Srinagar: Former actress Zaira Wasim, who quit the Bollywood last year, has received support from renowned Islamic scholar Dr Zakir Naik who said she should not be “bothered about attacks on her by right-wing media”.
Zaira recently quoted a verse from the holy Quran about Allah’s punishment on people. Many media organizations and people claimed that she justifies the locust attacks in various Indian states, which led her to deactivate both her Twitter and Instagram accounts.
But on Saturday, she resumed her accounts.
Reacting to this Dr Zakir Naik said Zaira had posted a Quranic verse on social media. “She did not mention any thing about India. But the right-wing media supporting BJP-RSS government took some information and tried to malign her saying she is talking about India. They went to allege that she said Allah has sent punishment to India by sending locust. Locust attack is there in Africa, Pakistan and India,” he said in his video message as per news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).
He claimed that media did same with him in 2016 when a terrorist attack took place in Dhaka. “One of the attackers had said he was Zakir Naik fan. What does that mean I have millions of followers,” he said.
He said Zaira Wasim post is relevant today. “Calamities take place and falling on both good and bad people. For bad people it is a punishment while for good people it is a test for them. She should continue to study Quran and not bothered about people who are problem to society and create Fitna. Successful people and those who speak the truth are bound to have enemies. Even Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) had highest number of enemies. We should not be disheartened when enemies are attacking us.”
He also congratulated and supported Zaira for leaving Bollywood. “Most part of Bollywood is not appropriate for a practicing Muslim. It takes a lot of courage for a person who is famous in the Bollywood to quit this industry. Allah will give her multiple rewards for leaving the Bollywood,” he added.(KINS)
13 Coronavirus patients after their recovery were discharged today from Rainawari Hospital, Nodal Officer Dr Bilquees said adding that 11 patients are from Srinagar, one from Kupwara and one from Delhi.
Imputations are being made against judges for their decisions, says Sanjay Kishan Kaul during an online lecture
Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said there was a growing intolerance against the judiciary fuelled by the social media.
He said imputations were being made against judges for their decisions. Damage was done to the judicial institution if the tendency to criticise crossed certain lines.
“Criticism is also information but boundaries need to be made or if such criticism becomes part of misinformation… This is not good for the system… If you mistrust every system, then you do not have a system and all you have is anarchy,” Justice Kaul said.
He said this during an online lecture on Sunday on ‘Freedom of Speech in times of COVID-19 – Fake news and misinformation’ organised by the MBA Academy, Madras Bar Association. The event saw the participation of S. Parthasarathy, chairman of the MBA Academy, and M. Baskar, secretary of the Madras Bar Association.
Justice Kaul was part of the Bench which recently took suo motu cognisance of the migrant workers’ crisis. In a recent hearing of the case, the Bench saw Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submit how “a handful of people give certificates to judges of neutrality only if judges abuse the Executive!”
The judge said it was a struggle to regulate social media without restricting free speech. He said “fake news propensity has aggravated, creating hostility against identifiable groups” even before the onset of the pandemic in the country.
He said there was a lot of information available during COVID-19 period, including its “remedies”, the origin, people who were “helping the spread of the virus” and such. These messages even take on religious and racial undertones.
Justice Kaul said there was hardly any discernment or effort to know from where information had come or who had sent it on social media. Messages received on social media platforms were “mindlessly forwarded” creating panic and triggering hate at a difficult time when people were worried about their livelihood and basic essentials.
He noted how overall intolerance had exceeded limits. People rushed to the courts if something was found even slightly contrary to their religion and belief.
Even prior to the COVID-19 period, “we had become increasingly intolerant of the opinions that do not match with ours. What is perceived as the middle path becomes the casualty. There are various shades of grey, it is not always black and white. As a democratic polity, we have to appreciate the opinion of others… People who hold opposing views call each other as a ‘Modi bhakt’ or ‘urban naxal”, etc…. Both sections are equally intolerant,” Justice Kaul said.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has refused to disclose details on the creation and operation of the PM CARES Fund, telling a Right to Information applicant that the fund is “not a public authority” under the ambit of the RTI Act, 2005.
The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund was set to accept donations and provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, and other similar emergencies.
A few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the Fund on his Twitter account on March 28, Sri Harsha Kandukuri filed an RTI application on April 1, asking the PMO to provide the Fund’s trust deed and all government orders, notifications and circulars relating to its creation and operation.
“When we already have the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), having another fund did not make sense to me. I was curious about the composition and objectives of the Trust. I wanted to read the trust deed,” says Mr. Kandukuri, who is a law student at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.
When he did not receive any response within 30 days, he appealed. Finally, he received a response from the PMO’s information officer dated May 29.
“PM CARES Fund is not a Public Authority under the ambit of Secon 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005. However, relevant information in respect of PM CARES Fund may be seen on the Website pmcares.gov.in,” the reply said.
