Gang-rape survivor Mukhtar Mai is facing serious life threats again as the police withdrew security in Meerwala, Alipur Jatoi in Muzaffargarh district, reports Nadeem Shah for The News.
Mukhtar Mai said that she was provided police security but all of a sudden it was withdrawn without any notice. She said she herself and her students and children underwent a shock due to the withdrawal of police security.
After the withdrawal of security, she held a meeting with Muzaffargarh District Police Officer (DPO) Hassan Iqbal and repeatedly requested him to redeploy police security for her. She said the DPO promised to do so, but nothing had happened.
Two cops were deputed to provide her lifetime security in 2001 when she was gang-raped on the directives of the village council. Mukhtar Mai also reported to the DIG Dera Division on several occasions but he also did nothing.
Mukhtar Mai said now she and her family members were feeling insecure and a man identified as Wasim entered her house waving a pistol and threatened to kill her.
When contacted, Dera Ghazi Khan Regional Police Officer (RPO) Waqas Nazir said Muzaffargarh district police actually deputed a constable for her security. The district police transferred him somewhere but Mukhtar Mai did not accept it because the transferred constable was her husband. The matter came to his notice and he directed Muzaffargarh DPO to post the constable of her choice.
A four-year-old girl was killed in a cross-fire between a store guard and dacoits at a mini-mart near Landhi Manzil Pump in Karachi last night.
According to the closed-circuit television (CCTV), three robbers entered the store to rob it. The security guard retaliated with his firearm when three dacoits opened firing during an escape from the mart.
According to the police, the guard shot and injured one of the suspects, Pyar Ali, while two others fled from the crime scene. During the shoot-out, a minor girl was shot, who was passing by with her older brother on a motorbike.
The wounded girl was rushed to a nearby hospital but she was declared dead on arrival. Her brother is demanding justice from the government.
The body of the girl was transferred to Jinnah Hospital for her postmortem to investigate whether the victim was killed from a gunshot by the security guard or the robbers. The injured robber was also moved to a hospital.
Police arrested the injured suspect and also recovered weapons and Rs 50,000 cash from him.
More than 2,290 students has graduated from the PepsiCo-supported career-prep fellowship by the Amal Academy. The educational start-up held its graduation ceremony for students from 180 cities, towns, and villages at a series of celebratory events held in Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar. The graduation ceremony was attended by Amal Academy CEO Mr. Ali Siddiq, PepsiCo Senior Director Sales and Corporate Affairs Mr. Mohammad Khosa, and chief guestand notable academic Director and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS), Dr. Faisal Bari.
The fellowship is part of PepsiCo’s ‘Roshan Kal’ platform aimed at developing students’ professional skills through internships and skills development programs. The program creates opportunities for youth to develop skills such as communications, teamwork, leadership, positive thinking, and growth mindset. It focuses on specific career skills such as interview preparation, job placement, and project presentation. Enhancing professional skills enable university graduates to improve their chances of gaining meaningful employment. To date, Roshan Kal has created over 6,300 opportunities for youth through its internship program and its professional skills development program that is run in collaboration with Amal Academy. Based on graduate surveys, seventy percent of the program’s graduates receive an offer of employment within three months of completing this program.
Present at the occasion, Amal Academy CEO, Mr. Ali Siddiq, said, “I would like to express my gratitude to PepsiCo for enabling us to expand the reach of our fellowship program across Pakistan, and also for helping us launch a teacher training initiative this year to help bridge the industry-academia gap.”
In his address to the fellows present at the ceremony, he added, “I’m humbled and proud to see how you have chosen a path of lifelong learning and civic responsibility. You are the leaders this country needs, and we are honored to be part of your journey to reaching your full potential.”
Senior Director Sales and Corporate Affairs, PepsiCo Pakistan, Mr. Mohammad Khosa, commented, “I am truly proud of Amal Career-Prep Fellows 2021 for successfully completing the program and joining us on this life-changing journey to emerge as resilient, knowledgeable, and socially responsible youth, working toward a brighter future of our country. PepsiCo’s investment in this program is part of our broader social impact commitment toward fostering positive developments in accordance with PepsiCo’s In, With and For Pakistan mission.”
