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Meet Amrullah Saleh: The face of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban and one of the fiercest critics of Pakistan

Jinit Jain
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Meet Amrullah Saleh: The face of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban and one of the fiercest critics of Pakistan

Even after twenty years of long-drawn-out war, Afghanistan remains at the cusp of a crisis as the US forces unceremoniously pull out of the country, leaving helpless Afghans at the mercy of their radical Taliban rulers.

The situation came to pass after Kabul fell to the Taliban on the 15th of August as President Ashraf Ghani made a run from the country. In a blitzkrieg, the Taliban managed to capture the whole of Afghanistan in a matter of few weeks following the US president Joe Biden’s announcement that he would honour the withdrawal agreement signed by his predecessor Donald Trump. The speed at which the Afghan Government collapsed came as a shock to many, with Afghan soldiers leaving the force to join the ranks of the Taliban.

With the president having already fled to the United Arab Emirates and scores of Afghan soldiers either surrendering or joining the Talibani ranks, it seemed like the Taliban wouldn’t face any credible resistance in overthrowing the last vestiges of the Afghan government and establishing its supremacy in the country.

Panic and chaos gripped the country, with thousands of people streaming to the Kabul airport fearing the return of the oppressive rule reminiscent of the Taliban rule in the late 90s. Just when it appeared that the Taliban rule is imminent and unchallenged, the Vice President of Afghanistan under the Ashraf Ghani government, Amrullah Saleh, stepped up to the plate and decided that he would not go down without giving a fight to the fundamentalist group.

On August 17, just two days after the Taliban stormed Kabul, Saleh staked claim to the presidency of the country as the legitimate caretaker president. He cited the constitution of Afghanistan and said, in the event of the escape, absence, resignation or death of the president, the Vice President becomes the caretaker president.

Amrullah Saleh said that since he is still in Afghanistan, he is the legitimate caretaker president and therefore, he is reaching out to leaders to secure their support and consensus. He announced that he was in Panjshir Valley — the last anti-Taliban bastion in government’s control, and would continue to put up a brave front to oust the Taliban. As Saleh, along with Ahmad Massoud and other key leaders mobilised a resistance force to fight against the Taliban, he quickly became the face and the leader of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban onslaught.

The Afghan soldiers and warlords, who are now being hunted by the Taliban, are reportedly headed to the Panjshir Valley to join the resistance group. Saleh has indicated that he is determined to fight the Taliban to the last bullet and has praised the Afghan soldiers for taking arms against the terror group. He has also invited commandos and special forces, to join the resistance movement against the Taliban.

In his recent interview, Saleh said the Taliban rule in Afghanistan has its days numbered. He asserted that the fundamentalist laws of the Taliban are unacceptable to the people of Afghanistan, adding that the group won’t last long in the country. Saleh said the Taliban neither has external nor has internal legitimacy and they would soon face a “deep military crisis” as areas besides Panjshir would start mounting resistance against them.

Who is Amrullah Saleh?

Amrullah Saleh, 48, belongs to the Tajik ethnic group and was born in October 1972 in Panjshir Valley, 150 km north of the capital Kabul. Right from a young age, Saleh harboured deep aversion towards the USSR for their meddling in Afghanistan and joined the Northern Alliance during the civil war in the 1990s that culminated in the 1992 ouster of Mohammed Najibullah, Afghanistan’s USSR-backed ruler. He had even travelled to Pakistan where he received mujahideen training to fight against the Soviet-backed Afghan army.

Later in the 1990s, the Northern Alliance, of which Saleh was a part, was embroiled in fighting against the Pakistan-sponsored Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The Taliban terrorists in 1996 conducted a manhunt to find Saleh but instead, they got hold of his elder sister Mariam, who was tortured and subjected to unspeakable atrocities. She later managed to escape the Taliban and fled Kabul with her family. Nevertheless, the incident had a lasting impact on Saleh and it completely changed his view about the Taliban.

In 1997, Saleh was appointed to the Northern Alliance’s liaison office in Tajikistan. There he handled contacts with international NGOs and agencies. India had then refused to acknowledge the Taliban rule over Afghanistan over the intelligence assessment that the group was backed by Pakistan’s ISI.

As per reports, it was also Saleh, who had coordinated contact between Indian officials and Ahmed Shah Massoud, facilitating India’s help in medical supplies, arms and ammunition to the Massoud-led resistance against Taliban through the Tajikstan town of Farkhor.

