April Month Articles
A Teenager who praised the 11 September
terror attacks on the United States hijacked a German city bus with 19
people on board today and held them for almost seven hours. .....
Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites chanted
"No to America, No to Saddam, Yes to Islam" a few days ago, during pilgrimage
rites at the holy city of Karbala. Increasing numbers of Iraqis appear
to agree with these sentiments. There are ominous implications for the
coalition forces. .....
Asghar Ali, alleged killer of the
former Gujarat Minister, Haren Pandya, was indoctrinated into Islamic fundamentalism
by a Kashmiri terrorist during their interaction in jail. .....
Some time in 1991, Viking published
'Waiting for Allah' by Christina Lamb, till then probably the best study
of contemporary Pakistan. Ms Lamb had served as Financial Times correspondent
in Pakistan for a couple of years and was allegedly quite close to Benazir
Bhutto. Her book created a sensation. .....
Salma Sheikh was thrown out of
her house in Surat because she wanted a different menu for dinner on the
night of July 15, 1994. .....
These are times when destructive
emotions like anger, fear and hatred are giving rise to devastating problems
throughout the world. While the daily news offers grim reminders of the
destructive power of such emotions, the question we must ask is this: What
can we do, person by person, to overcome them? .....
Your paper opposes Daniel Pipes's
nomination to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace because "Muslims"
see him destroying cultural bridges to the Muslim world ["Fueling a Culture
Clash," editorial, April 19]. .....
Pakistan's propaganda drive over
Jammu and Kashmir has suffered a serious setback with its key lobbyist,
Labour MP George Galloway, turning out to be on the payrolls of Saddam
Hussein. .....
Professor Mohammad Hafiz Said,
former chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (the army of the pure) and self-confessed
mastermind behind the suicide attacks in Kashmir, a trend that started
in 1999, breaks a long period of silence and gives insights into the current
state of affairs and future of his banned organisation. .....
The police here today arrested
two activists of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) — Syed Noorur
Rehman (23) and Mohd. Imtiaz (24) — close associates of Asghar Ali, the
main accused in the recent killing of the former Gujarat Home Minister,
Haren Pandya. .....
Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force
has launched a manhunt for Mamta Tiwari, a reporter with a reputed electronic
news channel in Lucknow, who has been working as a conduit for notorious
underworld don Babloo Srivastava. .....
This is not the first time George
Galloway has been linked to allegations of handling money from a controversial
foreign power. In 1998 BBC Newsnight reporter Richard Watson investigated
the MP's links with the government of Pakistan, uncovering documents that
revealed an astonishingly close financial relationship with the administration
and calling into serious question Mr Galloway's judgment as an MP. Here,
Watson recounts the investigation. .....
The word "dowry" is almost synonymous
with Indian women’s oppression under patriarchal systems. It has been a
short cut for indicating low status for women, the argument being that
the callous and mundane efficiency of "dowry deaths" indicates the low
value of women’s labour and the high cost of their marriages, making women
a liability for their natal families and a source of lucre for their marital
families. .....
Everyone in Pakistan likes to hold
forth on Kashmir, though nine out of ten who do so are unfamiliar
with Kashmir’s geography. I have it on good authority that when the army
took the disastrous Kargil plan to the prime minister for the final go
ahead, he asked, “General Sahib, when will we be marching into Srinagar?”
.....
Charging the congress with playing
the role of a modern Muslim league, firebrand VHP leader Praveen Togadia
today said the ban on tridents being imposed at the behest of Sonia Gandhi
is a part of congress's conscious effort to foil the outfit's movement
of Hindu awakening in the country. .....
Australia's Aborigines may have
created one of the world's oldest art forms and have certainly created
one of the newest. Travelers in the remote outback of central and northwestern
Australia can see cave paintings and rock carvings that date back at least
30,000 years. Then they can drive back to the big coastal cities and buy
paintings by direct descendants of those ancient artists, who use modern
paints and canvases but still refer to symbols and images that may predate
the oldest cave paintings in Europe. .....
Cast your mind back to January
last year. Then, President Pervez Musharraf pledged to clamp down on terrorism
in Kashmir. "Pakistan rejects and condemns terrorism in all its forms and
manifestations," he said. A few months later, he promised to "permanently"
end militant incursions over the Line of Control into Indian-administered
Kashmir. True, those incursions did taper off. But reports citing Indian
and American officials say they have since risen. Promises, promises. .....
The US has successfully overthrown
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Before and during the war, President
George Bush repeatedly emphasised that this was not a war against Iraq
and the Iraqi people, but against the dictatorial regime of Saddam for
harbouring international terrorists, for acquiring weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) and for destroying democracy and suppressing his people. .....
Stepping through the hand- carved
marble arches in Arvind and Bhagwati Amin's home in Bernardsville, N.J.,
is like being transported to a palace in their native India. The Amins
have a suite on the main floor. Their sons, Deepak, 36, and Archit, 37,
and their families occupy separate wings of the house. Each day, everyone
gathers to pray together in the family's Hindu temple. .....
Romantic poets like Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Blake, Southey and Walter Scott were
influenced by the philosophy of the Bhagwad Gita, according to an exhaustive,
20 year study, undertaken by a scholar of English Literature. It also successfully
explores the hidden strains of Indian thought in their verse. .....
One of the potent means used by
the Palestinians to indoctrinate children to hate Israelis is the repeated
broadcasting on Palestinian TV of Hate-filled Music Videos. .....
There has been much loose talk
of late about which country is going to be next in George Bush's gun-sights.
Apart from denials from the White House and Downing Street, my guess is
that the Americans have more than enough on their plate in Afghanistan,
and now in Iraq. .....
As Christians around the world
prepare to mark their most important holiday, hundreds of thousands of
believers in southeast Asia face the prospect of celebrating Easter without
free access to the Bible. .....
Al-Qaida is investing heavily in
recruiting Muslims in Europe, reports Geostrategy- Direct, the online intelligence
newsletter. .....
‘Islamization’ of India did not
occur as a result of mass conversions. The process took several centuries.
Though the province of Sindh was conquered in early 8th century it was
not until the incursions of Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad of Ghor that
serious settlement of the subcontinent with Muslims took place. .....
April 7 made a gala evening, in
the stately auditorium of Vigyan Bhawan. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
was on the dais to release a much-awaited biography. He was flanked by
Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak
KS Sudarshan, I&B Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mr Rakesh Sinha,
author of the book. .....
Encouraged by its “success” in
putting legal riders on the VHP leader — who was arrested for defying a
ban on distribution of trishuls — the Rajasthan government has decided
to turn its attention to the head of the Sangh parivar, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh. .....
The International Working President
of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Ashok Singhal, today said that the Home Minister,
L. K. Advani, had betrayed the Hindutva cause after having ridden to power
in the name of Ram and Hindutva. .....
Director General of Border Security
Force (BSF) Ajay Raj Sharma has hoped that the cross border terrorism and
infiltration will experience a sharp decline after the fencing of International
Border by the BSF and with the similar type of arrangements along the Line
of Control (LoC) by Army. .....
Islam is "a very evil and a wicked
religion". Not a statement of a Togadia, the hated figure among the seculars
in India. Not a statement made in any `un-modern' or `old- fashioned' nation,
like India. But in America, regarded as the post-modern nation. It is a
considered remark of an American, which he stood by despite all criticism.
.....
The recent spate of arrests of
Muslims in Andhra Pradesh on the charge of having links with the ISI and
alleged involvement in the killing of former Gujarat Minister Haren Pandya
has become a new subject of bitterness between the TDP Government and the
Muslim minority. .....
