Air Asia pilot’s teenage daughter broke down as the debris came afloat in the Java Sea reaffirming the worst; in Nigeria, 12-year-old Sunta was the only survivor in Baga village after Boko Haram open fired and killed mercilessly. Yin Chuan dragged her three-year-old son to the river front in Shanghai for the New Year’s eve celebration but 30 minutes later he was carried to her all bloody, bruised and dead. Paris is still trying to figure out how to deal with the Charlie Hebdo killings even as the mother of two girls in UP is asking why both her daughters were so brutally raped and murdered and a delayed case registered a week laterIJ January 2015 has begun on a wrong note. Sunday Pioneer tells you more about these 15 black days of new year
Blood on the streets of Shanghai
It was around 11:35 pm that the stampede on the Bund river front in Shanghai broke out on December 31, 2014. As the clock struck in the New Year at 12 midnight, dead bodies were strewn all over the busy street. The music and dance had given way to cries of agony. Within a few minutes, many families had lost their near and dear ones. Thirty six people were trampled to death in a stampede at the bottom of a 17-step, 5-metre-wide concrete staircase which led to one of the best vantage points of the Huangpu River. Nearly 50 others were critically injured.
According to witnesses, people were trying to climb the staircase to the viewing platform as others tried to get down. What followed was panic and confusion. “People standing on the steps to the viewing platform began to fall down the stairs, collapsing into each other. It was a nightmare. I heard people screaming, someone fell, people shouted ‘don’t rush. There were so many people and I couldn’t stand properly,” a 20-year-old grocery store owner in China told journalists, recounting the incident.
While she made it safe and sound, not everyone was as lucky. Thirtynine-year-old Yin Chuan, a musician, lost her only son (a toddler). “He did not want to come here but I dragged him, saying it would be fun. When we reached the bottom of the stairs there was mayhem. I was forced to let go of his hand. Then people started falling down, row by row. After 20 minutes of screaming for him, I found him lying still on the ground. His head was badly bruised. He was bleeding and not breathing,” Yin told a Daily.
Shanghai had hosted a New Year light show on this popular riverfront for the previous three years, but authorities cancelled it in 2014 because of concerns about overcrowding. In place of it, a light show was held at a nearby 2,000-person venue that required admission tickets. But thousands of people still turned up for the traditional show on the riverfront. When the authorities became alarmed by the size of the crowd, they drafted in another 500 police officers, but by then it was too late to prevent one of the biggest disasters to strike China on New Year.
Floating bodies, sinking hope
In the first week of January 2015, the Navy responsible for search operations over Java Sea found bodies of passengers of the Air Asia flight floating on the surface. “Some passengers had died holding hands. It was the most moving search operation that we have been involved in. I couldn’t stop my tears,” Neil Thomas, the photographer who sent the first images of the floating bodies and debris of the battered plane, told the media. Underwater photos showed the cracked fuselage and part of a wing of Flight QZ8501 that went down on December 28 in stormy weather during a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
The discovery of the fuselage is the latest boost in a lengthy search operation in Indonesian waters hampered by bad weather. Just 50 bodies have so far been recovered with most victims believed to be trapped inside the Airbus 320-200’s main body. As per latest reports, a Singaporean navy ship has located the main body of plane, raising hopes that the remaining bodies of most of the 162 victims will now be found and laid to rest.
AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes confirmed the fuselage had been found in a tweet, saying: It is so so sad though seeing our aircraft. I’m gutted and devastated. We hope all our guests are there,” he told mediapersons.
“My brother James was on his way to give me a surprise visit as I was recovering from a near fatal accident. He didn’t tell me about his visit. It was only when I logged into Facebook that I saw a picture of James with the airbus in the background and I was happy he was coming to see me. I have been visiting the airport ever since. They haven't found his body yet. But the fact that they have found everyone else makes me believe that the worst has happened,” Francis Sophoria, an MBA student, told a news agency in Malaysia.
