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Newly whitewashed Jamia walls defaced with ‘Free Safoora’ and ‘Free Sharjeel’ graffiti

OpIndia Staff
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Newly whitewashed Jamia walls defaced with ‘Free Safoora’ and ‘Free Sharjeel’ graffiti

The newly whitewashed walls of Jamia Millia Islamia were again defaced by miscreants and ‘Free Safoora’ and ‘Free Sharjeel’ was written across them.

The alleged incident happened on 12th June 2020.

Safoora Zargar, a former NSUI leader studying in Jamia is currently under arrest over investigation into the recent Delhi Riots. She is accused of inciting a mob which eventually snowballed into the violent riots. Imam is currently under investigation over his provocative speeches during the anti-CAA riots where he had incited Muslims of India to cut take to streets and block all roads including cutting off the entire Northeast India by blocking the Chickens Neck.

Earlier in February, Imam’s supporters had defaced the walls of Jamia and demanded his release.

SC makes an exception to sit on Sunday to hear Vinod Dua’s petition for quashing sedition case

OpIndia Staff
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SC makes an exception to sit on Sunday to hear Vinod Dua’s petition for quashing sedition case

The Supreme Court will open its doors on Sunday to hear a petition filed by controversial journalist Vinod Dua seeking quashing of a sedition case filed against him in Himachal Pradesh Police over a YouTube show. In a special hearing, a Supreme Court bench of justices UU Lalit, MM Shantanagoudar and Vineet Saran will hold special proceedings at 11 AM on Sunday. During the #MeToo movement, Vinod Dua was accused of stalking and sexually harassing a filmmaker.

Vinod Dua had approached the apex court on Saturday asking protection from coercive action, including arrest and sought the top court to take up his matter on an urgent basis as the case was related to the personal liberty of a person.

Addition to the quashing of FIR, Dua has also asked the apex court to issue a direction that FIRs against media persons with at least 10 years’ of experience should not be filed unless cleared by a committee constituted by every state government comprising the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court or a judge designated by him, the leader of the opposition and the home minister of the state.

“State governments who do not find a particular telecast to be in sync with their political ideologies register FIRs against persons of the media to harass and intimidate them so that they succumb to the line of the state or else face the music,” the petition stated.

Delhi court had stayed investigation

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had stayed an investigation into a case against Vindo Dua in connection with his show on YouTube. On Thursday, a Delhi court had also granted anticipatory bail to Dua in connection with a case registered against him for making defamatory remarks intending to create public nuisance through his YouTube show.

FIR against Vinod Dua

An FIR was filed against Dua in Delhi accusing him of misreporting the Delhi riots and also on charges of creating a public nuisance by false “contextual reporting”.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has registered an FIR against journalist Vinod Dua for circulating fake news through a YouTube video. The FIR was registered following a complaint by Delhi BJP spokesperson Naveen Kumar.

The complainant had alleged that Dua had tried to incite communal tension by asking people to step out in large numbers during the riots. He had also alleged that Dua misreported the Delhi riots and Anti-CAA protests while blaming the Prime Minister, Home Minister and BJP’s Kapil Mishra for the riots.

NIA gets custody of woman LeT terrorist from Kolkata, was in touch with Pakistani handlers though WhatsApp

OpIndia Staff
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NIA gets custody of woman LeT terrorist from Kolkata, was in touch with Pakistani handlers though WhatsApp

National Investigation Agency (NIA) has got custody 22-year-old Lashkar-e-Taiba handler Tania Parveen from Kolkata, West Bengal. She was reportedly in touch with several Pakistani handlers though various Pakistani SIM cards and other channels like WhatsApp. NIA has now taken 10 day custody of Praveen where a team of anti-terror probe agency will question her at the Kolkata office. She was arrested in March and was lodged in Dumdum central jail.

It is believed that she will reveal a lot of information about the Pakistan-based banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. Tania Parveen was arrested on 20th March 2020 and was sent to 14-day police custody. It is believed that Tania Parveen is originally a Bangladeshi national who illegally crossed the border and came to India 10 years back. She studied MA in a Kolkata-based college and was influenced by terror outfit through social media. As per reports, she then got in touch with LeT members and also made calls to people in Pakistan.

