By IANS,

Srinagar : The Jammu and Kashmir authorities Wednesday imposed selective restrictions in the summer capital here after separatists called for a march in the city.

Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani called for a march to the headquarters of the UN Military Observers' Group in India and Pakistan (Unmogip) in Sonawar area.

Geelani appealed to people to assemble in Hyderpora locality from where he would lead the march to the Unmogip office.

"A memorandum addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would be presented to the UN observers, protesting the recent killings in Kashmir," Geelani said in his appeal.

Geelani was placed under house arrest in his uptown Hyderpora residence, while police also restricted movement of traffic and public in Hyderpora and Sonawar areas.

"Precautionary measures have been taken at some places in the city to maintain law and order. The situation is otherwise normal in the city and elsewhere," a police official told IANS.

Shops, educational institutions, public and private transport, businesses, government offices, banks and post offices functioned normally in the city.

Meanwhile, curfew continued in Shopian town Wednesday. Authorities said curfew was relaxed for some time Tuesday evening.

AP Sate Minorities Commission to request NCM to become party in Supreme Court appeal.

By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Commission has decided to approach National Commission for Minorities for bringing to its notice that their leading achievement got drown in administrative laxity, which now holds national upshot.

The state High Court judgment terming payment of compensation to the wrongful terror arrest victims as unlawful has come as surprise for many but for Minorities Commission it’s a shock. Moreover, High Court has even ordered state Government to recover the amount already been allotted to the victims.

File photo of Abid Rasool Khan in a meeting.

It was the active intervention, major findings and strong recommendations of State Minorities Commission and National Minorities Commission which compelled state Congress Government to grant compensation to the youths who were tortured in illegal detention and prosecuted in fabricated terror cases after Mecca Masjid and Twin bomb blasts in 2007.

State Commission chairman Abid Rasool Khan, speaking with TCN, said he is going to write letter to State Government to effectively challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court and will be meeting NCM chairman Wajahat Habibullah to solicit NCM for taking lead in the case and to become a party to the state appeal in the highest court of the land.
Mr. Khan said he will appeal to NCM to bare all the legal costs in this case to represent it accurately in the Supreme Court and the state commission itself will take part in the challenging process along with state Government.

Mr. Abid Rasool Khan said he was shocked by the judgment, “Honorable Court didn’t take into consideration that compensation was given to those youths not just for wrongful arrest but for torture they have undergone in illegal detention.”

He also felt that Court has not taken the other account into deliberation, “Those youths were the first affected once in the case, and court has given the judgment without giving them a chance to represent their stand or their side of the account.”

Earlier speaking with TCN state Minority Affairs Minister Mohammed Ahmedulah refused any laxity on part of his Government in representing the matter in the High Court, but he was clueless when asked about the nature of documentation placed by Advocate General in the High Court.
SMC chairman who himself is former state Congress general secretary believed that there seems possibility of lapse by the state side in presenting the facts properly in the court of law. “Minority Affairs Ministry should have taken more interest in this crucial case, if there was some lapse in representing the case, than SMC will look into it to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” But he cautiously adds that state govt. should not be singled out to blame.

“To be frank no one publicly knew this case has reached in such an advance stage, as SMC chairman and political leader it was also my responsibility to monitor the case. Now we will pursue the case in a proper manner and will ensure NCM or SCM becomes party in this case,” Mr. Khan said.

File photo of Minority affairs minister Ahmedullah allotting compensation check to terror acquitted Muslim youth.

Abid Rasool Khan is not just concerned about the effect of the court order on those 70 odd Muslim youths but its gravity of national ramifications, “I will bring to the notice of NCM that national ramifications of this High Court order if it goes unchallenged or ended on with the same fate in the Supreme Court will be disastrous. There are hundreds of other Muslim youth who were falsely implicated in terror cases and after life gets shattered they were acquitted. They also deserve to be compensated, but now this High Court could become a precedent for other courts to oppose it, unless we get it reversed from the Supreme Court.”

But the fight in the Supreme Court will not be restricted this time to compensation, as the recommendations of National and State Minorities Commission goes it demanded action against guilty police officers and compensation to be paid to those youths from the salaries of erring officers not from the tax payer’s account.

Mr. Khan said now the whole matter will come up in the Supreme Court, “We will place all our recommendations before the Supreme Court, the reasons and background behind those recommendations will also be explained. So in the argument the action against guilty police officers will also come up. Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to decide in any matter, so the persecution of these youths by the police will also have to be heard; sure now those police officers will have hard time to present their case in the court.”

On his part, Andhra Pradesh CM Kiran Kumar Reddy told a news channel that the decision to give compensation was an executive order that need not be subjected to judicial review.

By IANS,

New Delhi : Lovers of Urdu will get a treat at the Urdu Heritage Festival starting Sep 20 at the Red Fort here. Qawwalis, gazal renditions, a mushaira and a play are all part of the programme, an official statement said.

The Department of Art, Culture and Languages in collaboration with the Urdu Academy have organised this five-day event, which will see qawwali performances by Aslam Sabri and Nasir Sabri, ghazal recitals by Bhupinder and Mitali, Anwar Hussain, Zila Khan and Anita Singhvi.

A play on the life and times of the 19th century classical Urdu and Persian poet Ghalib, featuring Tom Alter in the lead, will also be staged.

Urdu Academy secretary Anis Azmi said in a statement: "When you talk about Delhi, the culture spun around this beautiful language is spoken of in the same breath. Urdu is a representative of Delhi as much as is the Red Fort. It is this inviolable link that we desire to highlight through this festival."

Another highlight of the festival is an all-India Mushaira that will bring together some of the country's most popular Urdu poets.

Even the dying form of Urdu poetry "Chaar Bait" will be presented in its traditional form.

