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A letter to the Press Council of India on Hyderabad blasts coverage

[email protected] (Shehzad)
February 27, 2013

To,

Hon'ble Justice Markandey Katju,

Chairman,

Press Council of India,

New Delhikatju

Sir,

Sub: Hyderabad Bomb blasts - Issue direction to the Media houses to stop Media Investigation and Trial – To stop terrorizing Muslim community and hatred among people – Reg.

With the reference to the subject cited above in the evening of 21st February 2013 an unfortunate incident of bomb blast took place in Dilsukhnagar area of Hyderabad in which almost 16 people were killed and hundreds injured. The dead belonged to all the religions and sections.

Immediately after the blast, electronic media both regional (Telugu) and national (Hindi & English) reached the spot and started live coverage along with their expert comments. Telugu channels which telecast both Telugu and Urdu news bulletin are completely different. In the Telugu bulletins they spread hatred against Muslims where in Urdu bulletin they are very cautious in reporting such hatred. So, the Telugu and Urdu news bulletin are completely different from each other. When the whole city was under shock, media and people arising out of their caste & religion were enquiring the safety of each other. The common people came into immediate action and were trying to help injured and dead to shift to the nearby hospitals. The thought of who carried the blasts never came to the minds of the common people but they were very much concerned about saving the lives of the blast victims. But the media without showing any such concern was carrying out their own style of reporting.

At the same time, media was reporting live along with speculations which diverted towards one community and as usual that was nothing but towards Muslims. The media started investigation and jumped on the conclusions and media room trial started. By giving their own sources they named the organizations behind the blast and also the names of Muslim youths. They even said that the planning of these blasts took place in October itself. The media is diverting and linking these blasts to the revenge of Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab. The media also said that it is the revenge of Akbaruddin Owaisi's arrest.

Before the state investigating agencies and central investigating agencies reached the spot, the media and Hindutva elements gathered due to which the evidence of bomb blasts lost. Though the police personnel reached there but did not try to control the Hindutva elements and media mob. The Hindutva elements raised the slogans of anti-Muslim slogans.

The first thing which the media announced is that the actual target of bomb blast was not the present place but it was the Saibaba Mandir (how media got this report no one knows). Then the media started explaining how the preparations of bomb blast took place. They even said that two days before the blasts the bomb planters were roaming in that area. Media even declared the names of the persons involved in the blast. The number of channels, that number of investigation and trial was going on and all the channels had same conclusions. The target of all these channels was Muslims. The matter of concern is that the media houses do not have any evidence or any information of this incident but had only speculations. But with the type of their reporting it seemed that they knew everything in advance. The media is even showing an injured Muslim youth in the blast as main suspect and unfortunately this person named Mirza Abdul Wasey became the victim of bomb blast for the second time. He was injured even in the Makkah Masjid blast as well. A person injured two times in the blast i.e. in Makkah Masjid bomb blast and Dilsukhnagar bomb blast became a crime, only because he is a Muslim.

The common people wondered that if at all the media houses knew all the facts then why didn't they inform the police? And if they did not alert the police then it means that they have indirectly helped the terrorists. Without any evidence targeting of one particular community is to increase their TRP ratings then that is nothing but helping the terrorists. Because in this country where plural society exists, these type of incidents are carried out only to propagate the hatred and division among the people and in the society. Such type of reporting of media is making the plans of terrorists easier. This type of reporting is nothing but act of terror. Because of this type of reporting, one particular community is completely isolated, traumatised and terrorized.

This committee wants to draw your attention towards this type of reporting of media houses which is propagating hatred among the people and isolating the Muslim community. The majority community is seeing them with suspect in every walk of life. The attitude of media has become the biggest threat to Muslim community and their life and liberty is at stake.

Dear sir, we want to say clearly that at this time, Muslims are the victims of bomb terror, police terror, media terror and mob terror. This is the ground reality.

Therefore, we request you to issue the direction to the media houses to stop their own investigation and media room trial against the Muslim community which is aimed at targeting Muslim community.

We request you to collect all the reporting of the media both electronic and print and investigate the news on this issue by forming a team of experts. Take against those media houses that have not spared a single minute to show and target Muslim community as terrorists.

Dear Sir, you are the chairman of Press Council of India, on behalf of common Muslims of India I question you, don't Muslims have right to life with dignity which is guaranteed by the constitution and is it crime to live this country as Muslims with their identity.

