A team of National Investigation Agency(NIA) officials on Tuesday arrested two women in Kannur on suspicion of furthering the activities of ISIS and spreading its message on social media. The arrested women were identified as Shifa Harris and Misha Siddique.
The duo was reportedly a part of the group that was operating various ISIS propaganda channels on different social media websites, including Telegram, Hoop and Instagram. The premier agency believes that Harris and Siddique were involved in the online promotion of the terror group’s activity so as to radicalise people and recruit fresh blood for the organisation.
The investigating team from New Delhi arrested Shifa Harris and Misha Siddique, early morning from their house. The two will be transported to Delhi, reports said.
The arrests come months after the NIA had nabbed one of their accomplices, Musad Anwar, who was arrested in March 2021 from Kannur and following which a case had been filed against seven known and unknown people.
Incidentally, the NIA had visited the homes of Harris and Siddique earlier this year as well. However, they were not arrested then. Reportedly, the NIA got the breakthrough in busting this ISIS module following the arrest of Ameer Rehman earlier this month. Rehman was arrested on August 4 from Mangalore and belonged to the same team. Based on the revelations made by Rehman in his interrogation, the NIA team reached the house of the two women and arrested them.
For some time now, Kerala has been a flourishing grounds for Islamic extremism. Extremist ideologies from differing Islamic persuasions have gained currency in the state. Recently, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter suggesting that the Taliban might have recruited some of its members from the Indian state of Kerala. Tharoor quoted a video showing two “emotional” Talibanis converse in Malayalam (as claimed by him) said, “It sounds as if there are at least two Malayali Taliban here — one who says ‘samsarikkette’ around the 8-second mark & another who understands him!”
Kerala a breeding ground for ISIS
Investigations have revealed that ISIS had struck roots in Kerala as far back as 2014 with modules sponsoring religious conversions and trying to motivate professionals to join its fold in Afghanistan and Syria. Last year, in its report on terrorism, the UN cautioned that there are a sizeable number of ISIS terrorists in the Indian state of Kerala, adding that the ISIL Indian affiliate (Hind Wilayah), which was announced on May 10, 2019, has about 180 to 200 members.
Moreover, a charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency in July last year, regarding the murder of Special Sub Inspector Wilson exposed the nexus of the ISIS terrorists active and flourishing in the state of Kerala.
On April 30, 2013, Pew Research Centre published findings of a survey, conducted during the days when there was US military presence in Afghanistan, stated 99 per cent of Afghanis wanted Sharia to be the official law of the land in the state. The study titled: “The World’s Muslims: Religion, politics and society” talked about the Muslims beliefs about Sharia. The survey was based on 23 countries where questions were asked pertaining to Islamic Sharia.
This survey was carried out before Taliban took over Afghanistan. Last week, in dramatic coup, the Islamist organisation Taliban took over the government as the elected President and other officials fled the country. The Taliban toppled the government weeks after US withdrew its forces.
Muslims favour making Sharia the law of the land
99% of Afghanis who were interviewed also favoured making Sharia law of the land. Similarly, 84% of the Pakistani who participated in the survey favoured the same. The survey stated that in South Asia, high percentages in all the countries surveyed support making sharia the official law, especially Afghanistan where as many as 99 per cent of Muslims favor making Islamic law the official law in their country.
Source: Pew Research Center
The survey asserted that level of religious commitment makes a big difference in attitudes about the implementation of sharia. Muslims who pray several times a day are more likely than those who pray less frequently to favor Islamic law as the official law of the land.
Muslims accept Sharia as the revealed word of God
According to the survey, in 17 of the 23 countries where the question was asked, at least half of Muslims say sharia is the devine word of God, and not a man-made script. A close look at the graph, suggests that roughly eight in ten Muslims (81%) in Pakistan say sharia is the revealed word of God. Similarly, in Afghanistan, 73% of Muslims believed that sharia is the revealed word of God.
Source: Pew Research Center
Muslims feel the Islamic law should apply to all citizens
When asked whether the Islamic Sharia law should apply to only Muslims or to both Muslims and non-Muslims, it turned out that 61 per cent of the participants from Afghanistan believed that sharia should extend to non-Muslims as well. This percentage was, however, relatively low in Paksistan where only 34 per cent said that it should apply to all citizens in their country.
Source: Pew Research Center
There have been many reports of religious minorities, especially Hindus being persecuted in Pakistan where they are often subjected to forced religious conversion.
Should the Sharia court be allowed to address domestic and personal issues?
