Haridwar December 24
Muslim girls in Haridwar today offered prayers for the well being of the Delhi gang-rape victim. They also demanded stricter laws for dealing with such heinous crimes.

A special prayer was organised at Darulum Rashidiya Madarsa Idgah, Jwalapur, where under the guidance of clerics, young girls prayed for the fast recovery and sound health of the victim.

Cleric Maulana Aarif, while condemning the rape incident, demanded sterner laws as prevalent in foreign countries like Saudi Arabia, Germany and the United Kingdom. He added while stricter legal provisions were needed to be introduced, ethics-based moral teaching should be imparted in all schools.

“The fear of God and the fear of the law are required to keep a check on criminals. Society is facing the repercussions of degradation of moral values, which can only be restored with moral-based education,” said Aarif.

The young girls also staged a symbolic protest carrying placards demanding justice for the victim, who is recuperating in a Delhi hospital.

Rubina, Ayisha, Tanjeema and Iram, all students of a madrassa, said they prayed to the Almighty to bestow good health on the Delhi girl and offered namaz at the idgah. 

Dehradun, December 24
Social activists today strongly condemned the lathi charge carried out by the Delhi Police on the protesters demanding justice for the gang-rape victim.

“We condemn the brutal crackdown by the police on the protesters who were only demanding action from the government. The peaceful protesters were the ones who moved the government to act and the police should have practised restraint,” said Ramindri Mandarwal, District Protection Officer.

The social activists have demanded an inquiry into the lathi charge. “Attempts are being made to malign the agitation. The 
protesters comprise mostly students and activists. We demand action against the cops who carried out the brutal crackdown on the protesters,” said Prem Pancholi of Samta Andolan.

The members of Astitiv, Mahila Manch, Jan Sanchar, Sambhav Natya Manch, Disha, Mahila Samakhya, RTI Club and others have condemned the act.

Meanwhile, students of Baba Farid Institute of Technology also took out a march to show solidarity with the victim of gang-rape and demanded strict laws to prevent crime against women.

Haridwar, December 24
Churches were beautifully decorated and markets were abuzz with shoppers on the Christmas eve in Haridwar today.

Midnight prayers, carols and lighting of candles have been planned at all churches in the city. Members of the Christian community could be seen shopping and indulging in merriment.

Christmas was celebrated in many educational institutes today with students dressed up like Santa Claus. A cake was cut at Euro Kids International School, Shivalik Nagar, before programmes relating to the festival were presented. School principal Shikha Verma shed light on the importance of the festival. She urged the students to follow the righteous path shown by Lord Jesus Christ.

Schoolteachers Sneha Gautam and Soni Pujari also apprised the students about the festival, while students Mannat, Agrim, Siddhant and Harshit dressed up like Santa Claus distributed sweets among their mates.

Aarna, dressed up as an angel, spellbound everyone by putting her magic wand on the gifts. A Christmas function was also held at Little Angels Preparatory School. A Santa Claus wheel boggie made by the school staff drew the attention of the children while school principal Monika Deewan distributed gifts among the students.

Deewan extended Christmas and New Year greetings to the students. 

Dehradun, December 24
Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna have greeted the people, especially members of the Christian community, on the occasion of Christmas.

Aziz Qureshi, greeting the people of the state and the entire country on the occasion of Christmas in his message on the eve of the festival, said Jesus Christ, through his life and teachings, had spread the message of love and peace which was extremely relevant in today's world. He said everyone should follow the path of goodness and compassion shown by Christ and should show compassion to fellow beings, especially those who were underprivileged.

This was the time to reflect and meditate on the significance of the message of Jesus Christ.

Bahuguna in his message sent from South Africa said the occasion reminded the teachings of Jesus Christ who gave message of love, peace and benevolence.

He said Uttarakhand had a tradition of celebrating all festivals with unity and people here had set an example of communal harmony.

Haridwar, December 24
Yog guru Swami Ramdev, after staging a protest at New Delhi, on reaching Haridwar here today alleged the Delhi Police was delaying action against the rape accused in the Capital at the behest of Congress Party.

Speaking at his Divya Yog Mandir office, Swami Ramdev demanded forming a fast-track court in all districts for time-based trial of cases related with sexual molestation.

Urging Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Union government to call for a special parliamentary session in the wake of the massive protest in the entire country, post last week gang-rape in New Delhi, Swami Ramdev said that a law needed to be enacted soon to deal with such cases effectively.

Taking on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Swami Ramdev said that for the past eight years, on major issues like corruption and poverty, these leaders had kept silent, but it was quite unfortunate that on the rape issue, too, they were reluctant to say anything.

The yog guru also condemned in strong words the police lathi charge on innocent people, including girls and women, in New Delhi.