Thanks to some coordinated action
by the East Delhi police, six alleged Bangladeshi dacoits were nabbed while
trying to escape after committing a dacoity at Preet Vihar in the wee hours
of Tuesday. .....
The American journalist Daniel
Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan because he uncovered links
between the British terrorist Richard Reid and the Pakistani secret service,
according to an investigation by the French philosopher and author Bernard-Henri
Lévy. .....
The Hindu communities in Sindh
are victims of the terrible law and order situation which remains under
the control oflocal influentials, writes Imdad Soomro. .....
Mamata Banerjee's apprehensions
over the 11 May panchayat poll are justified. It is now established in
as many as 19,000 out of 58,357 constituencies opposition candidates have
been unable to file nomination papers because of terror tactics adopted
by the CPI-M. It is inconceivable that the ruling party could win as uncontested
as many as 10,000 seats. This has never happened either in West Bengal
or elsewhere earlier. .....
It's official now.Figures dished
out by the state election commission today lent credence to Miss Mamata
Banerjee's statement that thousands of her party candidates had been prevented
from filing nominations for the panchayat polls. .....
Even if one rubbishes Opposition
claims, the Marxist rule in Bengal has seen uncontested victories in panchayat
polls, statistically speaking. .....
Two main accused in the Nanoor
massacre of 11 landless farmers on 27 July 2000 have filed nominations
as CPI-M candidates for the panchayat polls. They were released on bail
two years ago along with most of the 81 persons who were charge-sheeted
by the police. Police, however, failed to arrest three of the accused.
Trinamul leaders allege all the accused in the massacre, including the
fugitives, have now resurfaced and taken charge of the CPI-M's election
machinery in parts of Birbhum. .....
Having given his due to Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for his courage in asking partymen to abide by
democratic norms and not seek to prevent opposition candidates from filing
nominations for panchayat polls and putting it in writing to avoid being
misquoted, it is also necessary to consider what happens next. .....
It takes a lot of courage for someone
in the CPI-M now to advise one of its outfits to mind its own business
rather than bother about how its work, honestly done, might affect the
government. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did precisely this when
he told Ganatantrik Mahila Samiti (GMS) on 25 March that it should earnestly
investigate atrocities against women, and pull up the government, if necessary.
.....
In an unprecedented gesture, Mr
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has delivered what amounts to a sharp rebuke to
his party bosses by officially condemning acts of the CPI-M to prevent
Opposition parties from filing their nomination papers for the panchayat
polls. This comes on the heels of state secretary CPI-M Mr Anil Biswas
insisting that "such allegations (by the Opposition) are baseless... nobody
is being prevented from filing nominations." .....
The Supreme Court verdict disallowing
religious activity on undisputed land in Ayodhya comes as a setback for
Rambhakts. The latter's strategy at Ayodhya has been direct, frontal and
single-aimed. Military principles prefer an indirect, lateral approach,
with alternative aims. Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, the famous Captain who taught
World War II Generals, emphasised indirectness as a winning tactic. .....
There seems to be something seriously
wrong with the mind-set of CPI-M leaders and their cadres in West Bengal.
After committing several rapes in Nadia, Cooch Behar and Malda, Marxist
cadres in Bhagbanpur in Midnapore east district went further: slashing
parts of a women's body to teach her the lesson of her life. .....
India became free; but it was a
fissured freedom. In the churning of Indian humanity we had got not only
the nectar of freedom but also the poison of partition. Was Pakistan inevitable?
It was --- and it was not. .....
Musharrar and Vajpayee .....
A report in a British newspaper
alleging that the regime of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had links
with Ugandan extremists justifies Kampala’s position in favour of the war
in Iraq, a top military intelligence official said on Thursday. .....
Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee,
has been equipped with highly sensational inputs vis-a-vis unbridled freedom
enjoyed by terrorists "for months together" in the vicinity of Nadimarg
in south Kashmir till the massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits. .....
The CPI (M) and the PMK had to
bear the brunt of the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's attack in the Assembly
today, in the absence of the DMK and the Congress. .....
A former senior American official
has said that Pakistan poses more of a "threat" to the United States than
does the situation in Iraq. .....
For Mr Subal Bagchi, it came as
a bolt from the blue. The expelled CPI-M leader, who is also prime accused
in the Dhantala rape case, was today greeted with a showering of petals,
blowing of conchshells and a sprinkling of aabir by a crowd of over 10,000
people who had gathered to greet him as he emerged from the Ranaghat sub-
divisional jail. The delirious crowd also shouted slogans in his support.
.....
After banning distribution of tridents,
the Rajasthan government is setting the stage for another confrontation
with the Sangh Parivar on the issue of holding RSS shakhas on government
land. .....
Washington Despite clear evidence
that Pakistan provided North Korea with nuclear technology, the United
States is doing nothing either to punish Islamabad or to prevent it from
continuing to help Pyongyang - and, equally important, from selling nuclear
technology to other would-be nuclear powers, like Saudi Arabia. .....
French Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy drew boos and whistles at a Muslim gathering by insisting that
Muslim women must remove their veils for identity photographs. .....
The United States is frustrated
with Pakistan's failure to stop Islamic militants from crossing into
Indian- controlled Kashmir (news - web sites), a senior State Department
official said Friday. .....
A. Anbalagan (AIADMK) called upon
the government to keep vigil on the spree of conversion taking place in
his constituency of Uppalam by which women were prevented from sporting
`tilak', `mangala sutra' and wearing of flowers. .....
Every time there is a spate of
killings in Kashmir, almost everybody with any investment in the Kashmir
situation rushes in to protest the incongruity of the event in the context
of the fabled liberal traditions of Kashmir, or what is now fashionably
also known as Kashmiriyat. .....
As Indian textbooks have highly
slanted and prejudiced view of minorities, particularly Muslims, Pakistani
textbooks are no different. They are so designed as to promote hatred against
Hindus and India. The powers that be in both the countries have vested
interest in keeping the hatred between the communities alive so as to benefit
politically from it. .....
The newspaper report that about
a fortnight ago my eldest son Harilal, now nearing fifty years, accepted
Islam and that on Friday last 29th May in the midst of a large congregation
in the Juma Masjid at Bombay he was permitted to announce his acceptance
amid great acclamation and that after his speech was finished, he was besieged
by his admirers who vied with one another to shake hands with him. .....
Bangladesh is deliberately keeping
the border tension high along the Dhubri and Dinajpur sectors of the Indo-Bangladesh
border, in order to divert the attention of the Indian security forces
in other parts of the border, where massive smuggling as well as anti-India
activities are continuing. .....
Christian missionaries abusing
Hinduism and Hindus are not new. Hindu gods and goddesses are their favourite
targets. The practise to mock and abuse is not recent in origin but dates
back to the day when Christianity came to India. Missionaries churned out
literature with sole aim to rundown Hinduism and practice related with
it. Missionaries believe that their religion is the only true religion
and what exist outside it is worth denouncing. .....
Who's to blame for the destruction
of Iraqi museums, libraries and archives, amounting to what The New York
Times calls "one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern
history"? .....
The new Chinese leadership has
just taken over the reins of the most populous nation in the world. Already
many dark clouds are appearing in the sky of the Middle Empire. .....
A young computer engineer was killed
after abduction in the city Saturday night. Police recovered the beheaded
body of Srikanta Rakshit, 27, from Tandrabil area of Shikarpur union under
Hathazari Police Station yesterday morning. .....
