Open to discuss important issues like Op Sindoor in Parliament, says Kiren Rijiju
While the Baghpat district administration showered flower petals on Kanwariyas, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has defended the Shiv devotees. He claimed they have been branded as hooligans and terrorists and are victims of a "media trial". Adityanath stated this is a "nefarious attempt to defame the Kaveriyas" and insults Indian tradition. He said, "Unhe upadhavi aur atankwadi tak bolne ka dusahas hota hai" (They are dared to be called hooligans and even terrorists). The Chief Minister added that this represents a mentality that aims to insult India's heritage and is an attempt to isolate the community from Sanatan and Hindu identity.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
10 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘We are not giving up': Families of Indian prisoners in Qatar demand justice and govt support
'I shifted my daughter from a private school to a government school since I cannot afford it anymore,' Kuldeep said, sobbing over a phone call, while boarding a bus from Delhi to Sangrur in Punjab. She was among the 50 families from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Karnataka who protested at Jantar Mantar Thursday, led by the Indian Pravasi Movement. They urged the government to immediately implement the 2015 India-Qatar agreement on the transfer of sentenced people to repatriate Indian prisoners and an audit of the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF). Approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2014, the agreement allows 'Indian prisoners imprisoned in Qatar or vice-versa to be near their families, for serving the remaining part of their sentence and shall facilitate their social rehabilitation'. Similar agreements have been signed with countries such as the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Bulgaria, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Bangladesh, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, and Sri Lanka. The ICBF, under the auspices of the Embassy of India in Doha, Qatar, has been established to provide financial, medical, and other forms of assistance to distressed and underprivileged Indians. However, Kuldeep's husband, Sandeep Singh, 40, arrested on charges of possession of drugs in his car, has been in jail for two and a half years, serving 10 years of imprisonment. His wife and a fourteen-year-old daughter live alone. 'He shifted to Doha in 2007 and has been a taxi driver since then. Recently, he bought his private car. One day, a customer left a bag, which had drugs. Later, the police arrested my husband. Now he is lodged in the central jail, and earns money by washing the clothes of the officers, and then calls us with that money.' Kuldeep is angry with the government's lack of support. 'I have given multiple written complaints now, even to the PM office, the Indian and Qatar embassies. My husband calls me every Friday. On the last call, he said that to date, the lawyer assigned to him by the Qatar government has never come to meet him or present his case. The judge just gave the verdict.' However, she had learned about the protest through her husband a week earlier. 'I have come to Delhi multiple times to file complaints, have exhausted all my resources, and I don't have a job either. He told me over the phone that a group from Kerala is protesting in Delhi, as he had learned from other inmates. I have not given up hope, wherever they say, I will go,' she said. For Parveen Kaur, from Amritsar, her biggest challenge is to make her children understand their father's whereabouts. 'They cry when he calls, asking when you will come. My seven-year-old daughter has lost interest in studies,' she said while travelling along with Kuldeep. Her husband, Gurjeet Singh, also a taxi driver in Qatar, was arrested in a drug case on October 12, 2022. 'I had called him in the daytime, and he said he would call me back. But when he never did, I rang him multiple times at night, then he said he was in the police station,' she said. Now, raising her two children alone, she said that her parents are assisting her, but they are also taking a step back due to the expenses. 'I had sold my jewellery and collected Rs 4.5 lakh and did a direct bank transfer to the Qatar lawyer. His (lawyer's) wife, an Indian, translated to me what the lawyer was saying. They said my husband would be deported soon. But after that, they stopped picking up my calls,' she said, her voice shaking, adding that she, too, received no help from the Indian embassy and the Indian government. Ashraf Ponnain, from Malappuram district in Kerala, was once a prisoner in Qatar, but is now back in India. However, during his last visit, he was unaware that his son, Naushad, had also been implicated in a cheque fraud case. 'I found out that my son was in jail after I got out. They accused him falsel; the sponsor had planted everything. The sponsor made him sign a blank cheque of 1 lakh 40 thousand Riyal. I have lost all the resources now,' he said, adding that he had already paid large amounts to get himself out by selling his shops back in Kerala, and now he has no money left to help his son. R J Sajith, president of the Indian Pravasi Movement, said the prisoners, all coming from poor households, have already borrowed money to reach the foreign country. 'Why is there no implementation of the agreement? Where are the funds from the ICBF going? These people are voiceless, but the embassy and the government have offered no help till now,' he alleged.
