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PETA’s pontification and its nauseating hypocrisy over animal rights, which has been lauding animal product users as animal lovers

OpIndia Staff
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PETA’s pontification and its nauseating hypocrisy over animal rights, which has been lauding animal product users as animal lovers

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA is known for their work for the welfare of animals. At least this is what most people think. However, the organization is under criticism for not showing backbone when it comes to criticizing Islamic or Christian rituals involving cruelty to animals. The organization is now in soup for associating with those who glorify meat-eating. Not one, but several examples have appeared that proves that PETA is a hypocrite and running the organization without having an iota of concern for the suffering animals.

PETA and its choice of “Person of the Year”

Every year, PETA chooses someone to be their “Person of the Year” for the work he or she has done for the welfare of the animals. In 2015, the organization selected Pope Francis as the person of the year. He was the first religious leader to be named as PETA’s Person of the Year. Celebrities and leaders like Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Ricky Gervais have enjoyed the title at some point in their lives. PETA claimed that they chose Pope Francis because he took the name of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of all animals, who said, “Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission—to be of service to them wherever they require it.”

All the glorious words sound beautiful. But the reality is grim. Pope Francis is fond of meat. He does not like Fish that much as reported by Business Insider in 2013. RSVP Live in 2018 reported that his breakfast generally has cold meat cuts. According to Earth Beat, Genesis Butler, a young activist, wrote to Pope and challenged him to shift to a vegan diet. In return, she promised she would donate $1 million to the charity of his choice. Pope replied to her and sent blessings but never promised that he would turn vegan.

PETA India’s associates eat meat or use animal products

PETA India has associated with several celebrities who either eat meat or use animal products. In 2018, they declared Sonam Kapoor as PETA Person of the Year. Sonam Kapoor, who stopped eating meat a few years ago, has been seen several times with products made out of animals. Shefali Vaidya, who got into a fight with PETA India and the organization tried to mock her in every derogatory way possible, shared a tweet in which Sonam was seen with a bag by Prada made of snakeskin. PETA’s association with Shilpa Shetty has been questioned on social media several times. Only a few days after she became PETA’s Person of the Year, she had shared a turkey recipe on her Youtube channel.

PETA’s track record of offensive campaigns

When President Reagan died, PETA ran a campaign using his photo on a billboard that said, “Eating meat increases a person’s risk of developing degenerative Alzheimer’s disease.”

PETA used clipart of a fat woman on billboard fat-shaming meat eaters saying, “Save the Whales, lose the blubber, go vegetarian.”

PETA has used porn stars on several occasions in their campaigns in the lewdest way possible. Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy and several others have appeared in their campaigns.

In 2008, after the Manitoba Greyhound bus beheading, they posted an ad using the incident in the context and compared it to animal slaughtering.

PETA once released graphic comics that had titles “Your daddy kills animals”, and “Your mommy kills animals” and distributed those among children when they were alone.

PETA advocacy of euthanization

PETA does not shy away from accepting that they kill thousands of animals every year because no one would have taken them home. They claim that they kill only those animals (in a “humane” way of course) that are suffering and do not have any chance of survival. On their website, PETA says, “Because of the high number of unwanted companion animals and the lack of good homes, sometimes the most humane thing that a shelter worker can do is give an animal a peaceful release from a world in which dogs and cats are often considered “surplus” and unwanted.” A website, petakillsanimals.com that claims to expose the organization states that PETA kills around 10,000 animals every year. As proof, they posted some documents that can be accessed here.

In short, the organization that claims to be raising voice for the animals is continuously in the soup for supporting the wrong people or taking support from the wrong people.

Destroy crosses, Jesus images, put pictures of Mao and Xi Jinping: China ordering Christians

OpIndia Staff
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Destroy crosses, Jesus images, put pictures of Mao and Xi Jinping: China ordering Christians

In continuation with its religious repression, Chinese authorities have reportedly ordered Christians to renounce their faith and replace the crosses, images of Jesus in churches with portraits of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping or risk losing welfare benefits.

According to a report published in Daily Mail, a concerted attempt is being made by the Chinese officials to suppress the manifestation of religion in the country. In what appears to be state-sanctioned persecution against the Christian minorities, Chinese officials have recently demolished religious symbols by force in churches in multiple provinces, including Anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei and Zhejiang.

Source: China Aid

Quoting independent outlet Bitter Winter, the report published in Daily Mail asserted that authorities of Shanxi province have ordered the Christian residents to take down religious images and replace them with the pictures of Communist leaders.

