The Bombay high court on Wednesday rapped the Union government for "half-baked assurances and lips service" on tracking film producer Mushtaq Nadiadwala's two minor children, who he claims have been illegally detained by his wife in Pakistan since 2020.
Former judges of the Supreme Court and high courts and some senior advocates have written a letter to the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana requesting the top court to take suo motu cognisance of the detention of protestors and demolition of their houses by the Uttar Pradesh authorities following protests against objectionable remarks made by BJP spokespersons.
The court had acquitted six other accused, including Asaram's wife Laxmiben, their daughter, and four disciples who were accused of aiding and abetting the crime, for want of evidence, the prosecution said.
A resolution commemorating the life of Indian human rights defender Father Stan Swamy and seeking an independent investigation into the death of the Jesuit priest has been introduced in the US Congress, Congressman Juan Vargas has said.
Opponents of the CAA and NRC have gone to town accusing the BJP of an ulterior motive (read, disenfranchisement of Muslims) in implementing the NRC. By the same token it can be alleged that anti-CAA opponents have a nefarious agenda in mind that would be scuttled by the implementation of the NRC: Namely the accrual of dedicated vote banks and the restoration of Muslim hegemony over at least parts of India, especially Bengal and Assam, argues Vivek Gumaste.
World number one Novak Djokovic has been "playing by his own rules" and has put his bid for a 21st Grand Slam title at risk by not following Australia's COVID-19 vaccination requirements, world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas said on Thursday.
India in the past rejected similar reports.
The US lawmakers, describing themselves as "longtime friends of India", wrote in the letter that "more than six months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government unilaterally revoked the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, the government continues to block most internet in the region".
The State Department in its report listed more than a dozen significant human rights issues for India. Prominent among them are unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings perpetrated by police; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by some police and prison officials; arbitrary arrest and detention by government authorities; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; political and prisoners or detainees in certain states.
There have been over 300 attacks against Christians and their churches and prayer halls, primarily in northern India, states Aakar Patel.
The students asked how many detention centres will the government build if all Muslims, Christians and other minorities are "outsiders" and "illegal migrants".
The AIADMK is convinced that the BJP will remain an electoral burden for a long time to come, beginning the Lok Sabha polls next year, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
"We have urged Indian authorities to respect human rights and restore full access to services, including internet and mobile networks," she said.
'Fear is not created by those who are defending minorities and Dalits.' 'Fear is being created by the actions of political leaders like Yogi Adityanath and police forces.' 'The kind of hate statements that are being made to which there is silence from the prime minister's side.'
The Congress too condemned Mufti's statement on the Tricolour, saying it is unacceptable and has hurt sentiments of people.
The massive square became famous all over the world with an iconic picture of a young man standing before a row of battle tanks in a bid to stop them.
China's ruling Communist Party has appointed Wang Junzheng, sanctioned by the US, Britain, EU and Canada for his alleged role in the human rights violations against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, as the head of its party unit in the sensitive Himalayan region of Tibet.
This was the first phone call between the two leaders after Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20.
Malik Ishaq, dreaded chief of banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that has carried out attacks on minority Shias and the mastermind of the assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, has been released after 3 years in jail with the Pakistan government not seeking an extension of his detention.
Additional Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Munir Khan said restrictions in Jammu have been completely lifted.
Actions of Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped track Osama bin Laden, have "seriously jeopardised" Pakistan's efforts to fight polio, the top Pakistani diplomat told US lawmakers.
'The biggest danger is that majoritarianism is getting normalised, insidiously and overtly... We are bringing the worst, not the best in us... We are looking for new enemies - Muslims, urban Naxals, tukde tukde gang, some enemy or the other which keeps this majoritarian wheel turning,' says journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
Over 300 eminent personalities from the creative and scholarly community of India, including actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mira Nair, vocalist TM Krishna, author Amitav Ghosh and historian Romila Thapar have expressed solidarity with the students and others protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. Writers Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, actors Ratna Patak Shah, Jaaved Jafferi, Nandita Das, Lillete Dubey, sociologist Ashis Nandy, activists Sohail Hashmi and Shabnam Hashmi were also among the signatories.
A Pakistani judicial review board on Friday ended the house arrest of Malik Ishaq, the head of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who was detained last year after his group was blamed for a string of attacks on the minority Shia community.
The PM said that a lie is being spread that this govt had brought the law to snatch people's rights. He dared rivals to find anything discriminatory in his work.
Jammu and Kashmir's mainstream political parties, including the National Conference and the PDP, formed the Gupkar alliance on October 15 for restoration of special status of the erstwhile state and also to initiate a dialogue between all the stakeholders on the issue.
Megha Rajagopalan's Xinjiang series won the Pulitzer Prize in the International Reporting category.
Extrajudicial executions, often disguised as encounters with armed criminals, have become the norm and are widely reported in Indian media. Torture and arbitrary detentions continue, not just in insurgency-affected areas, but also in most police stations in the country. Yet, India continues to provide effective immunity from prosecution to its security forces and other public officials, HRW laments.
Now that the Canadian Immigration Refugee Board adjudicators have opened to the media hearings for the detention of the 492 Sri Lankan Tamils, who arrived in the Canadian waters on August 9 on board MV Sun Sea, a number of stories are coming out as to who these people are, more so of women and children, who are being kept in separate correctional facilities.
The immigrants were under detention in Cachar Central Jail in Assam's Silchar district since 2012.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked Union Home Minister Amit Shah over violent protests against the new citizenship law, saying his job is not to set the country on fire but to put it out. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' slogan, she said the BJP government has brought "satyanaash" (disaster) for everyone in the country.
The prime minister says he will bring real change to Bengal. Perhaps he will. The interesting thing is that his party has never defined what this change is, observes Aakar Patel.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf unravels the chronology of controversy in the Aryan Khan drug bust case.
The panel had first visited the Valley in October after which it had recommended an immediate ban on use of pellet guns by security forces.
A US Congress-constituted quasi-judicial body on Wednesday asked the Joe Biden Administration to designate four nations, including India, as "countries of particular concern", alleging that religious freedom conditions there in 2020 continued their negative trajectory.
Shah admitted that the BJP may have suffered because of the statements made by some party leaders in the Delhi polls.
Madrassas in Bareilly area which defied the Uttar Pradesh government order on unfurling the national flag and singing the national anthem on Independence Day may face action, including under the stringent National Security Act,
A new political party called the 'Jammu and Kashmir Apni (own) Party' (JKAP) will be launched on Sunday and will be led by former state finance minister Syed Altaf Bukhari, with the primary aim of proving "relief to people who have been facing uncertainty since August 5 last year". This will be the first political activity in Jammu and Kashmir after August 5 last year, when the Centre withdrew the special status of the erstwhile state and bifurcated it into Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
'If the virulence of COVID-19 has muted the toxicity of the BJP's communalism, it will be an example of good coming out of the pandemic,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
