Members of the Bajrang Dal on Saturday celebrated the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
Though United Progressive Alliance parties have already voiced their support to the government if it banned Bajrang Dal, leaders from Biju Janata Dal, Bharatiya janata Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha evaded a direct reply to questions from media persons on the issue, as they came out of the National Integration Council meeting in New Delhi.
Muthu-ur-Rehman, a journalist who was arrested in connection with the recently busted assassination plot in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, was assigned to kill a Bajrang Dal leader in Hubli, according to confessional statements of the accused.According to their statements, the journalist and six others were assigned to kill Bajrang Dal leader Gany Jartakar, as they believed that he had become a threat to the Muslim community.
The Bajrang Dal has threatened to send a team of 100 volunteers to the Amarnath shrine on June 4 to take stock of the situation there. Earlier, a group of Bajrang Dal activists has tried to make their way to the shrine but were prevented by the Jammu and Kashmir police from doing so.
Two first information reports were registered by the police at Siyana police station in Bulandshahr -- one over cow slaughter and the other on the mob violence in which a village man was also killed.
The Bajrang Dal activists alleged that the behaviour of the four persons had been 'suspicious' and accused them of being cattle thieves.
Activists of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Friday threw rotten tomatoes at couples celebrating Valentine's Day on the banks of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad.
"As the government has failed in matters of internal security, the Bajrang Dal has started constituting security committees," Surendra Jain, a spokesman of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a sister Sangh Parivar outfit, told PTI in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Bajrang Dal activists took on a moral policing role on Tuesday, when they accosted and attacked young couples near some religious spots in Bhopal. It accused couples of promoting indecent behaviour near religious spots such as the Lord Hanuman temple.
The MLA said the people indulged in stone pelting but police opened fire on them and the inspector was hit by their gunshot. "Police did not murder him deliberately," he said.
A Bangladeshi national, Azizul Nizanul Rahman, was arrested in Mumbai for staying illegally in India. Police are investigating if he was involved in the March 17 violence in Nagpur. Rahman, a daily wage labourer, admitted to obtaining an Aadhaar card using forged documents. Police are analyzing his mobile phone location and have shared information with Nagpur authorities.
According to police sources, the arrested included Khasif (aged 30) and Syed Nadim (20), who are residents of Shivamogga, about 250 kms from Bengaluru.
The British government has said it does not consider the right-wing Hindu groups VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal as "terrorist" organisations, in remarks which may have political connotation.
The alleged attack has come to light amid furore over the assault on Dalits in Gujarat's Una for allegedly skinning a cow.
The Commission in its report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few days back said, 'The state must keep a close watch on the activities of all such organisations that have contributed to the breakdown of communal harmony there. Remedial action, including a ban and prosecution should be initiated. Communal harmony should be maintained at all costs.'
A fact-finding committee, comprising of human rights activists formed to look into the recent violence in Mangalore, has stated that the attacks were carried out by the Bajrang Dal and the Sri Rama Sene (a local Hindu group). The team said the 'planned attacks' were aimed at causing hurt and resentment among Christians. It was also used as a pretext by the police to let lose a savage assault on the community and its sacred institutions, the report said.
The Bajrang Dal chief was picked up by the police under provisions of Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code. The section deals with promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale has voiced his opposition to the demand for demolition of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's grave in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, saying its removal will not serve any purpose. Athawale said that since Aurangzeb was buried there, his tomb should remain undisturbed. The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar administration has barred Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote from entering the district from March 16 to April 5 amid calls from some outfits to remove Aurangzeb's grave. Security has been heightened around the site and visitors are being checked thoroughly.
An enrolment of 25 lakh youths to mark the completion of 25 years and various other programmes have been drawn up for the celebrations that will end up with training camps in all 938 districts of the country in December, 2009. The outfit says that it would give an open call to the government at the Delhi rally to ban their outfit 'engaged in nationalist activities'.
'The new Waqf bill sows the seed for conflict in every town and village of India.'
The city unit of the VHP on Tuesday said it would stage protests on the riverfront against the Valentine's Day celebrations, which, the outfit claimed was "against Indian culture".
