The 2021-2022 budget has been hailed as the most revolutionary since the path-breaking budget of 1991 when India liberalised its economy. On that basis, the government has started the third phase of airport privatisation and is all set to begin the process of awarding up to 10 airports in the country to private players, reportsEconomic Times.
According to the report, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), under the plan, is giving serious consideration on selling loss-making airports along with a profitable one.
“AAI is examining giving non-profitable airports and profit-making airports as a package. We could see six to ten airports being taken up,” Pradeep Kharola, Civil Aviation Secretary, was quoted as saying.
“The airports will be given to the private sector for a period of 50 years,” Kharola said.
This information was shared by the Civil Aviation Secretary while interacting with media on Thursday (4 February). On the aviation-related key points in Budget 2021 were an increase of 35 per cent at Rs 600 crore for the regional connectivity scheme has been allocated.
Kharola also mentioned that the new Budget provides several tax incentives for aircraft leasing companies to set up their operations in GIFT city in Ahmedabad.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
People of Nallurvayaal have risen in protest demanding that their village be renamed to its original name, which is now called ‘Karunya Nagar’, named after Karunya University belonging to Christian pastor Paul Dhinakaran.
Karunya University, run by Christian evangelist Paul Dhinakaran, is located near the Velliangiri Hills in Coimbatore district. It was established as an engineering college in the year 1986 at the village of Nallurvayal. It is said that the local tribes living in the village were removed from their habitat. Post its arrival, the village was renamed as ‘Karunya Nagar’ which is now dotted with churches and ‘prayer halls’.
The village which is officially known as Nallurvayal in all government records however has police station, post office and telephone exchange identifying their location as Karunya Nagar. Boards and milestones also have ‘Karunya Nagar written on them.
After Paul Dhinakaran made news for hoarding crores of money and gold in his Karunya University premises which came to light during the raid by Income Tax Department, villagers have used the attention brought to their to village and have risen in protest demanding that their village be renamed to Nallurvayal.
A group called Nallurvayal Meetpu Kuzhuvinar (Nallurvayal Rescue Team) has been formed. The group had undertaken a protest rally and a signature campaign in the nearby Alandurai town to prevent the usurpation of their village by Paul Dhinakaran. Police arrested more than 350 people who took part in the demonstration leading to tense situation. Following this, more than 500 members sat in protest on the road holding placards of #SaveNallurvayal
The village panchayat had under the chairmanship of the Panchayat President Kittusamy convened a meeting and passed a resolution to change the name of Karunya Nagar in government offices in the Madvarayapuram panchayat area of Coimbatore to ‘Nallurvayal’. The panchayat meeting was attended by village panchayat Vice President Vetrivel, Panchayat Secretary Devi and 11 other members.
Coming to know of this, Thondamuthur Regional Development Officer (RDO) Jayakumar contacted the panchayat leader and had reportedly asked based on whose permission they passed the resolution. The panchayat members had told him that they need not take any permission to pass a resolution on the demand of the villagers. The RDO had then told them they could have informed him before passing the resolution. They were then told to appear before the District Collector Rajamani.
The Panchayat President, Vice President, Secretary and a few others went to meet Collector Rajamani. Srinivasan, Assistant Director, Rural Development Department (Panchayat) was present during the meeting. The officials had received the book in which the details of the resolution passed was recorded. The Collector had reportedly told the panchayat members that they could have informed before taking up such a resolution to which the panchyat member showed them a copy of the official gazette in which the village was mentioned as ‘Nallurvayal’.
Collector Rajamani was quoted saying in Tamil news daily Dinamalar that the members were not called for any inquiry and that they had come only to show the information. He had said that he is studying the situation and will take steps accordingly.
Meanwhile, the villagers have now blackened the milestone and boards with ‘Karunya Nagar’ and have erected a new board with the village’s original name ‘Nallurvayal’. A movement #SaveNallurvayal has been started by the villagers now.
Kudos to the villagers near ,#ConversionMafia Paul Dhinakaran's Karunya University in TN.
