UP Police assures 'fair probe' in murder case after 13 Muslim family members convert as protest
Lucknow, Oct 3 : Police officials in Baghpat district of western Uttar Pradesh have assured family members of a young man alleged to have been murdered that a "just probe" would be carried out into the matter, after 13 of them changed their religion to Hinduism as a protest.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, visited the village after news emerged that 13 members of a Muslim family had converted, alleging "unfair investigation" by the police.
Srivastava told IANS that he had met the family members to assure them of a "free and fair probe", which he said was still underway. "The decision to change their religion was their own and the police has nothing to do with it," he added.
The family members alleged that the body of the young man, aged 22, was found in a shop on July 22 this year and that he had been murdered, although the police refused to accept this and had closed the case calling it a suicide.
The 13 family members of the deceased had given affidavits to the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Badaut informing the district administration of their "wilful changing of religion", a district official told IANS. They also participated in a special 'havan', changing there names to Hindu ones, the official, who did not want to be named, said.
All 13 are from Niwada village's Khubbipura locality. During the conversion rituals, Hindu Yuva Vahini office- bearers were present. Some family members alleged that they were forced to convert by the Vahini members. The Vahini was founded in April 2002, on Ram Navami day by Yogi Adityanath, the present chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Village head Raj Kumar Singh and others said they will petition senior officers to get the family members of the deceased person justice. Singh said that no coercion was involved in the change of religion. The conversions have sparked off some tension in the area.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