Marriage, divorce, and inheritance are a few of the many domestic and personal issues addressed by Islamic law. Most surveyed Muslims who believe that sharia should be the law of the land in their country are also in favour of applying Islamic law in these spheres.
In Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East-North Africa region, support for permitting Sharia courts to adjudicate family and property disputes is extremely strong. In Pakistan while 87 per cent of the people support this concept, 78 per cent Afghanis were also of the opinion that the Sharia courts should be permitted to interfere in property and family dispute matters.
Source: Pew Research Center
What Muslims think about Hudud punishments?
Further, the survey stated that in 10 out of 20 countries, where people want sharia to be the law of the land, at least half say they support Hudud punishments such as whippings or cutting off the hands of thieves and robbers.
In South Asia, Pakistani and Afghan Muslims clearly support ‘Hudud’ punishments. In both countries, more than eight-in-ten Muslims who favor making sharia the official law of the land also back these types of penalties for theft and robbery (88% in Pakistan and 81% in Afghanistan).
Source: Pew Research Center
Hudud (also called Hadud or Hudood) punishments refers to capital or corporal punishment in Islam. There were traditionally regulated by Sharia, the religious law in Islam that comes from the Hadith that lists the sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad.
Hudud is a class of punishments prescribed by the Quran, Islamic holy book, and the sunna for crimes considered to be against God. While Islamists jurists have various interpretations, common crimes include theft, adultery, making unproven accusations of adultery, consuming intoxicants, armed robbery and apostasy. The prescribed punishments range from lashes to banishment to death. Strict evidence is required for conviction, such as four credible eyewitnesses to prove adultery. In addition, the crime must have been committed by a willful and sane adult.
Muslims favouring stoning as the punishment for adultery, death penalty for those who quit Islam
The survey stated that 89% Muslims in Pakistan, who stated Sharia should be the law of land, favoured stoning as the punishment for adultery. This figure stood at 85% in Afghanistan.
Apostasy, or leaving the faith, is a very controversial issue in the Muslim world and experts say the majority of scholars believe it is punishable by death. The survey by Pew Research Centre conducted in 2013 suggests that while 79% of the Afghani Muslims considered it to be okay to award death penalty to those who quit Islam, 76% Paksiatni Muslims also felt likewise.
Ever since the Islamist group Taliban has gained control over Afghanistan, it is being widely reported that the fundamentalist group has started imposing the strict Sharia in the country. However, this particular survey conducted by Pew Research Centre in 2013, shows that maximum number of citizens in Afghanistan were in favour of the Sharia, even when the country was not under Taliban rule. Hence, even before the Talibanis gained control on Afghanistan, a large part of the country’s population appeared to be allied with the thoughts of the Islamist organisation.
On August 17, social media giant Facebook announced that it had banned Taliban and all content supporting it from all its platforms as it is considered as a terrorist organisation under US Law. A dedicated team of Afghan experts is monitoring and removing all content linked to the group from its platforms.
Notably, the Taliban has been using social media platforms for a long time to propagate its messages. Reports say that the Taliban has used WhatsApp extensively to spread its message.
While talking to ANI, Facebook’s spokesperson said, “The Taliban are sanctioned as a terrorist organisation under US law & we’ve banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organisation Policies. This means we remove accounts maintained by/on behalf of the Taliban and ban their praise, support, and representation.”
We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us about emerging issues on the platform: Facebook Spokesperson to ANI
They further added, “We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us about emerging issues on the platform.”
BBC quoted Facebook saying that the social media giant does not decide if it will recognise the governments but instead it follows the decisions made by the international community. The same policy applies to Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook said that the company would take action against the accounts on all platforms linked to the terrorist outfit.
Twitter faced criticism for giving a platform to the Taliban
Facebook and its platforms are not the only ones used by the Taliban to spread its messages. Notably, Twitter has come under fire for giving a platform to the spokespersons of the Taliban to update their hundreds of thousands of followers as they took control of different regions of Afghanistan.
While talking to BBC, a Twitter spokesperson stated that Twitter does not allow groups that promote terrorism or violence against civilians, and there are policies laid down against violent organisations and hateful conduct.
Former Afghanistan women’s football team captain Khalida Popal said that the lives of women footballers in the country are in danger with the resurrection of the Taliban regime in the country.
With scores of Afghani men clutching onto airplanes to exit the country, the women of the country are living under fear considering the atrocities they had to face under the Taliban rule two decades ago.
