The Tribune – Nishan Singh wants sentence suspended

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 30. Convicted in the Harpreet abduction case along with Bibi Jagir Kaur, her personal security officer and relative Nishan Singh has sought suspension of sentence on medical grounds.

Taking up his petition, Justice RK Garg of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation for May 29.

Nishan Singh and others were sentenced to five years for offences ranging from “causing miscarriage without the woman’s consent” to criminal conspiracy.

His petition comes about a month after a trial court held: “The prosecution has been able to prove that accused Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi, Paramjit Singh Raipur and Nishan Singh abducted Harpreet Kaur, who was a major, by deceitful means?.”

Dhesi was Bibi’s “trusted friend” and related to Paramjit Singh Raipur, Bibi’s political confidant.

The trial court had also held: “A conspiracy was hatched with accused Bibi Jagir Kaur for terminating Harpreet’s pregnancy. However, because the Bibi’s status, political and social, was to be safeguarded at all costs, the latter distanced herself from the process of executing the conspiracy and accused Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi, Paramjit Singh Raipur and Nishan Singh, along with approver Dr Balwinder Singh Sohal, took upon themselves to accomplish the object of conspiracy by keeping Bibi Jagir Kaur informed of developments from time to time”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120501/punjab.htm#16

The Tribune – BSF women constables awarded for valour

Ravi Dhaliwal, Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, April 30. Aarti and Reena , BSF constables, have become the talk of the town. They displayed unusual valour in gunning down two Pakistani intruders, one of them 50 metres from the border fencing in the Dera Baba Nanak Sector, last evening.

A Pakistani cell phone and a SIM card were recovered from the encounter site.

Almost 24 hours after the incident, BSF officials here are cock-a-hoop over the feat of their women colleagues. The DIG, P S Bains, who was quick to reach the encounter site and hand over cash awards to the women constables yesterday, has written to the Director-General, BSF, New Delhi, urging him to felicitate the brave duo.

A senior BSF officer, pleading anonymity, said considering that it was the first incident of its kind, a gallantry award may be conferred upon the women constables by the President.

An elated Bains said: “These women showed exemplary courage. I salute my brave daughters as they did not panic at the sight of the intruders. On the contrary, they displayed nerves of steel. Aarti and Reena displayed both wisdom and strength.

“I am sure their feat will motivate other women working with the BSF at difficult terrains where no quarters are given and none asked for.” Talking of one of the intruders, Aarti said he was well-built. “We asked him to surrender but he charged at us. We pumped four bullets into his body,” she recalled. Aarti hails from Tanda in Hoshiarpur district while Reena is a native of Baghapurana in Moga district. Both joined the BSF in 2008 and after 36 months of rigorous training, which included both tactical and weapon training, they were inducted into the 74th Battalion and given charge of the difficult border outpost in the Dera Baba Nanak Sector.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120501/punjab.htm#8

The Hindu – Noam Chomsky, 250 others demand justice for Soni Sori

Narayan Lakshman

Washington, 1 May 2012. Noam Chomsky, renowned liberal philosopher and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has joined a list of close to 250 Indian and foreign intellectuals in an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh protesting the “brutal treatment meted out to Soni Sori,” a woman from Chhattisgarh who is said to have been tortured by police.

In the letter signed by Professor Chomsky and others including Jean Dreze, Harsh Mander, Anand Patwardhan, Aruna Roy, and Arundhati Roy, the group called for “immediate medical attention” for Ms. Sori (35), who was allegedly stripped, electrocuted and tortured physically and sexually.

Following a Supreme Court order that Ms. Sori have an independent medical examination at NRS Medical College, Kolkata, doctors reportedly found stones lodged in her vagina and rectum.

“We fear for Soni’s life and are outraged and ashamed at this inhuman treatment of a woman in India,” said the authors of the letter about Ms. Sori, who is currently still under arrest in Chhattisgarh.

Pointing out that she has received “virtually no follow up medical treatment for the injuries she sustained in police custody and the infections that have developed as a consequence,” Mr. Chomsky and others said in their letter that two individuals who had met Ms. Sori last week, reported that her face was “visibly swollen and her hands and feet appeared abnormally thin, indicating severe weight loss.”

