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LIVE! Yogi's Hindu Vahini workers drag Hindu-Muslim couple to police station in Meerut

12:25  ‘I’m certain Pak will not hang Jadhav’:   “Not a single man has been exchanged between India and Pakistan in the last 20, 25 years,” R K Yadav, former Research and Analysis Wing officer and author of Mission R&AW, tells Rediff.com’s Archana Masih. “Both countries should consider this option because prisoners from both India and Pakistan are languishing in each others’ jails.” Read the interview here.

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12:16  Yogi’s Hindu Vahini workers drag Hindu-Muslim couple to police station in Meerut:  In yet another incident of moral policing, Hindu Yuva Vahini activists on Wednesday barged into a couple’s house in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut city and allegedly dragged the duo to a nearby police station on suspicion of ‘ love jihad’.

The incident took place in Meerut’s Shastri Nagar area.

Nagendra Singh Tomar, the head of Hindu Yuva Vahini in western Uttar Pradesh, demanded action against the boy while alleging that he was trying to convert the girl to Islam.

Tomar told ANI, “I have asked the police to take strict action as the Muslim boy was romancing with a Hindu girl in the house. He wanted to convert her. I also insisted that strict action be taken against the landlords who give rooms on rent without proper verification.”

Earlier on Friday, the members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini forced the police to halt prayer at a church in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj, alleging forced conversion.

The right-wing Hindu Vahini group was set up by UP CM Yogi Adityanath in 2002. Both the organisation and its founder have spoken about and acted on love jihad.

12:03  Delhi court issues open ended non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya for allegedly evading summons in FERA violation matter.

11:58  Badminton Association of India president and former Union minister Akhilesh Das Gupta dies after suffering a heart attack, reports ANI.

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11:51  Govt protecting cows, not women, angry Jaya Bachchan bats for Mamata :  There was uproar in Parliament today over the bounty on West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

TMC MP Saugata Roy in the Lok sabha raised the issue of a BJP Youth leader issuing a bounty on Bannerjees head
 
“Mamata Banerjee is not just the Chief Minister of Bengal, she is also a leader who has emerged from the grassroots. Strong action must be taken against people who try to make provocations of these nature,” Roy said.

The BJP also distanced itself from the comments and condemned it. BJP Leader Ananth Kumar told the Lok Sabha, “We condemn this statement. We respect WB CM Mamata Banerjee.”

BJP MP Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the state govt was free to take legal action and condemn the statement.

Samajwadi MP Jaya Bachchan also raised the issue in Parliament saying the government must take steps for the protection of women aggressively. “You are protecting cows but atrocities being are committed on women,” Bachchan told the Rajya Sabha.

To bring you up to speed, this is what the issue is about.

A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Partys youth wing announced a bounty of Rs 11 lakh for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees head after the police in her state used batons to disperse a rally raising slogans in praise of Lord Ram on Hanuman Jayanti.

The threat was issued by Yogesh Varshney, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.

“Mamata government beat up people. If someone was wearing a red shirt or a red pant, they were beaten up brutally by the police. I don’t understand…Mamata Banerjee organises Iftar party, she argues for the Muslims. I want to ask her are Hindus not human?

“If they had any humanity, they wouldnt have beaten up like this. If anyone brings me her severed head, I will give that person Rs 11 lakh,” Varshney said while criticising the police action on the rally.”

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11:30  Ivanka encouraged Trump to order Syrian strikes:  It appears that United States President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka had a hand in the decision to authorise a missile strike on a Syrian airbase.

Trump had asserted that the horrific images from a chemical weapons attack in Idlib forced him to order the strike.

According to an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Eric Trump said he is ‘sure’ that his sister, and newly appointed West Wing adviser Ivanka, encouraged their father to carry out a the strike against the Syrian president, reports CNN.

After more than 80 people were killed, including children, in a chemical weapons attack in Idlib province, the US fired missiles at the Syrian airbase

“Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. Im sure she said: ‘Listen, this is horrible stuff’,” Eric said in the interview.

“I stay out of politics and I stay out of the administration, but you can tell he was deeply affected by those images of the children,” he added.

A day before the strikes, Ivanka tweeted: ‘Heartbroken and outraged by the images coming out of Syria following the atrocious chemical attack yesterday.’

And the day after the strike, she tweeted saying, ‘The times we are living in call for difficult decisions — Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity.’ — ANI

10:57  JUST IN: Congress leader and former Union minister Akhilesh Das Gupta passes away after suffering a heart attack.

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10:51  Yogi govt scraps Samajwadi Pension Scheme:   The Uttar Pradesh government has scrapped the Samajwadi Pension Scheme of the previous Samajwadi Party government and ordered a detailed review of its beneficiaries.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was reviewing various schemes being run by the Social Welfare Department of the state, asked the officials to stall the pension scheme and review the list of beneficiaries so as to know whether they are deserving candidates fulfilling eligibility criterion, an official spokesman said.

The officials have been asked to complete the review of beneficiaries in a month’s time, the spokesman said, adding that there was a suggestion during the presentation to rename the scheme as mukhyamantri pension yojna.

The scheme provides for a pension of Rs 500 per month for BPL families.   The chief minister also directed the officials to review doubling the pension amount of Rs 500 each in widow, divyang and old age pension scheme and present it before the cabinet. — PTI

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09:49  No proof of Syria using chemical weapons in Idlib: Putin:   Condemning the missile attack by the Unites States on a Syrian airbase, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated the development was clear evidence of international law violation by Washington.