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
today trained its guns on the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru, accusing him of "offering" Tibet to China "on a platter" and charging
that the action had made the Communist nation a "direct threat" to India.
VHP president Ashok Singhal also claimed that Hindus in the Himalayan region
spanning from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh were facing "increasing attacks"
and sought unity with Buddhists to "fight the injustice". .....
Investigative Report at village
"Ainargope " within Bajitpur Police station, Dist.Kishoreganj conducted
by Human Rights Congress for Bangladedsh Minorities(HRCBM) Dhaka, Bangladesh
on 17th and 18th of April, 2003 .....
The Allahabad Bench of the Uttar
Pradesh High Court has directed the Archaeological Survey of India to excavate
in the disputed site at Ayodhya to determine whether the Babri Masjid was
built after demolishing a temple that was already. This is a welcome development,
for we will soon have a scientific investigation of the claims and counterclaims
in full public view and under official direction. .....
The recent three-part exclusive
report in The Indian Express, ‘‘It’s conversion time in Valley’’, has underlined
the revolting reality often denied by the ‘‘Secularists’’ — that the evangelisation
machinery is at work in the country. The ‘‘secular’’ cabal (read, Congress,
Communists and Communalists combine) has always dismissed such reports
as rumours spread by the Sangh Parivar as part of its devious agenda. .....
Even as the Union government dithers
on total ban on cow slaughter, a draft and preamble to the Prohibition
of Cow Slaughter Act 2003 from UP officials could finally give the Central
bill the much required teeth. .....
An AIADMK leader in Pondicherry
recently sounded the alarm over a conversion spree in his constituency,
Uppalam, which is resulting in an open assault on Tamil culture in the
area (New Indian Express, April 18, 2003). In a debate in the State Assembly,
Mr A Anbalagan alleged that married women were being prohibited from sporting
the tilak, mangal sutra or flowers in their hair, which are the traditional
accoutrements to denote marital status in Tamil culture. .....
Communal polarisation, which was
responsible for partition of this sub-continent inflicted a permanent wound
in the Hindu-Muslim relations in this region. The post partition political
leadership in India initiated extraordinary measures of constitutional
protection to minorities for healing this wound. .....
A land of a billion people, speaking
in 15 major languages and a thousand dialects, worshipping in eight major
and countless minor religious traditions, India offers a compass to the
world, especially to the Middle East, showing how to restrain the sword
of religious- political fundamentalism and how to coexist in relative harmony.
.....
If I were a Muslim, the ulterior
message of the Iraq war to me would be the ulema have been defrauding my
community. In order to keep their grip over the common Muslim, they propagated
the bogey of ummah uber alles. There is neither a united ummah nor a brotherhood.
If there was one, Saddam Hussein and his people would not have had to go
down alone and unaided. .....
The Washington Post fetched up
over the weekend with an editorial calling on the Senate to reject the
nomination of Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute
of Peace. Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based
research group, and is a columnist of the New York Post and a regular contributor
to the New York-based journal Commentary. .....
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
on Sunday came out strongly against "forcible and fraudulent" religious
conversions, stating that "it was not in the spirit of true religion and
long term interests of the nation." .....
The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.
Advani, today called for a rigorous and continuous observation and analysis
of the changing demography of different religious groups in various parts
of the country. .....
For a common Indian Muslim, the
basic issues are education, employment and safety -- and certainly not
the Babri masjid. Muslim leaders should offer this patch of land to their
Hindu brethren for them to build the Ram temple. .....
The Director General of the Central
Reserve Police Force, S.C. Chaube, told newspersons here on Saturday that
the emerging trend in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir clearly indicated
that Pakistan was trying to carry out its anti-India operations from Bangladesh
and Nepal. .....
The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.
Advani, today said the Centre was taking up the matter of atrocities on
Hindus in Bangladesh with the Government there. .....
The Police Commissioner's Task
Force Team in yet another major breakthrough arrested one Zubair Shareef,
an ISI trained militant, in a raid conducted here on Saturday. .....
Caught in a controversy over its
plans to take over the complex, the Airports Authority of India has decided
to “go slow”. Days into the construction of the wall (on undisputed land),
the authorities have decided to “lie low for some time before taking up
the work again”. .....
Dattopant Thengadi, the Bharatiya
Mazdoor Sangh stalwart, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
has created a controversy by his reported comments against Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's handling of economic issues. RSS spokesman Ram Madhav
discussed the issue with Chief Correspondent Tara Shankar Sahay. .....
European nations including the
Netherlands, Germany and France are serving as training grounds for terrorists
operating in Jammu and Kashmir, according to media reports emanating from
US. .....
It's a regular school day at the
Moscow Bhaktivedanta Gurukula. Students sit cross-legged on the cafeteria
floor with colorful robes wrapped artfully around their knees, balancing
steaming bowls of vegetarian food. .....
Six more radical Islamic groups,
including Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar- e-Jhangvi, have
been outlawed under Australia's tough counter-terrorism laws, the government
announced on Friday. Attorney-general Daryl Williams said the listing of
the terrorist groups would deter Australians from becoming involved with
them either as members, as financial backers or in a training role. .....
Action Aid is a British multinational
in the child sponsorship business but is technically registered as a "charity".
It has a significant presence in India, both directly and through link/sponsored/satellite
agencies/companies, and receives support not just from the British government
but from the IAS and some Indian governments. .....
"My son is somewhere in Iraq fighting
the battle, which we could not do in our homeland Kashmir," said proudly
Laxmi N Raina about his 22- year-old son, a US Marine reservist who was
drafted to active duty on February 26. .....
Taking objection to Guru Gobind
Singh being portrayed as a national hero, in many ways, epitomises the
spirit in which Khushwant Singh has written this book. Cursing the leaders
of one's own community, whether directly or indirectly by praising those
who have hurt the Sikhs, is a symptom of depression. If it is attributed
to age, it can be forgiven. If, however, it is written in deliberate consciousness,
it is quite another matter. .....
Two years ago, Indian Industries
were afraid of competition by Chinese industries. At that time, Indian
Industry was looking at China as a bulldozer exporter of goods at a very
low price by making huge investment. There was a (mis)understanding
among Indian industry that the standard of Chinese goods is very low and
hence there was no scope for the high standard Indian goods in China.
.....
Cross-border terrorism in Jammu
and Kashmir has risen "sharply" in March, a trend expected to continue
with increasing infiltration from Pakistan, the US Congressional Research
Service has said, stressing that new terrorist crimes have rekindled fears
of an India-Pakistan conflict. .....
Mohammed Asghar Ali, prime accused
in the March 26 murder of former Gujarat minister of state for home Haren
Pandya, committed the offence to avenge the massacre of Muslims during
the Gujarat riots of 2002, the Andhra Pradesh police have claimed. .....
That's the bet that Iraq will become
a bigger, nastier mess than Afghanistan did after America's ``victory?''
US blunders have been much more serious this time and the consequences
will be much more disastrous. The US will have many reasons to regret its
victory. .....
It’s a game of cat and mouse between
the police and the villagers of Borivali, in Bhiwandi taluka, Thane district.
.....
Kashmiri Pandits on Saturday expressed
disappointment over Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee "ignoring" Nadimarg
massacre, which claimed the lives of 24 members of their clan a month ago,
in his speech on Friday. .....
“In the past, when the Marines
were in Beirut, we screamed, ‘Death to America!’ Today, when the region
is being filled with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, ‘Death
to America!’ was, is and will stay our slogan.” .....