Indian Express
10 minutes ago
- Indian Express
State challenges Mumbai train blast acquittal, but appeals in key terror cases continue to face delays
The Maharashtra government recently announced its decision to challenge the Bombay High Court's acquittal of 12 men in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case in the Supreme Court. The government's decision to challenge acquittal and discharges in past terror cases, including its appeal against the discharge of nine accused in the 2006 Malegaon blast case, filed in 2016, has however seen little progress in the Bombay High Court over the past eight years. Interestingly, two of the men— Shaikh Mohammed Ali (57) and Asif Khan Bashir Khan (54)—acquitted in the train blasts case were also among those discharged in the Malegaon case. The Maharashtra ATS had named nine men in the 2006 Malegaon blast case. The accusations against these men of having carried out the blasts was first investigated by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and later endorsed by the CBI, which took over the case a year later. However, in 2011, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the probe, filed a chargesheet absolving the nine men, including Khan and Ali, of all charges. Instead, the NIA named four other individuals, allegedly members of a Hindu extremist group, as the main accused. The nine men were released from prison in 2016, but the state government immediately challenged their discharge. While the trial of the four Hindu men named by the NIA is ongoing and all four are currently out on bail, the high ourt's hearing of the state government's appeal against the discharge of the nine original accused has barely progressed. While the seven men who were freed in 2016, along with Khan and Ali, are now outside prison, the delayed legal process has left them in limbo, with the fear of returning behind bars still hanging over their heads. 'We have been living a free life for over nine years now. However, the fear of being called back to prison definitely looms over our heads. The appeal by the state government against our acquittal has hardly moved in all this time. While we are thankful that the judiciary discharged us from the case, I also believe that there is a need to fast-track cases so that people can get closure,' said one of the men discharged in the Malegaon 2006 blast case. 2006 was a pivotal year for Maharashtra when it came to terror-related incidents, marked by three major cases. First, in May, the Maharashtra ATS intercepted a Tata Sumo near Chandwad in Nashik district in the Aurangabad arms haul case, where police seized 43kg of RDX, 16 AK-47 rifles, 3,200 rounds of ammunition, and 50 hand grenades. Subsequently, on July 11, 2006, a series of blasts in Mumbai's suburban trains claimed 187 lives. Two months later, on September 8, 2006, four blasts in Malegaon killed 31 people. During its investigation, the Maharashtra Police arrested and put on trial 44 people in connection with these three cases. Among them, three accused Mohammed Faisal Attaur Rahman Shaikh, Shaikh Mohammed Ali Alam, and Asif Khan Bashir Khan were common links across the incidents. Faisal was named in both the Aurangabad case and the Mumbai train blasts. While he was convicted in the Aurangabad arms haul case, he was acquitted in the Mumbai train blasts by the Bombay High Court. He is currently incarcerated in Aurangabad. Two other men, Asif Khan and Mohammed Ali Shaikh, were seen as main conspirators in both the Malegaon and Mumbai train blasts. Police alleged that they were central to Pakistani-sponsored subversive activities in India. In the Malegaon case, both men were accused of attending a meeting in July 2006 in Mumbai to plan the blasts, along with other co-conspirators and a few Pakistanis. They were also alleged to have taken these Pakistanis to Malegaon, where the bombs were assembled. These individuals then reportedly left Malegaon with Khan and Ali after assembling six bombs and storing them in a godown. Khan and Ali were among the nine men initially named in the Malegaon blasts before being discharged in 2016. Asif Khan Bashir Khan (54) – Status: Free The elder son of a scooter mechanic from Jalgaon, Asif Khan was locally known for his social activism, particularly on issues affecting slum dwellers. In 1996, at the age of 23, he took part in a protest against the demolition of homes in Khwaja Nagri. The protest