Photo of Tearful Camerawoman Filming Sabarimala Protests as Right-wing Mob Assaults Her Goes Viral
Kerala, Jan 03: “I was shocked when I got that unexpected kick on my back. It was the worst experience in my professional career,” Shajila Abdulrahman, a cameraperson who was covering a Sangh parivar protest in Kerala over the entry of two women in Sabarimala temple, says holding back her tears.
On Thursday, she became a social media sensation after Kerala’s Mathrubhumi newspaper published a photo of her continuing to shoot the protest in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday even after she was attacked by the agitators.
She was heckled, abused and threatened with dire consequences but her camera had kept rolling. A cameraperson with Kairali Television, she had been assigned to get reactions from BJP leaders about Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga’s historic feat of offering prayers at the Sabarimala shrine, becoming the first women under 50 to enter the sanctum sanctorum since the Supreme Court verdict.
The protest she was covering in Thiruvananthapuram, one of many across the state, had been organised against the entry of the two women.
“I didn’t know where that kick came from. It caught me unawares and hurt my back. As I was writhing in pain, the attackers tried to snatch the camera, but I used all my strength to keep hold of it. I injured by neck in the melee,” she recalled.
Shajila, is being treated for back and neck injuries in Thiruvananthapuram, but says she is not afraid of the BJP and would continue covering the party's protest against the SC verdict.
Courtesy: www.news18.com
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First direct US-Venezuela commercial flight in 7 years to land in Caracas
Caracas (Venezuela) (AP): The first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela is scheduled to land on Thursday in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, seven years after the US Department of Homeland Security ordered an indefinite suspension, citing security concerns.
The resumption of a commercial flight between the two countries comes in the wake of the US capture of Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, in early January.
It also comes a month after the US formally reopened its embassy in Caracas following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the South American country.
Flight AA3599 operated by Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American Airlines, was scheduled to depart from Miami at 10:16 a.m. local time and arrive three hours later in the Venezuelan capital, returning to Florida later in the afternoon.
Earlier, the airline said a second daily flight between Miami and Caracas will start on May 21.
In late January, US President Donald Trump said he informed Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez that he would open up all commercial airspace over Venezuela, allowing Americans to visit.
“American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they'll be safe there,” Trump said at the time.
The flights mark the resumption of nonstop travel between the US and Venezuela for the first time since diplomatic ties were severed in 2019. For the past seven years, passengers have relied on international airlines and indirect routes through neighbouring Latin American countries.
In January, when the airline announced the resumption of flights it said it would give customers the opportunity to reunite with families and pursue new business opportunities.
American Airlines was the last US airline flying to Venezuela. It suspended flights in 2019 between Miami and Caracas, as well as flights to the oil hub city of Maracaibo. Delta and United Airlines pulled out in 2017 amid a political crisis that forced millions to flee the country.