A local pastor from Linfen, a town in Shanxi province, was quoted by Bitter Winter saying that Chinese authorities have insidiously moved to curtail the religious liberties of the Christians in his town by asking them to remove images, posters that represent Christianity and supplant them with images of Mao Zedong and other Communist leaders.

Chinese workers getting off a truck to remove crosses from Christian church(Source: Associated Press)

Authorities in-charge of religious affairs in Huainan, another Chinese province, allegedly forcibly barged into the local Shiwan Christ Church and destroyed its cross on Saturday and Sunday. The officials had asked the church to remove its cross a week earlier, reported Radio Free Asia citing local sources.

The report claims that when the Chinese officials arrived at the location to dismantle the cross, they faced stiff resistance from dozens of believers, who had gathered to stop the authorities from knocking down the cross.

Similar kind of scenes emerged in Yongjia in Zhejiang Province on July 7 when the local government sent a crane, along with 100 workers to bulldoze the crosses on Ao’di Christ Church and Yinchang Christ Church, claimed US-based group China Aid. As per the followers, government workers forced their way into the churches, vandalised churches’ properties and thrashed Christians, including a woman in her 80s, who tried to oppose them.

The report also mentioned that poor Christians living in rural areas are being threatened by government officials to destroy religious symbols and display posters of communist leaders if they want to continue receiving welfare or benefits from the government.

China’s religious repression under Xi Jinping increased dramatically

This move is in line with the CCP’s massive crackdown against the religious institutions across China. With the advent of Xi Jinping as the Premier of the country, CCP’s measures to purge the nation of its religious moorings has only continued in earnest. Directives have been issued by the Chinese Communist Party to flatten churches and mosques, preventing Tibetan children from pursuing Buddhist religious studies and corralling more than a million members of Uyghur Muslim minorities in a bid to re-educate them in internment camps.

This clampdown is a part of the explicit set of instructions issued by Chinese President Xi Jinping, ordering that all religions must ‘Sinicise’ to ensure they are loyal to the communist party.

CCP passed an order to review and edit the translated version of all religious texts

In November 2019, the Communist government in China decreed its censors to review and edit all translated versions of classic religious texts to make sure that their messages jibe with the principles of Socialism. The country’s top officials ordained that no new content should go against the beliefs of the Communist Party.

The order was passed in a meeting held by the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is in charge of the ethnic and religious issues in China. The Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Wang Yang, who oversaw the meeting said that religious authorities must abide by President Xi’s directives and expound the ideologies of different religions in conformity to ‘the core values of Socialism’ and ‘the requirements of the era’.

Google search result shows that the cause of terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s death was suicide

OpIndia Staff
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Google search result shows that the cause of terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s death was suicide

In a baffling incident, Internet search giant Google thinks that Ajmal Kasab had died by suicide. A search for the phrase “Ajmal Kasab death” shows the cause of death as suicide. This is displayed on the information panel displayed by Google, above the search results.

It may be noted that Ajmal Kasab was hanged to death on 21 November, 2012, following his conviction in the Mumbai terror attack in 2008. Kasab was the lone terrorist to be caught alive among the 10 Pakistani terrorists who had killed more than 150 people in several places in Mumbai between 26 and 29 November in 2008. Therefore, he was executed as per court orders, and he didn’t commit suicide.

But if one Googles for the cause of Ajmal Kasab’s death, the result shows suicide as the cause.

While Google is the most used search engine in the world, and it provides billions of correct results everyday, the data provided in the information box along with the search results have been found inaccurate in several cases.

The data displayed in the information box comes from third party websites like Wikipedia, and if those websites contain a mistake, the same error is reproduced by Google. Googles relies on Wikipedia heavily to provide answers for search queries of users, but being crowd sourced, the online encyclopaedia is not always correct, and moreover, it is often vandalised by miscreants, and left-wing editors hold an overwhelming power over what is published in Wikipedia, which results in biased articles on various topics. Such biased, wrong information is sometimes displayed by Google in its search results.

In such an incident earlier, Google was using the sentence “Hindu fundamentalists are admired by many of their co-religionists as virtuous people”, as an example of the use of the word ‘co-religionist’, a clearly biased anti-Hindu example. After widespread outrage on social media, Google had removed it from its search result. On further scrutiny, it was found that Google was sourcing the definition of the word ‘co-religionist’ from Lexicon, an online dictionary offering by Oxford Dictionary. While now the offending sentence has been removed from Google search, it remains in the Lexicon website.

