New Age Islam News Bureau
19 December 2020
A civil right activist
holds placards during a demonstration against 'love jihad' in Bengaluru on
December 1. | Manjunath Kiran/AFP
----
• Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s Fiancee Urges US
President-Elect to Release CIA’s Classified Report into Murder
• UK MPs Urge Sanctions on Riyadh for detaining Former
Saudi Crown Prince Bin Nayef, Other Royals
• A Group of Thirty US Lawmakers Urge Facebook To
Remove Anti-Islam Content
• Tanzeem Islami Call to Enforce Islamic System in
Pakistan
• Afghanistan’s Ghani Conditions Taliban Prisoner
Release on Violence End
• Islamic Religious Council of Singapore Urges Muslims
to Get Vaccine Once Available Here
• Former Polish FM Sikorski Likens Iran’s Zarif to
‘Smiling’ Nazi Germany’s Ribbentrop
• Freed Nigerian Schoolboys Return Home With Tales Of
Beatings And Hunger
India
• Hindu Man in Custody for Eloping With Muslim Woman;
Farha Wants to Live with Naman Madaan
• No Evidence Of Love Jihad- Reported To The Police By
A Local Bajrang Dal Unit - Court Allows Release of Man; Wife Miscarried
• UP ‘Love Jihad’ Law: Allahabad High Court Stays
Action Against Muzaffarnagar Man, Cites ‘Right To Privacy’
• UP 'Love Jihad' Row: HC Seeks Govt Reply on PIL against
Anti-Conversion Law
• UP Anti-Conversion Law Must Be Struck Down
Immediately: Ex-Judge AP Shah
• India junks Pak claim it targeted UN vehicle at LoC
• Violence by Sikhs for Justice: NIA files charge
sheet against 10 terrorists
• India waits for Pakistan to end terror before
resumption of dialogue
--------
Arab World
• Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s Fiancee Urges US
President-Elect to Release CIA’s Classified Report Into Murder
• Turkey-backed fighters clash with Kurdish forces in
north Syria town
• Three security forces killed in Sinai bombing: Egypt
officials
• Turkish military forces pull out from seven military
posts in northwest Syria: Source
• Assad’s aide urges withdrawal of US occupation
forces from Syria
--------
Europe
• UK MPs Urge Sanctions on Riyadh for detaining Former
Saudi Crown Prince Bin Nayef, Other Royals
• Erdogan Tells Merkel Turkey Wants To Turn Over New
Leaf with EU
• Armenia begins three days of mourning for Karabakh
war victims
• EU Top Court Rules Countries Can Ban Halal Slaughter
• EU Parliament calls for 'restrictive measures'
against Egypt
• Italy’s PM discusses developments in Libya with
Haftar
• European Parliament seeks China sanctions over
Uighurs
--------
North America
• A Group of Thirty US Lawmakers Urge Facebook To
Remove Anti-Islam Content
• Top US Court Rejects School Bid for Religious
Carve-Out
• Trump upbeat on Gulf row end in call with Saudi
leader
• US to reject 2021 Syrian polls if not in line with
UNSC
• US sanctions 4 entities over Iran's petrochemical
sale
--------
Pakistan
• Tanzeem Islami Call to Enforce Islamic System in
Pakistan
• In Bid To Whip Up War Hysteria, Pakistan Claims India
Planning Surgical Strike
• Islamabad Union Councils To Start Registering
Religious Minorities’ Marriages, Says PM’s Aide
• Police arrest 4 terrorists including top commander
in Pak
• COAS is ‘sensible’ person, tolerating Sharif’s
diatribe: PM
• Pak-China joint air drills important to boost combat
readiness: Bajwa
--------
South Asia
• Afghanistan’s Ghani Conditions Taliban Prisoner
Release on Violence End
• Taliban Suffer Heavy Loss in South Battle, 47 Killed
• Pak-Afghan Youth Forum Held a Conclave Media
Conference
• Taliban meets Pakistani PM Imran Khan
• ‘Children among Dead’ in Ghazni Blast
• Taliban Commander Busted in Badakhshan
• Blast at religious gathering in central Afghanistan
kills at least 15, wounds 20
--------
Southeast Asia
• Islamic Religious Council of Singapore Urges Muslims
to Get Vaccine Once Available Here
• Hardline cleric’s supporters, cops clash in
virus-hit Indonesia
• Covid-19: No public programmes allowed in Kuantan
district from tomorrow, says state disaster committee
• Supporters of hardliner Rizieq Shihab clash with
Indonesia police
--------
Mideast
• Former Polish FM Sikorski Likens Iran’s Zarif to
‘Smiling’ Nazi Germany’s Ribbentrop
• Turkish philanthropist on trial for alleged failed
coup ties
• Yemen announces new government formation: State TV
• Iran’s First Vice President Hopes Stronger Iran,
Qatar Ties
--------
Africa
• Freed Nigerian Schoolboys Return Home With Tales Of
Beatings And Hunger
• Turkey hails US removal of Sudan from terrorism list
• Ethiopia offers reward for information on dissenting
Tigray leaders
• UN appeals for $254 million in aid for Mozambique
conflict victims
• 60% of South Sudan population facing acute hunger:
UN
• Nigerian leader welcomes release of over 300
students
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/hindu-man-custody-eloping-with/d/123817
--------
Hindu Man in Custody for Eloping With Muslim Woman;
Farha Wants to Live with Naman Madaan
Dec 19, 2020
A civil right activist
holds placards during a demonstration against 'love jihad' in Bengaluru on
December 1. | Manjunath Kiran/AFP
----
MEERUT: A 25-year-old man was “recovered” from
Rishikesh with a Muslim woman he was accused of kidnapping, about 170km away
from Meerut where they lived, fell for each other and eloped on Sunday. Their
fate will now be decided in a Meerut court which will take a call on the case
filed against the accused, an adult. The woman, meanwhile, has told police that
she wanted to live with her lover.
Owner of a confectionary shop, Naman Madaan, used to
frequent Farha’s home in a Muslim-dominated colony for delivery of goodies in
Meerut. Farha, 23, liked cakes, and soon started liking Madaan too.
Facing resistance from their families, the couple
finally decided to leave their homes and stay together. On December 13, they
reached Rishikesh and got married in a temple. Farha decided to switch to
Hinduism, and she chose a name too, Mahi.
Back home, a storm was brewing.
Farha’s brother, Mohd Irshad, filed a police complaint
alleging kidnapping of his sister by Madaan. An FIR under IPC section 366
(kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) was registered
against Madaan, a resident of Shastri Nagar locality.
“On the evening of December 13, Naman Madaan lured
away my sister. I found some cash missing and a mobile phone was recovered of
which we were unaware of. Strict action should be taken against the kidnapper,”
Irshad alleged in a written complaint to the police.
In an interesting turn of events, members of a saffron
outfit sprang into action and alleged that Madaan was kidnapped, and not vice
versa.
After five days of search, the couple was “recovered”
by police from Rishikesh on Thursday evening. Now Madaan is in police custody.
According to Sanjay Verma, station house officer (SHO)
of Nauchandi police station, “The woman has denied any foul play in her
relationship with the man. Farha also said she has not been pressured to elope
and had gone with Madaan to get married in a temple in Rishikesh.”
Their statements were recorded in the court on Friday,
and the verdict is yet to be known
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/meerut/hindu-man-in-police-custody-for-eloping-marrying-muslim-woman-who-changed-her-religion/articleshow/79802760.cms
--------
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s Fiancee Urges US
President-Elect to Release CIA’s Classified Report into Murder
19 December 2020
Hatice Cengiz has called
on Joe Biden to keep his campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia ‘pay a price for
the murder’. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images
----
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, has
called on the US president-elect, Joe Biden, to release the CIA’s classified
report into the Washington Post journalist’s murder once he enters the White
House, a move she said would “greatly assist” in uncovering the truth.
The classified intelligence assessment has never been
released but media outlets have reported, without providing more details, that
it concludes with “medium to high confidence” that the Saudi crown prince,
Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the killing.
Publishing a declassified version of the report,
Cengiz and other activists say, would prove Biden is committed to making Saudi
Arabia “pay a price for the murder”, as he promised to do during the 2020
campaign.
“I am calling on the president-elect to release the
CIA’s assessment and evidence. It will greatly assist in uncovering the truth
about who is responsible for Jamal’s murder,” Cengiz said.
Asked whether it was under consideration, a source
familiar with the transition and the president-elect’s thinking said: “The
president-elect stands by what he said on the campaign trail regarding the
murder of Jamal Khashoggi. We know there remains work to do – including to
provide the necessary transparency.”
Khashoggi disappeared while visiting the Saudi
consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to pick up paperwork for his marriage to
Cengiz. His remains have never been located or returned. Riyadh eventually
admitted the 59-year-old had been killed by Saudi agents in what it says was an
extradition operation gone wrong, but Prince Mohammed has always denied any
involvement or knowledge of the killing.
During the election, Biden emerged as an outspoken
critic of Prince Mohammed, saying during a Democratic debate that he would make
Saudi Arabia “the pariah they are” if he was elected. He also said the US would
stop selling weapons to the kingdom if he won.
Most analysts and Saudi dissidents who live outside
the kingdom agree that the US posture toward Saudi will change once Biden
enters the White House, in contrast to Donald Trump’s close ties to the crown
prince.
But the question now is how far Biden will go – and
what specific issues he could influence. While the US could hasten an end to
the war in Yemen, pressing the kingdom on domestic human rights abuses could
prove to be more challenging.
“I think [releasing the classified report on Khashoggi’s
murder] is an easy one for the president to do. The ramifications will be
profound,” said Safa Al Ahmad, a Saudi journalist and human rights campaigner
who has lived in exile since 2014.
But there is also scepticism that it will happen.
First, because it is not clear that Biden will seek to shake up relations with
the Saudis in his first weeks in office. Second, because of alleged practical
risks associated with releasing the intelligence.
“I think it is highly unlikely. To protect sources and
methods it would need to be highly redacted. Such a document would not be very
satisfying. To do otherwise would be to reduce significantly our ability to
monitor activities,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and senior fellow
at the Brookings Institution.
Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on
extrajudicial killings, who investigated the Khashoggi murder, said she
believed the report could be released without compromising CIA sources or
methods.
“I, for one, am sick and tired of intelligence always
taking precedence over justice,” she said. “So much information is held by the
US about the murder of journalists, including the identity of the masterminds,
corrupt officials and people who abuse their power. Surely the search for
justice, the fight against impunity demand that this information be made made
public,” she said.
While Biden may ultimately backtrack on some of his
tough talk against the kingdom, Riedel said there would nevertheless be “big
change”, especially on arms sales.
“The Saudis have only belatedly begun to realise that
the good old days are coming to an end. I think they are trying to figure out
what to do and are particularly concerned about Biden reviving the Iran nuclear
deal, which they are completely opposed to,” Riedel said.
Riedel said the change in US administrations comes as
Prince Mohammed, known as MBS, seemed to be increasingly worried about his own
security and paranoid – perhaps with reason – about his position.
“MBS holds almost all of his meetings in the fantasy
city of Neom. Well, there is a reason for that. It is the safest place for him
to be in the kingdom and I think it is reflection of his very acute concerns.
He has alienated an awful lot of Saudis,” Riedel said.
The Guardian has been told that a number of princes in
the Bin Jalawi family had recently been placed under house arrest on the orders
of the crown prince. While this could not be verified independently, Riedel
said that, given that the family was second in prominence only to the Al Saud
family, the alleged house arrests were very significant. A US official said
such arrests would be in line with the crown prince’s crackdown on any sign of
dissent. The Saudi embassy in London did not respond to a request for comment.
The Saudi crown prince has held his closest political
rival, the former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, in custody since March, as
well as the two adult children of Saad Aljabri, a former intelligence chief who
is known for his close ties to the US and is living in exile in Canada.
