French burka ban: police arrest two veiled women

The women were arrested along with several other people protesting in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris against the new law.

Jourrnalists at the scene said the arrests came after police moved in to break up the protest which had not been authorised.

On Saturday police arrested 59 people, including 19 veiled women, who turned up for a banned protest in Paris against the draconian new law, the first of its kind to be enforced in Europe.

Earlier, French police said they will be enforcing the country’s new burka ban "extremely cautiously" because of fears of provoking violence.

They fear Muslims extremists will use the law to provoke fights with officers, while rich visitors from countries like Saudi Arabia will also cause trouble .

All garments which cover the face were officially banned from first thing this morning, with offenders facing fines of 150 euros (£133).

But police admitted that they feared being accused of discrimination against Muslims, whether approaching women in tinderbox housing projects or on the Champs Elysee.

"The law will be very difficult to apply on certain estates," said Patrice Ribeiro, of the Synergie police union.

Referring to two Paris suburbs where riots regularly break out because of alleged discrimination against Muslims, Mr Ribeiro said: "I can’t see police going to book dozens of veiled women doing their shopping in Venissieux or in Trappes.

"It will be the same when a police officer is about to arrest a veiled Saudi who is about to go into Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysees. In all cases, the forces of order will have to be measured and cautious in their behaviour."

Synergie has already instructed its members to view the ban as a "low priority", and Mr Ribeiro said there would "inevitably be incidents".

Mohamed Douhane, another Paris police officer and Synergie member, said he and his colleagues also "expected provocation by a minority."

Mr Douhane added: "Fundamentalist movements are eager to raise the stakes. The police know they will be held responsible for any public order disturbances."

Police have already been warned not to arrest women "in or around" mosques, and "citizen’s de-veilings" are also banned.

The strict instructions, from Interior Minister Claude Guent, are contained in a nine page circular issued to officers.

With tensions running high within the country’s six million strong Muslim community, officers have been told to look out for members of the public taking the law into their own hands.

Instead they will have to call the police, who will in turn have four hours to consider whether an offender should be fined.

This will apply to all garments which cover the eyes, although scarfs, hats, and sunglasses are excluded.

As well as a mosque, Muslims will also be able to put on a veil in the privacy of their own homes, a hotel room, or even a car, as long as they are not driving.

Police have already complained that they will have to waste time on "burka-chasing", with Denis Jacob, of the Alliance police union, adding: "We have more important matters to be dealing with."

The ban means France is officially the second country in Europe, after Belgium, to introduce a full ban on a garment which immigration minister Eric Besson has called a "walking coffin".

While French women face the fines and ‘civic duty’ guidance if they break the law, men who force their wives or daughters to wear burkas will face up to a year in prison, and fines of up to 25,000 pounds.

Posters have already gone up in town halls across France reading: "The Republic lives with its face uncovered."

Belgium introduced a full ban last year, although it has not been enforced with any vigour. A ban also looks likely in Holland, Spain and Switzerland.

There are no plans to introduce a similar ban in Britain, although politicians from the UK Independence Party and some Tory backbenchers have suggested one.

Calling 100 in Gzb may bring Delhi cops to you

NEW DELHI: While the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi shares the same Police Control Room (PCR) number, 100, calling the cops has become a herculean task for those living in the NCR region as the control room has no clarity to which state's police - Delhi or Uttar Pradesh - should the call be transferred.
The problem became glaring when this reporter on Sunday tried calling '100' to report against a driver who created a ruckus in front of the Pacific Mall, situated in Ghaziabad right across Anand Vihar Bus Terminal. As the reporter called up 100 to complaint against the driver, who was still at the spot and was being verbally abusive, the PCR could not understand the location of the incident. After calling the PCR twice and explaining that the driver was still at "Pacific Mall in Kaushambi, Ghaziabad", no help came for at least 30 minutes. By that time, the driver had fled. Finally, a cop from Pitampura police station, north Delhi, called up after half an hour only to inform that the PCR had transferred the complaint to their police station.
When told that the complaint was made in Ghaziabad, the cop said there was another mall by the same name in Pitampura and hence the call was transferred there. This is one of many instances where police have goofed up in transferring the call to the right location. Not only have the residents of Ghaziabad and Noida faced such a problem, but those living in Delhi-Gurgaon border areas have also faced similar situations.
When contacted, joint commissioner (operations) Deepak Mishra, Delhi Police, said he was aware of the problem. "We know that calls made from Ghaziabad near the UP border and from SIMs procured from Delhi, get diverted to Delhi PCR. We are investigating this particular case. The Ghaziabad police had forwarded the call to us, which led to the confusion. Ideally, Delhi Police should have immediately alerted the caller that they were forwarding the call to Ghaziabad police and even provided the Ghaziabad control room number,'' said Mishra.
The Ghaziabad police said they are in touch with several cellular operators to solve the problem. "The engineers have told us that there are several technical hitches in getting the problem solved. For now, we have started putting up our other control room numbers at vantage points. There are too many towers in the border area which is adding to the confusion,'' said a senior officer at the SSP (Ghaziabad) office.
"With no clarity on which call should be transferred to which state police, a more-efficient system is required to tackle the problem. The service providers of UP are yet to sort out whether the calls - especially from the border areas - have originated from their own area. As a result, there's always confusion between Delhi Police and UP Police and the victims suffer,'' said Shrestha Pandit, who has faced a similar situation on more than one occasion. She resides at sector 15A in Noida close to Delhi border. Interstate co-ordination meetings are on to sort out the problem, claimed UP police.