Several Pakistani SIM cards were found in her possession and she was part of various WhatsApp groups which also exchanged videos of LeT training and literature. A senior police officer had told Indian Express that she was traced through her social media. As per the police officer, she had influenced men as well as several young girls in Bengal to join the terror outfit.

As per reports, Tania Parveen was also in touch with Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind. Reportedly, she has been actively involved with Lashkar-e-Taiba and has also given provocative speeches. Reportedly, she even received money through hawala network for terror activities. Tania wanted to establish an Islamic country in India and took inspiration from ISIS.

India rejects new Nepal map including Indian territories, says this artificial enlargement is not based on historical facts and is not tenable.

OpIndia Staff
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India rejects new Nepal map including Indian territories, says this artificial enlargement is not based on historical facts and is not tenable.

The Ministry of External Affairs has responded to the passing of the constitutional amendment bill in Nepal’s Parliament to update the country’s political map including the areas that come under the Indian regime. The Ministry said that artificial enlargement of the map is not based on historical facts, hence it is not tenable.

The Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava stated, “We have noted that the House of Representatives of Nepal has passed a constitution amendment bill for changing the map of Nepal to include parts of Indian territory. We have already made our position clear on this matter.”

He further added, “This artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical facts or evidence and is not tenable. It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on the outstanding boundary issue.”

Nepal passed amendment bill including Indian areas of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani in the updated map

Nepal’s lower house of parliament on Saturday passed an amendment to update the country’s map including Indian areas of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani in the constitution of the country. The bill was supported by all the 258 lawmakers present and voting.

The move came on the heels of the endorsement extended by Nepal’s House of Representatives on June 10 to have a proposal seeking consideration of the constitution amendment bill for change of country’s map following a long discussion.

Nepal had earlier offered India to have diplomatic discussions to resolve the territorial disputes between the two countries. India, in her defense, claimed that it already cleared her position on the matter and it deeply values its civilizational, cultural and friendly relations with Nepal.

India’s foreign exchange reserves see a significant surge, cross half-a-trillion USD mark for the first time

OpIndia Staff
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India’s foreign exchange reserves see a significant surge, cross half-a-trillion USD mark for the first time

In a recent press release, Reserve Bank of India informed that foreign currency assets had seen a rise of 8.22 billion dollars. It is a significant part of overall reserves RBI has. This is for the first time that India’s foreign exchange reserves have crossed the half-a-trillion US Dollar mark. By the end of the first week of June, i.e., 5th June 2020, India had 501.70 billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves.

In the previous week, the reserves rose by 3.44 billion dollars and touched 493.48 billion dollars mark. On the other hand, the value of the gold reserve has continued to decline. By 5th June, gold reserves declined by 329 million dollars and stood at 32.352 billion dollars. The exclusive drawing rights of India with the International Monetary Fund have gone up by 10 million dollars and currently stands at 1.44 billion dollars. The reserve position of India rose by 120 million dollars and now stands at 4.28 billion dollars.

Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, said in a tweet that demand suppression is going to push INR to appreciate after an initial capital outflow. He added in a linked tweet that as India has opened its doors to the economy to remove demand suppression and push up credit growth, imports and foreign capital inflows will revive.

Forex exchange reserves have seen steady growth since September last year

The Forex reserve in India has seen a steady spike since Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a corporate tax cut in September 2019. There has been a sharp decline in crude oil prices in the global market in the last few months that also helped India in improving foreign exchange reserves.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath hails courage of constable Vatan Pawar who caught cow smugglers despite being stabbed thrice

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath hails courage of constable Vatan Pawar who caught cow smugglers despite being stabbed thrice

On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praised the valiant act of police constable Vatan Pawar who caught illegal cow smugglers in a village near Saharanpur despite being severely injured after getting stabbed thrice.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath took to Twitter to heap praises on the valour of Uttar Pradesh police constable Vatan Pawar.

