by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Dr.Qasim Rasool Ilyas
NEW DELHI – The Welfare Party of India (WPI) has strongly criticised the Delhi Police for naming the party’s national president, Dr SQR Ilyas, in their charge-sheet in connection with the February Delhi riots.
The party believes the police have done this with an intention to implicate Ilyas in the riots that rocked the north-eastern parts of the capital in February 2020.
In a statement, WPI national general secretary A.J. Siddiqui also raised strong objections at the shoddy investigations being carried out by the Delhi police, saying the investigating agencies had turned a blind eye toward the real culprits like Kapil Mishra, Mohan Singh Bisht, Jagdeesh Pradhan and others. Instead, they have named Ilyas and other innocent activists in the charge sheet, he said.
The charge-sheet claims that Ilyas had made a provocative statement. Rejecting the charge, Siddiqui said Ilyas was a prominent leader, a man of integrity and a patriot who strongly advocated unity in diversity.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the Delhi police which operate under the Union Home Minister, Siddiqui said those who had instigated and caused the violence in Delhi riots had not been arrested but innocent activists like Ilyas were being targeted whose only fault was that they exercised their constitutional right to dissent against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.
Siddiqui said the party would take a legal course of action and expose all those who were intentionally maligning Ilyas’s image and reputation. He called it travesty of justice for falsely implicating him and other innocent activists to silence dissent and to suit their political narrative.
Siddiqui demanded that the name of Ilyas, as well as those of all such innocent activists, be immediately dropped from the charge-sheet and all charges against them be withdrawn.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : Shocking details are coming about north-east Delhi pogrom on how a WhatsApp group of 125 extremist Hindus mostly youths planned, supervised and executed unarmed Muslims ruthlessly. They coordinated with each other during the riots in February and killed nine Muslims after they refused to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, Delhi police has alleged in its charge sheets filed in a court here Friday.
The accused were part of a WhatsApp group — Kattar Hindut Ekta — that was created on February 25 to take “revenge” on Muslims, the charge sheets said, adding that they used it to coordinate with each other and provide, men, arms and ammunition to each other.
The creator of the WhatsApp group is still absconding, police said in the charge sheets.
“’Kattar Hindut Ekta’ group was created on February 25 at 12.49 Hrs. Initially there were 125 members in this group, out of these 125; total 47 had exited the group by March 8,” it said.
The charge sheets were filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Kumar Gautam on June 29 for the alleged bludgeoning of nine people — Hamza, Aamin, Bhure Ali, Mursalin, Aas Mohd, Musharraf, Akil Ahmed, and Hashim Ali and his elder brother Aamir Khan — to death.
“During the investigation, it has been established that a group of Hindus comprising of accused persons – Jatin Sharma, Rishabh Chaudhary, Vivek Panchal, Lokesh Solanki, Pankaj Sharma, Prince, Sumit Chaudhary, Ankit Chaudhary and Himanshu Thakur, along with other identified and unidentified rioters – became active in Ganga Vihar/ Bhagirathi Vihar area since the morning of February 25 to 26 midnight and bludgeoned nine Muslim persons to death and injured several persons in Bhagirathi Vihar and other area,” police said in the charge sheet.
The final report further said, “It shows that they were actively involved in rioting and attacking other community people belonging to different religion i.e. Muslim and during riots they killed many people by attacking them.”
“Their modus operandi was, they used to catch the people and ascertain their religion by asking name, address and by their document i.e. Identity Card and they were forcing them to call ‘Jai Shri Ram’ many times.
“The person who was not calling ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and carrying the identity of Muslim identity, they were bluntly attacked and thrown into the Main Ganda Nala (dirty drain), Bhagirathi Vihar, Delhi,” it said.
The court has put up the matter for consideration on July 13.
