Hyderabad, Mar.28: Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr Pc were imposed in South Zone and parts of West Zone as tension prevailed following clashes between two groups of communites last night and today in these areas.Addressing a press conference tonight City Police Commissioner A K Khan said though tension prevailed in south zone including old city and Ghoshamahal division of the west zone, the authorities had taken all measures to restore normalcy in these areas by deploying additional forces.He said more than 28 people were injured in stone pelting, while 70 trouble makers were arrested. Fifteen cases had been booked so far since last night. Some more trouble makers would be taken into custody tonight.The Special Investigation Team of the CID department was investigating the incidents and the guilty would be punished severly, he said. He said senior police officers were stationed at the sensitive areas and monitoring the situation. He said the way the incidents spread to other areas immediately after reporting the incident in one area had given an indication that it was pre-planned.He said Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel and state police forces were deployed in Moosa Bowli, Hussaini Alam, Purana Pul, Begum Bazar and surrounding areas to prevent any untoward incident. He said the SMS and cellphones had helped the trouble makers to spread the rumours and clashes to other areas.Forces from outside divisions and state would be deployed in the troubled areas. 30 paltoons would be joining tonight alognwith two RAF companies in addition to Andhra Pradesh Special Police and CRPF.Incidents of stone-pelting and attacks on places of worship, houses, shops and vehicles were reported well past midnight last night. Four vehicles were set afire and about a dozen were damaged by the mob.
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Sunday, March 28, 2010
Andhra Pradesh CM asks officials to ensure smooth Hanuman Jayanthi
Hyderabad, Mar 28 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah today directed the police officials to take necessary security measures for peaceful conduct of Hanuman Jayanthi on March 30 following clashes between two communities last night in the Old City.The Chief Minister held a review meeting on the law and order situation in the State particularly in the State Capital, with Home Minister P Sabitha Indira Reddy, Director General of Police R R Girish Kumar and City Police Commissioner A K Khan after his arrival from Krishna District and Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) M Mahender Reddy.The Chief Minister said the government would not compromise on law and order situation and not tolerate if any one created problem.He asked the Police to work in coordination with the Revenue Department and take strict measures to maintain law and order.He urged all communities to cooperate with the the government in view of the ongoing Class X public examinations.He urged all political parties to extend their helping hand to the government in its efforts to maintain law and order and communal peace in the State.He asked the State Home Minister Sabitha Indira Reddy to conduct a meeting with the public representatives and take their suggesitons in view of the last night's disturbances.
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Fresh violence in Hyderabad, restrictions imposed
Hyderabad, March 28 : The communal clashes Sunday spread to more areas in the old city of Hyderabad as police clamped ban on gathering of five or more people and deployed additional forces to bring the situation under control.Police fired shots in the air to disperse clashing groups in Kalapatthar area after a baton charge failed to bring the situation under control while mobs took to streets in Lal Darwaza and Shahali Banda areas Sunday evening, pelting stones and attacking vehicles. Tension gripped the communal sensitive old city as fresh incidents of violence spread panic among people. Nearly 24 hours after the trouble broke out over religious flags in Hussaini Alam area, the disturbances in more areas near the historic Mecca Masjid shattered the day-long peace. Police Commissioner A.K. Khan told reporters that 36 people were injured in violent incidents at various places since Saturday night. "We are on alert in view of the latest incidents and are monitoring the situation from time to time," he said. Paramilitary Rapid Action Force (RAF) and state police personnel were deployed in sensitive areas to maintain peace as Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, who reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting, directed police to deal firmly with trouble-makers. Prohibitory orders under section 144 of criminal procedure code, banning assembly of five or more persons were imposed in the limits of the entire south zone of Hyderabad. Khan said the violence was pre-planned and claimed that some elements creating trouble have been identified. Denying the involvement of any political party, he said a meeting would be held with all elected representatives to seek their cooperation in maintaining peace. Police have registered 15 cases and arrested 70 people for various violent incidents. Khan said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) would probe the cases. Trouble began in Moosa Bowli Saturday night when members of a community were allegedly putting up saffron flags after removing the green flags installed recently during a festival. The heated exchange of word snowballed into clashes between two groups. Incidents of stone pelting and attacks on places of worship, houses, shops and vehicles were reported well past midnight while some people were seen vacating their houses in sensitive areas. Thirteen people, including two scribes, were injured in stone pelting and police baton charge. Two vehicles were set afire and about a dozen others were damaged by the mobs. Police used batons to disperse clashing groups, who were armed with sticks and stones. The incidents took place two days after clashes between two groups in Madannapet area on the same issue. The two communities by and large live in peace and harmony in the city, which has not seen any major communal riot for two decades.