While Biden is not known to have had an especially
close relationship with Mohammed bin Nayef, whom he met on a trip to Riyadh as
late as 2011, analysts say they believe that “MBN’s” continued imprisonment
will be among the top human rights issues raised by the Biden administration.
No official explanation has ever been given by the
Saudi government as to why Bin Nayef has been detained, but a shifting list of
allegations have been used ranging from the coup attempt, addiction,
corruption, treason and conspiracy with the Obama administration.
Other cases that will probably cause consternation
include the recent move by a Saudi court to sentence Walid Fitaihi, a dual
US-Saudi national, to six years in prison following his 2017 arrest, despite
appeals by the Trump administration for him to be released. Fitaihi’s family
has claimed that he was tortured while in custody and that charges against him
relate to tweets he posted that were supportive of the Arab spring as well as
his allegedly unauthorised move to obtain US citizenship.
Another political prisoner, the women’s rights
campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul, who is also believed to have been tortured in
custody, has recently been put on trial in a special terrorism court after
being detained for two years without charge, in a case that has prompted
criticism from human rights organisations.
Callamard, who is due to take up a new post as head of
Amnesty International next year, said she was not “naive enough” to believe
that Biden would radically transform the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, but
that he would make moves toward accountability.
“The shape, the messaging, it matters. We are talking
about a message – it is a small accountability step by the United States and
its democratic institutions,” she said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/jamal-khashoggis-fiancee-urges-joe-biden-to-release-cia-report
------
UK MPs Urge Sanctions on Riyadh for detaining Former
Saudi Crown Prince Bin Nayef, Other Royals
18 December 2020
British lawmakers have
raised renewed concerns over the unlawful detention of the former Saudi crown
prince and other royals
------
British lawmakers have raised renewed concerns over
the unlawful detention of the former Saudi crown prince and other royals,
calling on London and other governments to slap sanctions on the kingdom over
its growing human rights abuses.
In a cross-party investigatory panel report, released
by UK media on Thursday, the legislators said the detention of Mohammed bin
Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — a cousin and potential rival of Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman — was in violation of international law and posed a
threat to the security of the kingdom itself and the Western states.
Bin Nayef was arrested along with his half-brother
Nawaf and his uncle Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on charges of “treason” during
a crackdown on royals, in what has been widely viewed as an attempt by bin
Salman to tighten his grip on power.
The ex-heir to the throne was ousted by Salman in 2017
and has effectively been under house arrest since then.
To compile the report, the British MPs interviewed
mainly dissidents, human rights groups, senior UK government officials and
Mohammed bin Nayef’s allies. Saudi officials, however, refused to cooperate
with the panel on the probe.
The report shed light on bin Nayef’s dire detention
condition and said it had found that he was “suffering from pains in his
joints, particularly his knees, making it difficult for him to walk comfortably
without assistance, and there is evidence of damage to his feet, adding to the
pain in walking.”
He has not been allowed to see either his family or
his doctor and has lost a significant amount of weight since March, it added.
The panel said it had evidence that bin Nayef “has not
been able to contest his detention before an independent and impartial judge,
has no access to a lawyer to discuss his situation and his case has not been
reviewed to determine whether it is appropriate to continue his detention.”
Bin Nayef was threatened with solitary confinement if
he refused to give settlement funds to Riyadh, the investigation revealed.
The British lawmakers said governments across the West
feared their Middle Eastern ally would be “pilloried in the wider court of
public opinion” if it fails to respect the norms of international law towards
its own citizens.
They also said the Saudi failure to live up to
international human rights standards would undermine the kingdom and the
security of the west.
The lawmakers further called on the UK and other
countries to halt extraditions to Saudi Arabia and subject it to penalties
similar to those listed in America’s so-called Magnitsky Act, which targets the
individuals it sees as human rights offenders with sanctions such as asset
freeze and travel ban.
They also recommended London and other governments to
require giant social media firms to help “identify campaigns of public
intimidation” launched on their platforms “by state actors or individuals who
appear to be coordinated by state actors.”
Under bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has been under
increasing scrutiny over its dismal treatment of Saudi dissidents and human
rights activists at home as well as its war crimes in Yemen, where it has been
engaged in a US-backed military campaign with the help of a group of its vassal
states.
The kingdom’s gloomy rights record has, however,
received a particular spotlight since the state-sponsored assassination of
dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh’s consulate in Turkey in October
2017.
Most recently, reports coming of Saudi Arabia indicate
that bin Salman has launched a new crackdown under the guise of fighting
corruption resembling the 2017 drive that rounded up royals and business
tycoons in Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton hotel
This time, the push — ordered by bin Salman — has
targeted top-ranking military officials as well as low-key municipal, health
and environment officials, leading to scores of detentions in recent months and
the seizure of hoards of cash.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/18/641000/UK-Lawmakers-Sanctions-Saudi-Arabia-Bin-Nayef-Bin-Salman
--------
A Group of Thirty US Lawmakers Urge Facebook To Remove
Anti-Islam Content
Michael Gabriel Hernandez
16.12.2020
WASHINGTON
A group of 30 lawmakers urged Facebook Tuesday to
remove anti-Muslim content on the social media platform, saying it is
"dangerous" and "deadly."
Led by Democratic congresswoman Debbie Dingell, the
lawmakers said Facebook has failed to take action "in response to the
abuse of your platform to dehumanize Muslims and stoke violence and genocide
against Muslims around the world."
"Thus far, Facebook has appeared to lack the will
necessary to effectively address hate and violence targeting Muslims,"
they wrote in a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The lawmakers are seeking six measures that span a
variety of actions, including the formation of a working group on anti-Muslim
bigotry, greater enforcement actions targeting militias and white supremacists,
and an independent review of Facebook's "enabling anti-Muslim violence,
genocide and internment."
Scott Simpson, a director for the Muslim Advocates
advocacy group, thanked the lawmakers for the letter, which he said would work
towards "holding Facebook accountable for the harm it has inflicted on
American Muslims here and Muslims abroad."
"Just last week, we learned that not only did the
Christchurch shooter use Facebook to livestream his slaughter, he also was a
member of multiple anti-Muslim hate groups on the platform. Anti-Muslim hate
has consequences and Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg must finally take
action to stop it from proliferating on their platform,” he said in a
statement.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-lawmakers-urge-facebook-to-remove-anti-islam-content/2078172
--------
Tanzeem Islami Call to Enforce Islamic System In
Pakistan
December 19, 2020
LAHORE: Tanzeem Islami (TI) Ameer Shujauddin Sheikh
has said the fall of Dhaka, in fact, occurred due to our failure to practically
implement the ideology of Pakistan - Islam.
Observing December 16 as a “Black Day’ or blaming each
other for the separation of East Pakistan would not help in any way in averting
the same problems being faced by the ‘present’ Pakistan, he said in a statement
on Friday.
Had the ideology of Pakistan, i.e. the Islamic system
of collective justice, accountability and morality been practically enforced
immediately after independence in 1947, Pakistan would have been intact,
Shujauddin Sheikh said.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/760722-call-to-enforce-islamic-system-in-country
--------
Afghanistan’s Ghani conditions Taliban prisoner
release on violence end
18 December 2020
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has rejected a
US-Taliban proposal for the government in Kabul to free more prisoners of the
militant group as part of a peace agreement in February, saying his country’s
people will not allow a further release of Taliban inmates as the group has
failed to fulfill a pledge to reduce its nationwide bloodshed and violence.
Speaking during a trip to the southern Kandahar
Province on Thursday, Ghani said the Taliban had destroyed 16 percent of
Afghanistan’s wealth in the war last year and that the militant group’s call
for the release of more prisoners at this stage was unacceptable.
“Now that they (Taliban) ask for the release of
another 2,000 (prisoners), will you allow their release? No!, We saw that the
bloodshed did not stop. They must stop the bloodshed so we can talk,” the
Afghan president said, addressing the local people.
Ghani underlined that if the Taliban are willing to
bring peace and security to the country, they can come to Kandahar to hold
talks with the Afghan government’s delegation.
The Afghan president also pointed to the recent
attacks by the Taliban in various parts of the southern province and pledged
that Afghan security forces would do their utmost to restore security.
Earlier in the week, Afghan officials announced that
peace talks between the government and the Taliban militant group are set to
resume in early January as the two sides take a break after reaching a
preliminary agreement to end the conflict.
Representatives from the government in Kabul and those
from the Taliban held the first round of the much-awaited intra-Afghan negotiations
in Doha on September 12. The talks are also attended by politicians from
Afghanistan, international organizations and the United States.
The talks were set to take place in March, but were
repeatedly delayed over a prisoner exchange agreement made as part of a deal
between the Taliban and the US.
Under the deal, signed on February 28, the Taliban
agreed to halt their attacks on foreign forces in return for the US military’s
phased withdrawal from Afghanistan and the prisoner exchange with Kabul.
But official data shows that violence has increased by
70 percent in Afghanistan since the US-Taliban deal.
Top US general presses Taliban to end violence
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark
Milley held unannounced talks with the Taliban negotiators in the Qatari
capital Doha, where the militant group has its political office, to press them
on a reduction in attacks.
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP),
Milley met for about two hours with the Taliban negotiators and on Wednesday
flew to Kabul to discuss the process with Ghani.
“The most important part of the discussions that I had
with both the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan was the need for an
immediate reduction in violence,” Milley told reporters. “Everything else
hinges on that.”
The US invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the ruling
Taliban regime. US troops were first sent to Afghanistan after the September
11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
American forces have remained bogged down in
Afghanistan through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and now,
Donald Trump.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/18/640993/Afghanistan-Ashraf-Ghani-Taliban-prisoners-
--------
Islamic Religious Council of Singapore Urges Muslims
To Get Vaccine Once Available Here
Lester Wong
DEC 14, 2020
The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) has
urged Muslims to get vaccinated once a Covid-19 vaccine is available, and
medically authorised as safe and effective.
In an irsyad-or religious guidance - issued yesterday,
Muis said a Covid-19 vaccine is permissible for use by Muslims as it is a basic
necessity to protect lives in the context of a global pandemic.
"The objectives of introducing a Covid-19 vaccine
and the processes involved in producing vaccines in general are largely aligned
to established Islamic principles and values," it added, noting that Islam
places great importance on the sanctity and safety of human life as well as the
protection of livelihoods.
Muis pointed to a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, it issued
in 2013 on the rotavirus vaccine. The ruling considered vaccines to be a form
of preventive treatment from diseases and encouraged in Islam.
"This is drawn from the prophetic guidance that
one should consume foods that offer some protection from illnesses," it
added.
Muis' religious guidance comes on the back of concerns
among Muslims in the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia over the
halal status of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The religious view of a Covid-19 vaccine must take a
more holistic stance that "transcends the narrow view of halalness or
permissibility of its ingredients", Muis said, setting out three areas
that it said have been carefully considered.
First, vaccines are a critical necessity in saving
lives and ensuring societies can function safely and cohesively.
A second important consideration is that any vaccine
must not have any known adverse medical effects that will cause harm to those
who take it.
On the permissibility of ingredients used in vaccines,
Muis cited a 2015 ruling on the drug heparin, a blood thinner which contains
pig enzymes, as an example of a situation - evident in some prophetic
traditions - that permits the use of impure or prohibited substances for
treatment.
"The impure substances or prohibited items used
in upstream processes would have undergone multiple layers of chemical
processes such as filtration that would render them undetectable or negligible
in the final product," Muis said.
"In such situations, the final product (drug or
vaccine) is deemed permissible for Muslim use."
In a Facebook post yesterday, Minister-in-charge of
Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli welcomed Muis' religious guidance and strongly
encouraged Muslims to get vaccinated once the vaccines are available in
Singapore.
"I am thankful to our religious leaders who are
highly knowledgeable, progressive, enlightened, and attuned to the concerns of
our Malay/Muslim community in the context of the global pandemic," he
said.