His journey from being a spy to Afghan politics

Then in 2004, three years after the US-led NATO forces toppled the Talibani regime in Afghanistan, Saleh entered into the field of espionage. He was then appointed as the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and served in the office for 6 years until 2010. While in office he was considered a key asset to the CIA. During his time in office, he was also reportedly censorious of President Hamid Karzai’s moderate stance on the Taliban and his undue dependence on Pakistan. In 2011, Saleh established the Basej-e Milli political party to oppose the Taliban.

Six years later, in 2017, Saleh joined hands with President Ashraf Ghani and was subsequently made Interior Minister the following year. Then in February 2020, he was elevated to the post of country’s vice president.

Saleh has continued to be the thorn in the side of the Taliban and there have been several attempts to assassinate the former vice president of Afghanistan. In September 2020, an attempt was made to kill Saleh. Although he emerged unscathed from the attack, 10 bystanders were killed. The attack took place on September 9, 2020, two days before 9/11 and on the anniversary of the killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud.

Saleh’s stand on Pakistan and its symbiotic relationship with the Taliban

Over the years, Saleh has not minced his words in voicing his acerbic and forthright assessment of Pakistan. He has remained one of the most trenchant critics of Pakistan, accusing them of assisting the Taliban and deceiving its western allies by using the alms and grants it receives from them in arming the terrorists. In his recent interviews following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Saleh has blamed Pakistan for helping the Taliban fool the international community by participating in Doha talks, while using that time to prop up military powers.

“Pakistan was not only a safe haven for the Taliban terrorists but the entire country was under the service of the terror group. The US tried to persuade Pakistan into cooperation, often by offering them incentives, but the more they paid, the more it emboldened the Pakistanis to extend their support to the Taliban tacitly. Therefore, the issue of a nuclear state facilitating and promoting terrorism and insurgency against western allies in Afghanistan was never really addressed,” Saleh opined.

In an interview with the Indian Express in September 2019, Saleh said the Taliban gets its arms and ammunition from the Pakistani ISI and the army. He alleged that Pakistan’s interference in Afghanistan has become so crystal clear and transparent that the Taliban can no longer hide behind any masks to claim that their rebellion is organic.

Saleh had also famously likened the Taliban with Khmer Rouge, stating that the former was worse than the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) that wreaked havoc in Cambodia between 1975 to 1979.

“All their politburo are based in Pakistan and are not showing their faces. They can’t face the reality of new Afghanistan which is no longer buying the notion of armed struggle to solve political issues. Without Pakistan’s support, the Taliban would fade away in six months,” Saleh said while highlighting how Pakistan is the reason behind the Taliban’s survival.

Regarding Donald Trump’s strategy on Afghanistan, Saleh said it is an acknowledgement of the fact that Pakistan has been playing a deleterious and dubious role in providing support and safe haven to terrorists and agents of chaos. He urged Washington to pressurise Islamabad and its powerful army until they mend their ways and stop nourishing the Taliban and other terrorist groups.

In his 2011 interview with CBS News, a small clip of which is now going viral on the internet, Saleh called Pakistan a treacherous ally and exhorted the United States to literally bomb the terror hideouts in Pakistan to end the menace of the Taliban permanently.

“The amount of pain Pakistan has inflicted on the United States in the last twelve years is unprecedented. No other country has meted out that amount of pain on your nation(The United States)…We had numbers of senior Talibani leaders hiding in Pakistan’s Quetta, their locations as well. The US could have taken them down in no time. But they chose to sit on the intelligence because they were labouring under the delusion that Pakistan is an ally and it is extending cooperation to them in their fight against terrorism,” Saleh said.

“If you look at the problems that the United States faces in the central Asia region, they will realise that all of those will lead them to Pakistan. Be it shoring up the terrorists, the attacks in Afghanistan by the Taliban, nuclear proliferation or any other issue, Pakistan has been the hub of the problems,” Saleh said.

Saleh’s criticism of the US for consistenly ignoring his warnings and leaving Afghanistan in the lurk

Amrullah has also been severely critical of the United States for pursuing a mercurial and severely damaging policy with respect to eliminating the Taliban. On August 31, as the US drawdown of its forces came to an end amidst the Taliban take over of the country, Saleh posted a scathing tweet against the United States, asserting that Afghanistan was not packed in the bag of the last US soldier.

It is worth noting that ever since the United States decided to pull out from Afghanistan in the late 2010s, Saleh has been warning them against it, reminding them that the enemy is far from defeated and their allies like Pakistan have been providing a conducive environment to their enemy for recuperation and recovery. But, Saleh’s warnings had fallen on deaf ears as Washington refused to take into account his advice and dug its heels in pursuing a disastrous approach to the Afghan crisis.