According to official sources, there was stone pelting when the body of the deceased Harsha was being taken from District McGann Hospital in Shivamogga.
The retired Supreme Court judge probing the Godhra incident and the riots that followed it said it will be wrong to say the riots targeted one community.
The Shiv Sena, a ruling party in Maharashtra, has demanded the removal of the protected monument status from Aurangzeb's tomb in Khultabad. This demand comes after protests and calls for the tomb's demolition from organizations like the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protects the tomb as a monument of national importance. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has stated that the state government will protect the tomb but will not allow the glorification of Aurangzeb.
The CPM leader claimed that the recent incidents in Orissa have highlighted the use of violence by these outfits against Christians, including the use of weapons and inflammatory materials to burn houses and churches
"Alleged Bajrang Dal elements were involved in vandalising churches, prayer halls and schools," Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry M L Kumawat said after camping in the violence-hit areas of the state for two days.
They burnt Valentine's Day cards, and shouted slogans against the 'Western' concept. They also burnt an effigy of St Valentine, the priest of love.
"When police were writing complaint as we had asked for, why would Bajrang Dal protest?" he says.
As the infuriated mob blocked traffic and targeted RTC buses demanding action against the officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for the removal of the road side 'Pochamma temple', the police used lathis to disperse the crowd.
The current situation in Kerala politics is perhaps best described as a case of the state's traditional two front politics now seeing a third front (the BJP) muscling in with the potential outcome being either a messy three front affair or a renewed endorsement of the two front pattern but with one of the old fronts compromised or quashed, observes Shyam G Menon.
Three men have been arrested in Mussoorie after a video went viral showing them assaulting two Kashmiri shawl vendors. The incident sparked outrage and led to the return of 16 Kashmiri shawl vendors to the Kashmir valley.
Curfew was lifted from the remaining four areas of Nagpur in Maharashtra on Sunday, six days after violence rocked the city. The violence erupted on March 17 after rumors spread about a chadar with holy inscriptions being burnt during a protest led by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal. The rumors were later found to be baseless.
The police on Sunday detained 53 Bajrang Dal activists after foiling their bid to move towards Baltal base camp of Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir, ahead of the commencement of the annual pilgrimage in June. Flagged off by Vishwa Hindu Parishad state chief Rama Kant Dubey from Jammu city, a group of 150 members boarded two buses and left for Kashmir Valley. They were intercepted by the police on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at Jajjarkotli, 35 km from Jammu.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has called the violence in Nagpur a premeditated conspiracy and said the mob had targeted specific houses and establishments. The violence erupted on Monday after a protest against Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb, resulting in several houses and vehicles being vandalised. At least 12 police personnel, including three deputy commissioners of police, were injured in the violence, which erupted in central Nagpur. Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, said those who attacked police personnel will not be spared.
Minority Democratic Party (MDP) leader Fahim Khan has been arrested in connection with the violence that erupted in Nagpur on Monday after Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers staged an agitation for the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb. Khan's name is mentioned in one of six FIRs registered so far, along with 50 others. Police are investigating whether Khan played any role in instigating the riots. Khan, along with eight others, had allegedly gathered outside a police station and submitted a memorandum against the VHP's protest. Subsequently, he went to another area where a large group of people from a minority community had gathered. Police are searching for those named in the FIRs and are investigating whether the accused had any role in planning the violence. The violence erupted amid rumors that a 'chadar' with holy inscriptions was burnt during the VHP's protest.
Before the violence and rioting that erupted in Nagpur on Monday, March 17, over Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb came provocative statements from various political leaders.
A group of overzealous Bajrang Dal activists protesting against Valentine's Day celebrations chased a brother and sister and misbehaved with them in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.
Curfew has been lifted in Nagpur after six days of violence that rocked the city. The situation is now peaceful, according to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The violence, which began on March 17, was sparked by rumors that a "chadar" with holy inscriptions was burned during protests by the VHP and Bajrang Dal demanding the removal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb. The police have arrested more than 100 people in connection with the violence.
The arrest of six activists of Hindu Vahini and 15 members of Bajrang Dal in Hyderabad on Tuesday has revealed a conspiracy to stir up communal trouble in the city by attacking minority community members.
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