Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan questions sanction of funds for minorities in BJP MLA's constituency
Bengaluru, Feb 19: Karnataka Housing and Minorities Welfare Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan on Monday wondered why development funds for minorities should be sanctioned in a BJP MLA’s constituency who spoke ill of Muslims.
Khan’s statement in the Karnataka assembly led to a commotion as the BJP legislators said this was discriminatory and blocked government money for the welfare of minorities.
During the question hour, Shikaripura MLA B Y Vijayendra, who is also the BJP state president, asked Khan about the funds released for the development of minorities’ colonies.
He accused the government of releasing Rs 1,000 crore for the minorities when there was a severe drought in the state and farmers were waiting for support.
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Khan, who holds the Housing, Wakf and Minorities Welfare portfolio, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah did not release Rs 1,000 crore but prepared an action plan of Rs 1,000 crore which was stretched for three years.
The grant allocated for the development of minorities’ colony in the budget is Rs 250 crore and an additional Rs 50 crore has been earmarked under the Panchayat Development Plan. All put together, it is only Rs 300 crore but only Rs 165 crore has been released, Khan explained.
He also pointed out the minorities have not been given even one per cent of the Rs. 3.71 lakh crore budget.
The Minister said the government has put the minority colonies into A, B and C categories based on the population
To this, BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal said there are 1.2 lakh Muslims in Vijayapura constituency but no funds have been released.
Zameer said, “Should you be given grants? Do you want grants? After becoming MLA you said no Burqa-clad woman and no one with a beard should approach me. We will not do anything for Muslims. How can we give you grants?” The BJP MLAs retorted saying that being a minister he should not have said that.
This is the Government's fund and not Zameer Ahmed Khan’s money,” former minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said.
Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai advised Khan to answer the political questions in a political manner outside the assembly and not inside the House.
“Don’t you want the minorities’ colony in Vijayapura to be developed when there is a huge Muslim population there? Will you be the protector of minorities by excluding 1.2 lakh minorities in Yatnal’s constituency,” Bommai said.
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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.