“We failed in persuading them to reverse their decision. I had been issuing warnings to them of these kinds of ramifications for two years. But they did not heed to my alarm. They are now paying the price. This was a political decision, not a military or intelligence one.. one political misjudgment by the US has brought this situation to Afghanistan today. It wasn’t the Taliban who won this war, it was the lack of a political will in Washington that led to this,” Saleh recently said in his interview with CNN News 18.

On Tuesday this week, Saleh reiterated his position on the US pullout from Afghanistan. He quoted a tweet posted by Tarek Fatah that carried an interview clip from 2009 where he expressed his views on the prospect of the United States leaving Afghanistan midway, without completely eliminating the threat of the Taliban.

In his tweet, Saleh said, “Afghanistan wasn’t packed and put in the bag of the last US soldier. The country is here. The rivers are flowing and the mountains are majestic. Talibs are an unpopular proxy force and hated. That is why the whole country wants to escape from them. A superpower decided to be mini power that is OK.”

“If the US decides to leave tomorrow, we have no influence on that. All we can do is to tell them our story, remind them of our common objective, our common goal and our common enemy. But if they decide to go, it will be their decision. We tell them, the enemy is not defeated, their slated objectives and aims have not been met, their promises have not been fulfilled. But if they still wish to leave, it is their decision,” Saleh says in the video clip shared by Tarek Fatah.

Back in 2007, when Saleh was the intelligence chief of Afghanistan, he had shared the whereabouts of the United States’s bete noire, Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda chief, who was responsible for America’s war in Afghanistan. Saleh said he had received intelligence inputs of Bin Laden staying at a safe house in Mansehra.

However, the United States did not take his input seriously. Saleh also approached Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to tell him about Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts in Pakistan. Musharraf got so offended with Saleh that he reputedly lunged at him and only after intervention from the then Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai he backed off.

Four years after Saleh informed the US intel agencies of Osama’s presence in Mansehra, in May 2011, the US special forces hunted down Osama Bin Laden at a safe house in Pakistan’s Abbottabad. As it turned out, Mansehra was just 12 miles from where Osama Bin Laden was located by the US intelligence agencies.

The Panjshir Valley is resisting. Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Massoud are continuing the fight against Afghanistan, reportedly joined by other warlords and many former members of the Afghan military.

Biden admin has no update on 24 California students who remain stranded in Afghanistan after withdrawal of US troops

OpIndia Staff
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Biden admin has no update on 24 California students who remain stranded in Afghanistan after withdrawal of US troops

At least 24 students from Sacramento, California, have been stranded in Afghanistan as Joe Biden’s administration failed to rescue them even as the US withdrew its troops completely from the war-torn country on Tuesday. While the students remain missing in Afghanistan, the Biden administration has no clue about their whereabouts, as the US govt has no information on them.

According to the reports, 24 students of the San Juan Unified School District in California have not yet returned to campus since the semester began. The 24 students are confirmed to be stuck in Afghanistan after the Joe Biden administration completed the evacuation of Americans from the country.

Initially, it was estimated that nearly 150 students from Sacramento in California were stuck in Afghanistan. However, according to the latest estimate, 24 students have not returned and they are confirmed to be trapped inside Afghanistan.

It is not certain yet whether residents of Sacramento will ever return to the USA from Afghanistan, where bombings have killed at least 170 people in the last few weeks due to terror attacks. Meanwhile, Sacramento Congressman Ami Bera’s office has said they are working with the district to bring students back safely.

“Our office has been in close contact with the San Juan Unified School District and have urgently flagged the students’ information with the State Department and Department of Defense. We have not received an update from the State Department or the DOD,” the statement from Bera’s office said.

It is worth mentioning that several refugees from Afghanistan were earlier settled in Sacramento. Sacramento is home to more than ten per cent of Afghan natives living in the United States.

The Sacramento region has accepted a large number of refugees, special visa holders in the last few decades. It is estimated that one out of every nine Afghan natives living in the US resides in the Sacramento region. About 9,700 Afghan people live in Sacramento County, more than any other county in the US. Another 2,000 live in Yolo, Sutter, Placer or El Dorado counties, according to census data.

United States leaves behind contract working dogs in Kabul

On August 30, 2021, the last of the American troops left Kabul, ending the 20-years-long Afghanistan war leaving behind a devastated nation back in the hands of the radical Islamist group. Amid the stories of disappointments and bereavement, another sad picture emerged when it was reported that US troops left 51 contract working dogs behind while leaving the country.

Amidst their hurried withdrawal, the US troop have left contract working dogs that they had deployed during their war against the Taliban. Several veterans and NGOs are now trying to rescue the dogs from Afghanistan. An organization named Kabul Small Animal Rescue (KSAR) has launched a last-minute rescue operation codenamed Operation Hercules to save the stranded dogs on Kabul that included the contract working dogs.