The locality was renamed to 'Karunya Nagar'. They have fought a battle to get their original name of 'Nalloor Vayal' back. pic.twitter.com/dy7nEOQCTE
— Mission Kaali – Say No To Conversion (@missionkaali) February 4, 2021
Protesters gathered in downtown Vancouver on Tuesday January 26 for what they called a “Global Day of Action”. Coincidentally, the day of the protests in Canada did coincide with the tractor rally and the ensuing riots that shook India’s capital. On 26 January 2021, Republic day, agitators protesting the Centre’s farm laws took out a massive tractor rally in Delhi. However, the rally soon turned violent and the agitators ran riot on the streets of the national capital. They destroyed cement barriers and police barricades, attacked security forces with swords and caused great destruction to Delhi’s public property. While some rioters rode horses and tried to run down policemen, others attempted trample policemen under tractors.
Protestors in Vancouver, Canada
Protestors in Vancouver, Canada
However, it is not just the day of the protest at Vancouver that connects it to the riots in India. The protests were held outside the Indian consulate on Tuesday in support of agitating farmers in India.
Scenes from the 26 January protests at Vancouver, Canada
Scenes from the 26 January protests at Vancouver, Canada
A poster put out by Sikh Press Association
One of the groups behind the protests is called Our Avaaz. The group has been organizing local protests in Metro Vancouver, in solidarity with the violent agitators who planted Sikh and Khalistani flags on top of the Red Fort in Delhi. According to the organizers, similar rallies in support of farmers have been taking place “in Canada, the United States, Australia, the UK, Germany and Denmark to bring attention to India’s history of oppressive actions as vulnerable farmers and their families continue to protest in Delhi.”
#AskIndiaWhy
In a statement, a spokesperson for Our Avaaz said that “the focus of today’s protests was to mark a Global Day of Action, which would encourage global citizens and the Indian diaspora to #AskIndiaWhy”.
“This hashtag will connect efforts by supporters around the world to keep India accountable for human rights abuses and to highlight that global attention is turned to the farmer protest in Delhi with the expectation of a peaceful resolution.”
While one wonders what human rights abuses the Canadian protestors are talking about, one must also note that this is the same hashtag mentioned under the ‘prior actions’ list in the ‘toolkit’ document that was earlier shared by Swedish radical Greta Thunberg. The now-altered document had called for a ‘Digital Strike’ and a ‘Global TweetStorm’ by trending #AskIndiaWhy and tagging the Twitter handles of the PMO, the Agriculture Minister, other Indian government officials and press-persons.
This coincidence of the hashtag can be explained by the fact that another group involved in the Vancouver protest was the Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF), and the PJF is the group that created the ‘toolkit’ document and other campaign materials and social media templates to frame the farmers’ agitations in a particular narrative.
According to the group’s website (the website being registered in Germany): “Poetic Justice Foundation challenges structures of oppression and discrimination through intersectional grassroots advocacy. We develop content, workshops and events to provoke, challenge and disrupt systemic inequities and biases. We create safe spaces for exploration, learning and healing to foster societal change. Our goal is to educate, organize and mobilize Canadians to achieve and protect equal rights in all aspects of social, political and economic life.”
The website also adds: “Currently, we are most actively involved in the #FarmersProtest that has activated Indian diaspora worldwide as a rebuke to India’s oppressive policies towards farmers.”
There is also a website AskIndiaWhy.com, registered to a UK address. This website is owned by PJF.
Mo Dhaliwal: The PJF’s front-man
Talking of the protests in Vancouver, Mo Dhaliwal, co-founder of the Poetic Justice Foundation, stated in a press release, “These protests might feel like they are worlds away, but they are fighting for the same things we all value here at home – including the right to earn a living and feed our families. Farmers believe the agricultural reform laws introduced by the Indian government will drive down crop prices, devastate their earnings and allow private players to dictate food prices, driving small farmers even further into debt. Their concerns must be heard and their right to peacefully protest must be protected.”
According to data available with Corporations Canada, Canada’s federal corporate regulator, Monminder Singh Dhaliwal, Hardeep Singh Sahota and Sabrina Sohi are the three directors of PJF. Dhaliwal, who runs Skyrocket, a digital marketing agency, is also a friend and brand manager of Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal. He even designed Jagmeet Singh’s campaign for the 2017 leadership of the federal New Democratic Party. Jagmeet Singh is known for his Khalistani sympathies and his endorsement of violence as a tool to achieve political goals. He had even been denied a visa to India in the past.
Mo Dhaliwal, co-founder of Poetic Justice Foundation, with Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal | Instagram
Now, by his own admission, Mo Dhaliwal is a ‘Khalistani’ and wants “an independent Punjab”.
