During an interview with Tolo News on 7th September, Amrullah Saleh, the Vice President Afghanistan, raised the Durand Line issue with Pakistan. He said that no Afghan politician of national stature could overlook the issue of the Durand Line. It will condemn him or her forever. He added, “It is an issue which needs discussions & resolution. Expecting us to gift it for free is un-realistic. Peshawar used to be the winter capital of Afghanistan.”
No Afghan politician of national stature can overlook the issue of Durand Line. It will condemn him or her in life & after life. It is an issue which needs discussions & resolution. Expecting us to gift it for free is un-realistic. Peshawar used to be the winter capital of Afg
Saleh further added that Pakistan has come out of denial. It is openly saying that they are harbouring the Taliban. “This clarity despite being bitter is a development which can be utilized in benefit of peace process. I had candid discussions with Gen. Bajwa & ISI director when they visited Afghanistan. Keep Pakistan engaged 4 peace,” he said.
Pak has come out of denial & is openly saying they are harboring the Taliban. This clarity despite being bitter is a development which can be utilized in benefit of peace prcss. I had a candid discussions with Gen. Bajwa & ISI drctr when they visited Afg. Keep Pak engaged 4 peace
The issue between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the Durand line
In 1893, the Durand Line was drawn between then British-ruled India and Afghanistan’s Amir Abdur Rahman Khan as an attempt to improve relations and exchange between the two countries. Though the British controlled several issues related to Afghanistan, it was considered a free state. The 2,600 KM long line was in a way imposed upon Afghanistan by the British and after Pakistan’s formation, the same line was treated as the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Since the departure of the British from the Area, Afghanistan has been trying to reassess the border with Pakistan, but the two nations have failed to come to any conclusion. Though Pakistan claims that Durand Line is a well established international border, Afghanistan has never accepted it. Afghanistan claims a significant portion of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces in Pakistan based on the fact that though they were claimed by Pakistan at the time of its formation, however, they used to be a part of Afghanistan and the ethnic groups of Balochs and Pashtuns have been partitioned.
Afghanistan had also demanded in 1947 that the Pashtuns should be given the right of self-determination. The demand was ignored by both the British and Pakistan at that time.
One claim that Afghanistan often uses to assert its position over the Durand Line is that the border drawn by the British was valid for 100 years, and its validity has expired. Another claim that Afghanistan makes is that the legitimacy of the border ended with Pakistan’s formation as the agreement was between India and Afghanistan and not with Pakistan.
In recent years, the tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan has increased due to Pakistan’s continued support of the Taliban.
Days after AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair was booked under POCSO for online harassment of girl child, the online portal had come out in his support and stood by him claiming the complaint against him for targeting a minor girl in a Twitter fight was ‘misuse of legal apparatus’. AltNews co-founder Pratik Sinha further claimed that Zubair is at the ‘forefront of fighting fake narratives’ and hence his ‘work’ hurts those who have ‘weaponised misinformation to subvert Indian democracy’.
Pratik Sinha’s statement
After Sinha delivered the full-toss, activist Ankur Singh in a series of tweets took it upon himself to show how Zubair is more of a weapon himself to spread misinformation which could not only subvert Indian democracy but also pose a threat to it.
Alt News says ‘Mohammad Zubair has been at forefront of fighting fake narratives’.
In a thread that runs over 25 tweets, Singh meticulously exposed Mohammed Zubair’s dangerous games of spreading misinformation and many times deleting those tweets once they go viral without quite issuing clarification. That way, many a times, the screenshots of fake or misleading news goes viral but the fact that he deleted the same after being called out for his lies does not.
Few months ago Rasode ka Factchecker @zoo_bear spread fake news of fire at Solapur Airport on the day when Modiji asked people to light a diya.
Mohammed Zubair through his parody account of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy where he initially portrayed himself as an anonymous troll, regularly indulges is sharing old, unrelated information as if it is a current incident.
Rasode ka Factchecker @zoo_bear during the period when protests over lynching was going on shared an old clip from Congress rule so that people attacked Modi Govt.
In fact, so dangerous are his games that he even spread misinformation in middle of Chinese coronavirus pandemic that could have led to chaos and thereby a law and order situation. He has also regularly come to the defence of Islamists during Sri Lanka terror attack.
