Screening of `Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya' stopped; 5-year-old raped in Cuttack VHP office; Delhi cinema blasts: two Babbar Khalsa militants arrested; 7/7 bomber lived in Osama's house near Lahore; 40 confirmed dead in Nepal ferry accident; Lakshmi Mittal steels into China; Headmaster shields students from evil Harry Potter; Pink Floyd guitarist creates 'operatic history'; Bill Gates is clueless about burqas; Oscars rules tightened to ensure fairplay; Osbourne's home may turn tourist Mecca; Rod found God, claims Penny Lancaster;India Travel Times, Indian News, Tourism, Hotels, Airlines, Tour, Travel, Ayurveda, Yoga, Festival, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Kathakali, Dance,

Home Contact Us Dateline New Delhi, Friday, July 15, 2005

Screening of `Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya' stopped

Mumbai: Film censors and officials in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, have stopped the screening of Salman Khan starrer `Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya' following demonstrations by Bajrang Dal activists against his alleged links with the underworld. Though no loss or damage to theatres was reported from any area, the screening of the first show of the movie featuring Khan was deferred in Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior after protests. According to A.K.Soni, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order), Madhya Pradesh, cinema hall owners and distributors voluntarily withdrew the screening of the film fearing violence. Though most of the tickets were booked in advance, the crowd turnout at the theatres was bleak, as activists shouted slogans, tore posters and burnt effigies of Khan in front of the cinema halls. Security was beefed up in all cities in the state and senior officials were keeping a close watch over the situation.

Friday's protest followed the exposure in audio tapes of a conversation purpotedly between Khan and actress Aishwarya Rai in which he flaunted his links with the Mumbai underworld, Soni said. In Indore, right-wing activists also forced cinema hall owners to stop the screening of the film. Protests took place before five cinema halls namely Regal Talkies, Velocity, Kastur, Astha and Jyoti. Security was strengthened around the cinema halls as a precautionary measure, police added. In Gujarat, a similar exercise was undertaken in several theatres and a multiplex in Ahmedabad and in Bharuch district, as VHP and Bajrang Dal activists protested Khan's alleged links with the underworld. Uproarious scenes were witnessed outside the City Gold multiplex and Shalimar Talkies in Bharuch district, forcing the management to withdraw the screening of the movie. The management of two other multiplexes on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway also downed their shutters and removed posters of 'Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya'. Screening of the movie was stopped halfway in the multiplex Wide Angle after Bajrang Dal activists began protesting outside and prompting the management to reimburse those who had purchased tickets. In Pune, agitating BJP Yuva Morcha activists forced many cinema halls in the city to cancel the showing of the film. BJP's Yuva Morcha activists tore posters of the Hindi film at Vasant, City Pride and Rahul cinema halls, and held demonstrations against the actor for his alleged connections with the underworld. When the agitators went to multi-plex E-square, a large posse of policemen was already posted there to prevent them from disrupting the film.

5-year-old raped in Cuttack VHP office (Go To Top)

Cuttack: A five year old girl was allegedly raped inside the Vishwa Hindu Parishad state Headquarters in Cuttack on Wednesday. The accused, a cook employed in the VHP office managed to flee, after the mother of the victim raised an alarm. The minor, Manapriya was playing inside the VHP office premises situated at College Square, when the cook, a tribal named Mangal Oram lured her inside the kitchen and allegedly raped her. The girl's mother rushed to the place after hearing the girl's plea for help but Mangal managed to escape in the ensuing commotion. "When my daughter came back from school, I was cooking and asked her to play in the office premises. The cook Mangal Oram called the child inside. I heard her screaming and rushed inside but the crime had been commited by then. How could nobody in the office came to know about the incident," said Sushama Mallick, mother of the accused. The girl's family hailing from Pattamundai near Cuttack, earns its livelihood from daily wages. The incident assumed a political colour when the opposition the Congress, the CPI and the CPM gheraoed the Cuttack Collectorate demanding action against the accused. " We demand that the girl get justice irrespevtive of fact that the accused is a VHP worker or not. The rape inside the office. The leaders in Delhi like Togadia say that they will save the Hindus, is this how they save the religion," said Suresh Mahapatra, Congress District President, Cuttack.

