Malegaon blast: ATS gets transit remand of Dayanand Pandey

LUCKNOW: Maharashtra ATS on Thursday got the transit remand of Dayanand Pandey, a seer arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast case, till November 16 to take him to the state. ( Watch )

Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, who was arrested on Wednesday, was produced before magistrate Mukesh Kumar at his residence by the ATS as the court was closed due to Guru Nanak Jayanti.

The court gave the three-day transit remand to the ATS so that he could be produced before a Nashik court.

Dwivedi was picked up on Wednesday from Kanpur by the ATS team and arrested after questioning.

ATS in Jammu for investigations

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which is probing the September 29 Malegaon Blasts, has sent a team to Jammu and Kashmir to interrogate the detained persons there, a senior ATS official said on Thursday. ( Watch )

The ATS, along with the Uttar Pradesh police, had on Wednesday arrested Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi believed to be a ‘seer’, who allegedly played a major role in the blast conspiracy.

Pandey’s Chartered Accountant (CA) V K Kapoor and his son Pawan were also detained in Jammu for questioning. The duo was however let off as “nothing adverse” was found against them, the official said.

Pandey heads the Sharda Sarvagya Peeth in Jammu, the finance of which was managed by Kapoor and his son.

The ATS chief Hemant Karkare on Wednesday said that Pandey had attended several meetings prior to the blast alongwith Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit and other accused in Nashik and Madhya Pradesh.

The ATS chief had also clarified that except Purohit no other serving army officer has been questioned or detained in connection with the blast.

He had also said that the ATS is not “after any political leader from Uttar Pradesh and none of its official has been sent to Gorakhpur.”

Till now, the ATS has arrested nine persons and have been booked them in cases for conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder and under the Indian Explosives Act.

Regarding media reports of Purohit and other arrested accused’s role in other blasts, Karakare said only Rakesh Dhawde’s role in the Nanded blast had been established. ( Watch )

“Dhawde, who was arrested from Pune, had given training in weapons and explosives to the accused in the Nanded blast and hence he would soon be booked in that case also,” Karkare said.

 

Navy shoots dead pirate suspects

The Royal Navy has repelled a pirate attack on a Danish cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, shooting dead two men believed to be Somali pirates.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the incident took place on Tuesday, when HMS Cumberland crew members tried to board a traditional wooden dhow.

The Yemeni-flagged vessel was identified as having been involved in an earlier attack on the Danish ship

An MoD spokesman said the pirates were shot in self-defence.

After initial attempts to stop the dhow failed, the Royal Navy launched sea boats to encircle the vessel.

The British seamen were fired on and shot back before the dhow was boarded and its crew surrendered.

Third death

An MoD Spokesman said: “Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self-defence.

“A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the ship’s doctor.

“It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the fire-fight or a previous incident involving the pirates.”

A post-shooting investigation is being carried out, the spokesman added.

Details of the incident emerged when Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo revealed the frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless), from its Baltic Sea Fleet, had also tried to rescue the Danish vessel MV Powerful.
HMS Cumberland is taking part in Nato anti-piracy operations

He said the two warships repelled the attempted raid after the pirates fired weapons at the Danish ship and twice tried to board it.

HMS Cumberland, a Plymouth-based Type 22 frigate, is currently deployed on a piracy-fighting mission in the Gulf of Aden as part of a Nato taskforce.

There has been a rise in attacks on merchant shipping and aid shipments in the area.

The boarding took place 60 nautical miles south of the Yemeni coast, inside the Maritime Security Patrol Area.

The MoD said the boarding operation was conducted “in accordance with UK Rules of Engagement”.

Pirates have been causing havoc in one of the world’s busiest shipping areas, making the waters off the Horn of Africa some of the world’s most dangerous.

The pirates prey on one of the world’s key shipping routes, which leads to the Suez Canal, the transit point for up to a third of the world’s oil.

Rocket grenades

Pirates have hijacked more than 30 ships so far this year, twice as many as last year, with the ransoms paid to them by governments or ship-owners far higher than in previous years.

The pirates are equipped with speedboats and armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

They have taken millions of dollars in ransoms and their actions have led to a hike in insurance costs for shipping and threatened humanitarian supplies.

