violence

'An attempt was made to strangle Kanhaiya Kumar on a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Pune on Sunday. This is the latest in a series of threats and attempted assaults on the JNU students’ union president... Kumar has received multiple threats ever since he was branded as “anti-national” by certain groups after an event in JNU on February 9. He was attacked by a group of lawyers when presented at Patiala House court on February 17, attacked and abused within the JNU campus by an outsider on March 10 and had slippers and shoes thrown at him in Nagpur on April 14.

'Twenty-three years after it was banned following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the Bajrang Dal on December 6 this year renewed its pledge for a Ram temple at the mosque site. The anniversary of the demolition is technically a day of “valour” (Shaurya Diwas) for the Hindutva outfit. This year, however, Shaurya Diwas wasn’t subdued as in many past years. There were elaborate press releases and there was heightened activity on right-wing Twitter handles in support of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.

'Three days after Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced in Panipat that criminal cases against ‘gau rakshaks’ in Haryana would be revoked, an unidentified ‘cow protection vigilante’ team shot dead a migrant worker near Bhanukheri village in this district in the wee hours of Wednesday. The deceased, 25-year-old Khush Noor, is a native of Ballamajra village in Saharanpur. Another man, Ehsaan, suffered a minor injury and after being administered first aid was discharged from hospital.

'A leader of the Punjab unit of the Shiv Sena has offered Rs 1 lakh to anyone who slaps Bollywood actor Aamir Khan for his comment on ‘growing intolerance’ in the country. The Shiv Sena, however, said on Thursday the remark was not the official view of the party. “Any person who slaps Aamir Khan will be rewarded Rs 1 lakh by the Shiv Sena. This is important because no one living in our country should dare to say anything against India… Anyone from the hotel staff or the film crew can slap him and take the reward,” Punjab Shiv Sena chief Rajeev Tandon said on Wednesday...'