By IANS,

Kathmandu : Indian terrorists Abdul Karim Tunda and Yasin Bhatkal were arrested here and handed over to Indian authorities, leading Nepali daily Kantipur said Friday. Nepal's officials have denied this.

Bhaktal, the Indian Mujahideen co-founder, was arrested by Nepali security agencies Wednesday from the heart of Kathmandu and handed over at the Nepal-India border at Raxual, the report said.

Quoting highly placed Nepali intelligence officials, it said Bhaktal was caught at Bagbazar area, taken to Birgunj, a town on Nepal's border with India, and handed over to the Indians.

He was then shifted to Motihari district in Bihar.

According to the report, Bhaktal, one of India's most wanted terrorists, had travelled five times to Kathmandu from Dubai and Pakistan.

Indian security agencies had been keeping a vigil on Tunda, the Laskar-e-Taiba terrorist group's bomb maker, from the time he landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport, the daily said.

He was arrested while coming out of Jama Masjid at Bagbazar in Kathmandu. The man was on a motorcycle.

Tunda reportedly made frequent visits to Jamia IBN Tai Miya Madint Islam Muslim College in Motihari district in Bihar. The institute is located 20 km south of the Nepal-India border.

Nepal Police and home ministry denied the report.

"We do not have any knowledge about these arrests," Nepal's home ministry spokesperson Shanker Prasad Koirala told IANS.

Although Nepal and India are yet to revisit their bilateral extradition treaty, both sides have agreed to share intelligence to curb terrorism, extremism and criminal elements.

"We have a regular mechanism to share intelligence with our Indian counterparts at any given point of time related to various incidents and personnel," Nepal Police spokesman Nawa Raj Silwal said.

"But in these particular cases, we do not have any idea that Nepali side handed over them to people on the Indian side," he said.

Besides these two arrests, Nepal security services recently arrested two Indian sharpshooters and gangsters, Chirinjivi Sagar Kushwaha and Bikash Jha, and handed them over to Bihar Police.

According to police sources, some 400 Indian criminals and those with terrorist links have been arrested so far this year in Nepal. The figure stood at 349 last year.

India and Nepal share a long and porous border, and Indian criminals are known to use Nepal to transit to their countries.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

New Delhi: As per the requests of the government of Saudi Arabia, an overall 20 per cent cut in Haj quota has been made by the government of India.

Owing to the large scale renovation and construction in the the two Holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Saudi government has cut requested the reduction in pilgrims from all over the world.

From the original 123,908 seats, this year only 120,303 people will be able to go on pilgrimage though the Haj Committee of India, that manage the pilgrimage of mostly poor people, selected though a lottery system. There has thus been an over all reduction of 3605 pilgrims.

Accordingly 20 % cut in the quota of all states were made. However, there has been an additional selection of 1137 Haj pilgrims from the ‘waiting list’, in which Uttar Pradesh, that send highest number of pilgrims have benefited.

UP originally has 33114 quota, but this year only 32173 lucky pilgrims were nominated through the Haj Committee. However, in the revised list due to vacancies arising out cancellations, 568 additional pilgrims have been selected from the Waiting list.

The advisory by the Saudi government has also affected the Hajis going through private operators as there has been considerable cut in their numbers too.

Saudi government has reduced the number of pilgrims from KSA by 50 % and from other countries by 20 % this year due to construction and renovation.

By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,

Kolkata: A round table discussion was held in Kolkata to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria and Egypt at the Academy of Fine Arts auditorium on 27 August, 2013

Along with the convener of the meeting Muhammad Kamruzzaman, Secretary of All Bengal Minority Youth Federation, leaders of 14 other Muslim organizations and eminent journalists and intellectuals pondered over the military actions in Egypt and the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

State Jamat-e-Islami Hind President Md Nuruddin, Activist Mr O P Shah, Executive Editor of Bengali Daily `Kalom' Mr Ahmad Hassan Imran, All India Minority Youth Federation Secretary Muhammad Kamruzzaman and State Minority Commission Chairman Mr Intaj Ali Shah in a round table on crisis in Egypt and Syria.

Renowned journalist of The Telegraph Biswajit Roy said that we should condemn the deaths of innocent, whether in Egypt or Syria.

The Executive Editor of Bengali daily `Kalom’, Ahmad Hassn Imran said, talked about ‘Islam and democracy’ and questioned the role of USA and Israel. He added that the West always harp on democracy, but so often they worked against democratically elected governments, from Iran to now Egypt, if that did not suit their interests.

Reputed social activist O P Shah urged every country for self-introspection.

The convener of the Round Table meeting, All India Minority Youth Federation Secretary Muhammad Kamruzzaman urged to always stand out against all sorts of atrocities across the world. He said that there might be some sort of conspiracy to topple the governments in Muslim countries. He also demanded from the Indian Government to officially register protest against the coup in Egypt.

State Minority Commission Chairman Intaj Ali Shah urged the respective governments to find ways to solve the problems.

State Jamat-e Islami Hind President Md Nuruddin also condemned the role of USA and Israel and alleged that the miliatry government of al-Sisi is their puppet.

Secretary of Milli Ittehad Parishad Abdul Aziz, Secretary of Amanath Foundation Md Shahalam, Shikh leader Sukhnandan Singh Aluwaliah, Secretary of Bangiya Imam Parishad Raisuddin Purkait, Sunnat Al JAmat leader Abdul Matin, Ahle-Hadith leader Alamgir Hossain, All Bengal Minoruty Council vice-president Iftiqar Hossain, Maulana M A Momen also took part in the round table discussion.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Hyderabad: A local criminal court in Hyderabad has framed charges against four persons allegedly belonging to Indian Mujahideen in 2007 Gokul Chat and Lumbani Park bomb blast case.

Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, Anique Shafiq Syed, Mohammed Sadiq Ansar Ahmed Sheik and Farooq Sharfuddin, are charged under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC, the Explosive Substances and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code for their alleged involvement in the twin blasts and also with regard to the recovery of an unexploded bomb under a foot over-bridge at Dilsukhnagar, which was later defused.

On August 25, 2007 two powerful explosions occurred at Gokul Chat killing 32 people and at Lumbani park killing 10 people and leaving scores injured another live bomb was found at Dilsuknagar but was later detonated by bomb squad. This terror attack occurred just 3 months after deadly bombing at Mecca Masjid.

Although immediately after the blast more than 100 local Muslim youths were detained and later 32 of them were prosecuted under various terror conspiracy theories and after two years all of them were acquitted.

The Mumbai crime branch, on the other hand, started series of arrests of 20 Muslim youths alleged to be IM members in October 2008. During interrogation some of the accused allegedly confessed to the Mumbai police of their involvement in Hyderabad twin blasts apparently stating that they carried it out to take revenge for the blast at Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007 by “Hindu militants”.