In his tweet in Hindi posted from the official handle of UP CM, Yogi Adityanath said, “Policeman Shri Vatan Pawar Ji posted in Saharanpur has shown indomitable courage and unwavering dedication in discharge of his responsibilities and his conduct is highly appreciated. I pray to Prabhu Shri Ram for his speedy recovery”.

Earlier, Uttar Pradesh ADG Law & Order Prashant Kumar had also hailed the courageous act of Vatan Pawar and saluted the bravery of the police constable. The senior police officer also said that he conveyed his best wishes to the constable for his speedy recovery.

Cow smugglers attack cops, injured Vatan Kumar

On May 21, the Uttar Pradesh police, after receiving a tip-off regarding illegal cow slaughter, had reached Ghana Khandi village of Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. As police tried to catch the illegal smugglers, they fired at the police to escape from the spot.

Despite smugglers firing at the police, Vatan Kumar caught hold of one of the smugglers. The constable was attacked with a knife three times. Later, the UP cops fired in self-defence, injuring one of the smugglers. The accused name Virasat was later taken to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The injured constable Pawar was shifted to Dehradun’s Jolly Grant hospital where he is currently undergoing treatment.

Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad sneaks out of his hideout, offers namaaz in Abu Bakr mosque

OpIndia Staff
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Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad sneaks out of his hideout, offers namaaz in Abu Bakr mosque

After remaining untraceable for two months, the preacher of Tablighi Jamaat, Maulana Saad Khandalvi finally came out of his hideout to offer namaaz in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar. According to Delhi police, Maulana Saad sneaked out on Friday to offer prayers at the Abu Bakr mosque in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar.

Maulana Saad is booked under several charges for purportedly organizing religious congregation when the coronavirus cases were reported in different parts of the country. Despite repeated government orders, he flouted every safety norm risking the lives of thousands including foreigners.

Maulana Saad is yet to submit his COVID-19 report issued from a laboratory of a government hospital. The Crime branch is still awaiting the reports as Maulana has revealed that he is in self-quarantine and will be interrogated once his report is submitted.

Delhi Police Crime branch had sent a notice to Maulana Saad under Section 91 of CrPC in which he was asked to provide some documents while the response on the notice was ‘unsatisfactory’, the crime branch slapped a second notice to the religious preacher with 36 questions at his farmhouse in Shamli near Delhi.

Charges against Maulana Saad

The Chief of the orthodox religious sect has been on the radar of leading probe agencies after the religious congregation in March. On March 31, the Delhi police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Maulana Saad under the Epidemics Act 1897 for allowing religious congregation in the month of March, despite repeated warnings from the center and the state government. On Wednesday, the Tablighi Jamaat Chief was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On April 16, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case against the Maulana Saad and nine others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on predicate offense that was registered by Delhi police. The agency is investigating the trust and the transactions of the trust that belonged to the Tablighi Jamaat chief.

“Muslim mob set the house on fire, ransacked shops and looted jewellery”: Narrates Pooja, Dalit victim of the communal clashes in Jaunpur

OpIndia Staff
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“Muslim mob set the house on fire, ransacked shops and looted jewellery”: Narrates Pooja, Dalit victim of the communal clashes in Jaunpur

Dalit colony in Bhadethi village in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh was engulfed with raging conflagration on June 9 as Muslims in the region launched an attack against the Dalit settlements. At least 35 people, including Samajwadi Party leader Javed Siddiqui, have been arrested in connection with setting ablaze the houses of Dalits in the Dalit Basti in a Jaunpur village.

In the aftermath of the dreadful incident, many Dalit victims have come forward to recount their ordeal and the atrocities meted out by the Muslims against them. A video of one of the victims, Pooja, narrating her tribulations is doing the rounds on the social media.

Giving an account of her suffering, Pooja said, “We were inside the house when the communal clashes broke out. When we locked ourselves in, manic Muslim crowd started pounding the gates to barge in. They hurled brickbats and stones at the gate. Shots were fired outside. As we remained inside the house, the frenzied Muslim mob set the house on fire from all sides.”

