first week.

However, Zafarullah Jamali does not appear to be a second hijacker who has been killed as being speculated on social media. Reportedly, no terrorist was identified as Zafarullah Jamali had been involved in the IC-814 hijacking. There are speculations that no second terrorist was killed, instead, it was Zahoor Mistry, one of the hijackers of Indian Airlines flight IC 814, who was killed in Pakistan.

According to the New Indian journalist Pramod Kumar Singh, Zahoor Mistry’s alias was Jamali who was killed sometime back and it was confirmed on March 7.

Mistry is reported to have been killed on March first week by two bike-borne assailants in Karachi’s Akhtar colony. 

More importantly, nearly two decades after the hijacking, there is no confirmation till today there was any terrorist named Zafarullah Jamali had involved in the hijacking. The IC-814 airline was hijacked by five Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorists, who took the Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 24, 1999, after a brief stop at Amritsar.

The five hijackers are – Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar’s brother Ibrahim Azhar, Rauf Asghar, Zahoor Mistry, Shahid Akhtar Sayed and another terrorist who was killed during the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.

According to counter-terrorism experts, only Ibrahim Azhar and Shahid Akhtar Sayed are alive in Pakistan, with the latter moving away from Karachi to settle in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area of Pakistan. Rauf Asghar is believed to have died due to natural causes, while Indian security forces killed the other Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist on December 13, 2001.

The fifth terrorist who remained at large was Zahoor Mistry, who was killed by unknown assailants in the first week of March in Karachi. Hence, it appears that the speculations about the second terrorist – Zafarullah Jamali- are not accurate as there are no records to prove his existence in the first place. On the contrary, it is suggested that Mistry was eliminated by unknown gunmen, whose images are then being circulated on social media to claim that it is the second hijacker Jamali.

HT report on Zahoor Mistry

A March 8 Hindustan Times report identifies Zahoor Mistry as Jamali. The image of the slain terrorist also appears similar to the image of ‘Zafarullah Jamali’ being shared widely on social media.

Interestingly, there is also confusion among certain sections that the killed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist was the same as Zafarullah Jamali, the 15th Prime Minister of Pakistan. However, former PM Zafarullah Jamali died on December 2, 2020, ending rumours of former PM being killed in Karachi last week and having been mistaken for a terrorist. There are also no reports to suggest the former Prime Minister of Pakistan was involved in any terrorist activities, officially.

The hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC-814

On December 24, 1999, an Indian Airlines plane (IC-814) was highjacked by five terrorists belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen from Nepal. The plane which was supposed to reach Delhi made suspicious stops at Lahore, Amritsar and Dubai before being stationed at Afghanistan’s Kandahar, which was under the control of the Taliban.

Around 178 people and 11 crew members aboard the plane were made hostages for a week while it ended after India was forced to release three JeM terrorists like Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar from its custody. The hijackers demanded the release of thirty-five terrorists from Indian prisons, including the dreaded terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar in addition to US$200mn in cash. The hostage ended on December 31, 1999, after a team of Indian negotiators, including the present NSA Ajit Doval, agreed to free three terrorists.

International Court of Justice orders Russia to immediately suspend invasion of Ukraine, order passed by 13-2 votes

OpIndia Staff
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International Court of Justice orders Russia to immediately suspend invasion of Ukraine, order passed by 13-2 votes

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Russia to immediately suspend the invasion of Ukraine. The Court ordered on 16th March 2022 that both parties must refrain from any acts which may aggravate the dispute.

The ICJ order against Russia was passed by 13-2 votes. The two dissenting votes were cast by the judges from Russia and China, the Indian judge at ICJ Justice Dalveer Bhandari voted in favour of the verdict asking Russia to stop its military operations in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the ICJ decision by tweeting, “Ukraine gained a complete victory in its case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The ICJ has ordered to immediately stop the invasion. The order is binding under international law. Russia must comply immediately. Ignoring the order will isolate Russia even further.”

In its order passed, the court said, “The Russian Federation, pending the final decision in the case, must immediately suspend the military operations it commenced in the territory of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.”

It further said, “The Court further indicated that any military or irregular armed units which may be directed or supported by Russia, as well as any organizations and persons which may be subject to its control, direction or influence, take no steps in furtherance of the military operations.”

