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Pakistani minister opposes restrictions on the religious conversion of minors, says ‘it’s their choice’

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Pakistani minister opposes restrictions on the religious conversion of minors, says ‘it’s their choice’

The Imran Khan-led Pakistan government has opposed the idea of imposing strict restrictions against converting people less than 18 years of age, claiming that if someone aged 14 years intends to convert to some other religion, they could “not be stopped”, reports Dawn.

According to the reports, Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Affairs – Noorul Haq Qadri, has rejected the proposition to impose strict rules against converting religion before the age of 18 years.

During a meeting of the Senate parliamentary committee on minorities’ rights on Wednesday, Noorul Haq Qadri said the government does not support a restriction on religious conversion before 18 years of age. Qadri, who is also a member of the committee, said that there were several incidents when someone expressed their wish to convert their religion out of their own choice before the age of 18.

“There are several examples in Islam of religious conversion before 18. If someone wished to change their religion before reaching the age of 18, it was their choice, Qadri said, adding that the matter of child marriages was “another issue”.

The Minister for Religious Affairs said that the matter related to setting the minimum age limit for marriage has been forwarded to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). Qadri said that they would carry out investigations if someone was “forcefully converting others in Sindh”.

In the meeting, Minister Qadri also said Mian Abdul Haq, commonly known as Mian Mithoo, who is notoriously known for the forceful abductions and conversions of Hindu girls in rural Sindh, should be summoned to appear before the committee and said that what he was doing was “damaging Islam and Pakistan”.

Mian Abdul Haq, the chief of the Bharchundi mosque who is commonly known as Mian Mithoo, is accused of systematically carrying out the kidnapping and forced conversions of underage Hindu girls in the area. Mian Mithoo belongs to an influential family in the Sindh province and is an influential political and religious figure in Ghotki, Sindh.

The minority Hindus of the area claim that Mithoo protects those who kidnap underage Hindu girls and forcibly converts them to Islam before marrying them off to their kidnappers. Further, he also wields his political power to influence legal processes in case the families of kidnapped girls decide to go to court.

Mian Mithoo and the rampant kidnapping, forced conversion and marriage of underage Hindu girls

Mian Mithoo is accused of kidnapping and forcing religious conversions of several Hindu teenage girls in Pakistan. In May 2020, a young Hindu girl named Kavita Kumari was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. Mian Mithoo, the extremist Muslim cleric and an influential politician that Hindu families dread in Sindh, was believed to be behind the incident.

This is, however, not the first incident where the ‘Mithoo mafia’, as the Mian Mithoo’s goons are commonly referred to, has been instrumental in carrying out abductions and forced conversions of several Hindu underage girls in the area. Prior to this, he was accused of abductions, and forceful conversions of one Hindu named Mahek Keswani and two other underage Hindu girls Raveena (13) and Reena (15) – who were abducted from the Ghotki in Pakistan’s Sindh on the eve of Holi. The girls were later forcefully converted and married off to older Muslim men.

Similarly, Rinkle Kumari was abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man named Naveed Shah under his supervision. Rinkle Kumari, the daughter of a local school teacher Nand Laal, was a mere teenager at the time of her abduction. Nand Laal had allegedly fled to Lahore soon after accusing Mian Mithoo of the abduction and forced conversion.

The government and police of the region is often accused of turning mute spectators, even enablers of such crimes.

Pakistan is notoriously known for its persecution of not only religious minorities but also ethnic minorities within their own country. The forceful conversion programmes have often been unleashed against the minorities, especially Christians, Sikhs and Hindus living in Pakistan, with utmost brutality.

Bangladesh to lift strictest ever lockdown for Eid despite surge in Covid-19 cases

OpIndia Staff
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Bangladesh to lift strictest ever lockdown for Eid despite surge in Covid-19 cases

Bangladesh on Wednesday lifted its nationwide coronavirus lockdown to prepare for the second-biggest religious festival of Eid al-Adha despite a surge in Covid-19 cases. The festival will be celebrated from July 20 to 22 this year after which the country will go back into a strict lockdown. 

The restrictions in the Muslim-majority country with a population of 169 million people were eased from 6 am on July 14 to enable pre-Eid business and trade, allow homebound journeys and purchase of sacrificial cattle.

