Feature
Hostage reveals drama inside Sydney siege
Sydney: Sydney hostage Joel Herat has revealed the drama that unfolded inside the cafe where he and 16 others were held at gunpoint by Islamist extremist Man Haron Monis.
In an interview with Fairfax Media published Thursday, his father Bruce Herat said Joel told them Monis repeatedly said “someone must die now” when the first of the hostages escaped Monday afternoon.
Three people, including Monis, died in the siege.
Monis was wide awake and highly agitated by the early hours of Tuesday morning in the Lindt Cafe in the city’s central business district.
Joel Herat told his family Monis was herding the terrified hostages into separate groups, Xinhua reported citing the interview. They feared they would “not survive until the morning if they did not do something”, Bruce Herat said.
He said his son’s group of hostages decided to kick down an internal door so they could escape.
“From what Joel told me initially, towards 2 a.m. Monis started to bring groups of people together in close proximity from where they had been dispersed throughout (the cafe),” he said.
“And at that point in time, Joel and five others came to the conclusion that they were not going to survive until the morning if they did not do something.
“So I think him and Jarrod (19-year-old Jarrod Hoffman) basically came to the conclusion that they would bust down the door. And I know that Joel made sure that Harriette (Denny)… got behind him and he said, ‘You’re coming with me’, and basically made sure that all in that group were ready to go when Joel and Jarrod broke down the door, it was a group of six in total, I’m not sure who the others were.”
This was the group seen escaping just before heavily armed tactical assault police stormed the cafe.
Earlier Monday, when the first group of hostages escaped, Monis was furious.
“We knew that three escaped early on, and I knew that was fabulous, but we were very much worried that some form of retribution would be taken,” Bruce Herat said.
“Luckily it wasn’t but I know that when I spoke to Joel later he said that upon the first escape, (Monis) lined up five people, one of them was Joel, and pointed a gun at them and said, ‘Someone must die now’.
“I don’t know how they did it but they did kick down the (internal) door, which leads to the barristers’ chambers, and then the moment they busted that door down, Joel heard shots in his proximity. And he made sure that Harriette got out and Jarrod got out, there were shots as they were fleeing,” Jared Herat’s father said.
“It had to be immediate, no opportunity to look back or anything like that, they just had to take their opportunity.”
Bruce Herat said families of the hostages waited in a nearby court building until the siege ended.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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