Hyderabad SIT which was investigating the case by arresting scores of local innocent Muslim youths stopped their operations and took the custody of those four youths and brought them to Hyderabad for the trail in February 2009.

But even as Counter Intelligence Cell submitted its voluminous chargesheet in the court and got the permission to prosecute the accused, but before any charges could have been framed in the court, Gujarat police took the custody of those four youths for their alleged involvement in Ahmadabad 21 serial bomb blast cases.

Gujarat Government issued orders prohibiting transfer of the accused to any state before trail in Ahmedabad bomb blast is completed.

Finally after a gap of nearly four years AP Counter Intelligence Cell got the custody of the four accused and presented them before the second additional metropolitan magistrate at Nampally criminal court on August 28 and 29 and charges were finally farmed against the present four accused.

In 1125 pages chargesheet, with nearly 286 witnesses, Counter Intelligence Cell has charged 7 persons in addition with the present four, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Mohd Sadiq Ansar Ahmed Shaik and Amir Reza Khan are also chargsheeted but claimed to be absconding.

Now with the recent arrest of Yasin Bhatkal by NIA, Hyderabad police is hopeful to get more leads in the twin blast case and the exact involvement of other Bhatkal brother Riyaz and Iqbal.

However, in the court when charges were getting framed against the four accused, they started complaining to the judge and accused the police of wrong doings in their case. When court allowed one of them to present their statement, Anique Shafeeq Syed who is being charged for planting bomb at Lumbanai park told the judge that investigating agency OCTOPUS in 2009 brought him along with other accused to Hyderabad and during their custody they took their pictures from different angles and forced them to sign on blank papers.

On the accusations judge asked them to submit it in writing after which four accused submitted to the judge allegations against police and pleaded no unlawful activity from their part in the blast case.

The session Judge posted the case to October 28 for fixing the schedule to begin the trial and during that course court will decide on issuing summons to nearly 286 witnesses for recording their statements.

The accused were then send back into the Mumbai police custody which want to interrogate them for certain terror cases in the city. They have now been reportedly shifted to Maharashtra prison.

By Saeed Naqvi, IANS,

If the sound of war drums over West Asia is receding, it is because the people have spoken up. British parliamentary democracy looked credible, after the Blair lapse, when 30 Tory MPs voted against their own party. Russia, China, Iran and others who matters applied the brakes. Has India internalized the truth that it does not matter? Such deafening silence from the government, principal opposition, even the pundits.

Leave aside Ronald Reagan's bombardment of Libya in 1987 when US intelligence overheard incriminating conversation in a Berlin discotheque, all other West led attacks on Arab or Muslim societies have taken place after the countervailing power of the of the Soviet Union dissolved in 1990. Beginning with Operation Desert Storm in 1991, there have been a dozen or so military interventions and in recent years, drone sorties, on Muslim countries by the US and former colonial powers, Britain and France.

Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan have been in the line of fire, sometimes repeatedly. Western powers have helped regional powers create conditions for a brutal civil war in Syria. Screws have been tightened on Iran by a series of punitive sanctions. Washington is playing both sides of the street in Egypt. Does this concerted closing in on Muslim societies not make Samuel Huntington, author of "The Clash of Civilizations", the original prophet of our times?

Are you surprised that in this hothouse atmosphere there is a thing called Muslim anger? If this anger expresses itself in intemperate ways, it is liable to be called "terrorism". A global war on terror is then launched of which we must become a part. How do we explain to the Indian people what we are upto, particularly to the 180 million Muslims who experience the war on terror somewhat differently? Let me try to shed some light on the complexity.

A sample of Urdu newspapers in the capital confirms a pronounced trend not commonly noticed: Muslims take a relatively greater interest in foreign affairs.

The front page of the Indian Express on the day I am writing this column does not carry a single foreign story. This on a day when Syria and Egypt are obvious stories.

By contrast, Qaumi Salamati, recently launched Urdu newspaper, carries four detailed page one stories on foreign affairs, centered around Western machinations in West Asia.

As tributaries to our composite culture, religious, literary, linguistic and other cultural links with the Arab world, Iran and Central Asia are straight forward. Sometimes these linkages are exotic. Who would have expected the 2010 Uzbek-Kyrgyz riots in the Osh in the Farghana valley to find resonance in Delhi's oldest habitation - Mehrauli. What dominates Mehrauli is the shrine of Sufi Saint Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki who travelled to India from Osh.

Ideally, foreign policy should represent national consensus. The policy of non alignment forged by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947, was therefore a comfortable fit with the Indian social reality. True, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab monarchies were in the Western camp throughout the cold war. But none of these societies were inhospitable to India. And among Arab socialists, Nehru's prestige was no less than, say, even Gamal Abdel Nasser's. A Pakistani poet, Raees Amrohi, wrote in spontaneous admiration:

"Jap raha hai aaj maala ek Hindu ki Arab.
Barhaman-zaadey mein shaan-e-dilbari aisi to ho!"
(The Arab world is chanting the name of a Hindu!
A Brahmin with such ability to win hearts and minds?)

"Hikmat-e-Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru ki Qasam!
Mar mitey Islam jispe, kaafiri aisi to ho!"
(Consider the vision of Pandit Nehru!
A non believer and yet the world of Islam lies at his feet!)

The collapse of the Soviet Union consigned non alignment to oblivion. To make up for lost times, New Delhi lurched towards the US. In West Asia, Israel became a special friend. Non aligned countries became "Muslim" countries in our eyes. How could a Muslim country be very different from Pakistan? "Hikmate Jawaharlal Nehru" be damned.

This new stance in world affairs which India had struck, distanced New Delhi from a national consensus if social realities are not to be overlooked. No, Muslims were not holding hostage India's foreign policy options in a dynamic world. But disappointment did set in among Muslim and the Centre-Left elite when some supposed constants in world affairs lost their saliency for policy makers. The question of Palestine, for instance.

Also, the exceptional warmth in relations with the US coincided with the most aggressive phase in George W. Bush's war on terror. This exposed a major contradiction policy makers had not taken cognizance of. A hundred thousand people demonstrated at the Ram Lila Maidan against Bush during his visit in 2006. The meeting, where the participants were mostly Muslims, was addressed by all political parties except the BJP and the Congress. His address to the joint session of parliament had to be cancelled.

Policy makers were puzzled. Why were Indian Muslims opposed to the nuclear deal? They were not. They were hurt by the Congress led government cosying upto Bush who, in their perception, was engaged in an undeclared crusade against Muslims. It remains a major contradiction in the navigation of foreign policy of a country which has the world's second largest Muslim population. The contradiction will plague us time and again. Minster for Minority Affairs Rehman Khan, casts doubts on the very existence of Indian Mujahideen. But newspapers announce in banner headlines the arrest of IM chief by the Intelligence Bureau. Whom should the world believe?

It is against this perspective that the clouds of war over Syria should be seen. Just as an initially reluctant Washington was dragged into war in Libya by Europe, it came pretty close to be dragged into Syria by regional powers.