A Turkish-flagged tanker with a 14-man crew became the latest victim of the pirates when it was hijacked off Yemen on Wednesday, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Last month, a maritime watchdog said that Somali pirates were responsible for nearly a third of all reported attacks on ships.

 

Deadly fighting on Gazan border

Israeli troops have killed four Palestinian militants in a gunbattle on the Gaza border, Palestinians say. Witnesses in Hamas-controlled Gaza said the fighting broke out after Israeli armoured vehicles crossed into the territory near Khan Younis. The Israeli army said its soldiers were trying to stop militants attempting to plant a bomb near the security fence. Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas agreed a truce in Gaza five months ago but fierce fighting resumed last week. The four militants, who witnesses said were all from Hamas, were pronounced dead at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokeswoman said: “This morning, the Israeli Defence Forces identified armed gunmen attempting to place an explosive device near the security fence in the central Gaza Strip.” “Throughout the exchange of fire a number of mortar rounds were fired at IDF forces and an explosive device was detonated.” “The IDF force identified hitting four gunmen. Grenades and various weapons were found on their bodies,” the spokeswoman added. Blockade The renewed violence on the Gaza border came as Israel said aid deliveries to the territory would be dependent on a sustained calm. Israel has kept its border crossings closed since clashes last week when it staged an armed incursion into Gaza and Palestinian militants responded with a barrage of rocket fire.

Gaza shut to fuel and journalists Guide: Gaza blockade

Israel allowed fuel shipments to resume on Tuesday, after the only power station in the territory ran out of fuel, but food and other humanitarian supplies have not been transferred to Gaza for eight days. On Tuesday, the UN said it was running out of food aid because of the Israeli blockade and described the situation as “shameful and unacceptable”. A spokesman for the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, called the blockade “a physical as well as a mental punishment”. Unrwa distributes food to about half of Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants. The lights came on again late on Tuesday in Gaza City, which depends on the plant for most of its power, but there were frequent cuts. Engineers had been planning to turn on one of the three working turbines at the plant and the others when more fuel arrived. The power station provides nearly a third of the Strip’s electricity. Most of the rest comes from Israel.

 

How Bagram destroyed me

‘How Bagram destroyed me’

Jawed Ahmad has just been released from US military detention at Bagram air base near the Afghan capital, Kabul. In a rare insider’s account of the base, he alleges abuse and, most controversially, that prison guards mishandled the Koran. He spoke to the BBC’s Martin Patience. For Jawed Ahmad the last 11 months have been the worst of his life. Jawed Ahmad says he will fight to his ‘last breath’ for justice

“They destroyed me financially, mentally and physically,” says Mr Ahmad, 21, wearing a traditional shalwar kameez and sporting a thin, wispy beard. “But most importantly, my mother is taking her last breath in hospital just because of the Americans.” Mr Ahmad was detained for almost a year in the Bagram air base where US forces imprison suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters. He was freed last Saturday. The facility has a controversial past – two Afghans were beaten to death by their American guards in 2002. ‘Don’t move’ Jawed Ahmad was a well-known journalist in Kandahar working for Canadian TV and on occasions the BBC. Previously, he had spent two and half years as a translator for American special forces. For nine days they didn’t allow me sleep – I didn’t eat anything Jawed Ahmad Profile: Bagram air base Family visits for Bagram inmates

So, when a press officer from an American military base asked him to come for a chat, he thought nothing of it – these people were supposed to be his friends after all. “At once around 15 people surrounded me and dropped me to the floor,” says Mr Ahmad, becoming increasingly animated as he spoke. “They shouted at me saying ‘don’t move’ and then they take me to the prison.” Mr Ahmad says that the prison guards – he assumes they were American – then hit him and threw him against truck containers. But he says that the abuse did not end there. “For nine days they didn’t allow me sleep. I didn’t eat anything – it was a very tough time for me,” he says. “Finally, they told me you’re going to Guantanamo Bay.” He was accused of supplying weapons to the Taleban and having contacts with the movement. Mr Ahmad protested, saying that as a journalist it was his job. They then, he says, shaved his head and put him in an orange jump suit. But before leaving Kandahar – his guards had one final message. “I will never forget it,” he says. “They said ‘you know what?’, and I said ‘what’ and they said there is no right of journalists in this war.” ‘Unconscious’ Despite the threat of being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Mr Ahmad was flown to Bagram air base about 70km (40 miles) north of the capital, Kabul. Bagram serves as a military base, airfield and detention centre