Entry is free to all. The festival ends Sep 24.

AMU Faculty wonders if the massacre does not prick him, asking him when he was so efficient in getting arrested a Dalit writer in his home constituency for a mere post on Facebook, but so inefficient and helpless in getting arrested the instigators of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

By Mohammad Sajjad,

Mr Azam Khan

Minister, In-charge, Muzaffarnagar

Government of Uttar Pradesh

Sir,

Being a concerned citizen, it may not be out of place to expect from you a few things pertaining to the enormous man-made tragedy of mayhem and bloodshed in Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut…

By now it is abundantly clear even to a naive person that what is happening in the above-mentioned districts is absolutely motivated by desperate vote-grabbing politics.

The police complicity is more than obvious and the government's studied inaction is equally evident.

What is so very distressing is that rather than waking up the administration or doing the needful in the capacity of minister, your response is like roothi huyee dulhan (bride) of the rural lower middle class.

This is certainly not the kind of politics one is trained at AMU (Aligarh Muslim University), your alma mater; nor is it the kind of politics a samajwadi would be expected to practice, regardless of the dilution, mutation, and transformation brought about in that egalitarian ideology.

For what you are doing is hardly politics. If at all it is politics, it is nothing but the politics of self-destruction, where you appear to destroy not only the nation, but also your own political career for good.

You were so very prompt in justifying Durga Nagpal's unjustifiable suspension for her crackdown on the sand mafia and had given a bizarre spin whereby a wanton, officially sponsored, communal polarization was paraded as a step towards pre-empting any such polarization.

If it was an attempt at appeasing sections of Muslims, you have failed miserably as no sane Muslim is prepared to endorse the construction of a mosque on government land without proper prior permission from the government.

Consequently, except motivated political workers, no common voters could be convinced by the arguments put forward by your government/party. Your nominee for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from that constituency is quite unlikely to get Muslim votes from the constituency.

There was enough intelligence inputs about the impending danger of communal violence across Uttar Pradesh. Yet intermittent incidents of eve-teasing and retributive eve-teasings, and lynchings, leading to deaths in both warring communities not far away from the police posts.

Stock-piling of illegal arms and incendiary communal gatherings (mahapanchayats), kept spiraling into the most horrific violence against humanity.

The spread of this barbarity in the villages have made things even worse. It makes administrative complicity and inaction so very evident that your government is rightly alleged to be imitating what the Narendra Modi-led administration did in Gujarat in 2002.

True, this violence may have created fissures between the Jats and Muslims, and it may have an adverse impact on the Rashtriya Lok Dal's electoral prospects, and the Hindutva consolidation may be beneficial to the Bharatiya Janata Party, but what will happen to the Samajwadi Party whose government is seen to be culpable in the mayhem?

Earlier, your party suffered loss of Muslim support when it was perceived to be engaged in underhand dealings with the BJP in 1999, as also with Kalyan Singh in 2007. L K Advani’s autobiography alludes to that effect. Your netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav’s two-hour meeting with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ashok Singhal is being interpreted in so many ways, more so after this violence in Muzaffarnagar.

My dear Azambhai, you were so very efficient in getting arrested a Dalit writer in your own home constituency for a mere post on Facebook, but you are so inefficient and helpless in getting arrested the instigators of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

Don’t the massacres prick your conscience? How can you be so callous?

Having represented Rampur for so many years almost continuously, its people are yet to move upward in education, employment, healthcare etc.

Large number of patients from Rampur rush to AMU’s JN Medical College 150 kilometres away for treatment. Neither the colonial Nawab of Rampur was, nor the neo-nawab that you are often referred to by your critics, have been able to establish an adequately provisioned medical college hospital in Rampur.

Aligarh knows and remembers you as a passionate orator in Hindustani which contributed in raising you as a political leader. Do you think mere oratory will win you back your voters whose kith and kin have been killed on such a large scale while your administration remained either complicit in the killings or showed willful inaction and thereby encouraging the killers?

The people expect you to promptly start befitting action against the rioters by mobilising your administration to nab the culprits, collect the evidence to produce in the court which could punish them. Many such killers in Gujarat are facing trial and punishment.

If at all even an iota of conscience is really left in you, you should embark on this mission of restoring the belief of the people in the criminal justice system.

Simultaneously rehabilitating the displaced ones who number in several thousands and which include Dalits (both Hindus and Muslims), other Muslims, Jats…

This is probably the only way you can save your image as also your political career which has sunken deep and bleak.

Would you also ensure the nation that ‘minority’ politics moves beyond the logic of security and stakes its claim in national development through educational and economic upliftment and thereby strengthens Indian democracy?

And you need not be reminded that no words and deeds of yours should smack of prejudice.

The victim is humanity, not their ascribed caste-community identities.

(Mohammad Sajjad is an Assistant Professor at the Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University. The open letter was first published in Rediff.com)

By IANS,

New Delhi : India has one of the "richest repositories" of man's heritage, and it is critical that we find practical and innovative ways to preserve and maintain it, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Wednesday.

"India has one of the richest repositories of heritage anywhere in the world and it is critical that we find practical and innovative ways to preserve and maintain this heritage," he said while inaugurating the refurbished Humayun's Tomb here.

The 16th century tomb complex, one of the biggest tourists draws in the Indian capital, is a world heritage site and has been restored to its old glory after six years of work.

Manmohan Singh said there was a need for India to evolve a more holistic understanding of conservation that combines preservation efforts with the social and economic needs of communities that surround these historic monuments.

He said: "Going by what I have seen and heard today, I think we have found a good model in the public-private partnership that has restored this great monument to its earlier glory."

"The increase in visitor numbers to this world heritage site will also translate into greater income through tourism," he said.

