Posts

Showing posts from February 13, 2022

Islamist Turkey: A tale of self-serving secularism and the hypocritical Kemalists

  On January 10, Enes Kara, a second-year medical student residing in a dormitory run by a cultish Islamist group in the city of Elâzığ committed suicide, alleging intense pressure by the group members to follow strict religious rules, among other things. While the news of his death was received with sorrow and anger by people across the political and ideological divide, the Kemalists and secularists were the ones leading the outcry. They called for a blanket ban on all student dormitories run by each and every religious group citing this incident. Less than a week later, 16-year-old Bahadır Odabaşı took his own life, depressed due to his father’s unjust and arbitrary incarceration for the past four years. His father Nureddin Odabaşı was dismissed from his job following the coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 15, 2016. He was later put behind bars for his alleged affiliation to the Gülen Movement, which is also an Islamically inspired group and recognise

Terror financing network of left wing extremist CPI(M): NIA raids 26 sites across 4 states

  NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted searches at 26 locations across four states – Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh -- in a case relating to terror financing network operated by CPI(Maoist) cadres and overground workers (OGWs) in the Magadh region of Bihar. According to investigations so far in the NIA case registered in May last year, attempts are allegedly being made by the Maoists to raise funds for procurement of arms and ammunitions and recruitment of new cadres in liaison with incarcerated naxals, OGWs in various jails, in order to revive and strengthen Naxal activities in this region. On Saturday, NIA, in coordination with local police, Bihar STF and CRPF, conducted searches at 26 locations pertaining to the accused persons and suspects in the case, in the districts of Jehanabad (8 locations), Patna rural (2), Arwal (1), Nalanda (1), Gaya (8), Nawada (1) and Aurangabad (2) in Bihar; Koderma (1) district in Jharkhand; Bhubaneshwar

Jharkhand: Police Arrests 9 Maoists Allegedly Responsible For Attacking Former BJP MLA

  The Jharkhand police on Saturday arrested nine Maoists, who were allegedly involved in the attack on former Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MLA Gurucharan Nayak on January 4. The accused have been arrested from West Singhbhum district with arms and ammunition, added a senior police officer. The former BJP MLA had narrowly escaped a Maoist attack but the red rebels had slit the throats of his two policemen bodyguards and snatched three AK-47 rifles.  Some of their sympathisers, too, have been taken into custody, the police official mentioned. The arrested Maoists are also known to have taken part in other extremist activities, district Superintendent of Police Ajay Linda said. Detailing upon the arrest, the SP asserted that all the arrests were made on Friday and Saturday from villages adjoining Jheelruwa in Goilkera. According to Linda, Kujri Kerai, a former mukhiya (village headman), was among the sympathizers. Former BJP MLA attacked by Maoists in Jharkhand Chakradharpur Sub-divisional

US President Biden frees frozen Afghan billions for relief, 9/11 victims

Image
  Washington, Feb 12:   President Joe Biden signed an order Friday to free $7 billion in Afghan assets now frozen in the U.S., splitting the money between humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Afghanistan and a fund for Sept. 11 victims still seeking relief for the terror attacks that killed thousands and shocked the world. No money would immediately be released. But Biden's order calls for banks to provide $3.5 billion of the frozen amount to a trust fund for distribution through humanitarian groups for Afghan relief and basic needs. The other $3.5 billion would stay in the US to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism that are still working their way through the courts. International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollars of the country's assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in August as the U.S. military withdrew. The White House said in a statement that the order "