“I have been encouraging them to take down social media channels, take down photos, escape and hide themselves,” The Associated Press quoted Popal.
“That breaks my heart because of all these years we have worked to raise the visibility of women and now I’m telling my women in Afghanistan to shut up and disappear. Their lives are in danger,” she added.
Khalida Popal herself had fled Afghanistan with her family in 1996 and had sought refuge in Pakistan. She returned to Kabul after 20 long years but had to abandon her country again because of threats.
“We felt so proud of wearing the jersey,” Popal said after there were enough players to form a football team in 2007.
“My generation had the hope of building the country, developing the situation for the next generation of women and men in the country. So I started with other young women using football as a tool to empower women and girls,” she said talking about creating and coaching a women’s football team.
“I received so many death threats and challenges because I was quoted on the national TV. I was calling Taliban our enemy,” said Popal who thought her country had been freed from the extremist Islamic regime.
Revealing that the girls of the football team are now in hiding, Khalida Popal added, “They are crying. They are just crying, they are sad. They are just desperate. They have so many questions. What is happening to them isn’t fair.”
“They are hiding away. Most of them left their houses to go to relatives and hide because their neighbors know they are players. They are sitting, they are afraid. The Taliban is all over. They are going around creating fear,” she said further.
Popal has been receiving distress calls from the girls to whom she can only advise. As per reports, Popal has asked them to flee their homes and try to erase their history, especially their activism against the Taliban.
“They keep taking video and photos from the window showing they are just outside the home and that is very sad,” she said.
Paralympians to not take part in Tokyo Paralympics 2020
The panic-stricken country will not be participating in the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. The International Paralympic Committee had earlier announced on Monday that athletes from Afghanistan will not participate in the Games due to the ongoing situation in the country.
“Regrettably, NPC (National Paralympic Committee) Afghanistan will no longer participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Due to the serious ongoing situation in the country, all airports are closed and there is no way for them to travel to Tokyo,” said IPC spokesman Craig Spence.
Two Afghan Paralympians, track athlete Hossain Rasouli, and taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi, the first woman to represent the country, will be missing the Games.
Afghanistan Paralympic Committee chief Arian Sadiqi remarked, “For me, it’s heartbreaking. This would have been the first female Afghan taekwondo player to take part. This was history in the making. She was excited to take part.”
“She was very passionate to compete. Zakia would have been a great role model for the rest of the females in the country,” he added.
Days after Twitter India locked the official handle of Congress scion Rahul Gandhi for revealing the identity of an alleged rape victim, Congress party workers in Andhra Pradesh fried a ‘bird’ and couriered it to Twitter’s headquarters in Gurgaon and Delhi.
A video of Congress workers frying birds was shared The Print correspondent Rishika Sadam. In a tweet, she informed that the action was a form of ‘protest’ against Twitter’s decision to block the account of Rahul Gandhi. “They not only fried it but also couriered it to #Twitter headquarters. The man in the video is former MP Harsha Kumar’s son,” she added.
Absurd. In a parallel universe, #AndhraPradesh#Congress workers fry what they call a ‘Twitter bird’ as a protest against #RahulGandhi ‘s account being blocked.They not only fried it but also couriered it to #Twitter headquarters.The man in video is former MP Harsha Kumar’s son. pic.twitter.com/LtC4e268pN
The son of ex-Congress MP Harsha Kumar remarked, “I hope everyone should see this. This is a Twitter bird.” He then looks at the bird being friend and tells it, “You, Twitter, have done a mistake by blocking Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account and not promoting our tweets. So, we are frying these and sending these to the headquarters in Gurgaon and Delhi.” He was seen cooking over a small stove in the open, during which he carefully placed the marinated birds and fried it.
The Congress workers, standing behind him, were heard yelling slogans of ‘Down Down BJP.’ After the dish was cooked, he then put it in a tightly packed box to be sent via courier to Twitter’s headquarters. This is not the first time when the Congress party workers had resorted to such bizarre acts. In 2015, they welcomed the then State Congress Chief N Raghuveera Reddy for a party function by stuffing Diwali rockets inside pigeons and setting them on fire. The incident had taken place in the Kovvuru town in West Godavari district.
