Director bashes Malayalam actor for supporting Lakshadweep
Date: 25 May 2021
Malayalam director John Ditto heavily criticized actor Prithviraj Sukumaran, who had recently expressed his support for the people of Lakshadweep. The residents of the island area, 99% of whom are Muslim, are under the fear of new laws that threaten to completely unroot their lives. ‘You know that cinema won’t survive without the green money of jihadis. You are aware of the unholy nexus between gold smuggling and terrorism. Everyone in the cinema industry knows that your love for Variyamkunnath and Lakshadweep stems from this reason,” the director alleged. He also accused Prithviraj of supporting “Islamic terrorism”.
Sources:
https://www.eastcoastdaily.com/movie/2021/05/25/director-john-ditto-against-prithviraj/
Irfan Pathan receives flak for wife’s picture
Date: 25 May 2021
After cricketer Irfan Pathan’s son posted a picture of his family where his mother’s face had been edited to hide part of it, several users alleged that Pathan does not allow his wife to show her face. To this, the 36-year-old clarified that it is his wife’s choice to blur her face and said “I’m her mate not her master”
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/irfan.pathan.585112/posts/3808290292631024
Before Demolition of Barabanki Mosque, Wave of Arrests Spread Fear, Scuttled Protests
Date: 19 May 2021
On Monday, May 17, a mosque in the central Uttar Pradesh town of Barabanki was demolished by the administration in defiance of an order of the Allahabad high court. The Gareeb Nawaz Al Maroof Mosque had been around for at least six decades, according to electricity bills held by its committee members, and was registered with the UP Sunni Waqf Board. “They demolished our century-old mosque. Thousands of people used to offer namaz (prayer) here,” Maulana Abdul Mustafa, a mosque committee member, told The Wire. On March 20, a day after protests broke out against the administration’s plan to demolish a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki, 180 people were booked under serious charges, including attempt to murder. Everyone named in the FIR is Muslim. It is important to note that in FIR 89 – the main FIR, which named 22 people and charged another 150 “unnamed” – 16 named and several of the unnamed accused were granted bail in a district court on April 12. Around six additional FIRs were filed in relation to this and roughly 30 people are still in jail, locals said. On April 11, nearly three weeks later, Barabanki police also arrested one Ishtiyaq alias Sonu in this case under the National Security Act (NSA), considered to be a draconian law often used to target dissenters. An official press release by the police on the matter said that he was arrested in a mission against criminals in the district. “On April 11, the administration took action against a dreaded criminal Mohammad Ishtiyaq, son of Mohammad Iliyas…who had attacked and attempted to murder police force on March 19.” Five weeks later, the mosque was demolished with the administration claiming the mosque’s supporters “ran away” and chose not to contest the demolition order.
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