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Two Maoists, one of them allegedly involved in the 2012 abduction of an IAS officer, were arrested in separate operations in Bastar division, from Chattisgarh’s Sukma on 20 August 2021. The arrested rebels were carrying a reward of Rs one lac each, on their heads. A joint team of the District reserve Guard and local police apprehended Rava Ganga from Phulbagdi police station, while Sukram Kawasi was arrested from Dantewada.

Dalit Assaulted For
A Dalit teenager’s request for prasada (religious offering) on 14 August 2021 from a temple led to him and his parents being beaten up, near Bangalore. A man named Kishore allegedly assaulted the Dalit teenager on 14 August 2021, when he asked for prasada from a special puja at the Anjaneya temple in Vishwa-nathapora village, in Devanshali a few kms from Bangalore airport. Two days later Kishore allegedly hurled caste abuses at the boy’s mother Aruna, when she confronted him, when her husband Muninan-jappa, a school teacher tried to defend his wife. Kishore and two of his relatives allegedly beat up the couple. None of the three accused had been arrested till 21 August 2021. At Halhole village in Udupi, five members of a family including four women, allegedly beat a 35- year-old day labourer Venkata Ramana, with wooden logs on 17 August 2021, and poured a chemical on him on 17 August 2021. The accused had found Venkataramana working in a four acre Nut plantation, whose ownership they claimed, but which a court had handed to a man named Laxmi-narayana Chatra, after a lengthy case. The accused had allegedly attacked Venkataramana, when he said the owner had hired him. Both cases had been booked under the Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, apart from penal code actions.

Sanctions In Afghanistan
Afghanistan is facing the heightened risk of a financial collapse, after being propped up for the past two decades by foreign aid, that now accounts for nearly half its legal economy. The United States and the international community are already shutting the flow of money, leaving Afghanistan in the stranglehold of sanctions that were designed to cut the Taliban off from the global financial system. Signs of strain are evident as the value of the Afghanistan’s currency, the Afgani, plunges to record lows. However Afghanistan’s budget deficit has been relatively low, as a share of its economy. 

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Frontier
Vol. 54, No. 11, Sep 12 - 18, 2021