Possibly you have never heard of
Citrus College. We confess that we were unacquainted with the community
college in Glendora, California-until Professor Rosalyn Kahn catapulted
the school to temporary notoriety last month. Professor Kahn is apparently
one of those teachers who find it difficult to separate politics from pedagogy.
.....
Terror mastermind Abu Abbas was
desperately phoning Palestinian friends to help him sneak into Iran shortly
before U.S. helicopters roared over his Baghdad hideout in the early-morning
hours to arrest him. .....
European nations including the
Netherlands, Germany and France are serving as training grounds for terrorists
operating in Jammu and Kashmir, according to media reports emanating from
US. .....
The Defense Department has no plan
to rescind its invitation to the Rev. Franklin Graham to speak at Good
Friday services at the Pentagon, despite Muslim concerns over the evangelist's
labeling of Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion." .....
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf,
who was the army chief during the Kargil conflict, had admitted to the
then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the conflict was a “misadventure”
and had urged him to initiate steps to save the country from an embarrassment,
a top leader of Mr Sharif's party was quoted as saying on Monday. .....
It is an accepted thing that many
Dalits seek refuge in Christianity because of oppression by non-Dalit Hindus.
But there seems to be no escape for the neo-converts as discrimination
continues in churches too. .....
Four Student's Islamic Movement
of India (SIMI) activists, including one who is suspected to have planted
a bomb in the Mulund blast, were arrested from Padga in Thane district
this afternoon. .....
Mozart and Mahler once the uncontested
preserve of the Parsis and Christians, are stealthily being appropriated.
By the Gujaratis and Marwaris, no less. .....
The swift defeat Iraq's armed forces
adds another chapter to a long list of crushing losses for Arab armies
on the battlefield -- a situation that owes as much to outdated weaponry
and tactics as it does to Arabic attitudes about the nature of warfare,
analysts say. .....
Thereis hardly any conceivable
excess and atrocity which the Kashmiri Pandits as a characteristic religious
group have not been subjected to by the Muslim marauders. Apart from the
pogrom having no semblance of a human face that was perpetrated on them
the devastating catastrophe that could befall them was the forcible conversion
to an alien religion of Islam. .....
Delawar Hossain, 24, came to Delhi
from Bangladesh with his father when he was one year old. He feels
more Indian than Bangladeshi, but he is forced to leave India following
the Indian government's move to deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has made it clear that the 20 million
Bangladeshis in India must leave. .....
A senior U.S. official said yesterday
that Washington has failed to persuade Pakistan, a close U.S. ally, to
prevent Islamic guerrillas from crossing into the Indian-controlled portion
of the disputed Kashmir region, warning at the same time that India should
not respond to continued infiltration with excessive force. .....
Is the United States a true friend
of India or a masked foe? Is Washington ever to be trusted? Consider this:
ever since India, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal `Nehru’s direction took
the Jammu & Kashmir ``dispute’’ to the Security Council in early 1948
the United States has consistently supported Pakistan under the tutelage
of Britain. .....
The Left Front's uninterrupted
stay in power for the past 25 years in West Bengal has raised many a question.
Much has been said about the failures and achievements of the government.
Its ills have been highlighted by opposing forces across the country. Ever
since coming to power, Left leaders have repeatedly expressed the fear
of being toppled. .....
A little over a year ago, I found
myself on a radio program discussing the ramifications of September 11,
2001 with the Florida Director for CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations),
Altaf Ali. Sometime during the show, I had asked him whether or not he
thought the people that died in the collapse of the World Trade Center
were innocent. .....
Father SJ Emmanuel, one of the
leading lights of the Catholic clergy in Jaffna and a long-standing international
propagandist for the LTTE, says that the Tamils of Tamil Nadu are being
subjected to a "multi-faceted oppression" and that his "sympathies" go
out to them. .....
Indian Software major Infosys Technologies
Limited Chairman N R Narayanamurthy strongly advocated for reservation
in the private sector for economically weaker section. .....
Politicians-criminals nexus is
nothing new in Bihar and it was evident once again on Wednesday as three
criminals arrested in the abduction case of a school boy in Patna revealed
the name of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders Ejazul Haq and Sanjay
Yadav, a Jharkhand MLA, during a police interrogation. .....
Critics of liberating Iraq have
long derided what they call the Bush Administration's "domino theory" --
that removing Saddam Hussein from power would lead to the toppling of dictators
elsewhere. This was always a caricature of Bush policy, but then again
it wouldn't hurt if the world's dictators came to believe it. .....
Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed
has said jehad against India is paramount as the country is a ''threat''
to world peace. .....
The photograph of the world's most
wanted man, Osama bin Laden, has adorned the front page of a leading Pakistani
Urdu-language newspaper every day since the start of American military
action in Afghanistan in October. A weekly magazine, sponsored by
an outlawed militant group, urges jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the
United States as US-led forces make swift gains in the Iraq war. .....
A day after chief minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee's appeal to his own party cadre to desist from terrorising
candidates of other parties in the run-up to the panchayat elections, the
CPM allegedly prevented two RSP candidates from filing nominations in Basanti
and Canning, both in South 24-Parganas. .....
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
today virtually accepted the Opposition parties' allegations - that CPM
cadre were preventing their candidates from filing nominations for the
panchayat polls - by issuing a public statement urging party workers to
desist from making such attempts. .....
Now-a-days storms born out of wickedness,
over the great visionary leaders are becoming common. The smirching the
patriotism of Savarkar while criticising the his ways of revolution,
was a shameful episode. Although the character or life of these heroes
does not get damaged by such character assassination, it helps to destroy
the goodwill in the social fabric of the country. .....
Researchers at the Oregon Health
and Science University(OHSU) have found that yoga or exercise assists multiple
sclerosis (MS) patients with fatigue. The study was conducted and funded
within the Oregon Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in
Neurological Disorders (ORCCAMIND) at OHSU. .....
A DVD recovered from the three
slain Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists last Saturday contains video clips
of several crowded places like shopping malls, railway stations, bus depots
and areas of tourist interest in Mumbai, Pune, Mysore, Bangalore and Hyderabad,
police sources said. .....
The pieces of the jigsaw are still
falling into place following the gunning down of three Pakistani terrorists
at Goregaon on Saturday morning, but at least one fact has been established.
.....
With you as the Chairperson, the
"Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace & Democracy" held its National
Convention on April 14 and 15, 2001 at the Center for Human Potential Development,
The Church of North India, Nagpur. Some delegates referred to this convention
as the 5th National Convention, some as 8th. It was a great pleasure for
me to attend several important sessions at this Convention. .....
When President Bush called his
war on terrorism a "crusade," he backtracked quickly in the face of intense
reaction at home and abroad. Now many people are worried that, in the case
of Iraq, that inopportune choice of words may turn out to hold more than
a modicum of truth. .....
Peraiyur village in Madurai District
is undergoing a silent transformation into Christianity and Islam under
the guise of 'religious harmony'. Out of a total population of about
20,000 Christians and Muslims are negligible. About 1200 Harijans
engaged in menial sanitary works live in the centre of the village. .....
The Vedas represent a monumental
spiritual literature, by far the largest, that remains from the ancient
world. We could therefore call the Vedas, `the pyramids of the ancient
mind.' The Vedas are the oldest record of the great dharmic traditions
of the East, with not only the Hindu but also Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and
Zoroastrian traditions part of the same greater stream of spiritual striving.
.....
It is an accepted thing that many
Dalits seek refuge in Christianity because of oppression by non-Dalit Hindus.
