Author: LokMarg

Afghan diaspora in the United States, under the banner of “Free Afghanistan”, organized a protest in front of the White House against the Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan.

Days after the April 16 airstrikes in Afghanistan by neighboring Pakistan, the protests were organized on Saturday. Airstrikes by the Pakistan military in the Khost and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan killed a number of civilians and escalated the already simmering tensions between the two countries.
Speakers included prominent diaspora members Nisar Ahmad and Sharifullah Sharafat, a prominent Afghan social worker in DC. They condemned Pakistan’s ‘direct invasion’ of Afghanistan in form of airstrikes in Khost and Kunar.

They also condemned fomenting of Hazara Genocide by Pakistan and its mercenaries. Speakers appealed to US Administration and the world community to intervene at the earliest and stop supporting the ‘terrorist state’ of Pakistan.

While sporadic cross-border shelling has killed Afghan civilians for years, the casualties due to the strikes mark a significant exacerbation in violence and the use of military force by Pakistani authorities as the strikes drew immediate criticism from Taliban officials, who said that Pakistani military aircraft carried out the airstrikes.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns Pakistan’s attacks on refugees in Khost and Kunar. IEA calls on the Pakistani side not to test the patience of Afghans on such issues and not repeat the same mistake again otherwise it will have bad consequences,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Twitter.

Mujahid added that the problems between the two countries should be resolved through political means.

According to a statement from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Taliban also summoned Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul to express their disapproval of the attacks and give him a diplomatic demarche to deliver to Islamabad.

However, Pakistani officials have not yet confirmed the strikes and instead urged the Taliban to curb increasing cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on their security forces.

“Pakistan has repeatedly requested Afghan Government in last few months to secure Pak-Afghan border region. Terrorists are using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan,” the media outlet quoted Pakistan’s foreign office as saying in a statement earlier.

Notably, since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan last year, the country’s eastern border with Pakistan has been a source of increasing tension between the two countries as Pakistani officials have claimed frequent attacks in Pakistan by militants harbored on Afghan soil. However, Taliban officials have refuted such reports of sheltering militants. (ANI)

World No 3 Sukant Kadam settled for silver in the SL4 category and Pramod Bhagat bagged 2 bronze medals at the recently concluded Brazil Para-Badminton International 2022.

In the men’s semi-finals, Sukant Kadam defeated Germany’s Marcel Adam in straight sets 21-19 and 21-13 and in the finals, he went down to a fellow Indian Tarun but not without giving a tough fight. The 53 minutes match was a close game and it was very difficult who will win it. The final scoreline read 21-17, 20-22, 21-18.
Commenting on the same, Sukant Kadam said, “I am disappointed by the result a little as I had given my everything in the game. I think Tarun played really well and held nerves at crucial points. Every tournament I am playing, my game is improving and I am happy with the progress.”

On the other hand, World No 1 Pramod Bhagat went down to Indian Kumar Nitesh in a closely fought match. The 50 minutes match was a close battle but Kumar Nitesh managed to pip the world champion and the final scoreline read 7-21, 21-19, 19-21.

In the mixed doubles, Pramod and Palak Kohli went down fighting to Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara and Akiko Sugino in 3 sets. (ANI)

The Afghan Ministry of Finance has shut down all markets in border areas to prevent the illegal import of commodities into the country, local media reported.

According to the Afghanistan Chamber of Industry and Mines (ACIM), the closure of the border markets will put an end to the import of goods, especially commodities, illegally to Afghanistan, reported The Frontier Post, as cited by Tolo News.
Ahmad Wali Haqmal, a finance ministry spokesperson also agreed to the decision of the MoF cabinet stating that some people were taking advantage of the border markets to import commodities illegally.

According to Frontier Post, the deputy head of the ACIM, Sakhi Ahmad Payman said that “The closure of the border markets is a good step and will benefit Afghanistan because previously commodities were imported illegally through these markets and there was no quality control on them.”

But, on the contrary, a member of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) expressed his disappointment, saying that there were almost 400 people working in the markets and that the closure of these markets would cause further problems to the people residing in the bordering regions.

As per Khan Jan Alokozai, a member of the ACCI, “These markets were established for the people living alongside borders because they cannot travel to cities to do shopping.” The items in the border markets had no tax or tariff imposed upon them. (ANI)

Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani on Monday was re-arrested by Barpeta Police in connection with another case, soon after he was granted bail in the matter connected to his tweet about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, informed Mevani’s lawyer Anghsuman Bora.

“Barpeta Police re-arrests Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani in connection with another case, right after he was granted bail in the matter connected to his tweet,” said Bora.
An hour ago, the Assam court granted bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani who was arrested in connection with his purported tweets against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier on Wednesday night, Mevani was arrested by an Assam police team from Palanpur town in Gujarat over a couple of his tweets.

An FIR was filed against him after a complaint was filed by an Assam BJP leader, Arup Kumar Dey.

