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Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
India court acquits 12 men in 2006 Mumbai train bombings
DELHI — A court in India has acquitted 12 men who had been convicted in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings that killed 187 people and injured more than 800. Judges had in 2015 sentenced five of the accused to death and the remaining seven to life imprisonment. On Monday, a two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court overturned the earlier order, ruling that the prosecution had "utterly failed" to establish that the accused had committed the offences for which they had been convicted. The prosecution can appeal against the order in a higher court. On 11 July 2006, seven blasts ripped through the busy commuter trains during the evening rush hour in one of India's deadliest militant attacks. The bombs, packed into seven pressure cookers and put in bags, detonated within six minutes of each other. The blasts took place in the areas of Matunga, Khar, Mahim, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Mira Road, with most on moving trains and two at stations. The bombs appeared to have targeted first-class compartments, as commuters were returning home from the city's financial district. Indian security agencies blamed the attack on Islamist militants backed by Pakistan, an allegation the country denied. The accused, who were arrested shortly after the blasts, have been in jail since then. One of them, Kamal Ansari, who had been sentenced to death, died of Covid in 2021. In 2015, a special court convicted the men of murder, conspiracy and waging war against the country. The prosecution appealed to confirm the death sentences, while the defence sought acquittal. In July 2024, the Bombay High Court formed the two-judge bench to expedite the hearings. Reports say that over the next six months, the court conducted more than 75 sittings and examined 92 prosecution witnesses and over 50 defence witnesses. In the 667-page order on Monday, the court noted that the defence had questioned the credibility of the witnesses produced by the prosecution, as well as the confessional statements made by the accused. It also acknowledged the defence's contention that the recovered evidence was not maintained in a "sealed condition throughout". — BBC
Leaders
3 days ago
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Israel Kills Dozens of Palestinians at Aid Site in Gaza
Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians and injured others near an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Khan Younis, reported Reuters. The US-backed organization denied the incident, while the Israeli army said it only fired warning shots at suspects, amid growing controversary over aid distribution process in the war-torn enclave. Shooting Palestinians At dawn on Saturday, the Israeli troops opened gunfire at Palestinians heading to an aid distribution site in Khan Younis, killing at least 36 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry and Nasser Hospital. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots at suspects moving near its forces, at a time when the distribution site was not active. It said it was investigating the incident. However, an eyewitness told Reuters that there were no warnings before the shooting. 'We thought they came out to organize us so we can get aid, suddenly (I) saw the jeeps coming from one side, and the tanks from the other and started shooting at us,' Gaza resident Mohamed al-Khalidi said. GHF Response The GHF denied any incidents or fatalities on Saturday, adding that it warned people not to head to its sites in the dark. 'We have repeatedly warned aid seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours,' the GHF said. 'The reported (Israeli military) activity resulting in fatalities occurred hours before our sites opened and our understanding is most of the casualties occurred several kilometers away from the nearest GHF site,' it said in a statement. The GHF has sparked worldwide anger over its aid distribution mechanism that caused mounting death toll near distribution sites. The Israeli and US-backed organization works with private American contractors to get aid supplies into Gaza. Global Condemnation The GHF model bypasses the UN-led system as Israel claims that Hamas loots aid shipments, an accusation the Palestinian movement denies. Under the GHF operation system, Palestinian aid seekers are required to travel to distribution sites each week to get one package per family. However, the UN and other international organizations have criticized the GHF operation model, refusing to cooperate with the organization amid fears it aims to force the displacement of Palestinians and saying there is no evidence that Hamas steals aid. Moreover, the UN has called the GHF model 'unsafe' and a 'breach of humanitarian impartiality standards.' Earlier in July, Amnesty International accused Israel and the GHF of using starvation tactics as a weapon of war against Palestinians as part of the Israeli ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. It also said that Israel has turned aid seeking into a 'booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians' by preventing UN and other key humanitarian organizations from distributing certain aid items and by maintaining the GHF 'militarized aid scheme.' Rising Deaths Shooting incidents near GHF distribution sites have been on the rise in recent weeks. On July 15, 2025, the UN Rights Office said that since May 27, 2025, at least 875 people in Gaza while seeking aid; 674 of them near the GHF sites. The remaining 201 were killed while seeking aid on the routes of aid convoys or near aid convoys run by the UN or its partners. Furthermore, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, voiced deep concerns over civilian deaths near aid sites amid the spread of deadly malnutrition among children. In the light of this, the UNRWA Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, said: 'Our teams on the ground – UNRWA teams and other United Nations teams – have spoken to survivors of these killings, these starving children included, who were shot at while on their way to pick up very little food.' Touma warned that babies are dying as a result of acute malnutrition caused by Israel's blockade on aid entry into Gaza. 'We've been banned from bringing any humanitarian assistance into Gaza for more than four months now,' she said, pointing to a 'significant increase' in child malnutrition since the Israeli blockade began on 2 March. The Israeli war on Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians and wounded over 138,000 since October 7, 2023, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Short link : Post Views: 75
Saudi Gazette
