South Asia Citizens Web

In Pakistan, anger has greeted the killing of Afghan Taliban head, Mullah Mansour, by an American drone on Pakistani territory. When senior US officials visited army chief Gen Raheel Sharif at the Rawalpindi GHQ, he expressed strong displeasure at the violation of Pakistan’s air space and demanded that Tehreek-i-Taliban head, Mullah Fazlullah, together with other TTP militants, be targeted by drones.

New Delhi, June 23: The first Praful Bidwai Memorial Award has gone to the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), which was set up in 2014 by noted Mumbai-based journalist and commentator, Palagummi Sainath. [Pictures of the event posted here are by Mukul Dube]

Commentaries by Barbara Nimri Aziz and Kanak Mani Dixit

According to a report in the Hindu newspaper of 12 June 2016, Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Abhay Vartak said that he is “sad to see that Hindu organisations [are] being targeted in spite of a Hindu government being in power”. He forgot that the law has no religion and that the law is above the government in power. A man who kills another human being is a murderer, plain and simple, and he is liable to the same punishment regardless of his religion. Most important, the Constitution of India requires the government of India to have no religion.

the MHA issued a notice cancelling the FCRA of Sabrang Trust. Sabrang Trust’s primary activities have involved working in the area of secular education, advocacy and documentation while Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) have been working on the issue deliverance of justice to the Survivors of Mass Crimes, especially Gujarat 2002. Both need continued and sustained citizen’s support.