While in some cases Google provides a link for the data shown in the information box along with search results, in this case, there is no link, so it is not sure from where Google derived that Ajmal Kasab had committed suicide. Ajmal Kasab was on a suicide mission to India, but he was accidentally caught. As most articles on him mention that he was on a suicide mission, it is possible that Google’s algorithm wrongly captured suicide as the reason for his death.

Chinese govt jails two Tibetan musicians for composing song praising HH the Dalai Lama, arrests another for sharing it on social media

OpIndia Staff
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Chinese govt jails two Tibetan musicians for composing song praising HH the Dalai Lama, arrests another for sharing it on social media

China’s oppression of Tibetans has drastically increased over the years. In yet another incident, a court in China has sentenced two Tibetans to prison, after they composed, sang and circulated a song praising Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama. They have been charged for alleged involvement in “state subversion” and “leaking state secrets”.

Two Tibetan musicians, Khando Tsetan and Tsego were sentenced to seven years and three years in prison respectively by a Chinese court in north-eastern Tibet in July this year. They were arrested in early July in the village of Gonshu Hongor in Zeku County. Along with the two, an identified girl from the same region was also arrested for sharing the song on social media, sources said.

According to reports, Tsetan was handed a total of seven years prison term including five years for the ‘subversion of state’ and an additional two years for ‘leaking state secrets’. This is not the first time that Tsetan has been detained. He was previously been detained and imprisoned for two years in late 2012. He had then taken part in a Tibetan student protest in 2010, following which he was arrested and imprisoned. Since then, he has constantly been subjected to surveillance and monitoring by Chinese authorities for four years. Tsetan was also barred from pursuing further studies. 

Tibetans have been long punished by Chinese authorities for hailing their spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In the year 2017 and in 2013, China has similarly penalised Tibetan musicians, lyricists for composing, singing and circulating songs in the praise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Tibet’s govt in exile seeks international intervention

Tibetans suffering in the hands of the Chinese regime have long been raising their voice against the communist nation’s forceful occupation of their homeland. After the Galwan valley standoff between India and China, many Tibetan community members had held protests condemning China’s expansionist efforts and constant attempts to subvert neighbouring nations.

After slamming China for its expansionist policies and issuing a warning to Nepal regarding Chinese combativeness, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has now asked the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to hold a special session on human right violations by China in Tibet and other regions under it. CTA said that China has for decades tortured the Tibetans, and the act of cruelties which China has been imparting on the Tibetans “do not fall short of being categorised as cultural genocide”.

West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee says ‘voices are being muzzled’ and ‘people unable to speak due to reign of fear’

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee says ‘voices are being muzzled’ and ‘people unable to speak due to reign of fear’

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed her condolences for the family of the deceased Ghaziabad-based journalist Vikram Joshi, who was shot dead by miscreants on Tuesday.

Taking to Twitter, the West Bengal Chief Minister said that voices are being muzzled in the country and added media is not being spared. She added that an atmosphere of fear has been created in the country.

Mamata Banerjee’s indirect attack on the Modi government over the issue of free speech comes a day after she had launched a similar attack on the BJP claiming there is a reign of fear across the country.

People are unable to speak due to reign of fear across the country,” Mamata Banerjee said while addressing a virtual rally of the Trinamool Congress.

Ironically, Mamata Banerjee’s attack against Modi government over stifling voice of the media comes at the backdrop of her government’s poor record in being tolerant to media criticism of the West Bengal government.

The West Bengal government led by Mamata Banerjee has time and again intimated journalists and media for criticizing the functioning of her government. Recently, Sheikh Safiqul Islam, a journalist in West Bengal who runs a web news channel named Arambagh TV, was arrested by the West Bengal police on June 29.

The Arambagh TV faced action from the state government after it had questioned the Mamata Banerjee government over making donations to various clubs in the state during the Coronavirus pandemic. After the channel exposed that many clubs which had received grants from the government actually do not exist, several FIRs were filed against the channel and its owner Sheikh Safiqul Islam.

FIR against OpIndia

The Mamata Banerjee-led government had filed three FIRs against four persons, three of them associated with OpIndia, for publishing articles on the portal.

However, the Supreme Court of India had to intervene in the matter, to quash the FIR registered against three persons associated with Opindia. The apex court had also issued notice to the state government over the issue.