On 7th March 2022, the ICJ had heard Ukraine’s application seeking a declaration that the claims of genocide as alleged by Russia within Ukrainian areas of Luhansk and Donetsk are false. Russia had defended its military action on this ground. Ukraine also sought reparations for damages caused by Russian military action.

The ICJ has said in its order, “At the present stage, Court is not going to weigh on the evidence on whether Russia’s allegations that there is an alleged genocide in Ukraine is true.”

It also added, “The Russian Federation shall provide a report to the Court on measures taken to implement the Court’s Order on Provisional Measures one week after such Order and then on a regular basis to be fixed by the Court.”

In its plea before the ICJ, Ukraine had alleged that Russia had justified the invasion of Ukraine by falsely alleging genocide in Luhansk and Donets in eastern Ukraine. While Russia had claimed it was acting in self-defence, Ukraine had argued that the Genocide Convention does not allow an invasion of a country to prevent a genocide. Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories of this convention.

While Russia had claimed that ICJ does not have jurisdiction over the matter, the court disagreed, and said Ukraine’s request falls under its jurisdiction.

It is notable that Russia did not attend the oral hearings in the ICJ, but had submitted written submissions. The Court expressed its regret at the decision of the Russian govt to not participate in the oral proceedings before the ICJ. “The non-appearance of a party has a negative impact on the sound administration of justice as it deprives the Court of assistance a party could have provided to it,” the Court said.

While the verdicts of International Court of Justice are binding on the member states, it does not have any executive means to enforce them. Therefore, it is to be seen whether Russia suspends its military activity in Ukraine or not after this verdict.

CBI arrests Jamia Millia Islamia professor Khalid Moin and 2 others for issuing fake structural stability certificates for projects after taking bribe

OpIndia Staff
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CBI arrests Jamia Millia Islamia professor Khalid Moin and 2 others for issuing fake structural stability certificates for projects after taking bribe

The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested Khalid Moin, a professor in the department of civil engineering of Jamia Milia Islamia University, for taking bribes to issue fake safety certificate. The professor had issued fake safety certificate to Chintels Paradiso housing complex in Gurugram, a portion of which had collapsed last month.

Several roofs of a building in the Chintels Paradiso housing complex had collapsed last month, causing the death of two women. After that, CBI had launched a probe into fake safety certificate racket. Today, Khalid Moin was caught red handed taking a bribe of Rs. one lakh to issue one such fake certificate in a trap laid by CBI. His two aides Abid Khan and Prakhar Pawar were also arrested from a private company based at Okhla in New Delhi. 

A case was registered against the accused alleging that professor Khalid Moin was involved in different activities for issuing bogus structural stability certificates for the projects after taking bribes. It was also alleged that the representatives of different private builders, architects, middlemen, etc. were also a part of the conspiracy. CBI laid a trap and caught the Professor & two others red-handed while accepting and giving the bribe of Rs. one lakh.

Among the three arrested, Khalid Moin is a professor in the department of civil engineering of Jamia Milia Islamia University. Prakhar Pawar owns a firm M/s Vyom Architect located at Okhla Phase-3 in New Delhi. Abid Khan is an employee of Prakhar Pawar.

Notably, Khalid Moin had issued a fake safety certificate to Gurugram’s Chintels Paradiso society, in which portion of an apartment had collapsed in February 2022. Although the case in which Moin has been arrested is not directly linked to the Chintels Paradiso case, it is part of the crimes committed by him, as home buyers trusted safety certificates issued by him to spent their life’s savings to buy houses which turned out to be not safe.

Chintels Paradiso Collapse

A floor of the Chintel Paradiso residential society in sector 109 of Gurugram had collapsed on Thursday during repair work on the sixth floor of Tower-4 of D-block. Two women had died in the incident while one person was rescued. Repairing work was in progress in the living room of a flat on the sixth floor when its roof started to collapse. This led to the collapse of one after another floor. The collapse started from the sixth floor and it stopped on the first floor of the building. As many of the flats in between the sixth and the first floor were vacant, a major tragedy was avoided.

After a safety audit of the housing complex, four more towers were declared unfit for living. Several structural weakness were found in the buildings, like exposed TMT bars, big cracks and falling plasters.

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