Pooja said they were so scared of the rampaging mob that they remained hidden in the burning house until the rabble-rousers left the spot. Soon after the mob departed from the area, she, along with others somehow escaped the blazing house and hightailed it to a nearby village. They spent the night in the neighbouring fearing persecution at the hands of the Muslim mob on return.

She further added, “We are too scared because they were in huge numbers. Approximately 500-1000 of them had attacked us. Initially, they attacked us with batons. After that, stones and brickbats were hurled at us. Then, the bullets were fired. They looted all of us. Shops were ransacked, jewellery was stolen, whatever valuable we had, they took everything away.”

Communal flare-up in Jaunpur

A minor argument among the children turned into a deadly communal clash in a village of Jaunpur, that led the destruction of more than a dozen houses that were owned by Dalits after they were was set blazed. Massive damage was caused to the scheduled caste community. Even the domesticated animals were not spared. Reportedly, three goats and one buffalo were burned alive.

According to the reports, a boy named Shehbaz in the village reportedly had an altercation with the children of Dalit colony regarding grazing of the goats. The altercation led to a ruckus between the members of the two communities. However, as soon as the dusk descended, members of Muslim community launched an attack against the Dalits.

Around 8 pm, some 100 people from the other village raided the Dalit locality again and attacked the locals in which three Dalit men- Ravi, Atul, and Pawan were injured. The assailants started burning the houses. Many people including Nandlal, Nebulal, Rajaram, Jitendra, Sewlal lost their belongings along with their shelters.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath took cognizance of the incident and ordered the police officials to invoke the Gangster Act and slam NSA on the culprits- Noor Alam and Javed Siddiqui. The CM also called for strict action against the SHO of the local police station as he failed to control the situation.

Trouble in Paradise: Citizens of ‘autonomous zones’ within the USA excrete in tents, farms unlikely to yield any fruits for leftist secessionists

OpIndia Staff
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Trouble in Paradise: Citizens of ‘autonomous zones’ within the USA excrete in tents, farms unlikely to yield any fruits for leftist secessionists

All is not well in the United States of America. Th death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police has unleashed uninhibited anarchy across the country. The looting and rioting appears to have died down largely, however, autonomous zones are coming up across the country, the first among them being CHAZ. The entry to some of these zones declare that those who enter are leaving the USA.

The first one to come up was in Seattle. It called itself the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). Along expected lines, things did not go according to plan. Their food was stolen by the homeless people they invited and a ‘warlord’ took over the place and he enforced his will upon the populace with help from his armed militia.

Now, fights appear to be breaking out among the people who established the autonomous zone. And the protesters do not wish for the fights to be recorded as it might harm the reputation of CHAZ. It’s unclear how the disputes will be settled since the Police is not permitted at the scene. The possibility of unmitigated violence in the are is, thus, very high.

A lot of jokes are also being made by the supposed farm that has been set up by the protesters to grow their own food. From the state of the farms, it is quite evident that none of them have any clue about farming at all. We cannot verify whether these images are authentic or not but they are being circulated widely on social media.

Such autonomous zones are now coming up across the United States. A new zone has come up at the University of Chicago Police Department, as per journalist Andy Ngo. Protesters there are apparently urinating and defecating inside a tent.

Image Credit: Andy Ngo/Twitter

Manuals are also being distributed at autonomous zones, Ngo has reported. The manual provides instructions on the effective use of human shiellds, barricades and how to make weapons using light bulbs.

An autonomous zone is also being set up at Asheville, North Carolina. Attempts are also being made to establish one at Nashville, Tennessee. Graffiti inside CHAZ also reportedly speaks of the goal to ‘End Amrica’ and ‘Kill The Cop’. Seattle Police also maintains that also sorts of violent crimes are occurring in the area but they are unable to reach the victims.

It is unclear how any of this will end. The protesters have the backing of the Democrat political establishment as the latter is too afraid of offending their voters. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has deemed these protesters to be domestic terrorists but the Mayor of Seattle insists that all is well even as protesters have literally established an autonomous zone within the city.

