Deaths on US-Canada border: Gujarat man says four of the deceased are kin
Mehsana (PTI): A family in Mehsana district in Gujarat believes the Indians who were among the eight who died while trying to cross into the United States of America from Canada recently are their kin.
Jasubhai Chaudhary, a resident of Manekpur village in Vijapur taluka here, on Sunday said his brother, sister-in-law and their two children had left for Canada two months ago on a visitors' visa, adding reports of eight persons, including some Indians, being found in a marsh there had vexed kin here.
Canadian police has said the deceased, who were found on the banks of St Lawrence River near Akwesasne, a community which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York State, are believed to be two families of Indian and Romanian descent and were crossing into USA.
"Two months ago, my brother, his wife and two children went to Canada on a visitors' visa. Yesterday morning I learnt about the death of members of a family from India in Canada. I tried to contact my brother but was not able to do so. This caused suspicion that they were our family members," Chaudhary told reporters.
A Mehsana district administration official said Malekpura village residents approached the collector with a request to make arrangements for the bodies of the four deceased to be brought back to their native village.
"It is confirmed that four members of a family from Manekpur village in Vijapur taluka of Mehsana went to Canada on a visitor's visa and tried to cross the river. The villagers approached us seeking help to bring back their bodies, which we have reported to the state government," the official said.
Chaudhary said the family's suspicion was confirmed after they found that the names of the victims circulating on Whatsapp groups of his relatives settled in Canada were that of his brother, wife and two children.
He identified the four who left for Canada Praveeni Chaudhary (50), his wife Diksha (45), son Meet (20), and daughter Vidhi (24).
Former state home minister Vipul Chaudhary told reporters the government should make arrangements for the bodies of the victims to be brought back here, and termed it a very sad and shocking incident.
If something untoward of this sort happens, then the government must ensure the bodies are brought back, the former minister added.
On January 19 last year, four members of a family from Dingucha village in Gujarat's Gandhinagar froze to death while trying to illegally cross into USA from Canada.
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Pakistan must realise cross-border terrorism against India will invite consequences: India at UNGA
United Nations (PTI): In a strong retort, India has slammed Pakistan in the UN General Assembly, saying its “fingerprints" are on terrorist incidents across the world and the country should realise that cross-border terrorism against India will “inevitably invite consequences”.
India exercised its Right of Reply in the UN General Assembly on Friday in response to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in his address at the General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.
“This Assembly regrettably witnessed a travesty this morning. A country run by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism, narcotics trade and transnational crime has had the audacity to attack the world's largest democracy,” First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Bhavika Mangalanandan said, delivering India’s Right of Reply.
She asserted that as the world knows, Pakistan has long employed cross-border terrorism as a weapon against its neighbours.
“It has attacked our Parliament, our financial capital Mumbai, marketplaces and pilgrimage routes,” she said, referring to the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by Pakistan-based terror groups.
“The list is long. For such a country to speak about violence anywhere is hypocrisy at its worst,” Mangalanandan said.
In his address, Sharif raised the Kashmir issue, as expected, and said that to “secure durable peace”, India should reverse the Abrogation of Article 370 and enter into a dialogue for a “peaceful” resolution of the issue.
He said India has spurned Pakistan’s proposals for a mutual “Strategic Restraint Regime”.
Responding to this reference “to some proposal of strategic restraint”, India asserted that there "can be no compact with terrorism. In fact, Pakistan should realise that cross-border terrorism against India will inevitably invite consequences.”
Reminding the international community that this was a nation that for long hosted Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Mangalanandan said Pakistan’s “fingerprints are on so many terrorist incidents across the world, whose policies attract the dreads of many societies to make it their home.
“Perhaps it should come as no surprise that its prime minister would so speak in this hallowed hall. Yet we must make clear how unacceptable his words are to all of us. We know that Pakistan will seek to counter the truth with more lies. Repetition will change nothing. Our stand is clear and needs no reiteration,” she said.
India stressed that it is even more extraordinary for a country with a history of rigged elections to talk about political choices, that too in a democracy.
“The real truth is that Pakistan covets our territory, and in fact, has continuously used terrorism to disrupt elections in Jammu and Kashmir, an inalienable and integral part of India,” the young Indian diplomat said.
She said it is ridiculous that a nation that committed genocide in 1971 and which persecutes its minorities relentlessly even now, “dare speak about intolerances and phobias. The world can see for itself what Pakistan really is.”
A Pakistani diplomat went on to respond to Mangalanandan with a Right of Reply.
Describing India's assertions as "baseless and misleading", the Pakistani diplomat said the United Nations Security Council, through numerous resolutions, has unequivocally called for a free, impartial plebiscite to enable the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self- determination.
Every year, Pakistan’s leaders, on expected lines, make references to Jammu and Kashmir in their UNGA speeches and India fields its young diplomats to deliver hard-hitting retorts to Islamabad’s rants.
