"When I asked my son if he was tortured, he said, 'They were hardly going to treat me with love...They used to make us memorize the police version of the case. We were not allowed to sleep until we could recite that version.' " These words by Nisar Ahmed are an excerpt from the106-page report released yesterday, by Human Right Watch titled, "The 'Anti-Nationals': Arbitrary Detention and Torture of Terrorism...

A Delhi court Tuesday ordered deployment of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Mirchpur village in Haryana to protect the witnesses till they record their testimonies in the case relating to an attack on Dalits there in 2010, which led to the death of two community members. Special Judge (Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribal Act) Kamini Lau said: 'I now direct that CRPF deployment at village Mirchpur should be made preferably near the...

As government, corporates seek to engage with NGOs, they gain new significance Brave NGO World?     * The Planning Commission is courting NGOs for policy inputs, views on how to make plans work     * NGOs and local activism forced govt to stall Vedanta, Posco plans     * NGO opposition to snacks being served in schools changed plans to scrap hot meals     * NGO have made the government rethink the Polavaram dam project    ...

Deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi is expected to visit Bengal on Wednesday, the third such trip in less than a month by the poll panel, which described the move as “rare, if not unprecedented”. During his three-day trip, Zutshi will meet the district authorities to “inspect the progress” in implementing the recommendations of an observer team that toured the state earlier this month. Zutshi is also expected to meet state government officials...

Nearly a dozen Dalit families have left this village in the last 15 days as last year's violence in Mirchpur has come back to haunt them. It was here that a 70-year-old and his physically-challenged daughter were killed in an attack by the dominant Jat community. The fear of violence from Jats, who have over the past 12 days staged protests demanding the release of those arrested for the incident in...