The relevant section of the Act defines a “public authority” as “any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted — (a) by or under the Constitution; (b) by any other law made by Parliament; (c) by any other law made by State Legislature; (d) by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government — and includes any (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed; (ii) non‑Government Organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.”
Mr. Kandukuri now plans to appeal further. “The name, composition of the trust, control, usage of emblem, government domain name — everything signifies that it is a public authority,” he said, pointing out that the PM is the ex-officio chairman of the Trust, while three cabinet ministers are ex-officio trustees. “The composition of the trust is enough to show that Government exercises substantive control over the trust, making it a public authority,” he said.
Another RTI request on the issue, filed by activist Vikrant Togad, had also been refused in April, with the PMO citing a Supreme Court observation that “indiscriminate and impractical demands under RTI Act for disclosure of all and sundry information would be counterproductive”.
There is also ambiguity regarding whether the PMNRF (Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund) is subject to the RTI Act. While the Central Information Commission directed it to disclose information in 2008, a division bench of the Delhi High Court gave a split opinion on the question of whether PMNRF is a public authority under the Act.
As Lockdown 4.0 comes to an end, the Ministry of Home Affairs has released a new set of guidelines called ‘Unlock 1.0’.
Even as India registered a highest single-day spike of 8,380 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Centre has relaxed the lockdown rules to allow permission for malls, restaurants, and religious places to function in all areas except containment zones from June 8.
All kinds of social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural and religious congregations would, however, remain suspended.
Poonch: A civilian was injured and a few houses damaged in the Ceasefire violation at Poonch’s Mendhar and Balakote areas in the wee hours on Sunday.
Locals and official sources told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that after a brief spell of ceasefire violation in the area on Saturday evening at around 10 PM, that lasted for an hour, Pakistan army resorted to heavy firing on and along LoC in the area at around 03:15 AM in the morning.
“Firing by Pakistan with small arms as well as mortar shelling lasted till four hours and five villages in the area came under fire.” they added. Locals told KNO that a few houses have also got damaged in the shelling.
Block Medical Officer Mendhar, Dr. Parvez Khan said that a man identified as Mohammad Yaseen son of Mohammad Rashid resident of Gohlad village got injured in firing.
“He has a splinter injury in leg. Our team has evacuated him with the help of locals and he is being brought in hospital.” BMO said—(KNO)
Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew Saturday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles, with police cars set ablaze and reports of injuries mounting on all sides as the country lurched toward another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.
The protests, which began in Minneapolis following Floyd’s death on Monday after a police officer pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores.
The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.
The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus pandemic at a time when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is in the process of reopening society and the economy.
After a tumultuous Friday night, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast. The previous day’s protests also started calmly, but many descended into violence later in the day.
Updates from cities:
– In Washington, growing crowds outside the White House chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and at times pushed against security barriers. President Donald Trump, who spent much of Saturday in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the residence’s lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside without speaking to journalists.
– In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when peaceful protests turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.
– In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of black people that left as many as 300 dead and the city’s thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.
– In Tallahassee, Florida, a pickup truck drove through a crowd of protesters, sending some running and screaming as the vehicle stopped and started and at one point had a person on its hood, police said, but no serious injuries were reported. Police handcuffed the driver but did not release his name or say whether he would face charges.
– In Los Angeles, protesters chanted “Black Lives Matter,” some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. One man used a skateboard to try to break a police SUV’s windshield. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.
– And in New York City, video posted to social media showed officers using batons and shoving protesters down as they made arrests and cleared streets. Another video showed two NYPD cruisers driving into protesters who were pushing a barricade against a police car and pelting it with objects, knocking several to the ground.
‘Look deeper’
“Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here,” said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattan’s Foley Square, where most were wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. “This is the only way we’re going to be heard.”
Back in Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, 29-year-old Sam Allkija said the damage seen in recent days reflects long-standing frustration and rage in the black community.
“I don’t condone them,” he said. “But you have to look deeper into why these riots are happening.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fully mobilized the state’s National Guard and promised a massive show of force.
“The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” Mr. Walz said. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.”
Soon after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew went into force, lines of police cars and officers in riot gear moved in to confront protesters, firing tear gas to push away throngs of people milling around the city’s 5th police precinct station. The tougher tactics came after city and state leaders were criticized for not forcefully enough confronting days of violent and damaging protests that included protesters burning down a police station shortly after officers abandoned it.
Mr. Trump tweeted Saturday night that the Guard “should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games!”
Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities nationwide, ranging from 6 p.m. in parts of South Carolina to 10 p.m. around Ohio. People were also told to be off the streets of Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis — where thousands had ignored the same order Friday night.
More than 1,400 people have been arrested in 16 cities since Thursday, with more than 500 of those happening in Los Angeles on Friday.
The unrest comes at a time when most Americans have spent months inside over concerns surrounding the coronavirus, which the President has called an “invisible enemy.” The events of the last 72 hours, seen live on national television, have shown the opposite — a sudden pivot to crowds, screaming protesters and burning buildings, a stark contrast to the empty streets of recent months.