Worsening law and order situation in West Bengal

Mamata Banerjee’s attack on Uttar Pradesh’s government over its law and order situation also comes at the backdrop of an increasing number of crimes targetting political opponents in the state of West Bengal.

Just two days back, in a gruesome incident, the 16-year-old sister of a BJP booth President was abducted from her home, raped and murdered on Sunday morning in Chopragaj in Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal. The BJP unit of West Bengal tweeted that the 16-year-old girl was raped by one Feroze Ali, who was allegedly associated with the TMC.

Earlier this week, a BJP MLA in West Bengal, Debendra Nath Roy, was found hanging in public last Monday. Debendra Nath Roy was missing from Sunday night. The family of the deceased has called it murder and allegations have been made against the Trinamool government. 

Kangana deserves COVID the most: Comedian mocks actress’ stand against nepotism, deletes video later

OpIndia Staff
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Kangana deserves COVID the most: Comedian mocks actress’ stand against nepotism, deletes video later

Comedians nowadays have strange opinions. After many were called out recently for anti-Hindu, hateful, and often abusive statements, another comedian has posted a bizarre video in which he wishes actress Kangana Ranaut gets infected with the coronavirus.

Siddharth Dudeja, a comedian from Mumbai, uploaded a video on his Instagram profile in which he said, “Guys, nepotism is a big problem in Bollywood. Like Amitabh gave COVID to Abhishek, Aaradhya and Aishwarya… when we all know that Kangana deserves it the most.”

Comedian Siddhart Dudeja deletes Instagram video

Twitter user Madhur, who goes by the handle @ThePlacardGuy, had shared Dudeja’s his video. However, Siddharth Dudeja’s Instagram post was soon deleted, following which Madhur shared a recording of the original post where Dudeja is seen saying that Kangana deserves to get infected with the coronavirus.

Madhur tagged Kangana Ranaut’s team handle and informed them about the video. Dudeja’s video attracted a sharp reaction from netizens.

Many users on social media have condemned such tasteless comments being peddled as ‘comedy’.

Some users also stated that soon, the comedian will also start playing the victim card claiming that he is being threatened by the ‘IT cell’ and he is in depression.

Kangana’s interview to Republic TV

Since Kangana Ranaut gave an interview on Republic TV and raised questions against nepotism and the Bollywood mafia, many segments of the industry have increased attacks against her. Kangana also raised several questions around Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. From Anurag Kashyap to Bhatts, Kangana’s statements have stirred up many bigwigs who are now either openly, or through their minions, trying to dismiss the allegations.

Jharkhand: In custody since April and despite strict quarantine, 3 Tablighi Jamaat women found pregnant

OpIndia Staff
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Jharkhand: In custody since April and despite strict quarantine, 3 Tablighi Jamaat women found pregnant

In a shocking incident, three Tablighi Jamaat women got pregnant while they were housed in a quarantine centre in Ranchi under strict security. These women, who are reportedly not more than three months pregnant, have been staying in the facility, under strict supervision, for more than 111 days. Considering that people in the quarantine centres are kept under strict isolation and are not allowed to interact with other inmates, this news comes as quite a shocker.

As reported by Jagran, the three Tablighi Jamaat women were first kept in the quarantine centre Khelgaon, Ranchi after which they were shifted to a prison. In both these places, a strict protocol is followed and inmates are not allowed to meet each other.

The authorities got to know about the news of the pregnancy when the three women, along with their husbands and 17 others were released from jail on Tuesday after the HC gave them bail. It is pertinent to note here, that these foreign nationals were detained in Ranchi on March 30. They were arrested after the flouted lockdown and visa rules to attend the Tablighi Jamaat event.

The not more than 3-month pregnant Tablighi Jamaat women have been in quarantine for almost 111 days

According to the Nai Dunia report, from March 30 to July 20, these women along with others had been housed in the quarantine centre and thereafter shifted to the prison, once the quarantine period was over. The women were first kept at the quarantine Center in Khelgaon. One of them, who had tested positive for corona had undergone treatment at RIMS before being shifted to the quarantine Center in Khelgaon.

After this, they was taken into judicial custody at Khelgaon on 18 April. A months later, on May 20, the Tablighi Jamaat women were shifted to Birsa Munda Central Kara Hotwar jail. It is a rule, that before keeping women in jail, their medical examination and pregnancy related information are taken.