Rasode ka Factchecker @zoo_bear during Sri Lanka suicide bombings defended Terrorists and instead attacked Indian Journalists calling the letter shared by them as Fake
In a fresh crackdown on Christian evangelical organisations, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has suspended the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of four Christian associations this year. It is mandatory to have FCRA clearance from the Home Ministry for any organisation to receive foreign funds.
As per a report in The Hindu, the four organisations whose licences were suspended are Ecreosoculis North Western Gossner Evangelical (Jharkhand), Evangelical Churches Association (Manipur), Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (Jharkhand), and New Life Fellowship Association (Mumbai). Besides, two Christian donors, namely, Seventh Day Adventist Church and Baptist Church are also under the watch of the Ministry. Both of them are US-based.
Christian evangelical organisations have been operating in India for a long time
The New Life Fellowship Association came into existence in India in 1964, following the arrival of missionaries from New Life Churches in New Zealand. The government had suspended its licence on February 10, 2020. Earlier, the Bajrang Dal had disrupted ‘prayer meetings’ by the association in April and September 2019 and registered a complaint with the police for using the platform to convert people.
Similarly, the origin of the Evangelical Churches Association can be traced to a Welsh Presbyterian missionary who came to India in 1910. It became a full-fledged association in 1952 and operated from Manipur. Ecreosoculis North-Western Gossner Evangelical, whose FCRA licence was recently suspended, can be traced to the Gossner mission of Germany in Chotanagpur, Jharkhand the Hindu report stated. The 4th association, Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church, was established in India in 1987 and has an estimated 7.7 crore Christians connected to it in 99 countries.
Centre has banned over 20000 NGOs from receiving foreign funds
Other than the above-mentioned four Christian evangelical associations, the government had also cancelled the FCRA licences of two other organisations, namely, Rajnandgaon Leprosy Hospital and Clinics, and the Don Bosco Tribal Development Society. The Home Ministry has cancelled 20,674 licences till date. While 22,457 NGOs continue to have FCRA clearance, around 6,702 organisations have expired licences.
In the first five years of the Modi government, over 14,800 NGOs were deregistered over violations of FCRA rules.
Religious conversion halts in Kerala after crackdown
Last year, it was reported that several Pentecostals in South India have stopped their religious campaigns due to the look of financial aid. Pastors were no longer receiving the salary for their gospel work. They were now unable to repay loans that were taken for their houses and purchase of vehicles. In Kerala alone, there are more than 100s of Pentecostal Missions that preach in public places and on the roadside.
Pentecostal missions mainly depend on foreign funds. Modi government’s economic reforms including the stringent Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act norms had brought about a massive reduction in these foreign funds. Kerala received more than Rs 100 crores per year inflow of funds until 2014, which stopped abruptly after the Central government demanded details and source of funds. As reported by Organiser, the FCRA crackdown has resulted in an abrupt decline of 40% of foreign inflow of funds.
Karnataka Congress leader Kavitha Reddy on Sunday apologised to Samyuktha Hegde for leading a mob against her for ‘indecent behaviour’ and wearing sports bra in public.
Taking to social media, Reddy tweeted a statement wherein she claimed that she is against moral policing and apologised for moral policing Hegde.
Have issued a letter as agreed with @SamyukthaHegde , I hope that we can put this incident behind us and work towards a safer and better future for women. pic.twitter.com/RQ8v0uvqZY
In her letter, she claimed that she unconditionally apologises for her behaviour towards Hegde and her friends as well as to everyone else for whatever happened on 4th September, 2020. According to Kannada actress Samyuktha Hegde, she and her two friends had visited the Agara lake on Friday evening to practice Hula hoops. As she was working out, a lady approached and began to hurl abuses at them for alleged ‘indecent behaviour’.
“Are you cabaret dancers? What sort of clothes are you wearing? A@&&&@s! If you wear such clothes and something happens to you the next time, don’t come crying to anyone,” the Congress leader Kavitha Reddy abused them according to Hegde.
Kavitha said that she agrees her behaviour was not proper and that no woman should have to face what Hegde did. She claimed that in hindsight, she regrets her social media post and that she has taken them down. However, this is not the first time Reddy created public nuisance.
In January this year, Reddy had joined hands with far-left activist Amulya Leona to publicly heckle Kannada journalist Mahesh Hegde at Mangaluru airport. Reddy, along with anti-CAA ‘protestors’ Najma Nazeer and Amulya Leona, had confronted Mahesh Hegde and coerced him to sing “Vande Mataram” to prove his patriotism for the country.
