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A court tonight remanded separatist leader Masarat Alam Bhat, arrested over raising of pro-Pakistan slogans and hoisting Pakistan flags at a rally, to seven-day police custody by a court in Budgam.

Alam was produced before a concerned judge who sent him to police custody till April 23.

The 45-year-old hardliner was arrested from his home in Habbakadal area of the city early this morning and slapped with charges of leading seditious activities and waging a war against the nation.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh today had a dig at US President Barack Obama praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by recalling Winston Churchill’s remarks about German dictator Adolf Hitler.

“Winston Churchill (former British Prime Minister) had once praised Adolf Hitler and five years later he had to fight against the same man. God forbid, Obama may have to withdraw his remarks,” Singh said.

Obama has written a profile for Modi for Time magazine describing his life story “from poverty to Prime Minister” as one that reflects the dynamism and potential of India’s rise.

–PTI

Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir advised Narendra Modi to start behaving like the Prime Minister of India and not as a solo entertainer or rock star.

Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retd.) V.K. Singh on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre will work in the nation’s best interest.

General (Retd.) Singh, who was reacting to the arrest of separatist leader Masarat Alam by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the raising of Pakistani flags during a rally at Srinagar, said the Indian Government knows the law of this country and will do what is best for the nation.

Authorities in Telangana today completed the grim task of culling about 1.6 lakh poultry birds from the infected zone in Thorrur village, the epicentre of bird flu outbreak.

“We have completed the culling operations,” Director of state Animal Husbandry Department, Dr D Venkateswarlu told PTI here.

The department officials said all the 1,59,953 poultry birds in one km radius of the village in Ranga Reddy district, have been been culled, while as many as 2,30,928 eggs were destroyed.

Firebrand Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi today accused Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan of hatching a “conspiracy to convert” Dalits in Rampur and claimed that they were threatened with demolition of their homes if they did not convert to Islam.

“They were asked to keep quiet or their homes would be destroyed. Either you become Muslims or you would be finished…. This conspiracy was done at the behest of one man,” he said and added she had warned Azam Khan of the consequences if a single Dalit was converted.

Giving a sensational twist to the ongoing re-trial of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in the accident case, his lawyer Shrikant Shivade on Friday argued that one of the victims could have died because of the impact of the car falling off while being lifted by a crane.

Salman’s vehicle had rammed into the American Express Bakery in Bandra West early morning of September 28, 2002. One pavement dweller, Nurulah Mahboob Sharif, died in the accident while Munna Malai Khan, Kalim M. Pathan, Abdullah Rauf Sheikh and Muslim Shaikh sustained injuries.

Wedding Day is one of the most important days of one’s life. It’s a day full of romance and memories which everyone wants to treasure forever.

And what if your dream comes true on this very special day?

Zainul Abidin from Ajmer had a dream to travel in a helicopter with his wife and had accomplished it on his wedding day.

Son of a trader Salim Qureshi, Zainul Abidin walk down the aisle in Jaipur in the presence of his family members on Thursday.

Turkish Airlines’ CEO says that pilots may not be as prone to destructive behavior like that of the Germanwings pilot believed to have intentionally crashed a flight last month, if only they get married.

At an event yesterday, Temel Kotil told new Turkish Airlines pilots that the March 24 crash in the French Alps showed that pilots’ lifestyles are important.

Prosecutors believe that the co-pilot of Flight 9525 intentionally crashed the Barcelona-Duesseldorf flight March 24 and are trying to determine why.

The society still seems to be divided on religious line and this division is evident even in the colour of school uniforms in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) School Board, where Muslim and Hindu students are distinguished
by their ‘uniforms’.

Shahpur Public School and Dani Limda Public School are unique for being the only English medium schools in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). They also have an added distinction.

Bandra East constituency has about 80,000 Muslim votes and MIM could get only 15,050 votes which indicate that the party is nothing more than a spoiler.

The party polled 15,050 votes, lesser than what they had received six months ago (23,976 votes), and if wants to stay relevant, then it may have to change its style of politics.

Shiv Sena/BJP candidate got 52,711 votes whereas Congress got 33,703 votes and the votes polled by Owaisi led Raja Rehbar Khan tumbled by over 8,000 compared to last year’s assembly elections.

Office of DGP and Chennai Press Club here have received a letter allegedly sent by ISIS threatening to “shoot” at least ten RSS activists in state and carry out bomb blasts in the city next week, prompting police to launch a probe.

The letter was received at the office of the Director General of Police here and the Chennai Press Club yesterday.

A stencilled letter in red ink claiming to be from the “ISIS” said that “identified 50 RSS active terrorists are in Chennai. We swear to shoot at least 10 of them and repeat Kovai blasts by April 24 – ISIS.”