The decision to withdraw the restrictions for an interim period was formally announced through a notification by the Cabinet Division on Tuesday. The notification justifying the need for a temporary unlock read, “(the decision has been taken) considering the socio-economic condition and the need to maintain normal economic activity.”

However, strict orders have been given to follow the appropriate health protocols and Covid behavior like wearing masks. 

During the temporary unlock public transports will ply on a limited scale, shops, stores and malls will be allowed to open on the condition of maintaining health guidelines and cattle markets will be operational across the country.

Bangladesh had imposed its strictest-ever lockdown on July 01 as new Covid-19 cases and deaths witnessed a surge. The government has announced a similar lockdown post the breather with factories, industries, shops and private offices shutting once again. 

“If needed army should be deployed” says virologist

A virologist on the national Covid advisory panel Prof Dr Nazrul Islam expressed his concerns over the exodus of people from Dhaka to travel back home. “But if public transports are operational, the crowd will be less as opposed to what we have seen during previous lockdowns ahead of the festivals when hundreds of thousands leave the city either way,” he remarked.

“The risk of contagion can be minimized if transport operators follow health protocol. Moreover, the risk of infection through the cattle markets can be avoided, if health rules are followed. If needed, the army should be deployed in the cattle markets,” he added.

Mohammad Shahidullah, who heads an advisory health committee to the government on handling the Covid crisis, informed that his group of experts opposed the easing of the lockdown.

“The committee opines that this strict lockdown should be continued till there is a declining trend in infections,” Shahidullah told AFP.

“Amid the lockdown, there is an increasing trend of infections and fatalities. The infection level is still very high,” he added.

There are also fears that the markets could become the new super-spreaders.  

Surge in infections

Bangladesh on Tuesday recorded over 12000 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of cases to just over one million.

While the official death toll has risen above 16,600, experts say the real figures could be much higher amid fears of underreporting.

China threatens to nuke Japan non-stop if it tries to defend Taiwan, says it is making an ‘exception’ in the no first use policy for Japan

OpIndia Staff
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China threatens to nuke Japan non-stop if it tries to defend Taiwan, says it is making an ‘exception’ in the no first use policy for Japan

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has threatened that it will nuke Japan if the country defends Taiwan. In a video uploaded to Xigua Video, a Chinese online video-sharing platform, China has said that if Japan ‘dares to intervene when it decides to ‘liberate’ Taiwan, it will launch a full-fledged war against Japan, starting with attacks with nuclear bombs.

In the video uploaded on a Chinese Military channel named Liu Jun Tao Lue (roughly means “Military strategies”) on the platform, the CCP said that even if Japan deploys only one soldier, one plane and one ship in support of Taiwan, it will not respond with equal measure, but instead will start a full-scale war against Japan. ‘We will use nuclear bombs first, we will use nuclear bombs continuously until Japan declares unconditional surrender for the second time’. By ‘second time’, the CCP referred to the surrender of Japan to the allied forces after the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

The video was spotted by Chinese-born human rights activist and author Jennifer Zeng, who posted it on Twitter and her blog. After she shared the details of the video, it was removed from Xigua. Jennifer Zeng shared the video along with English subtitles, based on which this report has been written.

The video added that they want to target Japan’s ability to endure a war. ‘As long as Japan realises it cannot afford to pay the price of war, it will not dare to send troops to the Taiwan Strait’, the CCP concluded in the video.

They said that after the first successful nuclear test by China in 1964, they had promised that they will not nuclear bomb against non-nuclear countries, and they will not use it first. However, in the current situation, a need to change this policy has arisen. Therefore, they have decided to make a ‘minor adjustment’ in this policy, which is the ‘Japan Exception’ theory.

CCP said that several times in the past Japan had tried to harm the interests of China, therefore if a war breaks out between China and Japan, China will take revenges for both current and past ‘crimes’ of Japan. It said that Japan is the only country to be hit by atomic bomb, and has a deep memory of the affects of atomic bomb attacks. ‘And it takes the United States, which nuked it, lying down. It is exactly because Japan has such a unique feeling that nuclear deterrence against Japan will get twice the result with half the effort,’ the video said.

