Haryana khaps running awareness campaign against drug menace
Chandigarh (PTI): Several khap panchayats in Haryana are running an awareness campaign against the ill-effects of drugs and also sensitising people in the rural areas on the importance of environmental protection.
A prominent khap leader said many khap panchayats (caste councils) are involved in the campaign against drugs as they are apprehensive that the menace can spread in Haryana just like it has in neighbouring Punjab.
"Our khap and many other khaps in Rohtak, Sonipat, Jind, Hisar and elsewhere are running the campaign against the menace of drugs. We make people, especially youngsters, aware of the ill-effects of drugs and prevent addiction," Tek Ram Kandela, the head of the Sarv Jatiya Kandela Khap, said.
He also said they sensitise people on issues related to the environment when they hold panchayats in villages.
"We also promote organic farming," Kandela said.
On the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking last month, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had launched the "Nasha Mukt Haryana (drugs-free Haryana)" campaign at a programme organised in Panchkula.
Khattar had said a new task force will be formed under the campaign.
Meanwhile, asked to comment on a uniform civil code (UCC) for which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making a strong pitch, Kandela said, "Our khap is yet to take a stand on it. We will take views from people, hold a meeting and then decide."
He also said several khap panchayats in the state have been pushing for a ban on marriages between two people belonging to the same "gotra" (clan).
Kandela said they are demanding an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act to ban such marriages.
"We are demanding a ban on such marriages as well as on marriages in the same village or between people in villages that share boundaries with each other.
"We have demanded from the government that the Hindu Marriage Act should be amended to ban marriages within the same village and between people in adjoining villages as well as within the same gotra. Laws are made according to the society and if the society does not allow it, the law should also recognise it," he said.
"We recently sent a representation to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in this regard," he added.
Kandela claimed that according to norms, people from the same "gotra" and same village are considered to be siblings and matrimonial alliances between them need to be banned.
"Besides, a ban on same gotra marriages would also bring an end to honour killings and animosity in villages," he said.
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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says
Washington (AP): The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, and his family raised concerns with law enforcement before the event, President Donald Trump said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel.
The accused gunman's family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington's glitziest annual events the night before.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department, whose acting leader, Todd Blanche, said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen's relatives, examined the gunman's electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
“He failed,” Blanche said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” “Law enforcement did their jobs.”
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Blanche said.
“He's going to be great, he's going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Blanche said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor's degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.
Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It's always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late Saturday.
