Sunni Trust To Invite Yogi Adityanath For Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony Of Hospital, School Inside The Mosque Complex
Arshad Afzaal Khan | India Tomorrow LUCKNOW, AUGUST 10—The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation, a trust set up by the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of an alternative mosque complex on five acres of land allotted on directions of the Supreme Court within the territorial limits of Ayodhya district, has announced to invite Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.     The statement came after the chief minister expressed doubts that he would not be invited for the foundation laying ceremony of the mosque. He also that as a Yogi, he would not like to be associated with the mosque and would like to live his life as per the dictates of his own religion. He made the comments in response to a question by journalists after Yogi attended the Ram Temple foundation laying programme at Ayodhya, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in presence of Hindu saints from all over India, on August 5.     But Trust secretary Athar Hussain told India Tomorrow that the CM would ...

43 Muslims Selected in Civil Services Exams for 2019 Batch
Firasha Shaikh| India Tomorrow   PUNE, AUGUST 4—As many as 43 Muslims have been selected in the civil services examinations for the 2019 batch conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.   This accounts for five per cent of the total of 829 students recruited by UPSC this year.   This is a major improvement from the previous year when only 28 Muslim candidates were selected which was only 4 per cent of 759 candidates selected.   However, only one Muslim candidate is among the top 100. He is Safna Nazrudeen, who ranked 45, with his roll number 1902112.   However, this is not a good picture because Muslims comprise more than 16 per cent of the country’s population. Going by their population, their proportional representation in the civil services should have been more than 15 per cent. Commenting on the increase in the number of Muslim candidates, Suhail Shaikh, Secretary of Knowledge Park Charitable Trust, an NGO based in Maharas...

Spies Selling Army Info to Pakistan's ISI Nabbed In 'Op Desert Chase'
Arti Tikoo Singh   NEW DELHI/ JAIPUR, JUNE 8—In a major crackdown on Pakistani spy network in India, Military Intelligence and Rajasthan police on Monday caught two civil defence employees for passing on information about strategic Army installations to the ISI. One of the Indians was honey-trapped by a Pakistani woman ISI operative on social media.   Official sources said, Rajasthan police, based on intelligence input provided by Lucknow based Military Intelligence (MI) arrested Vikas Kumar (29), a civil defence employee at an Army Ammunition Depot and Chiman Lal (22), a civil contractual employee of Army's Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR) for working as spies of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).   Both the Ammunition Depot in Shri Ganganagar and MMFR in Bikaner are strategically important military installations in the Western front of India.   In August, 2019, the MI Lucknow through its sleuths, had learnt about the espionage agent, Vika...

Student Leaders, Activists Condemn Arrest of Anti-CAA Protesters, Term It Witch-Hunt, Diversionary Tactics
India Tomorrow NEW DELHI, MAY 27— Several former and sitting student leaders of prominent universities and renowned activists have strongly condemned the chain of arrests of prominent faces of anti-CAA protests in connection with the February-end northeast Delhi violence. Taking part in a joint press conference online on Tuesday, they termed the arrests as ‘witch-hunt’ of critics of the government and also as a ploy to divert people’s attention from its failures in handling the Coronavirus pandemic. During the COVID-driven lockdown in the last two months, around one dozen known young figures of the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) have been arrested by the Delhi Police. They include Khalid Saifi, Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, Asif Iqbal Tanha and Shifaur Rahman. Last week, two students of JNU and members of ‘Pinjda Tod&rs...

Two Women Students of JNU Arrested over Anti-CAA Protest in Northeast Delhi
India Tomorrow   NEW DELHI, MAY 24— Two women students of Jawaharlal Nehru University were arrested by the Delhi Police here on Saturday for their alleged role in a protest held against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Jafarabad area of Delhi in February this year. Jafarabad and adjoining areas had witnessed violence in the last week of February, killing around 50 people.   The two JNU students and activists of Pinjda Tod group who have been arrested are Devangana Kalita (30) and Natasha Narwal (32).   “An FIR regarding the Jafrabad sit-in protest had been registered earlier. The women have been arrested under IPC sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty),” an unnamed officer was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.   In the last one month, the city police have arrested half a dozen students of Jamia Millia ...