Saying that by singling out Japan as an “exception”, by ignoring the policy of no first use of nukes, CCP said that it is warning Japan and informing the world that if Japan interferes militarily in China’s domestic affairs, including the unification of Taiwan by the mainland, nuclear weapons will surely be used against Japan, and will be used continuously until its unconditional surrender. There will be no peace talks in the meantime, the CCP emphasized.

They also added that they will take back the Diaoyu Islands and the Ryukyu Islands. ‘We will either manage them or let them be independent,’ the video said.

‘Don’t throw me into the streets’: Sister Lucy Kalapurra argues her own case in Kerala HC challenging her eviction from convent

OpIndia Staff
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‘Don’t throw me into the streets’: Sister Lucy Kalapurra argues her own case in Kerala HC challenging her eviction from convent

With no advocate ready to represent her, sister Lucy Kalapurra became the first nun to argue her own case before the court. Kalapurra attended the virtual hearing at the Kerala High Court and argued her expulsion from the Franciscan Clarist Convent (FCC) in Karakkamala.

Challenging the congregation’s expulsion order, Kalapurra resolutely said: “I have served the congregation for more than 39 years and I have not done anything wrong. I have not led a life against the values of the Church. They cannot just throw me out. I have faith in the judicial system, so I decided to argue my case as party-in-person.”

Sister Lucy had been expelled from the convent after she levelled allegations of immorality against the Vicar and the Mother Superior of the Church. Despite her repeated requests that she be allowed to continue residing at the convent, the Court declined the same, saying that police protection can only be granted if she vacates the convent.

Sister Lucy also submitted before the Court that she had no place to go if she was forced to vacate the convent.

“I am a woman, a nun fighting for justice. It is important for my nunship that I continue to stay at this convent. I have been a nun for the past 39 years, do not throw me into the streets. I have nowhere else to go,” she argued.

When the court insisted that police protection may not be granted if she continued to stay at the convent, sister Kalapurra responded that the court may withdraw the protection if it deems fit, but may not ask her to vacate the convent. The petitioner said she had filed a case before a Munsiff court against the eviction notice issued against her and sought permission to stay till the disposal of her suit by the civil court.

Sister Lucy Kalapurra argues her own case before the Kerala HC

“This is my first time appearing before the Court. I had applied for police protection one year ago. The hearing for the same took place recently, and I was granted protection by the Court. There are currently proceedings going on to evict me from the convent. I am challenging this because it is unfair. In that regard, I have filed a complaint before the civil court in 2019 and I have an injunction order in my favour,” a report by Live Law quoted Kalappura as saying.

Sister Lucy Kalapurra came under the spotlight for openly protesting against Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who is accused of raping a nun. Earlier last month, the supreme appellate authority of the Catholic Church at the Vatican had rejected her appeal against expulsion from her congregation.

Kalapurra said her decision to represent herself came after her lawyer relinquished his role in a petition where she had sought police protection. She reached out to many advocates after the relinquishment, but none of them showed interest in representing her in the court.

Sister Lucy was dismissed from Church by the Vatican for writing poems, driving a car

Days after the dismissal of Sister Lucy Kalapura from the Franciscan Christ Congregation (FCC), an exclusive report by The Times of India revealed that she was removed by the Vatican over frivolous charges. Sister Lucy had supported the nun, who accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal in a rape case. And this drew the ire of the Apostolica Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church.

The former nun had joined the FCC at the tender age of 17. According to the Church, she has committed a long list of ‘crimes.’ It includes buying a car and publishing poems without permission. Despite being served a summons for supposedly breaking her ‘vows’, Sister Lucy remained undeterred. In an act of defiance, she shed her nun’s habit for a salwar kurta. Pointing out the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, she said priests were allowed to wear normal attire, unlike the nuns.

The Vatican was also miffed after the former nun wrote a memoir, hinting at sexual abuse with the Church clergy. Sister Lucy had sought permission to buy a car but it was turned down. She however went ahead to purchase a white Alto and learnt driving from a woman, who ran a driving school. “Sisters travel day and night in hired cars with male drivers. Wouldn’t it be safer for nuns to drive?” Sister Lucy had argued.

