QBullet: Kathua, Unnao Protests Intensify; New India-Pakistan Row
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1. Rape Outrage Spills Over Into Streets Across India
Thousands of people protested across the country on Sunday, 15 April, as outrage grew over the rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Jammu’s Kathua and the sexual assault of a teenager in Unnao, a day after another case of the brutal rape and murder of a minor girl was reported in Surat.
Carrying banners and shouting slogans, the protesters marched in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Jammu and other cities, demanding that the government quickly prosecute those accused in the rape cases.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. India Protests: Pakistan Blocking Consular Access to Sikh Pilgrims
India has lodged a strong protest with Islamabad for preventing visiting Sikh pilgrims from meeting Indian diplomats and consular teams in Pakistan. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in a statement on Sunday, 15 April, said the Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan was also “compelled to return” while he was on his way to meet the pilgrims. This comes weeks after New Delhi and Islamabad decided to resolve the crisis arising out of harassment and intimidation of diplomats and their families.
“A jatha of around 1,800 Sikh yatris has been travelling in Pakistan from 12 April, under a bilateral agreement on facilitating visits to religious shrines,” said the MEA. “A standard practice has been that the Indian High Commission’s consular/protocol team is attached with visiting pilgrims, to perform consular and protocol duties, like helping out in medical or family emergencies. However, this year, the consular team has been denied access to Indian Sikh pilgrims...” it said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Another Girl Held Captive, Raped, Killed — This One in Surat
Amid nationwide outrage over the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua, Surat police told TOI on Sunday, 15 April, that an 11-year-old, whose body was found about 10 days ago, had been raped, tortured and strangled to death. There were at least 86 injury marks on her body.
There were severe injuries to the girl’s private parts caused by a blunt object, according to the autopsy report. It seems she was confined, raped and brutally tortured before being killed, cops said.
Police are yet to make any headway on the girl’s identity or the perpetrators of the ghastly crime.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. We’ll Not Let Society Break, Says Rajnath Singh
Muslims living in the country are a part of India, are here by choice rather than chance, and cannot be viewed differently from other citizens, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said.
In a wide-ranging interview, the senior-most minister in the Narendra Modi government stressed that the Centre was committed to taking everyone together, and to ensuring that society does not break.
Asked if Muslims in India were feeling alienated by the government and the BJP, Singh said: “There are some people who are trying to create misunderstandings, but Muslims who are here (India), they belong to India. India has not been accepted by Muslims by chance but by choice at the time of division (Partition). We cannot think of them differently. We want to bring together everyone in the society and move forward. Whether or not we get political success, but we will not allow society to break.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Karnataka Polls: 90% of Sitting Congress MLAs Get Tickets
After missing several self-imposed deadlines, the Congress released a list of 218 candidates for the May 12 Assembly polls late on Sunday, 15 April. The party has re-nominated 107 of the 122 sitting MLAs, keeping three pending and accommodating eight party-hoppers.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will contest only from Chamundeshwari, ending speculation that he could contest from Badami too, while KPCC chief G Parameshwara, who came third in the 2013 Assembly election, has been given a ticket to contest from Koratagere.
Siddaramaiah’s plan to contest from two constituencies was shot down by the party high command. AICC chief Rahul Gandhi is believed to have said that it will send out the signal that the CM was not confident of winning Chamundeshwari.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. UP Cop on Tape Warning Gangster of Encounter: ‘Manage’ BJP leaders
The UP government on Sunday, 15 April, ordered a probe into an encounter in Jhansi between police and a gangster after an audio clip surfaced on social media purportedly of an officer alerting the “target” — and asking him to strike a deal with two BJP leaders.
The government suspended Mauranipur police station in-charge Suneet Kumar Singh, who is allegedly heard on the clip tipping off gangster Lekhraj Singh Yadav about the encounter.
In the purported tape, Singh is also heard asking Yadav to “manage” Rajeev Singh Parichha, BJP MLA from Babina seat in Jhansi, and Sanjay Dubey, BJP district president. In the clip, the officer is also heard boasting: “Don’t know how many I have killed and dumped”.
No one was injured in the encounter that took place Friday evening at Basari village under the Mauranipur station limits. Police claimed that all accused escaped from the spot.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. Three Minors Found Hanging From Tree in Barmer: Cops Say Suicide, Girls’ Families Allege Murder
Surrounded by a vast expanse of sand and a thatched hut nestled between its roots, a Khejri tree stands amidst the barren landscape of Swaroop Ka Tala, a remote village in Barmer district.
Two days ago, the village woke up to the sight of three bodies hanging from a branch of the tree — two Dalit girls and a Muslim boy, all minors. Their deaths have left many unanswered questions.
“My daughter Shanti (13) and niece Madhu (12) were sleeping with us in our house on Thursday night. We woke up after midnight to find that they were missing; their bodies were found on Friday morning. We are certain that they were kidnapped, and then raped and murdered,” says Bhairu Meghwal (41), father of one of the girls.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. 500-km Rail Fence Soon for Faster Delhi-Mumbai Ride
The train journey between Delhi and Mumbai may soon get smoother with the Central government approving the construction of a 500-km boundary wall along the railway tracks between the two cities in a bid to restrict human and cattle interference that often leads to a reduction in speed, according to senior Indian Railways officials.
This is the first step towards converting the Delhi-Mumbai corridor into a high-speed zone, and track changes allowing express trains to attain the maximum speed of 160 kmph will be undertaken once the wall has been constructed, the officials added.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
9. No Question of Sidhu Resigning Over Road Rage Case: Amarinder Singh
In an attempt to end speculation that local government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu would resign from the state Cabinet in view of the Supreme Court case against him, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday, 15 April, said there was no question of asking the minister to quit.
Amarinder pointed out that the Supreme Court had stayed Sidhu’s conviction in the road rage case in 2007 and was yet to pronounce its verdict on his petition challenging the High Court order. The question of the minister resigning, merely because the state government had repeated its stand of 30 years in the case before the Supreme Court, did not arise, he added. “There was neither any impediment in Sidhu’s induction into the Cabinet nor in his continuation now, in view of the stay on his conviction,” he said.
(Source: The Times of India)
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