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Modi returns for SIT questioning
The chief minister entered the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headquarters in the old secretariat premises at the appointed time of 9 p.m. after his security had completed the sanitizing of the area.Except media persons and security personnel, no one else was permitted inside the premises.Sources close to the SIT said that the chief minister had already answered 62 of the 68 questions posed to him. The questioning is widely expected to be over by around midnight.Earlier in the day, Modi was questioned by the SIT, eight years after communal riots left over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead in Gujarat.Earlier in the day, Modi chose to appear before the SIT without a lawyer but took a break in between to consult Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, a Supreme Court advocate and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, party sources said.Jaitley had flown here specially for the day.As he emerged after a five-hour questioning Saturday evening, Modi said he was abiding by the Indian constitution and law which are “supreme”.“The Indian law and constitution are supreme. As a citizen and as the chief minister, I am bound by the constitution and the law. Nobody is above the law,” Modi, wearing his trademark crisp white kurta and pyjama, told reporters.Modi is being probed following a complaint by Zakia Jaffri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri killed in the riots, that the chief minister was party to the 2002 widespread violence that swept Gujarat following a train burning in Godhra that killed 59 people in 2002.The SIT is believed to have based most of its questions on issues raised by Zakia in her 100-page petition to the Supreme Court.
According to sources, privy to the SIT questioning, some of the questions asked were:
- Did you give a Gujarat shutdown call following the Godhra incident?
- Who sent ministers to police control rooms during the riots? (Some ministers were alleged to have taken over the control rooms in Gujarat stopping police from taking any action)
- What happened at the Feb 27, 2002 meeting held by the chief minister and other senior officers for review of the situation following the Godhra train burning?
- Do you know about calls made by Ehsaan Jaffri to your office? (the Congress leader had reportedly called up the chief minister’s office several times for help after his house was surrounded by rioters)Zakia has alleged that Modi and his administration aided and abetted the rioters in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society where over 60 people were burnt to death. The victims included Jaffri.The first phase of the questioning went on for over five hours.SIT’s A.K. Malhotra, an additional director general of police, led the questioning. Probe panel chief R.K.Raghavan was not present.Modi said he wanted the process to end Saturday.The chief minister said the SIT was made up of officers from outside Gujarat. “They are clearly working under the direction of the Supreme Court.”Modi, one of the top leaders of the BJP, appeared unperturbed though he had been evading being questioned over the riots.“I have spoken at length with the SIT. My conduct should be a fitting reply to my critics.”Zakia Jaffri expressed satisfaction at the fact that Modi appeared before the SIT.“It has taken eight long years but at least he has come. Now that he has played his cards, our lawyers will take it up from here on and we hope some justice will be done,” she said.Union Law Minister M.Veerappa Moily said it was “unfortunate” for a chief minister to be in a situation like that.“It is most unfortunate that Modi landed himself in that kind of a situation. It is not desirable but unfortunately it has happened,” Moily said.The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) asked Modi to step down on moral grounds.“There is no justification for him to continue as the chief minister. He should resign on moral grounds,” CPI-M leader M.K. Pandhe said.Social activist Teesta Setalvald, who has been fighting for the riot victims, said: “It was an important day for democracy and rule of law when a sitting chief minister has been forced to appear before an inquiry team after various attempts to block justice.”
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Modi questioning a big step forward: SIT chief
Modi was questioned for nearly 10 hours Saturday in Gandhinagar by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on a complaint by Zakia Jaffri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri killed in the riots. She has alleged that the chief minister was party to the 2002 violence that swept Gujarat following a train burning in Godhra that killed 59 people.“Definitely, it (the questioning of Modi) was a very big step forward in unravelling few of the mysteries in the matter,” Raghavan told CNN-IBN television channel.He asserted that Zakia Jaffri’s petition was the basis for questioning Modi. “I don’t want to go into details, but broadly speaking, Zakia’s petition was the basic document on which we had to quiz Narendra Modi.”Raghavan added that the investigating officer quizzing Modi would have gone into all the issues related to the matter.He told NDTV channel that it took 10 hours to grill Modi, as a lot of procedures had to be followed. “As he speaks, it has to be put into writing. Accurate reproduction of what he says has to be done, and it is then signed by him,” said Raghavan, former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director.Incidentally, Raghavan was not on the SIT premises when the questioning was going on. “(A.K.) Malhotra is the investigating officer. He is competent. I cannot breathe down his neck. This is CBI practice,” he said.Raghavan asserted that the report on the case would be completed before the Supreme Court’s deadline of April 30.“There may be a few more witnesses to be called, but I am confident that Malhotra will give me the report in advance. It will have to be examined by me and then remitted for legal opinion,” he said.On whether Modi may be recalled for questioning, he said: “That will have to be examined in the evidence. If there is any lacunae, then we can can recall a witness,” he said.
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Modi questioned for 2002 communal carnage, finally
- Did you give a Gujarat shutdown call following the Godhra incident?
- Who sent ministers to police control rooms during the riots? (Some ministers were alleged to have taken over the control rooms in Gujarat stopping police from taking any action)
- What happened at the Feb 27, 2002 meeting held by the chief minister and other senior officers for review of the situation following the Godhra train burning?