He stated that his third phase of satyagraha that began on October 2 was quite successful. 

Haridwar, December 24
The 80th edition of the All-India National Swami Shraddhanand Hockey Championship kicked off here today at Swami Dayanand Stadium, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar.

In the inaugural opening matches of the tournament, Town Hall-Shahjahanpur, and IDPL-Rishikesh won their matches against Rampur Hostel and Sirsa Eleven.

Town Hall-Shahjahanpur team won the match by 3-1 while IDPL-Rishikesh clinched the second match of the inaugural day by 3-2.

Earlier, the championship was inaugurated by District Prison Superintendent Mahendra Singh Gwal in presence of Gurukul Kangri University Vice-Chancellor Professor Swatantra Kumar, Vinod Sharma, Rajendra Aggarwal, RKS Dagar, Dr Pradeep Joshi, Jai Prakash Vidyalankar, Dr Ajay Malik, Dushyant Rana, Prakash Joshi and Laxman Sharma.

Emphasizing on the need of sports, VC Swatantra Kumar said Gurukul Kangri had been hosting this prestigious hockey national tourney for the past eight decades.

Dehradun, December 24
Dr Alok Ahuja, a leading pathologist of the city, was installed as the president of the Dehradun chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) at an investiture ceremony held on Sunday. Dr Alok Ahuja runs Dr Ahuja’s pathology imaging centre in Dehradun which is the first NABL (ISO15189) accredited centre in Uttarakhand.

He is the life member of the Indian medical Association and was honoured with the IMA National Award for community service in 2006 and is also the founder (hony) secretary of the Indian Medical Association Blood Bank.

Dr Ahuja is also a member of the Indian Academy of Pathologists and Microbiologist, the Indian Academy of Cytology, the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immuno Haematology and other leading medical societies in the country. 

Dehradun, December 24
The Vikas Nagar team defeated the Street Star Cricket team by 151 runs in a match in the 61st District Cricket League Tournament played on the Col Browns school ground here today.

The Vikasnagar team won the toss and elected to bat first. The team scored 262 runs for six wickets. Brijesh scored 63 runs while opener Deepak scored 54 runs. Abhishek scored 51 runs Anuj and Shubham took two wickets each.

In reply, the Street Star Cricket team was all out for 111 runs losing the match by 151 runs.

Opener Arvind scored 32 runs. Vikas took four wickets for 15 runs while Tarun kumar took three wickets for 29 runs. 

Dehradun, December 24
The SSP office released another contact number 7409002299, which girls/women can use to register their complaints against eve- teasing. A contact number 8954748118 was also provided to the women to complain against crank calls or lewd messages. This phone service proved a big success as the police got 16 complaints on the very first day itself and the numbers were on the rise thereafter. Many complaints have been registered in this regard and culprits, too, have been booked after thorough investigations by officers.

To segregate the type of complaints and their follow-up action, this second Helpline service has been started. 

Dehradun, December 24
The Whispering Willows cricket team, Dehradun, defeated R.B. Cricket Academy, New Delhi, by 71 runs in the Salahuddin Memorial Cricket Tournament played on the OFD ground 
here today.

The Whispering Willows team won the toss and after electing to bat first posted 164 runs for three wickets in 20 overs. Opener Ravi Bisht scored 65 runs while Vijay Singla remained unbeaten on 77 runs. Rajeev and Lakshay took one wicket each.

In reply, R.B.Cricket Academy, New Delhi, could score only 93 runs all out to lose the match by 71 runs. Sameer was the top scorer with 32 runs. Harjeet Singh took three wickets for 13 runs. 

Mussoorie, December 24
The dispute over who would submit the memorandum on the Delhi gang-rape incident took an ugly turn among the Congress workers, which nearly led to an exchange of blows between the two groups in Mussoorie today.

The incident occurred when one section of the Congress workers led by Mahila Congress Mussoorie president Geeta Kumain, which had gathered at the Congress Bhavan to condemn the Delhi gang- rape incident, was busy signing the memorandum to be presented to the SDM over the issue.

Another section of the Congress workers led by the senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh Mall tried to stop them from presenting the memorandum separately.

Manmohan Singh Mall argued that all the units should submit a memorandum jointly. Hearing this the supporters of Geeta Kumain were agitated and refused to do so, and began sloganeering against Manmohan Singh Mall, leading to heated arguments between the two groups, which nearly ended in an exchange of blows.

Former MLA Jot Singh Gunsola agitated by the whole incident termed it as unfortunate and said that he would apprise about the unfortunate incident to senior leaders of the state so that it is not repeated again.

The two groups ended in submitting their memorandums separately.