Manipur: Rahul stuck for hours at Bishnupur after police stop convoy fearing attack
Congress accuses BJP governments in Centre, state of resorting to autocracy
Imphal (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's convoy remained stuck at Bishnupur for hours after his convoy was stopped by the Manipur police, amid allegations by the party that the BJP-led government is trying to thwart the leader's visit to the ethnic strife-torn state.
The BJP, on the other hand, claimed that Gandhi was asked to take a chopper as his trip was opposed by various quarters but he was "stubborn" to travel by road route.
Gandhi's convoy which was travelling to Churachandpur to visit relief camps in the area, was stopped by the police at Bishnupur, about 20 kilometres from the state capital. He had earlier in the day landed at Imphal from Delhi.
Police officials said the convoy was stopped fearing violence along the route. "There is a security threat. We cannot take the risk of allowing Rahul Gandhi to proceed," a senior police official said.
The Congress, however, alleged that the BJP governments at the Centre and the state are using "autocratic methods" to stall the visit of Gandhi.
The "double-engine disastrous governments are using autocratic methods to stall a compassionate outreach by Shri Rahul Gandhi. This is totally unacceptable and shatters all constitutional and democratic norms," Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted.
"He is going there to meet the people suffering in relief camps and to provide a healing touch in the strife-torn state," he said.
The party's state president Keisham Meghachandra alleged that the order to stop Gandhi's convoy came from Chief Minister N Biren Singh as "everyone was welcoming him".
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Gandhi's two-day visit to Manipur is in the spirit of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Ramesh said in a tweet: "The Prime Minister may choose to remain silent or be inactive but why stop Rahul Gandhi's efforts to listen to all sections of the Manipuri society and provide a healing touch?"
The BJP, however, wondered why Gandhi did not take a chopper to visit Churachandpur.
"Rahul Gandhi's Manipur visit was vehemently opposed by many Civil Society Organisations & Student Unions in Manipur. Keeping this in mind the administration requested Rahul Gandhi to take helicopter to Churachandpur.
"Looking into the sensitive situation to "Understand" is more important than being "Stubborn" for petty political gains," BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
Police sources said tyres were burnt on the highway near Utlou village in Bishnupur district and a few stones were thrown at the convoy.
"We fear a repetition of such events and hence as a precaution, requested the convoy to halt at Bishnupur," a police officer told PTI.
Clashes first broke out on May 3 after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. More than 100 people have lost their lives in the ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities in the northeastern state so far.
Shri @RahulGandhi’s convoy in Manipur has been stopped by the police near Bishnupur.
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) June 29, 2023
He is going there to meet the people suffering in relief camps and to provide a healing touch in the strife-torn state.
PM Modi has not bothered to break his silence on Manipur. He has left…
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US SC rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India
New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
