blogger news: Islamic State Claims Attack on Bus in Karachi in W...

blogger news: Islamic State Claims Attack on Bus in Karachi in W...: Karachi / Beirut:  The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsiblity for an attack by gunmen on a bus th...

Islamic State Claims Attack on Bus in Karachi in Which At Least 40 Were Killed

Karachi / Beirut:  The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsiblity for an attack by gunmen on a bus that killed at least 43 Shiites in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi.

"Thanks be to Allah, 43 apostates were killed and around 30 were wounded in an attack carried out by Islamic State soldiers on a bus transporting Shiite Ismaili infidels in the city of Karachi," the extremist group said in a statement posted on jihadist Twitter accounts.

It was the first official claim of responsibility by the IS leadership of an attack in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

IS, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, announced in January the creation of a branch in what it called "Khorasan province", encompassing Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of surrounding countries.

Gunmen on motorcycles boarded a bus and opened fire on commuters this morning, in the latest attack directed against religious minorities this year.

The pink bus was pockmarked with bullet holes and blood saturated the seats and dripped out of the doors on to the concrete.

"As the gunmen climbed on to the bus, one of them shouted, 'Kill them all!' Then they started indiscriminately firing at everyone they saw," a wounded woman told a television channel by phone.

Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters there were six gunmen and that all the passengers were Ismailis, a minority Shi'ite Muslim sect. Pakistan is mostly Sunni.

At least 43 people had been killed and 13 wounded, provincial police chief Ghulam Haider Jamali told media.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was saddened by the attack.

"This is a very patriotic and peaceful people who have always worked for the wellbeing of Pakistan," he said. "This is an attempt to spread divisions in the country."

English leaflets left in the bus were headlined "Advent of the Islamic State!" and used a derogatory Arabic word for Shi'ites, blaming them for "barbaric atrocities ... in the Levant, Iraq and Yemen".

The leaflets also blamed Shi'ites for a deadly sectarian attack in Rawalpindi, next to the capital Islamabad, and raged against extrajudicial killings by police.
 

blogger news: It's My Home, I'll Help Fix It: Facebook Post on M...

blogger news: It's My Home, I'll Help Fix It: Facebook Post on M...: A post on Facebook by a 20-year-old who spent her childhood in a red-light district in Mumbai is going viral. It was shared more than ...

It's My Home, I'll Help Fix It: Facebook Post on Mumbai's Red Light District

A post on Facebook by a 20-year-old who spent her childhood in a red-light district in Mumbai is going viral. It was shared more than 1500 times within an hour of being posted at 7 pm.

"I've grown up in a red light area, surrounded by the flesh trade all my life. At 12, I've been asked for my 'rate' and cried myself to sleep because I didn't understand it. But you want to know what's worse? It's that the men who came to ask would all be from the 'upper class' as you call it with shiny cars and the perception that they could 'buy' anything," she writes in the post on the Facebook page of Humans Of Bombay which says its mission is to "catalog the beat of the city."

Her photo accompanies her short blog; her name does not. She has been the focus of media attention for her earlier accomplishments, some of which she refers to on Facebook.

She says Kranti, an NGO, helped her study Liberal Arts at a US College. "Through Kranti's efforts I got a full scholarship ..we crowd sourced the rest of the money for my accomodation and day to day expenses and my life has just turned around," she says.

She knows exactly what she wants to do next - "I speak fluent English and have amazing entrepreneurial ideas to make a difference to my home...to Kamathipura."

She ends her piece with this powerful message: "Yes, open your mind about my home. ...as Indians, we need to judge less and accept things that are not always in our comfort zone, because my background is not my weakness...I'm me, and no location can define who I am."

 

"I've grown up in a red light area, surrounded by the flesh trade all my life. At 12, I've been asked for my 'rate' and...

blogger news: Rahul Gandhi Repeats 'Suit-Boot' Charge. BJP's Com...

blogger news: Rahul Gandhi Repeats 'Suit-Boot' Charge. BJP's Com...: New Delhi:  Rahul Gandhi has been liberally using the phrase "suit-boot ki sarkaar", praised by his par...

Rahul Gandhi Repeats 'Suit-Boot' Charge. BJP's Comeback: 'Jijaji'

New Delhi:  Rahul Gandhi has been liberally using the phrase "suit-boot ki sarkaar", praised by his party as one of his greatest hits. Three weeks ago, speaking in Parliament, Mr Gandhi deployed the term to accuse the government of being in thrall to industrialists. Today, as a variation, the Congress Vice-President offered, "Yeh suit-boot ka kaam nahi chalne dengey (this service of the elite will not be accepted)" to declare war on the government's land reforms. "This thievery of farmers' land will not be allowed," he said, declaring that his party will fight the new land rules in Parliament and "on the streets, if needed."

A biting comeback followed seconds later from a BJP law-maker in the Lok Sabha. "You are talking of suit-boot," said Dilip Singh Bhuria, who represents Madhya Pradesh in Parliament, "what about jijaji (brother-in-law)?" Later, speaking to NDTV, union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal added, "When Rahul Gandhi talks about 'thieves in suits', he is talking about his brother-in-law... Robert Vadra is always suited-booted and he robs farmers."

Entrepreneur Robert Vadra is married to Mr Gandhi's sister, Priyanka, and allegedly got sweetheart land deals in Haryana when the Congress party was in power.

The windfall profit that was conferred on Mr Vadra through these deals was turned into a headline of the BJP's campaign for last year's state election, which the party won.

Mr Gandhi's clunky timing for a two-month vacation left his party fumbling for an explanation during the first half of this parliament session. However, since his return, he has led the Congress effort to discredit the government's land reforms.

In 2013, the Congress-led government introduced new laws on how to acquire farmland for industrial and infrastructure projects. The Modi administration has revised those, alleging that the changes are necessary to build modern cities and industrial corridors crisscrossing India. But opposition parties have successfully portrayed the proposed, including exemption from getting consent of 80 percent of landowners for some projects, as anti-farmer.

blogger news: Jayalalithaa's Acquittal Based on Deeply Flawed Ma...

blogger news: Jayalalithaa's Acquittal Based on Deeply Flawed Ma...: Bengaluru:  The decision to declare J Jayalalithaa not guilty in a corruption case may have been based on deeply ...