Sign up for our daily updates here and get the latest
news delivered to your inbox.
Get The Straits Times app and receive breaking news
alerts and more. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/muis-urges-muslims-to-get-vaccine-once-available-here
--------
Former Polish FM Sikorski likens Iran’s Zarif to
‘smiling’ Nazi Germany’s Ribbentrop
Ismaeel Naar
18 December 2020
Radoslaw Sikorski, a former Polish foreign minister,
has described Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as a “Ribbentrop,” referring
to Joachim von Ribbentrop who was minister of foreign affairs of Nazi Germany
from 1938 to 1945.
“I have a request to the diplomats from our nation
states and from our [European External Action Service]. Next time you meet with
[Javad Zarif], who's a smiling Ribbentrop, just remember what kind of nasty
regime he represents," Sikorski said in a scathing speech on Thursday in
front of the European Parliament.
Sikorski, currently serving as Poland’s representative
to the European Parliament as an MEP with the center-right European People’s Party
group, was reacting to Iran’s recent execution of Iranian journalist Ruhollah
Zam and the detention Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.
“Iran claims to be an Islamic Republic. But as this
resolution makes clear, it is also one of the world's most repressive regimes.
I therefore have a question to the mullahs in Tehran. If you represent a God
that is good, powerful and merciful, then why do you need to repress, torture,
and murder your people so much?” Sikorski said in his speech.
“No, your regime is a blasphemy and an abomination to
every decent Muslim, every person of faith and every person of conscience,” he
added.
In a resolution supported by 614 votes, the European
Parliament on Thursday condemned Iran for violating human rights.
Iranian dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, who Iran
convicted of fomenting violence during the 2017 anti-government protests, was
executed last Saturday. Zam was a journalist who ran the Amadnews feed on
popular messaging app Telegram, which had more than one million followers.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/18/Former-Polish-FM-Sikorski-likens-Iran-s-Zarif-to-smiling-Nazi-Germany-s-Ribbentrop
--------
Freed Nigerian schoolboys return home with tales of
beatings and hunger
18 December 2020
Dozens of schoolboys who were rescued from kidnappers
in northwest Nigeria arrived back home on Friday, many of them barefoot and
clutching blankets.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Television pictures showed the boys dressed in dusty
clothes, looking weary but otherwise well, getting off buses in the city of
Katsina and walking to a government building.
One boy, who did not give his name, said the captors
had regularly beaten them with canes. He added that the kidnappers had
described themselves as members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram,
although he suspected they were armed bandits.
“They beat us morning, every night. We suffered a lot.
They only gave us food once a day and water twice a day,” he told Arise
television.
“They said I should say they are Boko Haram and gangs
of Abu Shekau,” he added, referring to a name used by a Boko Haram leader.
“What I experienced, sincerely speaking, they are not
Boko Haram ... They are just small and tiny, tiny boys with big guns,” he
added.
A week earlier, gunmen on motorbikes raided the boys’
boarding school in the nearby town of Kankara and marched hundreds of them into
the vast Rugu forest.
Authorities said security services rescued them on
Thursday, but many details surrounding the incident remain unclear, including
who was responsible, whether ransom was paid, how the boys’ release was secured
and whether all of them are now safe.
The abduction gripped a country already incensed by widespread
insecurity, and evoked memories of Boko Haram’s 2014 kidnapping of more than
270 schoolgirls in the northeastern town of Chibok.
Six years on, only about half the girls have been
found or freed. Others were married off to fighters, while some are assumed to
be dead.
Hours before the rescue of the boys was announced, a
video started circulating online purportedly showing Boko Haram militants with
some of the boys. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the footage
or who released it.
Tears of joy, prayers of thanks
On Friday, the boys from the Government Science
Secondary School walked from the buses in single file, flanked by soldiers and
armed police officers, and were taken to the government building to meet the
governor.
Another of the boys said they had been fed with bread
and cassava. “It was cold,” he told Channels TV. Asked how he had felt when the
bus arrived in Katsina, he said: “I was really happy,” and broke into a smile.
“We are very grateful. We are very grateful. We are
very grateful,” a man who said he was the father of two of the pupils told
Arise.
The boys were then brought back and driven off for
medical checks, officials said.
A group of their parents waited to be reunited with
them in another part of town.
“I couldn’t believe what I heard until neighbors came
to inform me that it’s true,” Hafsat Funtua, mother of 16-year-old Hamza
Naziru, said earlier in a phone interview.
Describing the moment she heard the news, she said she
ran out of her house with joy “not knowing where to go” before returning home
to pray.
Last week’s mass kidnapping piled pressure on the
government to deal with militants in the north of the country.
It was particularly embarrassing for President
Muhammadu Buhari, who comes from Katsina state and has repeatedly said that
Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”.
Buhari said he had congratulated the state’s governor
and the army, in a brief clip from an interview posted on his Twitter account
earlier on Friday.
Any Boko Haram involvement would mark a geographical
expansion in its activities from its base in the northeast. The region is also
plagued by armed gangs that rob and kidnap for ransom.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/18/Freed-Nigerian-schoolboys-return-home-with-tales-of-beatings-and-hunger
--------
India
No Evidence Of Love Jihad- Reported To The Police By A
Local Bajrang Dal Unit - Court Allows Release of Man; Wife Miscarried
Dec 19, 2020
BAREILLY: The 22-year-old woman whose husband was
arrested for “love jihad” under UP’s new anti-conversion laws while she was
sent off to a shelter has had a miscarriage, an ultrasound examination at a
private lab has confirmed.
The couple was “reported” to the police by a local
Bajrang Dal unit when they were on their way to get their Nikah registered. Her
husband and brother-in-law, in jail for 13 days now, are set to be released
after police didn’t find any evidence to support the allegation that the woman
had been forcibly converted.
TOI had on Tuesday reported that the woman said she
had miscarried. “We found that the woman had had a miscarriage. There is an
infection in her uterus, which should be treated to avoid further
complications,” Dr PS Sisodia, who performed her ultrasound at the registered
private lab in Dhampur in Bijnor district, told TOI on Friday. The report, a
copy of which is with TOI, found “bulky UT with endometriosis (tissue growing
outside the uterus) and … blood clots in the UT.”
The woman had alleged that she lost her baby after the
district hospital, where she had been admitted with bleeding and severe
abdominal pain, administered “injections”. The hospital had, until Friday,
declined to comment on the miscarriage and denied her allegation.
After the private lab results came to light, acting
chief medical superintendent of the Moradabad district hospital Dr Nirmala
Pathak told TOI, “The reports provided by ultrasonologist Dr RP Mishra clearly
said the foetus was visible but heartbeat was not there.” Dr Mishra told TOI,
“We were doubtful about the baby when the first ultrasound was performed. The
heartbeat was not found. For the second test, we used a Doppler ultrasound but
the heartbeat could not be found then either. For confirmation, I had asked for
a trans vaginal scan because sometimes there are chances that the baby
survives.”
The woman, taken to the hospital on December 11 and
then again on December 13 from the shelter, had not been given her medical
files when she was released on the grounds that it was a “medico-legal” case.
Police on Friday, however, said they don’t need the medical report.
Back with her in-laws at Kanth, the woman was still
not sure how to receive news of her husband about to walk free. “I have been
told for the past five days that he will be released. He’s not out yet. I have
not been able to speak to him even after losing my baby,” she told TOI. “We
love each other. What is the point of court-registered marriages if things like
these happen to people in Love?”
Her husband had not been released at the time of
filing the report. An official at the Moradabad jail, on condition of
anonymity, said the release order, ‘parwana’, had not reached them till Friday
evening. Police have filed a report in the district court under Section 169 of
the CrPC (release of accused when evidence is deficient) and requested release
of her husband and brother-in-law. “The court ordered their release on personal
bonds of Rs 50,000 each,” Moradabad ASP (rural) Vidya Sagar Mishra said on
Friday.
Chairperson of UP State Commission for Protection of
Child Rights, Dr Vishesh Gupta, who had earlier said that the foetus was alive,
was not available for comment. The woman had said he was “tortured” at the
shelter she had been sent to when her husband and brother-in-law were arrested.
Her detention, district probation officer Rajesh Gupta said, was only in
keeping with instructions for legal procedures: “We had kept her at the shelter
on the instructions of the Kanth subdivisional magistrate that she be kept here
till her statement is recorded … Whatever happened at the hospital is outside
our jurisdiction.”]
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bareilly/love-jihad-no-evidence-court-allows-release-of-man-ultrasound-confirms-wife-miscarried/articleshow/79802744.cms
--------
UP ‘love jihad’ law: Allahabad High Court stays action
against Muzaffarnagar man, cites ‘right to privacy’
by Asad Rehman
December 19, 2020
The Allahabad High Court Friday stayed criminal
proceedings against a person from Muzaffarnagar who had been booked under Uttar
Pradesh’s new anti-conversion law a day after it was passed, noting that the
couple involved were adults with “a fundamental right to privacy”.
“Till the next date of listing no coercive measure
shall be taken against the petitioner,” Justices Pankaj Naqvi and Vivek Agarwal
said, on a plea by the accused, Nadeem, adding, “Article 25 provides that all
persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to
profess, practice and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and
health and to other provisions of Part III of the Constitution (that covers
fundamental rights).”
Noting that the woman concerned was an adult “who
understands her well-being”, the court said, “She as well as the petitioner
have a fundamental right to privacy and being grown-up adults… are aware of the
consequences of their alleged relationship.”
Nadeem, a labourer, had been booked by Mansoorpur
Police Station, Muzaffarnagar, on November 29 on a complaint by the husband of
the woman, under Sections 3/5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful
Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, and IPC Sections 120-B (criminal
conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 504 (intentional insult with
intent to provoke breach of peace). The complainant accused Nadeem of wanting
to marry his wife, and coercing her to convert. Nadeem had not been arrested in
the case.
In its order, the court said, “There is no material
before us that any force or coercive process is being adopted by the petitioner
to convert (the woman)… all the allegations are prima facie based on
suspicion.”
The husband said Nadeem knew his wife and would visit
their house, and had gifted her a mobile phone to stay in touch. The
complainant and the woman have two children.
Nadeem’s lawyer appealed for “upholding the right of
privacy as a basic fundamental right covered by Part III of the Constitution”,
and said the FIR was “based on mere suspicion and there is no material to
substantiate the contentions raised”.
Additional Government Advocate Manju Thakur, who
argued on behalf of the state, confirmed to The Indian Express that criminal
proceedings against Nadeem had been stayed.
The court has listed the matter for next hearing on
January 7, along with two other petitions filed against the anti-conversion
ordinance.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/up-love-jihad-law-hc-stays-action-against-man-cites-right-to-privacy-7110614/
--------
UP 'love jihad' row: HC seeks govt reply on PIL
against anti-conversion law
18th December 2020
By Namita Bajpai
LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Friday directed
the Uttar Pradesh government to file a counter-affidavit to a PIL challenging
the constitutional validity of the newly-promulgated Uttar Pradesh Prohibition
of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance-2020, against forced and dishonest
religious conversions.
The ordinance was promulgated in the state on November
28 after the assent of Governor Anandiben Patel. The division bench, comprising
Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Piyush Agrawal passed the order while
hearing the PIL filed by Saurabh Kumar, an Allahabad based lawyer. However, the
division bench refused to grant any interim stay order on the ordinance and
directed the state government to file a counter-affidavit by January 4, 2021
The court posted the matter for January 7 for the next hearing.
The petitioner’s primary argument was that the
ordinance was an infringement of the "fundamental right to choice and the
right to change of faith". According to the petitioner, the Uttar Pradesh
Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, is morally and
constitutionally invalid.
The petitioner requested the court to declare the
ordinance ultra vires or beyond the legal remit of the Constitution. Besides,
he requested the court to direct the authorities not to take any action under
the ordinance during the pendency of the petition.