Rahul Gandhi and the Twitter saga
After Rahul Gandhi violated the law of the land by revealing identity of the minor rape victim, the NCPCR wrote to Twitter to take down the tweet within 24 hours in case Rahul Gandhi himself does not delete it. Subsequently, Twitter deleted the tweet and Rahul Gandhi’s account was locked out, likely for 12 hours on first offence, over policy violation. However, later after the reports came in that they had ‘permission’ from the victim’s parents to use the picture, Twitter winked and reinstated the tweet but flagged it as ‘unavailable’ in response to legal demand. Those who access Rahul Gandhi’s account from outside of India can see the contentious tweet revealing rape victim’s identity.
Subsequently, various Congress leaders, too, tweeted the image of rape victim’s parents in ‘solidarity’ with Rahul Gandhi who violated the POCSO Act. Those tweets were also eventually flagged and some accounts were locked out. Then, many Congress leaders changed their profile picture and name to that of Rahul Gandhi to again show solidarity. However, this was also in violation of Twitter policy and again many Congress leaders’ social media accounts were locked out.
The Congress leaders then cried foul that Twitter was acting on behest of Indian government despite having violated the law of the land. Many netizens speculated that this could be shadowboxing between Twitter and Congress so that Twitter appears neutral and can have a freehand for suspending/restricting Twitter accounts of BJP leaders ahead of high stakes elections in coming months. Now, while Twitter has unlocked Rahul Gandhi’s account, he has still not tweeted.
On the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, two Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 carriers landed in Kabul to evacuate the embassy staff and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel, reportedNDTV. The rescue mission was undertaken amidst the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan’s capital city.
NDTV reported that no evacuations became possible on the intervening night between August 15 and August 16. As per the report, the Indian embassy was under the watch of the Taliban, and the security of the highly fortified Green Zone (the district that houses international embassies) was compromised. It was only on Monday (August 16) that the first batch of 45 Indians was successfully evacuated from Afghanistan.
The aircraft departed the Hamid Karzai International Airport under ‘challenging circumstances’, given that the local Afghans were desperate to escape from their country. Reportedly, the Taliban had initially stopped the 45 Indian personnel, who were evacuated yesterday. They had also taken away some of the personal belonging of the embassy staff members. The Taliban had also laid siege on the Shahir Visa agency, responsible for processing Afghan visas to India.
#WATCH | Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft that took off from Kabul, Afghanistan with Indian officials, lands in Jamnagar, Gujarat. pic.twitter.com/1w3HFYef6b
But, the remaining 120 staff and ITBP contingent could not be evacuated on Monday. This was due to the presence of large mobs and the closure of the airport route due to chaos. However, all of them including ambassador Rudrendra Tandon were rescued safely on Tuesday morning. They had boarded the second Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster carrier and left for India on the morning of August 17. NDTV reported that the rescue mission was facilitated following an overnight meeting between EAM (External Affairs Minister) S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
At about 12 pm on August 17, the IAF’s C-17 Globemaster landed at Gujarat’s Jamnagar, safely with the evacuated Indians from Kabul.
The ?? Air force C-17 aircraft, carrying 2nd batch of Indians from #Kabul landed in Jamnagar.
Yet again India proves, no matter where our people are stuck in a crisis, they would be rescued, taken care of& will be repatriated safely.
After a month-long offensive against the Afghan army, terrorists associated with the Islamist outfit Taliban finally reached the gates of Kabul on Sunday (August 15). Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is expected to become the new President of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, while US-based Ali Ahmad Jalali will head an interim government for the time being before the Taliban forms a full-fledged government.
Meanwhile, chaotic scenes were observed at the Kabul Airport after the Taliban managed to capture the capital of Afghanistan. Videos have gone viral on the internet that shows Afghans hanging on to the tyres of flights leaving the country from the Kabul Airport and then falling off from the sky after take-off.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was on Monday exalted to the status of Jesus Christ, after P. Gannavaram MLA Kondeti Chittibabu said that Reddy is a saviour for humanity, just like Jesus Christ, whom Christians consider to be the son of God.
The comparison was made during a public meeting held at P. Gannavaram in the Konaseema area of East Godavari for the launch of the second phase of Mana Badi Nadu-Nedu and distribution of the Jagananna Vidya Kanuka programme at Zilla Parishad High School at the hands of chief minister Jagan Reddy.
Lavishing praises on Reddy, the MLA said the chief minister was busy implementing welfare schemes and effected revolutionary changes in the education system at a time when the state was going through a difficult period of COVID-19 pandemic. These schemes, the MLA said, proved to be a boon for the downtrodden sections of society.
“When I was a student, I could not get the basic amenities in the schools. I, like others of my generation, suffered hardships in the school,” a report published on Deccan Chronicle quoted the MLA as saying. Chittibabu also added that no other chief minister has taken such steps to improve the quality of education for the underprivileged sections of society.