At this high time, I want to ask you, the media houses telecasting such news just to increase their TRP ratings in not an act of terror? As far as we know there are some rules and regulations to be followed by Media in reporting the news. But that is not applied while reporting on terror issues.

Hope this will be taken seriously, positively. We request you to intervene and stop it immediately so that our plural society of India can exist without any threat.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

Lateef Mohammed Khan,

Gen. Secretary

Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee

Hyderabad

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Agencies
May 10,2020

In the wake of the gas leak at a factory in Visakhapatnam, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued detailed guidelines for restarting industries after the lockdown and the precautions to be taken for the safety of the plants as well as the workers.

In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures.

As a result, some of the manufacturing facilities, pipelines, valves may have residual chemicals, which may pose risk. The same is true for the storage facilities with hazardous chemicals and flammable materials, it said.

The NDMA guidelines said while restarting a unit, the first week should be considered as the trial or test run period after ensuring all safety protocols.

Companies should not try to achieve high production targets. There should be 24-hour sanitisation of the factory premises, it said.

The factories need to maintain a sanitisation routine every two-three hours especially in the common areas that include lunch rooms and common tables which will have to be wiped clean with disinfectants after every single use, it added.

For accommodation, the NDMA said, sanitisation needs to be performed regularly to ensure worker safety and reduce the spread of contamination.

To minimise the risk, it is important that employees who work on specific equipment are sensitised and made aware of the need to identify abnormalities like strange sounds or smell, exposed wires, vibrations, leaks, smoke, abnormal wobbling, irregular grinding or other potentially hazardous signs which indicate the need for immediate maintenance or if required shutdown, it said.

At least 11 people lost their lives and about 1,000 others were exposed to a gas leak at a factory in Andhra Pradesh''s Visakhapatnam on May 7.

The incident took place after it restarted operations when the government allowed industrial activities in certain sectors following several weeks of lockdown.

The lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 for 21 days in a bid to combat the coronavirus threat. The lockdown was then extended till May 3 and again till May 17.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Cybercriminals continue to exploit public fear of rising coronavirus cases through malware and phishing emails in the guise of content coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US and World Health Organisation (WHO), says cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

In the APAC region, Kaspersky has detected 93 coronavirus-related malware in Bangladesh, 53 in the Philippines, 40 in China, 23 in Vietnam, 22 in India and 20 in Malaysia. 

Single-digit detections were monitored in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Thailand. 

Along with the consistent increase of 2019 coronavirus cases comes the incessant techniques cybercriminals are using to prey on public panic amidst the global epidemic, the company said in a statement. 

Kaspersky also detected emails offering products such as masks, and then the topic became more commonly used in Nigerian spam emails. Researchers also found scam emails with phishing links and malicious attachments.

One of the latest spam campaigns mimics the World Health Organisation (WHO), showing how cybercriminals recognise and are capitalising on the important role WHO has in providing trustworthy information about the coronavirus.

"We would encourage companies to be particularly vigilant at this time, and ensure employees who are working at home exercise caution. 

"Businesses should communicate clearly with workers to ensure they are aware of the risks, and do everything they can to secure remote access for those self-isolating or working from home," commented David Emm, principal security researcher.

Some malicious files are spread via email. 

For example, an Excel file distributed via email under the guise of a list of coronavirus victims allegedly sent from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was, in fact, a Trojan-Downloader, which secretly downloads and installs another malicious file. 

This second file was a Trojan-Spy designed to gather various data, including passwords, from the infected device and send it to the attacker.

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Agencies
May 15,2020

Kolkata, May 15: Veteran Bengali author Debesh Roy, who was conferred the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel 'Teesta Parer Brittanto', died at a private hospital in Kolkata on Thursday, his family members said.

Roy was 84 and he is survived by his son. His wife had died earlier.

He was admitted to the hospital near his residence at Baguihati, in the eastern fringes of the city, on Wednesday after having symptoms like sodium potasium imbalance, sugar problem and breathing problem, his family members said.

He suffered a massive cardiac arrest and died at 10.50 PM.

A regular contributor to a number of Bengali dailies, he was a staunch critic of the attacks on liberals by in the country in recent times and attended protest meetings despite his failing health.

He was born in Pabna in present-day Bangladesh on December 17, 1936. He had five decades of career as a writer.

Besides Teesta Parer Britanta', he will be remembered for books like Borisaler Jogen Mondal , Manush Khun Kore Keno and Samay Asamayer Brittanto . His first book was Jajati.

His last rites will be performed tomorrow.

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