The prime minister said that communities of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti now benefit from improved urban infrastructure in health, education, water and sanitation as a by-product of this initiative.

"The Humayun's Tomb project, I believe, has provided 200,000 man-days of employment for master craftsmen," he said.

"I would like to congratulate the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust on the success of this endeavour."

The tomb was built in 1565, nine years after the death of Mughal emperor Humayun, close to the Yamuna river which then flowed nearer to that area. In later years, the river changed its course.

Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch lauded the public-private partnership model, and felt every citizen of India was responsible for preserving the country's cultural heritage.

"I believe that we in India are extremely fortunate to have a cultural heritage that goes back thousands of years. At the same time, this places tremendous responsibilities upon us," she said.

"It is not a legacy of our fore-fathers to be enjoyed and frittered away. It is the heritage of our children and future generations and we are under obligation to ensure that we don’t destroy what is with us," she added.

Along with the tomb, a number of adjoining monuments like Nila Gumbad, Isa Khan’s garden tomb, Bu Halima’s garden tomb, Arab ki Sarai gateways, Sundarawala Mahal and Burj, Batashewala group of monuments, Chausath Khambha and Hazrat Nizamuddin Baoli have also been restored.

Aga Khan, chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, said it was the prime minister in 2004 who first recommended this public-private model.

"He was the first person to recommend that projects like this should be built on public-private partnership. The completion of this project marks accomplishment of a great goal," he said.

"Historic restoration can be an effective springboard for economic and cultural development," he added.

The tomb's restoration project is the largest and most ambitious heritage conservation project undertaken in India -- and the only one by a non-government body, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

The Archaeological Survey of India, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, World Monuments Fund, Ford Foundation and other organisations were partners in the Humayun Tomb project.

By IANS,

Aligarh : Muslim leaders and activists Wednesday denounced the Samajwadi Party government for failing to check the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh that left over 40 people dead.

A meeting of Muslim intellectuals and social and cultural groups organised by the Sir Syed Awareness Forum here also criticised the ruling party for not fulfilling its election promises.

Renowned Islamic scholar M. Saud Alam Qasmi said the Samajwadi Party was playing politics with Muslim sentiments instead of providing, as promised, 18 percent reservation in jobs to Muslims.

He declared that Muslims "will teach a lesson" to the Akhilesh Yadav government in the next election.

Social worker Najam Abbasi said the Samajwadi Party government was not worried about the security of Muslims.

Shakeel Samdani, president of Sir Syed Awareness Forum and general secretary of United Muslim Organisation, said communal riots were harming the secular fabric of India.

He said the Sep 7-9 Muzaffarnagar violence was a part of a larger conspiracy and "the so-called pro-Muslim government of UP has miserably failed to contain these riots".

He demanded that the compensation for those killed in the riots should be raised to Rs.25 lakh and for the injured to Rs.5 lakh.

The secretary of the forum, Mansoor Ilahi, accused the social media of playing a negative role in the riots.

The general secretary of Aligarh Zakat Fund, Obaid Iqbal Asim, said the Samajwadi Party would no more be able to fool the Muslim community.

A resolution passed at the meeting demanded "stringent action" against everyone who indulged in violence in Muzaffarnagar.

It also expressed deep concern over the silence of Samajwadi Party's Muslim leaders over the violence. This, it said, would lead to their rout in the next election.

By IANS,

New Delhi : Condemning the Uttar Pradesh Police for failing to act and prevent the Muzaffarnagar riots, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi said policemen should resist political pressure.

"Policemen should strongly oppose political pressure while handling any crime. All top police officials should strongly refuse to accept wrong orders," she said.

Bedi was speaking here Wednesday at a conference on police reforms, organised by some social groups and non-governmental organisations.

Reacting to a sting operation in which a police officer confessed that eight people detained for fomenting communal violence in Muzaffarnagar were released ostensibly on orders from a minister, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative director Maya Daruwala said it is high time police functioning is separated from political control.

"The violence in Muzaffarnagar is a complete replica of so many riots like the Delhi riots of 1984 and the Gujarat riots of 2002 that are destroying our centuries-old social fabric. The same old excuses are given. This has to stop," Daruwala said.

"The relationship between the police and politician cannot be allowed to continue. In 2006, the Supreme Court of India directed all the states to put in place systems that would make police operation responsible, insulated from wrongful interference and orders, well managed, and publicly accountable," said Kamal Kant Jaswal, director of Common Cause (NGO).

The communal violence in Muzaffarnagar claimed over 40 lives and injured scores while displacing thousands.

By TCN News

New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs and leader of Indian Union Muslim League E. Ahamed who visited violence affected Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of Uttar Pradesh has asked UP chief minister Ahilesh Yadav to take “stringent measures against those who create hatred among the different sections of the people belonging to different religion.”

Ahamed was accompanied by Member of Parliament ET Mohamed Basheer and other IUML national and state level office bearers.

In his four-page letter Ahamed has asked the state government to take measures to help the people affected by the violence.
“Effective steps should be taken by the Government to bring back the people who left their houses and properties to their respective villages.” Ahamed suggested that govt work with various social and political organizations to gain confidence of the victims. He also suggested an All Party meeting of the senior leaders.

The communal violence has taken the life of over 40 people and has displaced thousands of people, overwhelmingly Muslims, in the two districts of Uttar Pradesh.

E. Ahamed raised the questions of people whose homes were partially or fully damaged during the violence and those who lost their loved ones.

Mr. Ahamed suggested setting up an SIT for investigation and a team for quick distribution of compensation.

By IANS,

New Delhi: The Congress Wednesday targeted the Uttar Pradesh government, saying it did not handle properly the recent communal violence in Muzaffarnagar district.

Over 40 people lost their lives in the communal violence.

"The Samajwadi Party government did not handle the situation well," Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal told reporters.

