Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, whose killing last year had triggered riots, had rejected the police's request for deployment of security personnel within the campus of Jalespeta ashram on the grounds that it would not suit its atmosphere.
The Chinese incursions sparked sharp reactions from Indian political parties on Thursday with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam saying India needed a government with "steel in its spine and not jelly" so that it does not become a "punching bag", while the Samajwadi Party demanded to know the country's military preparedness.
While charges against top Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders including Lal Krishna Advani, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar were already dropped by the high court, the most prominent among those who were on the firing line was former Faizabad district magistrate R N Srivastava and mafia don turned BJP member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Saran Singh
Condemning the brutal beheading of two Sikh traders in Pakistan, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, said the issue calls for a war against Pakistan.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists on Friday tore down the posters of Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name is Khan and caused ruckus in a bid to halt the release of the film in Ahmedabad and Jamnagar in Gujarat.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists on Friday tore down the posters of Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'My Name is Khan' and caused ruckus in a bid to halt the release of the film in Ahmedabad and Jamnagar in Gujarat.
The first death anniversary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati, whose killing triggered anti-Christian riots in Kandhamal district in Orissa was peaceful on Thursday.
Indicating active involvement of Maoist elements in the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxamananda Saraswati and four others, the Crime Branch of Orissa police on Friday submitted chargesheet against seven accused. The chargesheet, filed in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Baliguda in Kandhamal district four months after the killing, said Maoist leaders had formed a local militia involving villagers for the crime.
The police do not have it in them to confront the Hindutva groups in a country ruled by a Hindutva party. No wonder Munawar Faruqui feels this is the end for him, asserts Jyoti Punwani.
Ram Vilas Vedanti said Advani tried to persuade the karsevaks to come down from atop of the structure.
Dubbing the explosion in Varanasi as "a heinous act of Jehadi terrorism", Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday demanded the holy city of Kashi be accorded the status of a "protected heritage site" and entry of non-Hindus into it be banned.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia on Wednesday said the Nehru-Liaquat Ali pact in regard to protecting religious places should be implemented in both Pakistan and India.
Vowing not to give an 'inch of land belonging to Lord Jagannath of Puri' for the proposed Vedanta University in Orissa, Vishwa Hindu Parishad international secretary General Pravin Bhai Togadia on Wednesday said his outfit would fight tooth and nail to protect the 'land of the Lord'. "We vehemently oppose the move of the Naveen Patnaik-led government to hand over thousands of acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath and the VHP," he said.
The 17th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid largely remained a non-event in Ayodhya, in spite of the various programmes organised by political parties to mark the occasion. While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad observed it as 'Shaurya Diwas' (Valour Day) and the Babri Masjid Action Committee and the Samajwadi Party observed it as 'Black Day', the events held by them witnessed negligible participation by the locals.
Concerned over reports of United States President-elect Barack Obama's transition team member Sonal Shah's links with right-wing Hindu groups, some Indian-Americans have expressed fear that it might possibly influence the US policies towards India
The Special Investigation Team probing the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in post-Godhra killing of ex-Congress Member of Parliament Ehasan Jafri on Friday submitted its report to the Supreme Court.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia was questioned by Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team, which is probing some cases of 2002 riots, for more than four hours in Gandhinagar on Monday.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday accused the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Orissa of working under "pressure" from missionary elements and the Centre to protect real "killers" of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and demanded a central law to ban religious conversion.
"Maoists were given money to train certain youth of a particular community to eliminate Saraswati," inspector general of police, crime branch, Arun Ray told PTI asserting the mastermind of the killings had been identified.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, who was summoned by the Special Investigation Team for questioning in a 2002 Gujarat riot case, failed to appear on Monday before the Supreme Court-constituted agency in Ahmedabad.
A local court in Ahmedabad on Saturday sent former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani accused in 2002 riot cases to 24-hour police custody and remanded co-accused former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel to judicial custody.
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Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia on Tuesday said the outfit's controversial yatra would continue as planned.