The women, while being shifted to the jail, had reportedly informed the jail superitentdent about their pregnancy, after which ultra sonography was conducted on them to ascertain the truth. It was said that though the three women were confirmed to be pregnant, none of the pregnancies were older than three months.

Considering that they were in quarantine for the last 111 days, it was obvious that they had conceived during this quarantine period.

Foreign Tabjighi Jamaat members detained for flouting visa rules

The Tablighi jamaat event in Delhi was held in the month of March and had wreaked havoc in the country. The event produced more than 30 per cent of the total coronavirus cases in the country. The Markaz event was not only attended by Indian Muslims but also foreign nationals.

These foreign Jamaat members who had entered India on tourist visas to attend the Tablighi Jamaat event turned out to become the super-spreader of the infection. India had then seen a sudden surge in the cases after thousands of Tablighi Jamaatis had tested positive for the deadly pathogen. The foreign Jamaat members, who were tested positive for the coronavirus were quarantined in different parts of the country.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had banned more than 2,200 blacklisted foreign nationals from entering India for 10 years for violating visa norms and getting involved in Tablighi Jamaat activities. Earlier, the Modi government had blacklisted 960 foreigners in April, including four Americans, nine Britishers and six Chinese nationals who had attended the Nizamuddin Markaz on tourist visas.

Recently, a Delhi court has granted a spree of bails plea bargaining in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation that took place at Markaz Nizamuddin during mid-March amidst the coronavirus outbreak in the country.ating visa rules.

35 years back, an erstwhile king was killed in an encounter in Rajasthan for which 11 policemen were given life imprisonment. Rea

OpIndia Staff
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35 years back, an erstwhile king was killed in an encounter in Rajasthan for which 11 policemen were given life imprisonment. Rea

11 policemen, including a former Deputy Superintendent of Police (SP), were convicted yesterday by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura in connection with the 1985 encounter of Raja Man Singh, the then titular head of Bharatpur, a princely state in Rajasthan.

The convicts have been awarded with the punishment of life imprisonment by the Mathura court after 35 years.

The encounter created ripples in the Indian political landscape, especially in Rajasthan, and led to the resignation of Congress chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur two days after the incident.

A charge sheet was filed by the CBI in the case accusing 18 police personnel; four of them died during the trial and 3 of them were acquitted by the court. The convicted police officials included Kan Singh Bhati who was the deputy SP of Deeg in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur.

Who was Raja Man Singh?

Raja Man Singh was the younger brother of the last ruler of Bharatpur, Maharaja Sawai Vrijendra Singh, and son of Maharaja Kishan Singh. He was born on December 5, 1921, and completed his engineering from England. He was seven-time Independent MLA from Deeg from 1952 to 1984.

Events that led to the killing of Raja Man Singh

During the Rajasthan Assembly elections in 1985, the Congress party had fielded a former IAS officer, Brijendra Singh, against Raja Man Singh, who was contesting as an independent candidate from the Deeg constituency. The Congress CM Shiv Charan Mathur was scheduled to address an election meeting in support of Brijendra Singh.

However, a scuffle broke out between the Congress workers and Raja Man Singh’s supporters after the former insulted the Bharatpur flag. Incensed by the affront, Raja Man Singh drove his Jeep into a stage set up for the then chief minister’s rally and later rammed his Jeep into a helicopter meant to transport the chief minister. This entire incident transpired on February 20, 1985.

The assassination of Raja Man Singh and its fallout

The following day, Raja Man Singh and two of his associates were on their way to the local police station to surrender when they were fired upon by a team of police led by Deputy Superintendent Kan Singh Bhati, one of the 11 convicts in the case. Singh and his two associates were killed on the spot.

As Raja Man Singh’s blatant assassination sent political tremors across Rajasthan, then Congress CM of the state, Shiv Charan Mathur tendered his resignation two days after the fateful encounter.

A week later, on February 28, the case was sent for CBI inquiry. The case was first heard in a Rajasthan Court but it was shifted to Mathura on a plea filed by Krishnendra Kaur Deepa, the daughter of Raja Man Singh. Deepa had served as Tourism Minister in the last BJP government in Rajasthan.

The judgment convicting the 11 police personnel involved in the brazen assassination of the ex-royal came after 1,700 hearings and 35 years of legal wrangling.