Tommy Amenta, veteran and author, issued a video statement on August 30 describing the situation. He said that the last few hours in the rescue operation were chaos, and he was not sure if the chartered plane they had arranged for the dogs would be able to land or not. In addition, American Humane, a 150-years old national humanitarian organization, has condemned the US government for leaving 51 contract working dogs behind in Afghanistan.

In a statement, Dr Robin R. Ganzert, president and CEO of American Humane, stated that he was devastated to learn that the American government left behind US military contract working dogs “to be tortured and killed at the hand of our enemies.”

Did you know ‘Yeshu Yeshu’ pastor Bajinder Singh was once arrested for raping a woman: Here’s his brief profile

Akshita Bhadauria
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Did you know ‘Yeshu Yeshu’ pastor Bajinder Singh was once arrested for raping a woman: Here’s his brief profile

Several videos of pastors miraculously ‘healing’ so-called possessed people or people suffering from ailments have finally got the country to notice the conversion business operating in the name of ‘Yeshu’ (Jesus Christ). While these videos are mostly comical in nature because of the content, effects and background music; they highlight the underlying threat of conversions through deceit. 

A video has recently gone viral where a “bolneeee lagiii” pastor has got the internet in splits after his old video claiming to heal a speech impaired girl started making rounds. The pastor making making these miracles is one ‘prophet’ Bajinder Singh, who was once a Haryanvi Jat before he decided to shift career.

Converted to Christianity while serving jail time for murder

Prior to hailing Jesus in Punjabi, Bajinder Singh born into a Jat family in Haryana’s Yamunanagar was lodged in jail in a murder case. Reportedly, it is during his time in prison that he came in contact with a pastor and got inclined towards Christianity. 

“He used to read Bible daily and got converted,” revealed police officials privy to the investigations. Kickstarting his business in 2012, Bajinder Singh started holding Sunday prayer meetings for ‘healing’ and gradually became popular. 

Arrested in a rape case

After his stint in jail for murder, Prophet Bajinder Singh Ministries as his followers call him fondly was once again arrested in 2018 for allegedly raping a woman from Zirakpur in Punjab.

Singh was picked up by the police at the Delhi airport when the self-styled Christian Godman was about to board a flight to London. The victim had alleged that Singh lured her in 2017 on the pretext of taking her abroad.

He then sexually assaulted her at his house in Chandigarh and made a video of the same which he then used to threaten her. Reports suggest that the victim had paid the accused pastor a sum of three lakh for promising her to be taken abroad.

Accused of looting 

Feeding off patients suffering from fatal ailments, pastor Bajinder Singh in April this year was accused of looting Rs 80,000 from a family claiming to get their dead daughter back to life. 

Filing a case against Singh, Shubham Pandit revealed that his sister Nandini had been suffering from cancer since several years. They lost their father at a young age and were going through a financial crisis.

When the doctors had given up on Nandini, Pandit came across one Suvarna Khede who worked for the pastor. The family was then called to Chandigarh to meet the pastor. It was alleged that the entire nexus of Singh then began extorting money from the family and even got them converted. 

“My sister did not come back to life, we were looted and even converted,” said a dejected Shubham Pandit after being defrauded by the Christian Prophet.

Action against Singh for using children for conversion

What started as a meme, landed the pastor in legal trouble. On August 29 the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) wrote a letter to Mandip Singh Brar, Deputy Commissioner of Chandigarh, seeking action against Singh for using a minor boy for forceful religious conversion activity. 

The NCPCR in its letter noted that such videos promoted superstition and used children for such purposes, thus violating the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. Taking the matter seriously, NCPCR directed the Deputy Commissioner to inquire into the matter and furnish an Action Taken Report within the next seven days.

The ‘healer baba’ surprisingly has over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and over 2 lakh followers on Facebook. His social media pages mostly consist of testimonials and claims of curing illnesses like HIV infections, paralysis by simply applying his prayed anointing oil, curing a deaf and dumb child by using the same oil.

However, a Reddit article claims that the miracle healer himself is on medication for blood pressure and visits a cardiologist for treatment. 

PM Modi asks ministries to submit a list of infra projects delayed due to court and NGT orders, loss to taxpayers: Report

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi asks ministries to submit a list of infra projects delayed due to court and NGT orders, loss to taxpayers: Report

As per a News18 exclusive report, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a review meeting held on August 25 demanded a list of infrastructure projects delayed due to orders of various courts and the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba is said to lead this extensive exercise with the relevant ministries.