However, during the course of the hearing, the bench
refused to issue an order to grant an interim stay on the ordinance while
asking the state authorities to present a detailed reply on January 4.
The petitioner had submitted that the provisions of
the ordinance accorded the state policing powers over a citizen’s choice of
life partner or religion and thus militated against the fundamental rights to
individual autonomy, privacy, human dignity, and personal liberty guaranteed
under Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life and personal liberty).
The ordinance also required every religious conversion
to be scrutinised and certified by the state, contended the petitioner.
Underling this point, the petitioner submitted that
the very concept of forcing an individual to explain and justify a decision,
which is closely personal to him/her, before an officer of the state is
contrary to the tenets of the Constitution of India, which ensures such rights.
The petitioner, in his petition, had mentioned that UP
CM Yogi Adityanath had on October 31, 2020, had made a statement that his
government would bring a law against forcible religious conversions to put a
leash on an alleged conspiracy to convert Hindu women.
The petitioner claimed that during his public
statement, TH CM had referred to a single-bench judgment of the Allahabad high
court in the case of Priyanshi alias Shamreen and another versus the state of
UP, in which the court had observed that religious conversion just for the sake
of marriage was invalid.
The petitioner pointed out that a few days later, a
division bench of the high court overruled the single bench verdict, which had
disapproved of religious conversions for the sake of marriage in the Salamat
Ansari and others vs State of UP and others.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/dec/18/up-love-jihad-row-hc-seeks-govt-reply-on-pil-against-anti-conversion-law-2238057.html
--------
UP Anti-Conversion Law Must Be Struck Down
Immediately: Ex-Judge AP Shah
by Sreenivasan Jain, Edited by Harish Pullanoor
December 18, 2020
New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh's new anti-conversion
ordinance, aimed at curbing cases of "love jihad", reflects the
philosophy of a khap panchayat, with the objective essentially being to
subjugate women, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice AP Shah has said. The
retired judge told NDTV that several of its provisions violate the fundamental
right to practice religion, striking at the very root of right to life and
liberty guaranteed under the constitution. This ordinance, he said, was capable
of great public mischief. The former judge found it difficult to believe it was
passed by a government in a country governed by the rule of law and a
constitution.
Speaking to NDTV, Justice AP Shah, who was also former
Chairman of the Law Commission, said, several provisions of the ordinance
seriously violate the fundamental right to practice religion as guaranteed by
Article 25 and strike at the very root of Right to life and liberty guaranteed
by Article 25.
"In any criminal case (where) conversion is
presumed to be illegal, the burden of proof is usually on the prosecution. In
this ordinance, every religious conversion is presumed to be illegal. The
burden of proof lies on the person accused of illegal conversion to prove that
it is not illegal. So there is a presumption of guilt. The offence is
cognisable. It is non-bailable and the police can arrest anyone," Justice
Shah said.
The ordinance, he said, requires a person looking to
convert another, to go to a district magistrate who conducts an enquiry. If the
conversion is based on allurement, then it is illegal. However, the term
allurement itself is defined in a very broad way in this law: a single wedding
gift like a wrist watch, a bangle, or say a ring, would amount to an
allurement, the former judge said.
"Interestingly, reconversion is not illegal. Even
if it is by fraud or force. If a person is converted voluntarily, he might be
arrested. If he is forced to reconvert, then there is no culpable
offence," he pointed out. "If the victim is a minor or a woman, or a
member of the SC/ST, the (jail) term goes up to 10 years. Even if the woman is
a professor, say a very educated woman, if she is converted, the sentence is 10
years. If you convert an illiterate male person, the sentence is five
years."
This law, he said, was capable of great public
mischief. The former judge said he found it difficult to believe it could have
been passed by a government in a country ruled by the rule of law and a constitution.
"A version of this was floated in a century-old
book by on UN Mukherjee. The Hindu Mahasabha tried to gather support around the
idea that Muslim men are waging jihad in India through love marriages,"
Justice Shah highlighted. "The women are warned against unsuitable
outsiders, particularly those who are outside the religion or a lower caste.
They were told that they should remain poor, that they might fit the role of
the mothers of the nation."
Khap panchayats follow a similar philosophy with the
objective of subjugating women, he said. A khap leader, he pointed out, went on
so far as to infamously say that "only whores choose their partners."
"Actually, interfaith marriages are still a
rarity. Over 90% marriages in India are still arranged marriages and approved
by parents. Very few marriages are inter-caste marriages. The percentage of
inter caste is 5%. Inter-faith is still less, it is 2-3%," he said.
"For decades in India, we have advocated inter-state, inter-caste, and
inter-faith marriages, to achieve communal harmony. Ambedkar was a big votary
of this and recorded this emphatically in his book Annihilation of Caste."
The ordinance has already taken its toll, according to
him, with large-scale arrest of people and stories of separation.
"It is clear that the ordinance must be struck
down immediately. And certainly must not be permitted to be enacted into a
statute. We need to stop the destruction of these freedoms guaranteed by the
constitution. This can be done only by the judiciary," he said.
He cited a recent Allahabad high court ruling that
held that marriage was a matter of choice and that every adult woman had the
fundamental right to choose her partner, even if such a decision encourages
other important decisions, including a change of religion. The High Court had
overruled its own earlier judgment of a single-judge which said that conversion
was valid only when predicated on a change of heart or honest conviction.
The Uttar Pradesh ordinance has borrowed lines from
the single-judge ruling which is no longer valid, justice Shah pointed out.
"My worry is this. Hadia's was an individual
case…The Supreme Court may not be as proactive when it comes to the larger
question of…the ordinance. They might just end up sitting on the issue when it
comes before the court. They have done it in other cases," he said.
"I believe this ordinance does four things. It
reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society. Patriarchy and men would feel
threatened as women get liberated. Secondly, it pursues a regressive agenda. It
demands that individual autonomy and free will be subjugated to communal
purposes. And, of course, those community purposes will be defined by a few
individuals who know the best for the nation. Thirdly, and most importantly,
and here it is troubling me the most, it denies agency to half our adult
members of the country. Besides minors, it specifically identifies women and
members of SC and ST as vulnerable individuals. Clearly, it means that a woman
cannot think for herself, however educated, accomplished or experienced she
might be. The attitude is clearly chauvinistic," he said.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/up-love-jihad-law-must-be-struck-down-immediately-justice-ap-shah-2340505
--------
India junks Pak claim it targeted UN vehicle at LoC
Dec 19, 2020
NEW DELHI: India denied reports in Pakistani media on
Friday that its troops had fired on UN vehicles in POK.
Official sources said these reports emerging from the
Pakistani side regarding attack on UN vehicles are “completely false and factually
incorrect”. “Since movements of UN vehicles are known in advance, the question
does not arise of any such firing. The allegations are baseless,” said a
source. The Indian army also denied the allegations separately. Pakistan’s Dawn
newspaper had reported that Indian troops “specifically targeted” a United
Nations vehicle from across the LoC, in what the Pakistan foreign office termed
a “new low” in their conduct.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-junks-pak-claim-it-targeted-un-vehicle-at-loc/articleshow/79806805.cms
--------
Violence by Sikhs for Justice: NIA files charge sheet
against 10 terrorists
Dec 18, 2020
NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on
Friday filed a charge sheet against 10 accused, including designated terrorist
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, at a special NIA court in Mohali in connection with a
case related to violence by secessionist outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
According to the NIA, the charge sheet was filed
against Pargat Singh, Sukhraj Singh, Bikramjit Singh, Manjeet Singh, Jatinder
Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Harpreet Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Harmeet Singh, apart
from Pannun.
The charge sheet was filed under several sections of
the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on
charges related to criminal conspiracy and sedition.
The case pertains to a series of acts of violence,
including arson in Punjab during 2017-18, carrying out propaganda activities,
both online and on-ground, in support of the SFJ and Referendum-2020, demanding
a separate Sikh state.
"These acts were committed by a gang of
radicalised Sikh youth under the direction and financial assistance from SFJ
handlers located abroad as part of an organised conspiracy by the accused for
launching a concerted secessionist campaign for the creation of
Khalistan," the NIA said in a statement.
This case was initially registered by Punjab Police at
Sultanwind, Amritsar on October 19, 2018, and subsequently re-registered by the
NIA on April 5, 2020.
"Investigation in the case has revealed that the
SFJ has launched an incessant campaign using numerous social media accounts on
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube channels and a number of websites to
propagate sedition and disturb peace and harmony in India," a statement said.
"These social media accounts are being used to
radicalise impressionable youth and breed enmity on the grounds of region and
religion. The investigation has also clearly established that Gurpatwant Singh
Pannun radicalised and recruited the other accused persons into SFJ, an
organisation declared as an "Unlawful Association" under UAPA,"
it added.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/violence-by-sikhs-for-justice-nia-files-charge-sheet-against-10-terrorists/articleshow/79802258.cms
--------
India waits for Pakistan to end terror before
resumption of dialogue
Shishir Gupta
Dec 19, 2020
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impromptu
landing at the Lahore airport on December 25, 2015, he hugged his then
counterpart Nawaz Sharif who had come to receive him. During his four-hour
visit, Sharif recalled that his mother Begum Shamin Akhtar had told him that
Modi was a good man after she saw the Indian PM on Indian television news
channels taking the blessings of his mother Heeraben by touching her feet. PM Modi
met Sharif’s mother at a family function in Raiwind near Lahore and exchanged
notes with her. Sharif sent an embroidered shawl for Heeraben, which was duly
reciprocated by PM Modi for the then Pakistan PM’s mother with Indian High
Commission scouring the entire security locked Lahore to secure a gift.
It was this gesture of warmth that stuck with PM Modi
who condoled the demise of Sharif’s mother Shamim Akhtar on November 22, 2020,
by writing a letter to the former PM. The letter was conveyed to Nawaz Sharif
through his politician daughter Maryam Nawaz by an Indian diplomat based in
Pakistan. “I recall my interaction with her during my brief visit to Lahore in
2015. Her simplicity and warmth were indeed very touching,” wrote PM Modi in
his condolence message.
Hindustantimes
Although political detractors of PM Modi accuse him of
reaping electoral benefits for blaming Islamabad time and again, the condolence
letter shows that India has no ill-will towards the civilian, democratically
elected leadership in Pakistan.
At a launch of a book on Friday, external affairs minister
S Jaishankar made it clear that for India to engage in a dialogue with
Pakistan, the neighbouring country must put an end to cross-border terrorism.
“As far as PM Modi is concerned, we have shown a lot of clarity that they
(Pakistan) can’t continue with terrorism and then expect diplomacy to carry
on,” he said at the function. This is no different from the message conveyed by
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to his then Pakistan counterpart Nasser
Janjua in Bangkok before PM Modi visited Lahore on December 25, 2015.
Doval told Janjua that India will deal with terror but
Pakistan must give a commitment that there would be no state protection to the
proscribed anti-India terrorist groups in that country. However, the entire
bold Indian diplomacy of December 2015 came to a nought with Pakistan based
Jaish-e-Mohammed group targeting the Pathankot airbase within a week of PM
Modi’s Lahore visit. Documents recovered from the terrorists revealed that the
foiled terror attack was planned on the day PM Modi landed at Lahore, showing
that the Pakistan deep state was totally opposed to any détente with India and
was using Islamists to scuttle any rapprochement.
Today, with the Pakistani deep state and army
controlling the levers of political power in Islamabad, the Indian
establishment is at a loss of a committed and credible interlocutor in the
Islamic Republic who has the power to defang the terrorist groups. It is quite
evident to the Indian leadership that Pakistan army will not allow any civilian
leader to have a dialogue with New Delhi to normalise bilateral relations.
Nawaz Sharif tried it twice and failed. His daughter Maryam is now being
painted as an Indian agent and there is clearly a threat to her life.
