Mob vandalises Bahadur Shah Zafar’s portrait at Ghaziabad railway station claiming it is Aurangzeb’s
Ghaziabad: Members of a Hindutva group blackened with spray paint a portrait of Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was the last Mughal emperor, on Friday at Ghaziabad railway station, mistaking it to be of Aurangzeb.
Brandishing saffron flags and chanting ‘Aurangzeb Murdabad' or down with Aurangzeb slogans, members of the Hindu Raksha Dal stormed platform four and sprayed black paint over the 16-feet-tall mural of Bahadur Shah Zafar, as reported by The Times of India on Saturday.
The incident disrupted regular station activities and caused inconvenience to several passengers waiting for their trains.
“Before we could realise what was happening, they climbed atop each other and started smearing the portrait with colour. We tried to convince them, but they thought they were right,” an unidentified station official was quoted as saying by TOI.
The official added that the members also wrote “HRD” on the mural and shouted “Hindu Raksha Dal Zindabad”.
The mural of Bahadur Shah Zafar was painted by the non-profit organisation by CS Disha Foundation in 2016. The NGO had also decorated other platforms with portraits of Tatya Tope, Mangal Pandey and Rani Laxmi Bai, among other historical figures.
“The painting in question is certainly not of Aurangzeb, but of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Historically, Aurangzeb is not even distantly related to the First War of Independence, but Bahadur Shah Zafar definitely is,” TOI quoted Udita Tyagi of CS Disha Foundation, who supervised the art project, as saying.
Aurangzeb has become the subject of controversy in recent weeks after Hindutva groups, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, called for the removal of his tomb from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, formerly Aurangabad, in Maharashtra.
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IAF to hold 2-day wargame along frontier with Pakistan: NOTAM issued
New Delhi, May 6 (PTI): The Indian Air Force will carry out a two-day mega military exercise along the border with Pakistan from Wednesday that will involve all the frontline fighter jets including Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar aircraft, sources in the defence establishment said on Tuesday.
The exercise is taking place amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
India's civil aviation authorities have already issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for the major air exercise that will largely take place along the southern and western section of the Indo-Pakistan border.
India's frontline fighter jets including the Rafale, Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Tejas and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft are set to feature in the exercise, the sources said.
In the course of the exercise, the IAF will simulate enemy targets on ground and in the air with deadly precision, they said.
The militaries of both India and Pakistan are on a high alert following rising tensions between the two nations.
Soon after the Pahalgam terror attack, India, citing "cross-border linkages" to the strike, promised severe punishment to those involved in it.
In a high-level meeting with the top defence brass on April 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the armed forces have "complete operational freedom" to decide on the mode, targets and timing of India's response to the terror attack.
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh met Prime Minister Modi on Sunday and the Chief of Air Staff briefed him about the IAF's operational readiness.
On Saturday, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi apprised the prime minister on the overall situation in the critical sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.