Grooming Jihad in Badaun: Danish becomes Dinesh to marry and forcibly convert a Hindu woman, arrested after the victim files police case

OpIndia Staff
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Grooming Jihad in Badaun: Danish becomes Dinesh to marry and forcibly convert a Hindu woman, arrested after the victim files police case

Yet another case of Grooming Jihad has been reported from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Danish, a young man from Badaun, posed as Dinesh and lured a Hindu girl from Bulandshahr to marry him. When the woman discovered Danish had lied to her about his religion, she was forced to convert to Islam by the accused and his family.

The matter pertains to village Gouramai of the Kadarchok police station area. Danish, a resident of the region, worked in Delhi. There he met a woman from Bulandshar. It is reported that Danish entrapped the woman in his love by hiding his actual faith and posing as Dinesh. The woman fell in love with the man and subsequently, the duo got married.

After their marriage, Danish took the woman to his village in Uttar Pradesh, where his parents stayed. But the woman, who thought Danish to be a Hindu, was in for a rude awakening.

As soon as she reached her in-laws’ house, she realised that Danish had lied to her about his faith and that he was a Muslim, not a Hindu as he had pretended to be. When the woman objected to their marriage, the accused got her forcibly converted to Islam. It is also being alleged that the father and the brother of the accused reportedly abused the woman, physically and mentally.

For a few days, the woman was held at the house of one Amir, resident of Chhaganpur, Mujaria. On June 12, she somehow escaped from Danish’s house reached the place of her sister-in-law, a resident of Khurja. She described her ordeal to her family members, who approached SSP (Badayun) Sankalp Sharma and filed a complaint against Danish and his family members. On the orders of the SSP, the police registered a case against 4 people and arrested the father-son duo under several sections of the anti-conversion law.

Grooming Jihad case in Agra: Qasim Qureshi become Vicky Yadav to lure a minor Hindu girl, marries and impregnates her after conversion

A few days back, another Grooming Jihad case was reported from the city of Agra. A man identified as Qasim Qureshi reportedly lured a 16-year-old girl by identifying himself as Vicky Yadav. He brainwashed and converted her and subsequently, married the minor victim, who is now pregnant.

Media reports suggest that the victim went missing on June 15. When she did not return for 15-days, her father approached BJP leader Rahul Chauhan, a resident of Khandari. Rahul Chauhan, in turn, apprised BJP MLA Purushottam Khandelwal about the incident. Khandelwal, then helped the father of the victim to lodge a complaint in Agra’s Hari Parwat police station, accusing Qasim of abduction, forced conversion and rape of his minor daughter. Based on the complaint lodged by the victim’s father, police registered an FIR under the POCSO and Uttar Pradesh’s stringent anti-conversion law against Qasim and his family members.

Delhi riots accused Safoora Zargar has to ‘drop a pin’ on Google Maps for verification when she visits Kashmir for Eid, orders court

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi riots accused Safoora Zargar has to ‘drop a pin’ on Google Maps for verification when she visits Kashmir for Eid, orders court

On Wednesday, a Delhi Court allowed Safoora Zargar, a former Jamia Millia Islamia University student and an accused in the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots cases, to visit her hometown in Kashmir provided that she ‘drops a pin’ on Google Maps for verification of her location, reports Live Law.

According to the reports, the Shahdara District Court in Delhi has allowed Safoora Zargar to visit her hometown in Kashmir for a period of one month for performing religious ceremonies of ‘Aqiqah’ on the occasion of Eid-ul-Milad. The Delhi riots accused has agreed to provide details of her location to the police officers for verification purposes.

Hearing the petition, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat allowed Zargar to travel only on the assurance that she will be under the radar of her investigating officer. The court asked Zargar to ‘drop a pin’ on Google maps so that the investigation officer of the case has details about her location.

Dropping a pin means an individual sharing his/her exact location to another person, usually sharing the GPS coordinates of the particular spot. So when you ‘drop a pin’, it means you are informing someone exactly where you are.

Earlier, Safoora Zargar had filed an application stating that since she and her husband’s hometowns are in Kishtwar, and she should be allowed to travel to Kashmir as the ceremony would be performed there. Safoora Zargar is currently on bail on humanitarian grounds, subject to a condition that she will take permission from the court if she intends to leave Delhi.