Mo Dhaliwal expressing his views on Facebook in September 2020
Did the ‘Global Left’ use the Sikh diaspora to undermine India, or is it the other way round?
Dhaliwal also gave an interview to Canadian broadcaster Global News in the aftermath of the Republic Day riots, wherein he made accusations of fascism against the Indian government, and expressed hope that there would be enough international pressure on the government to force it to repeal the farm laws. He also mentioned the role of the Sikh diaspora in creating international awareness to put pressure on India.
Moreover, these rallies are not in any way recent, and nor are they limited to Canada alone. Under the umbrella of the California Sikh Youth Alliance (CSYA), Sikh activists in California, USA celebrated the Republic Day riots and also clashed with activists of the Hindu American Foundation recently. They also opposed the re-installation of a vandalised statue of MK Gandhi.
To go back farther, in November 2020, a rally was held in Surrey in support of agitating farmers in India. Rallies were also held in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary in Canada in December 2020.
A rally in Canada organised by the Sikh diaspora in support of the farmer agitations in India | Images: dailyhive.com
Special mention must be made of the placards and the Sikh insignia used by those protesting against the Indian government’s farm laws. The phrase “Free Punjab” occurs more than once, on the placards attached to the windscreen of the cars participating in protest-rallies across Canada. The black jackets of two protestors shows the Khanda, a Sikh symbol, merged with the red maple leaf, a widely used national symbol of Canada. The words “Legendary Sikh Riders” are emblazoned on the jackets as well. Perhaps these protestors see themselves as a modern version of the sword-wielding, horse-riding Nihang Sikhs, generally identified as the “warriors of Sikhism”, who attacked Indian policemen during the riots in Delhi.
What all these rallies have in common is that the global Sikh diaspora play a huge role in organising them. That is very telling.
Where does the Sikh diaspora stand?
In some sort of protestors’ manual and ‘strategy deck’ released by the PJF, called “Global Day of Action: Protesting for Farmers on India’s Republic Day January 26, 2021”, it is clearly mentioned that the organisation aims “to develop a campaign in the Diaspora to support the people and the cause that awoke us.”
A page from the PJF’s Global Day of Action strategy deck, explicitly mentioning the significance of a campaign in the diaspora
Another page of the ‘strategy deck’ stressing on the importance of the Punjabi diaspora
In another page of the ‘strategy deck’, the PJF clearly says that the support to the protests from the Sikh and Punjabi diaspora is seen as “extremism of militant factions”. There is also some lament that while “communities worldwide [are] engaged in protest actions to drive awareness”, the “Indian liberals and urbanites aren’t fully expressing their support”.
In a notable SWOT analysis of the movement in the same document, the PJF expresses the sentiment that “being overtly Khalistani” may be a bad thing as they enjoy “goodwill with [the] common people of India”.
More remarkably, the document notes that “social media activism in the west” and “mainstream media accessibility” are opportunities, seemingly with the view that such activism from Western celebrities on mainstream media (and perhaps also social media) can be exploited to force the Indian government to repeal the farm laws. “Volunteerism” and “seva” are mentioned as well, in what may possibly be a reference to the langars the Sikh community is famous for.
Detailing the ‘situation’ and giving a SWOT analysis
The document further calls for a “united global disruption in the Diaspora on Jan 26th”. Was this “disruption” the riots that happened in Delhi, or something else entirely, is not fully ascertained.
Pages from the PJF’s ‘strategy deck’
The document also contains samples of messages on how protestors and other supporters can frame the narrative. It also claims that the Indian government “persistently” “oppress[es] its citizens in favour of corporate interests”, “persecute[s] critics” and “harass[es] journalists”. Here, the document is clearly signalling to the widely-held belief among several members of the international community and a section of the Indian populace that the Indian government is some sort of authoritarian regime.
Pages from the PJF’s ‘strategy deck’
The document also explicitly mentions that through these protests, the PJF aims to “develop a compelling message for the world to take notice of India’s ongoing oppression of its citizens.”
Pages from the ‘strategy deck’ shared by the PJF
The document also asks protestors to “access” networks of Sikh organisers and Punjabi cultural groups to influence policy makers, other social and political movements and the general public.
