Chandigarh, January 27. Dubbed as a Russian spy after being arrested by the Punjab Police, it’s justice at last for Olga Timoshik. In India to collect data for an exhibition “India-Siberia 2010″, the photojournalist today heaved a sigh of relief after Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the FIR against her.

She was arrested by the Punjab Police and allegedly subjected to third degree interrogation for 10 days during her police remand. The cops also allegedly launched a “character assassination campaign” in newspapers and “widely publicised” the “confidential details of her private life”.

This was not the end of troubles for her. She was charged with the offence of instigating a German to overstay in India.

The startling claims were made by the Russian journalist in her petition filed through counsel SS Behl for quashing of the FIR registered under the provisions of the Foreigners Act on May 25, 2010, at Nangal police station in Ropar.

The High Court was told the police focused on Olga after a German, Thomas Kuhn, was arrested, as he could not produce his passport. Kuhn told the police that his journey with Olga started after they met on a train; and Olga took his passport to get the visa extended. The prosecution claimed she never returned it to Kuhn.

She was described as a co-accused on June 12, 2010, and was arrested soon after despite full cooperation.

Behl told the court that Olga was intensely harassed “in police custody and through the Press later”. “It seems that it was an attempt to extort a confession from her. She was dragged in as an accused on flimsy grounds, and her legal rights were not read to her.”

She was “paraded through the neighbourhood”, was forced to appear before the media and the story of a Russian spy with her snapshots was widely publicised in channels and newspapers, Behl added.

On December 8 last, Kuhn pleaded guilty “probably to get out of jail and country”. But, the petitioner, Behl contended, has been “falsely charged with offence of abetment /instigation, which never took place”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120128/punjab.htm#16

“It is very complex. It is also a transgender problem and it is not confined to girls alone. It is very complicated problem,” said a bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra.

While Justice Misra wanted to block the entry of new sex workers, Justice Kabir pointed to girls from relatively well-off families and studying in colleges and universities too taking to the sex trade with a desire to change their lifestyles and go to malls.

“We find girls from very good families even at the university level education entering the profession driven with desire of high lifestyle and going to the malls every second day. If they join it (trade) voluntarily, what do you have for them?” he said.

“Can you do something that the inclusion of new sex workers does not take place,” Justice Misra asked senior counsel Pradeep Ghosh and Jayant Bhushan who are amicus curiae and members of the court-appointed committee for putting in place a framework for identification and rehabilitation of sex workers.

The court said this in the course of the hearing of a PIL seeking the rescue and rehabilitation of the sex workers willing to give up the sex trade.   Justice Kabir described suggestions by Jayant Bhushan “extremely relevant” and said that unless an infrastructure was put in place, the entire effort would go waste.   “Unless you have rehabilitation schemes, even if you rescue them (sex worker), it will be of no consequence,” the court observed.

The court asked the counsel assisting it to involve National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma, National Commission for Women and Child Welfare head Shanta Sinha, and Bachpan Bachao Andolan’s Bhushan Bhrigu and Kailash Vidyarthi in its activities.

Justice Misra said the formulation of plan for the rescue and rehabilitation of sex workers could go along with the concrete steps in this direction. She said that the court should have the satisfaction that if it was dealing with the problem, something positive and concrete should emerge in every hearing of the case.

“Let the states tell the court that in the intervening period between two hearings, they have rescued one, two, three sex workers and rehabilitated them,” she said, adding that in every hearing, the court will take up one state and suggested Delhi be taken up in the next hearing.

Justice Kabir came down heavily on the central government for its failure to provide the office and secretarial staff to the panel constituted by it for taking steps in pursuance of its directions.

The court adjourned the hearing giving three weeks time to the central government to find a place for its panel. It directed the listing of matter after three weeks.

The court had earlier said that the schemes for the rehabilitation of sex workers should also include the marketing of the products that will be produced by the rehabilitated sex workers. In the absence of such an arrangement, things would get back to square one as they would not be able to feed themselves, it observed. (IANS)

http://www.asianage.com/india/educated-girls-entering-flesh-trade-money-says-supreme-court-407

Vilvoorde Gurdwara, Jatinder Singh Antwerpen Wala

Vilvoorde Gurdwara, Palki Sahib and Sangat

Vilvoorde Gurdwara, Sangat

 Vilvoorde Gurdwara, Sangat

Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Lange Molenstraat 14 B-1800
Vilvoorde (near Brussel)

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Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

Chandigarh, January 27 Living up to its notoriety of being a Bacchus-loving state where election time is synonymous with free flow of alcohol, poll-bound Punjab has brought true the worst fears of the Election Commission (EC) that liquor would flow freely here.