Connection between the ongoing political imbroglio in Rajasthan with Raja Man Singh case

The case also has a stark connection with the ongoing political crisis besieging the Congress government in Rajasthan. One of the 18 MLAs to side with Sachin Pilot in his rebellion against the CM Ashok Gehlot is Vishwendra Singh, who is the nephew of Raja Man Singh.

Singh and another rebel MLA-Bhanwar Lal Sharma–have both been suspended from the Congress party on the allegations that they had conspired with the BJP to bring down the Gehlot government in the state. Mr Singh on Monday came down hard against the Congress government in the state, claiming that it was trying to “murder democracy”.

USA orders China to shut down its Consulate in Houston, Texas within 72 hours, documents being burned

OpIndia Staff
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USA orders China to shut down its Consulate in Houston, Texas within 72 hours, documents being burned

Amid the heightened diplomatic tensions between the USA and China, it is being reported that the US government has ordered the Chinese government to close the office of the Consulate General of China in Houston.

It appears that the Chinese staffers at the Consulate General have been burning documents at the premises. Local media outlets in Houston shared footage where documents and other materials appeared to be burning in the courtyard of Consulate General of China in Houston, Texas.

In the video, one can see several open containers placed in the courtyard and flames coming out of them. People cand be seen throwing things into the flaming bins.

The Houston Police Department said that they started receiving reports that documents were being burned inside the courtyard of Consulate General of China almost after 8 pm, Tuesday, at 3417 Montrose Boulevard where the consulate is located. The police personnel along with fire tenders reportedly rushed to the spot but stood helpless as they were not allowed to enter the premises. “You could just smell the paper burning. But, all the firefighters were just surrounding the building. They couldn’t go inside,” a witness told a local media outlet.

China asked to shut Consulate General of China in Houston within 72 hours

This cames in the aftermath of the USA abruptly ordering China to close its consulate in Houston. In what China called “a provocation that violates international law”, the US government reportedly gave China 72 hours to close its consulate in Houston.

Though there is no official statement from the USA, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Wednesday that the U.S. had abruptly demanded the previous day that the consulate ceases all operations and vacate the premises under 72 hours.

He said that China strongly condemns “such an outrageous and unjustified move that will sabotage China-U.S. relations.”

US-China tension

The US-China tension is on its way to getting worse. Recently, the USA State Dept had issued a statement against Chinese aggression and expansionism. In the statement, reiterating its support for India and other Southeast Asian countries, in the face of Chinese aggression, US said that it is enhancing its military capabilities, strengthening ties with ‘friends’, staying vigilant and increasing the military capabilities of nations whose sovereignty is threatened by China. It also said that the US is now providing economic alternatives to nations who have been dependent on predatory Chinese investments, besides supporting diplomatic efforts to resist encroachments by the Communist-ruled country.

Pakistani journalist who had criticised military kidnapped in broad daylight, released after public outrage

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistani journalist who had criticised military kidnapped in broad daylight, released after public outrage

Pakistani journalist Matiullah Jan, who was kidnapped from outside a public school in the heart of Islamabad, was released after 12 hours on Tuesday.

According to the reports, Matiullah Jan, who is a critic of Pakistan’s military and judiciary, was released after some uniformed men had snatched him off an Islamabad street in broad daylight. Even though it was unclear who had abducted him but it was suspected that the kidnapping was the handiwork of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Matiullah Jan, who works as a freelance journalist with numerous local and foreign media outlets, was kidnapped and was taken after being forced into the back of a car on Tuesday afternoon outside a school in the capital, where he had come to see his wife.

Journalist abducted by uniformed men

The CCTV footage captured showed how several men force Jan into a sedan outside the main gate.

“There were more than five people, some in civilian clothes, others in black uniforms, who forcibly picked up my husband,” his wife Kaneez Sughra said to the media.

The abduction came a day before he was set to appear before Pakistan’s top court, where he is facing contempt proceedings over a tweet which was critical of Pakistan’s judges and military. His wife had stated that Jan was being pressurised not to attend the court hearing and plead for forgiveness.

However, he was later released on late Tuesday night. “I have talked to Matiullah Jan, he is safe, alright and on his way home,” his brother confirmed his release.

Public outcry over Jan’s abduction

Following his alleged abduction, there was a massive outcry in the Pakistan and people took to social media to start a campaign to free Jan.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had released a statement calling for Jan’s safe release. “We are deeply concerned at increasing attempts to control the media, suppress independent voices, and curb political dissent, thereby creating an environment of constant fear,” the commission said.

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