Pak played cruel joke, meeting just a drama: Dalbir Kaur

Agencies
December 26, 2017

Chandigarh, Dec 26: Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit Singh, who died in a Lahore jail in 2013, said Pakistan played a "cruel joke" by not allowing Kulbhushan Jadhav to meet his wife and mother freely and dubbed the entire exercise a "drama".

Jadhav, on death row in Pakistan for alleged spying, was allowed to meet his wife and mother - but separated by a glass screen - in a choreographed event that unfolded in tweets, photos and TV footage.

It was the fist time Jadhav was meeting his family since his arrest in March last year, and Pakistan portrayed it as a humanitarian gesture to mark the birthday of the country's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

But Kaur found no "humanism" in the meeting. "When it was held under such tight security and close relatives are separated by a glass screen, it has little meaning," she said.

Having lost her brother four years back in Pakistan, Kaur said she could fully understand what Jadhav's family must be going through at this hour.

"Jadhav or his family would know what they were going through by 'meeting' but in real sense not meeting at the same time. His family would have wanted to hug him, talk to him freely. But nothing of that sort happened. What solace would this meeting have provided them."

Pakistan portrayed the meeting as a humanitarian gesture, but if they believed in humanism, they should have allowed the family to meet Jadhav freely, she said.

"But we know they have no 'insaniyat' (humanism). They played a cruel joke on Jadhav's family and with people of our country. They staged drama of a meeting, which I can say was just a sham."

Speaking to news agency over phone, Kaur said Pakistan had pre-planned everything. "They played to the gallery and tried to befool the international community."

She said "this was just a drama enacted by Pakistan, and the Indian government should treat it like that only".

"Everyone knows that Pakistan breeds terrorism. They do not know what justice is. India should take up Jadhav's case even more forcefully while the international community should put pressure on Pakistan and expose them," she said.

Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav from its restive Balochistan province after he reportedly entered from Iran. It claims that he was in possession of an Indian passport that identified him as Hussein Mubarak Patel.

India, however, maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.

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News Network
May 29,2020

New Delhi, May 29: More than 38,000 doctors, including those retired from the Armed Forces Medical Services, have volunteered to help the government in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official said on Friday.

On March 25, the government had made an appeal to doctors, including the retired ones, to come forward and join the efforts to fight the pandemic.

"38,162 volunteer doctors, including retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or private doctors have signed up with the government to battle COVID-19 pandemic," the official said.

The official further said Niti Aayog has sent a list of names of these doctors to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

In a statement posted on Niti Aayog's website on March 25, the government had said those who wish to contribute to this noble mission may register themselves through a link provided on the Aayog's website.

"The Government of India requests for volunteer doctors who are fit and willing to be available for providing their services in the public health facilities and the training hospitals in the near future.

"We appeal to such doctors to come forward at this hour of need. You could also be a retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or a private doctor," the statement had said.

It had noted that in case the outbreak leads to a high number of infected individuals, India's public health facilities will face tremendous load to take care of a large number of patients.

Many countries, including the US, Italy, the UK and Vietnam, had also urged retired health workers to come back to work amid the pandemic.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India has climbed to 1,65,799, making it the world's ninth worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Health Ministry on Friday said the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,706 in the country.

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News Network
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: Newly-appointed Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said the armed forces stay away from politics and work as per the directives of the government of the day, remarks that come amid allegations that the forces were being politicised.

Gen Rawat also said that his focus as CDS will be to integrate the efforts of the three services and to work as a team.

"We keep ourselves away from politics. We act according to the directives of the government of the day," he said.

Gen Rawat said his focus will be to ensure best and optimal use of resources allocated to the three services.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Lucknow, Jan 6: Undeterred by the large scale protests that claimed as many as 20 lives in the state, Uttar Pradesh government has started the process of implementing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

According to sources in the government, the district magistrates have been directed to identify the migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who have been living in their districts.

Sources said that the state home department has given oral instructions to the district magistrates. ''No written orders have been issued,'' said a senior official here preferring anonymity.

The official said that the district magistrates would be preparing a list containing names of those minorities, who had migrated from these countries following their persecution and had been living without obtaining the citizenship of India.

According to sources, the government expected that the migrants, who could be eligible for the Indian citizenship in accordance with the CAA, could be more in number in the districts, including Rampur, Ghaziabad, Shahjahanpur, Lucknow and some others.

''The list will be sent to the union home ministry,'' the official added.

Sources said that the state government will also inform the centre about the ''illegal Muslim migrants'' for their ultimate deportation to their countries of origin.

Different parts of UP had witnessed large scale violence last month during the protests against the CAA. At least 20 people, mostly youngsters, were killed allegedly in police firing and many others were injured. The state government had denied the charge. 

Alleged police excesses during and after the protests triggered a nationwide outrage with several rights organisations and activists slamming the BJP government and demanding a high-level probe into the allegations.

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