Zoom admits to blocking activists and ending meetings on the request of Chinese govt, to make changes to enable blocking participants in particular countries on govt requests

OpIndia Staff
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Zoom admits to blocking activists and ending meetings on the request of Chinese govt, to make changes to enable blocking participants in particular countries on govt requests

Zoom, one of the most popular video-conferencing apps, has announced in a blog post that they are going to modify the software that will enable them to block or remove participants based on their geographical location. The announcement came after they were criticized for adverse actions they took against human rights activists Lee Cheuk-yan, Wang Dan, and Zhou Fengsuo at the request of mainland China. Though Zoom has said that they are not going to take any more requests from the Chinese government about accounts outside mainland China.

Zoom had disrupted or disabled the accounts of the activists who are based in the USA and Hong Kong while doing Zoom meetings on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the events in Hong Kong. Following media reports about the disruptions, Zoom had said that it had been contacted by the Chinese government in May and early June about four Zoom meetings to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre that were being publicised on social media.

“The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts,” the company said. Zoom said that it has no ability to block participants from particular countries, so it decided to end three of the meetings and suspended or terminated the associated host accounts. The company said it took no action for one meeting because metadata showed it had no participants from mainland China, however two of the others had a “significant number of mainland China participants”.

The account of Zhou Fengsuo, a Chinese activist based in the US, was shut down days after he hosted a memorial for the Tiananmen Square massacre. Hong Kong based activist Lee Cheuk-Yan’s account was shut down just before hosting an event on the controversial extradition law that has caused mass anti-government protests in the city. A Zoom event on 3rd June organised by Wang Dan to commemorate the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown was shut down twice by the company.

As Zoom is not banned in China like several other platforms, it is used by activists outside the country to connect with people in the mainland.

The announcement raises questions

First of all, Zoom has accepted that the current policies are impacting users outside mainland China. They were actively taking requests from the Chinese government and removing or blocking participants from hosting or joining meetings. That means, if the Chinese government found any said user against the interest of the ruling government, all they needed to do is request Zoom to block access for that user.

After Zoom faced backlash, they are saying that they will make changes in their policies so that the users outside mainland China will not get affected. However, the new update will allow the governments of any country to remove or block users using the platforms from the respective countries. If your country’s government thinks that you are doing something illegal on Zoom, they will remove you from the platform. Such censoring is against the very nature of Zoom being an open platform. It also defies the purpose of having end-to-end encryption based conversation if the governments have access to the meetings.

 Zoom and history of ‘controversies’

This is not the first time video conferencing app Zoom has been caught in controversies. In the past, many governments have blocked the app in their respective countries after Zoom accepted using Chinese servers to route meetings. Though Zoom has its headquarters in San Jose, California, the development and maintenance work takes place in its China-based establishment. When the entire world was under lockdown, Zoom saw an overwhelming increase in the number of users. Many governments were also using this feature-rich app. Later after Zoom accepted using Chinese servers even for meetings taking place in other countries, it faced backlash and governments banned it. In may a Church from San Francisco sued Zoom after a porn clip appeared during online Bible class.

Recently, many users from Hong Kong and the US claimed that their accounts were suspended allegedly based on China’s “request. Zoom has confirmed in the blog post that they indeed blocked one account from Hong Kong SAR and two from the US. Zoom also said in the blog post that they have reinstated the accounts and apologized to users for the inconvenience.

Key takeaways from Zoom’s statement

  • In May and early June, Zoom received several requests from the Chinese government to block or suspend accounts as those accounts were allegedly involved in illegal activities against China.
  • Zoom admitted taking action on some of the requests, but they also stated that they did not provide any meeting content to the Chinese government.
  • Currently, no option can allow Zoom to remove certain users from an ongoing meeting or block someone from joining a meeting. Zoom said that this is the reason they had to end the meetings and terminate associated accounts.
  • Zoom admitted that instead of blocking users based on their geographical location, they terminated the accounts.
  • Zoom will not adhere to requests made by the Chinese government to terminate or block accounts outside mainland China.
  • They will work on upgrading the application to allow governments to request to block, terminate, or suspend accounts from their respective countries.
  • Zoom will release an updated version of the global policy by 30th June 2020 to improve transparency.
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