Arrest of Young Activists under UAPA: Govt. Misusing COVID-19 Situation to Suppress Critical Voices, Say Rights Activists, Community Leaders
India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, MAY 21— Young and educated activists, who were spearheading the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protests very peacefully and legally earlier this year, are now being falsely implicated by the Delhi Police in the end-February violence at the behest of a political party, charged a group of eminent rights activists, lawyers and community leaders at a joint press conference through Zoom Thursday afternoon.   Speaking at the press conference, legal and human rights activist Teesta Setalvad said: “Despite the lockdown, whatever police are doing is police raj. They are doing it because people can’t protest now. The attitude of the Delhi Police and Home Ministry in the last 60-70 days is to give a message to the emerging educated leadership of the Muslim community and this is shameful. This is a misuse of COVID-19 situation. We don’t know when the lockdown will be lifted, but people will protest against this.”   Teesta also ...

Two AMU Students Win First Prize for Their Design Idea on Remote Monitoring of Coronavirus Patients
India Tomorrow   ALIGARH, MAY 18— Two computer engineering students of Aligarh Muslim University took part in a competition on design idea for remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients and jointly won first prize worth Rs 30,000. Around 800 students from across the country had participated in the competition.   Mohd Asif Zameer (team leader) and Danish Asad Khan, students of computer engineering at Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology, AMU, had taken part in the contest.   “In the challenging time of COVID-19 pandemic when we are facing lockdown, the Aligarh Muslim University continues to steal the show as its students team comprising Mohammed Asif Zamir (Team Leader) and Danish Khan, (Department of Computer Engineering, ZHCET (AMU) participated in DE-COVIDETHON and presented their design idea on "Remote Monitoring of Patients and applying Deep Learning on the collected Dataset to predict COVID-19" organized by Dare2Compete (...

And Now Ban On 'Azaan' In Haryana
Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, APRIL 26 –After the state governments in Delhi and UP clarified that there was no ban on ‘Azaan’, police and district administrtation in Haryana’s Faridabad district has imposed ban on calling of ‘Azaan’ from mosques.  Ausaf Malik, a resident of Paudi village under Surajkund police station of the district has circulated a video, alleging that police came to his village and asked the people not to give ‘Azaan’ from mosques failing which action would be taken against the management of mosques. His allegation has been confirmed by the police.  He says that he asked for a written order from the police authorities in this regard but the policemen said they were not having any written permission. “I then called up Station House Office of Surajkund Police Station, met him in person and asked for the written order in the matter. However, he did not show any official order in this...

Police Booking Student-Activists Under UAPA To Stifle Anti-CAA Movement, Say Student-Activists
Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow   NEW DELHI, APRIL 25—Student-activists allege that the Delhi police is working on the direction of the higher authorities to suppress the movement against the CAA and the NRC by cleverly linking them with northeast Delhi violence in February and booking them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.   The activists feel disturbed after booking of cases under provisions of UAPA against several student-activists including Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) members Meeran Haider, Safoora Zargar, former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, Bhajanpura resident Danish, activist Khalid Saifi and former Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan and one Gulfishan.   The activists say that the police was not going to stop at it only. They are now going to expand their net and might arrest more people as the police have registered as many as 750 FIRs in connection with the northeast Delhi violence. They say that as the investigation in ...

Human Rights Activist Gautam Navalakha Surrenders Before NIA
India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, APRIL 14—Human rights activist and former journalist Gautam Navalakaha on Tuesday surrendered before the National Investigation Agency(NIA) in New Delhi after the Supreme Court refused to consider his request to defer his arrest in view of the coronavirus pandemic.   He was asked by the Supreme Court on March 16 to surrender within three weeks. However, he went to appeal against this order seeking extension of time for surrender saying that going to jail during the Covid-19 pandemic would amount to a “virtual death sentence”.   A bench of Justice Arun Mishra on April 8 said that the accused should have surrendered within three weeks of time honouring the orders of the Supreme Court that had rejected his anticipatory bail application.   Navalakha has been accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for his involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence of 2018.   Navalakha is among the five acti...