6 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Mystery surrounds Russian mum and children found in Indian cave
BENGALURU — Police in India are trying to piece together the story of a Russian woman who was found living in a cave in the southern state of Karnataka with her two young daughters. Nina Kutina was rescued on 9 July by policemen who were on a routine patrol near Ramteertha hills in the Gokarna forest, which borders the tourist paradise of Goa. Authorities say the 40-year-old and her daughters - six and five years old - do not have valid documents to stay in India. They have been lodged in a detention centre for foreigners near Bengaluru, the state capital, and will be deported soon. Kutina has defended her lifestyle in two video interviews to Indian news agency ANI, saying she and her children were happy living in the cave and that "nature gives good health". But even a week after they were found, there is very little clarity on how the woman and her children came to be in a forest infested with snakes and wild animals; how long they had been living there and who they really are. "The area is popular with tourists, especially foreigners. But it has a lot of snakes and it's prone to landslides, especially during the rainy season. To ensure the safety of tourists, we started patrolling the forests last year," M Narayana, superintendent of police for Uttara Kannada district, told the BBC.A second policeman who cannot be named and was part of the patrol party that stumbled on the cave dwelling said they walked down a steep hill to investigate when they saw bright clothes that had been hung outdoors to they got closer to the cave - the entrance to which had been curtained off with brightly coloured saris - "a little blonde girl came running out". When the shocked policemen followed her inside, they found Nina Kutina and the other possessions were meagre - plastic mats, clothes, packets of instant noodles and some other grocery items - and the cave was shot by the police at the cave dwelling which the BBC has seen, show the children dressed in colourful Indian clothes, smiling into the camera."The woman and her children appeared quite comfortable in the place," Mr Narayana said. "It took us some time to convince her that it was dangerous to live there," he said when they told her that the cave was unsafe because of the presence of snakes and wild animals in the forest, she told them: "Animals and snakes are our friends. Humans are dangerous."Kutina and her daughters were taken to a hospital for a check-up after their rescue and were certified to be medically official in India's Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has told the BBC that she's Russian and that she will be repatriated once the formalities are says they have reached out to the Russian consulate in Chennai - the BBC has also written to the Russian embassy in Delhi but they are yet to video interviews with India's ANI and PTI news agencies, Kutina said she was born in Russia but hadn't lived there for 15 years and travelled to "a lot of countries, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand, Nepal, Ukraine".In her interviews with both agencies, Kutina said she had four children between the ages of 20 and 5 years. She talked about the eldest - "my big son" - who died in a road accident in Goa last say her second son is 11-years-old and is in Russia - and that they have shared the information with the Tuesday night, the FRRO said they had tracked down the father of the girls - Dror Goldstein - and that he was an Israeli businessman. They said he was in India at the moment and that they met him and were trying to persuade him to pay for Kutina and her daughters' Wednesday, Goldstein told India's NDTV channel that Kutina had left Goa without informing him and that he had lodged a missing complaint with the police said he wanted joint custody of his daughters and would do everything to prevent the government from sending them to is no clarity on how and when Kutina and her daughters reached the forest in said she told them that they had been living in the cave for a week. They added that she had bought some vegetables and groceries, including a popular brand of instant noodles, from a local store, a week said she told them that she arrived in Karnataka from Goa where she also claimed to have lived in a cave. She also said that one of her daughters was born in a Goa her interview to PTI on Wednesday, she complained about the detention centre where she's been lodged with her daughters saying "it is like jail"."We lived in a very good place. But now we cannot be alone. We cannot go outside. Here it's very dirty, and there's not enough food," she not clear when and how Kutina came to say she told them she had lost her passport, but they were able to find an older expired passport among her belongings which showed that she had come to India on a business visa which was valid from 18 October 2016 to 17 April she overstayed, was caught a year later, and the Goa office of the FRRO issued her "an exit permit" to leave India. According to immigration stamps in her passport, she entered Nepal on 19 April 2018 and exited three months not clear where she went after that, but Kutina told ANI that overall she had "travelled to at least 20 countries" - at least "four of them since leaving India in 2018".It's also not clear when she returned to India next, although some reports say she's been back since February 2020. She told PTI that she returned because "we really love India".Kutina admitted that her visa expired a few months back. "We don't have our visa, valid visa, our visa finished," she said, adding that the lapse happened because she was grieving for her dead son and couldn't think of anything an idol of Panduranga Vittala, a form of Hindu god Krishna, was found in her cave dwelling, it was reported that she had gone there to do meditation and for spiritual in her interview to ANI, she rejected the narrative. "It is not about spiritually. We just like nature because it gives us health... it's very big health, it's not like you live in a home."She added she had "big experience to stay in natural, in jungle" and insisted that her daughters were happy and healthy there. The cave she had chosen was "very big and beautiful" and it was "very close to a village" so she could buy food and other necessities."We were not dying, and I did not bring my children, my daughters, to die in jungle. They were very happy, they swam in the waterfall, they had a very good place for sleeping, a lot of lessons in art making, we made from clay, we painted, we ate good, I was cooking very good and tasty food," she told also rejected suggestions that living in the forest exposed her children to danger."For all the time we lived there, yes we saw a few snakes," she said, but added that it was similar to people reporting finding snakes in their homes, kitchens or toilets. — BBC
