Month: January 2023

At least 6 Hindu civilians, including a 5-year-old boy and another minor child, have been killed and 11 others injured in a terror attack at a village in J&K’s Rajouri district on Sunday evening and an IED explosion today morning.

Police sources said terrorists fired at three houses near a Ram mandir in Upper Dangri village, around 8 km away from Rajouri town, on Sunday evening, resulting in 4 deaths and 6 injuries. An IED planted by the terrorists near one of the houses exploded today morning, resulting in the death of a 5-year-old boy and another minor child and injuries to 4 others, including two women.

“Terrorists fired at civilians living in three houses in Dangri village, injuring 10 people. While doctors said 3 injured had been declared as brought dead, another succumbed to critical injuries in the hospital,” a police official said.

“Senior police and military officers reached the village to supervise the cordon and search operation to nab the terrorists,” a source said. The injured are being airlifted to the Jammu Medical College Hospital for specialised treatment.

As per India Today, two terrorists were involved in the attack. Other reports say the terrorists drove up in an SUV, but their exact numbers are not known. What is clear is that they made their way through the forests and barged into 3 houses of the Hindu community around 7 PM yesterday. The terrorists first confirmed the identity of the victims, through their Aadhaar cards, before opening fire.

“The firing ended within 10 minutes. First, they attacked a house in Upper Dangri and then they moved 25 meters away and shot several people there. They also fired on another house 25 meters away from the second house while fleeing the village,” an official is quoted as saying in the India Today report.

The deceased have been identified as Satish Kumar (45), Deepak Kumar (23), Pritam Lal (57) and Shishu Pal (32); whereas 5 of the injured are Pawan Kumar (38), Rohit Pandit (27), Saroj Bala (35), Ridham Sharma (17) and Pawan Kumar (32). Some of the injured are in critical condition.

The three houses that were targeted by the Islamic terrorists were situated a little away from the main village in the Muslim-majority Rajouri region.

On Monday morning, an explosion rocked the same Upper Dangri village injuring 6 people, near the site of Sunday’s terrorist attack. The explosion was caused by a suspected IED believed to have been planted by the terrorists to inflict casualties on the police and security forces.

Six people were injured in the explosion and two of them, a 5-year-old boy and another minor child, succumbed to their injuries.

“A blast occurred near the house of victim of yesterday’s firing incident in Rajouri’s Upper Dangri village,” ADGP Mukesh Singh said in a tweet, adding, “One child has succumbed to injuries. Five persons [were] injured, one critical. Another suspected IED was spotted which is being cleared.”

This terrorist attack in Rajouri district followed the killing of 4 suspected Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in an hour-long shootout near Sidhra on the outskirts of Jammu city when they were trying to sneak into Kashmir in a truck this Wednesday. A haul of seven AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, an M-4 rifle and grenades were found on them. On December 26, police defused an IED packed with more than 10kg of RDX and shrapnel that was found in the forest in Udhampur district of Jammu region.

Before Independence Day 2022, fidayeen terrorists attacked an Army camp in Rajouri district and killed 5 soldiers in a pre-dawn strike on August 11. On August 12, 2021, a child died while seven people were wounded in a grenade attack on the house of a BJP functionary in Rajouri district.

Protests erupt, anger rises against LG Sinha

Jammu region of the UT of J&K has not seen such a major terror attack on civilians for years. In fact, Kashmiri Pandits who have been given govt jobs as part of the PM rehabilitation package, have been demanding that they be shifted to Jammu as there have been several targeted killings of Hindus in the Kashmir valley.

But this brazen terror attack, a throwback to massacres like Kaluchak and Nadimarg, caused widespread outrage and spontaneous protests were seen last night itself. Hindus who gathered outside GMC hospital Rajouri, shouted slogans against Pakistan and terrorists for the killings. They also shouted slogans against the Lt Governor’s administration and security agencies for not tackling the threat of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists effectively.

Several organizations have called for a general strike in the Rajouri district today, and a complete shutdown was observed. People gathered at Dangri chowk along with the bodies of those killed in the attack, and blocked roads. They are demanding that Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha come to the protest site.

https://hindupost.in/terrorism/4-hindus-dead-6-injured-after-terrorists-barge-into-their-homes-in-rajouri-jk/

German news magazine Der Spiegel has retracted a number of false reports of a dead Syrian child on the Greek border after the Greek Migration Minister insisted the reports were erroneous.