During the 34 days of surveillance, various teams have confiscated 5.12 lakh bottles of country made liquor, 1.6 crore ml of illicit liquor and 1.6 lakh kg of illegally brewed liquor (lahan) from across the state.

Only today, 7,000 cases of liquor were seized from a godown in Jalandhar. According to the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, these have allegedly been linked to Rana Gurjit Singh, Congress candidate from Kapurthala. Besides, another 300 cases of liquor have also been seized from Jalandhar.

Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureishi had expressed worry over the use of liquor and drugs to woo voters in Punjab.

He had issued directions to ensure that liquor is not allowed to be distributed at any cost.

“We have recovered so much of liquor in the state during these days. We are going to step up the vigil even more now,” said Usha Sharma, Special CEO, Punjab.

Following the directions, the State Election Commission had been keeping a hawk’s eye on the transportation of liquor.

Kusumjit Sidhu, Punjab CEO, had banned the transportation of liquor from distilleries at night.

She had received information that candidates were storing the quota to be used on the poll eve which was being transported in trucks at night. Police chiefs of certain districts had also reported the matter to the CEO.

A. Venu Prashad, Commissioner, Central Excise, said even they were surprised at the huge recovery of liquor during the last one month. “It seems most of the liquor recovered was related to elections,” he said.

Allaying the fears of certain EC officials that there was a possibility of liquor making way into poll-bound Uttar Pradesh from Punjab, Prashad said there seemed to be no connection. He said the liquor was more expensive in Punjab, the transportation was regulated and Haryana was closer to UP than Punjab. “So, it is certain that all this liquor was meant for our own state only,” he said.

A few days ago, the police had registered an FIR against SAD candidate from Bholath, Bibi Jagir Kaur after 183 cases of liquor were seized from her truck. A case under various sections of the IPC and the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951.

Hoodwinking authorities

The 1.6 crore ml of Indian Made Foreign Liquor, 1.6 lakh kg of illegally brewed liquor (lahan) and 5.12 lakh bottles roughly sums up to 6.9 lakh bottles of liquor for over 93 lakh registered male voters. Despite the surveillance there are many ways to hoodwink the authorities, say sources. As many as 72,000 cases of liquor are driven out by 180 trucks out of 30 distilleries across the state everyday.

Confiscated drugs

Surveillance teams have also confiscated 2,636 kg of poppy husk, 10,489 gm of opium, 6,357 gm of heroine and 2,506 gm of smack to date from different places in the state.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120128/main1.htm

Mr Musharraf had previously vowed to end his self-imposed exile and fly back to Pakistan by the end of this month to revive his political career.

He faces arrest on arrival as he is accused of failing to provide adequate security for former PM Benazir Bhutto ahead of her assassination in 2007.

The former military ruler, who stepped down in 2008, denies wrongdoing.

On Friday Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani repeated that Mr Musharraf would be arrested if he did return.

‘Threatened’   Mohammad Saif, general secretary of Mr Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League, told journalists in Dubai: “General Musharraf will return to Pakistan, that’s for sure.

“But we are waiting for the tension between the government and the Supreme Court to subside.

He told journalists in Dubai that the government would seek to use Mr Musharraf’s return to divert attention from its failures.

Mr Saif gave no date for Mr Musharraf’s return.

In early January, Mr Musharraf had told a Karachi rally via video link from Dubai that he would be in Pakistan from 27 to 30 January and planned to participate in parliamentary elections, which are due by 2013.

“I’ve been threatened and warned but I’m not one of those who gets scared or backs down,” he told supporters. “I’ve fought wars. I’ll come to Pakistan.”

The former president has described the case against him as “baseless” and politically led.

Little support  

Correspondents say few people in Pakistan believe the country’s former military ruler is the answer to its many problems.

The government is currently locked in a three-way struggle with the judiciary and Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.

Relations with the US have hit new lows in recent months, principally over concerns about Pakistan’s role in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

General Musharraf led a military government which ruled Pakistan from 1999.

His supporters were defeated in parliamentary elections in February 2008, and Gen Musharraf resigned in August that year under threat of impeachment.

Pakistan’s current president is Asif Ali Zardari, who is the widower of Benazir Bhutto.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16766967

In an interview to the BBC’s Nik Gowing at the World Economic Forum, Mr Gilani spoke on a wide range of issues being faced by the country.