- Do you know about calls made by Ehsaan Jaffri to your office? (the Congress leader had reportedly called up the chief minister’s office several times for help after his house was surrounded by rioters)Zakia has alleged that Modi and his administration aided and abetted the rioters in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society where over 60 people were burnt to death. The victims included Jaffri.The first phase of the questioning went on for over five hours. SIT’s A.K. Malhotra, an additional director general of police, led the questioning. Probe panel chief R.K. Raghavan was not present.The questioning was to resume after 9 p.m. and Modi said he wanted the process to end Saturday.The chief minister said the SIT was made up of officers from outside Gujarat. “They are clearly working under the direction of the Supreme Court.”Modi, one of the top leaders of the BJP, appeared unperturbed though he had been evading being questioned over the riots.“I have spoken at length with the SIT. My conduct should be a fitting reply to my critics.”Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily said it was “unfortunate” for a chief minister to be in a situation like that.“It is most unfortunate that Modi landed himself in that kind of a situation. It is not desirable but unfortunately it has happened,” Moily said.The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) asked Modi to step down on moral grounds.“There is no justification for him to continue as the chief minister. He should resign on moral grounds,” CPI-M leader M.K. Pandhe said.Social activist Teesta Setalvald, who has been fighting for the riot victims, said: “It was an important day for democracy and rule of law when a sitting chief minister has been forced to appear before an inquiry team after various attempts to block justice.”
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India-Finland sign Agreement on Economic Cooperation
(PIB NEWS) India and Finland have signed an Agreement on Economic Cooperation at Helsinki on 26th March, 2010. The Agreement was signed By Mr Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry from the Indian side and by Dr Paavo Vayrnen, the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development from the Finnish side. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sharma said that the new Agreement will raise the level of Economic and Trade Cooperation between the two countries to a new and higher level. The Agreement seeks to replace an earlier Agreement which was signed way back in 1967 under the GATT regime. He said that the world has moved far ahead now and both the countries offer vast areas of opportunity which can be suitably tapped keeping in view the complimentarity of our sectors. The highly organized high-end technology sectors of Finland can develop synergy with the highly skilled and educated work force of India. The Agreement seeks to deepen the engagement between the two countries through exchanges of investors, information and experts and also by developing opportunities for the two countries by exploring joint economic possibilities in third countries. A Joint Commission consisting of experts will be set up under this Agreement to identify new business possibilities and also to identify and remove hurdles which could hamper mutual economic cooperation between the two countries. The two sides also decided to set up three Joint Working Groups in the areas of Innovation, Clean Technology and waste management and skill Development and Training. The Indian Commerce and Industry Minister has been accompanied by a high level business delegation under the leadership of shri Rajan Bharti Mittal, President of FICCI and included some of the leading industrialists of India. Earlier the two Ministers also chaired a business roundtable on 25th March 2010. Business leaders present from both sides exuded keenness to collaborate in high technology sectors. Shri Sharma observed that areas of infrastructure, clean energy, bio-pharmaceuticals, medical electronics, health and skill development offer enormous potential and stated that the Indian MSME sector and Finnish small industries should use each other’s strengths to make India a manufacturing hub for tech-rich industries and invited the Finnish industry to Invest in Institutes of Excellence and skill imparting centres in India. This was an area that India would be keen to commence work on immediately, he said. During the two day visit shri Sharma also held bilateral talks with Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs and employment Mr. Mauri Pekkarinen, and Dr Paavo Vayrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development on areas of strategic and economic importance for the two countries. =======================================================
Tension in old city of Hyderabad after religious clashes
Hyderabad, March 28 : Parts of the old city of this Andhra Pradesh capital Sunday remained tense after religious clashes between two groups, which left 13 people injured Saturday night.Paramilitary Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel and state police forces were deployed in Moosa Bowli, Hussaini Alam, Purana Pul, Begum Bazar and surrounding areas to prevent any untoward incident, police said. Police commissioner A.K. Khan, who visited the old city late Saturday night, Sunday said the situation was now peaceful with no fresh incident. Incidents of stone-pelting and attacks on places of worship, houses, shops and vehicles were reported well past midnight while some people were seen vacating their houses in sensitive areas. Thirteen people, including two journalists, were injured in stone-pelting and police lathicharge. Two vehicles were set afire and about a dozen were damaged by the mobs. Trouble began in Moosa Bowli when members of a community were allegedly putting up saffron flags after removing the green flags installed recently during a festival. The heated exchange of words snowballed into clashes between the two groups. Police used batons to disperse clashing groups armed with sticks and stones. Local legislators of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reached the areas. MIM legislator Ahmed Pasha Khadri alleged that police not only remained a mute spectator to the attacks on the houses of the minority community but also resorted to unprovoked baton charge on youth. However, BJP leader G. Ramaswamy said some people created trouble by taking objection to the installation of saffron flags on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanthi. The minority community was not stopped from putting up flags during their festival, he added. The two communities by and large live in peace and harmony in the city, which has not seen any major communal riot for two decades.
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