In 2021, PepsiCo Amal Career-Prep fellows initiated and led some remarkable community impact projects. The fellows came together to collect PKR 5 million for Edhi Foundation during a fundraising drive and executed other mega projects to positively impact the lives of 9,000 people across Pakistan. In addition, there has been an eighty percent success rate in terms of job placements for the graduate fellows this year.
“Our collective hard work and passion has brought us here today, and my heart is dancing with joy. I have never been this excited or happy to have completed a course or degree. This is a real life-changing experience, and I am truly thankful to PepsiCo and Amal Academy for giving me an opportunity to go beyond my comfort zone, inspiring me to do better,” said Saeeda Wasi, a 2021 graduate fellow.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and 7UP. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales. Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. “Winning with Purpose” reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of our business strategy and brands. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.
The Health Department in Tamil Nadu’s Ranipet district has registered a complaint after a man allegedly tried to help his wife deliver a baby at home with the help of YouTube videos, as a result of which the woman gave birth to a stillborn.
Lokanathan (32), who runs a small store at Panapakkam near Nemili in the district, allegedly relied on YouTube videos to help his wife Gomathi (28) deliver their baby.
The Nemili police said they are conducting inquiries, but no one has been booked yet. “The family members said the delivery was done with Gomathi’s permission and that there was nothing wrong on the part of Lokanathan, so we have not booked anyone yet. We are conducting the inquiry, further action will be taken based on its outcome,” said a police official from Nemili station.
Police said that the woman was due to give birth on December 13. On December 18, she experienced labour pain, but instead of visiting the hospital, Lokanathan decided to help her deliver the baby at home. He sought the help of his sister Geetha and they also watched YouTube videos. After a long struggle, Gomathi delivered a stillborn male. Since she was bleeding profusely, her husband took her to a Primary Health Centre nearby, from where they were sent to the Vellore Government Hospital.
On Tuesday, a labourer was allegedly shot dead by his employer when he asked for the salary in the Ghakhar Mandi area of Gujranwala.
The accused shot at his employee and wounded him. He was taken to a hospital but later pronounced dead.
The victim’s father filed the first information report (FIR) against the assailant in the police station and they have begun an investigation.
The police stated that the worker demanded his wages but it escalated into a heated debate and he was killed by his employer in anger.
Earlier this year, a similar incident took place in Multan when an employer allegedly set his worker on fire for demanding his salary.
A resident of Wapda Town in Lahore, Umar Akram, tortured his domestic worker brutally when he requested for his salary and also set him on fire l. The employer didn’t pay his salary for two months. The incident took place in January 2021.
In another incident, a man from an Asian country was accused of slapping and killing a colleague after causing him a permanent disability.
During a vaccination and diagnostic process, 32 suspected cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been reported in Balochistan’s Kalat district, reports Geo News.
The suspect cases have been confirmed by Kalat District Health Officer (DHO) Nasrullah Lango. He said that the samples taken from the suspected patients have been sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad.
All the suspected patients don’t have any travel history. As of now, the condition of the patients is stable and they have been quarantined in their homes. Moreover, doctors have also been told to be careful.
The DHO said that the suspected patients include a woman who recently delivered a baby.
However, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has not confirmed the news but Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has sought a report from the health department.
Last week, NCOC confirmed the first-ever case of the Omicron variant in Karachi, Sindh.
The Covid-19 positivity rate stands at 0.65 per cent in Pakistan today.
A 66 million year old embryo has been discovered in Ganzhou in southern China, reports the BBC.
The embryo has been titled “Baby Yingliang”.
Researcher Dr Fion Waisum Ma said it is “the best dinosaur embryo ever found in history”.
Surprisingly, it resembles the embryos of modern birds. It is known to be in a coiled state similar to a bird about to be hatched.
“This indicates that such behaviour in modern birds first evolved and originated among their dinosaur ancestors,” Dr Ma told the AFP news agency.