Instead, the Pakistani leadership time and again cries
wolf over non-existent impending surgical strikes by the Indian Army in an
effort to defame India as an aggressor and reiterate the tired nuclear
flashpoint theory. Statement to this effect by Pakistan’s foreign minister in
the UAE, duly tweeted by National Security Advisor, on Friday is a case in
point.
Fact is that the Indian retaliation in the form of
surgical strikes in occupied Kashmir and air strikes at Balakot in Manshera
came only as a response to terror attacks by Pakistan based proscribed groups
after the complicity of Rawalpindi GHQ was established by Indian security
agencies.
The Pakistani alarm from a non-existent surgical
strike came after India was totally unfazed by a Sino-Pak air combat exercise
across the Gujarat border in Sindh province earlier this month. The two iron
brothers also signed a defence MoU during the visit of Chinese defence minister
and State Councillor General Wei Fenghe to Islamabad.
Given that Pakistan under PM Imran Khan Niazi is
behaving like a tributary state to the Middle Kingdom and proscribed terrorist
groups continue to spew poison against India, New Delhi’s desire to have normal
ties with all its neighbours will remain an unfulfilled dream.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-waits-for-pakistan-to-end-terror-before-resumption-of-dialogue/story-jEYKFtS5EMltHSfJmKSBwI.html
--------
Arab World
Turkey-backed fighters clash with Kurdish forces in
north Syria town
18 December 2020
Syrian fighters backed by Turkey waged battles on
Friday against Kurdish forces near the town of Ain Issa in northern Syria,
where Russian and Turkish troops jointly patrol a key highway.
Turkish forces and their Syrian insurgent allies
seized territory in the region in an offensive last year against the Kurdish
YPG militia which holds swathes of north and east Syria.
Ankara’s Western allies widely condemned that
incursion, which was halted when Turkey reached separate deals with Washington
and Moscow, the second of which agreed to establish the joint Russian-Turkish
patrols.
The YPG, which Turkey deems a terrorist group, forms
the military backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance which
defeated ISIS in northeast Syria with the help of US air power.
Ain Issa, where the clashes erupted overnight, sits
along the M4 highway that links major Syrian cities and where the
Russian-Turkish patrols usually take place.
A rebel source with the Turkey-backed National Army
said the faction seized some farmland after mounting an attack at the edge of
the town.
An SDF commander told local Kurdish media that
shelling hit parts of the town and highway but his forces were thwarting the
attack.
Ain Issa, east of the Euphrates river, also has a
sprawling camp for displaced people where the SDF has held families of ISIS
fighters, including foreigners.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/18/Turkey-backed-fighters-clash-with-Kurdish-forces-in-north-Syria-town
--------
Three security forces killed in Sinai bombing: Egypt
officials
18 December 2020
Two roadside bombs exploded in restive northern Sinai
Peninsula killing three members of Egypt’s security forces and wounding 10
others, officials said Friday.
The bombs went off near separate checkpoints in the
town of Sheikh Zuweid late Thursday, said two security officials and a medical
official, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to
brief the media.
The officials didn’t say who was responsible for the
attacks and no one immediately claimed responsibility. But Egypt has been
battling an Islamic State-led insurgency in the Sinai that intensified after
the military overthrew an Islamist president in 2013. The militants have
carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting security forces and minority
Christians.
The first explosion Thursday night left one dead and
seven wounded, while the second killed two and wounded three, the officials
said. The casualties were transferred to El-Arish military hospital.
Also on Thursday, the Egyptian military carried out a
series of raids in the same town killing four militants, officials said. It
wasn’t clear if the raids took place before or after the bombings.
The conflict in Sinai has largely taken place out of
public view, with journalists and outside observers barred from the area. The
fighting has so far not expanded into the southern end of the peninsula, where
popular Red Sea tourist resorts are located.
In February 2018, the military launched a massive
operation in Sinai that also encompassed parts of the Nile Delta and deserts
along the country’s western border with Libya. Since then, the pace of ISIS
attacks in Sinai’s north has diminished.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/12/18/Three-security-forces-killed-in-Sinai-bombing-Egypt-officials
--------
Turkish military forces pull out from seven military
posts in northwest Syria: Source
18 December 2020
The Turkish military has evacuated from seven military
observation posts in the northwestern part of Syria, withdrawing troops from
territory liberated by Syrian government forces to areas held by allied Takfiri
militants.
A Turkish source, who requested anonymity, said on
Friday that the last of the evacuations was completed the previous night, and
the forces were being redeployed within territory controlled by Ankara-backed
forces.
“It is not in the form of troop withdrawal or reducing
their numbers. The situation is just about changing location,” the source
asserted.
Earlier this month, the Turkish forces started
withdrawing from three military bases in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo
provinces in northern Syria.
The Turkish forces began pulling out from the Surman
base in the eastern countryside of Idlib as well as the bases of Khan Tuman and
Rashideen in the countryside of Aleppo on December 9, the so-called Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights reported at the time.
The UK-based war monitor added that the Turkish troops
would reposition in militant-held areas in the Zawiya Mountain region in the
southern countryside of Idlib.
Back on November 10, the Turkish troops in
northwestern Syria pulled out of a military base in the area that had been
surrounded by the Syrian government forces.
The pullout from the observation post in Sher Mogher
in northern Hama region came nearly a month after the evacuation of Turkey’s
largest military base in the area.
Convoys carrying military personnel and equipment were
seen leaving the Morek base shortly after midnight October 20.
On October 9, 2019, Turkey launched a cross-border
invasion of northeastern Syria in an attempt to push Kurdish militants affiliated
with the so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG) — which Ankara views as a
terror outfit — away from its borders.
Two weeks later, Russia and Turkey, signed a
memorandum of understanding that forced the YPG militants to withdraw from the
Turkish-controlled “safe zone” in northeastern Syria, after which Ankara and
Moscow began joint patrols around the area.
Turkey has since wrested control of several areas in
northern Syria in addition to other Kurdish-controlled areas.
Damascus views the Turkish military presence on Syrian
soil as an attack on the Arab country's sovereignty.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/18/640991/Turkish-military-forces-pull-out-from-seven-military-posts-in-northwest-Syria-Source
--------
Assad’s aide urges withdrawal of US occupation forces
from Syria
19 December 2020
A senior aide to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has
lashed out at the United States for occupying the Arab country and looting its
oil, stressing the need for the pullout of American occupation forces.
In an interview with Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV
channel on Friday, Assad’s political and media adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban,
referred to the policy that the next US president, Joe Biden, would likely take
towards Syria.
She said that Damascus is waiting to see the new US
administration’s approach, but the most important issue is the withdrawal of
American troops from Syria.
The Syrians do not expect much from the new US
administration, because the region has always suffered from Democratic and
Republican governments, she added.
Shaaban also called on US Ambassador to the UN Kelly
Craft to recognize Security Council Resolution 2254 that is against the
occupation of Syria by American forces.
The Syrian army has been fighting against
foreign-backed terrorist groups, which have been wreaking havoc on the country
since 2011.
Syrian soldiers, backed by the Russian air force and
Iranian military advisers, have managed to win back control of almost all
regions from Takfiri terrorists.
On the contrary, the US has been supporting
anti-Damascus militants with the aim of deposing Assad’s government and at the
same time stealing Syria’s crude oil.
Elsewhere in her interview, Shaaban described as
positive a visit by a Syrian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad,
to Moscow.
The situation in Syria and Washington’s unilateral
measures in the region were among the issues discussed during the delegation’s
meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, she said, asking,
"How can Washington violate UN resolutions on Syria, occupy our territory
and loot our oil?"
The Syrian official also stressed that relations with
Russia are based on respect and bilateral economic ties are at a very good
level, with Moscow playing an important role in countering sanctions against
Damascus.
Assad’s aide further condemned Turkey's military
presence in northern Syria, noting that Russia expects Anakra to continue
withdrawing its forces from the area.
Touching on the recent normalization deals between
certain Arab countries and the Zionist regime, she emphasized that there is no
choice but to adhere to the Palestinian cause and end the Israeli occupation.
What is happening in the Arab world is not in the
interest of the countries compromising with Tel Aviv, she added.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/19/641041/Syria-Bouthaina-Shaaban-US-withdrawal
--------
Europe
Erdogan tells Merkel Turkey wants to turn over new
leaf with EU
19 December 2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a videoconference call Turkey wants to turn
over a new leaf with the European Union, the Turkish presidency said.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week decided to
draw up a list of Turkish targets for sanctions over Ankara’s “unilateral
actions and provocations” in the eastern Mediterranean, believed to be rich in
energy resources.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
“President Erdogan during the meeting said Turkey
wants to open a new page in its relations with the EU, as he thanked Merkel for
her constructive contributions and efforts on Turkey-EU relations,” the
presidency said.
Erdogan said there was a new “window of opportunity”
for Turkey-EU relations to strengthen but some countries were “trying to create
a crisis” that would damage “this positive agenda”, it added in a statement.
He did not name which countries but Turkey has been at
loggerheads with EU member states Greece and Cyprus -- backed by France -- in
the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey and Greece previously agreed to discussions
over the disputed waters but nothing concrete has taken place.
Erdogan accused Greece of running away from talks, but
insisted Turkey’s attitude was “constructive.”
He also called for an update to the 2016 deal aimed at
cutting migration to Europe in return for financial aid, which he said would be
“the key to a positive agenda.”
The EU on Thursday said it allocated to Turkey the
full six billion euros promised for refugees in the agreement.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/19/Erdogan-tells-Merkel-Turkey-wants-to-turn-over-new-leaf-with-EU
--------
Armenia begins three days of mourning for Karabakh war
victims
19 December 2020
Armenia on Saturday began three days of mourning for
the victims of clashes with Azerbaijan as the opposition kept up pressure on
the country’s leader to resign over the handling of the conflict.
More than 5,000 people including civilians were killed
in Armenia and Azerbaijan when clashes erupted between the ex-Soviet enemies in
late September over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The war ended in November with a Moscow-brokered peace
agreement that saw the Armenians cede swathes of territory to Azerbaijan which
has been backed by close ally Turkey.
The deal sparked fury in Armenia, with the opposition
urging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign.
On the first day of the national mourning on Saturday,
Pashinyan was expected to lead a procession to a memorial complex in the
capital Yerevan where victims of the conflict are buried.
The opposition planned to hold a separate march later
in the day. Pashinyan’s critics have called on supporters to stage a national
strike from December 22.
“The entire nation has been through and is going
through a nightmare,” Pashinyan said in a video address ahead of the memorial
march.
“Sometimes it seems that all of our dreams have been
dashed and our optimism destroyed,” he added.
The 45-year-old former newspaper editor was propelled
to power in 2018 after he
channeled widespread desire for change into a broad
protest movement against corrupt post-Soviet elites.
But after six weeks of clashes with Azerbaijan, many
have called Pashinyan a “traitor” for agreeing to what they say is a
humiliating deal with Azerbaijan. He has so far refused to step down.
As part of the peace deal Russia deployed nearly 2,000
peacekeeping troops to Karabakh.
Moscow said on Friday that a Russian mine clearer was
killed by a blast in Karabakh when an explosive went off earlier this week.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/19/Armenia-begins-three-days-of-mourning-for-Karabakh-war-victims-
--------
EU top court rules countries can ban halal slaughter
18 December 2020
The European Union's top court has upheld curbs on
ritual animal slaughter in Belgium, in a move that targets Muslim and Jewish
religious rites.
The ruling, made by Luxembourg-based court on
Thursday, approved a Belgian court ban on the slaughter of livestock that have
not been stunned, citing animals rights.
The court in Belgium originally ruled in 2017 that
animals need to be stunned before being killed.
This is while both Muslim halal tradition and the Jewish
kosher ritual require livestock to be conscious when their throats are slit.
Jewish and Muslim associations argue that their
methods of cutting animals’ throats with a sharp knife resulted in almost
immediate death and that, traditionally, prior stunning was not permitted.
