Indian women win team gold in skeet, bronze for men at junior worlds
Lima(PTI): Indian shooters claimed the gold medal in the women's skeet team event and the bronze in the men's team finals of the ISSF Junior World Championship here.
The trio of Areeba Khan, Raiza Dhillon and Ganemat Sekhon finished at the top of the podium in the women's event after shooting an aggregate score of 6.
In the gold medal round on Friday, the Indian women were pitted against the Italian team of Damiana Paolacci, Sara Bongini and Giada Longhi.
In the men's section, the Indian team of Rajveer Gill, Ayush Rudraraju and Abhay Singh Sekhon won the bronze medal after prevailing over Turkey's Ali Can Arabaci, Ahmet Baran and Muhammet Seyhun Kaya 6-0, the same's scoreline as the women's gold medal contest.
A day earlier, rising Indian woman skeet shooter Sekhon had won the silver medal in the tournament's individual women's skeet competition.
The Chandigarh shooter, who picked up her first senior ISSF World Cup stage medals in New Delhi earlier this year, went down in a shoot-off to American Alisha Fayth Layne, after both were tied on 46 hits in the 60-shot final.
In the men's individual skeet none of the three Indians in the fray -- Rajveer Gill, Abhay Singh Sekhon and Ayush Rudraraju -- could make it to the six-man finals but they shone in the team event.
India are currently place second in the pecking order with two gold, three silver and two bronze for a total of seven medals in the tournament.
The USA tops the chart with seven medals including three gold.
This is the first multi-discipline shooting event since the Tokyo Olympics, with as many as 32 nations and nearly 370 athletes participating in the championship.
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Catholic Bishops' body slams Bhagwat's remarks
New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'
In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".
"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.
"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.
'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.
The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.
"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.
In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"
"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.
O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".
The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.
