The Congress on Sunday demanded a thorough probe into Siddique's murder and said Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, who holds home portfolio, should take moral responsibility for law and order "failure" and resign.
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
Diminishing the prospects of an out-of-court settlement of the vexed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Majid issue, Muslim bodies are gearing up to file five more Special Leave Petitions in the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad High Court verdict.
'Nowhere does the CAA state that Muslims will be deprived of their Indian citizenship.'
Holding that fixing marriageable age for Muslims was an encroachment into their religious rights, a newly constituted umbrella body of the community in Kozhikode has decided to move the Supreme Court seeking exemption from the minimum age limit of 18 years.
'Pro-incumbency worked big time for the ruling party.' 'It has never happened in the past of pro-incumbency working so much for the ruling party.'
In an affidavit filed in the court in response to petitions challenging the law, the Union of India said that despite the top court setting aside the practice in 2017, it has "not worked as a sufficient deterrent in bringing down the number of divorces by this practice" among the members of the Muslim community.
During the Gudhi Padwa festival, Hindus visit Hazrat Sayyad Badshah Dargah near the mosque, a villager said.
While seeking response from former Union minister and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing AIMPLB, the bench said, "Don't infer anything from our side."
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Thursday said there was no scope of change in the triple talaq system and rejected the suggestion by some community outfits for building a consensus on making a three-month period mandatory before finalisation of divorce.
Samajwadi Party chief Malayam Singh Yadav visited the Islamic seminary Datul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema along with his close aide Amar Singh and met its Rector Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadvi, who also is the chairman of All India Muslim Personal Law Board. The former chief minister is understood to have discussed the alleged targeting of Muslims on terror issue, while the Bahujan Samaj Party organised a Muslim convention to reiterate its association with the community.
It urged Muslims to express their anguish by observing a peaceful bandh, but prevent vested interests from taking advantage of the situation to create trouble.
Hussaini Tigers, an organisation of Shia youths, on Friday urged the All India Muslim Personal Law Board not to approach the Supreme Court against the Allahabad high court verdict on Ayodhya title suits and instead let the matter end here for good.
'A man with a gun commanded respect. I thought if I also got a gun, I could save my family. With this thought, I went to Pakistan and got training there'
The decision, they said, has given new hope to Muslim women.
Several residents of a housing complex built by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) under a Gujarat government scheme have been staging protests against the allotment of a flat to a Muslim woman, saying the locality is meant only for Hindus.
'It is a welcome development, but the ordinance has limited validity of six months, that is the problem.' 'Therefore, we are urging all political parties including the Congress to collaborate and bring a law.'
The incident occurred near Guldhar railway station when Bhupendra Chowdhary, also known as 'Pinky,' the president of the Hindu Raksha Dal, reached along with 20 of his supporters, according to the police.
In the video, Latha was seen asking the women voters at a polling booth to lift the burqa and show their face so that she could verify the identity.
Violence erupted in central Nagpur on Monday with stones hurled at police amid rumours that the holy book of a community was burnt during an agitation by a right-wing body for the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb, officials said.
Board member Sajjad Nomani, however, made it clear that the AIMPLB would not make the first move.
The Muslim Community has reacted with shock at the latest verdict of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, which ruled that the disputed site is indeed Ram Janmabhoomi and dismissed the suit filed by the Sunni Central Waqf Board as it was barred by limitation.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the argument that a three-judge bench, rather than a two-judge bench, should hear appeals of convicts in the 2002 Godhra train burning case. The court found that the Gujarat High Court commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment, therefore not requiring a three-judge bench. The hearing of the appeals will continue on Wednesday, with the state government seeking restoration of the death sentences of 11 convicts.
The Act prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
A day after tension gripped the area over the lynching of a man, the police and district administration remained on alert on Thursday to ensure law and order in maintained while the chief cleric of Aligrah appealed for peace.
Amid demands for allowing Holi celebration on the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus, its administration has decided that students can do so "freely" at the Non-Resident Students Centre Hall. The decision came after a controversy erupted when members of a right-wing group accused the university administration of denying permission to Hindu students to organize a 'Holi Milan' function on campus. However, the university administration clarified that the decision to allow Holi celebrations at the NRSC Hall was taken because of an AMU board examination scheduled for March 9. The administration further stated that March 10, 11, and 12 are working days and there will be classes, while March 13 and 14 are holidays, making them suitable for celebrations.
Eighteen BJP MLAs were suspended for six months from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for disrupting the budget session and disrespecting the Speaker. The incident occurred on the last day of the budget session, when the opposition BJP MLAs staged a massive protest over the allocation of a four percent reservation to Muslims in public contracts. The MLAs climbed onto the podium where the Speaker's chair is situated and threw papers at him.
'Our Constitution as well as the Right to Education Act do not make any distinction between Indian or foreigner; it only talks about 'child'.' 'It says that every child has the right to get education.'
In an apparent attempt to garner support of Muslims ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Bharatiya Janata Party President and party nominee from Lucknow seat Rajnath Singh met prominent clerics of the community in Lucknow.
An FIR was registered in Bareilly against former UP Shia Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims with his petition in the Supreme Court seeking the removal of some verses of the Quran.
'This chauvinistic attitude, what they call nationalism in the name of religion, is sad.' 'It is a tragic state that we are all in currently.'
Samajwadi Party leader and Kairana MP Iqra Choudhary has moved the Supreme Court seeking effective implementation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. This move comes amidst several petitions challenging the law's validity, including those filed by the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. The Supreme Court, in December 2022, had restrained all courts from examining fresh suits and passing interim orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim religious places. The Act aims to maintain the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, but the dispute relating to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was kept out of its purview. The court has listed Choudhary's plea with other pending pleas for February 17.
AIMPLB member Zafaryab Jilani on Wednesday said the proposed mosque in Ayodhya following last year's Supreme Court verdict is against the Waqf Act and 'illegal' under the Shariat laws.
Sarma said his government was looking forward to the legislation on the Uniform Civil Code, which will be considered during a special four-day session of the Uttarakhand assembly that is starting from February 5.
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said notifying the rules for the CAA days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections shows the Bharatiya Janata Party is not confident about winning 400 seats in the ensuing polls.
'If it is proved that a Ram temple was demolished and on the same place a masjid was constructed, I think we have got no right to be there for a moment.'
With discussions on the UCC taking centrestage, he said the BJP government in the state will move towards implementing one law for all, "only after talking to all the parties".
India has previously rejected the US state department's annual human rights report on the country, saying they continue to be based on "misinformation and flawed understanding".