Australia police shoot man and injure three bystanders

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionPolice examine the shopping district where police shot a man and three innocent bystanders

Four people have been injured when police opened fire on a man holding a knife at a busy shopping centre in Sydney, Australia.

Three women aged between 60 and 82 were hit by bullets and bullet fragments after two officers fired at the man.

The 23-year-old man, who allegedly approached officers with the knife, was also injured.

An independent team will now investigate the circumstances surrounding Thursday's incident.

Police were called to an organic food market outside Westfield Shopping Centre at Hornsby, in Sydney's north, just before midday after shoppers noticed the man acting strangely.

New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Dennis Clifford said the man was holding a large carving knife and confronted officers when they approached him.

He said two officers fired shots at the man, who was wounded several times.

'Life-and-death situation'

"Unfortunately some bystanders were also injured, with either bullet or fragment wounds," Mr Clifford said.

"The man is known to us. I understand he was reported missing from a psychiatric centre near here yesterday and police were making efforts to try and locate him."

Mr Clifford said it was understood that Tasers, batons and sprays were available to the officers.

"In a life-and-death situation the police had to make a very critical decision on the action that they took," he said.

All the injured bystanders are in hospital in a stable condition.

Witnesses told Australian media of a chaotic scene after police shot the "zombie-like" young man, who was "babbling incoherently" before the incident.

He also remains in hospital, under police guard.

Read More...

LIVE - Gulbarg Society massacre: hearing on quantum of punishment on June 9

A devastated building bears testimony to the mob violence in Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on 28 February 2002. Many of the residents of the Muslim neighbourhood in Chamanpura were killed in the carnage.

The court had said there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case

A special SIT court, which convicted 24 persons in the 2002 post-Godhra Gulbarg Society massacre case, adjourned hearing on the quantum of punishment to June 9. The prosecution demanded either capital punishment or life imprisonment for the convicts.

The case shook the nation after a mob set about attacking the society in the heart of Ahmedabad and killing the residents, including the former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri.

As it happened:

1:55 p.m.: Hearing on quantum of punishment adjourned to June 9.

12:37 p.m.: The prosecution demands either capital punishment or life imprisonment for the convicts.

12:29 p.m.: Advocate S.M. Vora appearing for the victims also demands exemplary punishment to the 24 persons found guilty.

12:24 p.m.: Public prosecutor submits that capital punishment be awarded to the convicts.

12:15 p.m.: Special public prosecutor finishes his submission on quantum of punishment to the convicts. Court's order shortly.

11:51 a.m.: It's a case of mass murder so exemplary punishment should be awarded to the convicts: public prosecutor.

11:49 a.m.: Special public prosecutor demands severe punishment for the convicts, saying the victims were roasted alive.

11:48 a.m.: The court had dropped conspiracy and rape charges against the accused.

11:20 a.m.: Convicts have been brought to the court room and judge P.B Desai has started the proceedings.

10:55 a.m.: Those acquitted include sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel, the then police inspector of the area under which the Gulbarg Society was located, K G Erda, and former Congress corporator Meghsinh Chaudhari.

10:52 a.m.: While pronouncing the judgment, the court had said there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case and dropped charges under section 120-B of the IPC.

10:50 a.m.: On June 2, Special Court Judge P.B. Desai convicted 24 of the 66 accused, including a VHP leader, in the Gulbarg society massacre, which left 69 people including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri dead.

Gulbarg society massacre timeline

February 2002: During the Gujarat riots a Hindu mob attacked the Gulbarg society in Ahmedabad in which 69 people were killed. Among the deceased was former parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri. 

November 2007: The Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of the former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri, seeking the court’s directive to the police to register a complaint against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others for their alleged involvement in the Gulberg Society massacre. 

March 2008: The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to set up a special investigation team (SIT) for a further probe into 14 Godhra and post-Godhra communal riots cases. The SIT was asked to investigate the incidents that occurred in Godhra, Sardarpura, Gulberg Society, Ode, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Deepla Darwaza and the one involving British nationals. 

August 2010: The Supreme Court permitted the Special Investigation Team to conduct further probe on the complaint by Zakia Jaffrey that Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others orchestrated the 2002 riots in Gujarat. 

March 2010: The trial put on hold because of the resignation of the special prosecutor and his assistant. Both had alleged bias on the part of the trial judge and have also accused the SIT of not properly coordinating their efforts with them. 

March 2011: Gujarat Deputy Inspector-General of Police Sanjiv Bhatt, who is claimed to have spilled the beans on Modi's alleged controversial orders to the police on the eve of the 2002 communal riots, appeared before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. 

February 2012: The SIT in a “summary closure report” — says there was no “prosecutable evidence” against Mr. Modi, who was among 62 persons named in an omnibus complaint filed by Ms. Jafri and the Citizens for Justice and Peace. 

March 2012: The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects Zakia Jafri's plea to making public the SIT report. 

December 2013: Ahmedabad Metropolitan court rejects the petition of Zakia Jafri against the closure report of the Special Investigation Team giving a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister in a case relating to the 2002 communal riots. 

December 2013: Reacting to an Ahmedabad trial court verdict, R.K. Raghavan, head of the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court to go into Gujarat riots, says SIT’s stand has been vindicated. 

November 2014: The trial in the Gulbarg Society case, resumed following the Supreme Court’s directions to conclude it in three months. 

November 2014: The Supreme Court asks the Sessions Court to complete the trial in the Gulbarg case, one of the nine cases connected to the 2002 post-Godhra riots, in three months. 

August 6, 2015: Supreme Court grants three-month extension to Ahmedabad court to complete trial proceedings in the case. 

June 2, 2016: A Special court convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 persons. 

Read More...

Mathura Cult Chief Ram Vriksh Yadav Killed In Clashes, Say Police

    The members of the cult in Mathura had set off has cylinder explosions when they clashed with the police.

MATHURA: Ram Vriksh Yadav, leader of the cult that clashed with policemen in Mathura on Thursday, was among those killed in the violence, the police have said.Twenty-four people, including two policemen, had diedin the clashes.

Yadav was the key accused of leading the violence andran a camp backed by a private army divided into unitswhich had taken over Mathura's Jawahar Bagh. He had eight cases against him including murder and land-grabbing.

More than 3,000 people of the cult, which called itself Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah, hadambushed nearly a thousand policemen with swords, guns and grenades after police launched a drive to evict them.

They also lit hundreds of cooking gas cylinders leading to a huge explosion and causing most of the deaths. Yadav appeared to be among those killed in the fire and his body had been lying in the mortuary for two days, police said.

Two police officers were killed in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura in clashes between police and members of a sect.

The identity of several of those killed, including Yadav, could not be confirmed till Saturday as many of them were charred and no one had turned up to claim them.

According to sources, Yadav hailed from the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. He formed an offshoot of the Jai Gurudev sect after the death of its leader in 2012 and a fight over succession.

Claiming to be political and social revolutionaries, his group said they were fighting for the abolition of elections and cheaper fuel for everyone.

In March 2014, his group was allowed to camp at Jawahar Bagh for two days after being denied permission to take a protest march to Delhi - an encroachment started which ended on Thursday.

Government sources had told NDTV that they had started action against the encroachment in the park a month ago, when the last appeal by Yadav was rejected by a court.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's government has faced sharp criticism for the operation. He later said that he did not "anticipate they (members of the sect who attacked cops) would be so well armed".

Read More...