As I mentioned at the outset, the attack on Syria, should it happen, will be the umpteenth US led military action against a Muslim country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. I mention the Soviet Union repeatedly because unprecedented military might in the possession of a nation in decline is a dangerous new global reality. New Delhi's silence in such situations may be commended by those who place a value on cunning and craft. But cunning and craft towards what end?

I like to imagine neither Jawaharlal Nehru nor Atal Behari Vajpayee would have remained silent if there was any risk to Damascus, the world's oldest, continuous habitation and the great civilization of which it is the capital.

(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeed.naqvi@hotmail.com)

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

Washington : A reported remark by Indian social activist Anna Hazare has led to speculation whether the apolitical leader is ready to endorse Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi if he leaves the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In an article in the Huffington Post Dr. Muqtedar Khan, an associate professor of Islam and global affairs at the University of Delaware, recalls the event at the Hindu Temple in Hockessin, Delaware, on Aug 20 where Hazare made the reported remark.

"He was asked by a delegation in Hockessin to endorse Narendra Modi as the future Prime Minister of India, under whose leadership Muslims were massacred and their homes and businesses burnt in Gujarat in 2002," wrote Khan, who moderated the question and answer session at the meeting.

"Anna Hazare did not endorse Narendra Modi," recalls Khan. "He said he did not believe in political parties and since Modi was a member of BJP, a political party, he could not endorse him."

But "When pressed to endorse Modi as an individual, he responded by saying that if Modi left the BJP, he would be happy to endorse him,"

"For an ethical activist, it was a very political answer. Anna was trying to get out of endorsing Modi without offending Modi's supporters," wrote Khan.

"But I suspect he offended the Hindu secularists by not condemning Modi and disappointed Hindu nationalists by not clearly endorsing him," he said.

"I sympathize with his predicament. His goal is ethical his means political, things are bound to get muddy," Khan concluded.

But Khan's article on the engagement at Delaware has stirred another controversy as he predicated the conversation about Hazare and Modi over the question: "Is Anna Hazare communal?"

"He has a 50-year record of social service and social reform and zero instances of active communalism. His record speaks for him," noted Khan giving him a clean chit on that score.

But "Does he have sympathies for communal parties and leaders in India?" he asked and felt "That is difficult to determine," .

"Nevertheless, the evening was both spiritually uplifting and politically fascinating," wrote khan whose article was more focused on "Anna Hazare and the Campaign Against Corruption" rather than the Modi issue.

"It underscored at once how India's future is at the same time bright because of leaders like Anna Hazare and in peril because of the challenges they are trying to confront."

Hazare, left for India from New York Wednesday after two-week US trip during which he interacted with the Indian-American community and also met some members of the US Congress.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

By IANS,

Jaipur : A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator in Rajasthan moved a court here Friday seeking anticipatory bail in the case of the 2011 communal violence in Bharatpur district that left 10 people dead, said a lawyer.

Anita Singh, legislator from Nagar constituency in Bharatpur, was among the 43 people recently booked by the the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on various charges in connection with the violence in Gopalgarh area of the district between Gujjar and Meo communities.

The clash occurred Sep 14, 2011 over a piece of land, with one group claiming that it was for a burial centre and the other that it was for a pond. 40 people were also injured in the clash.

Anita Singh's lawyer A.K. Jain said that the legislator has been booked for obstructing government servants in carrying out their duty among some other charges.

The lawyer said that the anticipatory bail application was filed in the district judge's court Friday.

"The application will come up for hearing on Monday," Jain said.

"We had sought anticipatory bail after CBI filed an application in the special court for CBI cases in Jaipur seeking arrest warrant against 43 people including Anita Singh, Congress legislator from Kaman constituency Zahida Khan and several other local BJP leaders," said Jain.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Hyderabad: Hyderabad Special Investigation Team seems determined to pin down more connections in a more than a decade old terror plot hatched by ISI and LeT in the city.

Although wanted in many terror cases across nation for his alleged involvement, when Abdul Kareem alias Tunda was caught by security agencies at Indo-Nepal border two weeks back. Hyderabad SIT taken it as a huge boost to revive dead down terror investigations, apart from getting leads for Gokul chat and Lumbani park 2007 blasts and recent Dilsuknagar blasts, SIT also wanted him in 1998 terror case.

In crime number 155/1998 Abdul Karim Tunda is accused number 22, in this case an ISI agent Saleem Junaid who was the mastermind of a terror conspiracy along with two militants from PoK was arrested by city police from a farm house in the outskirts of the city along with truck loaded with explosives.

Many local Muslims was also arrested in that case including radical cleric Moulana Naseeruddin who was associated with SIMI at that time for allegedly providing support for ISI operation. Another local man Azam Ghouri accused of providing them with logistics was killed in an encounter by the police.

Although the entire local accused got acquitted including the farm house owner as court didn’t find any evidence against them to associate them with the conspiracy. But police made a botched up of entire probe by not following basic rules of collecting evidence, SIT didn’t seized explosives and weaponry in the presence of the accused as provided mandatory by Indian evidence Act which led court acquit Slaeem Junaid and other two militants in explosives act and Arms act, however court found them guilty of conspiracy and forging documents to hide their Pakistani nationality and in other IPC sections.

The two PoK militants were sent to J&K jail as cases were pending against them in that state, after spending their sentence in J&K they were released and went back to Pakistan. Saleem Junaid was lodged in Vishakapatnam jail after spending his prison sentence he was also sent back to Pakistan.

Now Hyderabad SIT is planning to get a prisoner transit warrant from Nampally criminal court to submit it in Delhi court to get the custody of Tunda, who Hyderabad police commissioner recently claimed has allegedly given training of explosives assembling to Saleem Junaid in Bangladesh. Tunda according to city police could also hold a key towards leads to other terror strikes in the city.

City police was so excited to get Tunda in 1998 Terror case that they any how went to Delhi without any PT warrant to at least interrogate Tunda. However, they returned back disappointed as Abdul Kareem was shifted to AIIMS after chest pain.

SIT is hopeful of getting a PT warrant and get it accepted from Delhi court to get Tunda into their folds to mark an end to the humiliation city police suffered in 1998 for letting terrorists skipped away in a legal triangle.

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: A. Sayeed, national president of Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has given a clarion call to start a new political movement, a struggle for another freedom, together with all intellectuals from all walks of life under a common platform to defeat the forces of communalism and to stop “Politics of Terrorism”.

Sayeed gave the call while delivering his presidential address during a discussion on ‘Politics of Terrorism’ held here in New Delhi on Thursday in the Eid Milan programme organised by SDPI. The SDPI would wholeheartedly welcome everyone to continue fighting for the cause to put an end to “Politics of Terrorism”, he added.