The magazine published the retraction on Friday, clarifying that several articles published last year by the magazine had contained incorrect information on the alleged death of a Syrian child on an island in the Evros river, which separates Turkey and Greece.

The articles had originally blamed Greek authorities for the death of a five-year-old Syrian girl after Greek authorities had reportedly refused assistance to migrants stuck on the small island.

“As a result of the failure to provide assistance, even a five-year-old Syrian girl died. Spiegel saw in the child a symbolic figure for the suffering of refugees at the EU’s external borders and presented this accordingly in its reporting,” the magazine said.

However, the reports were later challenged by Greek  Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi, who wrote a letter to the editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel noting that the migrants in question has not been on Greek territory and that no one had, in fact, died.

A German ombudsman also launched an investigation into the reports after a complaint from a reader and found the report to be factually incorrect.

“The Ombudsman evaluated numerous internal documents, videos and photos with metadata, chat logs, e-mails, audio files, satellite recordings and other documents, spoke to many people involved and came to the conclusion that we actually made mistakes,” the magazine said.

“We did not correctly describe the situation in our article.”

The report is not the first time Der Spiegel has been caught engaging in fake news reporting in recent years. In 2017, the magazine corrected false claims that anti-mass migration activists in Paris had been arrested during a demonstration after Breitbart News pointed out that those arrested had been far-left extremists.

The most well-known case of fake news involving the magazine came a year later in 2018 when reporter Claas Relotius was revealed to have distorted or entirely invented stories about the United States — stories which won Relotius a journalism award from broadcaster CNN.

Der Spiegel Admits Top Reporter Faked Stories for Years https://t.co/T84CbxSxVP

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 20, 2018

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/01/02/fake-news-german-mag-retracts-reports-on-dead-syrian-child-at-border/

In France, a gendarmerie barracks was attacked, a children’s home burned down, a retired couple and several families saved from the flames… In fact, 690 vehicles were burned and 490 arrests made, but according to a press release from the Ministry of the Interior, “no notable incident” was recorded on the first night of the year.

The night of Saturday 31 December to Sunday 1 January was marked by urban violence in several housing estates in Nantes. Cars were set on fire, at least twenty according to our information, and mobile police cars were the target of Molotov cocktails and fireworks in the Malakoff district, reported Ouest-France.

In Séchilienne, the gendarmes saved a retired couple from the flames. A car fire had spread to another vehicle and then to houses in the early hours of Sunday morning. The gendarmes entered the house as the entrance was on fire. A criminal investigation was opened.

It was a heroic act since the entrance was already in flames, but they extracted the elderly couple. A tragedy was narrowly avoided thanks to the courage of the soldiers extracting the bedridden husband.

Earlier, the fire had broken out in a car parked along the 1091A road at number 627. The flames quickly spread to another vehicle, then to the nearest houses, reported Le Dauphiné.

Numerous incidents also took place on New Year’s Eve throughout the Ain region. The most serious took place in Bourg-en-Bresse and Meximieux where police and gendarmes were targeted by fireworks. Three people were arrested in the city.

The forces of order were on the “warpath” for this transition between 2022 and 2023. The police and gendarmerie were mobilized throughout the department to deal with the excesses of a festive night that often rhymes with urban violence, but Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, downplayed the violence instead.

Le Progrès reported on violence in the Ile-de-France region. In the Drôme, the evening of New Year’s Eve was also marked by violent incidents. Notably in Pierrelatte, in the south of the department. Shortly before 10:30 pm, fireworks were fired at the gendarmerie barracks. There were no injuries or damage. An investigation is underway to identify the perpetrator or perpetrators.

In Toulouse, 41 fires, a fire was started in a children’s home, an attempted rape was recorded as well as an attack on police station. According to a first report, the firemen had to intervene on 41 fires in Haute-Garonne. A fire broke out in a children’s home shortly after midnight in Auzeville Tolosane. The fire was quickly brought under control by the fire brigade and was limited to the ground floor of the home. Five children and one adult were on the scene when the flames spread. They were able to leave before the arrival of the emergency services, La Dépêche reported.

But the night’s incidents were not limited to burnt cars. According to our information, the Bellefontaine police station, in Mirail, was attacked by mortar fire. Similarly, glass bottles were thrown into the police station car park and the metal curtain in front of the entrance was hit. In addition, a police officer was injured by a scooter driver. “The perpetrator is still on the run,” a police source told Actu Toulouse.