“Quite frankly I’m ready to just lock people up,” Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said at a news conference. Demonstrations there turned violent Friday, and police were arresting protesters Saturday on blocked-off downtown streets. “Yes, you caught us off balance once. It’s not going to happen twice.”
Not the first
This week’s unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase. The protests of Floyd’s killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses in Minneapolis have yet to approach the staggering totals Los Angeles saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.
Many protesters spoke of frustration that Floyd’s death was one more in a litany. It came in the wake of the killing in Georgia of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead after being pursued by two white men while running in their neighborhood, and in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic that has thrown millions out of work, killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S. and disproportionately affected black people.
The officer who held his knee to Floyd’s neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.
Mr. Trump stoked the anger on Twitter, ridiculing people who protested outside the White House and warning that if they had breached its fence, they would “have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.”
Leaders in many affected cities have voiced outrage over Floyd’s killing and expressed sympathy for protesters’ concerns. But as the unrest intensified, they spoke of a desperate need to protect their cities and said they would call in reinforcements, despite concerns that could lead to more heavy-handed tactics.
Minnesota has steadily increased to 1,700 the number of National Guardsmen it says it needs to contain the unrest, and the governor is considering a potential offer of military police put on alert by the Pentagon.
Governors in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas also activated the National Guard after protests there turned violent overnight, while nighttime curfews were put in place in Portland, Oregon, Cincinnati and elsewhere.
Police in St. Louis were investigating the death of a protester who climbed between two trailers of a Fed Ex truck and was killed when it drove away. And a person was killed in the area of protests in downtown Detroit just before midnight after someone fired shots into an SUV, officers said. Police had initially said someone fired into the crowd from an SUV.
Lockdown as notified earlier to continue in Srinagar: District Admin Srinagar
COVID-19 lockdown | DDMA Srinagar has obtained suggestions from stakeholders and experts. Based on these suggestions it has been decided that lockdown as notified earlier will continue until further orders. Decision on future course of action to be notified in due course.
— Srinagar district administration (@srinagaradmin) May 30, 2020
Lockdown shall continue to be implemented strictly in containment zones, says Union Home Ministry.
As Lockdown 4.0 comes to an end, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued new guidelines called Unlock 1.0 allowing malls, restaurants, religious places to open in all areas except containment zones from June 8. It however prohibited opening of bars, gymnasiums, entertainment parks, cinema halls, metro rail and international air travel.
The permit system for inter-State movement of vehicles has been removed and there shall be no restriction on movement within and outside a State. If the local administration has to regulate movement in wake of a surge in number of COVID-19 cases, it will have to give wide publicity in advance regarding the procedure and restrictions to be followed.
The grading of areas in red, orange and green zones is no longer in force but State government could identify buffer zones outside containment zones and impose restrictions.
The lockdown was imposed first on March 24 in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its fourth phase is to end on May 31. On Saturday, MHA issued guidelines under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, for “phased reopening” of areas outside the containment zones that will be effective till June 30. A decision to reopen schools and educational institutes will be taken in second phase in July. “The current phase of reopening, Unlock 1, will have an economic focus,” an MHA statement said.
The activities and utilities that will remain suspended throughout the country are international air travel metro rail, cinema halls/theatres, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, bars, auditoriums and assembly halls. All kinds of social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural and religious congregations will remain suspended.
In Phase III, dates for their opening will be decided based on assessment of the situation. Shramik special trains and limited number of domestic flights and trains will continue to run.
“All activities that were prohibited earlier will be opened up in areas outside containment zones in a phased manner with the stipulation of following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be prescribed by the Health Ministry,” said the statement.
Religious places, hotels, restaurants and shopping malls will be permitted to open from June 8 and Health Ministry will issue SOPs.
MHA said that lockdown shall continue to be implemented strictly in the containment zones that will be demarcated by the State governments. “Within the containment zones, strict perimeter control shall be maintained and only essential activities allowed,” MHA said.
MHA said that the State government based on its assessment may prohibit certain activities outside the containment zones or impose restrictions as deemed necessary.
MHA said that persons above 65 years of age, those with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 years are advised to stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes.
MHA said that authorities are advised to encourage the use of the Aarogya Setu application.
Wearing of face masks and maintaining social distancing is compulsory at all public and work places.
The National Directives for COVID-19 management has been reiterated and advises work from home as far as possible. It prescribes staggered work hours, frequent sanitization and social distancing at workplaces. The number of people in marriage functions cannot exceed 50 and for funerals and last rites the number has been capped at 20. Spitting in public places will be a punishable offence.
Any kind of violation of lockdown measures will be punishable under the DM Act, 2005.
Maximum containment zones are in 13 cities — Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi / New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Thane, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata / Howrah, Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Jaipur, Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Chengalpattu and Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu). These cities also account for 70% of total COVID-19 cases in the country.