SDPI leaders along with Bhai Tej Singh, national president of Ambedkar Samajwadi Party, at Eid Milan programme in Delhi wherein a discussion on 'Politics of Terrorism' was held.

He said that the ruling class of India is following the same path of British rule in the country of Divide and Rule Policy . The seeds sown by the British have blossomed fully in the Independent India and political parties are making use of religious and caste divisions for their gains. Earlier the British used the divisions for economic exploitation and strengthening their rule. Now Indian politicians also are using it in a similar way for their own advantages, he added.

Continuing Sayeed said that Muslims who are being targetted in communal riots and the war of terrorism have to be brought out from the fear psychosis to give them relief so that they can also prosper like others in free India. He said that the so-called fight against terrorism is only a tool in the hands of criminals to cover the robbery and corruption, they do not care about any principle or ideology. It is important to note that corruption and misuse of power are growing in India parallel to the so-called fight against terrorism.

He charged that the concept of terrorism, which has been hired from America, is widely used as a tool by Indian politicians, administration and media. Several incidents and experiences have proved that elements like ISI, Indian Mujahideen, LeT, CIA, Mossad, Israel, America are only one and a single team which plans, operates, investigates, conducts trials and punishes in the name of terrorism. Muslim community is demoralized, dehumanized and socially excluded by way of this conspiracy, he moaned.

E. Abubacker, the former president of SDPI, said the importance of Eid, the festival celebrated with the utmost happiness, has turned out to be a total disastrous for Muslims of the country for last several years. The community is suffering from terrible pain even during the festive seasons as hundreds and thousands of innocent Muslims have been jailed by targeting them under the fake cases of terrorism. Why am I in jail? This is the question which is being raised by the illegally detained victims who are languishing in jails for long to which the secularists and intellectuals of the nation do not have a convincing answer. The true happiness could surely be realized when we together hold the rope of unity and wage war against the anti-national, anti-humanity elements strengthening themselves under the siege of corrupt & communal politics. He said: “We do stand with the hundreds and thousands of families of the falsely implicated victimised Muslim youths in their hour trial and tribulations”.

Adv. Sharfuddin, general secretary of SDPI, who made a thought provoking speech on ‘Politics of Terrorism’, said that terrorism is born out of injustices perpetuated by a group who holds reign of power over the down-trodden. He said terrorism is always recognised by the forces which perpetuate it with open defiance. However, the state terrorism is camouflaged by the government of the day assigning fictitious reasons to the violence unleashed by forces at its command. He charged that IB (Intelligence Bureau) has become fountainhead of state terrorism with fake encounters being its hallmark. The involvement of Rajendra Kumar, Intelligence Bureau's special director, a senior IPS officer, who has been charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation's decision in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, is being defended by the government saying his conviction would put the moral down of the security forces of the country.

He lamented that injustice has been institutionalised in India. The politics of terror has become a symbol. The caste-based terrorism is very ancient in India wherein the upper caste terrifies the lower caste people into submission and treats them in a very inhuman way, he added.

Meanwhile, at the outset Hafiz Manzoor Ali Khan, vice president of SDPI, in his welcome address said right from its inception and coming into existence the SDPI has been struggling for the rights of the oppressed. He explained that on the occasion of Eid Milan programme the party is holding discussion on “Politics of Terrorism” to remember and express solidarity with those innocent Muslim youths who have languishing in jails illegally for years even without trials in some cases. He wondered how the secular credentials of the country are being trampled with through state’s politics of terrorism.

Hafiz Manzoor informed that SDPI has launched a month-long campaign entitled “Stop Politics of Terrorism” from August 15 last to September 15 wherein seminars in four metropolitan cities are to be conducted. The first is being conducted here in Delhi and the next three would be held in Kolkatta, Mumbai and Bangalore shortly. He said SDPI has presence in 23 states of which in 13 states the state units of the party are functioning in full-fledged manner.

Maulana Mufti Mohammad Mukarram, who is Imam of Delhi’s Fatahpuri Masjid, said that the state terrorism must be condemned in very strong words. He called for a coordinated struggle against politics of terrorism in league with secular minded people of all parties.

Dr. Zafarul Islam, president AIMMM [All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat] and editor of fortnightly Milli Gazette, said that RSS & BJP are in the forefront organizations functioning by exerting all their efforts to terrorize the people of the nation. Various surveys conducted worldwide and even in India have pronounced that the Muslims in India have nothing to do with the terrorist activities. But why is that there are a number of terrorist attacks at different religious places? Surely, we have discovered that they were systematically carried out by the killers of Gandhi, he remarked.

He appealed Muslims to always properly utilize their votes. “Do not vote Congress ever! Forget the BJP. It’s the Congress which is playing all the spoilt politics. It’s the Congress which is pointing at Modi and frightening Muslims to gain their votes and continue their vote bank politics”, he said.

Maulana Ansar Raza, Chairman of Ghareeb Nawaz Foundation, demanded that a committee should be formed to look into the working and progress of committees which have been appointed by each incumbent Prime Minister of India to oversee the Muslims welfare and sort out their problems.

Dr. Islam suggested that Muslims should bring out a White Paper on war of terrorism in India which would unravel the truth of ongoing state terrorism against Muslims. He advised Muslims should approach Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch organisations and brief them about the ongoing Indian security agencies role in perpetuating state terrorism on Muslim youths.

Maulana Raza said: “I suspect that the Congress has bribed BJP to pose Modi as a communal figure and frighten Muslims so that the community turns towards Congress, like ever and vote it to power. Muslims are not going to get frightened by Modi or such extremist communal elements. Surely the community will come up with its own strength to counter the “Politics of terrorism”, he asserted.

M. A. Kazmi, a senior journalist, said: “We should study and understand the conspiracies being framed by the anti- people governments. Different communities are frightened either by luring or instilling fear in them and play the vote bank politics. Most often the people get frightened of communal violence. We all should come forward united to fight against the purpose that the anti-people governments are functioning to harass”.

Prof. P. Koya, Chief Editor, Malayalam Thejas Daily said: “We should be aware of a deep system of security agencies which are controlling public opinion, Parliament, State legislative assemblies and even judiciary to undermine democratic values in the country”. He stressed that we should come together while forgetting about petty political advantages to fight against such security agencies which are undermining democracy in the country.

Tasleem Rehmani, Secretary, Welfare Party of India, wondered that shouldn’t we take a note of Congress which is leading in promoting communalism during its rule? Isn’t the Congress creating an environment and instilling fear among Muslims? The intellectuals among Muslims should understand that it’s the Congress which has been playing the vote bank politics by terrorizing the Muslim community.

Bhai Tej Singh, national president, Ambedkar Samajwadi Party, said that 4500 years ago Hindus started terrorism over lower caste people and Dalits. The Brahmins, Chhattris and Vaishs, who are only 10-12 per cent, constitute Hindu community and are unfortunately controlling centres of power. He called for an alliance between Muslims and Dalits, who are in majority in the country, to empower them politically to wrest power.