They urged that with six months passing since the time Ms. Sori was said to have been tortured her attempts to communicate with civil society groups had also been stifled and in January, a team from womens’ groups attempting to meet her in Raipur Jail, “were prevented from doing so by the administration.”

In the letter addressed to Mr. Singh, and Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the group of intellectuals expressed “grave concern” about Ms. Sori’s medical condition and demanded immediate access for fact-finding groups to meet with her to assess the situation on the spot.

In a message to The Hindu from the Association for India’s Development, a non-profit organisation pressing for Ms. Sori’s case to be heard, a member of AID noted that contrary to any notion that an investigation had been initiated against the police officers involved, Superintendent of Police Ankit Garg, who named in Ms. Sori’s letters, was awarded a Gallantry Medal on Republic Day this year.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article3373044.ece

6 April 2012 – Halmaal, Gurdwara, My cycle; Kerkom, Ons Bruine Lieve Vrouw

My cycle, as good as new after overhaul at ‘Fietspunt’ Sint-Truiden

Gurdwara Sangat Sahib
20 Halmaaldorp
B-3800 Sint Truiden

Chapel of Our Brown Lady (Ons Bruin Lieve Vrouw) Kerkom, Sint-Truiden

Chapel of Our Brown Lady (Ons Bruin Lieve Vrouw) Kerkom, Sint-Truiden

I am not the only person cycling here, but I am the only one wearing a turban

To see more Belgium (mostly Limburg) pictures :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622046344528/

More Belgium pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Compromise formula on NCTC ready: Palaniappan Chidambaram

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 30. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday made it clear that a compromise formula has been worked out to settle the raging dispute between the Centre and states over setting up of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC).

Faced with stinging criticism from the BJP-ruled states and also UPA ally Mamata Banerjee for allegedly trying to weaken the federal structure, Chidambaram hoped that the formula would be acceptable to states.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate the special meeting of Chief Ministers on May 5 to address the concerns raised by the states. The NCTC was to start for March 1, however, it was kept in abeyance following protests from states.

Chidambaram said a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been circulated to states. “Much of their (CMs) doubts will be resolved after reading the SOPs. And if they have any suggestions on the SOPs, we are willing to listen and incorporate them”, the Home Minister said. One of the objections raised by states and several experts (The Tribune had run a special debate in which leading security experts had expressed their views) was to give powers of arrest to the NCTC, a body that will work directly under the Intelligence Bureau.

The Section 3.2 of the February 3 office order says officers of the operations division of NCTC shall have the power to arrest and the power to search under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). This section was opposed by the non-Congress Chief Ministers – Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, Tamil Nadu’s J Jayalalitha, Gujarat’s Narendra Modi, Bihar’s Nitish Kumar & UPA ally and West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee – alleging that by vesting such powers on NCTC, the Centre was trying to curb states’ powers.

Sources said one of the key compromise formula is that the powers to arrest and conduct operations will now jointly lie with the state police and the NCTC, which will intervene in rare cases when immediate action is needed. Even after doing that it will immediately inform the state police chief. The Home Ministry has proposed that the NCTC would “as far as possible” keep the heads of the state police and anti-terror squads informed about its operations in advance. The SOPs list powers and functions of the anti-terror hub’s Standing Council, which will have representatives of all state governments and the Centre.

The Home Minister said if the NCTC comes into existence, it would help in dealing with hostage situations in a better way.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120501/main2.htm

Dawn – Karachi; Lyari operation enters fifth day

Karachi, 1 May 2012. The ‘Grand Operation’ in Lyari entered its fifth day as clashes between law-enforcement agencies and heavily armed criminals continued, DawnNews reported.

The criminals resorted to the use of hand-grenades and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) in addition to the use of sophisticated and automatic weapons against the security forces.

A policeman identified as Tufail was killed during  the clashes near Cheel Chowk, moreover two more people lost their lives when police came under heavy gunfire and rocket attacks while progressing  deeper into the areas near Cheel Chowk and Baghdadi colony.

Ten people were injured when a mini rocket propelled grenade landed on the upper story of a hotel in Lea Market. Police shifted the injured to a near-by hospital for treatment.

The authorities’ move to block mobile phone access in the area failed as the criminals were using walkie-talkies to communicate with each other. It was disclosed that the criminals are in procession of more than a hundred sets of walkie-talkies.

http://dawn.com/2012/05/01/lyari-operation-enters-fifth-day/