"The focus now should be on bridging the gap between the communities and rehabilitating the displaced persons," he said.

He said around 20,000 of the 40,000 displaced people in the recent communal violence in Muzaffarnagar were still living in the relief camps.

"They are fearful of going back to their homes. The priority should be to bring their confidence back," he said.

Most of these people were Muslims, though members of the Jat community too have suffered in the process.

He denied media reports that the Congress leadership, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, who visited the riot affected areas, met only victims from a particular community.

"You probably published their pictures only with one community members," Afzal told media persons.

Though the Congress spokesperson demanded a probe into the violence, he did not specifically seek a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.

"The state has to probe. The state government recommends a CBI probe," he said.

By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,

Guwahati: To better the relationship with public Assam Police has initiated several innovative measures. Among them the cops of the state is organizing a debate competition so that feelings of the general public can be heard besides the annual quiz competition on Assam Police Day which will be observed on October 1 across the state.

The debate competition, ‘Cop Talk’ open for all, with the theme -‘In democracy-police is in conflict with public aspirations’ is aimed to generate ideas from public who will be debating over police’s role in the society at District library in Guwahati.

Assam DGP Jayanta Narayan Choudhury addressing a press conference regarding the programmes on Assam Police Day

“Police reform is the need of the hour and it needs a healthy police-public relationship. On many occasions we face allegations of not acting properly or responding to a situation. That’s why we’ve chosen the topic of the debate in such a manner so that we can understand the public in a better manner and know their aspirations from us in present day context which will help us in many ways to maintain law and order,” Assam DGP Jayanta Narayan Choudhury told reporters in a press conference in Guwahati on Wednesday.

Additional Director General of Police Dilip Borah who was also present during the conference said that the public opinions which will be generated through the debate competition, scheduled on September 28 will help police to understand public in a better way.

“We want more and more participation in the competition from all age groups. The participants will surely throw light on various aspects of policing and will give us an array of ideas which we will be able to incorporate in the system in future,” said Borah.

This time the Assam Police Day will also witness the annual ‘Cop Quest’, a quiz competition with the theme of various police and traffic laws especially. The state police has been observing the ‘Assam Police Day’ since 2000.

CLMC demand to revoke the case and apologize to the editors of the Hindu newspaper.

By TCN News,

Hyderabad: Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee has strongly condemned the act of intimidation by DGP of registering false cases against ‘The Hindu’ newspaper. It is a fact that Hindu newspaper published a news item, ‘DGP visiting old city godman raises eyebrows’. The publishing of news item is not a crime. The newspaper presented facts to the readers. In fact presenting the latest situation and information is the duty of the press.

This committee feels that DGP Dinesh Reddy’s reaction on this news is meaningless and autocratic. He would have thought over his mistake and taken precautions in future because going on personal visit does not require taking official convoy and other officials and creating traffic problem in the area. Even on official visit he has to see that the common people do not face any problem due to his convoy which is his duty as well. Filing of FIR against the Hindu newspaper is like an idiom in Urdu, ‘ULTA CHOR KOTWAL KO DAANTE’ [The thief blaming the cop].

It is a matter of deep concern that DGP Dinesh Reddy is setting a bad example for the whole society. He is using the police power to suppress voice of a fair newspaper like ‘The Hindu’, which always presents the facts in free and fair manner and works on journalistic values. DGP should respect the freedom of press as well protect it but instead he is attacking it by misusing his power.

The FIR registered by the Assistant Commissioner of Police Ram Narsimha Reddy who is also the President of A.P. Police Officers Association, is with the malafide intention to not only suppress the media but also intention of sending a signal to the society that any act of police cannot be questioned. This act is in fact to demoralize the freedom of press and to spread fear among the society.

One thing is to be noted that to file defamation case by the police officials, they have to take permission from the government, so whether the DGP and his officials have obtained permission from the government of A.P. before filing the case, is a big question mark!

Therefore, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee demands the government of A.P. to take the issue seriously as it is a grave violation of freedom of press as well as a disciplinary force is acting in indiscipline manner. We also Demand to revoke the cases and apologize to the Editor Mr. Siddharth Vardarajan and Resident Editor S. Nagesh Kumar of The Hindu newspaper.

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

New Delhi: The central university of Jamia Millia Islamia has refused to divulge any details of communications to the concerned department, although in the days following the alleged shoot out then Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Mushirul Hassan had assured legal aids and it was also decided that they will urge the government for setting up judicial enquiry.

Today is the fifth anniversary of Batla House shootout, and in last five years all we have seen is only politics by people of all persuasions, except one controversial judgement.

In 2008 on 19th September, on 4th floor of L-18, Batla House in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area, two youths of Azamgarh – Atif Amin and Mohammad Sajid - were killed in a shootout, which was later claimed to be an encounter by special cell of Delhi police. In this shootout, one of the officers of Delhi police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma also lost his life. However, from the very first day Human and Civil Rights’ organizations and activists are demanding an independent judicial enquiry into the shootout. The postmortem report of the deceased also pointed towards the encounter being a fake one.

TwoCircles.net has a copy of the Minute of the meetings of the Academic Council that decided to form two separate committees respectively for “legal aid” and “students relief”. Each committee comprised of three members, which had the mandate to liaise police and students to restore confidence and for setting up judicial enquiry into the incidents.

Famous RTI activist and Editor (Investigation) of alternative newsportal BeyondHeadlines, who had been crusading to get the details of the encounter, had filed an RTI application to the University administration seeking details about the money collected, expenditure, as well as details of communications that the said committee had with any departments for the set goals.

However, University administration refused to divulge any details citing sections 8 (1) (a), (g) and (h) of the RTI Act (2005).

