Month: September 2020

Delhi Police has filed a supplementary charge sheet against founding members of Pinjra Tod, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and student activist Gulfisha Fatima in Karkardooma court.

The names of CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, Jayati Ghosh, an economist, Chandrashekhar Ravan, an Indian Ambedkarite lawyer turned activist also the co-founder and president of Bhim Army and several academicians have appeared in the disclosure statements of an accused, the charge sheet mentioned.

However, Narwal and Kalita refused to sign their statements. The statements have been recorded under section 161 CrPC which has no evidentiary value.

According to the charge sheet, the disclosure statement of Gulfisha Fatima stated that “In the month of December after passing CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), protests started in the Muslim community area. Due to which I also visited different protest sites i.e. Shaheenbagh, Jantar Mantar, ITO Delhi. I heard and met people at these protest sites. During this time I met the members of Pinjra Tod, Promila Roy, Rumsa, Subhasani, Nilofar, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and I became friends with Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita.”

She also added in her disclosure statement, “During this I strongly opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed by the government and encouraged the people of the Muslim community to join protests against this law. This movement was to be spread in every Muslim-dominated area of Delhi.

“For this work, I was told by the leaders of the JCC, Devangana of Pinjra Tod, Natasha Narwal, that we have to strongly oppose CAA/NRC and go to any extent. I was able to bring two communities face to face, on the guidelines of Natasha and Devangana Kalita and Umar Khalid and others,” Fatima stated.

“The purpose of this movement is only to present the image of the government of India as anti-Muslim and the protest should be secular. I and my companions Natasha Narwal, Paroma Roy, Subhasani, Rumsha, Guddu Chaudhary, Tasleem Ahmed, Habibul Hasan, Rafaqat, Sahrukh jointly staged a demonstration in Seelampur on January 15, 2020, in which we and other colleagues were also there, she said in her statement,” she added.

Disclosure statement also added that everyone got different work and responsibility. Matin Ahmed ex-MLA was also helping us.

“I used to stay at the protest site and operate the stage. Amanatullah, Anas and Sadaf of JCC were with us and used to help in every way. Omar Khalid used to help with money and used to address people in separatist language so that more people joined the strike in early February. In the evening at the site of the protest site, Umar Khalid came to give a speech which provoked the people there and we had built a room near in which we were photographed with Omar Khalid,” Fatima stated.

Speeches were made at the picket sites by Devangana and Natasha Narwal as JNU scholars. The less educated people could be tricked and our talk would have more effect. People started explaining to them that they felt that this law was anti-Muslim.

The crowd had started growing and according to the plan, big leaders and lawyers started coming to provoke and mobilise this crowd, including Omar Khalid, Chander Sekhar Ravan, Yogendra Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, and lawyer Mahmood Pracha, Chaudhary Matin, etc. Mahmood Pracha said that the sitting in the demonstration is your democratic right and the rest of the leaders instilled a feeling of discontent in the community by calling CAA/NRC anti-Muslim. Devangana Kalita had said that the government is going to implement the same scheme in Delhi, even if the identity documents are not sent by the NRC in Assam.

“The Government of India is plotting to expel the Muslim community from India through this law, which will now be implemented in Delhi. On this, the feeling of insecurity started coming in people. Now the crowd was increasing daily, which we had to move and bring it to the Jaffarabad area to block the road from Seelampur to Loni road which was surrounded by the Muslim population from all around,” Fatima stated.

This all was for the attention of international media under the proposed American President’s visit to India, she added. (ANI)

A man has carved out a three-kilometre-long canal to take rainwater coming down from nearby hills to fields of his village, Kothilawa in Lahthua area of Gaya.

“It took me 30 years to dig this canal which takes the water to a pond in the village,” said Laungi Bhuiyan who has dug out the canal single-handedly in Gaya.

“For the last 30 years, I would go to the nearby jungle to tend my cattle and dig out the canal. No one joined me in this endeavour… Villagers are going to cities to earn a livelihood but I decided to stay back,” he added.

Kothilwa village is surrounded by dense forest and mountains, about 80 km away from Gaya district headquarters. This village is marked as a refuge for Maoists.

The main means of livelihood for the people here are farming and animal husbandry.

During the rainy season, the water falling from the mountains used to flow into the river which used to bother Bhuiyan following which he thought of carving out a canal.