A case was lodged against Mevani under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), section 153(A) (promoting enmity between two communities), 295(A), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and sections of the IT Act.

A couple of tweets on Mevani’s Twitter handle are not visible on his feed with a message displaying that the tweets have been withheld in India based on a “legal demand”.

In the controversial tweet, Mevani had reportedly requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure communal harmony during his recent visit to Gujarat.

Mevani claimed that he was arrested out of a political vendetta against him.

The Assam state Congress unit had protested the arrest of the Gujarat legislator.

Elected as an independent MLA, Mevani had extended his support to Congress in September 2019. (ANI)

With the uptick in Delhi COVID-19 cases, Dr Suresh Kumar, Medical Director, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital said precautions dose will help curb the transmission chain in the ongoing surge and urged citizens to take the jabs on priority.

“It (precaution dose) will have a huge impact on the surge. Precaution doses are available for free in the Delhi government hospitals and it will be important for breaking covid transmission chain. We have seen after 9 months immunity veins so precaution dose will be helpful to boost immunity,” Dr Kumar told ANI.
LNJP MD also mentioned that patients who are admitted now are those who are having incomplete vaccination schedules.

“We have seen that after two doses, hospitalisation has reduced, those who are admitted are those whose vaccination schedule is incomplete. The third dose is important to protect the family and society,” he added.

Talking about the dominant variant in the present surge, Kumar mentions that the omicron sub-variant has been prevalent and ruled out the XE variant present in the incoming patients.

He highlighted that surge has been witnessed for the past 5 days and positivity has increased to 4-5 PC.

“For the past one week, we have seen this trend. We have 12 patients admitted, 2 children and 10 adults. One child is sick and we have kept him on oxygen support,” the LNJP chief said.

Delhi has reported 1,083 fresh cases of Covid-19 and one death due to the virus on Sunday. Delhi’s active caseload has now reached 3,975. (ANI)

A team of 12 senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders met on Monday to plan a big outreach programme to mark the eighth year of the Modi government, said sources.

The meeting included Union Minister Anurag Thakur, BJP general secretaries Arun Singh, C T Ravi and D Purandareswari, among others.
On the completion of 8 years of the Modi government, grand programmes will be organized all over the country and a plan of action will be prepared by May 5.

The committee members also included Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, MPs Vinay Rajdeep Roy, Raju Bista, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Aparajita Sarangi besides other organisation leaders like Shiv Prakash and Lal Singh Arya.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken oath for a second term on May 30, 2019, after leading the BJP to an unprecedented 303 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. (ANI)

Actor Kangana Ranaut recently opened up about an incident when she was sexually assaulted as a child.

The big revelation was made by Kangana during one of the latest episodes of her reality show ‘Lock Upp’.
Recalling being inappropriately touched by a boy in her town, she said, “So many kids go through this (Sexual assault) every year but we avoid talking about it on public platforms. All of us go through this, all of us have been inappropriately touched at some point. I have faced this. I was a child and a young boy from our town used to inappropriately touch me. At the time, I did not know what it meant, no matter how protective your family is, all kids go through this.”

“Another point is that you are made to feel guilty for it. This is a huge crisis for kids in our society. To tell them the difference between good and bad touch may not be enough. It becomes such a huge crisis. Kids are psychologically traumatised and scarred for life. They face endless troubles in life. This guy was three to four years elder than me, perhaps he was exploring his sexuality. He would call us, get us all to strip and check us. We would not understand it at the time,” Kangana added.

Kangana talked about her sexual assault after stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui in the episode revealed that he was six years old when he was first sexually assaulted and it went on until he turned 11. (ANI)

Two of the five people, who were rescued from the debris of an under-construction building that collapsed in Delhi’s Satya Niketan, have succumbed to their injuries, an official informed on Monday.

Speaking to ANI, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officer Goverdhan Bairwa confirmed the death of two persons.
The NDRF officer further informed that as many as 25 teams of NDRF were involved in the rescue operation.

Atul Garg, Delhi Fire Service Chief said that the rescue operation has been completed.

Further, Deputy Commissioner of Police South-West Manoj C said that there were a total of six persons working at the building, and a labourer managed to escape.

“Four are under treatment while two have died,” he added.

He said that South-West district police with Delhi Fire Service, BSES and NDRF were involved in the rescue operation.

Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter and said that he is taking stock of the rescue work at the site of the collapse.

“This accident is very sad. The district administration is engaged in relief and rescue work. I myself am taking every information related to the incident,” he said.

As per the South Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Mukesh Suryan, the building was someone’s house who wanted to get it repaired. He also added that it was in a danger zone, and the same was notified to the police and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate.

“We had pasted a notice on March 31 that the building is in danger zone. We also intimated the police, SDM on April 14. As per my knowledge, two to three people are trapped inside,” he added.

As per the Delhi Fire Service, six fire tenders rushed to the spot after receiving a call about the collapse of an under-construction building in the Satya Niketan area. (ANI)