According to the police report , one of the accused, Lokesh Solanki, on February 25, messaged in the WhatsApp group: “Brother Lokesh Solanki this side from Ganga Vihar area if any Hindu need any back up then do contact. We have men, arms and ammunitions. I have just killed two Muslims in Bhagirathi Vihar area and thrown them in drain with the help of my team.”
In the first case, on February 26, one Hamza was killed by the rioters while he was coming from Mustafabad to Bhagirathi Vihar about 9.15 PM, police said.
He was then thrown in sewage near E Block Bhagirathi Vihar. An FIR was lodged in this regard at Gokalpuri police station, in North East Delhi on March 3, it said.
In the second case, one Aamin was killed and thrown into a sewage on February 25 by the rioters near C Block Bhagirathi Vihar.
In the third case, one Bhure Ali was killed near C block Bhagirathi Vihar on February 26.
On February 25, betweeen 4-4.30 PM, one Mursalin was killed and thrown in Bhagirathi Vihar Nala (drain) in Johripuri puliya (bridge) and his scooter was set on fire.
Police said on February 25, at about 7 to 7.30PM, deceased Aas Mohd was killed by the rioters and thrown in a drain in Bhagirathi Vihar/Johripur pulia (bridge).
On the same day at about 8 PM, police said rioters cut the electricity and in the dark, they attacked the house of Musharraf, grabbed him and dragged him out into the street and they beat him to death and threw him in the open drain.
Later on February 26, at about 9.30 PM, one Akil Ahmed was killed by the rioters, police said and added that on the same day, at about 9.40 PM, one Hashim Ali and his elder brother Aamir Khan was killed by the rioters.
PTI inputs
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Delhi Police on Wednesday opposed before the Supreme Court a bail plea filed by suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) member Fasih Mahmood, who was deported from Saudi Arabia in 2012.
A bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Navin Sinha asked the Special Cell of Delhi Police to file an affidavit after it was told by the counsel that “the police strongly oppose the bail” plea of Mahmood as it was “not a normal matter”.
The court will now hear the matter in July.
Mahmood was detained in Saudi Arabia in May 2012. He was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on October 22, 2012.
He has challenged the April 17 Delhi High Court order which had denied him bail in a case relating to setting up of an alleged illegal arms factory here.
Mahmood, a mechanical engineer by profession, was alleged to be an aide of IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal.
He is suspected to be one of the key members of the IM’s dreaded Darbhanga module which had carried out various terror strikes in the country since 2008.
The police had chargesheeted him for offences under the Indian Penal Code, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Mahmood has denied all the allegations.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Srinagar : The mother of a Kashmiri businessman arrested in Delhi on terrorism charges on Monday urged Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to help get her son released, claiming he was innocent.
The businessman’s family members also staged a protest here.
Businessman Bilal Ahmad Kawa was arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on January 12 by Delhi Police and the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad for alleged involvement in a 2000 attack on the Red Fort.
Delhi Police said the 37-year-old’s bank account had been used for terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Kawa’s mother Fatima told reporters during the protest that her son was a genuine businessman holding an Indian passport issued in 2001.
She insisted that if her son was a militant, she would never seek his release. She asked Mehbooba Mufti to intervene and ensure that her son was not framed.
According to her, Kawa had gone to Delhi for a medical check up. The Jammu and Kashmir Police has said there was no case against him, nor does he figure in any list of terror suspects.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Brig Anil Gupta (retd),
Whatever may be the merits or demerits of the ongoing agitation by a group of armed forces veterans at the Jantar Mantar site in Lutyen’s Delhi, the treatment meted out to them by the Delhi Police on October 30, 2017, marks a dark day for Indian democracy.
The armed forces have been mandated by the constitution to safeguard not only the nation but the statute as well. Armed forces veterans form a pool of trained and disciplined manpower with nationalism ingrained in them and need to be treated as an asset. The armed forces form an important pillar of national strength and its members willingly forgo many of their fundamental rights and basic necessities of a dignified life to ensure the safety of the nation’s frontiers.