The above sections deal with concealing information on the ground that it would “prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity” or could hamper the security of India; could endanger the life or physical safety of any person; or which would impede the process of investigation.

It should be noted that the investigation in the case is over, and in fact in one case judgement was also pronounced in July by the trial court. It is beyond anyone’s imagination as to how details of communications, if any, could endanger the security of the country or anyone’s life.

TCN had earlier reported, how 1 million rupees collected by Jamia Old Boys’Association was rather used for other purposes.

By IANS,

Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to give "special pension" to people affected in the violence in Muzaffarnagar.

A total of 48 people were killed and more than 43,000 displaced in communal clashes that erupted Sep 7 and lasted for three days.

Official sources told IANS that a list of riot-affected people is currently being prepared.

A proposal to give jobs based on educational qualification is also being considered.

"The pension, which would be anywhere between Rs.400 and Rs.500, would be given under the Rani Laxmi Bai Pension Scheme," an official said.

This pension would be given to families of the dead and to those injured.

Ground work for the rehabilitation package was done at a meeting between district officials and Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani Tuesday. Muzaffarnagar officials have been given a deadline of one week to complete the desired work.

The divisional commissioner of Saharanpur has been assigned the task of working out the nitty-gritty of the scheme.

The state government has also asked officials to expedite work on the disbursement of financial compensation to the riot victims.

"Funds have already reached the district authorities and more than Rs.3.5 crore has been distributed. We just need to step up the pace," an official said.

The state government has announced Rs.10 lakh ex gratia for the kin of those killed in the communal clashes.

Special focus was being given on providing medical aid to those injured, an official said.

The situation in Muzaffarnagar and nearby areas was normal Thursday.

By Sheikh Qayoom, IANS,

Srinagar : For over 12 days, south Kashmir's Shopian town has been reeling under an indefinite curfew that was imposed after five persons were killed in two firing incidents in Gagaran village adjacent to the town.

On September 7, when the entire state administration was busy providing security to the much hyped concert conducted by Zubin Mehta in the 17th century Shalimar Mughal Garden in Srinagar, four people were killed when guards posted at the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Gagaran fired at them.

Initial reports said the camp had been attacked by guerrillas to register their presence in Kashmir on a day the media focussed all its attention on the high-profile concert, the likes of which had never before been held in the Valley.

Security force officers said a weapon and some grenades had also been recovered from one of the four slain persons.

But Shopian town burst into instantaneous protests, with residents claiming that four unarmed civilians had been shot in cold blood.

Top police officers who visited the town immediately after the incident said three of the slain people were civilians, but the fourth, "according to police information, was a militant whose exact identity is being established".

Even after 12 days, the identity of this person remains a mystery, with locals claiming he was a labourer from Bihar.

State Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Prasad said the Bihar Police was being contacted to establish the man's identity.

Curfew was imposed in Shopian on September 7. While tempers ran high in the town, another unfortunate incident occurred on September 11. A local driver, Muhammad Rafiq, 28, was killed in another firing incident at Gagaran that was also blamed on the CRPF troopers posted at the camp.

CRPF officers denied their troopers had opened fire at the civilian on September 11. They also said none of the CRPF personnel had been deployed on the road outside the camp when the incident occurred.

The state government ordered a magisterial probe, shifted the CRPF camp, replaced it with the state armed police and announced compensation for the families of four of the victims.

While the findings of the magisterial probe are awaited, Kashmir's separatist leaders have trashed this as yet another exercise to shift the people's attention from the wrong doings of the security forces.

Separatist leaders have been calling for protest shutdowns, sit-ins and marches to attract international attention to what they call the "growing human rights violations by India in Kashmir".

The state government is doing whatever it can to ensure that the incident does not result in violence at other places that would endanger the fragile peace in Kashmir.

Ministers of the National Conference-Congress coalition have also visited the town, but the bereaved families have so far refused to meet them.

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti was not allowed to visit the town last week. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat group, was arrested in Srinagar Wednesday after he decided to visit Shopian.

Those advocating the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that gives sweeping powers to the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir have started upping their ante against the statute.

Given the fact that during the communal clashes in Kishtwar town of the Jammu region the state government had to seek the army's help to control the sectarian clashes in the Valley, sending the CRPF to the barracks and removing them from law and order duties would definitely be a tough call for Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take.

Yet, nobody can deny the fact that the chief minister will have to do some tightrope walking to convince his people that those responsible for the Gagaran firing incidents would be brought to justice.

Incidently, Abdullah has himself been a big votary for revoking the AFSPA at least from cities and towns where the army does not operate against the guerrillas.

(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)

By IANS,

Chapora (Goa) : Of all the places in Goa, why did Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal chose Chapora, a village known for its narcotics trade and drug shacks, to lie low and reconnoiter the state for his terror plans?

There was a reason for this overlap between the world of terror and drugs, say top police officials, who escorted Bhatkal and National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials around Goa earlier this week for a probe.

Bhatkal revealed to the officials the places he had recced, stayed in and interacted with other members of his network.

Police say Bhatkal is responsible for more than 100 deaths from terror strikes across India. The Indian Mujahideen co-founder is a key accused in the German Bakery blast in Pune in 2012.

"The narcotics network everywhere, including Goa, works on pay-offs to the local police officials, who then turn a blind eye to places like Chapora, where drugs are openly sold," a senior police official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

"It is a perfect hideout because police aren't 'interested' in visiting these areas for obvious reasons," he said.

Chapora, a narrow-laned, fishing village 25 km from the capital, may not be a must-visit place for most of the several hundred thousand tourists who land in Goa every year.

But for those looking for hashish, marijuana or a few pills of Ecstasy or even a vial of Ketamine, a horse-tranquliser which doubles up as a recreational drug, Chapora is the place to be.