Talking about the housing scheme launched by Reddy on Christmas last year, Chittibabu said many upper caste people in poverty appreciated the state government’s efforts as they would now be owners of their house. “The people view Jagan as another Jesus Christ, a saviour of humanity,” he said.
The MLA also asserted that the chief minister has agreed to his request and promised him to build a bridge at Thogarapaya in Ayinavilli Mandal and a Lift Irrigation Scheme at Appanapalli.
Rampant conversions to Christianity continues unabated in Andhra Pradesh
While the party MLA went into raptures about CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and compared him to Jesus Christ, the Andhra Pradesh government has long been accused of enabling and facilitating rampant conversions of residents into Christianity. Last year, a damning report published in the Sunday Guardian held that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh was anti-Hindu and provided freebies to people to convert to Christianity. Experts raised their concerns regarding the spree of freebies doled out to the Christian communities by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government. The freebies were not only causing a loss of public money but these appeasement schemes are also aimed at encouraging ordinary Andhra citizens to convert, reported Sunday Guardian.
According to the report, the rampant conversion drives in Andhra Pradesh had become a serious issue in the state, which may even take a violent turn if not stopped. The opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh right-wing activists have been accusing YS Jagan Reddy, a Christian that ever since he became the Chief Minister of Andhra, he has spent a huge amount on the Christian community services, with an eye on encouraging conversion activities.
Recently, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued a notice to the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh seeking a report regarding the action taken against the forceful conversions targeting the Scheduled Caste (SC) community in the state.
In January 2020, the Hindu legal-activist group – Legal Rights Protection Forum and SC-ST Rights Forum, a non-profit legal activism organisation that works for Dalit rights, had written a letter to National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) over rampant forced conversions activities by the Christian missionaries and Church.
Yesterday, India administered a record 88 lakh vaccinations, taking the total number of vaccine doses to 55.47 crore. Since India is regularly hitting the 50 lakh plus mark, we are very likely to cross 56 crore doses today itself. Among these, there are 43.22 crore first doses, which means that 43.22 crore adults have already received one dose of the vaccine. With an estimated adult population of 94 crore, this means that approximately 46% of adults have already received one dose of vaccine.
For comparison, the US sits at just over 70% of their adult population getting one dose of vaccine. There is some distance between 46% and 70%, but the gap is closing rapidly. Barely a month ago, when the US was around 67%, India was only around 33% or so.
Now because there is a lot of finger pointing and heckling around India’s vaccination program, let me clarify something here. A number of people, especially those who cannot concede anything good about India, are asking why pick up this particular metric. First of all, why not pick up this metric? Is it making you nervous because you know it makes India look good?
Now let me give you my real rationalization. I did not choose this metric as a measure of success of a country’s vaccination program, the President of the United States did. President Biden set an official target for America to get 70% of their adults at least one dose of vaccine by July 4. In case you are wondering, they missed the target narrowly. Instead, the figure of 70% was achieved around Aug 4. So if you have any concerns about why one should pick up this particular metric, please direct your questions to The White House, located in Washington DC.
Okay, so we have given out over 55 crore vaccine doses so far. And that is no small achievement. And I assure you, the world is recognizing what an amazing feat this is. In fact, the world is applauding.
How do I know this? They didn’t say anything.
Yes, exactly. They didn’t say. They stopped talking about it. Because they know the speed and scale of India’s vaccination program is going to make them look silly. They have toned down their rhetoric, are looking to make an exit and are hoping everyone forgets. They don’t follow up, they just jump to the next excuse to condemn India. This is why I say they are not critics, but hecklers. The difference is all important. And it is crucial that we all understand the difference.
You can easily detect how the media reporting has changed over the last month or so. First, they used to talk about how few vaccine doses had been given. Then, as vaccinations rose quickly after June 21 (when the Central govt took over the entire program), they gradually switched to using percentages instead of absolute numbers. Because even a small percentage of India’s population, when laid out in absolute numbers, is enough to leave the reader wide eyed in amazement. Imagine the logistics of vaccinating 10 crore people. Yet, that is not even 10% of India’s population. On the other hand, the much acclaimed liberal Prime Minister of New Zealand is still struggling to vaccinate 50 lakh people, which is roughly half the population of Bangalore.
It is mysterious that percentages were never used when reporting daily new cases and covid deaths from India!
