Officer harasses Hindu-Muslim couple seeking passports; gets transferred

The External Affairs Ministry has sought a report on allegations that an inter-faith couple was harassed and humiliated by an officer at a Passport Seva Kendra in Lucknow.

Responding to complaints from Mohammad Anas Siddiqui and Tanvi Seth, who wrote about their ordeal on Twitter and tagged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday, secretary, consular, passport and visa division, D M Mulay said he had asked for a report from the regional passport office in Lucknow and would take appropriate action.
"Regret for inconvenience. I sought report from @rpolucknow Will take appropriate action," Mulay said on Twitter last night.

Siddiqui and Seth had applied for their passports on June 19 and took an appointment for June 20 at a Passport Office in Lucknow.

They were allegedly humiliated and shamed by passport officer Vikas Mishra before he rejected their application, they said.

Bodies of Indians killed by ISIS reach Amritsar; Sidhu announces ex-gratia

Bodies of Indians killed by ISIS in Mosul to arrive in India today:

Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday announced ex-gratia of Rs 500,000 for the next kin of the 27 Indians belonging from Punjab, who was killed in Iraq's Mosul.

The mortal remains of 38 Indians, out of 39, killed the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq arrived at the Amritsar International Airport on Monday, officials confirmed.

A special aircraft landed at Amritsar from Baghdad around 2.30 pm, according to the report.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh left for Mosul earlier to bring back the bodies of the deceased Indians. Singh informed that the mortal remains of only 38 Indians would be brought back to the country because one case remained pending. MoS Singh also said that the Centre would hand over the coffins of the deceased to their kin, with evidence -- so that their relatives had no doubts.

39 Indians abducted in Iraq's Mosul dead; compensate, says Cong: Updates

All the 39 Indians who were abducted by ISIS in Iraq nearly three years ago were killed, and their bodies had been recovered, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh will be flying to Iraq to bring back their mortal remains to India on a special flight.

As many as 40 Indians were originally abducted by the terrorist organisation ISIS in June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj said in a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha. The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed.


Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, Swaraj said, adding that the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterparts to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features like long hair, non-Iraqi shoes, and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

BSF jawan's Facebook video raises uncomfortable questions about governance

Breaking news - If Twitter popularity was to decide who India’s most efficient cabinet ministers are, then there would be a tough competition between minister for external affairs, Sushma Swaraj and the minister for railways, Suresh Prabhu. While Swaraj has often come to help Indians (at home or abroad) in times of distress, Prabhu has been more than willing to help resolve issues that passengers may face. They revel in their roles as customer service executives and Twitter can’t appreciate it enough.

Yesterday, we saw disturbing videos posted by a BSF jawan of the 29th battalion, Tej Bahadur Yadav of the kind of food that jawans are served on the border, even as they work in really tough circumstances. The jawan asked social media to help take his messages to the prime minister. He asserted that while the government provided everything and the stores were full of provisions, these were not provided to serving jawans by corrupt officers of the BSF. Yadav’s video juxtaposed the tough conditions - sub-zero temperatures - that he (and others) had to serve in with the kind of food they were served. The videos rightly led to an outrage on social media and the home minister, Rajnath Singh sought a report from the BSF on the issue.(Read More)