He described as unfortunate the deaths of over 100 heart patients in Lahore from faulty drugs and said the Punjab government was already holding an inquiry into the case, adding that he would not like to comment on that before the inquiry report came when asked about the update on what was happening in Lahore. He said the interior ministry was also looking into the matter.

Gowing: Mr prime minister, I have listed some of the tensions and confrontations that you are now facing back home in your country. Many observers believe that a creeping coup was somehow taking place in your country with the army tightening its grip on the levers of power. Are you really in charge?

Gilani: Certainly yes and therefore what you have hinted that the army wants to bring a coup that is not true.

Gowing: Are you in charge? Do you feel under challenge from the military still?

Gilani: No. Not at all.

Gowing: There are those who fear that Pakistan is now a failing state with democracy under threat.

Gilani: Democracy is not under threat. The people, the civil society, the intelligentsia and the parliament and the media everybody wants democracy and even the military wants democracy. Therefore, there is no threat to Pakistan vis-à-vis democracy is concerned.

Gowing: You had a meeting with the military leadership just before you came here to Davos. What guarantees did they give you and what guarantees did you give them?

Gilani: No. They called on me. The foreign minister, the chief of the army staff and the ISI DG called on me. We discussed the security situation in Afghanistan and that was the agenda.

Gowing: Do you control the military as the elected government and the prime minister of the elected government?

Gilani: I follow the Constitution and everybody has to abide by the Constitution.

APP adds: Later, talking to reporters, the prime minister rejected talk of a clash among state institutions and said all stakeholders backed democracy.

Mr Gilani said since several things were happening at the same time, it was being felt that there was some kind of a clash.

He recalled his statement to a foreign channel earlier this month which led to speculation that there were some differences between the army and the government. He, however, said that all institutions were working within the ambit of the Constitution.

Mr Gilani recalled that following his statement the person who was responsible was removed, alluding to the sacking of the defence secretary on Jan 11. “And since he has been removed I have nothing against them.”

About his meeting with Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Director General of ISI, Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, before his departure for the World Economic Forum, Mr Gilani said it focussed on security matters related to Afghanistan.

In reply to a question about Mansoor Ijaz’s refusal to visit Pakistan, Mr Gilani said he was summoned by the court and he was not in a position to offer any comment on the matter as the issue was sub judice.

Answering a question about Imran Khan, Mr Gilani said he (Mr Imran) did not contest the general election in 2008 and never succeeded in even by-elections. It seemed that his party line was not to contest elections.

About holding of general election after the Senate election, Mr Gilani said it was the prerogative of the government and the era of 58-2b had gone, adding that the government would hold Senate elections before presentation of the budget in May.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/27/interview-in-davos-gilani-trashes-perception-of-creeping-coup.html

Chandigarh, 27 January 2012. If the accolades it receives from the people across the State are any indicator, the Election Commission of India has already emerged as a winner of sorts in Punjab, where the elections to the 117-member Assembly are scheduled for January 30.

While searches of vehicles and premises by the police and security forces are reminiscent of the days of terrorism, the people in general exude confidence that the Commission had almost succeeded in ensuring that money, muscle and narcotics would not be able to influence voting this time. A cross-section affirms that while a level playing field has been provided to the candidates, the citizens are not being harassed in the run-up to the polls.

The crackdown has so far led to the seizure of almost Rs. 32.47 crore of unaccounted cash, 25 quintals of ‘bhukki’ (poppy husk), 12,136 litres of illicit liquor, 4.72 lakh bottles of country liquor, 82 quintals of lahan (molasses to brew country liquor), 10 kg of opium, 6.3 kg heroin and 2 kg of smack. While the citizens voluntarily deposited 2,05,515 licensed arms, the authorities seized 65 unlicensed arms and 244 cartridges. So far, 20 cases had been registered, while 8,982 non-bailable warrants were executed and 6,488 persons bound down under various sections of law.

The Commission has spared none. An FIR was registered against the first woman president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Bibi Jagir Kaur, and her family for attempting to distribute liquor. Kaur is an Akali Dal candidate from the Bholath constituency. A similar case was registered against Rajinder Beri, a Congress candidate from Jalandhar Central. The premises of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s staunch supporters were also searched.

Media houses have been served notices for alleged violations of the model code of conduct.