With the Coronavirus pandemic showing no sign of slowing down in the Country, India has become the country with the second-highest number of COVID-19 patients in the world. India today overtook Brazil to occupy the second spot, while the United States remains in the top spot.
According to latest data in worldometers, India now has 41.60 lakh total cases of Coronavirus, while Brazil has 41.23 lakh. The USA leads the chart with 64.35 lakh total cases. India occupies second spot in active cases too, with around 8.7 lakh total active cases, more than 7 lakh for Brazil. The number of active cases in the USA is much more, at 25.35 lakh.
Source: https://www.worldometers.info/
India is at present adding around 90,000 new infections per day, and the number of new infections is also going up every day. Although India’s recovery rate is good and fatality rate is relatively low, the number of active cases is also on an increasing trend.
More than 70,000 people have died due to the Wuhan Coronavirus infection in India, making it the country with third highest deaths, after USA and Brazil.
In India, Maharashtra state has the highest number of Coronavirus cases, at around 9 lakh, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
There was significant outrage on social media recently about the JEE and NEET entrance exams that are to be conducted for students across India amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. Politicians, ‘intellectuals’ and their assorted friends in the media jumped to the occasion to foment discord in the country over the entrance exams to be conducted for admission into medical and engineering colleges.
While the speed with which the admit cards were downloaded betrayed the acceptance among students regarding the exams, sections of the political class were unwilling to abandon what they perceived to be an opportunity to corner the central government. Petitions were filed in the Court to delay the exams but the Judiciary was unwilling to consider their unjustified demands.
The interesting thing to note here is the fact that the same people who wanted the central government to delay the JEE and NEET exams were targeting the same for apparently not conducting the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB) exams. The central government, of course, never said that the RRB exams would not be conducted but a dedicated campaign was launched to give people the impression that the BJP government at the centre was denying employment opportunities to the youth.
At the forefront of it was Priyanka Gandhi, senior leader of the Congress party. She does not want the government to conduct NEET at the decided time but at the same time, she expressed anger towards the government for not conducting the RRB exams yet.
Priyanka Gandhi engages in emotional blackmail over NEET
Priyanka Gandhi targets the central government over RRB exams
Following in the path forged by Priyanka Gandhi, the national general secretary of NSUI, Nagesh Kariyappa, engaged in similar rhetoric. He targeted ‘Godi Media’ over its apparent silence on the NEET-JEE issue and at the same time, he remarked that the youth need jobs and not Narendra Modi’s speeches.
Nagesh Kariyappa’s stance on the JEE-NEET issue
Nagesh Kariyappa’s stance on RRB exams
The National Students’ Union of India displayed the same remarkable hypocrisy, which made it amply clear that their demands to postpone the JEE-NEET was predicated solely on the electoral benefits they could reap from it.
NSUI on JEE-NEET
NSUI on RRB exams
The students’ wing of the Indian National Lokdal demonstrated the same hypocrisy. On one hand, they swore their loyalty to students of JEET-NEEt and demanded that the exams be postponed. At the same time, they wanted to know when will the dates for the RRB exams be announced.
INLD on JEE-NEET exams
INLD on RRB exams
Bhagirath Nain, vice-president of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, acted in similar fashion. On one hand, he demanded that the JEE-NEET exams should be postponed in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, he declared that students demand timely examination in case of RRB exams.
Bhagirath Nain on NEET-JEE exams
Bhagirath Nain on RRB exams
Thus, there is clear discordance in the stance adopted by the political class with regards to the conductance of exams in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. While they demand that exams for admission into engineering and medical colleges be postponed, simultaneously, they want the RRB exam dates to be announced.
The central government has been clear regarding its position that the JEE-NEET exams could not be delayed any further. And as it so happens, dates for RRB NTPC exams have been announced. The government has announced that exams for the vacant posts will be conducted from the 15th of December. According to the Railway Ministry, the delay was due to the process of selecting a new exam conducting agency.
The JEE Mains, meanwhile, has been conducted smoothly. The JEE Advanced has been delayed only slightly and will be conducted on the 27th of September. The NEET is scheduled for the 13th of September. Through their hypocritical stand on the matter, the political class and their band of intellectuals and friends in the media have only revealed that they care very little about the welfare of students and the only thing they do care about is their electoral prospects.
