News24 Bureau New Delhi:As per the directives of the Indian government, hand-written passport of Indian citizen will no longer be valid from today. Government’s decision to discontinue hand-written passports comes as a part of the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to incorporate biometric data in the machine-readable travel documents. Earlier, the government had asked people with hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones, deadline for which had been set to November 24. The new machine-readable passports have been implemented as they offer greater protection against fraudulent practices and tampering.

US President Barack Obama pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey during the 68th annual presentation of the turkey in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington November 25, 2015. Reuters President Barack Obama sought to reassure Americans they were safe as millions of travelers set off for the long Thanksgiving weekend on Wednesday and authorities stepped up security at airports in response to the attacks in Paris two weeks ago. In New York City, record-breaking crowds were expected on Thursday for the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and Police Commissioner William Bratton said the city was deploying more officers at the annual event than ever before. “Right now, we know of no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland,”

Obama told reporters at the White House, two weeks after suspected Islamist militants killed 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks in the French capital. “We are taking every possible step to keep our homeland safe,” he said, flanked by his FBI director and other top security officials on the day before Thanksgiving, when many Americans travel to be with their extended families for a traditional turkey dinner. Nearly 46.9 million Americans will travel over the long Thanksgiving weekend – the busiest US travel holiday of the year – with 3.6 million going by plane, according to the AAA, a motorist advocacy group. Most US airports reported flights delays of less than 15 minutes, according to tracking websites. Passengers at airports from Washington to New York said they saw heavier than normal security, but that travel was flowing smoothly. Americans have become more concerned about threats since the Paris attacks and now identify terrorism as the most important problem facing the nation, Reuters-Ipsos polling shows. “We have to live our lives right? We’re having a good time. We did a cruise and now we’re doing New York City,” said Karen Damaschino, 47, of San Francisco after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport to spend the holiday in New York. The US response to Islamic State has become a top issue in the race to succeed Obama in the November 2016 presidential election.

In his statement, Obama tried to allay Americans’ concerns. “I know that families have discussed their fears about the threat of terrorism around the dinner table, many for the first time since September 11th,” he said, referring to the 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on New York and Washington. But he told Americans they should “go about their usual Thanksgiving weekend activities” while remaining vigilant to any suspicious activities. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio echoed that sentiment at a news conference on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where crews were inflating the giant balloons that highlight the Macy’s parade, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. “One thing I always say, there are some people trying to intimidate New Yorkers. Well, New Yorkers don’t get intimidated,” he said. “They’ll be out tomorrow in droves.” Stay vigilant To underscore Obama’s message, his Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a photo op at Washington’s Union Station just before boarding an Amtrak train to Newark, NJ, on the heavily traveled Northeast corridor, en route home for the holiday “It should be obvious to the public that there is a heightened presence” of law enforcement officers at train stations, airports and other public places, Johnson said.

“We are working overtime to protect the homeland.” Some travel analysts expected airport delays as a result of heightened security. But at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one of the country’s busiest, Kirsten Bohling, 27, said she was pleasantly surprised by how painless her check-in went. “Lines are way shorter than I thought they would be and moving 10 times faster than I thought,” she said. “I think they were really really prepared.” The FBI sent a bulletin earlier this week to police departments across the country warning of possible copycat incidents after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks and sharing intelligence on how the attacks were carried out. The US State Department also issued a worldwide travel alert on Monday warning American travelers to remain vigilant, particularly when visiting foreign countries. As many as 3.5 million people were expected to line the 2.5-mile (4 km) route of the Macy’s parade in New York, according to organizers. City officials have made numerous public appearances in recent days seeking to reassure New Yorkers and tourists.

Mumbai, Nov 26 (IANS) The heroes and victims of the 26/11 terror attacks that left 166 people, including 28 foreigners, dead were solemnly remembered at various commemorative events held here on Thursday. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis led the main commemoration at the 26/11 memorial in the Police Gymkhana on Thursday morning, along with his cabinet colleagues and senior police officers. He paid homage to the policemen who lost their lives during the 60-hour long operation that began on the night of November 26, 2008 when 10 Pakistani gunmen laid siege to south Mumbai. Besides Fadnavis, DGP Pravin Dixit, Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed and other police officials, families of the martyrs and others who were killed in action were present.