turned violent, police opened fire, and two people were killed—one of them Asif's cousin—which spurred Khan's deeper involvement in activism. Later that year, Asif moved to Mumbai to work as a civil engineer. Police allege that around this time, he was radicalized, became a member of SIMI, and was in contact with Pakistani terror groups. He was arrested in 2006 and accused of procuring pressure cookers and assembling bombs for the Mumbai train blasts, including planting one at Borivali. He was also linked to the Malegaon blasts and accused of ferrying Pakistani nationals to Malegaon, who allegedly manufactured the bombs that exploded in the city. Khan, however, denied the charges, claiming he was at his Kandivali office on the day of the Mumbai train blasts. Shaikh Mohammed Ali (57) – Status: Free Shaikh Mohammed Ali was accused of traveling to Pakistan via Iran to receive subversive training. He was also accused of being part of the conspiracy and of allowing his residence in Govandi to be used for assembling the bombs used in the Mumbai train blasts, allegedly with the help of Pakistani nationals. He was further linked to the Malegaon blasts, accused of participating in the conspiracy and facilitating the travel of Pakistani individuals to Malegaon for planning the attacks. A resident of Shivaji Nagar ,one of Mumbai's poorest localities, Ali worked at a cooperative bank before moving to Dubai. He reportedly returned within a month and started a small business supplying Unani medicines. During this period, he was allegedly active in SIMI and had launched a campaign against video parlours in his locality. He had been previously booked for being a SIMI member and was summoned by police several times, including after the 2002–03 Mumbai blasts. According to investigators, his 100-square-foot home was used to assemble explosives and remained under constant police surveillance. Mohammed Faisal Attaur Rahman Shaikh (50) – Status: Incarcerated (Aurangabad Jail) Mira Road-based Faisal Shaikh, 50, was accused of heading the Lashkar-e-Toiba's (LeT) Mumbai unit and convicted for being the key financier of the 2006 Mumbai train blasts. He was accused of planning the conspiracy, acquiring hawala funds, harboring Pakistani operatives, assembling the bombs, and planting them. Faisal is the eldest of three sons of Attaur Rahman, who worked in Saudi Arabia. After spending time in Pune, the family shifted to Mira Road, where Faisal was allegedly indoctrinated by SIMI. Faisal is accused of conspiring as early as 1999 of waging a war against India by training Indian Muslim youth in terrorist activities. In June 2001, he obtained a valid Indian passport with the intention of traveling to Pakistan. Six months later, in January 2002, he allegedly crossed the border via the Samjhauta Express and trained with LeT operatives in Muzaffarabad and Lahore. He was also accused and subsequentyl convicted for being a part of a conspiracy in the Aurangabad arms haul case. Police claimed he was responsible for indoctrinating both his younger brothers. One of them—Muzammil (also arrested for the 2006 Mumbai train blast) was acquitted along with him while the other is reportedly absconding. His conviction in the Aurangabad case is the reason that he was not walked out free.
The Hindu
10 minutes ago
- The Hindu
CM, leaders pay tribute to soldiers at war memorial on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas in Puducherry
PUDUCHERRY Chief Minister N. Rangasamy led the celebration of Kargil Vijay Diwas at the war memorial on the Promenade Beach on Saturday (July 26, 2025) to honour the sacrifice made by Indian soldiers in the 1999 war with Pakistan. Mr. Rangasamy placed a wreath at the memorial site and paid tribute to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the Kargil War. Speaker R. Selvam, Home Minister A. Namassivayam, Public Works Minister K. Lakshminarayanan, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister P.R.N. Thirumurugan, Deputy Speaker P. Rajavelu, Government Whip V. Aroumougame and R. Baskar, S. Ramesh and U. Lakshmikandhan, MLAs offered floral tributes. Chief Secretary Sharat Chauhan, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) R. Sathyasundaram, Information Secretary Mohammed Ahsan Abid, District Collector A. Kulothungan, officers from Indian Coast Guard and NCC and ex-servicemen participated. The event concluded with the observance of two-minute silence.