‘sphere of influence’
One section asks protestors to target “Indian consulates or intersections or community gathering places in major metros”; in other words, places related to the Indian government and/or places where lots of people can notice the protests. It is noteworthy that the site of the anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protest too was a major traffic intersection with heavy footfall. Another interesting section of the document is called “The Plan”. This section is mostly devoted to media management and how to garner good PR for the protests.
‘Call to Action’ and ‘The Plan’
‘The Plan’
Mo Dhaliwal is listed at the end of the document.
Mo Dhaliwal’s name appended to the document
The PJF has also released a document for the benefit of the protestors, highlighting a few templates for social media.
The template also contains the picture, Twitter handle and a tweet by Thenmozhi Soundararajan, of the Equality Labs initiative. Equality Labs is a well-known Periyarite organisation seeking to foment hatred towards Hindus and Brahmins.
Given that the motive of the protests ― both within India and abroad ― is to de-legitimise the current Indian administration in the eyes of the world, one can only wonder what steps, if at all any, the Indian government will take to ensure that such an attempt does not succeed.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
Evidence of Congress’ role in the global conspiracy against India has emerged in which the party’s Kerala unit had tweeted the exact content that has been found in the ‘tool kit’ shared by child protestor Greta Thunberg.
The ‘tool kit’ (accidentally) shared by the school dropout ‘activist’ revealed a sinister plan to run a global propaganda against India. The document titled ‘Global Farmers’ Strike – First Wave’ provides a list of ‘urgent actions’ and ‘prior actions’ to orchestrate the ‘largest protest’ in human history. It also had a section of ‘suggested posts’ which had readymade texts to be tweeted.
One such suggested post had pop star Rihanna’s handle mentioned which was also incidentally the same tweet put
Likewise, the verified Twitter handle of the party’s women’s wing in Kerala, the Kerala Pradesh Mahila Congress had tweeted word by word from the ‘tool kit’.
It is to be noted that this tweet by the Kerala Pradesh Mahila Congress was put out on January 18, days before violent protests rocked Delhi on January 26. This tweet has now been deleted.
This document which contains elaborate instructions to carry out a global propaganda against India has now stirred up a hornet’s nest exposing several individuals including a section of journalists and opposition leaders.
It is being said that the entire document has been shared with influencers across the world to build a propaganda against India.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
Sadhguru’s third painting, Circa 2020, was auctioned off for ₹2.3 crore. The funds raised will be used to help Coronavirus relief efforts in Coimbatore and nearby areas.
Earlier, Sadhguru’s first painting, titled ‘To Live Totally!’, fetched ₹4.14 crore and a painting in memory of Isha’s majestic ‘Bhairava’ bull fetched ₹5.1 crore. It is noteworthy that Sadhguru also donated the funds towards Covid-19 relief activites.
Isha Outreach has been conducting various relief activities for the betterment of rural communities in south India for many years. Ever since the lockdown was announced last year by the central government, Isha started various programmes to assist people living in rural areas.
In particular, Isha has been assisting over 100 villages in the vicinity of Coimbatore’s Thondamuthur and other remote villages. The relief activites include providing food, medical equipment, face shields and sanitisers to the needy, as well as frontline workers. Isha volunteers also provided Nilavembu Kashayam, a herbal drink, and Kapa Sura drinking water to boost the immunity of the locals.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
The Government on Wednesday (03 February) in a written reply to Lok Sabha said that the preliminary surveys have shown the presence of lithium deposits of 1,600 tonnes in Mandya district of Karnataka.
The survey was done on the surface and limited subsurface in the pegmatites of Marlagalla – Allapatna area by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy.
Lithium is a key element for new technologies and finds its use in ceramics, glass, telecommunication and aerospace industries.
The well-known uses of lithium are in lithium-ion batteries, lubricating grease, high energy additives to rocket propellants, optical modulators for mobile phones and as a converter to tritium used as a raw material for thermonuclear reactions i.e. fusion.
Due to the continuous increase in demand for lithium-ion batteries, the requirement of lithium has increased over the last few years.
The significance and quantity of lithium resources in Marlagalla – Allapatna area, Mandya district, Karnataka may be established only after the completion of exploration in the entire area.
Subsequently, plans for commercial exploitation of the lithium deposits can commence after the technical, social and economic feasibility studies in the area.