Some of the biggest listed drug dealers in Goa hail from Chapora or its outlying areas.

That the drug mafia is a force to be reckoned with can be gauged from local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Dayanand Mandrekar's speech at an official government function to inaugurate a new police station in Chapora last month.

Mandrekar, also the art and culture minister, had called an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer a "goonda" (crook) for his repeated raids on drug-laced rave parties held in the vicinity of Chapora regularly during the tourist season every year.

With the village economy driven by drugs and the obvious hostility towards sincere policing, Chapora was ideal for Bhatkal to consider as a potential place to lie low and a safe enough haven to rig together bombs for terror strikes, say police officials.

"The NIA, during the search of the house, found bomb-making equipment," Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told a press conference Wednesday.

The bomb-making equipment was a variety of acids and other materials.

The contraband equipment and his room had been abandoned by Bhatkal, after which his landlord stashed away his belongings and the bomb-making ingredients, NIA officials said.

The chief minister too did not rule out the use of Goa and its nooks and crannies like Chapora by criminals for "cooling off" after committing crimes.

"We have noticed that many wanted people from other parts of the country are staying in Goa during the cool-off period. If anyone is found giving shelter to such criminals, he will be considered as being involved," Parrikar said.

Chapora's last tryst with fame was that it was used as a location for Bollywood film "Dum Maaro Dum", Rahul Sippy's treatise on the narcotics industry in Goa.

By Ram Puniyani,

Communal violence has been the bane of Indian society, more so from last three decades. One can see its coming up prominently from 1893 to begin with and then it went through different phases. It became stronger after 1937, peaked in 1946 and then the post partition holocaust shattered the lives of lakhs of people. After a gap of a decade it started coming up again from 1961, Jabalpur violence, later anti Sikh violence of 1984 was not just violence, it was genocide. At different levels after this we see the big surge, Meerut, Maliana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, Gujarat (post Godhra) being the worst of them. Pre partition it was both communal parties Muslim League-Hindu Mahasabah, and the communal patriarch RSS, which were major players in this dastardly game. This phenomenon led to the polarization along religious lines. This polarization was the hallmark of this violence which kept going up. The stereotypes about ‘other’ community kept worsening up; still the intercommunity rupture was not total or complete. The intensity about adverse sentiments about ‘the other’ went going up gradually, remaining at subcritical level till probably 1992, after which the ghettoisation of minorities started becoming a prominent urban phenomenon, and the misconceptions about minorities became a major part of social common sense. The other observation was that the communal violence, which is the superficial manifestation of politics in the name of religion, is predominantly and urban phenomenon. Many a social scientists made it the fulcrum of their understanding and blamed urbanization as the bane of our society, which was responsible for this type of violence.

As the matters stand after the recent Muzaffarnagar violence, it is clear that communal violence being a major phenomenon in urban areas was just a phase of this process. Having polarized the urban populations, the agenda of communal outfits has now targeted the rural areas. Its implications surely are going to be more disastrous for our nation as a whole and it is time that the dangers are assessed of the trajectory of this process. There are many factors about Muzaffarnagar violence, which should make us sit up and take notice. So far the communal violence in different parts of the country benefitted the RSS-BJP in a major way and the litmus test of this was the increased social presence of RSS affiliates in those areas affected by violence and increase in political strength of BJP in electoral arena. Gujarat is a classic case where after the post Godhra violence, BJP has dug its heels in the state, and RSS affiliates are ruling the streets.

As the political players calculate on the political chess board, this time there were two players who thought they will benefit. On one side from the usual beneficiary, the BJP associates, which in the aftermath of 84 Kosi Parikrama, activated its workers in this game of polarization. The other player the Samajvadi party probably calculated on the similar lines, if Hindu polarization benefits BJP, Muslim polarization should benefit Samajvadi party was their thinking, which let the violence happen. It is also true that since Samajvadi party came to power a year and a half ago, communal violence has gone up in Uttar Pradesh.

In this case of Muzaffarnage violence as the three boys got killed on the pretext of teasing of the girl or a skirmish on the road (there are two versions of the beginning of the episode). There was enough time to see the dangers of such an inter-religious violence and control the same. But that was not to be. The officers in violation of the rules and even the imposition of 144 in the area let the Mahapanchayat of over a lakh people take place. The caste-communal outfits are patriarchal to the core and slogan-theme ‘Bahu Beti Bachao’ (save daughters and daughters-in-laws) was enough for the village Jats to turn up in large numbers with weapons. Communal propaganda is taken to the higher pitch. And so the communal violence enters the villages. And here the BJP communalizes the social space. Though it did not have much base amongst Jats, this occasion was cleverly manipulated to introduce divisive politics. Two factors were made use of. One the image of Modi as the savior of Hindus. Now Jat goes from the caste identity to Hindu identity. In communal politics religious identity is the foremost. The Muslim crowds also confront, play some role in violence but as is the usual case the partisan police machinery does not do its job in an objective manner and the result is a lopsided violence more against minorities, displacement and increase in the sense of insecurity amongst minorities follows.

The Samajvadi party’s gamble will pay or not, time alone will tell. During the reign of Samajvadi party the monster of communal violence has been permitted to come out as is obvious from the observations that during Akhilesh Government every month nearly two acts of violence have taken place. How come during previous regime of BSP, the monster of communal violence had been restrained? Same officers, same people. Surely it is up to the ruling Government to let the violence take place or not. Communal forces, BJP and company, always keep instigating it and looking for opportunity to unleash violence. In UP the additional factor of course has been the presence of Amit Shah, who is on bail and who has the experience of Gujarat carnage, his role will have to be watched, but as such the RSS-combine machinery is in place and can take such assignment on the drop of a hat. While at one level, the instigation used was to propagate that ‘our’ daughters, daughters-in-laws are not safe, on the other hand a BJP MLA uploaded a video clip showing some people dressed like Muslims killing two young men brutally. This was a video shot few years ago in Pakistan when two young persons were lynched by the mob with the suspicion that they are dacoits. It went viral on the social media, which is reaching villages in good measure, and created a hostile atmosphere.