Four ministries have been asked to coordinate the exercise and also list the loss incurred to the exchequer due to the delay. 

The minutes of the meeting accessed by News18 reads, “Ministries of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Railways and Road Transport & Highways in consultation with Ministry of Law and Justice should identify decisions of Hon’ble Courts, NGT, etc., related to land acquisition, forest or other clearances, etc., which are causing a delay in infrastructure projects.”

“Cabinet Secretary should monitor such exercise. A list of delayed projects due to such court decisions and orders, including loss incurred to the exchequer may also be prepared and compiled by the Cabinet Secretary,” it read further. 

The objective of the exercise is not yet known, however, the report suggests that this exercise directed by the Prime Minister with the involvement of the Law Ministry could help clear the bottlenecks causing a hindrance in the completion of multiple infrastructure projects.

PM Modi had demanded the complete list of such projects within a week, the News 18 report stated. A press statement issued by the PMO office right after the meeting in which eight projects were reviewed stated that ‘the Prime Minister stressed on the significance of timely completion.’

Delay in projects

The report also suggests that the Prime Minister was displeased over the delay in the prestigious Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. He also directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to get in ‘mission mode’ and ensure completion of Delhi’s Urban Extension Road by September 15, 2021.

Stressing on adopting a different approach to cut losses incurred due to delay in projects, the Prime Minister in February had asked the cabinet secretary to prepare a methodology to operationalize infrastructure projects in phases as and when ready. 

504 projects delayed

As per a recent Economic Times report, as many as 504 projects are running behind schedule and another 483 infrastructure projects reported cost overruns. The report is based on data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. 

The primary reasons for delay include land acquisition, delay in obtaining forest and environment clearances, and lack of infrastructure support and linkages.

Covid scare in Karnataka after 65 Kerala students carrying negative certificates test positive in Kolar college

OpIndia Staff
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Covid scare in Karnataka after 65 Kerala students carrying negative certificates test positive in Kolar college

People travelling from Kerala, the epicentre of Covid-19 in the country, have now become a source of a fresh wave of infections across several states, especially the neighbouring states such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

According to the reports, as many as 65 students from Kerala have tested positive for Covid-19 in a nursing college in Kolar, Karnataka, creating panic in the city about a possible wave of infections in the state, which has so far successfully contained the Covid-19 pandemic.

Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said that the students who have been tested positive for Covid-19 in a college in Kolar were all returnees from Kerala. The minister said that he would visit the college and take action against the management.

The district administration tested 265 students and staff from the nursing college from August 24 to August 30. As a few Kerala returnees tested positive for Covid-19, the administration decided to test everyone in all nursing colleges. So far, 165 nursing students studying at Noorunisa Institute of Nursing in Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) have been tested positive for Covid-19.

“15 more tested positive on August 28; 15 more on August 29 and finally 32 on August 30. All are from Kerala. We have sent a show-cause notice to the college on Monday and are awaiting their reply. They all had negative certificates. We are trying to ascertain the veracity of the certificates by scanning the QR code on them to check whether they’re fake,” Kolar in-charge district surveillance officer Dr Chandan said.

Reportedly, the college bus had transported 146 students from Kerala to the KGF college on August 18. The students were put in quarantine ever since they arrived. However, they developed symptoms during the quarantine period and were tested on August 23.

As per Dr Chandan, the returnees from Kerala did not travel by any other form of transport and also arrived in a single group. “So, we suspect one of them spread to others,” the officer added.

The officer did not rule out the possibility of more of them testing positive after the incubation period of the virus.

The health authorities have converted the college into a containment zone. The officer said that two hundred are in quarantine on the campus, 65 are in Covid Care Centres.

Gujarat to screen Kerala travelers, check-up mandatory

Amidst fears over Kerala exporting Covid-19 infections to the rest of the country, several state governments have begun taking precautionary steps to contain the pandemic and have decided to enforce strict rules to check infectious persons travelling from Kerala.

As Covid-19 continues to soar in Left-ruled Kerala, the Gujarat government had earlier decided to enforce strict rules against people arriving from the state. The state government had made it mandatory for all the people arriving from Kerala to undergo a thorough check-up for coronavirus symptoms before entering Gujarat.

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who is also the health minister, said that if a person is found to have symptoms, she or he will be quarantined as per the Union government’s protocol. The Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister also said the government had directed the health department to ensure check-up of all people coming from Kerala for coronavirus symptoms.

He had also asked officials to find out why there is a surge in infections in Kerala despite a high vaccination rate.