They say that the original decree had effectively
outlawed their traditional ways of slaughtering animals.
Belgium is home to some 500,000 Muslims and 30,000
Jews.
Those who want to observe religious slaughter rules
have to obtain meat from abroad.
In a similar move in 2018, the EU court upheld a
Belgian law that required animal slaughter to take place in slaughterhouses.
Along with Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark
and Slovenia are also not allowing for any religious exemptions to EU slaughter
regulations.
The rise of far-right ideology and the propagation of
anti-immigration policies have exacerbated the status of religious minorities
in Europe.
Islamophobic and other extremist groups in Europe have
been propagating against Islam.
French President Emmanuel Macron has lately sparked
outrage among the Muslim population of nearly two billion people, after he
publicly attacked Islam in defense of the publication of derogatory cartoons of
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by making Islamophobic rhetoric.
He defended the “right to blaspheme” after French
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished the sacrilegious cartoons in
October.
Macron also made controversial remarks about “Islamist
separatism,” which according to him threatens to take control in some Muslim
communities around France.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/18/640988/EU-top-court-ruling-on-animal-slaughter-irks-Jewish,-Muslim-groups
--------
EU Parliament calls for 'restrictive measures' against
Egypt
Rabia Iclal Turan
18.12.2020
The European Parliament on Friday adopted a resolution
calling for restrictive measures against Egypt in view of its grave human
rights violations.
The parliament called on the EU high representative
and member states to respond to Egypt's human rights violations in a “unified
and resolute manner” as well as consider targeted restrictive measures against
high-level Egyptian officials.
“The human rights situation in Egypt has continued to
deteriorate as authorities intensify their crackdown on civil society, human
rights defenders, health workers, journalists, opposition members, academics,
and lawyers,” the parliament said in the document.
It also called on the EU member states not to “give
awards to leaders responsible for human rights violations".
In a controversial three-day visit to Paris last week,
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in 2013 through a
coup, was awarded the prestigious Legion of Honor by French President Emmanuel
Macron.
Expressing “strong political and human support” to the
family of slain Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, the European Parliament also
urged Egyptian authorities to “fully cooperate with Italian judicial
authorities”.
Regeni, 28, was an Italian researcher and doctorate
student in Egypt, who went missing on Jan. 25, 2016. Nine days later, the
researcher's naked body was found in a ditch on a highway in Cairo.
Rome prosecutor’s office earlier this month requested
trial for four Egyptian officers, including a general.
The parliament also called for more transparency on
all forms of financial support or training by the EU institutions, including
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European
Investment Bank to Egypt (EIB).
The European Parliament repeated the previous calls
for the release of three senior staff members of the Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights (EIPR) and Egyptian human rights defenders who were
incarcerated after meeting diplomats.
It also expressed “deep concern” for the detainees and
prisoners held in “overcrowded places of detention, in abysmal conditions”,
especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/eu-parliament-calls-for-restrictive-measures-against-egypt/2081883
--------
Italy’s PM discusses developments in Libya with Haftar
Walid Abdullah
18.12.2020
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte discussed
developments in Libya related to inter-Libyan political dialogue with warlord
Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi on Thursday.
According to Haftar's media office, he hailed
"the role of the Italian government in supporting solutions to the Libyan
crisis."
The media office did not provide any statements by the
Italian officials who accompanied Conte in his visit to Benghazi, however.
Following the short visit, the Italian Foreign
Ministry said that 18 Italian fishermen who were incarcerated in Libya for
three months by Haftar's militia were released.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio thanked the
Italian intelligence and diplomatic corps for "having worked to bring them
back" to Italy.
Di Maio also confirmed Italy's support for the
stabilization process in Libya, saying "this is what I and Premier
Giuseppe Conte have reiterated today to Haftar during our meeting in
Benghazi."
Libya has been torn by a civil war since the ouster of
late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The Government of National Accord was founded in 2015
under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term settlement failed due to
a military offensive by forces loyal to Haftar. He launched an onslaught on the
capital Tripoli in April 2019 but was pushed back.
A cease-fire was agreed on in late October, and
negotiations for an interim setup before presidential and parliamentary
elections on Dec. 24, 2021 are continuing.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/italy-s-pm-discusses-developments-in-libya-with-haftar/2080901
--------
European Parliament seeks China sanctions over Uighurs
Büşra Nur Bilgiç Çakmak
18.12.2020
The European Parliament adopted a resolution Thursday
condemning China over allegations of forced labor and over the situation of
Uighurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, calling on the EU to impose
sanctions.
Lawmakers strongly condemned “the Chinese
government-led system of forced labor -- in particular the exploitation of
Uyghur, ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minority groups -- in
factories both within and outside of internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region. It also denounces the continued transfer of forced laborers
to other Chinese administrative divisions, and the fact that well‑known European brands and companies have been
benefiting from the use of forced labor.”
They also called on private sector companies to assess
their engagement with the Xinjiang region and to inspect the supply chains to
determine that human rights are complied with, and if they are not, to cut
their business relations.
It was also requested that China allow an
international observation group to conduct independent observations in the
Xinjiang region.
Recalling the EU’s adaptation on Dec. 7 of restrictive
measures against serious human rights violations and abuses, lawmakers called
on “the Member States and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy to swiftly evaluate the adoption of sanctions
against the Chinese officials and state-led entities such as Xinjiang
Production and Construction Corporation, responsible for devising and
implementing the policy of mass detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims
in Xinjiang, for the use of forced labor, and for orchestrating the severe
repression of religious freedom, freedom of movement and other basic rights in
the region.”
Beijing's policy in Xinjiang has drawn widespread
criticism from rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch, which accuse it of ostracizing the 12 million Uighurs in China, most of
whom are Muslims.
The region is home to 10 million Uighurs. The Turkic
Muslim group, which makes up around 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long
accused China's authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.
Up to 1 million people, or about 7% of the Muslim
population in Xinjiang, have been incarcerated in an expanding network of
"political re-education" camps, according to US officials and UN
experts.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/european-parliament-seeks-china-sanctions-over-uighurs/2080895
--------
North America
Top US court rejects school bid for religious
carve-out
Ovunc Kutlu
18.12.2020
The US Supreme Court has rejected a bid by a Christian
school for a religious carve-out against COVID-19 restrictions that include the
shutdown of in-person instruction.
In a 7-2 ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court denied religious-based
exemption from restrictions for the Danville Christian Academy, a school in the
Southern US state of Kentucky.
The dissenting votes came from two of the court's
conservative members – Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, had
previously ordered Kentucky schools – public, private, secular and religious –
to shut down all in-person instructions from late November through early
January.
Danville Christian Academy, however, argued that the
restrictions also led to an unlawful shutdown of religious activity.
The school's argument gained support from Kentucky’s
Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell from Kentucky, and more than 30 Republican senators.
The Supreme Court's other recent orders, on the other
hand, were favorable to other religious requests against COVID-19 restrictions,
as justices sided Tuesday with religious groups in Colorado and New Jersey that
also sought carve-outs in their states.
As for the case in Kentucky, justices said the
Danville Christian Academy would have a stronger argument if it said Kentucky’s
restrictions "deprived parents of their right to direct the education of
their children."
The US still leads the world in the number of coronavirus
cases with approximately 17.2 million, while deaths are above 310,000,
according to Johns Hopkins University data.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/top-us-court-rejects-school-bid-for-religious-carve-out/2081148
--------
Trump upbeat on Gulf row end in call with Saudi leader
Michael Gabriel Hernandez
18.12.2020
WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump expressed optimism during a
called with Saudi King Salman that a three-and-a-half year rift between Qatar
and its Gulf Arab neighbors would soon come to an end, the White House said
Thursday.
Trump spoke with the Saudi monarch during a telephone
call that addressed "regional security and key bilateral issues,"
spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
"President Trump thanked King Salman for his
leadership and expressed his optimism toward resolving the Gulf Rift,"
Deere said.
Accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism and meddling in
their internal affairs, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt cut ties with
Doha and imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on the country in June 2017.
Qatar denies the charges and has voiced readiness for
dialogue to end the impasse.
Trump's call comes in the waning days of the Trump
administration with the president set to depart office Jan. 20 when
President-elect Joe Biden will be officially sworn-in. It is unclear if Trump
will maintain tradition and attend the ceremony as presidents before him have
in a symbolic showing of the US's peaceful transfer of power.
Trump has maintained the Nov. 3 election he handily
lost to Biden was "rigged," alleging without proof widespread voter
fraud.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/trump-upbeat-on-gulf-row-end-in-call-with-saudi-leader/2080799
--------
US to reject 2021 Syrian polls if not in line with
UNSC
Beyza Binnur Donmez
16.12.2020
The US on Wednesday said Washington and the
international community will not recognize the 2021 presidential elections in
Syria if they are not in line with UN Security Council resolutions.
"It is increasingly apparent that the Assad
regime is delaying the Committee’s work to buy time as it prepares to carry out
a sham presidential election in 2021 and wash its hands of the UN-facilitated
political process," Kelly Craft, the US envoy to UN, told a UNSC virtual
briefing on Syria.
"Syrian elections will not be recognized as
legitimate by the US and the international community if they are not in line
with Resolution 2254," Craft said. "The international community will
not allow the Assad regime to impose a military victory on the Syrian people
with an illegitimate presidential election and no political reforms."
She reiterated that there is "no military
solution" to the conflict and the "only way" forward for peace
is for the Bashar al-Assad regime to support the political roadmap outlined in
Resolution 2254.
"Even if guns are silenced, social and political
wounds from this decade-long horror story will fester," Craft added.
Starting her sentence with "sadly," she said
that this month marked the fifth anniversary of the adoption of Resolution 2254
with "little meaningful progress toward a political solution."
The envoy expressed the US commitment to "oppose
any attempts by the Assad regime and its allies to bypass Resolution 2254"
and urged the regime and Russia to ensure immediate progress toward the drafting
of a new Syrian constitution during the fifth round of Syria talks in Geneva on
January.
On the humanitarian situation in the country, she said
that more than nine million Syrians need food assistance amid the coronavirus
pandemic -- the largest number since 2011 when the civil war began.
"As 2020 comes to a close, there is little to
celebrate in Syria, and much to mourn," Craft described the current
situation. "We must not forget that it was Russia and China that forced
this Council to slash the UN’s cross-border humanitarian access in half amid a
global pandemic," Craft said.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-to-reject-2021-syrian-polls-if-not-in-line-with-unsc/2079454
--------
US sanctions 4 entities over Iran's petrochemical sale
Beyza Binnur Donmez
16.12.2020
The US on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four China
and United Arab Emirates-based entities for "facilitating the export of
Iranian petrochemical products by Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd."
These companies "have provided Triliance with
critical shipping services or conducted financial transactions on behalf of the
company, enabling Triliance to continue brokering and moving Iranian
petrochemical exports," the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Triliance, a Hong-Kong based company, was previously
designated by Washington, in January, with the accusation of
"collectively" transferring the equivalent of hundreds of millions of
dollars worth of exports from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
The entities include China-based companies Donghai
International Ship Management Limited and Petrochem South East Limited and
UAE-based companies Alpha Tech Trading FZE and Petroliance Trading FZE.
The US sees petrochemical sales as an "important
revenue source" for Iran, "generating wealth for its corrupt leaders
and financing a range of nefarious activities."
"Iran’s petrochemical and petroleum sectors are
primary sources of funding for the Iranian regime, which it uses to support its
malign domestic and foreign agenda," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
said.
"The United States will act against persons who
support illicit actors engaged in the movement of Iranian petroleum and
petrochemical sales."
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-sanctions-4-entities-over-irans-petrochemical-sale/2079394
--------
Pakistan
In bid to whip up war hysteria, Pakistan claims India
planning surgical strike
Dec 18, 2020
DUBAI: In a yet another attempt to whip up war
hysteria in the region, Pakistan has claimed that India was planning a surgical
strike against the country.