Nationwide Lockdown Likely to Be Extended for Two Weeks
India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, APRIL 11— During the four-hour meeting between the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers today, both the PM and CMs appeared to be on the same page as for the extension of the ongoing 21-day lockdown is concerned, say media reports.   After the meeting, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went to Twitter to announce that “PM has taken correct decision to extend lockdown.”   “PM has taken correct decision to extend lockdown. Today, India’s position is better than many developed countries because we started lockdown early. If it is stopped now, all gains would be lost. To consolidate, it is imp to extend it,” Kejriwal tweeted around 3:30 PM on Saturday.   However, PM’s office or Home Ministry has not yet made any official announcement in this regard but they are considering the requests of CMs.   “During the video-conferencing on #coronavirusinindia with state CMs today, most states...

Jamia Millia Students Suspend Anti-CAA-NRC Protest Due to Coronavirus Endemic
India Tomorrow   NEW DELHI, MARCH 21— The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) and Alumni Association of Jamia Millia Islamia Saturday evening jointly announced to “temporarily suspend” the ongoing round-the-clock sit-in protest against CAA-NRC-NPR in view of the unprecedented Coronavirus endemic hitting the world, including India.   “With a heavy heart but great hope in our hearts, we temporarily suspend the ongoing 24hrs sit-in protest at Gate no. 7, JMI and appeal to all protestors to kindly take the situation with utmost seriousness and save themselves and others from this fatal illness,” said the students group in a joint statement.   They have, however, appealed to the government “to repeal the discriminatory anti-constitutional CAA, NRC and the NPR”.  The Jamia students have also appealed to all anti-CAA-NRC protesters to suspend their agitations in view of the humanitarian crisis.  “The world is facin...

ABVP Suffers Crushing Defeat in Gujarat University Polls; It's Defeat of BJP's Divisive Ideology, Says Congress
India Tomorrow  AHMEDABAD, MARCH 09— The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of RSS-BJP combine, got humiliating defeat in the Gujarat University students union elections on Monday.   ABVP’s rival National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the opposition Congress, won 6 out of 8 seats. The elections were held on Sunday.   The Gujarat University Senate elections were held after a gap of four years.   The BJP is in power in the state for over two decades.   Students Rejected BJP’s Divisive Policies: NSUI  Commenting on its victory, NSUI said: “Students of Gujarat University have ensured that the unity & democratic values of India are protected as they overthrew the ABVP in Ahmedabad.”   It further said: “Students of PM Modi’s hometown rejected BJP’s dividing policies & chosen the ideology of united India. NSUI won 6 out of 8 seats in Gujarat Uni...

Kejriwal Govt. Gives Nod in JNU Sedition Case: Trial Will Expose Media, Govt and We Will Win, Say Kanhaiya, Umar
India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 28— The Delhi government of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday gave its nod to the city police to prosecute former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and former scholars of the university Umar Khalid and Anirban in a 2016 sedition case. The file has been with the Home Department of the Delhi government since May 5, 2019.   The police had filed the sedition case alleging that these student leaders had raised some anti-national slogans – the charge denied by the student leaders from day one.   Both Kanhaiya and Umar were arrested days after the February 2016 incident but were later released by the Delhi High Court.   Following the Kejriwal government’s decision to allow prosecution in the JNU sedition case, both Kanhaiya and Umar have come out with their comments.   “Thank you Delhi government for giving permission for sedition case. I request Delhi Police and public prosecutor to take this ca...

Protest outside CM's Residence: 40 People, Mostly Students, Detained for 8 Hours, Injured Taken to Hospital
India Tomorrow   NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 26— Around 40 people, mostly students from Jamia Millia, JNU, and Delhi University who had staged demonstration outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after midnight yesterday seeking strong and fast action to check violence in northeast Delhi, are in police detention for the past 8 hours.   Lawyers have reached the Civil Lines Police Station, and some of the detainees who were injured as police used water canon to disperse them from outside the CM’s resident in the wee hours of Wednesday, were taken to the hospital for medical treatment.   As the news reports about violence continued emanating all through Tuesday till late night from the northeast Delhi, scores of people gathered outside the CM’s residence at 12:30 PM. They were demanding an immediate intervention to curb the ongoing violence in several parts of the northeast Delhi.   Majority of the protestors were students from...

