India

Itanagar, Dec 10 (PTI) Normal life came to a halt in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday due to the 11-hour North East bandh called by NESO in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday night.

Educational institutions, banks, commercial establishments and markets were closed while public and private vehicles were off the road in the state in response to the bandh called by the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), a constituent of North East Students' Union.

Shillong, Dec 10 (PTI) Normal life was affected in Meghalaya on Tuesday due a statewide called by the Khasi Students Union (KSU), a constituent of the NESO, to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Shops, markets and business establishments kept shutters down, while educational and financial institutions remained closed for the day, officials said.

Government offices were open but recorded less than 10 per cent attendance, they said.

Agartala, Dec 10 (PTI) Agitators participating in a bandh called by NESO against the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha set a market, where shops were owned mostly by non-tribals, on fire in Tripura's Dhalai district on Tuesday, police said.

However, no one was injured in the incident and the blaze at Manughat market was doused, a senior police officer said.

Panaji, Dec 10 (PTI) The Goa Congress women's wing on Tuesday said capital punishment was the only way to curb crimes like rape in the country.

It supported Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remark that India was now known as "rape capital" of the world.

The recent trend of rapes and killings of innocent victims clearly reflects what Gandhi has stated, Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee president Pratima Coutinho said.

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) One of the convicts in the December, 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-and-murder case, who was lodged in the Mandoli Jail here, has been shifted to Tihar, jail officials said on Tuesday.

Pawan Kumar Gupta, who was lodged in the Mandoli Jail, was shifted to Tihar recently, Director General (Prison) Sandeep Goel said.

Srinagar, Dec 10 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed the detention of two people under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA), officials said on Tuesday.

Justice Ali Mohammad Magray passed orders, quashing the detention under the PSA of Mohammad Ashraf Ganaie of Sopore and Imtiyaz Pahloo of Srinagar, on Monday, the officials said.

While Ganaie was detained under the PSA for his alleged involvement in timber smuggling, Pahloo was detained under the controversial law for his alleged involvement in stone-pelting incidents, they said.

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) The BJP is confident of the passage of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha which will be introduced in the upper house on Wednesday, sources said on Tuesday.

The bill piloted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah was comfortably passed in the Lok Sabha on late Monday night as the ruling BJP enjoys a clear majority in the house.

Sources in the party said that the legislation will also sail through the Rajya Sabha as the ruling NDA has the numbers.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A federal panel on religion has urged the United States to weigh sanctions against India’s Home Minister Amit Shah if the south Asian nation adopts legislation to exclude Muslims from a path to citizenship for religious minorities from its neighbors.

Shah is a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist-led government is seen by critics as pushing an agenda that undermines the secular foundations of India’s democracy.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — For years Romi Jan’s mornings would begin with the plaintive call to prayer that rang out from the central mosque in disputed Kashmir’s largest city. The voice soothed her soul and made her feel closer to God.

Not anymore. For nearly four months now, the voice that would call out five times a day from the minarets of the Jamia Masjid and echo across Srinagar has been silent, a result of India’s ongoing security operations in this Muslim-majority region.

Following text was released by USCIRF yesterday;

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December 9, 2019