The development comes even as India had last year got into an agreement with an Argentinian firm to jointly prospect lithium in the South American nation which has 17 million tonnes of lithium metal reserves. The agreement was signed by India through a newly instituted state-owned company, Khanij Bidesh India Limited. The company has the specific mandate to acquire strategic mineral assets like lithium and cobalt abroad.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
An ancient mummy with a tongue made of gold has been found in Taposiris Magna, Egypt. This mummy, which is about 2000 years old, is believed to have been buried with a golden tongue in the hope that they could speak to the Guardian of Hell after death. It’s a city established by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus between 280 and 270 BCE and its name refers to “great tomb of Osiris”, which Plutarch identifies with an Egyptian temple in the city.
Researchers at the University of Santo Domingo in Taposiris Magna, Egypt, have been involved in research for about 10 years. In one of the ancient forts there, numerous mummies were found to be buried. While researching them, a tomb was discovered by archaeologist Kathleen Martinez.
When they opened it, they found a mummy with a a golden tongue. Also in this place were temples to the Egyptian God of Death, Osiris, and his wife Isis. In addition to the mummy with the golden tongue, 18 more mummies were found at the site. These have all been dated to be over 2,000 years old. The golden tongue remains intact without any damage to the mummy’s skull and other parts of the body. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Archeology says the real tongue may have been cut out and buried with a gold tongue instead when buried. By doing so, it is hoped that the deceased will receive the power to speak with the Egyptian god Osiris. The mummy is said to have been buried in a very safe manner so as not to be easily damaged.
Previously, archaeologists found a hoard of coins decorated with the face of Cleopatra VII, suggesting the temples were in use during the queen’s reign.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
Another case of mass sexual abuse by the Catholic Church in Germany has come to public light wherein nuns belonging to the Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne in Germany literally pimped orphaned boys to businessmen and clergy for there sexual pleasure, the Organiser reported.
However, instead of taking action against them, the Church in its habitual manner did its best to suppress the report about horrific acts of rape and sexual abuse against young boys facilitated by nuns, according to the Daily Beast.
The investigation concluded last month and resulted in a lawsuit brought against the archdiocese by victims. Though the findings were confidential, the report is said to have been leaked to several media outlets.
Sections of the 560-page report purportedly seen by the Daily Beast detail how nuns who ran a convent in Speyer, Germany between the 1960s and 1970s “rented” orphaned boys to businessmen and clergy, who abused the children, sometimes for weeks at a time, before ‘returning’ them.
One of the chilling details from the report that has emerged is that some of the orphans were forced to participate in “gang bangs and orgies” before being returned to the convent where the nuns would discipline them for having “wrinkled their clothes or being covered in semen.”
As many as 175 children, most of them boys between the ages of 8 and 14, were abused for over two decades and many of them were intentionally barred from being adopted or taken into a foster home so the nuns could continue to pimp them out, the probe allegedly found.
But in its usual fashion, the investigation declined to directly blame the nuns involved in this sick racket, arguing instead that the “abuse was the result of “systematic” management errors and the “leniency” accorded to those accused of taking part in the abominable crimes”, the Beast reported.
The man who is the driving force behind the suppression of this mass sexual abuse by the Catholic nuns and the clergy done on these boys is Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, a conservative clergyman, archbishop of Cologne.
He is known for resisting reforms within the Catholic Church and even under mounting criticism he tried to block the release of the independent report on abuse committed by members of his diocese.
The archdiocese had refused to make the report public and demanded that journalists who view the documents sign a confidentiality agreement when a press conference was held.
However, the journalists refused the immoral demand of the Catholic Church of signing a confidentiality agreement and walked out, refusing to abide by the Church’s terms.
In a very rare public rebuke, Tim Kurzbach, head of the council, in a statement criticized Cardinal Woelki and said, “he had completely failed as a moral authority and the Church is the biggest crisis that has ever experienced. Those responsible must finally also take responsibility,” the statement continued. “We need clarity now. Otherwise, we have no chance of getting out of this misery.
The statement added: “Don’t wait until Rome decides or a legal expert tells you what you have done wrong.”
In another damming report, the German Bishops’ Conference showed that 1,670 clergymen had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors, mostly boys, between 1946 and 2014.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
After pop star Rihanna, porn star Mia Khalifa and school dropout ‘activist’ Greta Thunberg, the latest to join the coterie of influencers unleashing anti-India propaganda is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey already has a history of interfering into India’s internal matters and now the CEO of the micro-blogging site has exposed his anti-India bias by endorsing unsubstantiated tweets hailing singer-actress Rihanna who has called for intervention into India’s domestic politics.