On April 6, 59 US Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at a Syrian government airbase and President Donald Trump said that the strikes were carried out in a response to a chemical attack on civilians in Idlib that killed over 80 people, including children.

Speaking on the issue in an interview with Mir 24 TV channel, the Russian President said there is no proof that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in Idlib, however, there is startling evidence that US flouted international laws, reports Sputnik.

“Where is evidence that the Syrian troops used chemical weapons? No evidence. And what about violation of the international law? It is an obvious fact. What was the reaction of the NATO allies? All of them are nodding like bobble heads,” Putin said.

Earlier, US Defence Secretary James Mattis stressed that he personally reviewed the intelligence on the chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province and the Syrian government was guilty of the crime, however, he did not come forth with evidence to back his claim. — ANI

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09:07  BJP youth wing leader offers Rs 11 lakh for Mamata Banerjee’s head:  A Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader courted a controversy by announcing a reward of Rs 11 lakh for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s head, following a lathi-charge at Birbhum district to disperse a rally raising slogans of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ on Hanuman Jayanti.

“Those who will cut and bring West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee head, I will give that person Rs 11 lakh. Mamata Banerjee never allows Saraswati Puja, fairs during Ram Navami and during Hanuman Jayanti procession, people were lathi-charged and brutally beaten up. She organises iftar party and always supports Muslims,” BJYM leader Yogesh Varshney said.

In West Bengal’s Birbhum, Suri police on Sunday had already warned the Bir Hanuman Jayanti organisers that it would not allow holding of any rally or meeting at Suri on Tuesday.

The organisers requested and assured the police that that they would not carry arms.

However, the police did not move from its stand and charged on. — ANI

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08:54  Dortmund explosions not a terror attack: German security sources:   German security sources have said that there are no indications that the three explosions that rocked the Borussia Dortmund team bus were part of an organised terror attack, national news agency DPA reported.

‘No element’ points in the direction of such an assault, said the German agency.

The German police also said that they believe the explosions were directly targeted at the club.

“We are assuming that they were a targeted attack against the Dortmund team,” Dortmund city’s police chief was quoted as saying by news agencies. — Agencies

Police near the Borussia Dortmund team hotel after an explosion. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach Livepic/ Reuters

08:21  Death sentence to Jadhav ‘politically motivated’: US experts:   Top United States experts have expressed concern over Pakistan’s decision to give death penalty to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav as they warned that Islamabad wants to send a ‘strong message’ to India against isolating it on the world stage.

“Apart from the gross irregularities in the Jadhav situation, such as the lack of consular access and the secrecy surrounding the surprise court-martial, what struck me the most is the contrast between the speed of Mr Jadhav’s trial set against the endless postponements for that of the Mumbai attackers,” Alyssa Ayres, a former senior State Department official in its South and Central Asia Bureau said.

“The latter case, by contrast, has been in a continual state of prolongation for nearly nine years,” Ayres said.

She is currently senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank.

Bharat Gopalaswamy, director of South Asia Centre at the Atlantic Council, a Washington, DC based top US think-tank, believes that the evidence warranting Jadhav’s conviction ‘is rather flimsy’ and the story by the Pakistani authorities ‘do not add up’.

Without furnishing further evidence, this conviction as it stands, ‘seems to be politically motivated’ in order to counter India’s aggressive diplomacy against Pakistan in combating terrorism, he said.

“This whole story is shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, but it seems clear that Pakistan wants to send a very strong message to India, whether to warn New Delhi against meddling in Pakistan or to push back in a big way against India’s efforts to isolate Pakistan on the world stage,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Center.

“At the same time, given how much India will want to ensure that Jadhav isn’t executed, Pakistan now has a very large bargaining chip at its disposal. Pakistan may want to use Jadhav as a trump card to get some type of major concession from India,” Kugelman said.

“The bottom line is that India-Pakistan relations are on life support. We can kiss goodbye any immediate prospects for resuming dialogue, though that wasn’t a very strong possibility even before the announcement about Jadhav’s death sentence. Ultimately, India and Pakistan face some very dark and dangerous days ahead,” he said. — PTI

IMAGE: Congress workers protest in Mumbai against Pakistan for sentencing former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death. Photograph: PTI Photo

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00:28  US probing possible Russia collusion in Syria chemical attack:  

The US is probing a possible Russian involvement in the Assad regime’s chemical attack in Syria last week, the White House said today.

“We do think that it is a question worth asking the Russians about how is it possible that their forces were co-located with the Syrian forces that planned, prepared, and carried out chemical weapons attack at the same installation and did not have foreknowledge,” a senior administration

official told reporters at the White House.

The official said that there were Russian forces co-located with Syrian forces at the Shayrat airfield in addition to many other installations around the country.

However, the senior White House official said as of now they do not have information on the Russian involvement, but it is clear that Moscow is trying to cover up what happened there.

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00:06  Borussia Dortmund’s match cancelled after explosion near team bus:  

Borussia Dortmund have confirmed that their match against Monaco in the Champions League game has been postponed after an explosion took place near the team bus at the team hotel.

The team’s defender Marc Bartra is reported to have been taken to hospital.

Source: Rediff