Similar memorial services are being held during the day at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, Cama Hospital and at Girgaum Chowpatty where braveheart Tukaram Ombale was killed while helping nab one of the terrorists – M. Ajmal Kasab – alive early on November 27. To mark the seventh anniversary, Mumbai Congress president and a local municipal corporator named a square after home guards officer, Mukesh Jadhav, who fell to a terrorist’s bullet near St. George Hospital on 26/11. Jadhav, 23, was on patrol duty between the main and local railway lines at CST when he suddenly came face-to-face with one of the terrorists who shot him in the chest. Despite being shot, he stumbled to inform the police about the attacks which resulted in saving lives of hundreds of unaware commuters.

On Wednesday evening, as part of the Global Peace Initiative, celebrities joined a Walk For Peace along with children in central Mumbai and paid homage to the heroes and victims of the 26/11 attacks. Ten Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai from the Arabian Sea late evening on November 26, 2008 and targeted 12-odd prime locations in south Mumbai spread barely over a five-km area and created mayhem for 60 hours. The targets were: Colaba, CST, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, Hotel Trident Oberoi, near Metro Cinema, Cama and Albless Hospital, behind the BMC headquarters, Mazagaon Docks area, a taxi bomb near Vile Parle, and at Girgaum Chowpatty. Among the security officials martyred in gunfights with the terrorists included then ATS chief Hemant Karkare, shootout specialist Vijay Salaskar, Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte, API Tukaram Ombale, Senior Inspector Shashank Shinde, commandos Major Sanjeep Unnikrishnan and Gajendra Singh, a trooper, both of the elite NSG.

Now Mumbai Police act 1951 section 110 has been abolished. The Mumbai police which had come into heavy controversy where under moral policing they had made random raids at Madh islands in a hotel. In a major embarrassment they has lined up 40 couples from the hotel.

Couples moving around isolated areas have been harassed many time by Mumbai cops. It is the right of any citizen to move around anywhere provided he does not create public nuisance.

The ex commissioner of Police Mr. Rakesh Maria had issued a strict orders to not punish people in public places. In spite of this order the raids continued and young couple were paranoid with such acts of the Police.

A teenage girl who ran away from her Vienna home to join Isis in Syria has reportedly been beaten to death by the group after trying to escape.

Samra Kesinovic, 17, travelled to Syria last year with her friend Sabina Selimovic, 15.

The two became a ‘poster girl’ for Isis, also known as Islamic State, appearing on social media websites in images showing them carrying Kalashnikovs and surrounded by armed men.

But by October that year there were reports quoting friends of the two women saying Ms Kesinovic had been sickened by the killings she witnessed and wanted to come home.

According to local Austrian media Ms Kesinovic was murdered by the group as she tried to flee the Isis stronghold of Raqqa.

One report quotes an “insider”, an unnamed Tunisian woman who reportedly also travelled to Syria to join Isis lived with the two girls while in Raqqa, but later returned home.

The Austrian foreign and interiror ministries declined to confirm the reports.

A report last year by David Scharia, a UN counter-terrorism expert, that a 15-year-old girl of Bosnian origin from Austria who had joined Isis had “disappeared” is now thought to refer to Ms Kesinovic.

READ MORE
Richard Dawkins makes Ahmed Mohamed and Isis-forced child comparison
Mr Scharia said: “We received information just recently about two 15-year-old girls, of Bosnian origin, who left Austria, where they had been living in recent years …one was killed in the fighting in Syria, the other has disappeared.”

Both Ms Kesinovic and Ms Selimovic were children of Bosnian refugees who fled to Austria in the nineties to escape the war in their country.

In April 2014 the two travelled, via Turkey, to Syria where it is believed they both married Jihadists.

The Austrian authorities have accused a Vienna-based Bosnian Islamic preacher known as Abu Tejda – named as Mirsad O under Austrian privacy laws – of recruiting the woman.

He denies the accusation.

Patriotism paradox: NRIs chasing wealth abroad are heroes, Indians fleeing hate are traitors
It’s okay for the prime minister to be celebrated by a stadium full of British citizens who believe India is too filthy and corrupt to live in. It isn’t okay for an Indian to say that his family feels vulnerable as a religious minority.

Aamir Khan and his wife, Kiran Rao are not the only ones to have wondered if they should leave the country because they feel vulnerable and worried for their child’s future, because of the religious nationalism and the bigotry that attends it. But they are perhaps the only ones with a public profile to say this out loud.

Over the last two decades, cycles of communal violence and freely expressed religious chauvinism have made many people wonder the same thing. Since the early 1990s, I have seen friends and acquaintances deal with this dilemma: should they stay in India which is home or should they up sticks, and try and make good in a foreign country so their children do not have to live surrounded by suspicion and hate?