Maulana Usman Baig, president of All India Imam Council, said that it’s the negative politics that has been played by all the political parties which have ruled the country. However, Muslims should indulge in positive politics to empower themselves.

S. Q. R. Ilyas, National general secretary of Welfare of Party of India, said that Muslims should stop complaining about all the oppression they have been facing. He said that corporate media in collaboration with the government is keeping Muslims away from centres of power. The UPA-1 and UPA-2 in its more than nine years of rule has hiked prices of petrol 16 times but no one is raising any voice against it. He called upon Muslims to take on the forces working against them as a challenge. Bring awareness at large and let the people be aware.

Meanwhile, E M Abdul Rehman, former Chairman of Popular Front of India, Ms Naznin Begum, vice president of SDPI; and Abdul Khalique, general secretary of Lok Janshakti Party, and Ramanuj Kumar , president, Backward Association also spoke on the occasion. (pervezbari@eth.net

By TCN News,

Bhopal: Thousands of survivors of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal today marched to the Chief Minister’s residence demanding that the state government walk its talk on the matter of additional compensation for death and injuries caused by the disaster.

Jointly led by five organizations, the marchers waved copies of official statements by the Chief Minister in 2010 and 2011 that call upon the central government to pay additional compensation to people injured by the disaster and to review the official estimate of the number of deaths caused by the disaster.

“In June 2010 the Chief Minister wrote to the Prime Minister calling for payment of Rs. 5 lakhs to each victim of the Bhopal disaster instead of Rs. 25 thousand that 93 % have got.” said Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. “In today’s demonstration we are demanding that the Chief Minister put the money where his mouth is and ensure that victims of the disaster each receive at least Rs. 5 lakhs from the state government.”

Mr. Balrishna Namdeo, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha said that while the Chief Minister asserts that 15342 died as a result of the disaster in his letter to the Prime Minister, the state government continues to present a figure of 5295 in the curative petition for additional compensation before the Supreme Court. “The Chief Minister must stop his double talk and issue directions for revision of the death count in the state government’s petition.” he said.

“It is time the Chief Minister stops making pre-election promises and fulfils the ones he made to the victims of the disaster in the state capital three years back. He should pay up or shut up.” said Rashida Bee of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh.

Nawab Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha held the state government primarily responsible for the low compensation amount that the victims of Bhopal have received. “Contrary to Union Carbide’s own information that methyl isocyanate causes permanent damage, the state government’s Directorate of Claims categorized 93 % of the victims as only temporarily injured and deprived them of their rightful compensation.”

Safreen Khan, founder of the Children against Dow – Carbide, called upon the Chief Minister to act on his promise of accompanying the representatives of the survivors’ organizations to a meeting with the Prime Minister on the issue of additional compensation to the victims of the Bhopal disaster. “Both the governments at the state and the centre have betrayed the victims of Bhopal. Both governments need to make amends for their historic betrayal.” she said.

By Anis Ahmed,

Egypt has once again made it to the headlines but unfortunately this time it was due to a very wrong reason. Two years ago the entire world celebrated the much hyped “Arab Spring” calling it a revolution. The fact cannot be denied that the “Arab spring” which ultimately forced Mubarak to quit had brought hopes of democracy to the eyes of every Arab belong to various countries.

A long and barbaric era of Mubarak was brought to an end and it resolved to make Egypt a sovereign democracy. The path to democracy was never easy but with continuous efforts the people of Egypt were able to hold election and elect their first democratically elected President. This was seen as a great victory of democracy especially considering its historical rule of famous strongmen.

All the expectations were vanquished, hopes were buried alive and dreams very brutally shattered in a single day. On 3rd July 2013 the General Abdel Fateh Al- Sisi – a darling of US – toppled the democratically elected government and brought Egypt back to the era of martial laws and army rule. Adly Mansour, a close associate of Hosni Mubarak was appointed as the interim president. Thousand of innocent Morsi supporters are killed every day under the excuse of the famous “George Bush formula of fighting terror”.

While the government is going with its killing spree of innocent protestors on the other hand they are building cases on Mr. Morsi for using force on anti-Morsi protestors. These entire chain of events are proudly called as “a continuation of the revolution”.

Egypt’s tryst with democracy only lasted for a year and the future seems very uncertain. We will indeed see elections happening but it will be the “Mubarak style” of rigged election where only a pre-determined person will win election after election without any opposition. The case of Egypt is indeed a very sorry tale but it is not a unique case. Going through the pages of history we can see such cases of toppling democratically elected have been going on since the 1950s.

The most famous case will be the over throw of the democratically elected government of President Mosaddeq in Iran in 1953. And everyone knows who overthrow his government. Let complete the sentence, it was the United States. These actions are called “covert operations” in the intelligence vocabulary. Numerous governments were toppled by planning a coup to be executed by the countries own army or the head of the country was assassinated or the final solution of sending an US led army in the name of protecting the civilized world. The US and its allies has been involved in numerous such operations. The procedure of toppling democratically elected government is a well document in the “Standard Operating Procedure” documents of the CIA and other agencies. The steps are planned to evolve one after another and the final outcome will be the fall of the government.

The first step will be creating socio-economic problems which results in developing frustration among the citizen. The reason can be anything like shattering a countries economy by means of international boycotts as done in Iran in 1953 or presenting the head of state as a communist freak as done with Hugo Chavez or increase unemployment and inflation as done in Egypt. These situations prove to be very fruitful in building a strong anti-government faction. The second stage would be to create unrest which includes protests conducted by major pro-US political parties, trade unions and celebrities. The protest usually lead to violent clashes in which we see mysterious incidents of killing of protestors to in turn intensifies the violent nature of the protests. Finally comes the Army to restore peace to the country and how do they do it? By simply overthrowing the government. Now can’t we see this pattern repeated in Egypt and now in-progress in Tunisia?

In the case of Egypt the Supreme Command of Armed Forces (SCAF) never wanted to give away power to the people. This a bunch of high level Army Generals developed under the mentorship of Mubarak. The SCAF was never comfortable with democracy as they only wished a transfer of power from Mubarak to most like Al-Sisi. But the biggest hurdle was the Egyptian cry for democracy which could not be ignored. Since the Arab Spring we have seen the SCAF always tried to make the path to democracy difficult and it was evident that they want to have short term romance with democracy and when the smoke settles again move back to Army rule with a brand new dictator. There was an evident power tussle between the Army and Mr. Mohammed Morsi for the entire one year duration of the government.

