Daily News (In Short)-1-August-2015

#* SP leader seeks Rs. berth for Yakub’s wife, party suspends him

Samajwadi Party leader Mohammed Farooq Ghosi, who sparked a controversy by demanding a Rajya Sabha seat for Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon’s wife, was today suspended from the party.

The party action came soon after Ghosi, the Maharashtra Unit Vice President of the party, wrote to the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav requesting that Memon’s wife Raheen be made a party nominee for the Rs. seat, triggering sharp reactions from the BJP, Shiv Sena and Congress.

The demand came two days after Memon was hanged in the Nagpur Central Jail.

Describing Raheen as helpless, Ghosi said in his letter to the SP chief that “Raheen was in jail for many years. How much she would have suffered...Today I find Raheen helpless and there are many such Muslims in the country who find themselves helpless and for whom we have to fight for. We should make Raheen a Rajya Sabha MP and make her the voice of weak and helpless people.”

“Raheen too has undergone lots of difficulties. Being the wife of a terrorist does not make her a terrorist,” he said.

SP state unit president Abu Azmi said the action against Ghosi was taken for going to the media with his demand without consulting the party president.

“We have suspended him for anti-party activities.Any individual has to consult his party President before making statements in the media. His comments show that he is only interested in staying in the limelight. He will be served a show cause notice and asked to explain his stand,” Azmi told PTI.

Ghosi said he had only written what was in his heart and that he stood by the contents of his letter. He, however,added he still drew inspiration from Mulayam Singh, who says that whatever one has in his heart should be expressed fearlessly.

“In my letter I had written what I felt from my heart. I had also asked Mulayam Singhji to forgive me if I stated something wrong in my letter. Inspite of all this, if the party feels I have done something wrong, they are free to suspend me. But, I stand by my letter. I will surely explain my stand to the leadership if I get a chance,” he said.

SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said the demand should not be seen as view of the party.

Dubbing Ghosi’s statement as “irresponsible in nature”, Shiv Sena urged the media not to blow such things out of proportion.

“I feel there are people who are not politically mature but seek to make political mileage out of any situation. SP has removed Ghosi but they should think on how can a person from their party make a statement that challenges the Supreme Court decision,” party spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said.

Other political parties too slammed Ghosi’s demand saying that the Yakub was hanged on the Supreme Court orders and that the matter should not be politicised.

Congress leader Sachin Sawant said Ghosi’s comments are part of a “tactical agenda” to communalise the issue.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari dubbed Ghosi’s remarks as “sheer exploitation of vote-bank politics.”

#* Home Ministry Calls High-Level Meet Amid Worries Over IS Threat

NEW DELHI:  The Home Ministry is meeting seniormost police officials and bureaucrats of 10 states today to frame a strategy to counter extremist ideologies such as those propagated by the Islamic State and prevent Indian youth from getting radicalised by such doctrines.

The meeting, chaired by Union Home Secretary LC Goyal, is being attended by the home secretaries and police chiefs of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi, a ministry official said.

"Attraction towards radical ideology of any religion is a matter of concern. We will have to put in place a system as there are inputs that the Indian youth are attracted to different extremist ideologies, including the 'Caliphate' promoted by ISIS," the official said.

Counter-radicalisation efforts would include counselling of youth, convincing community elders to persuade the younger generation to not get influenced by any extremist ideology, monitoring of social media sites and taking preventive steps.

The focus would also be on how to respond quickly to any report of the youth planning to join terror groups like the ISIS, the official said.

According to an official estimate, around 25 youngsters have been identified across the country as having been attracted to the idea of IS and wanting to join the group.

In Telangana, 17 people have been prevented from travelling to Syria and, recently, four from Maharashtra were also stopped from traveling to the Middle-East.

#* Congress Hits Back at Rajnath Singh on 'Hindu Terror' Remark

NEW DELHI:  A day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh accused the previous UPA government of "weakening India's fight against terrorism" by coining the term "Hindu terror", the Congress today launched a scathing attack, accusing him of diversionary tactics.

Speaking to NDTV, former union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, said, "Sushil Kumar Shinde made a statement outside Parliament... he didn't use the phrase 'Hindu terror' in the manner Rajnath spoke, it was a longer statement."

"Terrorism is terrorism, it has no religion, no caste," added the Home Minister. He censured the opposition party for making Parliament seem like a divided house on the serious issue of terrorism.

Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is among India's most wanted men and roams free in Pakistan, often making provocative anti-India speeches.

His speech had the opposition's rapt attention. The storm began when he finished, with opposition lawmakers trooping into the well or centre of the House.

That is when Mr Singh attacked the Congress. "Our government will never allow such a shameful situation again," the minister said.

The Congress was not allowed to respond to the minister; they later demanded that his comments be expunged.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had slammed the Congress leadership, saying it had "failed the test" by not allowing a discussion in Parliament on the Gurdaspur terror attack, a matter of national security.

The Congress and other opposition parties have vowed to disrupt Parliament till the ruling BJP removes three top leaders caught in scandals.

#* Indian Railways’ IRCTC website down for 45 minutes; e-ticketing service unavailable

Indian Railways website, IRCTC, was giving a downtime message on Friday night and did not come online for more than 45 minutes, creating inconvenience for travellers.
Any one logging in was unable to transact any business for quite some time.
Indian Railways notice had this to say about its service being down, ‘Due to maintenance activity, e-ticketing service will not be available. Inconvenience is deeply regretted’.
The website was however working this morning.