Kerala – the epicenter of the Covid-19 infections

Kerala is one of the two biggest epicentres of Covid-19 infections in the country, along with Maharashtra. In fact, Kerala remains the worst Covid-19 affected state in the country and continues to burden the country’s efforts in tackling the second wave of the pandemic even as other states have successfully reduced fresh Covid-19 cases.

For over a week now, Kerala has recorded close to 30,000 fresh coronavirus cases, along with over 200 deaths and a test positive rate above 19 per cent. With only 3 per cent of India’s population, Kerala now accounts for almost 70 per cent of all new Covid-19 cases. It ranks top in the daily number of deaths. The nationwide test positive rate is 2.4 per cent, while in Kerala, it is over 19 per cent.

In the last 24 hours, Kerala has reported 30,203 new cases and 115 deaths. With this, the total active Covid cases have now gone up to 2,18,921. 

Image Source: Covid19India19.org

With Kerala reporting more than 30,000 cases every day on an average over the last two weeks, the total tally of Covid-19 cases in the state now stands at 40,57,233, the second-highest in the country after Maharashtra. 

Image Source: Covid19India19.org

Kerala has recorded on an average 150 deaths due to Covid-19 in the last two weeks, taking the related death toll in the state to 20,788.

‘Not against religion’: Says Maha CM Uddhav Thackeray after Mumbai police filed 11 FIRs and detained 85 for Dahi Handi celebrations

OpIndia Staff
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‘Not against religion’: Says Maha CM Uddhav Thackeray after Mumbai police filed 11 FIRs and detained 85 for Dahi Handi celebrations

The Mumbai police on Tuesday filed nine FIRs while two were filed by Thane police for violating the ban imposed on Dahi Handi celebrations by the Maharashtra state government. 

As many as 120 people were named in these FIRs of which 85 were detained by Mumbai police. Some prominent leaders of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) like Bala Nandgaonkar, Akhil Chitre and Sandeep Deshpande were also arrested.

MNS leader breaks handi near CM’s residence

A case has been registered against MNS vice president Akhil Chitre and another party worker Omkar Khandekar for breaking a Dahi handi near Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s residence in suburban Bandra.

In a video, the duo was seen breaking a Dahi Handi hanging low from a tree in a symbolic gesture near Kalanagar junction, off the Western Express Highway at Bandra East. Chitre has been asked to report to the Kherwadi police station for violating the guidelines. 

In a statement to the PTI, Chitre said, “Police booked me and one more party worker under section 188 (Disobeying the order of public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and asked us to report to the Kherwadi police station. We will complete all the legal formalities.”

Several MNS workers booked

Mumbai police on Tuesday morning had detained nine MNS workers including five women for attempting to organize a Dahi Handi program near Ghatkopar link road.

A group of 20-25 MNS workers was detained at Shivaji Park including leader Sandeep Deshpande for trying to organize a 15-minute ritual. At Bhandup too another 25 party workers were arrested for similar violations. 

Around 13 to 14 people including a few MNS karyakartas were booked by Kalachowky police as a precaution as they had announced organizing Dahi Handi in the area. 

Few others were arrested for breaking Dahi Handi at Vartak Nagar and at Vishnu Nagar in the Naupada area. They were all released on bail later. 

Raj Thackeray slams Maharashtra government

MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday alleged that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is using the Covid-19 crisis to their benefit. While speaking with the media, he also accused the state government of ‘selectively relaxing COVID-19 rules’ for some people. 

“The actions of the Maharashtra government can be summed up in the words of veteran journalist P. Sainath who wrote a book Everybody Loves a Good Drought. The current actions of the State government are like ‘everybody loves a good lockdown’,” remarked Raj Thackeray after several of his party workers were arrested for going against the government’s guidelines. 

Taking a dig at the MVA, he further said, “The arrest of the workers seems like a revenge politics (by the government). No action was taken against any leader of the Maha Vikas Aghadi for participating in public functions where no guidelines regarding the COVID-appropriate behaviour was followed.”

He also slammed the Uddhav Thackeray-led government for keeping the temples shut. “Morchas are not allowed, protests are not allowed and temples are shut. Tell me where we don’t have crowds? Rallies are on. The yatras are held. Street fights between political workers are on. We have seen it over Narayan Rane’s yatra. Sena legislator Bhaskar Jadhav’s son visits a temple, but others are not allowed. Why?” questioned the MNS chief. 

“Government not anti-Hindu” claims Maharashtra CM

After facing severe criticism from the opposition for imposing a ban on the Hindu festival celebrations, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday claimed that his government is not “anti-Hindu”. He said that the steps taken were not against any festival, but an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic. 