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
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, in its affidavit, had said that according to some 15 witnesses, Kodnani was present in the Naroda area and was instigating the rioters. Deposing before the SIT, the witnesses had said they saw Kodnani distributing kerosene to the rioters, which she had brought in her vehicle.
Raising anti-Taliban slogans, Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir blocked roads for hours and burnt tyres during a bandh on Tuesday to protest the recent killing of two members of the community in Pakistan's restive tribal belt and demanded concrete steps for ensuring the safety of minorities in that country.
Cricketer Harbhajan Singh, actor Mona Singh and an entertainment channel were on Thursday issued summons by a local court for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with their Ravana-Sita dance act in a reality show last year. The summons, returnable by April 22, were issued by First Class Judicial Magistrate Rajneesh on a petition filed by NGO activist and local advocate, Arvind Thakur, and spokesman of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vijay Singh.
Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had no knowledge of the plan to demolish Babri Masjid and he believed in the assurance given by top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders concerning the march to Ayodhya in 1992 by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and security at the disputed site, Rao's former media adviser PVRK Prasad said on Sunday.
More than 5,000 security men were deployed and a helicopter pressed into surveillance on Wednesday in riot-hit Kandhamal district of Orissa as Christians there prepared to celebrate Christmas amidst a feeling of insecurity.The government sealed all entry points to Kandhamal, which witnessed large-scale violence following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati.The state government has identified Sambalpur and Sundergarh as sensitive districts.
Thackeray recalled former prime minister Vajpayee as saying, Ab Hindu maat nahi khayega (Hindus will not be defeated now), and added, "Hindus will not sit silent."
Charging the Centre with appeasing minorities for electoral gains, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Saturday called for a nationwide agitation to highlight the 'oppression of Hindus'."On one hand, the government is not executing death sentence to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and on the other it is torturing an innocent person like Sadhvi Pragya Singh, who has been falsely implicated in the Malegaon blast case," VHP leader Venkatesh Abdev said.
RSS leader Dhanu Pradhan, who was said to be on the Maoists' hitlist, was gunned down by three suspected extremists at Kumarigaon village under Brahmanigaon police station area in Kandhamal at around 1300 hrs, sources said.
The central committee of the banned Communist Party of India - Maoist had decided to eliminate Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati as he was opposing them in Kandhamal, according to the confessions of an arrested Maoist commander, who was allegedly involved in the killing in August last year.P Rama Rao alias Uday, arrested on April 20 from Raygada district, told interrogators that he was part of the 16-member Maoist team that gunned down Saraswati.
"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.
Top VHP leaders, including Ashok Singhal, Pravin Togadia and Giriraj Kishore, have already in Kolkata for the event.
The demand for imposing a ban on Sangh Parivar outfits Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishas on Monday gained momentum with the Congress saying these organisations were a "suitable case" for such action. "Bajrang Dal is a suitable case for ban... Also the VHP," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said in Delhi.
Top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda has claimed responsibility for the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four others, which lead to large scale flare-up in Orissa's Kandhamal district, according to two local television channels.
'Regarding the attacks on churches, I can say that most were politically motivated. When some activists were protesting against conversions, vested interests in some cases have taken advantage and gone on a rampage. I blame the politicians for this,' says M B Puranik, VHP's Karnataka convenor
"The findings of National Commission for Minorities and National Women's Commission on communal violence in Karnataka have established the diabolical role of Bajrang Dal. Dal leaders have openly claimed responsibility for attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka," Paswan said accusing it of espousing a divisive agenda.
The communal violence in Kandhmal in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his disciples, has so far claimed 26 lives, Orissa Home Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra said in Bhubhaneshwar on Monday.
Alarmed over fresh violence ahead of the festival season, the Orissa government on Monday asked the Centre to allow it to retain Central para-military forces dispatched in the wake of Kandhamal riots till October end, official sources said. Orissa has already received 40 companies (one company comprises 90 personnel) of Central para-military forces after communal violence erupted following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati.
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