But there seems to be no escape for the neo-converts as discrimination
continues in churches too. .....
Even as the Chief Minister Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed presided over another meeting yesterday to discuss tightening
of security to minorities living in the Valley, reports said another batch
of 14 Pandits had left the Valley to join their relatives outside. .....
Secretary Powell recently said
'No direct parallel between Iraq and Pak situation'. .....
Last week, one "Robert Price" posted
a response characteristic of the dribblings from the TFTAP Brigade: tall,
fair, tight-assed, Punjabi/Pathan Pakis who are superior to Hindus and
have therefore won all wars over the past 5,000 years and, especially,
the last four, which were always "strategically brilliant." Just wondering,
how did this operative of the Ministry of Self-delusion come to log on
as "Robert"? Was he watching a movie with Ajit saying "Raaaberrt" at the
time?? .....
Tension continued to grip the western
Orissa town of Rajgangpur which had witnessed a communal clash during Ram
Navami celebration on Friday night. Two people were killed and twenty others
had sustained injuries when police opened fire to control groups of stone
pelting Hindus and Muslims. .....
Iraq is about to be invaded by
thousands of U.S. evangelical missionaries who say they are bent on a "spiritual
warfare" campaign to convert the country's Muslims to Christianity. .....
DR Praveen Togadia, General Secretary,
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, sought legislation in favour of the Ram temple to
be adopted by Parliament. Addressing a huge public gathering and a galaxy
of media-persons on March 11 in Dehradun, Dr Togadia said that since the
court had no role in the handover of the 'undisputed land' in Ayodhya,
Parliament should enact legislation on the ownership of the temple land.
.....
There are two things desirable
for fighting fundamentalists. The first is not to be one yourself.
The US government's war on the movement is somewhat compromised by
the fact that it is run by scripture-spouting fanatics for whom the
sanctity of human life ends at the moment of birth. .....
As evangelical Christian emissaries
have spread throughout the Muslim world, their presence has increasingly
proved to be a lightning rod for anti-American sentiment while provoking
the anger of native Christian sects and Islamic clerics. .....
New Delhi is caught in a whirlpool
of its own making, obviously at a time when the Assembly elections in Jammu
and Kashmir are slated round the corner. .....
When "Ibn Warraq," the pseudonymous
Muslim apostate, visited the United States after September 11, one of his
first stops was the White House. There, he enjoyed an hour-and-a-half lunch
with President Bush's chief economic speechwriter, David Frum. .....
Neither the time (11 am) nor the
location (on Park Street, a five-minute walk from the local police station
and the office of the deputy commissioner — south) could save a private
healthcare centre from being vandalised for half an hour on Sunday. .....
Over the past couple of months,
organisations representing the Kayastha community have stepped up their
activities in a bid to be heard at both the national and state levels.
These organisations have not only started advertising in newspapers but
also become more active at the district level in many states. .....
There seems to be something seriously
wrong with the mind-set of CPI-M leaders and their cadres in West Bengal.
After committing several rapes in Nadia, Cooch Behar and Malda, Marxist
cadres in Bhagbanpur in Midnapore east district went further: slashing
parts of a women’s body to teach her the lesson of her life. .....
A week is a long time in politics
but now we know that it can be even longer in war. It was only a week ago
that we, among others, warned of the dangers of storming Baghdad, "with
three divisions of the Republican Guard and unknown thousands of irregulars
embedded into the sprawling city's residential quarters." .....
Lieutenant-General (retd) Hameed
Gul, former head of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is recognized
by jihadis as the father of Pakistan’s Afghan policy and the great hero
of Islam whose vision of jihad dismembered the Soviet Union. On April 2,
Gul addressed a rally in Islamabad organised by Jamaat-ud Dawa to protest
the US-led war on Iraq and invite people to jihad for Iraq’s defense. On
the occasion, he spoke to TFT. .....
Franklin Graham is a spiritual
Carpetbagger and war profiteer who trades in souls. Those are near-fightin1
words for a Southern boy from Boone, North Carolina who delivered
the invocation at President Bush's 2001 Inauguration. .....
In a significant development, Jammu
and Kashmir Police today claimed to have arrested a "District Commander"
of the Jehadi militant outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba, who, according to it, had
planned the massacre of the members of Kashmiri Pandit community at Nadimarg,
in Pulwama district. Twenty-four persons of the Police- protected community,
including eleven women and two children, had been killed by unidentified
gunmen in a midnight carnage at Nadimarg, on March 23 last. .....
It is prime time for India to abrogate
Article 370 of the constitution, to stop mass extermination of the Hindu
minority community in Kashmir and restore the valley's demographic character
to its original form, that existed at the time of partition, or even prior
to that period. .....
It was an embarrassing day for
two major political parties in the Lok Sabha today. When a private member’s
resolution seeking a ban on cow slaughter was passed, it left the Congress
red-faced and the BJP jubilant. But the BJP too had its disconcerting moment
when it was forced to withdraw a Bill seeking a Uniform Civil Code in the
country. .....
With the arrest of a Pakistani
militant, Jammu and Kashmir police today said it established the involvement
of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in the massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits at Nadimarg
in south Kashmir. .....
Lashkar-e-Toiba has planned attacks
on activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and RSS and Hindu shrines across
the country to avenge the killing of Muslims during Gujarat riots, Jammu
and Kashmir director general of police AK Suri said on Thursday. .....
The Bush doctrine that allows the
US to act unilaterally to dispose of sovereigns of nations that might strike
at the US homeland has been condemned internationally. Now it also appears
to only apply to the US. Monday, a US State Department official dismissed
India’s suggestion that it may employ the doctrine of preemption to resolve
its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. .....
It is amazing how little American
journalists know about other countries and can be easily taken in by false
reporting. This is particularly true relative to India which American journalists
seldom visit and rarely study except superficially! Few know any Indian
languages apart from English. .....
On March 25, in the midst of a
war that was yet to go horribly wrong in Iraq, the White House released
its budgetary proposal for the war as well as to compensate its coalition
partners with $ 1.5 billion. If news reports are to be believed, General
Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan, being a stalwart ally, is to be bestowed a
large portion of this bounty. One report puts the amount at one billion
dollars. .....
Three alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)
terrorists, suspected of having been involved in four bomb blasts in the
city in the last three months, were shot dead in an encounter by the Mumbai
crime branch at Jogeshwari on Saturday morning. .....
The Mumbai crime branch shot dead
three alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants in an encounter at Jogeshwari
on Saturday morning. The police suspect them to be behind the recent bomb
blasts in the city. .....
The Kerala government received
a big blow on Thursday with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
rejecting the reports submitted by its officials justifying the police
firing on a large number of unarmed tribals in the Muthanga forest region
on February 19. .....
Hafiz Saeed, the firebrand
chief of Jamaat ud-Daawa (formerly Lashkar-e-Taiba) and a former professor
at Lahore’s University of Engineering Technology, says suicide bombings
are the “best form of jihad”. He was speaking with TFT shortly before addressing
the Defence of the Muslim Ummah Conference here on April 3. .....
It is only when it is too late
that the Left Front in West Bengal feels — but does not acknowledge — the
consequences of injecting politics into college and university campuses.
The menace is now down to children of a girls’ school aged below 12 who
are subjected to inhuman treatment for failing to take part in the state-sponsored
anti-war rally. .....
Friendship evangelism is usually
easy to initiate with Hindus. Most Hindus esteem religion in general and
are free and open to speak about it. A sincere, nonjudgmental interest
in all aspects of Indian life will provide a good basis for friendship.