The Delhi Court directing Zargar to observe all the bail conditions imposed by the Delhi High Court, said, “The applicant shall also furnish the itinerary of her visit to the investigating officer through official email. The applicant will ‘drop-a-pin’ on Google maps so that the Investigating Officer can verify the applicant’s presence and location. The mobile numbers of the Investigating Officer are already known the applicant and are also mentioned in the present application”.

Safoora Zargar – one of the masterminds of Anti-Hindu Delhi riots

Jamia Millia Islamia student Safoora Zargar was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for her involvement in the Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots in February 2020. She was reportedly the general secretary of the Congress-backed NSUI’s Jamia unit.

Zargar was among the first two coordinators of the Jamia Coordination Committee, which was set up in December 2020 to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The sociology student from Kashmir was an active member of Congress and its student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI).

The Delhi Police had arrested Zargar in April 2020 for allegedly leading the anti-CAA protests at the Jaffrabad metro station in Delhi. After being denied bail on two previous occasions, the Delhi High Court had granted her bail in June last year based on humanitarian grounds.

The Delhi Police had claimed that she was part of the conspiracy to “destroy, destabilize and disintegrate the Government of India in order to compel to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the alleged National Register of Citizens”.

Jamia Millia Islamia student Safoora Zargar, who is currently on bail in the Anti-Hindu riots case, had given birth to a child on October 12 last year.

Lucknow: UP ATS arrests 3 more accused linked to Al Qaeda from Kakori, suspicious videos found on phones of previously arrested terrorists

OpIndia Staff
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Lucknow: UP ATS arrests 3 more accused linked to Al Qaeda from Kakori, suspicious videos found on phones of previously arrested terrorists

The Uttar Pradesh ATS has nabbed three more accused linked to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind- a Kashmiri wing of Al-Qaeda. The arrests were made after the previous two arrested terrorists revealed the names of their accomplices during the interrogation. 

UP ATS Press Note

As per the press note released by UP ATS, Shakeel (35), Mohammed Mustakim (44) and Mohammed Mueed (29) will be presented before the court for judicial custody. The accused have reportedly confessed to their crimes and will be interrogated further. 

Inflammatory videos recovered from the terrorists

As per an ABP report, 12 suspicious videos have been recovered from the mobile phones of the arrested terrorists. It is said that these videos were sent to them by their handlers. The content of the video is reportedly to radicalize and brainwash the youth. Additionally, their call details revealed that most calls were made to people in Delhi, Meerut, Hardoi, Bareilly and Kanpur. 

Based on this, the ATS has launched a separate investigation by forming three new teams to follow the trail further. One terrorist Minaj also established contact four times with two people based in Nepal.

Further, the arrested terrorists have also spilled the beans on their modus operandi. The handles and terrorists first establish contact through chats with prospect recruits, conduct a background check by the local community and then meet them in person before assigning them tasks. 

Two terrorists arrested on July 11

A team led by IG ATS, GK Goswami, in a major operation arrested two terrorists, linked to Al Qaeda, from Kakori on the outskirts of Lucknow on Sunday. The two terrorists were reportedly hiding in a house in the Kakori area. The ATS team conducted a raid after receiving a tip-off about their presence. 

According to ATS sources, two pressure-cooker bombs, a detonator, and 6 to 7 kilograms of explosives were also recovered from the house. The investigation and search operation is still on. Sources also revealed that a plan was being hatched to conduct a terror attack around Independence Day.

Maharashtra: Christian group files complaint against Kareena Kapoor Khan for her book ‘Pregnancy Bible’ alleging blasphemy

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra: Christian group files complaint against Kareena Kapoor Khan for her book ‘Pregnancy Bible’ alleging blasphemy

A complaint has been filed against Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor Khan over the title of her upcoming book. A Christian group has taken strong objection to the title ‘Pregnancy Bible’, for containing the name of the holy book, and filed a complaint against the actor turned author at a police station in Beed in Maharashtra.