On 3rd September, two parties clashed over parking near the office of the Aam Aadmi Party in Okhla Phase II, Delhi. Birju Das and his family got severely injured in the incident. The other group claimed they were injured as well. The police described it as a clash over a petty parking issue, but Das claims it is just an excuse to cover old enmity. Das broke his leg in the clash and is currently admitted to AIIMS for treatment. He may need an operation on Monday if there is no improvement in his condition.
Birju Das in hospital
Birju Das’s statement
When OpIndia came to know about the case, we contacted Birju Das, who was lodged in the hospital for treatment. He said, “They used to molest our daughters in the past. Our elder daughter got molested before. Then the younger daughter was also mistreated. Last year, they entered our house and beaten my daughter. We filed complaints in every case. But no action was taken. This time they started a fight on the pretext of a car parking. They even had a pistol.”
CCTV Video of the clash
Birju said that it was a preplanned attack. They only needed some excuse to start the fight. They parked the car in his spot, and when he asked them to remove it, they started fighting with him. When his children came to save him, they got beaten too. Birju said that police filed the case in non-criminal charges that led to their immediate release; however, he is in hospital, and his children had to get stitches.
Screenshot from a video of the attack
Report filed
The police have registered a case under Section 34,506,323,341 of IPC at Okhla Police station on 4th September. The complaint mentioned that Birju was attacked by Khursheed and Salalan at around 9-9:30 PM. During the clash, Khursheed took out a pistol, and when Birju tried to stop him, they all started beating Das. During this, someone called 100. Police reached the spot and took Birju and his wife to the hospital.
Part of FIR with Birju’s statement
Statement of Police
When OpIndia contacted Officer Akhilesh Kumar, who is handling the case, he said the clash was over parking. Both parties have filed cases against each other. The other side has presented two MLCs as well. However, on the complaint of Birju Das, all three have been arrested.
The accusation of the other party
Kumar said that the enmity between the two parties is old. The other side claims that their father died 20 days ago, and they were carrying food for the labourers for the same reason. Birju first asked to remove the vehicle and then started abusing them that led to the fight. Police are taking statements from the people present at the time of the clash. Kumar said that they could not add section 307 without checking the facts.
Birju Das’s daughters’ statements
The daughters of Birju Das have a different point of view in the case. The younger daughter said that she received a threatening call four days before the incident. His elder daughter claimed that those people were present at the spot where her father parks his bike. When the fight took place, they ran to check on her father and found him on the ground. They were beating him, and Salalan had his knee on their father’s chest. The elder daughter said only Khursheed was from outside. The rest of them were from their locality. The younger daughter claimed that when the police came, they started blaming Birju’s family.
Wife and daughters of Birju Das
The elder daughter Jyoti said that Ansari attacked them before as well. They filed a complaint at that time, but Ansari’s mother pleaded their father to take back the case. She said that Das had the recording of her pleading, but the other side deleted the videos on the day of the clash. She said Khursheed is trying to convince her for marriage though he is already married. She said he threatened her several times that he would do something to her family, but she never thought they would actually attack.
The younger sister had left studies
The younger daughter was harassed continuously while going to school. They had to file a complaint with the women’s cell and had to keep her away from home for ten days. She named Afsen, Imran, and Riyaz, who used to follow her while returning from school. She said that they had beaten their father’s driver as well. Das filed a case against them, but there was no conclusion to it as well.
Complaint filed last year
The case went viral over the internet
Several netizens shared the photos and videos of the case.
संसद से 12KM ओखला में हिंदू परिवार नें बेटी के छेड़खानी पर पुलिस में शिकायत की तो समुदाय नें परिवार पर हमला कर पिता के पैर तोड दिए और मां का यह हाल कर दिया पर देश की सबसे भ्रष्ट @DelhiPolice कार में अकेले व्यक्ति का चालान करने व पैसे लेकर आरोपियों को बचाने में व्यस्त है। @CPDelhipic.twitter.com/XzsuPIYJjo
दिल्ली के अखोला में एक हिंदू परिवार ने अपने बेटी के छेड़छाड़ से परेशान होकर पुलिस में कंपलेंट क्या करवाई जेहादियों ने झुंड बनाकर घर के ऊपर हमला कर दिया, पिता के पैर तोड़ दीये जो अब रॉड लगाने पर जॉइंट हो पायेगा,आख़िर दिल्ली में कब तक हिंदुओं के घरों पर होते रहेंगे हमले? pic.twitter.com/kyM3mIZxIk
Sudershan TV’s reporter Gaurav Mishra is posting regular updates in the case. In a tweet, he wrote that the family is disturbed by the molestation of their daughter, and police are not taking any strict action.