Though the power was nominally in the hands of the Mr. Morsi the controls on various departments of administration were still with the army. As per the plan the Army deployed a plan with which shortage of water, electricity and other basic amenities were created. These steps were aimed to create frustration among the Egyptians. There was increase in inflation and the entire discussion was related to uplift the deterioting economy of the country. Every sensible mind would understand that the economy of any country can never be recovered in a year. It took around 5 years for the US economy to come on track after the recession so how can Egypt’s economy will recover from exploits of the corrupt gang of Mubarak era? The most important factor to note here is that people where convinced that it was the failure of the newly elected government that they could not make Egyptian economy like that of any western country within a year. This is the power of media campaign, and who controls the Egyptian media? It’s again the pro-Mubarak and Army corporates.

In my previous article published during the Arab Spring, I had brought forward the concern of whether the Arab Uprising called be called revolution. We had concluded that it cannot be called a revolution as there is no change the internal system which controls the government. Everyone had hoped that with Mr. Morsi coming to power, he and his party would be successful in cleaning off the entire administration from clutches of the old vultures. But it is proved that this was not an easy task and since the fall of Mubarak a new generation of Army officials led by General Al-Sisi had an entire plan to bring back the power directly in their hands within a year. Unfortunately the uprising could never become a revolution as the people of Egypt failed in understanding the real intentions and plan of the Army and their US masters.

As I mentioned earlier this situation is not just limited to Egypt but we see similar plots to overthrow the democratically elected governments in Tunisia and also Turkey. In Tunisia the largest trade union is on the road protesting against the government claiming the same story of “Improving Economy”. We soon we will again see the army coming and toppling the government in Tunisia. In Turkey a small protest against the cutting of trees in the central park turned into a nationwide anti-government protest which demands the removal of the democratically elected government. But the case of Turkey is bit different as the government could manage the situation and control the eager awaiting army.

Now the question is why these democratically elected governments are targeted? The answer is the similarity in their ideology which is considered as a threat by the US ad Israel for the region. All these parties are termed as Islamist Parties which came to power through democracy which has always been seen as a foe of Islamist. Here we see a new trend where the Islamists who were never in the good books of the US are accepting the democratic form of politics and also becoming successful in this. The US and the west which claims to be the protector of democracy should have been happy but they are not and this was expected.

The US is more than happy to support those people whose are open enemies of democracy. The whole story lies in the fact that the Arab nations are evolving into democratic sovereign countries which means the entire power decision making will go into the hands of the people and the US friendly army generals and powerful families won’t have a say in the internal and external policies of the Arab country. We have seen how much of a problem is Iran for the US after the 1979 revolution which overthrow the Pehlavi rule and brought democracy in Iran. How can the US allow the countries in that region to do the same? So for the US policy makers democracy in Middle east is the real problem.

The fascinating thing about this entire sorry tale is the democratic struggle by the democracy loving citizens of Egypt. This is indeed a agitation which the world has never seen. The important fact to know is that these protests are going on under the most barbaric form of repression from the Army. The killing of innocent protestors by Egyptian government has even over shadowed the mass killing on innocents in Syria and Palestine.

As we are reading this article hundred more protesters are being killed but still the spirit of agitation never agrees to die. This is the most important lesson for all the activists, political parties and organizations which work for social justice. The oppressive regimes have no limits to their brutality and they will go to any level to save their power. The people of Egypt are setting up an example before the world on how to fight an oppressive regime with only the power of determination and commitment. We need to understand that a struggle of such intensity never goes waste. The result and outcome of this struggle will be seen but we are cannot predict what will be the nature of the result. It is time to show solidarity towards these defenders of democracy and justice. It is time to let them know that we are with them and we respect every drop of blood they sacrifice for this noble cause.

(The author is Bangalore based Software Engineer and a human rights activist and columnist. He is also a member of the National Executive Council of Popular Front of India.)

Related:

Egypt’s descent into chaos and the dilemma of Muslims

By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,

Guwahati: Taking part in Jumma Namaz at Islamic Education Centre Jame Masjid at Hatigaon in Guwahati on Friday, Assam Governor JB Patnaik advocated that women should also be allowed to offer Namaz at mosques along with men. The governor who was also accompanied by his wife Jayanti Patnaik said that such activity will help the women folk in the society for a better tomorrow.

“It’s a great feeling to be a part on this occasion here. I’m not an Islamic scholar but what I feel is that every religion teaches us to love our fellow being and spread the message peace and harmony for the welfare of the entire community. I also feel that the women in the society should also be allowed to be a part of this great opportunity,” said the governor after offering namaz at Islamic Education Centre Jame Masjid, which is probably only mosque in the state where women are allowed to offer namaz.

His wife Jayanti Patnaik was seen sitting in the row made for women and expressed her pleasure to be present on the occasion. Islamic Education Centre Jame Masjid which was established in 2004 has set an example for the community by letting in women to offer namaz in mosque.

Vice President of the Islamic Education Centre and Jame Masjid Akhtar Uddin Ahmed said women are allowed to offer namaz in the mosque since 2004 after the new building of the mosque has come up. “This mosque is the first declared mosque in the whole of state where men and women offer their namaz together in the same building,” he said.

It can be mentioned that in 2011 Governor Patnaik stirred up a hornet’s nest among a faction of Islamic fraternity after he offered namaz along with women for the very first time inside the 17th century Ajan Peer Dargah in Sivasagar district. He also took initiative to get women devotees inside Vasnavite monasteries or better known as Sattra in Barpeta where women were not allowed to get inside earlier.

By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,

Aligarh: The much awaited Kishanganj centre of the Aligarh Muslim University will soon become a reality. Later this year,a course in B.Ed. is expected to begin, according to the Vice-Chancellor of the AMU.

In an exclusive interview with the TwoCircles.net, Vice Chancellor of AMU, Lieutenant General Zameerud-din Shah said that within two months the Kishanganj centre should be functional with a course in Bachelors in Education, latest by November.

Zameerud-din Shah

“In Kishanganj centre, we are straightaway going start a course in B.Ed. this year. It may start a little late, by October or November,” said Lt. Gen. Shah in an exlclusive interview to TCN.

He added that the Central Government is very keen to have the inauguration of the centre and we are working towards it, and I think, we should very soon be able to start.

On the question of AMU centres evolving into full fledged Unviersity and fear over its minority character, Lt. Gen. Shah said that he has been assured by the Ministry of Minority Affairs that its “minority character will be taken care of,” and hence has no problem as such.

He further added that these centres have yet not been given due shares of funds, but when they become universities, the Maulana Azad Foundation, under whom the universities will function, they will be able to get larger grants which will benefit education in general to a great degree, specially in minority dominated pockets.

As he completed 15 months in office, Lt. Gen. Shah was had a detailed conversation with TCN about his achievements, his vision and his shortcomings.

(Watch out this space for the full internview.)

By IANS,

Lucknow : The son-in-law of a Samajwadi Party legislator and close associate of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was shot at in the Uttar Pradesh capital Friday night, police said Saturday. The man was unhurt.

Sameer, the son-in-law of member of legislative council Buqqal Nawaab, was driving past a shopping mall in the posh Gomtinagar area, when unidentified assailants opened fire at his car.