He worked hard in order to save water coming from the mountains and utilise it.

“He has been carving out the canal for the last 30 years that too single-handedly. This will benefit a large number of animals and to irrigate the fields as well. He is not doing it for his own benefit but for the entire area,” said Patti Manjhi, a local.

Ram Vilas Singh, a teacher who resides here praised Bhuiyan for benefiting the villagers and their fields.

“A lot of people will benefit here. People are now getting to know him because of his work,” he added. (ANI)

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut will meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Sunday amid friction between the actor and the Shiv Sena.

It is believed that the actor will apprise the governor of the situation before she leaves Mumbai on September 14. According to an official release, the meeting is scheduled at 4.30 pm.

This comes in the backdrop of Ranaut’s bitter war of words with Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut after her remarks that she feels unsafe in Mumbai and has no trust in the Mumbai Police after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Besides this, Kangana’s office in Pali Hill, Bandra was partially demolished on Wednesday by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Moreover, the actor allegedly received threats following which she was provided Y plus security. On September 9, she arrived in Mumbai amid tight security. (ANI)

In a major organisational reshuffle, the Congress on Friday reconstituted the party’s working committee and dropped senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motilal Vora, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge and Luizinho Falerio as general secretaries and gave charge of several states to younger leaders.

The party brought Jitendra Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Tariq Anwar as general secretaries.

The party has also dropped some in-charges of states including Anugrah Narayan Singh, Asha Kumari, Gaurav Gogoi and Ram Chandra Khuntia.

The list of general secretaries has mostly younger leaders and includes Mukul Wasnik (Madhya Pradesh), Harish Rawat (Punjab), Oommen Chandy (Andhra Pradesh), Tariq Anwar (Kerala and Lakshadweep), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Uttar Pradesh), Randeep Singh Surjewala (Karnataka), Jitendra Singh (Assam) and Ajay Maken (Rajasthan) and KC Venugopal (Organisation).

The in-Charges of states are: Pawan Kumar Bansal (AICC Administration), Rajan Patil (Jammu and Kashmir), PL Punia (Chhattisgarh), RPN Singh (Jharkhand), Shakti Singh Gohil (Delhi and Bihar), Rajeev Satav (Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu), Rajeev Shukla (Himachal Pradesh), Jitin Prasada (West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Dinesh Gundu Rao (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry), Manickam Tagore (Telangana), Chellakumar (Odisha) and HK Patil (Maharashtra), Devender Yadav (Uttarakhand), Vivek Bansal (Haryana), Manish Chatrath (Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya), Bhakta Charan Das (Mizoram and Manipur) and Kuljit Singh Nagra (Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura). (ANI)

United States President Donald Trump, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed to the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain.

According to a Joint Statement, the meeting held on Friday was a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East.

“Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region,” read the statement.

During the meeting, the US expressed its gratitude to Bahrain for hosting the historic Peace to Prosperity workshop in Manama on June 25 in 2019, to advance the cause of peace, dignity, and economic opportunity for the Palestinian people.

“The parties will continue their efforts in this regard to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to enable the Palestinian people to realize their full potential. Israel affirmed that as set forth in the Vision for Peace, all Muslims who come in peace may visit and pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s other holy sites will remain open for peaceful worshippers of all faiths,” the statement said.

It further said that the parties commended the UAE and Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for his leadership on August 13 in announcing full diplomatic relations with Israel.

For decades, most Arab states have boycotted Israel, insisting they would only establish ties after the Palestinian dispute was settled.

Bahrain has accepted President Trump’s invitation to join Israel and the UAE at the historic signing ceremony on September 15 at the White House where PM Netanyahu and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani will be signing a historic Declaration of Peace.

Following the meeting, Trump tweeted, “Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates’ lead.” (ANI)

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are learning more about how a person’s genes play a role in the possibility that they will suffer from alcoholic cirrhosis with the discovery of a gene that could make the disease less likely.

Alcoholic cirrhosis can happen after years of drinking too much alcohol. According to the researchers, discovering more about this illness couldn’t come at a more important time. The team describes its findings in a new paper published in Hepatology.

“Based on US data, alcohol-associated liver disease is on the rise in terms of the prevalence and incidents and it is happening more often in younger patients,” said Suthat Liangpunsakul, MD, professor of medicine, dean’s scholar in medical research for the Department of Medicine Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and one of the principal investigators of the study. “There’s a real public health problem involving the consumption of alcohol and people starting to drink at a younger age.”