Shifting the blame on the Centre, Thackeray in a virtual event remarked, “Those who are saying that our government is anti-Hindu, I want to show them a letter from the Centre which specifically asks to avoid crowding during Dahi Handi and Ganesh festival.”

“The government is not against any festival but is against the coronavirus. So those who want to agitate should protest against coronavirus,” he added further. 

Vilifying the Hindu sentiments and drawing false equivalence, the CM said, “Some people have celebrated Dahi Handi. But this is not a fight for the country’s independence. What great freedom did they get by breaking Covid norms? Had they agitated for freedom, it would have been different.”

“Curbs on Ganeshotsav will not be tolerated” says BJP

After a muted Dahi Handi, BJP MLA Ashish Shelar issued a warning on Tuesday saying if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government tries to stop the Ganeshotshav, there will be retaliation from the party. 

“The state government on Tuesday used police force, filed cases and arrested BJP workers who wanted to celebrate Dahi Handi while observing all Covid-19 norms. Its highhandedness went on without protest. But if it tries to stop Ganesh celebrations, BJP will not tolerate it. It will strongly retaliate,” said Shelar while speaking with the media. 

He also condemned the state government for using police force to dampen the Hindu spirit. 

“Festivals are being banned on the pretext that it draws crowd, which is not good amid the pandemic. If that is the case, why are discos, bars and liquor shops being allowed to stay open? What about the huge crowd in these places?” questioned Shelar. 

BJP leaders had demanded to be allowed to celebrate Dahi Handi with vaccinated participants.

Police team at BJP leader’s residence

A team of Mumbai police on Tuesday had reached the residence of Maharashtra BJP leader Ram Kadam after he had announced organizing Dahi Handi celebrations on the occasion of Janmashtami. He had also accused the state government of putting him under house arrest and restricting his movement. 

Kadam had sought permission to celebrate the festival with just five people all of whom were fully vaccinated. “This Hindu tradition is very old and we need to keep the tradition alive. We won’t be breaking any Covid protocols. But I am not being allowed to move out from my house,” had alleged Kadam.

Taliban holds mock funeral with coffins wrapped in US and NATO flags amid Allahu Akbar chants

OpIndia Staff
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Taliban holds mock funeral with coffins wrapped in US and NATO flags amid Allahu Akbar chants

Taliban celebrated the exit of U.S Military forces from the Afghanistan soil with mock coffins draped in US and NATO flags.

Thousands of locals from the Khost participated in the event and took to the streets carrying Afghanistan and the Taliban flags to celebrate the withdrawal of the US and their allied forces from Afghanistan. Supposedly a mock funeral was organized to mark the victory of the Taliban Militants with Kalashnikovs against the US.

According to Reuters, Talibani spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid celebrated the US departure at the Kabul Airport and stated, “We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power,” and also that “The Islamic Emirate wants to have good diplomatic relations with the whole world.”

Visuals of the mock funeral went viral on the social media.

In another video, one can see huge crowd gathered for the ‘mock funeral’ chanting “Nara-e-Takbeer Allahu Akbar”.

Alleged Taliban accounts were found mocking the US on the internet with memes of Pepe The Frog depicting the Triumph over the US and shaming Western Culture. The US troops completed their withdrawal of their forces from Afghanistan on the 30th of August, 2021, thus ending the 20 year war.

Kashmir Police denies reports claiming 60 youth gone missing from Kashmir since the Taliban took over Afghanistan

Anurag
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Kashmir Police denies reports claiming 60 youth gone missing from Kashmir since the Taliban took over Afghanistan

On September 1, Kashmir Police denied the reports that claimed 60 youth have gone missing from Kashmir amid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

In a tweet, IGP Kashmir said, “Some #SocialMedia platforms are running that 60 youth have gone #missing from different parts of the #Kashmir Valley amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. This is #fake news.”

The fake news covered by social media platforms

Several news platforms have covered the reports that 60 youth have allegedly gone missing from different parts of Kashmir since the Taliban took over Afghanistan. In a report titled “Amid Taliban Takeover Of Afghanistan, A Worrying Trend In J&K”, NDTV claimed the ripple effect of US troops withdrawing from Afghanistan is seen in the valley.

Fake news by NDTV

NDTV quoted Vijay Kumar about the issue of 60 young men going missing from their homes in the last couple of months. NDTV had quoted him saying, “They said they are going to attend on someone or for some work, but now they are missing. This is a serious concern. We have been asking and appealing to all misguided youth who have joined terror groups to quit violence and return to the mainstream.”

Assuming NDTV quoted IPS Vijay Kumar, who is currently posted as IGP Kashmir, the quote did not stand genuine after IGP Kashmir has stated that the reports are fake. Navbharat Times also quoted IGP Vijay Kumar based on NDTV’s report.