While two bullets hit the car, Sameer escaped unhurt.

"The assailants were in a car and I could not recognise them," he told police.

Sameer said he was into a litigation with some people and suspected they could be behind the attack.

By IANS,

Lucknow : The BJP Saturday criticised the Samajwadi Party (SP) for giving a religious hue to the issue of terrorism, after a party leader said Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal was targeted because he was a Muslim.

SP spokesman Kamaal Farooqui made the statement on Bhatkal in New Delhi Friday.

Bhatkal, wanted by police in 12 states for bombings and other terror activities in the last five years, was arrested from the India-Nepal border Thursday. He was arrested along with Asadullah Akhtar, his terror accomplice.

On Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said Samajwadi Party leaders "had stooped to a new low in their quest for minority votes".

"The issue of a terrorism is a national one and should not be seen through a religious prism," he said.

"Though we do not expect anything better from a party whose government in Uttar Pradesh is withdrawing cases against terror accused, the silence of the top Samajwadi Party leadership in the matter reflects the party's mindset on a serious national issue like terrorism," Pathak said.

By Imran Khan, IANS,

Patna : Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, who was arrested Thursday, was the brain behind recruitment of youth in Bihar to carry out terror attacks across the country, a police official said Saturday.

Bhatkal, wanted by police in 12 states for bombings and other terror activities in the last five years, was arrested in Raxaul in East Champaran district Thursday. He was arrested along with Asadullah Akhtar, his terror accomplice.

Bhatkal revealed during interrogation that he recruited youth from Bihar's Mithilanchal region, including Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur districts, in the last few years, said a superintendent of police rank official.

"Bhatkal confessed that he used to target young boys, mostly from poorest of the poor background, in Mithilanchal for recruitment to carry out terror attacks in the country," said the official who was part of a team that interrogated Bhatkal in Bihar soon after he was arrested.

He said Bhatkal admitted that he and his associates first identified potential boys and recruited them for a specific operation.

Only after they succeeded and their names or identity did not figure anywhere, then only they were taken for the second stage of induction for intensive training.

"Haan, maine bharti kiya hain (Yes, I recruited young boys)," Bhatkal told interrogators of Bihar Police, National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau, before he was flown to Delhi.

"Bhatkal said the recruitment process was a big task and a risky game. It was not easy to motivate the youth to join for a cause," the police official said.

Another senior police official said it is suspected that Bhatkal was the man behind recruitment of all 18 Indian Mujahideen operatives arrested by security forces from Darbhanga in the last two years.

"Bhatkal accepted his direct involvement in recruitments in Darbhanga," the police official said.

Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Abhyanand earlier in the day said the state police did not arrest Bhatkal alone, but it worked with the NIA and the central intelligence.

"Bihar Police participated in the interrogation of Bhatkal along with the NIA and central intelligence body soon after he was arrested, as per the law," Abhayanand said at a press conference here, after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused state police that it made no attempt to interrogate the IM co-founder.

Abhayanand said superintendent of police-ranked officials of Bihar participated in the interrogation of Bhatkal at Bettiah and Raxaul.

"Officials of Bihar Police and NIA as well as central intelligence interrogated Bhatkal for hours," he said.

Abhayanand, however, said Bhatkal was not staying at Raxaul. "He was arrested there on the basis of an input of the central intelligence agency that he was to visit Raxaul that day."

He said Bihar Police worked on the basis of the intelligence input, and "actively helped NIA and central intelligence agency in this secret operation".

(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)

By IANS,

Jammu : Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Saturday said there was no question of Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for 2014, being held early.

Addressing a press conference jointly with Ambika Soni, Congress general secretary, in charge of Jammu and Kashmir affairs, and Saif-ud-Din Soz, president of the state Congress unit, Azad said: "Holding early Lok Sabha elections is ruled out."

"There is no question of holding these elections earlier than scheduled," he said.

The Congress leaders were addressing the media after a one-day convention of party workers of Jammu division which ended here Saturday.

The convention adopted a resolution which condemned the Pakistani firing on the border and the continuing attempts of infiltration into the state from across the Line of Control (LOC).

The resolution asked the central government to take a serious note of the developments and also take effective steps to check these.

The resolution urged the state government to declare areas falling within eight to 10 km radius of the border in Jammu and Kashmir as backward and extend all the benefits under the provision to the residents of these areas.

The resolution demanded a rehabilitation package for Pakistan refugees who settled in the Jammu division in 1947, 1965 and 1971.

The party workers' convention hailed the passage of the food security bill in the Lok Sabha calling it a historic decision.

Answering a question on whether the Congress would forge an alliance with the National Conference for the forthcoming Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly polls, Ambika Soni said: "It is too early to say anything about that."

Talking about the forthcoming Zubin Mehta concert in Srinagar, Azad said it was a good thing that such an international event was taking place in Kashmir.

By Mohit Dubey, IANS,

Ayodhya/Lucknow : A temple where Ram idol is kept and a mosque barely few hundred metres away. This is the crux of a solution that a retired high court judge is working on to resolve the simmering five-decade old Ayodhya religious dispute. But there are few takers.

Palok Basu, retired Allahabad High Court (HC) judge, has been trying for the last one year to thrash out a solution.

Basu's efforts, seen as leading a move of Ayodhya residents, talk of construction of a Ram temple at the place where 'Ram lalla' (idol of Lord Ram) is kept under a tentage and a simultaneous construction of a mosque a few hundred metres away.

The problem is that except a handful of supporters, who do not belong to either religious camp, the plans of the former judge have not found favour with the parties involved in the dispute.

VHP spokesman Sharad Sharma criticised Basu's "unwanted intervention" and said the former high court judge stayed in the Sangam city but had a "penchant of poking a finger in the Ram temple issue every now and then, without any reason or logic".

"Some weeks back he had said he will get a signed petition of 10,000 people and submit it before the Supreme Court. But nothing has happened so far. He keeps on with this flip flops all the time. No one takes him seriously," Sharma told IANS.

Vinay Katiyar, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and one of the accused in the the Babri demolition case, said Basu did not himself know what he was seeking to get.

"Basu babu ko khud nahin pata hai wo kya chahte hain, roz naya shigufa chodte hain, kabhi maszid to kabhi mandir ki baat karte hain, ye saara khel Congress ke kehne par ho raha hai hai" (Mr Basu does not know what he is doing, sometimes he talks of mosque and some times of a temple, I know this whole game has been scripted by the Congress), Katiyar told IANS.

Zafaryab Jilani, convener of the Babri Action Committee and now Uttar Pradesh additional advocate general, also feels efforts of Justice Basu were not only "an exercise in futility but also unwarranted".

"We are not even listening to what Mr Basu is trying to do or suggest but he should know that a mosque built at one place cannot be shifted elsewhere. In any case the matter is sub-judice and we will welcome what ever decision the apex court takes in this matter," Jilani told IANS.