The decision not to leave home has meant that over the last 20 years families have had to protect their children from a society that is increasingly divided and strident with its prejudices, without letting them lose their sense of belonging in their own country because they feel vulnerable as members of a religious minority.

From explaining why prospective landlords refuse to rent once they find out the family is Muslim, battling school teachers (even at some of Delhi’s poshest schools) who assume that a child supports terrorism and the Pakistan cricket team because she is a Muslim, attacks on meat shops and meat eaters, to politicians who assert that India is a Hindu nation, there is a minefield of prejudice that parents have to teach their children to negotiate.

Skipping out

Unlike the Indians who contemplate leaving because they are made to feel vulnerable by prejudice fed on an ideology of religious nationalism, folk from Gujarat and Punjab have been fleeing the country for decades, by means fair or foul. India, they say, is not worth living in and does not offer them opportunities to fulfill their potential. People are so desperate to leave these two very prosperous states that families voluntarily suffer long-term separations or bankruptcy in the hope that eventually an entire extended family will be able to immigrate to the US, Canada, the UK or just anywhere in Europe.

On a flight out of the country earlier this year, the soft-spoken gent in the seat next to mine with a perfectly tied turban turned out to be a recently retired Indian army soldier en route to Canada where he hoped to make a new life. He was travelling on a three-month tourist visa leaving behind a wife and school going children, and agricultural land in Punjab. His plan was to overstay his visa firm in the belief that in a couple of years Canada would magnanimously convert him from illegal immigrant to valued citizen and reunite him with his family. The risk that this might not happen was one he felt was worth taking to secure his children’s future outside India. Many who hope to make this journey in Punjab have stickers on their cars of aircraft in flight with an arrow pointing to Toronto or Vancouver.

In London, I frequently met Gujaratis, some of them distant kinsman from Gujarat’s prosperous Kheda region, who had arrived leaving not unhappy situations. These were people of means – with homes or irrigated agricultural land or assets in other forms. They usually had some education and had been employed. The ones who had not got visas, had borrowed cast sums to pay human traffickers to transport them via four or five different countries on boats, trucks and aircraft. They said that a few years of working on low wages under the radar would give them and their children a better life.

Wembley jamboree

These former Indians, who have fled the country in search of greater prosperity, are lionised. No one questions their love for the country. They are “overseas citizens of India”. Many of them will have been in Wembley stadium on November 13 to cheer Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Aamir Khan and his wife also want a better life for their child. The difference is that, for them, a better life means not feeling vulnerable as a religious or cultural minority. People, politicians and fellow actors unhappy with what Aamir Khan has said have asked him to stay and fight to prove that he is a true patriot, accused him of being part of a conspiracy against the nation or to go to Saudi Arabia

What Aamir Khan’s critics are saying is that it’s okay for the prime minister to celebrate and be celebrated by a stadium full of British citizens who believe India is too filthy, corrupt and poor to live in, but that it’s not okay for an Indian to say that he and his family feel vulnerable as a religious or cultural minority. That it’s okay to want more money, or other forms of fulfillment with citizenship of another country, but its not okay for an Indian to wonder, in desperation, if he should leave because he wants a life for his child that’s free of fear and religious hate.

Their message is simple: It is laudable to want to prosper materially, but it is un-Indian and anti-national to want your child not to live with religious bigotry and cultural violence.

By: Anjali Mody

News24 Bureau New Delhi:Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan faced flak from BJP leaders for his remarks on intolerance in the country, with the members of the saffron party linking his statement to a “deep political controversy”. Union minister Kiren Rijju said that Khan’s comment tarnish the image of the nation, while BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that ‘Incredible India’ is a tolerant nation and one view does not change that, the Economic Timeswrote. BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain unleashed a counter attack on Khan saying, “Where will Aamir and his family go other than India? There is no other better country like India and no better neighbour than a Hindu for an Indian Muslim. What is the situation in Muslim countries and Europe. There is intolerance everywhere.” Aamir was however defended in equal measure by Congress and some other political parties, which said that the government should not brand its critics as unpatriotic and threaten them for “speaking the
truth”.

Shielding him from the attack, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said the government should instead of branding all those who question it and the Prime Minister as “unpatriotic, anti national or motivated” reach out to people to understand what’s disturbing them. “That’s the way to solve problems in India- not by bullying, threatening & abusing!” Gandhi said, a view that was shared by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury.

