01-05-2007, 09:02 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Incredible India goes tourist unfriendly </b>
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi \ Mumbai \ Agra
'Incredible India' has been popularised as a two-word crisp mantra to attract tourists from all over the world to the charms and fascination of a country that is trying to present an alluring package of the past and present. But disturbing news of a series of attacks on tourists shows 'Destination India' as a country with dangers lurking at every step.
The massive expenditure incurred by the Centre in popularising the 'Incredible India' brand has suddenly begun to lose its shine. While the stray incidents may not present a true picture of Indian hospitality and warmth, the horrifying images of lynching and assault on tourists could keep the wavering ones away at a time when the New Year has just set in.
Experts feel that safety is the foremost consideration for tourists and they carefully monitor news and websites to take a close view of the safety aspect before picking up any holiday package.
With the militants going for select attacks on tourists in Jammu & Kashmir to puncture claims of restoration of peace in the Valley, and al-Qaeda's threat lurking over the lure of Goa's beaches, sporadic attacks on the visitors in other parts of India could have a cumulative impact.
The way a British tourist was lynched by a mob at Raigarh in Maharashtra has sent shock waves. <b>The sexual assault on an Australian tourist in full public view at Gateway of India on the night of December 31 could turn out to be another dampener for the Union Tourism Ministry.</b>
Equally shocking is an attack on a tourist bus by Samajwadi Party workers on Thursday at Agra. The SP activists were protesting the execution of Saddam Hussein.
<b>They threw stones at the bus thinking it was carrying foreign tourists but inside were Indians from Goa who had come to see the Taj Mahal. Several tourists, who were on their way to the Taj after visiting Fatehpur Sikri, were injured and were seen cowering under their seats as SP workers shouted slogans against the US.</b>
While the incident was minor in nature , it has come at a time when Saddam Hussein's hanging has inflamed passion in a section of the people. <b>With politicians stoking the fire, the Agra incident is an ominous warning for foreign tourists</b>.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police has renewed investigations into the death of British tourist Stephen Bennett who was lynched by a mob of villagers when he allegedly tailed a woman at a remote area in Raigarh district, 210 km from Mumbai.
Deputy Inspector General of Maharashtra Police (Konkan Range) Satyapal Singh has said that the police were interrogating the woman, Nirmala Rane, once again to ascertain what exactly transpired between her and the British tourist before the Malasai villagers, including her husband and brother-in-law, beat him up.
"The murder took place on December 11 and not December 10, and those who killed the British national hanged the body on a tree in order to make it look like suicide," Singh said.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Raigarh, Madhukar Talpade told newspersons, apparently on the basis of a train ticket recovered from Bennett's pocket, that he boarded the Mandovi Express from Madgaon, Goa, on December 7, to travel up to Mumbai but got down at Roha on the way possibly to take a look at the villages in the Konkan area. "Seeing the foreigner, the woman, who had come out of her house to respond to nature's call early morning, went back and locked the door from inside," Talpade said.
"What was Stephen doing in the Konkan countryside for three days from December 7, including the intervening night of December 9 and 10 is not known, nor have the police clarified as to why they did not reveal the incident for so long a time. The renewed investigations will bring out all the facts," Singh said.
According to reports from London, Bennett, 40, a resident of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was on a holiday in India and was due to return to Cheltenham before Christmas.
There are two versions as to the circumstances leading to the incident. One version is that the husband and relatives of a woman beat Bennette to death, using sticks, after he allegedly molested the woman near her house in the early hours of December 10.
The other version is that the woman in question, seeing the British national, raised an alarm, giving rise to suspicion among her husband and others present inside the house that Bennette had misbehaved with her.
Bennette's body has been sent to his relatives in the United Kingdom, through the British embassy. A divorcee, Bennette used to live alone at Cheltenham in UK, while ex-wife is bringing up his two children in some other place, a report from London said.
In the Gateway of India case, the Mumbai police on Thursday detained five youngsters for questioning in connection with the molestation of a woman tourist.
he police went ahead and made detentions from Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai, even though no formal complaint had been lodged with them in connection with the incident. The police initiated the action, after taking suo moto cognisance of photographs and a brief report about the incident published in a city afternoon newspaper.
