Telangana to act tough against human trafficking
Hyderabad, Aug 1: Telangana Home Minister N. Narasimha Reddy on Wednesday said the government would deal firmly with human trafficking.
Flagging off a rally against human trafficking organized by Hyderabad Police and an NGO, Prajwala, he said if the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 was passed in Parliament, the traffickers will get stringent punishment.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar also said that human trafficking will not be tolerated and everybody should fight against this menace.
The Home Minister's statement came a day after Telangana Police busted a sex racket with the shocking revelation that traffickers were pushing children into prostitution after using hormonal injections to make them attain puberty early.
Police in the temple town of Yadagirigutta rescued 11 girls aged between 3 and 12 years from brothels and arrested eight persons, who had sold these children belonging to poor families.
According to police, the traffickers picked up some children from railway stations, kidnapped some from roads and purchased some from their parents by paying Rs 1-2 lakh.
Reddy noted that the victims were being used for sex work, child labour, begging and other crimes. They were being employed in bangle industry and brick kilns.
He said in cases of human trafficking, action will be taken under the Preventive Detention Act to ensure that such incidents do not recur. Under operation 'Muskan' the child labourers were being rescued and rehabilitated.
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2 US aircraft go down, 1 crew member missing as war in Iran takes dramatic turn
Dubai (AP): One US service member was rescued, and at least one was missing after two US military planes went down in separate incidents, including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.
It was the first time US aircraft had been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the US has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A US crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a US military search-and-rescue operation was underway.
Separately, Iranian state media said a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defence forces. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.
The war, now entering its sixth week, is destabilising economies around the world as Iran responds to the US and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
Iran executes two more members of an exile group
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The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedin-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
Israeli military says it struck key infrastructure in Iranian capital
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The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.
It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacturing sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.
It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”
The Oracle building in Dubai was damaged by drone debris
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Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to US tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other US companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.
Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
365 service members have been wounded in action in the Iran War
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As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.
It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.
Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers, and 80 were junior enlisted service members.
The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.
