No restrictions on presence of women journalists during Deoband event: Seminary
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Lucknow/Saharanpur (UP) (PTI): The Darul Uloom Deoband on Saturday asserted that there were no directives to keep women journalists away from covering the visit of Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to the seminary.
"There were no restrictions from the Afghan foreign minister's office about who would attend," Deoband PRO Ashraf Usmani, also the media in-charge of Muttaqi’s Saturday programme, told PTI, and dismissed as "baseless" claims that women journalists were kept away.
This followed a raging controversy over the absence of female journalists from a press conference of the visiting Afghan minister in New Delhi a day earlier, with the Opposition terming it as "unacceptable" and an "insult to women".
The Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) also termed the act as highly discriminatory and said it cannot be justified on grounds of diplomatic privilege under the Vienna Convention.
The Islamic seminary's clarification came regarding a public event of the Afghanistan minister that was scheduled to be held during his visit to the Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur on Saturday but was called off at the last moment due to "overcrowding" and "security reasons".
"There were no directives from anywhere on the attendance of women journalists. But the programme got called off at the last moment," Usmani told PTI.
"Though the programme was called off due to overcrowding, the presence of a couple of women journalists for the Afghanistan minister's event was enough to rebut reports of women journalists being made to keep away from the event," he said, even naming news channels those journalists represented.
The absence of women journalists from the Friday presser by the Afghan leader has snowballed into a major controversy as, over the years, the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan has been criticised for the denial of rights to women.
"More people turned up for the event than were expected. So the Afghanistan minister's speech didn't happen as local administration cited security concerns as a reason for cancelling the public event," Usmani added.
"Various things were doing the rounds, from women journalists not being allowed to them being made to sit separately. All of this was baseless," said Usmani, who is a Nazim (equivalent to departmental head) in Darul Uloom Deoband.
Ashraf Usmani said that today's programme of the Afghan foreign minister was organised by Darul Uloom Deoband.
"As far as the coverage of today's event is concerned, women reporters were allowed to cover it. The seating arrangements for the women reporters were made along with their male counterparts," he said while replying to queries, adding that there was no 'purdah' or curtain at the venue of the programme.
Usmani said that there was an unexpected rush of the media at the programme venue even when Muttaqi was having lunch at the guest house.
"As the district administration announced that the programme had been cancelled owing to overcrowding, we hurriedly invited the media at the guest house for a quick interaction before Muttaqi left for Delhi," he said.
Meanwhile, the president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Maulana Arshad Madani, when asked about Friday's press conference of the Afghan foreign minister, told reporters, "It was a coincidence that yesterday's press conference was attended only by men. The Afghan foreign minister had not said no to women coming to the press conference. It was wrong and propaganda."
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AAP activists detained during Mumbai protest against Raghav Chadha
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Mumbai (PTI): Police on Sunday detained some Aam Aadmi Party activists in Mumbai after they staged a demonstration against Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha, who has crossed over to the BJP, in Khar area.
Aam Aadmi Party's Mumbai unit president Preeti Sharma Menon claimed the police prevented AAP workers from protesting peacefully against "traitor" Chadha and detained local leader Ruben Mascharanhas.
A Khar Police official confirmed that Mascharanhas and some other activists have been taken to the police station, without elaborating.
"@CPMumbaiPolice @mumbaipolice has no other work but to guard Raghav Chaddha’s Mumbai residence. @aapmumbai volunteers were prevented from protesting peacefully against the GADDAR. Ruben has been detained at the Khar Police Station. But BJP is allowed to block roads at their whim," Menon stated.
The AAP's Mumbai unit had planned a protest in the Khar area against Chadha and six other Rajya Sabha MPs of the party who recently joined the BJP.
"Without any detention order or any written communication, I have been taken to the Khar Police Station. Why is @MumbaiPolice so scared of @AAPMumbai's peaceful protest against 'Gaddar' Raghav Chaddha and Sandeep Pathak? We are @ArvindKejriwal's soldiers, we are not going to be cowed down," Mascharanhas said in another post.
The AAP suffered a jolt on Friday when seven of its Rajya Sabha members, including Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, quit the party, with Chadha saying all of them have merged with the BJP, asserting that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
VIDEO | Mumbai: AAP workers protest outside Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s residence.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 26, 2026
On Friday, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni and Swati Maliwal quit and merged… pic.twitter.com/GWKCSvDrOJ
