What secret is BJP govt hiding with encounter: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday attacked the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that the deceased in the "Allahabad murder case" was a member of the ruling party and the one whose name has cropped up is its minister.
"When will those BJP workers, who are destroying the image of party, be reduced to dust or removed from ministerial posts," Yadav asked in a tweet in Hindi.
"The deceased in the Allahabad murder case was a member of the BJP and the one whose name is coming up in the context of money is also a BJP minister. After all, what secret is the government hiding by doing the encounter," he asked.
The man who fired the first shot at Umesh Pal, a key witness in the killing of former BSP legislator Raju Pal in 2005, was gunned down in an encounter with Prayagraj police on Monday. Vijay Chaudhary, alias Usman, suffered bullet injuries in his neck, chest and thigh during an encounter, police have said.
Usman's wife Suhani has, however, accused police of killing him in a fake encounter after picking him up earlier in the day.
Police said aides of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, the main accused in the 2005 murder case who is lodged in a Gujarat prison, gave Vijay Chaudhary his second name "Usman".
His brother Rakesh Chaudhary is lodged in the Naini Central Jail and a dozen cases, including that of murder, have been registered against him.
Meanwhile, at a press conference in Prayagraj on Monday, Atiq Ahmed's sister Ayesha Noori accused Prayagraj Mayor Abhilasha Gupta Nandi of conspiring to kill Umesh Pal to embroil Shaista Parveen in the case, so that she could not contest the next mayoral election after the BSP declared her as its candidate.
Noori also accused Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, a minister in the state government, of not returning Rs 5 crore taken from Atiq Ahmed.
Reacting to the allegations levelled on him, 'Nandi' in a tweet in Hindi on Monday had said, "There is rule of law in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-ji! The Adityanath government is working on a zero-tolerance policy towards criminals and the mafia. Even in the Umesh Pal murder case, the action initiated is moving in this direction."
"The baseless allegations are only an unsuccessful attempt to divert attention from the main issue and mislead....Linking this with the mayoral elections is not only irrelevant but also laughable," he had said in another tweet.
Umesh Pal was killed on February 24.
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Iran foreign minister Araghchi meets Pakistan Army chief Munir
Islamabad (PTI): Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday met Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir here, as Islamabad continued its efforts to facilitate engagement between the US and Iran.
The meeting, according to a short video posted by the Iranian embassy on social media, was also attended by Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, and Iran's ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam.
Araghchi calls on Munir, the embassy said in the video caption.
It did not provide further details about the discussions.
Araghchi arrived here late Friday for engagements with the Pakistani leadership. He was received by senior officials, including Munir, foreign minister Ishaq Dar and interior minister Mohsin Naqvi.
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However, there is no clarity on whether direct talks between Washington and Tehran will take place during the visit.
"No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the US. Iran's observations would be conveyed to Pakistan," Baqaei said in a social media post on Saturday.
Araghchi, before leaving for Islamabad, said that he was embarking on a timely tour of Islamabad, Muscat, and Moscow, and the purpose of his visits is to "closely coordinate with our partners on bilateral matters and consult on regional developments".
"Our neighbours are our priority," he said.
As the Iranian team landed in Islamabad, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that US Special Envoy on the Middle East Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's adviser Jared Kushner would be leaving for Pakistan on Saturday "to engage in direct talks" with representatives of the Iranian delegation.
However, the US team has not yet arrived.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar, in a social media post, expressed hope for "meaningful engagements" between the two warring parties to promote regional peace and stability.
The first round of US-Iran talks held on April 11 and 12 failed to produce a breakthrough, prompting a flurry of diplomatic efforts by host Pakistan to cool tensions and revive hopes for another round of dialogue.
On Tuesday, Trump extended the two-week ceasefire with Iran indefinitely to give Tehran more time to prepare a unified proposal to end the war, just hours before the truce was set to expire.
The Iran war began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes.
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