There are 20 such families who come to the airport every day since January 1, 2015waiting for news of their loved ones being found.
Raped & killed
As per a latest BEA Global report, more than 33 brutal rapes have already taken place in the world over since January 1, of which nine have been reported from India — two from the same family in Jhilmil village of western UP. Two sisters, Kamla and Vinita, were gangraped in a stone mill by four men because the elder sister refused the advances of one. The girls were found after a week and their bodies had already decomposed. “A missing persons report was filed on January 3 and we found the two inside the mill with their hands and legs tied to a pillar on January 11. They were burnt and tortured to death. An autopsy report revealed that the girls had been continuously raped by multiple men even after they had passed away. Two of the criminals have been nabbed but the mastermind is still at large,” Vikkrant Goenka, Inspector, Jhilmil (south), said about the incident.
Just 100 metres away from this village in Bundia Nagar, a five-year-old schoolgirl was raped by a guard and gagged to death. By the time she was spotted in her school she had bled profusely and turned blue.
In Bodh Gaya, a Japanese student who was pursuing philosophy at the Gaya University, was kidnapped and gangraped for over a month. She managed to flee and went straight to the police station to file a report. She had been beaten and assaulted several times. None of the five accused in this case have been nabbed.
Press-ing issue
On January 7, at about 11:30 local time, two masked gunmen forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. They killed 12 people, including Editor Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, 7 other Charlie Hebdo employees and two National Police officers and wounded 11 others. Charlie Hebdo had attracted attention for its controversial depictions of Prophet Muhammad.
The gunmen were armed with AK -47 assault rifles, a shotgun and an M80 Zolja anti-tank weapon. They fired up to 50 shots with automatic weapons, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ . The police detained several people during the manhunt for the two main suspects. A third suspect voluntarily reported to a police station after hearing he was wanted, and was not charged.
On January 11, up to 2 million people, including more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris for a rally of national unity to honour the 17 victims. In all, 3.7 million people joined demonstrations across France, in what officials called the largest public rally in France since World War 11. The phrase Je Suis Charlie (French for "I am Charlie") was a common slogan against the attacks. The remaining staff of Charlie Hebdo continued normal weekly publication and the following issue sold out a print run of 5 million copies in six languages, in contrast to its typical French-only 60,000.
Mass murders
On January 7, Boko Haram militants opened fire on northern Nigerian villages, leaving bodies scattered everywhere and as many as 2,000 people dead. In what was termed as the deadliest attack on Baga and surrounding towns, authorities say more bodies could surface in the coming days.
The Islamist militants sprayed bullets as they stormed in trucks and armored vehicles. When they arrived, they unloaded motorcycles and pursued residents who fled into the bush, firing indiscriminately, Baba Abba Hassan, a local district head was reported saying.
local officials reported death tolls ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,000 people. “Dead bodies litter the bushes in the area and it is still not safe to go and pick them (up) for burial,” said Musa Bukar, the chairman of the local Government where Baga is located.
Some people who hid in their homes were burnt alive and women were dragged to open fields and slaughtered in full public view. During the raid that started on January 3, hundreds of gunmen seized the town of Baga and neighboring villages, as well as a multinational military base. Attacks started at dawn and continued throughout last weekend, according to residents.
An operation is underway to reclaim the areas from the militants, according to Mike Omeri, a Government spokesman. At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said. About 20,000 of the displaced camped in Maiduguri city, the capital of Borno state.
Boko Haram has terrorised northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, and bombing Government buildings. It has also kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April and remain missing. The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
Boko Haram (Western education is forbidden), officially called Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad ("People Committed to the Prophet's Teachings for Propagation and Jihad"), is a terrorist, militant and Islamist movement based in northeast Nigeria with additional activities in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The group is led by Abubakar Shekau, and membership has been estimated to number between a few hundred and a few thousand. The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and the United Nations Security Council, which declared it an al-Qaeda affiliate and imposed the al-Qaeda sanctions regime on the group.