Paleontologist Prof Steve Brusatte, who was also part of the research team, tweeted that it was “one of the most stunning dinosaur fossils” he had ever seen, and that the embryo was on the brink of hatching.
Baby Yingliang length is 10.6in (27cm) in all and it stays inside a 6.7 inch-long egg at the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in China.
The egg was discovered in the year 2000 and was kept in storage for ten years.
Researchers were surprised to find that the embryo had something inside.
The baby dinosaur embryo was folded inside a rock and researchers are making an effort to further analyse the fossil of this skeleton.
Two monkeys killed nearly 250 dogs in a revenge attack after a pack of dogs killed an infant monkey, which took place in a village of Maharashtra, India.
It was reported that the Nagpur Forest Department team captured two monkeys for spreading terror in a region for at least a couple of months. The authorities will release the monkeys in a nearby forest.
According to eyewitnesses, the monkeys were killing dogs for the last couple of months in Lavool village. Monkeys used to roam around in a region to catch dogs as soon as they saw and kidnapped them. They took dogs to a certain height and threw them (dogs) either from rooftops or trees.
The villagers reported Dharur’s Forest Department when monkeys attacked school-going children. Such incidents created panic among people.
However, an official from the department said, “This [the killing of an infant monkey by dogs] is said to have enraged the monkeys, who in retaliation are killing the puppies of dogs as per local residents. But we do not have any proof to back up this theory. It’s animal behaviour and we cannot ascertain why they are behaving like this.”
Meanwhile, netizens started circulating amusing memes on ‘monkeys vs dogs gang war’ on social media.
On Monday, a man named Waleed Muhammad Shabeer, who allegedly damaged idols of a Hindu temple in the old area of Narainpura, was booked under Blasphemy Law by the police. Another attacker escaped from the scene. He is booked under section 427 (mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and section 295 of the PPC that deals with blasphemy.
According to the first information report (FIR), the incident took place at 6:15 pm.
The complainant and a resident of the area, Mukesh Kumar, said that his wife saw the assailant attacking the idols with a hammer.
The suspect was surrounded by the people living in the area. The residents handed him over to the police. The residents also protested in the area and in front of the police station.
Members of Karachi’s Hindu community protest outside a police station on Dec 20 – a person accused of vandalising a temple in the city was being detained at the temple pic.twitter.com/hyn4o4YIk0
They demanded security from the government after the incident took place and chanted slogans against the attackers.
Narainpur is an old town where Hindu families are predominately living with Muslims.
Sindh Minister for Minority Affairs, Gyanchand Israni, instructed the police to arrest all accused and said that such incidents would bring unrest in society. “We condemn such attacks,” he said.
The motive behind the attack is not determined yet. Police have started an investigation and assured the protection for residents of the area.
The video of broken holy idols was circulating on social media.
Another Hindu Temple attacked in Islamic state of Pakistan.
Attack on Narian Pora Hindu Temple in Karachi. This is 9th attack on Hindu Temple in 22 months.
The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, condemned domestic violence against women as ‘almost Satanic’ during a programme on the national TV channel of Italy named TG5 network on Sunday evening. It is one of the strongest languages he has ever used on any issue.
He was speaking to panelists belonging to difficult backgrounds, including a survivor of domestic abuse. In the programme, issues such as domestic violence, poverty, and economic impact on citizens due to the pandemic were discussed.
The Pope expressed his serious concern about a very high number of women who faced abuse and were beaten in their homes.
He said, “The problem is that, for me, it is almost satanic because it is taking advantage of a person who cannot defend herself, who can only [try to] block the blows.”
He added, “It is humiliating. Very humiliating.”
He spoke these words to the survivor of domestic abuse, Giovanna, who shared her experience of escaping from a violent home with her four children.
He added encouraging words by saying that women who suffered abuse do not lose their dignity.
He told Giovanna, “I see dignity in you because if you didn’t have dignity, you wouldn’t be here.”
While addressing the survivor, he urged to keep hope alive even during the pandemic.
He added a supporting comment, “You are giving an example of resistance, a lesson of resistance to calamities,” he said. “You are coming out better than before.”