China has been relentless in his pursuit of removing its ethnic minorities. Amidst the brutal attempts of ‘mainstreaming’ Uighur Muslims in the country, the Communist-ruled country is now trying to strip the ethnic Mongolese minority of their language and culture in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The change in Chinese policy
In August this year, the Chinese government announced an overhaul in its academic curriculum in the ‘autonomous’ region of Inner Mongolia. The region, annexed by China after the Second World War, is home to 4.2 million ethnic Mongolians. Under the new rules, classes in Mongolian in the region will be stopped and subjects such as literature, politics, and history will be taught in Mandarin. Similar programs for cultural destruction (or cultural assimilation as the Communist Party of China calls it) are underway in Tibet and Xinjiang, home to Uighur ethnic minority.
Authorities have defended the move by suggesting that it would help Mongols in higher education and seeking employment. Chinese spokesperson Hua Chunyin said, “The national common spoken and written language is a symbol of national sovereignty. It is every citizen’s right and duty to learn and use the national common spoken and written language.”
However, international policymakers have rubbished this claim and said that it is a part of the ‘aggressive assimilation’ plan adopted by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping ever since he came to power. Xi said in 2014, “We should implement bilingual education in some ethnic areas, both requiring ethnic minorities to learn the national common language, and encouraging Hans living in these areas learn ethnic minority languages.”
Map of Inner Mongolia
The fight for ethnic language
This decision was not well-received by the people living in Inner Mongolia. The people of Inner Mongolia have been successful in ‘preserving their traditional Mongolian alphabet’, unlike independent Mongolia. The latter, under the influence of Russia, uses the Cyrillic script. The Mongols in Inner Mongolia fear the same with the new Chinese policy.
The authoritarian Communist party was taken aback when parents launched widespread strikes along with 3,00,000 students. As such, when the school opened in this month, only 40 Mongolian students registered for the term while only 10 students showed up on Day 1. Parents of Mongolian children had earlier announced that they would keep their wards home instead of accepting the new language of instruction.
Former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj tweeted, “We need to voice our support for Mongolians striving to preserve their mother tongue and scripture in China. The right to learn and use one’s mother tongue is an inalienable right for all. Upholding this right is a way for China to be a respectable and responsible power.”
Tweet my former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
A banner read, “Mongolia’s language is part of what makes a person Mongolian and if a person loses their language they lose their national identity.” In one video, the citizens of Southern Mongolia yelled, “My Mongolia! Forever my Mongolia” as a mark of protest against the imposition of Mandarin.
Southern Mongolian citizens shouting:
“My Mongolia! Forever my Mongolia”
during a protest against Chinese government’s abolition of Mongolian-medium education in schools.pic.twitter.com/qEru08c2K8
Food delivery workers too joined in the fight for preserving their mother tongue. Many carried banners on their bikes that read, “save our mother tongue.”
Mongolian biker protests against the imposition of Mandarin (Image Courtesy: CNN)
Speaking to Quartz, an ethnic Mongol said, “We have been the weakest and oppressed in our own homeland. Imagine you are not allowed to learn, sign public documents in your own language, let alone promote it.”
Overseas Mongolians, human rights groups and locals have signed petitions demanding a repeal of the new policy. Reportedly, 20,000 signatures were collected from people in 10 counties, and a total of 196 petitions were handed over to the Education Bureau of the regional government. At the same time, around 300 employees of the State-run Mongolian TV and radio stations have threatened to quit if protesting parents are penalised for refusing to send children to schools.
Chinese regime tries to curb student protests
Averse to popular protests, the Chinese regime has decided to curb the protests with an iron hand. Armed military vehicles and tanks have been deployed in the Chinese autonomous region to disrupt the coordinated protests. Sharing a video from August 31, YouTuber Jennifer Zeng wrote, “On Aug. 31, military armored vehicles appeared on the streets of Inner Mongolia, amidst strong protests from Mongolian students and parents against the CCP’s policy to cancel Mongolian language instruction.”
Meanwhile, the police have detained protestors and directed public servants to send their children to school or lose their jobs.
The Communist government has also published a list of ‘ring leaders’ and is offering incentives to facilitate their arrest. Several arrest warrants have also been issued. One such list in Horqin district has included 129 dissenters. The Chinese government had also shut down a Mongolian social media platform named Bainu to prevent Mongolian protestors from communicating and organising demonstrations.