As such earlier Jats and Muslim has affable relations, but from some years few tensions cropped up and the recent violence drove a deep wedge amongst these two communities and violence could spread to the villages. The tragic factor is the propagation of Modi, as a ‘strong’ leader who can save us (Hindus). The major back up of communal forces is to promote an autocrat, on the backdrop of the massive propaganda that majority community is not safe due to the miniscule minority. So Modi is supposed to fill the gap of a powerful leader which can protect the majority community. All this is far from true but popular perceptions have gone on and on and the contestation to these misconceptions has neither been effective nor far in reach.

Lesser said about the role of police and administration the better. The administration has powers enough to ensure that such violence does not take place and if at all it takes place, it can control it in a day or two. Many of those in top echelons of administration-police have a biased mindset, and this if supplemented by the calculating Government, that violence will benefit their electoral prospects, the tragedy takes no time to flare up. UPA Government had promised to bring a Communal Violence Prevention bill. The subcommittee of NAC did lot of home work has submitted a draft of the bill. Surely there may not be a consensus on the draft, but probably by putting it to the grill of different mechanisms, the grain of the draft can be saved from the chaff to ensure that the officers and those in seats of power who do not do their job as per the norms of Constitution are punished. The provision for punishment to the officers guilty of dereliction of their duties, acts of commission and omission are a must. The political leadership has to be taken to the task for its inaction at the crucial time. The communal forces have to be combated at ideological, social and political level if we wish to have the country with communal peace and amity.

(Ram Puniyani was a professor in biomedical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and took voluntary retirement in December 2004 to work full time for communal harmony in India. He is involved with human rights activities from last two decades.He is associated with various secular and democratic initiatives like All India Secular Forum, Center for Study of Society and Secularism.)

By TCN News,

Aligarh: Prof. Sultana N. Nahar, one of the four member delegation of Ohio State University, USA visiting AMU, inaugurated the Telescope Facility at the Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University here on Tuesday. An award giving ceremony to felicitate the best teacher and students of the department was also held on this occasion.

Addressing the people on this occasion, AMU Vice Chancellor, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah said that awards and appreciations encourage teachers and students and provide as an impetus to work harder to achieve excellence. He emphasized that the opportunities for higher education and research should be availed by the students in order to achieve successes at international level. He lauded the efforts of Department of Physics and urged the students to devote maximum time on their study.

AMU Vice Chancellor and the visiting delegation of Ohio State University with the award winners

Brigadier (Retd.) S. Ahmad Ali, Pro-Vice Chancellor, said that positive thinking and broad vision always brought good results. He said four AMU students will be selected for further study in Ohio State University, where academic and research capabilities of the selected students will be shaped and sharpened to take on the future challenge.

Eminent research scientist of Ohio University, Prof. Sultana Nahar, in her keynote address, said that every day we should learn and keep ourselves updated with the latest developments in the field of science and technology. She said that all human have equal brain irrespective of their gender and the need is to put it in use and application in proper direction. She said learning is a continuous process and shyness should not be a hurdle in learning and gaining more knowledge.

AMU Vice Chancellor Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah switching on the high end telescope at the Dept. of Physics

Earlier, in his welcome address, Prof. Rahimullah Khan, Chairman, Department of Physics, said that AMU’s service to the Indian nation in general and Muslim community in particular as front-runner premier educational institution is crucial in social and cultural engineering. He said to strengthen the astronomy and astrophysics teaching, the department has acquired a Celestron CGE Pro 1400 HD state of the art German equatorial mount computerized Telescope with 40,000 object data base.

Prof. Khan said that the telescope at AMU will be a gift to the schoolchildren and college and university students. It would help in exposing young minds to the implicit knowledge of physical truths. Now the craters on the moon, rings of Saturn, equatorial bands on Jupiter, crescent of Venus will be spectacular features to watch. He said that the Moon, bright comets, binary stars, galaxies and its binary nebula, cluster of stars and a few other objects can be stunning to look at through the telescope.

Prof. Abdul Qayyum, Convener of the function conducted the program.

Ms. Sultana N. Nahar, visiting guest from Ohio State University inaugurating the high end telescope at the Dept. of Physics

Prof. Sultana N. Nahar, Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah, Brigadier S. Ahmad Ali and Prof. Mehshar Raza, Dean, Faculty of Science gave away wards and prizes to the winners under various categories. The Best Student Prize for 2013 at undergraduate level was given to Miss Aiman Fatima and Mr. Wadud Shaikh with a cash prize of Rs. Ten Thousand and certificate. Alumni Award 2013 for M.Sc. (Final) was given to Miss Ankita Saxena and Mr. Abdul Ahad with a cash prize of Rs. 5 thousand and certificate. Alburj R. Rahma Best Thesis Prize 2013 was given to Ms. Huma Haider and Mr. Mohd. Rafi Alam with a cash prize of Rs. 15 thousand and certificate while Sultana N. Nahar Teacher of the Year 2013 Award was given to Dr. Nasra Neelofar from Women’s College and Dr. Mohd. Sajjad Athar from Department of Physics with a cash prize of Rs. 20 thousand and certificate. The Distinguish Teacher of the Year 2013 Award was given to Dr. Shabbir Ahmad with a cash prize of Rs. 20 thousand and certificate.

The members of Ohio University delegation interacted with steering committee members and investigator in project, faculty members of the Science and Life Science sections at the Women’s College and members of the Nanotechnology Centre, Department of Applied Physics.