According to reports, the complaint has been filed by Alpha Omega Christian Mahasangh, a Christian group, alleging that the title of the book hurts the religious sentiment of the Christians. Ashish Shinde, the president of Alpha Omega Christian Mahasangh, submitted the complaint at Shivaji Nagar Police Station in Beed, seeking action against the author on blasphemy charges.

Shinde said that as the holy word ‘Bible’ has been used in the book, it has hurt the religious sentiments of Christians. He has filed the complaint seeking the registration of a case against the authors under IPC section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs).

While the police have confirmed receiving a complaint, they have not registered and FIR yet. They said that they have asked the complainant to file the complaint in Mumbai as the book is not being published from Beed. Shivaji Nagar Police Station in-charge Inspector Sainath Thombre said, “We have received the complaint but no case can be registered here as the incident has not happened here (in Beed). I have advised him to file a complaint in Mumbai.”

The book titled Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Pregnancy Bible: The ultimate manual for moms-to-be is co-authored by Kareen Kapoor Khan and Aditi Shah Bhimjyani. It chronicles experience of the celebrity mother during both of her pregnancies. Reportedly, the book is verified by the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), the official body of gynaecologists and obstetricians in the country.

Gujarat Congress leader publishes public notice warning people against his estranged wife

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat Congress leader publishes public notice warning people against his estranged wife

As per reports, on July 13, former Union Minister and 2-time Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki published a public notice in newspapers in which he warned everyone against entering into any financial or other transactions with his estranged wife.

In the notice issued by Kiran Tapodhan, Solanki’s advocate, it was mentioned, “Reshmaben (Solanki’s wife) has not been living with my client for around four years. She has been behaving inconsistently while living separately from him”.

The notice further read, “My client being a politically and socially respectable person, nobody should conduct financial or other such transactions with his wife misusing his name and identity. It will not be my client’s responsibility if anybody does anything like that. If my client finds out about any such transactions, he will take legal action against the person.”

Solanki has represented the Anand Lok Sabha constituency twice. His lawyer said in a statement, “They have been living separately for years. The notice has been issued as per the instructions of our client. The dispute between the two has been going on for four years. As it is a family case, I cannot say anything special in this matter. It is important for Solanki to be cautious as he is a respected person and anybody can misuse his name. We will follow my client’s instructions in the near future.”

Political parties staying away from the matter

So far, Congress and BJP have not commented on the issue. Manish Doshi, Congress spokesperson, was quoted by Times of India saying, “It is Bharatbhai’s issue. The party has no role to comment. He is contributing effectively to the party.” On the other hand, Yamal Vyas, BJP spokesperson, said, “It concerns his personal life, and the BJP has no comment. If it were a public issue, we would have commented.”

Solanki and caste politics in Gujarat

Notably, Solanki, the son of the former Chief Minister of Gujarat Madhavsinh Solanki, is known for playing caste politics. He had brought in the ‘KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim)’ theory for vote bank politics. Interestingly, Aam Aadmi Party, trying to establish its roots in Gujarat, seems to be carrying forward Solanki’s legacy of caste politics in the state.

Five children, including four girls rescued from Shalom Biblical Baptist church in Bengaluru: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Five children, including four girls rescued from Shalom Biblical Baptist church in Bengaluru: Report

The Childline India Foundation has rescued five children, including four girl children from the ‘Shalom Biblical Baptist Church’ ministries situated in Chikkabellandur, Bengaluru.

According to a Bengaluru Mirror report, the five kids were taken and were ‘rehabilitated’ illegally by the Christian organisation, following which Childline raided the centre.

Childline India Foundation is a foundation that works with the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Childline India Foundation is a nodal agency under the Ministry that operates a telephone helpline called ‘Childline 1098’ for children in distress.

Radha R, a member of the childline team, raided the Christian rehabilitation centre based on the directions from the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Board and found the five children inside the premises. In her complaint, Radha stated that the institution was sheltering around 14 children, both boys and girls, for rehabilitation without the due permission or registration from the JJ board. 

Based on her complaint, Bengaluru police have registered a case against the Shalom Biblical Baptist Church and its head under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The Childline India Foundation also alleged that the rescue centre did not even have a woman caretaker, which is a mandatory condition for running a rescue and rehab centres for minors. Of the five children rescued, four are girls aged between 7 and 16 years.

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