Delhi Police's raid on house of DMC Chairman Dr. Zafarul Islam
A week after Delhi Police charged Dr Zafarul Islam on charges of sedition, special team of Delhi Police on Wednesday raided his house in Delhi. Dr Zafarul Islam, the chairman of Delhi Minority Commission for his tweets.
As reported earlier, septuagenarian Dr Khan’s is perhaps the only one holding a Constitutional post to be charged under Indian Penal Code section 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony). The cases were booked on the basis of a first information report (FIR) filed in Delhi.
On May 6 evening the police landed up at his doorstep. His lawyer, Vrinda Grover, has issued a statement making Delhi Police aware that their actions are against a senior citizen and the law does not permit them to call him to the police station. “You are informed that Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan is a senior citizen of 72 years age and he suffers from old age related physical illnesses that make him extremely vulnerable to the Covid-19 coronavirus. The law as per section 160 CrPC mandates that the police cannot compel attendance of a person above 65 years age at any place other than their residence for the purpose of investigation and interrogation. You are required as per law to question / interrogate Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan only in his residence and you cannot compel him to go to any police station,” she stated.
“As Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan's lawyer I am hereby placing on record that as per law you cannot compel him to go to the police station. That would violate the CrPC and amount to illegal police action against the rights of my Client,” Vrinda Grover told the police.
Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, Dr Zafarul Islam Khan (72), is a world renowned scholar, journalist and civil rights activist. He is known the world over as an eminent Muslim scholar who was one of the first to speak up againt the terror outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or the Islamic State (IS), and all others who unleash crimes against humanity. His interventions on problems of minorities in Delhi have made him a respectable figure among not only Muslims but Sikh, Christians, Jains and Parsis, say activists, many of whom have spoken out in solidarity with Dr Khan .
On his part, Dr Khan has always said: "I am a patriot to the core and I have always defended my country abroad."
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Hamas accepts cease-fire proposal for Gaza, but Israel's stance still uncertain
Jerusalem, May 6: Hamas announced Monday it has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but there was no immediate word from Israel, leaving it uncertain whether a deal had been sealed to bring a halt to the seven-month-long war in Gaza.
It was the first glimmer of hope that a deal might avert further bloodshed. Hours earlier, Israel ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating the southern Gaza town of Rafah, signalling that an attack was imminent. The United States and other key allies of Israel oppose an offensive on Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians, more than half of Gaza's population, are sheltering.
An official familiar with Israeli thinking said Israeli officials were examining the proposal, but the plan approved by Hamas was not the framework Israel proposed.
An American official also said the US was still waiting to learn more about the Hamas position and whether it reflected an agreement to what had already been signed off on by Israel and international negotiators or something else. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a stance was still being formulated.
Details of the proposal have not been released. Touring the region last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pressed Hamas to take the deal, and Egyptian officials said it called for a cease-fire of multiple stages starting with a limited hostage release and some Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal, they said.