Delhi cinema blasts: two Babbar Khalsa militants arrested (Go To Top)

New Delhi: Delhi Police have arrested two more Babbar Khalsa militants in connection with the May 22 twin cinema hall blasts in which one person was dead and over 50 injured. "Dilbagh Singh and Surinder Singh were arrested from Old Delhi railway station on Thursday night by the Crime Branch," said Tajendra Luthra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime). The blasts took place on May 22 this year inside the Liberty theatre and at Satyam complex in west Delhi, both screening the controversial Sunny Deol-starrer film "Jo Bole So Nihaal". Delhi Police had arrested three Babbar Khalsa militants in connection with the twin cinema hall blasts in the capital on July 6 and recovered 2.5 kgs of RDX and 10 detonators from them. Bishan Lal, Joginder and Ajit Raj were arrested in Jammu on the basis of disclosures of Jaspal Singh, the main accused in the bomb blast. The trio were belived to be smugglers and suppliers of arms and had allegedly provided explosives and weapons to Jaspal and his associates. The explosions, which happened in short intervals after 8 pm, on May 22, prompted the police to declare a state of high alert and tighten security at Delhi's borders while the distributors rushed to pull out the movie from theatres. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and various Sikh organisations were protesting against the movie, claiming that Jo bole so nihal was a phrase which could be used only inside a gurdwara or on the battlefield. The SGPC, the supreme religious body of the Sikhs, went a step ahead and insisted that the role of a Sikh character should be played by a Sikh, preferably an Amritdhari Sikh. While there were protests on the day the movie was released, the twin blasts shocked the administration and police. Forensic experts who examined the site said the explosions could have been caused by improvised explosive devices, the one at Liberty being the more powerful one. The theatres are located less than five kilometres from each other-Liberty in Dev Nagar and Satyam in West Patel Nagar.

7/7 bomber lived in Osama's house near Lahore (Go To Top)

London: Shehzad Tanweer, one of the four suspected suicide bombers behind the 7/7 London serial blasts, is said to have lived in the house of Osama bin Laden, located nearly 30 miles from Lahore. According to The Mirror, Tanweer spent time at Markaz-e-Dawa, a madarasa in north Pakistan where Osama lived until he went on the run in the early 1990s. "It appears Tanweer spent some time at Markaz-e-Dawa and at another militant seminary in the city," the paper quoted a source as saying. The paper further said that at the madarasa, Shehzad might have fallen into the clutches of Jaish-i-Muhammad (JeM), a radical Islamic group behind dozens of suicide attacks, both in and outside Pakistan. The fundamentalist group is banned in Pakistan, but it still operates under the cover of a madrassa. The madarasa turns out religious fanatics and preaches a message of hate against the West. It contains a mosque, an iron foundry, a garment factory, a woodworking centre, three residences for recruits, and 30 schools, and also a computer centre. Quoting intelligence experts, the report said that besides teaching the Quran, the madarasa also runs a 21-day course covering assassinations and bombs. "Thousands of people assemble there during recruitment rallies. The importance of jihad is drummed in and emotional speeches and rhetoric move people to tears and frenzied chanting," Maj. Gen. Afsir Karim is said to have written in the Asian Journal on International Terrorism. He alleged that some students even get specialised instruction in sabotage. The paper said that most of the world's terrorist leaders visit the school. Ramzi Yousef, who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, also stayed at this madarasa, it added.

40 confirmed dead in Nepal ferry accident (Go To Top)

Kathmandu: Twenty-seven more bodies have been recovered from a ferry boat that capsized in the flooded Banganga river in southwestern Nepal, bringing the death toll to 40, police said on Friday. Fifty-six passengers are still missing, the police said. Only 10 managed to swim to safety, they added. The accident occurred on Thursday at Bardighat in Kapilbastu district, about 265 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu.

Lakshmi Mittal steels into China (Go To Top)

Sydney: Mittal Steel, the world's largest steel manufacturer has reportedly acquired a 37 percent stake of the state owned steel Valin Iron and Steel mill in China. The Sydney Morning Herald quoting a report in Xinhua, said that the Chinese government has also reportedly approved the 337 million dollars purchase of the mill in the country's Hunan province. While Mittal Steel, based in Rotterdam, Holland was formed last year by the consolidation of two companies, Lakshmi N Mittal's - Ispat International NV and LNM Holdings NV, Valin Iron and Steel is a subsidiary of state-owned Valin Group. Valin Group, formed in 1997 has shares traded on the stock exchange in the southern Chinese financial centre of Shenzhen, and claims to have an annual steel production capacity of 8.5 million tons, the report adds.

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