Screenshot of report covered by Navbharat Times

Other portals that covered the reports include News18, The Kashmiriyat, Hindustan and several others.

Screenshot of report covered by News18
Screenshot of report covered by The Kashmiriyat
Screenshot of report covered by Hindustan

While speaking to OpIndia, the office of IGP Kashmir confirmed there is a standard procedure under which Kashmir Police takes action against the portals and agencies that spread fake news. Action will be taken against these portals that have covered the fake news about 60 youth going missing as well.

“We know that the SIT is not functional,” says Calcutta High Court on Bengal post-poll violence case

OpIndia Staff
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“We know that the SIT is not functional,” says Calcutta High Court on Bengal post-poll violence case

The Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court; Rajesh Bindal, on Tuesday observed the court was aware of Special Investigation Team (SIT) not functioning which the five -judge bench of the High Court, on August 19. The SIT was to be formed to look into the cases of post poll violence other than cases of murder and sexual assault assigned to the CBI for investigation.

“We know that the SIT is not working and necessary steps will be taken,” the court observed when Ravi Shankar Chatterjee, counsel for Kashinath Biswas raised this matter.

The observation of the High Court is a thick hint to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee that she better not take the judicial system for granted.

During the course of hearing the court of Acting Chief Justice directed the CBI and the SIT to file a status report to it within six weeks.

Kashinath Biswas who is a local BJP leader had filed a petition at the High Court stating that even after 10 days have passed West Bengal government has not made the three-member Special Investigation Team functional. Speaking to

News18.com quoted Biswas saying, “I filed a PIL and mentioned that CBI has started investigating the matter in the concerned districts of Bengal where post poll violence took place but SIT could not be seen anywhere. Today, the matter was mentioned by my lawyer Ravi Shankar Chatterjee.”

The SIT comprising IPS officers namely Soumen Mitra (Calcutta police commissioner), Suman Bala Sahoo (DG telecommunications) and Ranbir Kumar (ADG (administration I)) is yet to become functional.

Notably, on August 19, the five member bench of the Calcutta High Court passed the order to form the SIT as well as the CBI investigation after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) submitted its report on human right violation in West Bengal. The NHRC has made quite a few damning revelations in the report which detailed the barbarity unleashed upon the political opponents.

The court had categorically stated that the SIT investigation will be monitored by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court. It means it will be difficult for the West Bengal Police and the Mamata Banerjee to distort and suppress facts of post poll violence which Mamata Banerjee has denied.

West Bengal witnessed an unprecedented post poll violence where a large number of BJP workers and leaders were allegedly brutally murdered, prosecuted and raped by leaders and workers of Mamata Banerjee led ruling Trinamool Congress. This alleged state managed violence started right after assembly poll results were declared on May 2.

Even the victory of Trinamool Congress was not sugar coated. Trinamool Congress had won but Mamata Banerjee lost her Nandigram bastion from her BJP rival Suvendu Adhikari that came as bitter pills for her. The BJP tremendously gained and emerged as the main opposition party.  

Mangaluru: Police inspector Albert Lasrado stops Hindu activist’s car, asks him to remove religious sticker

OpIndia Staff
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Mangaluru: Police inspector Albert Lasrado stops Hindu activist’s car, asks him to remove religious sticker

The Mangaluru traffic police stopped a car belonging to Hindu activists on Tuesday and questioned them over the religious stickers they had put up over the car, fuelling a war of words between the police officials and Hindu activists.

According to the reports, on Tuesday, August 31, Assistant sub-inspector Albert Lasrado stopped Hindu activist Babish Poojary, who was travelling in his Maruti car near the Thokottu flyover. Albert Lasrado, who stopped the car for allegedly checking the documents, demanded that the Hindu activists pay a fine for putting up religious stickers on the car, claiming that the stickers were against the law.

Hindu activist Babish Poojary refused to remove the stickers from his car, saying they were his religious feelings. However, the traffic police assistant sub-inspector Albert Lasrado demanded that the Hindu activist removed the stickers. “Team Parashuram” and “Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah” appearing on the number plate of the car and also the “Om Sai” and “Swami Koragajja” stickers were fixed on the window glasses.

A heated argument erupted between the cop and Hindu activists over removing Hindu religious stickers from the car. Arjun Madoor of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, who arrived on the scene, said that the cop wanted the stickers to be removed because of religious considerations. The Hindu activists alleged said that the assistant sub-inspector is opposed to the Hindu religion. They demanded the state government remove him from his post and urged the senior officials will be urged to take action.

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