Commenting on the efforts being made by Basu in thrashing out an out-of-court solution to the contentious issue, senior Congress leader and Gandhi family loyalist Pramod Tiwari says any efforts were only wastage of time and energy.

"One must realize that efforts have been made in the past but to no avail. The matter is before the Supreme Court and it will decide on it," he said.

Local leaders cite the Sep 30, 2010 verdict of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court where the court had tri-furcated the 67-acre land, since acquired by the union government, between 'Ram Lalla', Nirmohi Akhara (an organisation of Hindu savants) and the Muslims. This verdict was followed by a slew of petitions in the apex court.

Sole surviving petitioner Hashim Ansari had also ruled out any concession to the Hindus and went ahead with a writ petition.

Ever since the Supreme Court stayed the verdict May 2011, efforts were undertaken by Basu to get the dispute settled "amicably and peacefully".

The plan, sources say, has the backing of locals. They have since signed a petition seeking settlement of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute through talks, without any external interference, by residents of Faizabad and Ayodhya and with a holistic approach.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)

By TCN News,

Hyderabad: Students Islamic Organization of India Hyderabad unit is going to organize a Student Festival with a motive of understanding the real essence of education and to provide a platform for the students to exhibit their skills and talents in any field. SIO Hyderabad has decided to organize “The Hyderabad Students’ Festival’ 13” on 28 & 29 September (Saturday & Sunday) at the Exhibition ground at Nampally.

According to the press statement issued by Layeeq Ahmed Khan (Chief Organizer) the fest will cover the varied academic and non academic interests of students of various streams and back ground of education. “It will be a unique kind of fest first ever to be organized in Hyderabad, which will provide a common platform to the students to showcase their talents and creativity.

Poetry, Feature Article writing, Elocution, Mock Parliament, Paper presentations, project demonstrations, photography, poster making, painting, drama, songs, story writing, robotics, and football cage are some of the events which are to be part of the fest. The target students are from Intermediate till PG level of various streams like Engineering, Humanities, Management, Medicine, Journalism and Arts.”

SIO city unit has formed its core fest team to execute the complete operation of the fest and has put everything on proper plan to organize this fest handsomely with great success.

The more details of the fest with the option of online registration for the event of student’s choice can be had from www.hydstudentfest.com.

By TCN News,

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches (APFC), which is a state-level apex body of Archbishops/Bishops/Church Heads of the mainline Churches and major Christian Denominations representing the Christian Community in the State, protested strongly against any move to legislate upon Christian properties and educational institutions.

Through the G.O. Rt. No. 3696 dated 17-08-2013 of General Administration (Cabinet) Department the Government of A.P. has “constituted a Group of Ministers for examining the proposal for enacting a separate legislation to protect the properties of Christian missionaries and educational institutions.” In this connection,A.P. Federation of Churches (APFC) has submitted to the Govt. the official view regarding the enactment of legislation on Christian properties.

According to a statement issued by Reverend Father Dr. Anthoniraj Thumma & Mr. B. Danam IAS (Retd) Executive Secretaries, (APFC) aftermuch reflection and due deliberation their organization has prepared a Position Paper titled: “Official Stand and Views of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches on enacting a Law for the Regulation of Church Properties”, Which is forwarded to Principal Secretary and secretary Minorities Welfare Department and the convener of GoM.

According to APFC, in 2007 the Government of Andhra Pradesh has brought out draft Bills for the protection of Church Properties on the recommendation of the House Committee of the Legislative Assembly. The then Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (who himself was a Christian) dropped the Bills due to opposition from Andhra Pradesh Bishops’ Council (APBC) of the Roman Catholic Church and A.P. Federation of Churches (APFC), after pressure was brought upon from the Congress High Command.

Again in 2011, the Central and State Governments sought the views of Bishops and leaders of the Churches with a view to enact a Central legislation. “Official Stand and Views of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches on enacting a Law for the Regulation of Church Properties” was sent to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, other Central Ministers concerned and Government Agencies.

In the meantime, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) and the A.P. State Minorities Commission (APSMC) has supported the stand of the Churches for not having a Government Board / Council for Christian properties.

APFC has also submitted to present Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy through letter dated 15-12-2011 and the stamp of acknowledgement of receipt was obtained in the Office of the Chief Minister on 23-12-2011, the stand of Churches and National and State Minorities commission.

APFC claimed they failed to understand why state Govt. is adamant in introducing the bill while “The Centre has given up the move, one wonders why our State Government is still persisting to impose its control on the administration of Church properties and Christian Educational Institutions.”

In 2012, against the recommendations of its own Advisory Council consisting of Bishops and Church Heads (others are only invitees) and the views and appeal of APFC, the Andhra Pradesh State Christian (Minorities) Corporation (APSCMFC) wrote to the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) and the Commissioner and Inspector General of Registration and Stamps asking them to issue order requiring NOC to sell or register Church properties. These Orders however were suspended by the High Court of A.P. in the case WP: 22439 of 2012 in its Judgment dated 24-07-2012 on the basis of Article 26 giving right to the Minorities to administer their properties.

Despite all these APFC wonder why at this point of time, the Government of A.P. has constituted a Group of Ministers knowing that the Churches are strongly opposed to the enactment of any legislation on Christian properties. APFC stated “The demand of some individual Christians for enacting legislation on Church properties on the pretext of a few incidents of mismanagement is not at all justified since recourse can be had to the existing Courts to redress their grievances.”

To boost their case APFC made a legal argument that, “Most of the Church bodies and Educational Institutions are registered Societies / Trusts which are already governed by the A.P. Registration of Societies Act, Indian Trust Act and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and Rules framed there under. Therefore, any new law in this regard would be only be superfluous and may contradict the existing laws, thus creating more confusion. Besides, many of the Churches are also international organizations and posses their own self-regulating mechanisms with regard to the management of finances and properties. Unlike the Hindu Endowments and Muslim Wakfs, the properties of the Churches are private in nature since most of them are not gifted but bought with the monies of the Churches.”

APFC has humbly requested the Govt. to give due weight to the views of the organization headed by Archbishops / Bishops as it legitimately represents the Churches and Christian Community of the State. APFC asserts, “Individual Christians, even if they happen to be MLAs or holding any other high position, cannot claim to represent the Christian Community. The APFC opposes government legislation on Church properties and any form of government control over the properties of Christian Educational Institutions. As you are aware, formation of any sort of Board / Council for Christians by the Government with a view to regulate or exercise control over their affairs would only go against Articles 26-30 of our Constitution.”

APFC expressed gratitude to the Government of A.P. for their concern for safeguarding the Church properties; but requested them to consider seriously the views of the APFC on the matter and not to proceed further without consulting the Archbishops / Bishops and taking them into confidence. Now as the GoM on Christian properties has been constituted without they asking for it, APFC requested Govt. to obtain their views by arranging a meeting with them.