It’s where the US military detains about 600 prisoners whom they define as unlawful combatants. “When I landed first of all they stood me in snow for six hours,” he says. “It was too cold – I had no socks, no shoes, nothing. I became unconscious two times.” He continued: “They learned one word in Pashto ‘jigshaw, jigshaw’ – it means ‘stand up’. And when I became unconscious they were saying ‘jigshaw’.” For the next 11 months Mr Ahmad was held at the facility – he says that he was unsure why he was there, and when, if ever, he would be released. He says he and his fellow prisoners were taunted continuously by the guards. “I thought they were animals,” he says. “When they cursed me, I cursed them twice. I challenged them.” Mr Ahmad says he was sent into solitary confinement after an article appeared in the New York Times about his incarceration, which apparently irritated the guards. He says he was chained in the cell in stress positions making it almost impossible to sleep. But most inflammatory of all, Mr Ahmad says that other prisoners told him that the guards mishandled the Koran. “They didn’t do it only one time, not two times, they did it more than 100 times. They have thrown it, they have torn it, they have kicked it.” The day Mr Ahmad learned he was being set free was an emotional moment. “Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I cried, sometimes I prayed,” he says. ” Finally, the next morning they just released me.” Denial In a statement, the US military at Bagram air base said that there was no evidence to substantiate any claims of mistreatment. They added that Mr Ahmad had been turned over to the Afghan government as part of a reconciliation programme. But Mr Ahmad says that he will pursue justice for what has happened to him. “I will fight to my last breath to get my rights,” he says. ” I will knock on the door of Congress, I will ask Obama, I will ask Hilary Clinton, even Bush – I will not leave any person.”

 

Death penalty for Dalit murders

Death penalty for Dalit murders

Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange has spent two years fighting for justice for his family

A court in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has sentenced six people to death for killing four members of a lower-caste Dalit family in 2006. Another two were sentenced to life in prison. All eight were found guilty last week. Three others were acquitted. The Dalits, a woman, daughter and two sons, were killed by an upper-caste mob in a land row. The husband escaped. The case led to widespread protests. Crimes against Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, often go unpunished. The prosecution argued that the killings were caste-related, but the court rejected the allegation. Prosecutors plan to appeal. Discrimination against Dalits, who are at the bottom of the centuries-old Hindu caste system, is a punishable offence in India. Even so, campaigners say violence against Dalits is on the rise. Raped The brutal killings took place on 29 September 2006 in a remote village called Khairlanji, in Bhandara district in the north-east of the state. Dalits are often the victims of inter caste violence

Surekha Bhotmange, her 17-year-old daughter Priyanka and two sons, 19-year-old Roshan and 21-year-old Sudhir, were at home when an upper-caste mob broke into their mud hut and murdered them. The four were dragged out and beaten with bicycle chains, sticks and other weapons, the court in Bhandara heard. The mother and daughter were stripped and raped by the mob, prosecutors said. The women’s bodies were found in a nearby canal the next day. Surekha’s husband, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, managed to escape and hid behind a tree from where he watched his family being killed. He pursued the case with the support of several human rights activists. Death sentences are relatively rare in India – and even more rarely carried out. According to law, the death penalty must be confirmed by a higher court, and may be appealed against. Menial The killings led to widespread protests across Maharashtra and in November 2006 the case was handed over to the Central Bureau for Investigation (CBI). A month later, the agency charged 11 people with criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly with deadly weapons, murder, trespass, outraging the modesty of women, destruction of evidence and caste-related offences. About 10.2% of Maharashtra’s population of about 100 million belong to the Dalit community. In the traditional Hindu caste system, Dalits were considered the lowest of the low castes. They were expected to do the most menial jobs in villages. They could not share basic amenities, including drinking water, with upper-caste people. Such practices still exist in rural areas.