Gujarat ATS arrests 4 persons linked to banned terror outfit 'Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent'
"Terror module affiliated with AQIS has been busted by the Gujarat ATS. Four persons linked to the proscribed terror outfit have been arrested," the anti-terror agency said in a statement.
The ATS will provide further details about the operation later in the day.
In 2023, four Bangladeshi nationals were arrested from different parts of the city for having links with the same terror outfit.
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Business Standard
11 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Mamata to be held accountable for inciting linguistic conflict: BJP
Amid chaos over Delhi police allegedly referring to Bengali as Bangladeshi language in a communication note, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader on Monday morning hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, suggesting that she be booked under National Security Act (NSA) for allegedly inciting linguistic conflict. He argued that her reaction to the entire issue was "misplaced and dangerously inflammatory", while adding that Delhi Police's letter does not describe Bangla as a 'Bangladeshi' language. "Mamata Banerjee's reaction to Delhi Police referring to the language used by infiltrators as 'Bangladeshi' is not just misplaced, it is dangerously inflammatory. Nowhere in the Delhi Police letter is Bangla or Bengali described as a 'Bangladeshi' language. To claim otherwise and call upon Bengalis to rise against the Centre is deeply irresponsible. Mamata Banerjee should be held accountable--perhaps even under the National Security Act--for inciting linguistic conflict," Malviya posted on X. He said that the police were "absolutely right" in referring to the language as Bangladeshi in the context of identifying infiltrators since the term focuses on dialects, syntax, and speech patterns that are different from Bangla spoken in India. "The official language of Bangladesh is not only phonologically different, but also includes dialects like Sylheti that are nearly incomprehensible to Indian Bengalis," Malviya said. "Delhi Police is absolutely right in referring to the language as Bangladeshi in the context of identifying infiltrators. The term is being used to describe a set of dialects, syntax, and speech patterns that are distinctly different from the Bangla spoken in India. The official language of Bangladesh is not only phonologically different, but also includes dialects like Sylheti that are nearly incomprehensible to Indian Bengalis," he added. Malviya further stated that Delhi police's use of "Bangladeshi language" was a shorthand for linguistic markers used to profile alleged illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country. "There is, in fact, no language called 'Bengali' that neatly covers all these variants. "Bengali" denotes ethnicity, not linguistic uniformity. So when the Delhi Police uses "Bangladeshi language," it is a shorthand for the linguistic markers used to profile illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, not a commentary on Bengali as spoken in West Bengal," he said. His remarks come after Banerjee on Sunday accused the Delhi Police of describing Bengali as a "Bangladeshi language", calling it scandalous, anti-national and unconstitutional. Sharing a letter by Delhi Police on X, Banerjee said, "See now how Delhi police under the direct control of the Ministry of Home, Government of India, is describing Bengali as 'Bangladeshi' language! Bengali, our mother tongue, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, the language in which our National Anthem and the National Song (the latter by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) are written, the language in which crores of Indians speak and write, the language which is sanctified and recognised by the Constitution of India, is now described as a Bangladeshi language!!" Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed (Md) Salim also trained guns on Delhi Police, calling it "illiterate", posted on X, "Will the 'illiterate' [?]Delhi Police tell us what's this 'Bangladeshi language'? Moreover, why Delhi Police has failed to make their officers aware of the 8th Schedule of our Constitution. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Mamata Banerjee angered by Delhi police mention of ‘Bangladeshi language', BJP reacts
'Scandalous, insulting, anti‑national, and unconstitutional" is how Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee described an August 3 letter by the Delhi police that called Bengali, or Bangla, a 'Bangladeshi language'. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a function in Kolkata.(HT File Photo) The Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, sharing an image of the letter on X, emphasised that Bengali is sanctified by the Indian Constitution, and the mother tongue of icons like Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. The police had purportedly written to Banga Bhawan, West Bengal's state guest house in New Delhi, seeking assistance with translating documents written in 'Bangladeshi language' for eight individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. HT has not independently verified the authenticity of the letter, while police have not yet responded. The image shared by Banerjee showed that the letter, dated July 24, said police needed an interpreter 'proficient in Bangladeshi national language' for documents belonging to the eight persons 'strongly suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in India'. TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee demanded an apology from home minister Amit Shah, under whose ministry Delhi Police falls, for the way the letter was written. 