Elderly Sikh assaulted in US
Washington, May 8
In a suspected hate crime, an 82-year-old Sikh has been brutally assaulted with an iron rod outside a gurdwara in the US and was in a serious condition. Police has arrested one person in connection with the incident.

Strike in B’desh against crackdown on Islamists
Dhaka, May 8
A two-day nationwide shutdown called by the BNP-led Opposition alliance began today in Bangladesh to protest what it called “mass killings” of marauding members of a radical Islamist outfit in a police crackdown during its “Dhaka siege” campaign demanding a tougher blasphemy law.

Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who fell off a forklift just before he was to address an election rally in Lahore on Tuesday, has fractured three vertebrae. His spinal canal was, however, safe and he was in full control and senses, said a team of doctors that examined him on Wednesday. He was out of danger, they said.

Currently under treatment at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Lahore, Imran told reporters that he was feeling better, but doctors said he should take at least three-week bed rest. This means he might not be able to cast his vote.

The election campaign of Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been severely hit due to the incident. The freak accident has, however, generated immense outpouring of concern, sympathy and support for Imran home and abroad, from foes and political rivals and his party hopes it would compensate for his absence from the election campaign. The election will be held on May 11.

Top PTI leaders gathered in Lahore on Wednesday and worked out a strategy to ensure some kind of Khan’s appearance during a last-minute rally to be held from Lahore to Islamabad on Thursday, the last day for canvassing. Vice-chairman of the PTI Shah Mahmud Qureshi said Imran would address the rally.

Additional Information Secretary of the PTI Umar Khan said Imran’s condition was not serious but he had been advised bed rest by the doctors. Imran would not go to Islamabad but would address the gathering through video link, he added.

Earlier, his doctor Faisal Sultan said Imran could carry out his scheduled rallies if the medical team felt comfortable with his recovery. “There was a small scalp haematoma, which is just a collection of blood. There was spinous process of C3, which was a minimally displaced fracture at the tip of C3 and a compression fracture of T6 (thoracic vertebrae). There is also a fracture of T5 vertebrae body and the spinous process. However, the most important and reassuring thing is that the spinal canal is intact and Imran is in full control of his limbs and body functions. There was no neurological compromise.”

Thousands of PTI supporters continued to throng the hospital praying for Imran’s good health and raising slogans in support of his party.

President Zardari, PM Khoso, CEC Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, MQM’s Altaf Hussain, ANP’s Asfandyar Wali Khan and many others have prayed for Imran’s early recovery.

Nawaz Sharif sent brother Shahbaz Sharif to visit Imran at hospital. PPP leader and eminent lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan also visited Imran in the hospital.

Imran appealed to the people to vote for a change. He said he had fought for 17 years to motivate people to help build a new Pakistan and expressed hope the people would vote for his party.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, seen as the front-runner in Pakistan’s election race, has said he would not allow militant groups to attack India from his country. Nawaz said he would work to improve ties with New Delhi if elected.

A supporter of Nawaz Sharif at a rally in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. — AFP

“If I become the Prime Minister, I will make sure that the Pakistani soil is not used for any such designs against India,” Nawaz said in a TV interview.

Nawaz, who served as the Prime Minister twice in the 1990s, said it was time to improve ties between New Delhi and Islamabad.

“We have issues which need to be resolved and I think I can quote a lot of examples where rivals or people opposed to each other, countries opposed to each other have resolved much difficult problems than we have,” he said.

Nawaz, who has been critical of military meddling in civilian affairs, said he would call for a joint investigation of whether Pakistani intelligence agencies played any role in the Mumbai attack.

“I will take up this matter. Certainly this matter will have to be taken up,” said Nawaz.

Washington, May 8
In a suspected hate crime, an 82-year-old Sikh has been brutally assaulted with an iron rod outside a gurdwara in the US and was in a serious condition. Police has arrested one person in connection with the incident.

Piara Singh was beaten brutally with an iron bar outside the gurdwara in Fresno which is located in the heart of the Central Valley of California that has a sizable Sikh/Punjabi population.

Still unconscious, Singh has 20 stitches, broken bones and ribs. His condition is reported to be improving.

The individual arrested for the Sunday's suspected hate crime has been identified as Gilbert Garcia, the Fresno Police chief Jerry Dyer told a gathering of Sikhs at the gurdwara where the victim worked as a volunteer.

Later, a Dyer-led team of government officials, including representatives of the FBI and the Department of Justice among others, met members of the Sikh community to assure them that they are taking enough measures to protect them from any hate crime.

“This is a hate crime,” said Gurdev Singh Muhar, a priest of Fresno Gurdwara.

The incident has sent shock waves not only among the Sikh community in the US, but also among Hindu-Americans and Arab-Americans, who for long have been demanding that attack against them be registered by the FBI as hate crime.

In a statement, the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, condemned the brutal attack on the elderly man. — PTI 

Dhaka, May 8
A two-day nationwide shutdown called by the BNP-led Opposition alliance began today in Bangladesh to protest what it called “mass killings” of marauding members of a radical Islamist outfit in a police crackdown during its “Dhaka siege” campaign demanding a tougher blasphemy law.

Thousands of policemen in riot gear and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) troops enforced a strict vigil in capital Dhaka, where most private cars stayed off the roads and schools were closed.

Witnesses and police said the Opposition cadres exploded several crude bombs and vandalised a bus in parts of the city to enforce their strike but no incident of clash was reported in the initial shutdown hours.

In the run-up to the general strike yesterday, suspected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat members set afire a posh train in Chittagong and vandalised or torched several vehicles and exploded crude bombs in Dhaka.

The call for the general strike by the 18-party alliance, with fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami being a major partner, came a day after a Dhaka court placed senior Hefazat-e-Islam leader Junaid Babunagari in nine-day police remand following his arrest for masterminding the violence.

The Hefazat-e-Islam or ‘Protectorate of Islam’ has unleashed riots on Dhaka streets since Sunday to mount pressure on the secular Awami League-led government to implement its 13-point demand, including the enactment of a blasphemy law to punish those who insult Islam and its Prophet.

The members of Hefazat, comprising mainly teachers and students of several thousand madrasas, allegedly backed by Jamaat workers carried out the two days of mayhem in the capital city and Chittagong.— PTI