Juvenile Justice: Do We Want Retribution, Or Reformation
Children cannot be made to pay the price for the inefficiency of a system – clearly reflected in the poor implementation of the Juvenile Justice legislation. Strengthening the existing system through the effective implementation of the legislation should have been the call of the hour, rather than its amendment, writes Puja Marwaha, CEO, Child Rights and You (CRY)
In a clear indication of deepening polarization in the constitution drafting process in Nepal, 20 out of 31 parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA), on November 20, 2014, rejected the seven-province proposal of the ruling alliance - the Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML). The dissident parties alleged that the joint proposal was against the spirit of the Interim Constitution of 2007 and earlier peace agreements, including the 11-Point Agreement, 7-Point Agreement and 23-Point Agreement. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, who is also President of the ruling NC, and CPN-UML Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli, had jointly presented the seven-province proposal at a meeting of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) on November 3, 2014.
Dr. Rubina Khalid (55), a senior professor of the Dow University of Health Sciences and a Sunni, was shot dead by unidentified assailants on University Road in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, in the night of November 25, 2014. Police said it was still unclear whether the shooting was a robbery gone wrong or a targeted murder.
Since October 3, 2014, the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has witnessed the worst kind of Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) violations. It is worst since November 2003, when the CFA was signed between the two sides. There is a complete pandemonium at the India-Pakistan border in J&K- 190 kilometers long International Border (IB) and 776 kilometers long Line of Control (LoC). A hysterical media and many security pundits have described the situation as a virtual state of war between India and Pakistan, citing the apparently massive ordnance that the two sides have thrown at each other.
Why are they storms in your teacups?
"Why is there no storm in your ocean?" Maulana Aasim Umar, now designated as the leader of al Qaeda's jihad in the Indian sub-continent, had demanded of Indian Muslims in June 2013, "Today, when the call of Jihad is being raised all over the world and Muslims of every region have started Jihad in their lands to eradicate the system based on global disbelief, the leaders of the global Jihad have the right to ask... Why is it that the Muslims of India are totally absent from the fields of Jihad?"
Afghanistan: Daunting Task Ahead
The controversy surrounding the Afghan polls doesn't seem to end. The dangerous standoff between the two leading presidential candidates has fuelled concern that protests could spiral into ethnic unrest and may seriously hurt the stability of Afghanistan. At a time, when the Afghan security forces are already burdened with managing their internal security, with the imminent exit of ISAF forces, this doesn't augur well for the country embattling with terrorism and narcotics, fuelled by a resurgent Taliban.
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management On July 3, 2014, Security Forces (SFs) foiled an infiltration bid across the Line of Control (LoC), killing at least three terrorists. The incident took place in the Balnoi area of the Mendhar Sector in Poonch District, along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty/Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management On July 7, 2014,Security Forces (SFs) involved in the ongoing military operation, Zarb-e-Azb [Sword of the Prophet], in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), have so far killed a total of 391 alleged terrorists. 19 troopers have also lost their lives during the Operation that began at 01:30am [PST] on June 15, 2014. A total of 61 terrorist hideouts have been neutralized.
On June 25, 2014, a US State Department media note announced amendments to the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity designations of Lashkar e Toiba (LeT) to add the following aliases: Jama'at ud Dawa (JuD), Al-Anfal Trust, Tehrik e Hurmat e Rasool, and Tehrik e Tahafuz Qibla Awwal. In conjunction with these actions, the Department of the Treasury also designated two LeT senior members as SDGTs Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry and Muhammad Hussein Gill. Ahmad has been a senior leader of LeT since the early 2000s, and has served as its 'vice-president', and a member of its central leadership. Hussein Gill, one of the group's founders, has been an accountant for the LeT for more than ten years and, more specifically, has served as the outfit's 'chief financial officer' and headed its accounts department for several years.
Jammu & Kashmir: Malignant Spectre
On June 8, 2014, two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, including one 'divisional commander', identified as Bilal Ahmad Bhat alias Bilal Lelhari, and his associate, identified as Mudasir Sheikh, were killed by Security Forces (SFs) in the Reshipora village of Pulwama District in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
In a second incident of a counter-insurgency (CI) operational fatality of a senior Police officer in 2014, Superintendent of Police (SP) Nityananda Goswami of Hamren Police District in central Assam's Karbi Anglong Hill District and his Personal Security Officer (PSO), Ratul Nunisa, were killed in an ambush by suspected Karbi Peoples Liberation Tigers (KPLT) at Rongfu, the outfit's stronghold along the Assam-Meghalaya border, in the night of June 5, 2014.
Of Item numbers and Male Chauvinism
The inherent chauvinism, be it in the average Indian male, politician et al pops up in expected and sometimes unexpected, ways. Sometimes it sounds so absurd that is almost hilarious. Take for example, the comments by Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray comparing Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and now CM of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, as the ‘item girl’ of politics and that item number prima donna Rakhi Sawant would do a better of it in Delhi. In retaliation, AAP’s Maharashtra convener Anjali Damania suggested that Shiv Sena then should choose Sawant their CM candidate.