Tensions between Han Chinese and Mongols
However, unlike the Tibetans and Uighurs, the Mongolians have refused to become the ‘model minority’. This is despite the fact that they are more integrated with the majority Han Chinese population than the Tibetans and Uighurs. Reportedly, intermarriage is common and the majority of Mongolian parents send their children to ‘Chinese-language schools’ in the hopes of better economic opportunities.
However, tensions had been brewing between the two ethnic groups ever since 2011 when a Mongolian herder was killed by a Han Chinese truck driver. Due to trucks crossing’ over their pastureland, the Mongolians had protested about the loss of their ‘pastoral tradition’. Director of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, Enghebatu Togochog, stated, “The Mongolian way of life (has already been) wiped out by so many policies. This new policy is the final blow to the Mongolian identity”
The motives behind the language imposition
The Chinese regime has left no stone unturned in seizing the rights of ethnic minorities and eroding their culture, in a bid to promote ‘ethnic assimilation‘ and ‘national homogenisation’. Reportedly, the State has encouraged the settlement of the majority Han Chinese man in Inner Mongolia and pay a ‘generous bonus’ on marrying Mongolian women. In what is commonly referred to as ‘cultural genocide’, China is making a new move in the pursuit of its nefarious plan through the imposition of Mandarin.
Mandarin has been gradually thrust upon the ethnic population since the 1990s. Earlier, in ethnic Mongol schools, Mandarin was taught in the third year but then it was shifted to the second. And now China plans to shove the language down the children’s throat in the first year with ‘advanced content’ when they barely learn to read and write their own mother tongue. However, unabated in their sinister motives, the regional government has instructed teachers to promote the government policy ‘proactively’ and ensure that the students return to school.
Pakistan witnessed protests by tens of thousands of Muslims on Friday after Charlie Hebdo decided to reprint cartoons mocking prophet Mohammad, which prompted Islamic terrorists to launch a terror attack against them in 2015. “Death to France” was chanted and the protesters called for a boycott of French products.
The protesters also demanded that the French ambassador to the country be expelled. “We need to send a strong message to the French that this disrespect to our beloved prophet will not be tolerated,” said one protester. The protests were largely led by the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan and were witnessed in several cities across the country. There were protests in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore and Dera Ismail Khan.
The reprinting of the cartoons on prophet Mohammad also led the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan to issue a condemnation of Charlie Hebdo. “Decapitation is the punishment of blasphemers,” one placard at the protests said. Razi Hussani, TLP district leader in Karachi, stated, “It (re-printing of prophet Mohammad cartoons) amounts to big terrorism; they repeat such acts of blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad every few years. It should be stopped.”
Earlier, Charlie Hebdo had announced that it will republish cartoons of prophet Mohammed that had caused Islamic Terrorists to launch a terror attack against them in 2015 as trial against the perpetrators gets underway. “We will never lie down. We will never give up,” its director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau said in an editorial to be published along with the cartoons in the latest edition.
The terror attack led to the deaths of twelve people and in subsequent days, a policewoman and four Jews were murdered. The trial will involve the allegations against the accomplices, accused of supplying the weapons and putting the terrorists in touch with ISIS apart from various other crimes. Some of France’s most renowned cartoonists were killed in the terror attack.
The Uttar Pradesh unit of Congress has decided to woo young voters ahead of the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections next year. To do that, the Congress party will now be organizing a quiz competition on former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
According to the reports, the Congress party will be conducting a state-wide quiz competition on Rajiv Gandhi’s personality and achievements. The quiz competition will be held online on September 13 and 14, a senior party leader said.
Speaking to the media, UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh said that the preparation for the quiz competition will enable participants to know more about the personality and achievements of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He added that the competition is meant for youngsters in the age group of 16-22 years.
Till now over 5 lakh aspirants have registered themselves for the competition, Singh added. He said that all the frontal organizations of the party have been given responsibility for this.
“We are expecting more than 20 lakh youths to participate in the competition,” he said.
Further, the Congress leader added that through this quiz competition, the party will establish communication with these youths. Explaining the rationale behind the quiz competition, Singh said, “Party leadership is of the view that youths should come forward. Thanks to the bad policies of the BJP government, the youths are envisaging a dark future in the current circumstances.”