The constitution mandates them to carry their ranks with them even after retirement. The constitution recognises the uniqueness of the Indian armed forces and their members, both serving and retired.
How did Delhi Police dare to treat veterans and ladies in the manner they did in front of cameras? The same police forces are the first to disappear whenever a serious law and order problem occurs — and the Army is called in to rescue them and handle the adversity. At whose behest did they display such brutality against the peaceful veterans?
The courage, discipline, sense of sacrifice and love for the nation among veterans needs to be imbibed in every citizen of this country if we wish to become a superpower. Their ill-treatment can have long-term implications on national security and can be ignored at its own peril by the government.
In this era of electronic and social media, which has penetrated all frontiers, news travels instantly everywhere. The police action against veterans can lead to alienation of a large segment of disciplined and patriotic people. It definitely will adversely impact the morale of the serving soldiers.
It is not only that today’s serving soldier is tomorrow’s veteran but that today’s veterans are also fathers, grandfathers, uncles and other relatives of the serving soldiers. The blood of those who would have watched the high-handedness of the police or read about it must be boiling, but the discipline ingrained in them prevents them from reacting.
Money spent towards modernisation of the armed forces cannot compensate for the morale of the man behind the gun. It is ultimate and the nation has watched the grit, determination and high morale of the Indian Army soldier on the barren and daunting heights of Kargil. Can the nation afford to have the morale of its soldiers in their boots? Imagine the impact it would have on national security.
Will any young man who would have watched the police brutality against the senior retired officers be ever motivated to join the armed forces? If the armed forces fail the nation in future, will the responsibility for their downslide be owned by the political leadership or the bureaucracy?
Civilian control of the armed forces does not imply control by those in civvies. In the garb of civilian control, the bureaucracy in India is trying to control the armed forces, negating their uniqueness as enshrined in the constitution.
In fact, Jantar Mantar is the manifestation of the growing civil-military divide in our country towards which every successive government has contributed. The state of affairs is not only saddening but alarming. The bureaucracy is hell bent to downgrade the status and financial equivalence of the armed forces, which becomes obvious with every Pay Commission report since the third Pay Commission.
The armed forces make up 30 per cent of the government’s work force. That they are not represented in any Pay Commission displays the disdain with which successive governments have treated them. The serving soldiers and veterans are only demanding their due and not looking for any extraordinary largesse, they are fighting for their izzat (pride) and status that have been continuously eroded by the babudom in Delhi.
The warrant of precedence is tweaked to suit the convenience of the bureaucrats. A Major General was equated to a Joint Secretary with 30 years’ service. The 30-year clause has been conveniently removed and today a Joint Secretary with 18 years of service equates himself with a Major General.
Nowhere in the world are police allowed to wear the badges of ranks of the army except in India, to achieve a false sense of equivalence. The most ridiculous is an attempt to equate the ranks with the Armed Forces HQ services cadre which was raised as a subordinate support cadre to assist the armed forces officers so that the availability of serving officers in active units was not affected. How can commissioned officers be equated with any other service, let alone a subordinate service? It happens only in India in the garb of civilian supremacy.
The present government granted One Rank One Pension (OROP) which previous governments denied. There was dissatisfaction in some quarters and the government accepted that anomalies exist. The one-man Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission was appointed in 2016 and submitted its report in November 2016, but its contents are yet to be made public. The neglect is hurting the veterans, eroding the credibility of the government and adding to the widening civil-military rift.
The Ministry of Defence, supposedly the custodian of the interests of the armed forces, is the most distrusted organ of the state as far as serving soldiers and veterans are concerned. The distrust is due to substantial acts of omission and commission. The government needs to act immediately to stop this trend and act on various reports submitted concerning the revamping of the ministry and integration of Armed Forces HQ with it.
(The author is a Jammu-based political commentator, columnist and strategic analyst. The views expressed are personal. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)
—IANS