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,

Bhopal: Direct Haj-2013 flights from Bhopal will start from September 26 and the last flight from the city to Jeddah would take off on October 1.

Preparations at war-footing are underway at the historic Taj-ul-Masajid campus which is being turned into Haj Transit Camp in the absence of a regular Haj House in Bhopal. It may be mentioned here that after long last the Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), ruled Madhya Pradesh Government has sanctioned Bhopal Haj House and it is under construction about two kilometres away from the airport.

Necessary arrangements are being made at Bhopal Haj Transit Point to provide better facilities to pilgrims for Haj-2013 and sending them to embarkation point. Arrival of Haj pilgrims and their families at Haj Transit Camp on premises of Taj-ul-Masajid will commence from September 23. First Haj flight from Bhopal's Raja Bhoj Airport will take off for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on September 26. The last flight will take off on October 1. All necessary arrangements have been made to facilitate Haj pilgrims at Haj Transit Camp for sending to Bhopal airport. For this, responsibility has been entrusted to various departments.

All arrangements regarding Haj Transit Camp and sending Haj pilgrims to Bhopal airport will be completed by September 22. Bhopal Municipal Corporation is constructing temporary toilets and bathrooms in the camp premises. Daily bus facility will be available for carrying Haj pilgrims from transit camp to the airport. Arrangements of trucks have also been made to carry luggage of pilgrims to airport. Responsibility for security arrangements, parking, traffic control, metal detector and installation of other security equipments has been entrusted to Bhopal Superintendent of Police. Custom Commissioner and DIG Immigration have been given responsibility of complete formalities of customs and immigration before departure of pilgrims for Haj.

Director, Airport Authority of India, Bhopal will ensure arrangements for Haj pilgrims at the airport and regulate flights as per directives of Central Haj Committee and Foreign Ministry. Besides, free parking facility will also be provided for people who will come to see off pilgrims. Arrangements of canopy, place to offer Namaz, drinking water, seating, toilet etc. will also be made outside the airport for such visitors. Security of Haj pilgrims at the airport will be ensured by Deputy Commandant CISF.

Manager Air India will manage flights. Arrangements of doctors, necessary medicines, medicare and other necessary facilities for Haj pilgrims have been made at Raja Bhoj Airport from 3 hours before till flight take-off. Its responsibility has been entrusted to Chief Medical & Health Officer, Bairagarh, Bhopal.

Various departments have been made responsible to ensure lighting arrangements, medical camp, 24-hour ambulance, medicare, generator, sanitation, drinking water facility, bathroom & toilet, deployment of fire brigade etc.

By TCN News,

New Delhi: Three students enrolled in Ph.D. programme in the Department of Geography, Jamia Millia Islamia have secured places in Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Examination as per final result declared recently. Their names are as follows:

S.No. ----- Name ----------------------------- Merit in BPSC

1) ----- Mr. Aditya Kumar ----------------------------- 173

2) ----- Mr. Manoj Kumar ----------------------------- 470

3) ----- Mr. Md. Ejaz Alam ----------------------------- 553

A statement by the University congratulated them and wished them the very best in all their future endeavours.

By IANS,

New Delhi : Craftsmen had to apply 21,000 square metres of lime plaster, reset 5,400 square metres of sandstone on the terrace and lift 3,700 square metres of stone plinth to reconstruct the collapsed arcade and dome of the 16th century tomb of Mughal emperor Humayun - a World Heritage Site that is one of the biggest tourist draws in the Indian capital - over six long years to restore it to its original glory.

The refurbished Humayun's Tomb complex was inaugurated Wednesday by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The restoration the largest and most ambitious conservation project undertaken in India, and the only one by a non-government body, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

The most challenging part of the process was attending to water seepage into the dome, according to Ratish Nanda, the conservation architect heading the project.

"The people who built it weren't that advanced (in techniques) so the first thing we had to address was the water seepage problem that had resulted in considerable deterioration of the mausoleum's condition," Nanda told IANS.

"Craftsmen were required to remove a million kilos of concrete from the roof and thousand of square meters of cement from the walls, ceilings and floors of all structures within the garden enclosure," he added, saying craftsmen had to restore stone joints in the dome with lime infill to make it watertight.
Humayun's Tomb was built in 1565, nine years after the death of the emperor, close to the Yamuna river which then used to flow through that area. Humayan was the second emperor of the Mughal dynastry in India, that began with Babur in 1526 and ended with Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857, when the British colonial rulers put down the first Indian War of Independence.

The restoration work, which began in 2007, was divided into phases.

"The first phase was to examine the challenges and see how we could restore the original form," Nanda said.

The restoration of the tile work on the canopies on the roof required a four-year phase of experimentation and training. During this, mastercraftsmen from Uzbekistan trrained young artisans in the art of tile-making, which has been lost in India," he added.

With this initiative, the project took a craft-based approach to conservation that offers a model for reviving the art of tile-making. Many youths from the adjoining Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti have earned a livelihood by becoming a part of the project. Even the prime minister lauded the public-private model and said that communities of the Basti now benefit from improved urban infrastructure in health, education, water and sanitation as a by-product of the initiative.

"The Humayun's Tomb project, I believe, has provided 200,000 man-days of employment for mastercraftsmen," Manmohan Singh noted.

The Archaeological Survey of India, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, World Monuments Fund, Ford Foundation and other organisations were partners in the restoration project.

Along with the tomb, a number of adjoining monuments like Nila Gumbad, Isa Khan's garden tomb, Bu Halima's garden tomb, Arab ki Sarai gateways, Sundarawala Mahal and Burj, Batashewala group of monuments, Chausath Khambha and Hazrat Nizamuddin Baoli - Delhi is littered with archaeological marvels - have also been restored.