One Rizwan Shaiekh (21) was among the youngsters detained by the police. He is seen among a group of people surrounding the women in one of the published pictures taken by the tabloid photographer during the new year-eve revelry witnessed at the Gateway of India. It was Rizwan who led the police to four other youngsters.Â
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Pioneer News Service | New Delhi \ Mumbai \ Agra
'Incredible India' has been popularised as a two-word crisp mantra to attract tourists from all over the world to the charms and fascination of a country that is trying to present an alluring package of the past and present. But disturbing news of a series of attacks on tourists shows 'Destination India' as a country with dangers lurking at every step.
The massive expenditure incurred by the Centre in popularising the 'Incredible India' brand has suddenly begun to lose its shine. While the stray incidents may not present a true picture of Indian hospitality and warmth, the horrifying images of lynching and assault on tourists could keep the wavering ones away at a time when the New Year has just set in.
Experts feel that safety is the foremost consideration for tourists and they carefully monitor news and websites to take a close view of the safety aspect before picking up any holiday package.
With the militants going for select attacks on tourists in Jammu & Kashmir to puncture claims of restoration of peace in the Valley, and al-Qaeda's threat lurking over the lure of Goa's beaches, sporadic attacks on the visitors in other parts of India could have a cumulative impact.
The way a British tourist was lynched by a mob at Raigarh in Maharashtra has sent shock waves. <b>The sexual assault on an Australian tourist in full public view at Gateway of India on the night of December 31 could turn out to be another dampener for the Union Tourism Ministry.</b>
Equally shocking is an attack on a tourist bus by Samajwadi Party workers on Thursday at Agra. The SP activists were protesting the execution of Saddam Hussein.
<b>They threw stones at the bus thinking it was carrying foreign tourists but inside were Indians from Goa who had come to see the Taj Mahal. Several tourists, who were on their way to the Taj after visiting Fatehpur Sikri, were injured and were seen cowering under their seats as SP workers shouted slogans against the US.</b>
While the incident was minor in nature , it has come at a time when Saddam Hussein's hanging has inflamed passion in a section of the people. <b>With politicians stoking the fire, the Agra incident is an ominous warning for foreign tourists</b>.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police has renewed investigations into the death of British tourist Stephen Bennett who was lynched by a mob of villagers when he allegedly tailed a woman at a remote area in Raigarh district, 210 km from Mumbai.
Deputy Inspector General of Maharashtra Police (Konkan Range) Satyapal Singh has said that the police were interrogating the woman, Nirmala Rane, once again to ascertain what exactly transpired between her and the British tourist before the Malasai villagers, including her husband and brother-in-law, beat him up.
"The murder took place on December 11 and not December 10, and those who killed the British national hanged the body on a tree in order to make it look like suicide," Singh said.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Raigarh, Madhukar Talpade told newspersons, apparently on the basis of a train ticket recovered from Bennett's pocket, that he boarded the Mandovi Express from Madgaon, Goa, on December 7, to travel up to Mumbai but got down at Roha on the way possibly to take a look at the villages in the Konkan area. "Seeing the foreigner, the woman, who had come out of her house to respond to nature's call early morning, went back and locked the door from inside," Talpade said.
"What was Stephen doing in the Konkan countryside for three days from December 7, including the intervening night of December 9 and 10 is not known, nor have the police clarified as to why they did not reveal the incident for so long a time. The renewed investigations will bring out all the facts," Singh said.
According to reports from London, Bennett, 40, a resident of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was on a holiday in India and was due to return to Cheltenham before Christmas.
There are two versions as to the circumstances leading to the incident. One version is that the husband and relatives of a woman beat Bennette to death, using sticks, after he allegedly molested the woman near her house in the early hours of December 10.
The other version is that the woman in question, seeing the British national, raised an alarm, giving rise to suspicion among her husband and others present inside the house that Bennette had misbehaved with her.
Bennette's body has been sent to his relatives in the United Kingdom, through the British embassy. A divorcee, Bennette used to live alone at Cheltenham in UK, while ex-wife is bringing up his two children in some other place, a report from London said.
In the Gateway of India case, the Mumbai police on Thursday detained five youngsters for questioning in connection with the molestation of a woman tourist.
he police went ahead and made detentions from Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai, even though no formal complaint had been lodged with them in connection with the incident. The police initiated the action, after taking suo moto cognisance of photographs and a brief report about the incident published in a city afternoon newspaper.
One Rizwan Shaiekh (21) was among the youngsters detained by the police. He is seen among a group of people surrounding the women in one of the published pictures taken by the tabloid photographer during the new year-eve revelry witnessed at the Gateway of India. It was Rizwan who led the police to four other youngsters.Â
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