Police close to cracking Delhi ‘parcel’ body case

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Monday inched closer to solving the mystery related to a decomposed body of a young girl, which was parceled to Ajmer recently, after a family hailing from Jalandhar claimed that it could be their missing daughter.
According to reports, two members from a Jalandhar-based family approached the Lahori Gate Police Station after they came to know through media reports about an unclaimed body of a young girl found by the Rajasthan police.
The family told Delhi Police officials that their daughter is missing since March 13 and also gave her photographs to them for verification. After matching the photographs with that of the victim’s, Delhi Police has claimed of a striking similarity between the two.
In view of the development, the family is now being taken to Kishangarh in Ajmer district, where the victim's body has been kept in a freezer at the Yagya Narayan hospital.
The matter came to light on April 08, when the workers of a cargo company complained of foul smell coming out of a tin container under which the girl’s body was hidden.
After initial investigation, it was found that the parcel was sent from Old Delhi to Ajmer in Rajasthan on March 31.
Police suspects that woman was brutally tortured and murdered as there were burn injuries and stab wounds on her body.
Although, the efforts are on to nab the killer, the investigation so far has revealed that the body was parceled by Milap Transport Roadlines from the Lahori Gate area in north Delhi to its branch in Kishangarh in Ajmer.
Police claims that the suspected sender of the sender, who could possibly be the killer, has been identified as 'B' and the receiver was mentioned as 'self' in the transport slip.
The dispatch date mentioned in the slip was March 31, so the body could be at least one to two week old.
Meanwhile, a team of Rajasthan Police is also in Delhi to investigate the matter.
Police has also blamed the transport company for its sheer negligence in not properly verifying the names of the sender and the receiver of the parcel in the transportation slip.

No breakthrough yet in Ajmer parcel case

Police is yet to make any breakthrough in the case of a body being parcelled to Ajmer from Delhi as the woman remains unidentified.
Investigators said a family from Jalandhar approached them saying it could be their daughter but after examination, it was found that she was not related to them.
Police said they were trying to locate the rickshaw puller who brought the body to the parcel office.
"We are trying to draw a sketch of the rickshaw puller. If we can locate him, it will be of great help in solving the case," the official said.
Investigators believe that the woman, aged around 25 years, was tortured and then murdered.
"She bore burn injuries and there were stab wounds on her body. We are yet to identify her," a senior police official said.
The body was parcelled by Milap Transport Roadlines from Lahori Gate to its branch in Kishangarh in Ajmer by an unidentified person. The sender has identified himself as 'B' and it has to be received by himself.
A Rajasthan Police team is camping for investigations while Delhi Police is assisting them.
The body was discovered by workers of the transportation company on April 8 in their Ajmer office after foul smell started emanating from the parcel.
"The transportation company was negligent in handling the parcel. They have not entered the name of the sender and receiver properly in its register," the official said.

Children don't listen to us; parents complain to police

Be tough with my son as he doesn't listen to me.
This was the plea made by a mother to a policeman, who went to her house in Mehrauli to challan her for allowing her 15-year-old son to drive her car which has tinted glass and a fancy numberplate, both illegal.
Similar was the complaint by an ex-army officer when confronted by traffic policemen for allowing his son to drive the car without a licence.
These incidents were narrated by Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), as he said police will do what can be done but the trend shows the crumbling of institutions which does not augur well for the society.
"A concerned citizen informed me that a 15-year-old child in posh Mehrauli drives his mother's car, which has tinted glasses and fancy number plate, very rashly.
"As it was dangerous for both the child and the safety of others, I sent traffic officials to their residence and found that car had the mentioned defects," Garg said.

Arunachal police dept set for a major overhaul

ITANAGAR: The security scenario in Arunachal Pradesh is all set for a major change with the Cabinet Committee on Security approving funds for the modernisation of the state police force.
Disclosing this on Friday, home minister Tako Dabi said, "At the initiative of Union home minister P Chidambaram, the committee has sanctioned Rs 138.95 crore to the state for modernisation of the police force. The project will also ensure upgrade of police establishments in the state, including insurgency-affected Tirap and Changlang districts."
He also pledged transparency and fiscal accountability on use of funds for the purpose and hoped that the state's security scenario will be on the right track within 5 to 10 years.
"Once the Trans-Arunachal Highway project gets implemented and all the mega power projects are commissioned, the state will require 15,000 additional security personnel, 58 police stations and 100 police vehicles to maintain law and order", he added.
The minister said the state government has decided to hand over the Sanjay Kumar case to the CBI since the police could not make any headway in the case even after four-and-half-months of Kumar's abduction from Kharsang in Changlang district.
The supervisor of a Kharsang-based coal mine was abducted by a group of four unidentified armed miscreants on November 24 last year. All efforts to trace him haven't yielded any result so far.

Raj Police : No breakthrough in parcel box murder case

Police is yet to make any breakthrough in the case of murder of a young woman, whose body was recovered in a large parcel box dispatched through a transport company in Kishangarh town in Ajmer district, last week. "The body, which was dispatched from Delhi to Madanganj town in the district, could not be identified so far. Our team is in Delhi and trying to ascertain her identify with the help of Delhi police," SHO Madanganj Narendra Singh said. "The team contacted the transport company, which had booked the parcel but its employees do not have proper information about the sender," Singh said.
"We have placed the body at Kishangarh government hospital. The woman aged around 22-25 years was stabbed as the body has several hit marks and her face has been burnt," he added.
The parcel was dispatched from New Delhi last week and was shifted to the transport company office at Kishangarh on April 8. On paper, it was mentioned that the parcel had some electronic goods and the receiver will pick it up from the transport company.