Personal interaction with Hindus will lead to a more certain grasp of the
essence of Hinduism than reading many books. .....
Recruitment to terrorist training
camps in Muridke in Pakistan has apparently risen to record levels in recent
days, a media report said. .....
The Vested Property Act first appeared
in 1965, when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. It was at that time called
the "Enemy Property Act." In that year, war broke out between India and
Pakistan. The law was directed primarily against the property of the Hindus
who had temporarily fled to India in fear of their lives. The state was
enabled to take their property into custody, with the rationale that a
Hindu who went to India was an enemy. .....
More than 100 children held in
a prison celebrated their freedom as US marines rolled into northeast Baghdad
amid chaotic scenes which saw civilians loot weapons from an army compound,
a US officer said. Around 150 children spilled out of the jail after the
gates were opened as a US military Humvee vehicle approached, Lieutenant
Colonel Fred Padilla told an AFP correspondent travelling with the Marines
5th Regiment. .....
The All-India Muslim Majlis-e-
Mushawarat (AIMMM) today described the Archaeological Survey of India's
(ASI) order to open the Kamal Maula Masjid premises in Dhar district of
Madhya Pradesh to Hindus for prayers on Tuesdays from dawn to dusk as an
"abject surrender to the Hindu Jagran Manch and its patron, the Sangh Parivar
and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in particular". .....
What links the French provincial
town of Sevres with one of the biggest fiascos of the Indian freedom movement?
Do Indian politicians really love the taste of egg so much that they insist
on smearing it all over the face? And what does any of the above have to
do with the war in Iraq? Trust me, there is a connection. .....
Indian community leaders say New
Hampshire lawmakers bought into Pakistani propaganda when they passed a
resolution calling for U.S. Congressional hearings on the conflict over
Kashmir. .....
Inspector General of Border Security
Force Jammu Frontier, Mr Dilip Trivedi told Excelsior that over 50 percent
of the work on this challenging project taken in hand by the BSF along
the Indo-Pak border will be completed by ending June this year. Despite
continuous firing by the Pakistani Rangers on the men engaged in the project,
the task of execution of work like erecting pillars, digging, wrapping
barbed wire etc. is going on uninterrupted. .....
A parliamentary committee today
sought an immediate review of the strategy to counter violence perpetrated
by Pak-aided militants in Jammu and Kashmir and said Government should
exercise "abundant caution" while following its `healing touch’ policy.
.....
Prime Minister AB Vajpayee today
put on the swayamsevak 'ganvesh' (RSS outfit), if only figuratively, as
he launched an aggressive defence of the RSS as an organisation of 'disciplined
and patriotic' workers. .....
An audiotape purportedly from Osama
bin Laden exhorts Muslims to rise up against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other
governments it claims are "agents of America," and calls for suicide attacks
against U.S. and British interests to "avenge the innocent children" of
Iraq. .....
With the US imposing sanctions
on Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) at Kahuta for export of nuclear technology,
India has an added reason to believe that Islamabad’s nuclear programme
is being closely monitored by Washington. .....
Pakistan is a politically weak
country with nuclear weapons and has to be watched carefully lest it spins
out of control and destabilizes the entire region, said speakers at a seminar
in Washington this week. .....
When does living in a colony look
better than life in an independent nation? An Iranian American woman, educated
in the West and now living in Tehran with her two children, is rooting
for the United States in its war in Iraq. .....
Perhaps the fastest way to make
sense of this book by Avram Bornstein, an untenured "anthropologist" at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice within the City University of New
York system, is to pay attention to how he uses quotation marks. The book
routinely refers to Israel as an apartheid regime, with no quotation marks.
And it routinely refers to Palestinian "terrorism," with them. Need
we say more? .....
If India is grappling with globalisation,
the answers may be lying right here in Gujarat. A major project, to be
undertaken by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, plans
to excavate ancient ports submerged along the Saurashtra coastline and
reveal to the world the country's maritime history and strong presence
in international trade centuries ago. .....
A number of socio-political factors,
national and international, led to the emergence and growth of feminist
movement in India. An analysis of these factors in their historical perspective
is important to understand the impact of the movement on minority women,
particularly Indian Muslim women. .....
The Justice Department arrested
the head of an Islamic charity in Illinois today and said there was extensive
evidence that he and his organization had close ties to Osama bin Laden
and had secretly funneled money to his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. .....
The worst fears of US are coming
true. Some sections of the US establishment and the scientific community
have been fearing that Musharraf is not in a position to control some fundamentalist
Pak nuclear scientists or army officers if they make up their mind to aid
jehadi fighters like Al Qaeda with nuclear know-how or weapons. .....
Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's
conveying an appeal to Prime Minister Vajpayee that cow slaughter should
be banned across the country was a contradiction of Congress policy. Banning
of cow slaughter would be anathema to Christians and Muslims. Incidentally,
beef or buffalo meat costs Rs 40 per kg whereas the meat of sheep or lamb
costs Rs 100. How, therefore, can a beef eater approve of Mr Singh's proposal?
Or is the Congress going saffron? .....
A two-year-old baby is lying in
his bed trying to sleep. His mother is telling him stories about his father,
who is a soldier and has decided to give his life for his country. She
is telling him how brave his father is and how proud he is of his service
to the nation. .....
The release of a Publications Division
book on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar,
amid great fanfare here this evening proved to be an occasion for launching
a broadside on the critics of the Sangh Parivar. .....
US experts are saying what the
Indian government, first secretly and then openly, suggested over a year
ago — that Pakistan could help Al-Qaida develop a nuclear device. .....
Thanks to the Hmar-Dimasa ethnic
clashes, a continuing silent migration to Assam’s Cachar district has finally
drawn attention of the powers that be. .....
Close on the heels of strong condemnation
of Begum Khaleda Zia’s government by visiting members of the European Parliament
for “grossly violating human rights” of Bangladeshis in the name of restoring
law and order comes the report of the US state department holding her government
solely responsible for letting the law enforcement agencies “commit excessive
brutalities and extra judicial killings.” .....
Leader of the Pakistan-based terrorist
outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has said the 'Jihad' will continue as long as
India does not recognise the whole of Kashmir as "a disputed territory,
accept the role of Pakistan and Kashmiris in meaningful tripartite talks
and resolve the issue through UN resolutions." .....
The BJP-led coalition government
at the Centre has completed five years. This is indeed a spectacular achievement
because of the unique resilience that it has collectively shown in the
wake of concerted opposition from powerful non-party intelligentsia whose
overwhelming presence in the media and academia underpinned the creation
of a hostile environment against the government. .....
Bowing to persistent demand from
many Left teachers’ lobbies, the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary
Education has scrapped a whole chapter from the English syllabus as it
contains a line not in keeping with the leanings of the powers-that-be.
.....
Recruitment to terrorist training
camps at Muridke in Pakistan has apparently risen to record levels in recent
days with an aim to fight Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir,
a media report said on Sunday. The training camps are located in a 190-acre
estate in Muridke, surrounded by barbed wire and hidden by tall trees.
.....
Alarm bells have gone off in the
country's security establishment with intelligence reports pointing to
the presence of about 50 Indonesian Jamiya Islamia (JI) militants in Bangladesh
for the past three weeks. .....
His face looms large on posters,
his voice echoes on television channels, his fame spans 106 nations, his
followers include industrial tycoons, political big-wigs, filmstars and
the who's who of Indian chatterati. In a nation known for its countless
gods and god men, he has been dubbed as "the fastest growing guru in the
marketplace of happiness." .....