(25 Nov) Turkey and Russia have long been at loggerheads over the Syrian conflict, with Ankara seeking Assad’s overthrow while Moscow does everything to keep him in power. Ankara : NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on the Syrian border on Tuesday, an act President Vladimir Putin denounced as a “stab in the back” by “accomplices of terrorists” as tensions spiraled between the two rival players in the Syria war. The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet was shot down by Turkish F-16 fighter planes after it allegedly violated the country’s air space and ignored ‘ten warnings in the space of five minutes’, army officials said. The assertion was backed up by Turkey’s NATO ally the United States. However, Russia’s Ministry of Defence claims the jet was in Syrian airspace, and was shot down from the ground. Turkey has called an extraordinary meeting of NATO while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had scrapped a planned trip to Turkey aimed at narrowing differences on the By
Syria conflict.

Turkish television pictures showed the Su-24 exploding and crashing in a ball of flames into a Syrian mountain and two pilots parachuting to the ground after ejecting. Their fate was uncertain, with reports that one had been killed. The incident was the first of its kind since Russia launched air strikes in Syria in September in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, causing concern in the West over a possible clash with US-led coalition planes also in the skies. Footage reportedly filmed by rebels in Syria’s Turko-men Mountains, an area which has been the cause of recent tensions between Turkey and Russia, shows local fighters cheer as they uncover the body of one of the Russian pilots. The men can be seen surrounding the corpse of the pilot, wearing Russian military fatigues, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’ Putin branded the shooting down of the aircraft as a “stab in the back by accomplices of terrorists”. He said oil from jihadist-controlled territory was being exported through Turkey while funds were flowing back, and warned: “The tragic event will have serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations.” Putin said the plane fell in Syrian territory four km from the border and “did not in any way threaten Turkey”. The Turkish army said the downing took place over the Hatay province on the border with Syria. “The plane violated Turkish air space 10 times in five minutes despite warnings,” it said in a statement, adding that it was shot down “according to the rules of engagement”. Its version was backed up by the US military which said Turkish pilots had issued 10 warnings without response. Russia summoned the Turkish military attache in Moscow while Ankara summoned Moscow’s charge d’affaires to the foreign ministry. “Everyone must know that it is our international right and national duty to take any measure against whoever violates our air or land borders,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

The incident came as Russian and Syrian jets are waging a heavy bombing campaign against targets in northern Syria while the US-led coalition continues its own air strikes. Turkey has expressed anger at the operation, saying it is aimed at buttressing the Syrian regime and has displaced thousands of Turkmen Syrians, an ethnic minority in the area and strong allies of Ankara. Russia however insists its strikes are aimed against Islamic State jihadists. European Union President Donald Tusk warned of a “dangerous moment”, saying “all should remain cool headed and calm.” Turkey and Russia have long been at loggerheads over the Syrian conflict, with Ankara seeking Assad’s overthrow while Moscow does everything to keep him in power. The Turkish military in October also shot down a Russian-made drone that had entered its airspace. But Moscow denied the drone belonged to its forces. The shoot down occurred as Russia and the West were slowly edging toward some manner of understanding to unite forces to confront the Islamic State in the wake of the bloody terrorist attacks in Paris and the downing of a Russian charter flight over Egypt that combined killed 354 people. There is a lot of oil coming to Turkey from ISIS territory. And some of these military groups get their financing from there. And now they stab us in the back; they hit our planes that are fighting terrorism.

(25 Nov) On early hours of Wednesday, a group of terrorists attacked an army post at Tangdhar near LoC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district. More than 3 militants, and they are most probably fidayeens -Ajaz Ahmed,SSP Kupwara. . An army officer and a civilian killed in the operation. The official said it was not yet clear whether the militants were part of infiltrating group. “That is a matter of investigation. We can comment on it only after the operation is over,” he added. Tangdhar sector is close to the LoC in Kupwara district and has been used as an infiltration route in the past.

The official said the militants seem to be heavily armed as they used small fire arms and UBGLs to carry out the attack. Army official said, there was a brief lull before the militants opened fire again, triggering off a gunbattle, which was going on till last reports came in. No casualties have been reported so far. “There was a stand off fire from Kalsuri Ridge (in Tangdhar sector) towards an army camp this morning,” an army official said. Militants attacked using small arms and under barrel grenade launchers. More reinforcements have been sent towards the area. Officials said that two to three militants attacked an army camp of 1/3 GR at Kalsuri. A senior officer said some militants have been seen near the camp. Army’s Quick Action Team Responded the attack. Unidentified militants attacked an army camp near the Line of Control in Tanghdar in Kupwara sector. Heavy firing and blasts are going near the camp.