The GenomALC Consortium was funded by the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institute of Health (NIH). This genome-wide association study began several years ago and is one of the largest studies related to alcoholic cirrhosis ever performed. DNA samples were taken from over 1,700 patients from sites in the United States, several countries in Europe and Australia and sent to IU School of Medicine where the team performed the DNA isolation for genome analysis. The patients were divided into two groups — one made up of heavy drinkers that never had a history of alcohol-induced liver injury or liver disease and the second group of heavy drinkers who did have alcoholic cirrhosis.

“Our key finding is a gene called Fas Associated Factor Family Member 2, or FAF2,” said Tae-Hwi Schwantes-An, PhD, an assistant research professor of medical and molecular genetics and the lead author of the study. “There’s this convergence of findings now that are pointing to the genes involved in lipid droplet organization pathway, and that seems to be one of the biological reasoning of why certain people get the liver disease and why certain people do not.”

The researchers are anticipating to study this gene more closely and looking at its relationship to other, previously-discovered genes that can make a person more likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis.

“We know for a fact those genes are linked together in a biological process, so the logical next step is to study how the changes in these genes alter the function of that process, whether it’s less efficient in one group of people, or maybe it’s inhibited in some way,” Schwantes-An said. “We don’t know exactly what the biological underpinning of that is, but now we have a pretty well-defined target where we can look at these variants and see how they relate to alcoholic cirrhosis.”

As their research continues, the team hopes to eventually find a way to identify this genetic factor in patients with the goal of helping them prevent alcoholic cirrhosis in the future or developing targeted therapies that can help individuals in a more personalized way. (ANI)

Thousands of people rallied in Karachi on Friday in a massive anti Shia demonstration, sparking fears that it could lead to a fresh round of sectarian violence in Pakistan.

Social media in the country was filled with posts, stunning photographs and videos of the the protest, in which a sea of protestors was seen chanting “Shias are Kaffir” (disbelievers) and holding banners of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a terrorist organisation, linked to the killing of Shias over the years. The hashtag #ShiaGenocide soon began trending on Pakistani social media.

The protest came in the wake of some major Shia leaders in the country who allegedly made disparaging remarks against Islam in a televised broadcast of an Ashura procession last month, according to media reports.

Afreen, an activist, said that several Shia Muslims have been attacked for reciting religious scriptures and partaking in Ashura commemorations since the beginning of Muharram.

Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein and his followers at the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq in 680 AD.

“Since the start of Muharram, we have seen numerous Shia believers targetted for reciting religious scriptures and partaking in Ashura commemorations. This demonstration should not be taken lightly when our brothers and sisters are being kidnapped and killed for their beliefs,” Afreen said in a tweet.

The activist said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should be held accountable as his government is supporting hate speech against Shia Muslims. She also said she was told that there was a demand to proscribe Ashura processions in Pakistan.

“Some years ago, Shias in Pakistan were receiving anonymous text messages that said ‘kill the Shia’. Terrorists hurled grenades where Ashura processions were taking place. The Shia in Kashmir and Kabul are also under siege and yet some still believe #ShiaGenocide is a myth,” Afreen said in another tweet.

She wrote, “I have been told that one demand was to proscribe Ashura processions in Pakistan. It should be made clear that Pakistan’s government has allowed known terrorists to spread their anti-Shia rhetoric far and wide. @ImranKhanPTI should be held accountable.”

One twitter user wrote: ” I am a #Shia living n Karachi. Yesterday, my city echoed with the chants of Kafir Kafir Shia Kafir. Few hrs later, state arrested #BilalFarooqi who is one of the rare journalists covering sectarian violence/orgs. If this is not step by step towards #ShiaGenocide then what it is?”

Another user posted on the microblogging site: “Sectarian terrorist outfit threatening Shia openly today after Friday prayers whereas those who condemn them are arrested. This is a legit proof of why Pakistan is complicit in #ShiaGenocide.”

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, and people convicted are given death penalty for allegedly making insensitive remarks on Islam.

In the last few decades, sectarian violence has gripped Pakistan with Shia and Ahmadi believers being attacked and their shrines targetted. (ANI)