'For months now, Bengali-speaking people have been targeted, harassed and detained across BJP-ruled states,' he added, and called the letter 'a shocking escalation' and an attempt to 'undermine Bengali identity' and "equate Indian Bengalis with foreigners'. Reacting to the allegations, Samik Bhattacharya, the West Bengal BJP chief, accused the TMC of resorting to 'fear-mongering tactics' for Indian Bengalis while 'shielding' illegal immigrants. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya reacted, too, accusing Mamata Banerjee of spreading misinformation for 'vote‑bank politics'. He called her X post 'a badly scripted political stunt'. Bengali artists were incensed by the notice too. "Bangla referred to as Bangladeshi language... Exactly the kind of ignorance I expect from the people responsible... Not surprised at all," wrote singer Surojit Chatterjee. "That's not Bangladeshi language… that's Bangla or Bengali," film director Srijit Mukherji posted on X, 'the same language in which your national anthem was originally written and one of the 22 official languages of India.'
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Malegaon verdict flags major shortcomings in investigation. NIA must appeal it
Just 10 days after the Bombay High Court acquitted 12 accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, highlighting critical procedural lapses in the investigation, a trial court in Mumbai has acquitted all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. The outcome in both sensitive and high-profile cases raises serious and urgent questions about the perils of the due process of justice being relegated by the surround sound of a polarising politics — in the Malegaon case, the spotlight had turned to allegations and counter-allegations on 'Hindu terror', kicking off a dismal war of labels, and a flurry of often contrived comparisons and equivalences. The verdict in the case, as in the Mumbai blasts case before it, has put in the dock the conduct of investigating agencies and prosecution, and the systemic delays that often render justice, when it comes, too little too late. The trial in the Malegaon case began in December 2018, a decade after a bomb went off outside a mosque, killing six and injuring nearly a hundred others. The Court was clear on the intent of the attack, on the last day of Ramzan and before Navratri was to begin: 'It was apparent that conspirators caused bomb blast with an intent to terrorise the people, to cause loss to life and property, disruption of supplies and services essential to the community, to create communal rift and to endanger internal security of the State.' It is troubling that the investigation and prosecution of a case as consequential as this one was found to be riddled with glaring lapses and omissions, inconsistencies and contradictions. Special NIA Judge AK Lahoti found it necessary to mention that 'the evidence on record creates the grave suspicion against the accused but mere on suspicion there cannot be a conviction.' The probe into the Malegaon case was begun by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief at that time, heading the investigation, was killed in the Mumbai terror attack on November 26, 2008, only days after the first arrest in the case. The ATS had filed a chargesheet after collecting evidence, including phone taps, witness statements, and video recordings of the meetings where the conspiracy was allegedly hatched from the laptop of one of the accused. All these were deemed inadmissible in court since the agency had failed to fulfil the statutory requirement to prove the authenticity and reliability of electronic evidence. While transcripts were prepared from intercepted conversations, interceptions were not authorised in the specific period, and permissions were obtained belatedly, rendering the intercepted data unusable as evidence. In 2011, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case and criticised the ATS probe, even as it continued moving it in the same direction. In 2016, it dropped MCOCA charges arguing that the ATS had not followed proper procedure in invoking the stringent anti-terror law. There were other loopholes and omissions too — for instance, 13 statements of witnesses went missing from the court records. The investigation in the Malegaon case was mired in political controversy over the (religious) colour and shade of terror right from the beginning. Investigators in cases such as this one do come under an enormous amount of pressure. But that is a challenge to be professionally navigated, it cannot lead to slipshod investigations and inordinate delays. Given that the court has underlined the several omissions of the state and said explicitly that there is 'grave suspicion,' the NIA must appeal the verdict, and make a better case.