On Saturday 31 December, shortly before 9pm, the Orléans police and fire brigade responded to a burning car parked in front of No. 8 rue du Clos-Neuf in Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle. The vehicle parked next to it was also damaged.

It was a police patrol that came across the fire “by chance” and intervened in the building to evacuate the occupants in time. Twenty-two people were saved in total, including children. The smoke from the fire had entered the dwellings through the air vents.

“They saved lives, we avoided a tragedy”, said Commissioner Yan Degoul, head of the public department at the Orléans police station and head of the security arrangements for New Year’s Eve. During the night, the police officers who intervened were affected by the smoke, and had to be admitted to hospital.

The year also ended badly for the Secours Populaire of Villeneuve-d’Ascq, regional news outlet France3 reported. On Saturday 31 December, the mobile grocery shop was completely destroyed by fire. Following this malicious act, the rounds can no longer be carried out. “The truck has been completely destroyed. It’s a disaster for us. On Tuesday, we won’t be able to provide essential help to families.”

According to our information, about fifty cars were set on fire in the Lyon area on Saturday night, particularly in the east of Lyon.

The night of New Year’s Eve was also marked by urban violence in the Bordeaux metropolis. Two police officers were injured. “Every year, it’s always the same, they burn, break and we clean up”, an employee who is working to make the Grand-Parc district of Bordeaux, safe for traffic, told Sud Ouest.

New Year’s Eve saw similar incidents throughout the Mulhouse region. Although several vehicles were set on fire and the police were often attacked, no serious incidents were reported. As every year, the troublemakers, generally young minors (from 13 to 15-16 years old), did not miss the opportunity to be noticed by provoking the police.

The principle is always the same: pallets and tyres are placed on the road or in rubbish bins and then set on fire. Small barricades made of barriers and trolleys are also placed in the middle of the road, waiting for firemen and police. The latter are then greeted by fireworks.

Meanwhile, the firefighters of the Eure, had to put out about thirty car fires and two waves of fires affected car dealerships, according to Actu.fr.

And wild displays of fireworks in Nice on Saturday at midnight were seen… despite the prefect’s ban.

https://freewestmedia.com/2023/01/02/new-years-eve-in-france-no-notable-incident/

Looters in the US took advantage of heavy snowfall in the Buffalo area to rob numerous shops.

As extreme cold descended on the northern United States for several days, shopkeepers in the city of Buffalo, New York, also had to endure the onslaught of looters and other vandals who robbed their shops as temperatures reached as low as -40˚ Celsius.

“I was able to see the robbery of my diner live on my closed circuit TV,” one restaurateur told Spectrum News One, a local TV station. “But I was stuck at home in the storm, unable to respond and the police were overwhelmed. They destroyed my restaurant looking for cash, they smashed the cash registers but when they couldn’t open them, they took them away and destroyed the whole computer system…”

The looting was widespread. “All the grocery shops and shops in the neighbourhood were looted, so even if people had been able to get to the shops, everything was empty,” said another resident. The only supermarket in the area had closed as soon as the storms started.

The city’s mayor, Democrat Byron Brown, slammed the looters and accused them of forcing the police to focus on tracking down criminals at a time when many people needed help. This sentiment was shared by police chief Joseph Gramaglia: “These are not people who steal food, medicine or baby nappies. They are ransacking shops, stealing TVs, sofas, anything they can get their hands on.”

More than a dozen looters have been arrested.

At least 53 people have died across the country, including 31 in Erie County alone, which includes the city of Buffalo. The US media has reported horrifying accounts of people dying in their cars or stranded in their homes without electricity and therefore without heat for days as temperatures dropped.

🚨#BREAKING: Looting breaks out after a major blizzard hits

📌#Buffalo l #NY

Watch as video shows dozens of people looting stores and shops after a major blizzard hit parts of Buffalo causing people to be stranded with no supplies people can be seen walking out with items pic.twitter.com/tE0D9ssSFO

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 26, 2022

Ok Twitter make these guys famous!! Couple looters here in Buffalo!! #BuffaloBlizzard2022 pic.twitter.com/SPajc0HS0q

— Scott (@DarienDaredevil) December 27, 2022

https://freewestmedia.com/2023/01/01/looters-take-advantage-of-storm-of-the-century-in-us/

A court in Pakistan freed a convicted rapist after it was “agreed” he would marry his victim, his lawyer said, enraging rights activists who say the ruling risks normalising sexual violence in the country.