Anyway, the second phase of the media coverage was even more cowardly. This is when the media stopped counting first doses altogether. They would report only those who had received both doses, and that too only as a percentage. Bear in mind this was while they were still reporting on the US vaccination program in terms of percentage of people with one dose. That too, not all people, just the adults! For Western European countries such as the UK, they reported absolute number of people with first doses only. Take that.
If the second phase of media coverage was cowardly, the third was downright pathetic. At this point, the global media stopped reporting data from India altogether (whether absolute numbers, percentage vaccinated, percentage of adults vaccinated with one dose or both doses). What to do instead? Use adjectives. Just say that India’s vaccination drive is “slow” or “sputtering.” Don’t give any numbers at all.
You would think that no editor at a major global news organization could do something this embarrassing. You would be wrong. Grown ups with real media jobs waved through reports and columns on India’s vaccination drive, with only qualitative judgements and no data points at all! Then, presumably, they signed off on the paychecks for those who were shameless enough to write them.
We are now in the fourth and final phase of media coverage of India’s vaccination program: silence. The hecklers have gone to find another stick to beat India with. They will be back. If we take them seriously, the joke is on us.
The nine feet tall statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at the Lahore Fort was vandalized for a third time by workers of a Pakistani political party on Tuesday. As per a Twitter user who shared the video of the vandalism, the statue was pulled down by some Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (an Islamist political party) workers.
TLP worker pulling down Ranjit Singh’s statue at the Lahore Fort. The statue had previously been vandalized by TLP workers on at least two different occasions in the past. pic.twitter.com/IMhcZmPj7e
The TLP workers first broke the arm of the statue and then dislodged it completely. As per a Hindustan Times report, the two workers entered the fort as a disabled person and his helper. The man who pretended to have a leg disability hit the statue with the rod he was carrying.
Reportedly, the TLP worker also chanted slogans against the former ruler of Punjab. The police informed that the attackers were of the view that it’s against Islam to erect a statue of a Sikh ruler in a Muslim country.
This is not the first time, however, the statue was attacked since it was unveiled in June 2019. The nine feet tall statue, made of bronze, showing the regal Sikh emperor sitting on a horse, sword in hand was desecrated by a teenager who broke the arm of the statue with the intention to destroy it.
Zeeshan, the miscreant then had reportedly justified his act by saying, “he had committed atrocities against Muslims during his rule.”
Prior to this, a mob had attacked the statue just after a few days of its placing.
Who is Maharaja Ranjit Singh?
Popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or “Lion of Punjab”, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.
Ranjit Singh fought his first battle alongside his father at the tender age of 10. After his father died, he fought several wars to expel the Afghans in his teenage years and was proclaimed as the “Maharaja of Punjab” at 21 years of age.
Two days after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Samajwadi Party MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, Shafiqur Rahman Barq, was seen extending his support to the Jihadist organisation. On Tuesday, August 17, the SP MP, who remains in news due to his controversial statements, tried to legitimise the radical Islamist outfit as he opined that the Talibanis have only recaptured the land that originally belonged to them.
When India was under British rule, our country fought for freedom. Now Taliban wants to free their country & run it. Taliban is a force that did not allow even strong countries like Russia & America to settle in their country: Shafiqur Rahman Barq, Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal pic.twitter.com/yQFsEOH7tp
Shamelessly drawing an equivalence between these Jihadists and India’s freedom fighters, the Samajwadi Party leader said that like our countrymen fought for freedom from the British, the Talibanis also wants to free their country and run it. “When India was under British rule, our country fought for freedom. Now Taliban wants to free their country & run it”, the SP leader was quoted by ANI as saying.
Further heaping praises for the Jihadist outfit, Shafiqur Rahman Barq added, “Taliban is a force that did not allow even strong countries like Russia and America to settle in their country”.
Interestingly, the SP MP’s statement is in line with Pakistan PM and Taliban sympathiser Imran Khan who justified the Taliban’s actions by claiming that the Afghan population had broken the ‘chains of slavery’. He also remarked that ‘cultural imposition’ (by the United States) was tantamount to ‘mental slavery.’
The Samajwadi Party leading has a track record of making extremely problematic comments. He had once said, “BJP not only tampered with Shariat but also got girls caught and raped. Mistakes like mob lynching were done with Muslims. The government is now facing the brunt of which in the form of corona.”
Shafiqur Rahman Barq is the same Samajwadi leader who had created a controversy by saying in Parliament that Vande Mataram is against Islam.
