No new orders till war stopped, says private firm in Kerala that supplies uniform to Israeli police
Kannur (PTI): A private apparel unit in the district that was in news recently for making uniforms for the Israel police on Friday announced a temporary freeze on new orders from the force in light of the recent bombings of hospitals in Palestine.
Thomas Olickal, who runs the Maryan Apparel Pvt Limited, said the firm has taken a decision not to take any new orders from the Israel police force until the war in Gaza is stopped.
Maryan Apparel Pvt Limited in the district makes the elegant light blue, long-sleeve uniform shirts of the Israel police force.
"We have been making uniforms for the Israel police since 2015. The Hamas attack, killing civilians cannot be accepted. Similarly, the revenge by Israel also cannot be accepted. Denying food and water to over 25 lakh people, bombing hospitals, killing innocent women and children and all cannot be accepted at all. We want the war to end and the peace to prevail," Olickal said in a video message.
He said his firm will honour the existing contracts as per the international agreement but has decided not to accept any new orders until the war ends.
"We request everyone to stop the war. The Israel force will not be short of uniforms because of our decision. But this a moral decision. Bombing of the hospitals cannot be accepted... We have decided not to take further orders temporarily," he added.
A war has broke out between Israel and Palestine after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza earlier this month.
Launched at the state-run Kinfra Park here in 2006, the company specialises in the uniforms of army men, police personnel, security officers and health service workers from various countries across the globe.
It also supplies school uniforms, dresses for supermarket staff, doctors' coats, coveralls, corporate wear and so on.
The apparel unit was set up in Kannur with the objective of providing employment to local people who had become jobless due to the decline of the traditional 'beedi' sector there.
Olickal had earlier said the Israel police had approached his company after coming to know they were specialising in uniform making.
The war that began on October 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.
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NDA sweeps bypolls to four assembly segments in Bihar
Patna (PTI): The ruling NDA in Bihar on Saturday swept the bypolls to four assembly segments, retaining Imamganj and wresting from the INDIA bloc Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj, receiving a boost ahead of the assembly elections due next year.
Candidates of the Jan Suraaj, floated recently by former political strategist Prashant Kishor with much fanfare, lost deposits in all but one seat, in a clear indication that the fledgling party, despite claims of taking the political landscape in the state by storm, needs to cover much ground.
The biggest setback for the INDIA bloc, helmed by the RJD, came in Belaganj, a seat the party had been winning since its inception in the 1990s, but this time lost to the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the arch-rival of its founding president Lalu Prasad.
The JD(U) candidate Manorama Devi, a former MLC, defeated by a margin of more than 21,000 votes RJD’s Vishwanath Kumar Singh who made his debut from a seat that fell vacant upon election to Lok Sabha of his father Surendra Prasad Yadav, a multiple term MLA.
The margin of victory was greater than the 17,285 votes polled by Mohd Amjad of Jan Suraaj, whom the RJD may have liked to blame for its defeat by causing a split in Muslim votes.
JD(U) national spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, "The people of Bihar deserve kudos for rejecting the negativity of the opposition and reposing their trust in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Under his leadership, the NDA will win more than 200 seats of the 243-strong assembly in 2025."
The RJD also suffered an embarrassing defeat in Ramgarh, where Prashant Kishor’s prediction of the party “finishing third or fourth” came true. The forecast had caused Sudhakar Singh, son of state RJD president Jagadanand Singh, the MP from Buxar who had won the assembly seat in 2020, to threaten that Jan Suraaj cadres in the constituency will be “beaten up with sticks”.
Singh’s younger brother Ajit finished a distant third after BJP winner Ashok Kumar Singh, a former MLA, and Satish Kumar Singh Yadav who fought on a ticket of the BSP, which has little foothold in Bihar.
Jan Suraaj, though, was hardly a factor in Ramgarh, where its candidate Sushil Kumar Singh polled less than four per cent votes.
The BJP also pulled off a stunning victory in Tarari, which falls under the Arrah Lok Sabha seat, currently represented by CPI(ML)’s Sudama Prasad, who had won the assembly segment for two consecutive terms.
CPI(ML) candidate Raju Yadav lost, by a margin of a little over 10,000 votes, to BJP debutant Vishal Prashant, better known as the son of local strongman Sunil Pandey, who was formerly with the JD(U) and had joined the saffron party a few months ago.
Jan Suraaj had initially announced that it was fielding a former Vice Chief of the Army in Tarari but later disclosed that he could not contest because of technical reasons. Its candidate Kiran Singh got less than four per cent votes.
The most respectable performance from Jan Suraaj came in the reserved Imamganj seat where its candidate Jitendra Paswan stood third, polling well over 20 per cent votes.
The seat, however, went to Deepa Kumari, daughter-in-law of Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who defeated RJD’s Raushan Kumar by a slender margin of less than 6,000 votes.
Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, vacated Imamganj earlier this year upon getting elected to Lok Sabha from Gaya.
With the exception of Ashok Singh in Ramgarh, the winners in all the seats shall be making their debut in the state assembly.
