Doc meets top cop, says CM's watch not his stolen one

We, the undersigned express our solidarity with Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, renowned scholar, journalist and presently Chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission.

We strongly condemn the continued media trial and targeting of Dr Zafarul Islam Khan for his Facebook post thanking Kuwait for expressing solidarity with Indian Muslims. In his Facebook post, he mentioned the appalling deterioration of human rights of Indian Muslims who have been targeted by Hindutva bigots. A few politicians with ulterior motives and news channel anchors known for spreading bigotry and Islamophobia have mischievously sought to misinterpret his statement and ridiculously label him as anti-Hindu and anti-India.

He has only reiterated what many citizens of India, public figures, international institutions, various European governments, the United States of America and United Nations human rights mechanisms have repeatedly underlined their concern at the increasing human rights abuse and violations of religious minorities in India.

Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a man of integrity. He is a scholar who is known to stand up for constitutional freedoms and values.

His work as the Chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission has been warmly applauded by human rights activists and NGOs across different faiths. His timely interventions on problems of minorities in Delhi have made him a respectable figure among not only Muslims but Sikh, Christians, Jains and Parsis. He is a humanist in the truest sense of the word.

The hateful propaganda against Dr Khan is one more illustration as how certain Indians fail to differentiate between Hinduism, a religion and Hindutva which is a supremacist political ideology.

Dr Zafarul Islam Khan is a leading Indian intellectual whose niche area is Islamic studies and Arab world. He enjoys great respect in the Arab and Muslim world for his understanding and knowledge. He is an alumni of the esteemed Jamia Al-Azhar and Manchester University.

Dr Khan is known for taking bold public positions. He was the first Muslim scholar in the world who denounced ISIL, which later became IS or ISIS. He issued a statement opposing the barbaric crimes of ISIL (IS or ISIS) and Boko Haram against minorities. He takes strong stands against extremism of all sorts. That makes him a prominent critic of RSS.

Dr Khan is a scholar ambassador and earned international prestige for the India. Any attack and targeting of him, is actually an insult to Indian constitution and ethos.

We demand the appropriate authorities of the Government of India take strong legal action against those who are distorting Dr Khan’s Facebook post, and spreading vicious false propaganda against him.

Signed by:

Swami Agnivesh

Mohammad Adeeb
Arun Kumar (Prof)

Zafar Jung

Kamal Faruqui

Annie Namala

Kavita Krishnan

Subhash Gatade

Jawed Naqvi

Indu Pratap Singh

Avinash Kumar

Iftikhar Gilani

Anil Chamadia

Xavier Dias

Denzil Fernandes (Dr)

Irfan Engineer

Faisal Khan

John Dayal (Dr)

Mujtaba Farooque

Ravi Nair

Abubakr Sabbaq (Adv)

Gopal Menon

Bilal Khan

Ashok Choudhury

Jaffer Latief Najar

Mujahid Nafis

Aseem Sundan

Poojan Sahil

Ankur Otto

Mariya Salim

Tanweer Alam

Juned Khan

E M Abdul Rahiman

Aditi Dutta

Devika Prasad

Ameeque Jamei

Suhaib Ansari

Gurminder Singh

A C Michael

Neelima Sharma

Aftab Alam (Dr)

Dhruva Narayan

Syed Saif Ur Rahman

Tanweer Fazal (Dr)

Thouseef Madikeri (Dr)

N.D. Jayaprakash

Salahuddin Ansari

Satyajeet Nambiar

Suhail KK

Abu Sufiyan

Sujata Madhok

Tariq Khan

Violin Mathew Benjamin

Shamsul Islam (Prof)

Sreedhar Ramamurthi

Mohd. Shahid (Prof)

Anand Vivek Taneja (Dr)

Kush Kumar Singh (Dr)

Mangla Verma

Vipul Kumar

Waquar Hasan

Braham Prakash

Abdul Rashid Agwan

Fawaz Shaheen

Guman Singh

Mohammed Hafeez Ulla

Kp Sasi

Mushfique Raza Khan

Partha S Banerjee

Gautam Majumdar

S.Q. Masood

Aiman J Khan

M. K. Faizy

Tasleem Rehmani (Dr)

Mohammed Shafi

Lenin Raghuvanshi (Dr)

Malik Motasim Khan

Kripal Singh Mandloi

Labeed Shafi

Qamar Intakhab

Raees Ahmed Siddiqui

Laeeq Ahmed Khan

Anthony Arulraj

Sadiq Zafar

Biju Gopidasan

George Pulikuthiyil

Mohd Abdullah

Mohd Sorab Hussain

Mukunda Kattel

Sandeep Pendse

Paul Newman

Ovais Sultan Khan

The Post Graduate Department of English, St. Agnes College (Autonomous) organized COSMOPOETICA – a Two-Day International Poets Conference, transcending the boundaries of language and bringing together scholars from English, Hindi and Kannada languages. The key-note speaker was Dr Hima Urmila Shetty and the Panel of Experts included Maggie Harris, a Commonwealth short stories award winning poet of Broadstairs, Kent; Dr Kathryn Hummel, a visiting professor at IIT Hyderabad; Prof Raj Rao, acclaimed poet and novelist, former HOD of English, Savithribai Phule University; Lata Chouhan from Bangalore; Vijay Tiwari from Ahmedabad; Dr. Nagaveni Manchi, an acclaimed Poet and Professor, Govt College, Carstreet and Ms. Chandrakala Nandavara, former Principal of Ganapati PU College.

Dr Sr Jeswina A.C., the Principal; Dr Sr Maria Roopa A.C. the Superior and Dr Sr Vinora A.C., graced the occasion.

Dr Geralyn Pinto, the Staff Convenor; Dr Malini Hebbar, the HOD and Ananya Sneha the student Convenor organised the Conference.

The highlight of the Conference was the Poetry Workshop, Slam Poetry Competition in three languages and paper presentations on various aspects of poetry.

Overall the conference drew together poets and academicians to discuss poetry as a genre and practice with ignited minds.

Mandya, Feb 17: About 40 passengers were injured in a collision between a KSRTC bus and a tipper lorry near Srirangapatna in the district on Monday.

Police said that the incident occurred when the bus was stopped to allow passengers to alight when the tipper lorry rammed against the bus.

The victims have been admitted to the Taluk hospital and the severely injured have been shifted to a hospital in Mysuru.