Anti-CAA, Pro-CAA Supporters Clash At Maujpur in Northeast Delhi, Police Fire Teargas Shells
India Tomorrow NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 23—A clash is reported to have taken place between supporters and opponents of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Maujpur area of Northeast Delhi on Sunday and police is said to have used teargas shells to disperse the two groups.  According to reports, the clash took place when a BJP leader reached the anti-CAA protest site near Jafrabad metro station where women, children and men had taken over a road on the pattern of Shaheen Bagh since last night. Jafrabad Metro Station connects Jafrabad with Seelampur on one side and Maujpur on the other side.  According to reports, the BJP leader reached there with his supporters, demanding that the protesters vacate the road. The protesters, who were chanting slogans of “Azadi” (freedom) from CAA-NRC-NPR, were also supporting the “Bharat Bandh” call given by Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad.  Hello @ANI, Here is a one such video of people peltin...

Hyderabad University Students Union Condemns Fine on Students for Holding 'Shaheen Bagh Night'
India Tomorrow  HYDERABAD, FEBRUARY 21— The University of Hyderabad Students Union on Friday condemned the imposition of fine on three students for organising a ‘Shaheen Bagh Night’ event on the campus in support of a women-led protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) underway at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area for over two months.   Some of the students of Hyderabad University had held the event at the campus on January 31. Three students have been asked to pay Rs 5,000 each for painting and defacing the walls. The Students Union has demanded revocation of the fine.   Condemning what it calls the "autocratic and undemocratic attitude" of the administration, the Students Union demanded that the fine imposed on the students be withdrawn unconditionally. It also assured the student community that it will not bow down to the administration at any cost and will take any and every possible step to safeguard the democratic interests ...

Students Detained from outside UP Bhawan in Delhi While Protesting against Incarceration of Dr Kafeel Khan
India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20— Around 50 students, many of them from Jamia Millia, were detained near the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan Thursday afternoon when they were protesting against the incarceration of Dr. Kafeel Khan for his AMU speech. The protesters were taken to the nearby Mandir Marg police station.   “Around 50 students are detained. All the detainees are in Mandir Marg Police Station,” said Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) which had given the call for protest.   “We demand that all our students be released immediately. Since when is protesting a crime in this country? Why is our right to dissent being suppressed so blatantly,” asked JCC. The detained people are likely to be released by 5 PM today.   Dr. Khan had made a speech at a protest demonstration against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Aligarh Muslim University on December 12, day after the passage of the controversial citizenship law. Yogendra Yadav of...

Crime Branch Summons 10 Jamia Millia Students for Questioning
India Tomorrow NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20— The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has reportedly summoned 10 students of the Jamia Millia Islamia for questioning over the December 15 incident.   Media reports say some of 10 students are those who were detained following the violence on that day but were released late in the night.   The anti-CAA protest of Jamia students and local residents had turned violent on December 15 afternoon. In the evening, police and CRPF personnel had barged into the campus and beat up students inside the university library, several CCTV footages showed in the last one week. Following the CCTV videos going public and broadcast on TV channels, a team of Delhi Police Crime Branch had visited Jamia university on Tuesday. In the charge sheet filed by the Delhi police on February 13, no Jamia student was named. However, the police had named JNU research scholar Sharjeel Imam as the main instigator for the violence. Imam was arrested in January fo...

Jamia Students Welcome Delhi Mandate, Say Politics of Hate Got Defeated
Afsal Rahman | India Tomorrow  NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 11— “It has now become 62-8”, said a student volunteer doing security check at entry point to protest gathering at the Jamia Millia Islamia. He was referring to the results of the Delhi Assembly election.   The incumbent Aam Aadmi Party has won 62 seats while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 8 seats. The elections to Delhi Assembly were held on Saturday 8th February 2020.   “This is the defeat of the perpetrators of hate. The Sangh Parivar has been contesting the election solely on the politics of hate. Now I am happy that they are defeated,” Muhammad Raees, a post-graduate student at the university, told India Tomorrow.   Saaliha, another protestor at the site, told that since the BJP was asking votes to vacate the protestors at Jamia and Shaheen Bagh, the people of Delhi have proved them wrong. Now it's time to bring before law the people who really provoked to shoot at peacef...