#* Petrol Price Cut by Rs 2.43/Litre, Diesel Cut by Rs 3.60/Litre

New Delhi: Petrol price was on Friday lowered by Rs 2.43 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.60 per litre, the third reduction in rates this month, with effect from the midnight of July 31 and August 1.

Petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 64.47 per litre from Saturday instead of Rs 66.90 until Friday, while a litre of diesel will cost Rs 46.12 as against Rs 49.72 earlier, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said in a statement.

Petrol and diesel prices were last cut by Rs 2 per litre each, excluding local sales tax, from July 16 but consumers in Delhi were robbed of the benefit as the state government raised VAT on the two fuels.

As a result, petrol price in Delhi rose by 28 paise a litre after considering a local government decision to hike VAT or sales tax on the fuel from 20 to 25 per cent.

Rates of diesel, on which VAT was raised from 12.5 per cent to 16.6 per cent, saw a smaller reduction of 50 paise per litre.

Prior to this, the price of petrol was cut on July 1 by 31 paise per litre and diesel by 71 paise per litre.

"Prices of petrol and diesel were last revised on July 16, 2015. Since last price change, there has been a decrease in international prices of both petrol and diesel. Rupee-dollar exchange rate has, however, depreciated during this period."

"Combined impact of both these factors warrants a downward revision in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price decrease," the statement said.

State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) revise petrol and diesel prices on the 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate in the previous fortnight."The movement of prices in international oil market and rupee-dollar exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes," the statement added.

#* Airplane debris arrives in France to see if it is part of MH370

Airplane debris that washed up on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion which may belong to the vanished Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 arrived in France on Saturday for further investigation.
According to a Reuters witness and Agence France Presse, an Air France flight carrying the debris landed at Orly airport near Paris at 0417 GMT.

It will be delivered to a military unit near the southwest city of Toulouse which specialises in analysing aviation wreckage.

Experts hope the barnacled 2-2.5 metres (6.5-8 feet) long wing surface known as a flaperon and a fragment of luggage could yield clues as to the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished without trace in March 2014.

There were 239 passengers and crew on board, and some families of the victims are demanding further compensation from the airline.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday that additional Malaysian officials were headed to Reunion to look for more debris and others would go to France.

"If the flaperon does belongs to MH370 it is actually in accordance with the drift pattern seen in the Southern Indian Ocean. But we do not want to speculate. We will wait for verification from the French authorities," he said.

Discovery of the debris may finally confirm the plane crashed into the sea after veering off course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, helping to end 16 months of lingering uncertainty for relatives.

Investigators believe someone deliberately switched off MH370's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

The debris will be analysed at a lab staffed by 600 experts that is operated by the defence ministry near Toulouse.

If the serial number on the flaperon confirms that it is from Flight 370 then the laboratory can use sophisticated tools to try to glean more information about the causes of the crash, such as whether its shape corresponds more to a mid-air explosion or a crash into the ocean.

The defence ministry also contributed to the investigation of Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that killed 228 people in June 2009.

A fragment of luggage that was also found in the area is being flown into France with the aircraft debris and will be sent to a unit outside Paris that specialises in DNA tests.

#* Members of bin Laden family die in small plane crash, Saudi ambassador says

Family members of former Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden were killed in a private plane crash in southern England, a Saudi ambassador said on Saturday, without identifying the dead.

Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Bin Abdel-Aziz, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, offered his condolences to the wealthy bin Laden family, who own a major construction company in Saudi Arabia.

The crash occurred Friday, when an Embraer Phenmo 300 jet tried to land at Blackbusche Airport, an airfield used by private planes and flying clubs some 40 miles southwest of London. The UK Daily Telegraph reported the plane overshot the runway and clipped a fence before nosediving into a car auction center and bursting into flames. British authorities said four people were killed in the crash.

Witness Barry Wright told the BBC that the plane "went up in a ball of flames in about 60 seconds."
"It sounded like a missile coming in - very loud, followed by several explosions," he said.

Andrew Thomas, who was at a car auction sales center based at the airport, also told the BBC that "the plane nosedived into the cars and exploded on impact." He said he saw the plane and several cars in flames.

The Saudi Press Agency earlier identified the plane as Saudi-owned without mentioning the bin Ladens. It said a Saudi official would work with British officials in investigating the crash.

The bin Laden family as a whole disowned Usama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities. The family is a large and wealthy one. Usama bin Laden's billionaire father Mohammed, who died in 1967, had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a sprawling construction conglomerate awarded many major building contracts in the Sunni kingdom.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

#* Taliban Deny Reports of Haqqani Network Founder's Death

KABUL:  The Taliban Saturday denied reports of the death of the founder of Haqqani network, its allied militant group blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan.

Some Pakistani media reported the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, said to be in his 70s, on Friday when his son Sirajuddin was announced as one of the deputy chiefs of the Taliban following the death of its longtime leader Mullah Omar.

"Some media outlets spread reports... about the death of a distinguished jihadi personality... Jalaluddin Haqqani," the Taliban said in a statement posted on their website.

Haqqani's family also rejected rumours of his death, according to an Afghan Taliban commander who spoke to AFP from an undisclosed location in northwestern Pakistan.

"I talked to his grandson (who is somewhere in eastern Afghanistan) and he completely rejected rumours of his death," the commander said.

"'My grandfather is alive, I talked to him last week. He was weak and sick but alive and in good spirits', he told me."

The Afghan Taliban named Mullah Akhtar Mansour as their new chief on Friday, a historic power transition that raises hopes a more moderate leadership will pave the way for peace talks despite divisions within insurgent ranks.

Labels