"For a skeletal Chunni Lal, 65,
the lone survivor of the March 23 massacre at Nadimarg village of Kashmir,
where 24 innocent Kashmiri Pandits - including women and infants - were
gunned down, the words of sympathy and solidarity mean nothing. Even on
the day the funerals took place, journalists, medicos and hordes of politicians
and administration officials came out to console Chunni Lal, but vanished
as dusk approached. .....
It is a great pleasure for me to
be here at Carnegie Endowment for Peace among so many distinguished scholars
of international relations to speak about India and United States and the
areas of security in which we can work together. .....
It is a year since our English-language
media invented a hero and the anniversary is an appropriate occasion to
look at some discoveries to which that invention led. Gita Dewan Verma
(Slumming India, 2002) divides the citizenry into four categories - The
Big People, The Little People, The Other People, and Whistle-blowers -
and this little homily is addressed to those she calls The Other People,
"who wonder about what is happening and think it is not their doing and
I hope they see it is still their tragedy". .....
I along with Prof.Ashoke Taru Saha
and Ganesh Chandra of HRCBM,Dhaka visited the place of occurrence on March
7, 2003 at Balihati Union Parishad No.1 under Saturia police station, Dist.Manikganj
on the basis of information published in national dailies in Bangladesh
that a huge number of Hindu minorities have been tortured after the U.P
election was over on 16th of February, 2003. .....
Either by instinct or consensus,
India's uniquely secular national press simply ignored the recent discovery
of a broken pillar with a lotus carving at the site of the erstwhile Babri
Masjid in Ayodhya. Such negation cannot, however, diminish the significance
of the finding. As senior Government administrator RM Srivastava observed,
"The finding of a pillar and a multi-layered flooring suggests there exists
a permanent structure beneath the soil. .....
How could Maya do it, without the
cow-belt having undergone a cultural revolution?" the ecstatic D Shyam
Babu, a new age Dalit scholar, exclaimed. We were analysing the BSP's triumph
in the UP Assembly elections and, sitting glued to the news channels, watching
Brahman/Rajput/Bania MLAs pay obeisance to Kanshi and Maya, by falling
at their feet. .....
"Labourers have no religion. Their
only religion is to work as they earn their livelihood only by working."
.....
It doesn't take an expert to point
out that the exquisite work on the blouse is typically Parsi. Based on
an original jubla design documented in a famed book of embroidery by Rosemary
Grill, a deputy curator at the Victoria Albert Museum in London, it is
as authentic as it can get. Every motif of the bird in the book has been
recreated to the last detail except perhaps for a shade of light blue that
takes on a beige tinge in the blouse. .....
It's not often that history affords
one the opportunity to run a grand experiment, but with the present war
in Iraq, Bush administration officials are planning to run what may be
the greatest historical experiment since the rebuilding of Europe after
World War II. .....
The Sunday Express spoke to six
students from Pulwama, who recently converted and are working for Campus
Crusade For Christ, a mission affiliated to All Saint’s Church of North
India. The group agreed to talk on condition of anonymity. .....
I am provoked, to wield my pen
on this subject after my granddaughter accompanied by her husband, paid
a short 4 day visit to Kashmir in October, 1998. .....
Farooq Abdullah is right in referring
to the erosion of the State's special status in the past. What he forgets
(or, would have us forget) is that that status was meant to be eroded away.
.....
Amid booming guns and endless violence,
Kashmir is witnessing a discreet spurt in conversion — from Islam to Christianity.
Christian groups are putting the number of neo-converts at over 10,000
and a Sunday Express investigation confirms that conversions have been
taking place regularly across the Valley. .....
India has termed as "insensitive"
the U.S. and British demand for resumption of a dialogue with Pakistan
in the wake of the Nadimarg massacre of Kashmiri Pandits and asserted that
it will not talk to Islamabad till it stops cross-border terrorism. .....
Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha
has described Pakistan as a "fit case" for an Iraqi style military action
by the US because it has weapons of mass destruction, sheltered terrorists
and lacked democracy. .....
The State Government will take
stringent action against schools and colleges, which propagate communal
and casteist hatred, the Education and Health Minister, S. Semmalai, said
today. .....
In the first part of his analysis
on terrorism, B Raman discussed its causes, the distinctions between religious
and non-religious terrorist groups and their sources of funding and their
sanctuaries. .....
Social studies textbooks in the
Urdu language, printed by the government and used in government-run schools
and institutions, fudge facts and indoctrinate students with a jaundiced
worldview. The most comprehensive analyses of this phenomenon in Pakistan
is historian Prof KK Aziz's "The Murder of History," published by Vanguard
Books Pvt Ltd. .....
Seven years at the head of a guerrilla
battle to end Nepal’s constitutional monarchy have thrown up some very
contrasting images of Dr Baburam Bhattarai, the second in command of the
once-banned Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), and second only in the party
hierarchy to its supreme commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda. .....
It could only happen with an American
invasion. Poised behind the troops, waiting for a signal that Iraq is safe
enough for them to operate in, are the evangelical Christians - carrying
food in one hand and the Bible in the other. .....
Let us first look at India. Mumbai
is now home to at least three dozen American companies including Kodak,
Heinz, Monsanto, Warner Bros, Federal Express, Bank of America, Bankers
Trust, Parke Davis, Intel, JP Morgan, Kellogg, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble,
American Int'l Group, Exxon-Mobil, Delta and Boston Consulting. .....
For Muslims throughout the world,
the war in Iraq has set off a wave of anger, sadness, frustration and despair.
.....
The founder and former head of
the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba has dismissed Pakistani efforts for
talks with India over Jammu and Kashmir, saying "killing Hindus" was the
best approach. .....
Is the United States winning the
war and losing the peace? Affirmative, say moderate Arabs once considered
pro-American and who are moderate no longer. .....
The Congress, which opposed the
anti-terror law in Delhi, is pushing a Bill in Rajasthan that is more stringent
than the central legislation. .....
Hardcore Jehadis are poised to
infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from at least five launch camps
close to the Line of Control (LoC), intelligence sources have warned. .....
The pieces of the jigsaw are still
falling into place following the gunning down of three Pakistani terrorists
at Goregaon on Saturday morning, but at least one fact has been established.
.....
The most subversive role of the
communist movement and its unforgivable sin has its support to various
separatist and fissiparous tendencies in Indian polity by providing philosophical
and intellectual underpinning to all such antinational movements. Scant
is known about the Indian communists' assiduous support to the creation
of theocratic state, Pakistan, based on religion. .....
Delhi police personnel of the North
district have arrested a Pakistani national on charges of staying in the
city illegally. The police who did not specify exactly when they made the
arrest. They claimed that the he had been staying in the country illegally
and was helping terrorists carry out subversive activities. .....
After lying low for a while, many
Pakistani militant organisations have changed their names, opened new websites
and shed the ostentatious black balaclavas and heavier weapons of their
bodyguards. Their leaders and activists have been freed and are making
inflammatory speeches, recruiting and raising funds. .....
The turn-off to the Muridke estate
is unmarked and in daylight it is easy to miss amidst the lush paddy fields
of rural Punjab. .....
Make no mistake - Khadi is haute
and happening. At the Singapore Fashion Week Giorgio Armani himself sang
peans to the stuff of which nationalism is made. .....
Taking tough, the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad today said it would support only that party in the next general
elections which promises to carry out construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya
as it did not expect the present government at the Centre to enact a law
allowing such a construction. .....