Global Opinions Editor of The Washington Post, Karen Attiah, on Tuesday hailing Rihanna’s intervention tweeted that Rihanna has ‘shook the Indian Government’.
Image Courtesy: OpIndia
She also stated that the pop star has raised her voice for social justice movements in Sudan, Nigeria, Myanmar and now in India.
Image Courtesy: OpIndia
Karen also demanded that Twitter come out with an emoji in support of the ‘farmer’ protests like they did for Black Lives Matter.
Image Courtesy: OpIndia
All these tweets were liked by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who was recently pulled up by the Indian Government for giving space to a controversial hashtag that claimed that India was carrying out a ‘farmer genocide’. Around 250 accounts were withheld for tweeting, or retweeting, with the #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide hashtag, and making “fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets” in connection with the ongoing ‘farmers’ protest. But the social media giant began unlocking some of them later. Many Twitter handles including that of anti-Hindu and anti-India magazine The Caravan, Rahul Gandhi fan lady Sanjukta Basu, founder of Tribal Army Hansraj Meena were withheld. However, Twitter restored them within hours.
For a long time, Twitter has used its unilateral power to promote or silence individuals or hashtags. Several prominent Indians who are on the opposite side of the left have often complained that their number of followers never increases because Twitter won’t allow it.
Twitter, has brazenly tried to regulate to silence its critics and nationalist voices not only in India but across the globe by censoring content and suspending accounts without any explanation. JNU Professor and TV Panelist Dr Anand Ranganathan had his account suspended when he had not even come close to violating twitters policy of abuse and racism. When his account was reinstated, Twitter did not give any explanation and only said that it happened due to a technical glitch. Similarly, True Indology, the prominent handle which shares information on history has also been a victim’s Twitter’s censorship.
Some analyst think Jack’s anti-India stand is due Modi government issuing a notice to Twitter for violating Indian laws that had forced Twitter to block them 250 tweets after the controversial hashtag trended on the platform on the January 30.
In Pakistan, a Christian nurse who was falsely accused by her Muslim coworker of blasphemy was reportedly tied up and tortured by a mob in Karachi, Sindh, reports Organiser.
In Pakistan, often the minorities are targetted, attacked and even killed when they are accused of blasphemy and in this case nurse Tabeeta Nazir Gill, 30, was attacked and beaten by staff at the Sobhraj Maternity Hospital in Karachi.
Nurse Tabeeta Nazir Gill had worked for nine years at the hospital and was falsely accused by the head nurse of blasphemy after she challenged a coworker for accepting money from a patient.
As per reports, Gill was against staff receiving money and when she caught a Muslim coworker breaking the order, she filed a complaint and subsequently was accused of blasphemy which in Pakistan is an assured case for incarceration.
There is a video doing rounds wherein one man from the angry mob who was hellbent on lynching the Christain nurse, was attempting to climb through a window. There are also serious claims that she was tied up by the angry mob, tortured and locked inside a room before being taken to the police station.
Journalist Naila Inayat tweeted that Gill was beaten up by hospital staff alleging that she passed derogatory remarks and police were made to register a case after a mob surrounded the police station.
Christian nurse Tabeeta Nazir Gill charged with 295C of #blasphemy in Karachi. Gill on Thursday was beaten up by hospital staff who alleged she passed derogatory remarks. Police dismissed charge earlier as vendetta. Today police registered case after mob surrounded the station. pic.twitter.com/yAO3jQlOhc
In Pakistan, if a person is accused of blasphemy, it is most likely that he or she will be killed or made to spend years in jail. Also, blasphemy is punishable by death for people who insult the Prophet Muhammad, Islam, the Quran or certain holy people.
Recently a bank manager was killed by his security guard over allegation of blasphemy in the Punjab province. The killer was hailed as a hero.
In July 2020, an American-Pakistani, who was facing blasphemy allegations, was shot dead by a teenager in Peshawar inside a courtroom that had police presence.
Life for a minority living in Pakistan is always at threat as 98 per cent of the population follows Islam and under the guise of blasphemy, Islamic religious groups often target Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis and Shias and use this archaic medieval law to intimidate minorities and settle personal scores.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