Daulat Khan, 23, was convicted in May of raping the deaf woman, 36, in 2020 in the northeastern district of Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, CNN quoted his lawyer Amjad Ali Khan as sayin.

He was sentenced to life in prison and fined 100,000 PKR (about $440), said the lawyer, who is not related to his client.

The woman later gave birth to a child as a result of the rape, the lawyer added.

On Monday, the Peshawar High Court acquitted Daulat Khan after the two were legally married earlier in December following an out-of-court settlement made by a local “jirga” — a council of elderly men who make decisions based on Sharia law, CNN reported.

Sharia — also known as Islamic law — is an interpretation of the faith’s sacred texts and traditions that varies greatly across the Muslim world.

Swat is a mostly rural and conservative district, where deeply ingrained, often brutal patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes remain prevalent.

In 2012, activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in Swat for defying their orders by going to school, CNN reported.

It is not uncommon for a jirga to settle cases in many parts of Pakistan on so-called taboo issues such as childbirth outside of marriage.

Critics have long accused jirga of perpetuating a culture of victim-shaming, especially on issues of rape and sexual assault.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) called the Peshawar court’s verdict a “gross violation of law” and a “miscarriage of justice”.

“HRCP urges the state to appeal the ruling and uphold its commitment to women’s rights,” it said in a statement.

In 2021, more than 5,200 women reported being raped in Pakistan, according to a HRCP report, but activists say the number could be much higher as the crime often goes under reported out of fear, CNN reported.

In Pakistan, the issue is compounded by corruption in courts and within the police, experts say.

According to Legal Aid Society, a non-government organisation that provides legal help to underprivileged people, about 60 per cent of rape victims withdraw their claims, mostly due to lack of empowerment in confronting the country’s heavily flawed justice system, CNN reported.

https://hindupost.in/world/pakistan/activists-enraged-as-pakistan-court-frees-convicted-rapist-after-agreement-to-marry-victim/

A sessions court in Mumbai sentenced a 47-year-old man to seven years in jail for raping a woman by posing as a transgender. 

The convict identified as Narsimha Bichappa Shirvati drugged and raped a woman on the pretext of curing her from the influence of an ‘evil eye’. The incident dates back to April 11, 2018, when the victim went to a friend’s house. The accused who claimed to be a transgender person was also present in the house and told the victim that she is under the influence of an ‘evil eye’ and that he can help her get rid of it. The accused, then applied turmeric, lemon, and rice in his hand and then put it on the forehead of the victim. Soon after the victim felt dizzy, he took her to the bathroom where he sexually assaulted her. 

As per a Hindustan Times report, the victim is a tutor who went to her student’s residence in Parel, where the accused Narsimha Bichappa Shirvati was also present.

The accused threatened the victim not to reveal anything to anyone otherwise she will die a slow death and will also not be able to conceive. As per the report, the student saw the victim and the accused coming out of the bathroom and questioned the victim who told that the accused was not transgender but a man, who sexually assaulted her.

A week later, when the victim saw the accused standing outside her house, she called her husband and the accused was nabbed. 

During the hearing of the case, Sessions Court judge AB Sharma noted that the victim was threatened by the accused that she will not able to have children and will die a slow death when she tried to rescue herself. 

Judge Sharma also observed that the accused created an impression and fear in the mind of the victim about her death due to the influence of ‘evil eye’. For doing so he used some ingredients such as oil, lemon, rice, and turmeric. 

As per the report, the additional sessions court judge said that the accused taking benefit of the victim’s faith committed oral penetration with her. 

In his defence, the accused cited the delay in lodging the FIR. The victim’s counsel submitted that the victim was married just a year before and feared that her marital life would be ruined. To this, Judge Sharma said, “Admittedly, the female in Indian society are reluctant to disclose such unfortunate incidents that happened to them, to their family, fearing that it would spoil their relationship.”

Reportedly, the accused had also alleged that the student to whose residence the victim visited had an affair with him and that the two had a fight. After their fight, she had conspired to frame him and lodged a false case. 

The accused, however, failed to prove why would the victim submit false evidence against him. The court noted that the accused was a stranger to the student as well as the victim.

Separately, the accused has been sentenced to 1 year in jail under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman Evil and Aghori Practices & Black Magic Act.

https://www.opindia.com/2023/01/mumbai-man-who-pretended-to-be-transgender-sentenced-to-jail-for-7-years-for-rape/