The government continued with its
attack on the US today for preaching India restraint even as terror violence
in J&K was on the rise. It was defence minister George Fernandes' turn
today to bluntly ask the Bush regime to stop advising India. .....
Claiming a build-up of death squads
in Pakistan across the border from disputed Kashmir, India says that it
is considering a massive beefing up of troops on its side of the Muslim-majority
state, a move that may well portend a new round of tensions between the
rival nations. .....
The Pioneer has obtained the translated
version of a landmark manuscript titled Jihad-e-Kashmir and Afghanistan,
written by well known Pakistani writer Mohammed Amir Rana, published recently
by Masha'l Books, Lahore. Originally written in Urdu, this investigative
volume examines the nexus between the Pakistan Government, the ISI and
jihadi groups operating for years in Jammu and Kashmir. .....
Bollywood singer Abhijeet is angry.
"In a few days, you will see me tearing my hair off and waving the Indian
flag on the road," says he. Fortunately, this is not what it sounds like.
"Media is like a guardian and I am a kid running up with a complaint,"
he explains. So what is he cribbing about? "Why are Pakistani (our enemy)
artistes getting all this attention in our country when Indian artistes
are banned from performing in Pakistan?" questions Abhijeet. .....
Nishkam Gupta, 21, is not like
others of his age, his parents will tell you. He is currently at Camp Lejeune,
serving as a marine reserve. In a few days he will leave to serve in the
war, something that he has wanted to do since he was 17. .....
Veer Savarkar reached Bombay on
July 22, 1910. His trial started soon after. He was sentenced to transportation
for 25 years. Soon another case was instituted against him for abetting
Jackson's murder. He was sentenced to another transportation for 25 years
on January 30, 1911. Thus, he was sentenced to remain in the Cellular Jail
in Andamans for 50 years. .....
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, known
as Veer Savarkar, was the ideologue of Indian revolutionaries and the freedom
movement. His thoughts deeply influenced me during the formative years
of my life. .....
Malaysia's Government has accused
its religious schools of teaching hate, not religion, and has stopped their
state subsidy. .....
The Shiv Sena-BJP opposition members
in the State Legislative Council on Thursday staged walkout protesting
against what they alleged was Democratic Front Government's attitude of
shielding accused in the recent Mulund train blast which had taken a toll
of 11 lives and injured scores of others. .....
Three mosques in Davao in the southern
Philippines have been hit by grenades and machine gun fire just hours after
16 people were killed in a bomb blast in this predominantly Christian city.
.....
The 148-year-old throne of the
Kali image at the Dakshineswar temple — before which both Ramakrishna and
Vivekananda meditated for hours — will be replaced by a new one on Saturday.
.....
China has been taking advantage
of the US war against terrorism to make sweeping arrests of its restive
Muslim population in the far west, according to Amnesty International.
.....
In the good old/bad old days, the
procedure for making a former human being into a saint was well understood.
.....
In the last few months five Muslim
girls from the predominant Muslim pocket of Malad Malavni in Mumbai have
married outside their religious communities. This has led to quite uneasiness
amongst the Muslims of the locality. .....
As a religious minority in a hostile
environment with continuous exposure to physical violence, cultural pressure,
relgious intolerance and economic discrimination, the Muslim Indian community
is naturally more concerned with its external environment rather than with
its internal life. .....
At least 15 people were killed
and 50 others injured in a bomb explosion that ripped through a busy wharf
in the southern Philippine city of Davao, officials said. .....
Desperate after the successful
conduct of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has revamped
its strategy on cross-border terrorism, setting up a 'Joint Command Council'
of terror groups and established at least 100 launching pads to step up
infiltration, according to the BSF and intelligence sources. .....
Balinese Hindus ushered in their
holiest day by torching a giant effigy of a suspect in last year's deadly
terrorist bombings here, part of a ceremony to banish evil from the island.
.....
Archaeologists have uncovered a
broken pillar with a carving of a lotus flower at the site of a destroyed
16th-century mosque claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, a government official
said Tuesday. .....
As the `seculars' had prayed and
against the prayers of the BJP, the Supreme Court has ruled that the status
quo at Ayodhya should continue on the undisputed land also. .....
Ms Mayawati, Chief Minister of
Uttar Pradesh, today justified the detention of some Kashmiri students
by the police in Meerut on the charges of being involved in terrorist activities
and accused the Jammu and Kashmir Government of baselessly claiming that
"innocent" Muslim students were being harassed in her state. .....
Sindh, now in Pakistan, is the
land of my birth and my schooling. I took part in the freedom struggle
against the British rule. .....
Abdul Qader Khan, known as the
`father of Pakistan's nuclear programme', has claimed that his country
had made the atomic bomb as early as 1984 but continued to deny its existence
till May 1998. Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998, days after
the Pokhran tests by India. .....
-
Ultras attack police
post, kill 11
At least nine policemen and two
civilians were killed while five others were injured when militants attacked
a remote police post in Udhampur district late on Saturday The ultras also
kidnapped four policemen and took away a large quantity of arms and ammunition.
.....
British authorities are probing
into a couple of “honour killings” of Asian women here amidst growing fear
that women are being subjected to violence, and sometimes, murdered for
refusing to obey the traditions of their culture. .....
Some of Pakistan’s nuclear scientists
believe that the bomb should be shared with all of the Muslim community,
even—or especially—with Al Qaeda. .....
The Hindus do not pay much attention
to the historical order of things,’’ wrote Al beruni in 1030 A.D. ‘‘They
are very careless in relating the chronological succession of things.’’
The millennium-old censure of the Hindu’s lack of historic sense by a medieval
historian appears to still apply, particularly to Indian historians of
the present day. .....
Let's face up to it. The BJP-led
NDA government of over 20 coalition partners had done the unbelievable;
it has survived full five years and is well set to return to power for
another five years when the time comes. Never before has a non-Congress
government consisting of diverse political elements survived so long, and
so well. There have been, of course, hiccups. Mamata Banarjee turned out
to be a major headache. .....
French-bashing is everywhere in
the American media. I am French, and I must say if Americans knew completely
what's happening in France, the French- bashing would be far harsher. .....
Making a mockery of all the procedures
laid down to check settlement of outsiders in J-K, some Pakistani
nationals not only managed to acquire permanent resident status of the
state but one even got a job in the state police. .....
On the Iraqi war front, Sunday,
March 23 was a blood-red day for the terrorist Wahhabi movement, funded
by "our Saudi allies" and aiming at control over world Islam. .....
The United States says a key nuclear
installation in Pakistan has been helping another country in its programme
of weapons of mass destruction. .....
Australian hospital worker Robert
Thomas has continued to be flogged in a Saudi Arabian prison after Australia
argued for his sentence to be cut, foreign affairs have said. .....
Last week, at the C P Art Centre
in Chennai, T K V Rajan, archaeologist turned television producer, presented
an exhibition titled ‘In Search of Krishna’, a well-documented collection
of material about the excavations conducted at the various sites connected
with the life of Krishna and the events of the Mahabharata. In view of
the ongoing excavations at Ayodhya, it is worthwhile to see what the Mahabharata
excavations revealed. .....
The "martyrdom" death of 12-year-old
Palestinian Mohammed al-Dura at the hands of Israeli soldiers – which received
widespread international news coverage and spurred on the current intifada,
inspiring countless "suicide bombers" to attack Israel – was actually a
"staged" piece of street theater, according to an in-depth report in the
current issue of WND's monthly magazine, Whistleblower. .....