The way Viqar Ahmed and his friends were killed in fake encounter shows that police carried out the encounter in a planned manner. In a letter sent to Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court, on April 25, 2012, Viqar Ahmed’s father Mohammed Ahmed had expressed likelihood that his son would be killed in fake encounter while shifting to Hyderabad court from Warangal Central Jail. It must be noted police escort party led by Bhaskar had booked a case against the youth, on the charges of alleged attack on police party at Jungaon of Warangal district and escaping from police custody.

Separatist leader Masarat Alam was on Friday taken into preventive custody by the Jammu and Kashmir police over a planned rally in Pulwama District’s Tral area.

Earlier, as a preventive measure to maintain law and order, Alam and another separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had been put under house arrest.

“We have been placed under house arrest so that Tral program is not successful,” Alam said earlier in the day.

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Thursday expressed her happiness after being acquitted of allegedly disrespecting the national flag during her Tiranga Yatra at Hubli, adding that she would sacrifice her life for the Tricolour.

Bollywood star Salman Khan’s lawyer today rejected the prosecution’s claim in the 2002 hit-and-run case that the actor was drunk at the time, saying that the blood sample sent for chemcial analysis was not his.

Advocate Shrikant Shivade, Khan’s lawyer, claimed that the sample, which showed 62 mg of alcohol per 100 ml, had not been extracted from the actor.

Questioning the “professional competency” of the chemical analyst who performed the test, Shivade said that the prescribed procedure was not followed.

The CPI(M) today decided to give a concrete direction to an all-out struggle against communal ideologies like Hindutva and ‘neo-liberal’ policies by uniting Left and democratic forces across the country.

On the third day of its 21st Congress here, the party adopted a political-tactical line to govern its future activities saying “the main direction of our attack should be against the BJP when it is in power but this cannot mean having an electoral understanding with the Congress.”

The High Court here on Thursday directed the Telangana State government to submit details of Viqaruddin encounter case and postponed the case to next week.

China feels “awkward” about the 2008 Mumbai terror attack carried out by Pakistani militants and wants to address India’s concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan in a more “constructive way”, a Chinese official said in a rare criticism of the all-weather ally.

Markeandey Katju has sparked another controversy by comparing the cow and Hijab with each other.

Markandey Katju wrote on his facebook page, “Those Hindus who call cow as their mother are as stupid as the Muslims who support burqa or hijab. In their idiocy, most Hindus and Muslims are not very different.”

In response to his Facebook post, the ex students of AMU wrote her blog and said publicly that Katju is suffering from “Illogical Comparison Disorder”.

She wrote,

The Gujarat High Court today granted conditional bail of three weeks to Narayan Sai, son of self-proclaimed godman Asaram, who has been behind bars for more than a year in connection with a rape case filed against him by a Surat-based woman.

Justice Paresh Upadhyay granted the relief to Narayan, who has been lodged in a Surat jail since his arrest in December 2013, to enable him to attend to his ailing mother Lakshmiben Harpalani.

A book written by the late editor of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, Stephane Charbonnier, who was killed in a terror attack in January, is set to be published, media reported on Thursday.

Charbonnier, also known as Charb, was killed during an attack at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris on January 7. The two attackers — Cherif and Said Kouachi — killed at least 12 people.

A church in Agra Cantonment in Uttar Pradesh was vandalised on Thursday morning, police said.

Senior officials of Agra district, including the district magistrate, reached St. Mary’s Church to take stock of the situation.

According to the parish priest, two statues in glass boxes were vandalised and the lock of the main entrance to the church was broken. A notice board and a car parked within the premises were also damaged.

So far there have been no arrests, police said.

The Christian leaders in Agra have condemned the act.

–IANS

Former Naxalite leader and social activist T.N Joy embraced Islam on Tuesday.

Announcing his decision through facebook post on Monday, Mr. Joy said his conversion to Islam was a political statement. “I believe in the slogan that ‘Personal is Political.’ My conversion to Islam is my way to protest against the increasing religious fascism against Muslims. I am changing my name from Joy to Najmal,” he said.

“As part of his struggle against the casteism, my father gave me the name Joy and I am taking it further. I have taken the name Najmal N Babu,” Joy said.

Gloating over its by-poll victory against Narayan Rane, Shiv Sena on Thursday said those who dare to come into the backyard of Thackerays’ Matoshree “will be buried and won’t be forgiven.”

The 63-year-old Congress heavyweight Rane yesterday lost to ruling Shiv Sena’s Trupti Sawant in Bandra (East), home turf of party founder Bal Thackeray, his second consecutive defeat in six months. Sena said Rane will lose by even greater margin if he contests the elections for the third time.