In a statement at a press conference in Dubai where he
is ending a two-day visit, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on
Friday said that he had credible information that India was planning a surgical
strike against Pakistan.
"An important development has cropped up [...]
I've learned through our intelligence forces [...] that India is planning a
surgical strike against Pakistan," he said
Terming it a "serious development" he
further elaborated that India is already "trying to seek tacit
approval" from what Qureshi said were "important players who they
consider to be their partners", Dawn reported.
According to Dawn, Pakistan Army had been put on high
alert amidst a possible threat of another attempt by India to conduct a
surgical strike inside Pakistani territory.
The new claims come days after two Pakistan Army
soldiers were killed along the Line of Control (LoC) opposite Naushera sector
in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district by the Indian Army while retaliating to
ceasefire violation by the Pakistan Army.
Qureshi's announcement also follows the tense
political atmosphere in Pakistan. Pakistan opposition under the banner of
Pakistan Democratic Movement has held several rallies against
"selective" government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Qureshi made similar claims in April 2019 when he had
said Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India will attack
again this month.
The attack could take place between April 16 and 20,
he said, adding that Pakistan had told the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council of its concerns.
India had then rejected the Qureshi's statement
terming it "irresponsible and preposterous".
In a strongly-worded statement, external affairs
ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the comments by the Pakistani foreign
minister is aimed at whipping up war hysteria in the region.
In 2016 days after Pakistani terrorists attacked the
Indian Army at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Army conducted a surgical
strike across Line of Control in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and destroyed launch
pads completely, killing many terrorists.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/in-bid-to-whip-up-war-hysteria-pakistan-claims-india-planning-surgical-strike/articleshow/79799966.cms
--------
Islamabad Union Councils To Start Registering
Religious Minorities’ Marriages, Says PM’s Aide
Kashif Abbasi
19 Dec 2020
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on
Capital Development Authority (CDA) Affairs Ali Nawaz Awan on Friday said after
15 days union councils in Islamabad, for the first time, will start registering
marriages of religious minorities.
“This chronic issue has been resolved as a
notification has been issued in this regard,” he said.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Awan, who is also MNA from
Islamabad, said religious minorities in Islamabad had been facing issues as
their marriages were not registered in union councils due to which they could
not prepare family trees.
He said earlier there was no mechanism to issue
marriage and divorce certificates and this issue has been creating problems
particularly for the Christian community. The arbitration council under the
capital administration is functioning in accordance with Muslim Family Law
1961, which only deals with arbitration and registration of Nikah and divorce
of Muslims.
He said tens of thousands of people belonging to the
religious minorities, mostly Christians, live in various slums, sectors and
rural area of the capital and they had been facing issues related to their
documentations.
“A judgment of the Supreme Court in this regard has
already been implemented in other cities but not in Islamabad,” he said and
added that during his election campaign he had promised with the minorities
that he would resolve their issues.
“I have fulfilled my promise for registration of
marriage certificates while other initiatives will also be taken for their
welfare,” he said.
The notification issued by the office of the chief
commissioner dated Dec 16 stated: “The competent authority has been pleased to
appoint Assistant Director….ICT/Chairman of Arbitration Council to act as
authorised officer from ICT administration.”
The authorised officer is supposed to “complete all
the codal formalities to start registration/issuance of Christian marriage
certificates on Nadra CRMS format in rural areas of ICT through Union Councils
on the same analogy of Muslims marriages. Draft a fresh MoU for new design of
revised proposal/procedure, contract of Christian/minorities marriage
registration by Nadra to best accommodate the minorities,” it added.Last year,
the issue was taken up in National Assembly jointly by Mr Awan and Shunila Ruth
through a calling attention notice. The assembly referred the case to the
interior ministry, which supported the calling attention notice and directed
the Islamabad chief commissioner for necessary action.
Asked when the union councils would start registration
of marriages of minorities, the SAPM said: “The issue is resolved. The
notification has been issued and after publishing registers the UCs will start
registering the marriages. I will ensure that they start the process after 15
days,” he said.In the absence of any mechanism, Christian couples were required
to register their marriages with the marriage registrar appointed under the
Christian Marriage Act 1872. Hence, different marriage registrars had been
appointed in churches of Islamabad.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1596530/islamabad-ucs-to-start-registering-religious-minorities-marriages-says-pms-aide
--------
Police arrest 4 terrorists including top commander in
Pak
Dec 18, 2020
PESHAWAR: Four Pakistani militants, including a key
commander of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam terror group, were arrested on Friday
in the country's restive northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the
police said.
According to the police, the accused had planned to
carry out major subversive activities in Peshawar.
The joint operation by the police and security forces
was carried out at a compound in Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district.
Commander Zakir Afridi and three others were arrested.
The forces seized three suicide vests and six locally-made bombs from their
possession.
The police later arrested eight others, who
facilitated them in Peshawar. The 12 accused were shifted to an undisclosed
location for investigation.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/police-arrest-4-terrorists-including-top-commander-in-pak/articleshow/79796627.cms
--------
COAS is ‘sensible’ person, tolerating Sharif’s
diatribe: PM
December 19, 2020
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday heaped praise on
Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, calling him a “sensible man” who
believed in democracy.
In an interview with a private TV channel, Imran
revealed that there was “a lot of anger” in the military over former prime
minister Nawaz Sharif’s diatribe against the top military leadership but added
that Gen Bajwa was tolerating it for the sake of democracy.
“There is a reaction within the army to these sorts of
attacks [by Sharif]. Gen Bajwa is a sensible man. He is [a] composed [person],
therefore he is tolerating this. Had there been anyone else in the military,
there would have been a big reaction,” Imran said in the interview.
Sharif, the supreme leader of the opposition Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had been using the Pakistan Democratic Movement
(PDM) platform to criticise the military in recent months. Imran said that the
speeches were a ploy to pressure the military into removing a democratic
government.
“They are saying that Imran Khan is a stooge and we
are talking to the establishment. It means that they are exerting pressure on
the army to dislodge a democratic government. This is [their] democratic
movement,” the prime minister said.
“Pakistan army is a state institution. They are
subordinate to me. The Pakistan army is not sitting above me. I’m an elected
prime minister of Pakistan. Has anyone heard this in any democracy in the world
that my subordinate institution removes me,” he added.
When asked if he was satisfied with the performance of
the army chief Gen Bajwa and the Director General of the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, the prime minister replied: “I’m
absolutely happy with them,” adding: “We have excellent relationship.”
The prime minister said that Nawaz Sharif and former
president Asif Zardari had problems with the military because the military knew
about their corruption. On a personal note, he said “when they [agencies] knew
about me everything then I have nothing to hide”.
Responding to another question, whether the government
would engage the opposition in dialogue, he said the entire assembly is there
and “we are ready for talks” but hastened to add that the opposition was
interested in something else.
“They [the opposition leaders] are thinking that by
these dramas they could scare me and get an NRO,” he said, referring to the
political amnesty granted by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf through the
now-defunct National Reconciliation Ordinance in 2007.
“They (are) appealing to the military to remove the
government, a democratic government. Secondly, they are saying that if the army
chief and the ISI chief do not remove me, then they are telling the army to
remove them,” Imran said, adding: “Article 6 of the Constitution [high treason]
applies here.”
The prime minister said that the PDM was being
supported by anti-democratic forces such as Hussain Haqqani. “Why is Nawaz so
popular in India? He has become a hero there. He is doing what India is doing.
Degrading Pakistan, destroying economy,” he said.
He said that the PDM’s announcement of long march was
hollow. “I'm the long march specialist. I challenge them to spend at least a
week in Islamabad for their protests. Maybe, then I can start thinking about my
resignation seriously,” he said.
Imran said that there were two ways to bring Nawaz
Sharif back from London, extradition and deportation, and his government was
trying for the second option. He said that extradition was a long process.
However, he added he was not sure when the government would succeed in this
regard.
When asked for the reason for the government decision
to hold Senate elections earlier, and whether it was because of the PDM
resignation threat, the prime minister rebutted the claim, saying that it was
the discretion of the government to decide when to hold the elections.
“We have a margin of one month, according to the
Constitution,” he said. “The elections will be held through the process of open
ballot, which will ensure votes are not sold,” he continued. “Horse-trading has
happened before and this is why we kicked out 20 lawmakers” in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa the last time.
Explaining as to why the issue was not taken up in
parliament, the prime minister said that the attorney general had advised him
that it required only a constitutional amendment. “But despite this, we will go
to the Supreme Court to ask it to interpret the law for us,” he added.
Imran Khan said that Pakistan would not recognise
Israel until Palestinian rights were guaranteed. He rebutted reports claiming
that government representatives flew to Tel Aviv to hold talks with Israel. He
termed the reports part of a wider disinformation campaign carried out by
India.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2276496/coas-is-sensible-person-tolerating-sharifs-diatribe-pm
--------
Pak-China joint air drills important to boost combat
readiness: Bajwa
19 Dec 2020
ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa on Friday
emphasised combat readiness and improved interoperability with China.
In his remarks at an air base he visited for
witnessing Pak-China Joint Air Exercise Shaheen-IX, Gen Bajwa said that joint
drills with China were important “to increase the combat readiness of both
countries to face emerging geo-strategic challenges”.
Shaheen-IX exercises, which are participated by
Pakistan Air Force and People’s Liberation Army Air Force, are being held this
year in Pakistan. They have been regularly held since 2011, alternating between
the two countries.
India and Pakistan have long-standing tense
relationship because of the dispute over Kashmir. However, India’s deadly
clashes with China this year, the first in nearly 45 years, have significantly
altered security dynamics of the region.
In this context, Gen Bajwa’s comments about the two
countries enhancing their combat readiness and interoperability are very
significant.
Gen Bajwa said: “The joint exercise will improve
combat capacity of both air forces substantially and also enhance
interoperability between them with greater strength and harmony.”
The army chief also called for improving inter-services
harmony and synergy for better operational results.
He lauded the professionalism and dedication of PAF
and its high morale and noted that professionalism of PAF personnel made it one
of the best air forces in the world.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1596590/pak-china-joint-air-drills-important-to-boost-combat-readiness-bajwa
--------
South Asia
Taliban Suffer Heavy Loss in South Battle, 47 Killed
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
18 Dec 2020
AFGHANISTAN – At least 47 Taliban insurgents killed
and further a dozen wounded during a battle with Afghan National Defense and
Security Forces (ANDSF) across several provinces in the country, said the
Ministry of Defense in a statement Friday.
According to the statement, a huge number of arms and
ammunition of the Taliban insurgents were also wrecked during the battle.
“6 #Taliban were killed in Mizan district of Zabul
province after they attacked #ANDSF positions last night,” said the MoD in a
tweet. “Also, a number of their weapons were destroyed.”
In another news form Kandahar, at least 29 Taliban
killed and further four injured in Arghandab district of the province, where
the group suffered heavy lose.
“29 #Taliban were killed and 4 others were wounded by
#ANA in Arghandab district of Kandahar province, last night,” MoD tweeted.
“Also, a large amount of their ammunition and weapons were destroyed.”
Meanwhile, in Uruzgan 12 Taliban were confirmed dead
during a reciprocal attack in Dehrawood district of the province.
“12 #Taliban were killed in Dehrawood district of
Urzgan province, as result of reciprocal attacks of #ANDSF and AAF yesterday,”
MoD said in a tweet. “Additionally, a vehicle and a large amount of their
weapons were destroyed.”
The incident came at a time the country continue to
witness an escalation of violence, while representative of Afghanistan and
Taliban push through a peace deal in Doha.
https://www.khaama.com/taliban-suffer-heavy-loss-in-south-battle-47-killed-34534/
--------
Pak-Afghan Youth Forum Held a Conclave Media
Conference
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
19 Dec 2020
Pak-Afghan Youth Forum is a youth-focused think tank
that looks forward to holding more webinars and events addressing areas of
mutual importance and cooperation to facilitate stronger relations between both
countries.
