Calcutta HC directs WB govt to file report on Shibpur violence
Kolkata (PTI): The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the West Bengal government to file a comprehensive report on violence at Shibpur in Howrah during and after the Ramnavami procession there on March 30.
Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari moved a PIL seeking an NIA investigation into the violence alleging that bombs were hurled in the violence and also prayed for the deployment of central forces for ensuring security in the area.
Advocate General SN Mookherjee, representing the state, submitted that the situation at Shibpur is under control.
A division bench presided by Acting Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam directed the state government to file a comprehensive report on April 5 on the incident and steps taken to ensure peace in the affected area in adjoining Howrah city.
The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, directed the West Bengal government to submit CCTV and video footage related to the incidents of violence.
The court directed the police to ensure that people of the locality are not affected and school-going children and businesses are safeguarded.
The police was directed by the court to make adequate deployment as required.
The matter will come up for hearing again on April 6, the bench directed.
The AG informed the court that 36 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence at Shibpur involving two groups of people on March 30 and the day after.
On allegations by the petitioner on similar incident of breach of peace at Dalkhola in Uttar Dinajpur district during Ramnavami procession there on March 30, the AG said that the situation is under control and that life is normal there.
Petitioner's lawyer Saumya Majumdar also referred to the incident of violence at Rishra in Hoogly district adjoining Howrah district on Sunday evening, whereafter internet connection was suspended there and prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC was clamped by the administration.
The AG said that section 144 continues to be effective in Rishra on Monday.
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Pakistan must realise cross-border terrorism against India will invite consequences: India at UNGA
United Nations (PTI): In a strong retort, India has slammed Pakistan in the UN General Assembly, saying its “fingerprints" are on terrorist incidents across the world and the country should realise that cross-border terrorism against India will “inevitably invite consequences”.
India exercised its Right of Reply in the UN General Assembly on Friday in response to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in his address at the General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.
“This Assembly regrettably witnessed a travesty this morning. A country run by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism, narcotics trade and transnational crime has had the audacity to attack the world's largest democracy,” First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Bhavika Mangalanandan said, delivering India’s Right of Reply.
She asserted that as the world knows, Pakistan has long employed cross-border terrorism as a weapon against its neighbours.
“It has attacked our Parliament, our financial capital Mumbai, marketplaces and pilgrimage routes,” she said, referring to the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by Pakistan-based terror groups.
“The list is long. For such a country to speak about violence anywhere is hypocrisy at its worst,” Mangalanandan said.
In his address, Sharif raised the Kashmir issue, as expected, and said that to “secure durable peace”, India should reverse the Abrogation of Article 370 and enter into a dialogue for a “peaceful” resolution of the issue.
He said India has spurned Pakistan’s proposals for a mutual “Strategic Restraint Regime”.
Responding to this reference “to some proposal of strategic restraint”, India asserted that there "can be no compact with terrorism. In fact, Pakistan should realise that cross-border terrorism against India will inevitably invite consequences.”
Reminding the international community that this was a nation that for long hosted Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Mangalanandan said Pakistan’s “fingerprints are on so many terrorist incidents across the world, whose policies attract the dreads of many societies to make it their home.
“Perhaps it should come as no surprise that its prime minister would so speak in this hallowed hall. Yet we must make clear how unacceptable his words are to all of us. We know that Pakistan will seek to counter the truth with more lies. Repetition will change nothing. Our stand is clear and needs no reiteration,” she said.
India stressed that it is even more extraordinary for a country with a history of rigged elections to talk about political choices, that too in a democracy.
“The real truth is that Pakistan covets our territory, and in fact, has continuously used terrorism to disrupt elections in Jammu and Kashmir, an inalienable and integral part of India,” the young Indian diplomat said.
She said it is ridiculous that a nation that committed genocide in 1971 and which persecutes its minorities relentlessly even now, “dare speak about intolerances and phobias. The world can see for itself what Pakistan really is.”
A Pakistani diplomat went on to respond to Mangalanandan with a Right of Reply.
Describing India's assertions as "baseless and misleading", the Pakistani diplomat said the United Nations Security Council, through numerous resolutions, has unequivocally called for a free, impartial plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self- determination.
Every year, Pakistan’s leaders, on expected lines, make references to Jammu and Kashmir in their UNGA speeches and India fields its young diplomats to deliver hard-hitting retorts to Islamabad’s rants.
