On Day 1 in Beijing, defence minister raises vital issues on border, terror
BEIJING: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said he raised China’s “veto” on Masood Azhar, its involvement in projects in PakistanOccupied-Kashmir (PoK) and the need to demarcate the SinoIndia Line of Actual Control (LAC) during meetings with top officials in Beijing on Monday,
Parrikar met his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan before he called on General Fan Changlong, vice-chairperson of the powerful Central Military Commission headed by President Xi Jinping. “We generally agreed to enhance bilateral interaction both at military-to-military level as well as ministerial level,” Parrikar told Beijing-based Indian media.
On the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Parrikar said he “made our stand very clear… that India has strong reservation on their (China’s) activities in PoK”. On China blocking Pakistan-based terror suspect Azhar from being banned by UN, Parrikar said: “It was not exactly the right direction they have taken.”
On the festering Sino-India border dispute, the minister said both countries were close to setting up a military hotline to quickly resolve incidents along the LAC. “We are insisting (the demarcation of LAC) be done to really ensure a very stable border….all the issues take place because of perception,” he said. On China’s part, officials raised their objection on India’s increasingly vocal positioning on the South China Sea region where Beijing is embroiled in a number of disputes with its maritime neighbours over the ownership of reefs, islands and seas itself. RANCHI: Three members of a family were burnt to death and one severely injured in Jharkhand on Sunday after villagers set their house on fire alleging that they were planning to kill a minor girl in a ritualistic sacrifice.
The incident took place in Chipo Thaka Toli village in Lohardaga, about 90km from Ranchi, and is the most recent in a spate of similar attacks in the state, which has witnessed maximum cases of witchhunting in India from 2008 to 2013, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The villagers alleged that Govardhan Bhagat had kept a child from another village in his house with the intention to sacrifice her. Govardhan, his wife Mato Devi and daughter-in-law Sukhmania Bhagat were killed in the incident.
Police rescued four members of the family, including Govardhan’s son, Laldeo Bhagat, from the fire. Laldeo suffered 85% burns and is admitted at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi.
“It was a rumour; the family did not keep any girl at home for sacrifice. Seventeen of 25 named accused in the case have already been arrested,” said Lohardaga superintendent of police, Kartik S, who was one of the first to reach the spot on Sunday night.
Combating superstition has been one of the major hurdles for the tribal state, where practices of witch-hunting, tonsuring and animal sacrifices for better harvest and nude processions for rains are prevalent. Jharkhand, in 2013, witnessed the maximum number of witch-hunting cases in India — of the 160 murders committed with witch-hunting as a motive, 54 were in Jharkhand. From 2008 to 2013, Jharkhand had 220 such murders.