However, this correspondent found that women, especially in remote villages, are a relieved lot. Septuagenarian Bachan Kaur aka ‘Badi Bibi’ in the remote Barnala village says: “Unlike in the previous elections, men do not return drunk and harass the families. On earlier occasions, they would throw a tantrum, throw away fresh ‘chappatis’ on the pretext that they were not warm enough, smash utensils and even beat up the wives.”

Charanjit and his friends at Kotkapura are relieved that the candidates they supported could not deploy them to “force” people to sport their party flags and posters on the houses in their vicinity. Jeevan Jumar in Dhuri says attempts by parties in the past to ensure that the maximum number of flags fluttered led to bad blood.

Businessmen and traders of Barnala said tight arrangements had spared them the din of electioneering. They wondered how the slack administrative machinery could become so efficient and driven under the Commisssion. “The same officials at the cutting-edge, delivering much better results, indicates that those at the helm need some conviction, and good governance would no longer be a dream.”

Interestingly, candidates of different hues are also relieved that they can cite the strict enforcement of the model code of conduct as a valid excuse for washing their hands of any allurement to voters. But people believe that most contestants had made arrangements to fund their “routine” campaigns. With the Commission tightening the noose, the “expenses” have fallen drastically, which would translate into major “savings,” the results notwithstanding.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2835116.ece

Paris Singh
I know this Singh and he knows me, but I have forgotten his name

Sikh Channel camera man

Sangat TV camera man 

Sadh Sangat

Kavishari Jatha

Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev Ji  
Lange Molenstraat 14
B-1800 Vilvoorde (near Brussel)

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Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

Raipur, 26 January 2012. Gender and rights activists have protested against the Union government presenting a gallantry award to a Chhattisgarh cadre police officer who allegedly supervised the torture of Soni Sori, a school teacher accused of assisting the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

On Republic Day, the officer, Ankit Garg, was awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry for his role in an October 9, 2010 counterinsurgency operation, in which about 250 members of the State’s Special Task Force and district police ambushed Maoist guerrillas in Mahasamund district. Six Maoists were killed and two civilians, including a deaf and mute manual labourer, died in controversial circumstances. The police maintained that the civilians were caught in the crossfire in the course of a fluid operation.

Mr. Garg was subsequently appointed Superintendent of Police of Dantewada when Ms. Sori was arrested in October 2011 and accused of acting as a Maoist courier.

In a series of letters submitted to the Supreme Court, Ms. Sori says Mr. Garg verbally abused her and directed police personnel to torture her. She alleged that Mr. Garg watched as junior police personnel stripped her naked, administered electric shocks and assaulted her. According to her lawyers, a medical examination found two stones in Ms. Soni’s genital tract and another in her rectum.

“Is this, then, the gallant behaviour of our Dantewada police under the able guidance of SP Ankit Garg, which the government is now felicitating? Is this an award for ruthlessly torturing people? Does the government approve of these methods? Is this an accepted way of carrying out war against their own people in the name of anti-Naxal operations?” asks a press note circulated by Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression, a national network of women’s and rights organisations.

Mr. Garg has, however, categorically denied the allegations. “I can only say that the accusation has been made in the Supreme Court and the court has taken a decision on the 25th [of January]. More than two months have passed [since these allegations were first made.],” said Mr. Garg, who has subsequently been recalled to the police headquarters in Raipur.

“The final hearing is yet to begin,” said Colin Gonsalves, Ms. Sori’s lawyer, disputing Mr. Garg’s assertion that the court had come to a decision.

Vishwa Ranjan, Director-General of Police (Home Guards), said: “The Police Medal for Gallantry is for a specific instance … it is not like the award for Meritorious Service … Ankit Garg led one of the teams in the Mahasamund [encounter].” He added the Soni Sori case was a separate issue that was now sub judice.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2834675.ece

In a letter to his Indian counterpart Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President Zardari said: “On the occasion of the Republic Day of India, I wish to convey to Your Excellency and the people of India warm felicitations and good wishes of the people of Pakistan. I am confident that our two countries would continue to endeavour to develop friendly, good neighbourly and cooperative relations. We wish the people of India progress and prosperity.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.”

In his message to his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister Gilani said: “Pakistan is fully committed to developing friendly relations with India on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect and commonality of interest. We believe that the development and wellbeing of our peoples and our common goal of peaceful and prosperous South Asia can be achieved through the resolution of all outstanding bilateral issues between us.” (Agencies)

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/27/president-pm-felicitate-india.html