Pak-Afghan Youth Forum held a cross-border media
session through a video conference between notable media professionals from
Afghanistan and Pakistan, at around 10 am Afghanistan time.
The session stressed the role of media in the Afghan
peace process and future regional development, Key guests were Mahmood Jan,
Deputy Speaker KP assembly of Pakistan and the panel had Khalida Rasheed,
Khalid Olfat, Mujtaba Qasim, and Nargis representing Afghan media and Sumaira
Khan, Rifatullah Orokzai and Ejaz Ahmed were representing Pakistani Media.
Pakistani journalists were mostly happy with the peace
process in Afghanistan and stressed that the two countries should expand ties
with each other, adding that from now on, the representatives of the two
countries should meet each other in every field through idea exchange.
Pakistani panel advised both countries should impart
and exhibit knowledge on mutual traditions,
adding that the dramas that are aired in Pakistan should be aired in
Afghanistan at a lower price, and the Afghan programs should be broadcasted in
Pakistan.
Afghan Journalists stressed, that Pakistani
journalists should support peace and ask their government to do their utmost in
bring peace to Afghanistan, and demanded that both sides should meet and
exchange views on trade, politics, civil society, youth, women, and other
relevant issues.
Afternoon dialogues included Pakistani Senator, Faisal
Javed, and representatives of Pakistani media were Tahir Khan, Farzana Ali,
Munzae Jahangir, and Naeemullah Yousufzai, the afghan side consisted of Mir Aqa
Popal, Shazia Haya, Munizah Abbasi, and Asad Daudzai.
The second session focused on media and bilateral
relations, in which the journalists emphasized over sports and games to
facilitate peace and development between the two countries, adding the
importance of sports games to be held between the two countries for paving the
way for the stability of bilateral relations.
Journalists discussed the increased exchange of sports
commentators, “as well as players for each other’s leagues”.
Besides collaboration in the broadcast of dramas
without focusing on profit, the media authorities should facilitate on-ground
reporters across the Afghan-Pak border.
During the session Journalists of both nations
emphasized on honest, and true representation of conditions rather than
political entanglements, or be involved in constant patriotic values, balanced
values should be considered more than fueling mistrust.
It is discussed that both sides should not publish
anything that would harm peace or relations between the two nations.
Threats to Afghan women journalists were also
discussed in the session and solutions were discussed, that female journalist
must be accepted and valued as they can cover some issues better.
There was a mutual tendency for collaboration during
the dialogues, as the event allowed panelists to openly discuss their
grievances and interact with one another.
The conference comes as peace talks between the Afghan
government and the Taliban in Qatar have been delayed for 20 days, with both
delegations leaving Qatar.
The Afghan delegation went to Kabul and the Taliban to
Pakistan.
https://www.khaama.com/pak-afghan-youth-forum-held-a-conclave-media-conference-657744/
--------
Taliban meets Pakistani PM Imran Khan
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
18 Dec 2020
A Taliban delegation led by Abdul Ghani Baradar,
Deputy leader of the Taliban were welcomed by Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran
Khan.
The delegation called upon the prime minister to
discuss the Afghan peace process and the way forward,
In a statement issued by the PM office, said khan
reiterated that there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan
and underscored that Intra-Afghan Talks is a historical opportunity for Afghan
leaders to achieve lasting peace and stability through “Afghan-led and
Afghan-owned peace process”.
Khan expressed his hope that Afghan parties would
continue to build on positive developments in the Intra-Afghan talks.
According to the statement khan “highlighted that
return of peace and stability in Afghanistan would provide a strong impetus to
economic development, regional integration, and connectivity, benefitting
Afghanistan and the region”.
Pakistani Prime minister iterated consistent support
to a broad-based and comprehensive political settlement.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan underscored Pakistan’s
consistent support to an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political
settlement. He also underlined the need to be vigilant about the role of
spoilers, who continue to make attempts to disrupt and derail the peace
process”. Statement read.
This comes as Taliban and Afghan peace delegations
took a break until 5 January 2021 to consult agenda with their leading
authorities.
https://www.khaama.com/taliban-meets-pakistani-pm-imran-khan/
--------
‘Children among Dead’ in Ghazni Blast
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
18 Dec 2020
In an explosion in central Ghazni at least 15 people
are killed, that includes 12 children, reports indicated.
Ministry of Interior stated the blast happened in
Gilan district of the Ghazni province on Friday afternoon, at around 2 pm.
The incident occurred when a motorbike loaded with
explosives detonated at a house, where dozens of people were gathered for a
Quran recitation ceremony, MoI said in a statement.
12 Children are among the dead, all of the victims
were civilians.
This comes as violence across Afghanistan escalated,
despite political efforts to reach an ending peace.
https://www.khaama.com/children-among-dead-in-ghanzi-blast-897975/
--------
Taliban Commander Busted in Badakhshan
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
18 Dec 2020
BADAKHSHAN, Afghanistan – At least five Taliban
insurgents, including their commander, have been arrested during an operation
by the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in Argo district of
Badakhshan province, said the Ministry of Defense in a statement Friday.
According to the statement, the suspected Taliban have
been involved in a number of terrorist activities in norther provinces.
“A commander of #Taliban was arrested with 5 of his
fighters in Argo district of Badakhshan province by #ANDSF yesterday,” said the
MoD in a tweet. “They had been involved in terrorist activities and targeted
killing in Badakhshan.”
At least two Taliban – involved in a number of
terrorism in central province of Ghor, are arrested, said the Ministry of
Defense in a statement Friday morning.
According to the statement, the arrest came after the
Afghan National Army (ANA) carried a search operation in Firoz Koh area of the
province on Thursday.
“2 #Taliban who had been involved in terrorist
activities and targeted killing in Ghor province, were arrested by ANA in Firoz
Koh provincial center, yesterday,” said the MoD in a tweet.
In the brief statement, officials did not specify
identities of the culprits or which exact terrorist attack have they carried in
the province.
Meanwhile, pictures posted by the Ministry show an
amount of arm and ammunition, including an AK-47 assault rifle, allegedly
seized by officials.
Taliban did not immediately comment on the incident.
https://www.khaama.com/taliban-commander-busted-in-badakhshan-234234/
--------
Blast at religious gathering in central Afghanistan
kills at least 15, wounds 20
18 December 2020
An explosion at a religious gathering in central
Afghanistan killed at least 15 civilians and wounded 20 others on Friday, the
country's interior ministry said, adding that children may be among the
victims.
Those killed and wounded were attending a Koran
recitation ceremony.
Initial information suggested that explosives were
placed in a rickshaw in a district of central Ghazni province, interior
ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/18/Blast-at-religious-gathering-in-central-Afghanistan-kills-at-least-15-wounds-20
--------
Southeast Asia
Hardline cleric’s supporters, cops clash in virus-hit
Indonesia
December 18, 2020
JAKARTA: Supporters of firebrand Indonesian cleric
Rizieq Shihab clashed with police during a demonstration in Jakarta on Friday,
after demanding their spiritual figurehead be released from police detention.
Several hundred protesters, some dressed in white
Islamic garb, had gathered in the capital of the world’s largest
Muslim-majority nation, with scuffles breaking out after police told the group
large gatherings were prohibited amid the pandemic.
“For the safety of our souls … the police and the
military will disperse (protesters) and act decisively,” a police officer told
protesters, blasting the message through a sound system.
Indonesia is grappling with the worst coronavirus
outbreak in Southeast Asia, averaging more than 6,000 new cases per day this
week.
Police deployed thousands on the streets of Jakarta on
Friday to guard the protest, with a new requirement for people to present a
negative rapid Covid-19 test to enter the capital likely thwarting some
supporters from joining the rally.
Rizieq, the controversial leader of the Islamic
Defenders’ Front (FPI) was arrested last weekend for allegedly violating
coronavirus protocols after his recent return to Indonesia following three
years in self-exile was marked with events attended by thousands.
The calls for his release also come after six of the
cleric’s bodyguards were shot dead following a clash with police on a highway.
The FPI, once notorious for raiding bars and brothels,
has become more politically influential in recent years, particularly after
helping orchestrate mass rallies against Jakarta’s former Christian governor in
2016 that were the largest in decades.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/12/18/hardline-clerics-supporters-cops-clash-in-virus-hit-indonesia/
--------
Covid-19: No public programmes allowed in Kuantan
district from tomorrow, says state disaster committee
17 Dec 2020
KUANTAN, Dec 17 — All departments in Kuantan district
here are restricted from holding public programmes from tomorrow until December
31, to prevent the spread of Covid-19 through existing clusters in the state.
The Pahang State Disaster Committee in a statement
said during the period, counter dealings and transactions involving the public,
will be reduced as appointment systems would be used to avoid crowds at any one
time.
“Mosque committees and administrators of non-Muslim
houses of worship are also reminded to ensure that visitors comply with the
standard operating procedures (SOP) set earlier,” said the statement.
Pahang recorded an increase in Covid-19 infections
especially in Bentong and Kuantan with five active clusters namely the Atabara
and Inten Clusters (Indera Mahkota), Kuala Cluster around the city centre,
Crystal Cluster (around Sungai Karang Darat) and Padang Cluster (Kampung Padang
and Jalan Besar).
According to the committee enforcement measures would
be enhanced as houses of restaurant staff, factory and construction workers
would be inspected and if they are found to be potential risk, appropriate
action would be taken.
It said strict enforcement action would also be
imposed on premises that fail to adhere to the SOP adding that several premises
have been ordered to close for non-compliance of SOP, including some popular
outlets at Teluk Cempedak, here. — Bernama
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/12/17/covid-19-no-public-programmes-allowed-in-kuantan-district-from-tomorrow-say/1932928
--------
Supporters of hardliner Rizieq Shihab clash with
Indonesia police
19 Dec 2020
Supporters of firebrand Indonesian Muslim leader
Rizieq Shihab have clashed with police during a demonstration in Jakarta, after
demanding their spiritual figurehead be released from police detention.
Several hundred protesters had gathered in the capital
of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation on Friday, with scuffles breaking
out after police told the group that large gatherings were prohibited amid the
pandemic.
“For the safety of our souls … the police and the
military will disperse [protesters] and act decisively,” a police officer told
protesters, blasting the message through a sound system.
The police have been investigating the controversial
scholar for violations of health protocols during the pandemic after large
gatherings to mark his return to Indonesia in November after fleeing to Saudi
Arabia in 2017.
Indonesia is grappling with the worst coronavirus
outbreak in Southeast Asia, averaging more than 6,000 new cases a day this
week.
Police deployed thousands on the streets of Jakarta on
Friday to guard the protest, with a new requirement for people to present a
negative rapid COVID-19 test to enter the capital likely thwarting some
supporters from joining the rally.
Rizieq is the leader of the Islamic Defenders’ Front
(FPI). His return to Indonesia was marked with events attended by thousands of
his followers.
Rizieq had left for Saudi Arabia amid allegations that
he had violated the country’s anti-pornography laws by exchanging graphic
messages and nude pictures over the messaging app WhatsApp with a woman.
The calls for his release also come after six of the
scholar’s bodyguards were shot dead following a clash with police on a highway
earlier this month.
The FPI, once notorious for raiding bars and brothels,
has become more politically influential in recent years, particularly after
helping orchestrate mass rallies against Jakarta’s former Christian governor in
2016 that were the largest in decades.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/19/supporters-of-cleric-rizieq-shihab-clash-with-indonesian-police
--------
Mideast
Turkish philanthropist on trial for alleged failed
coup ties
18 December 2020
A Turkish philanthropist businessman and human rights
defender denied accusations of espionage and attempting to overthrow the
government in connection with a failed coup four years ago, telling a court on
Friday that he opposes all efforts to take over power by force.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Osman Kavala addressed the court from his prison in
the outskirts of Istanbul through a judicial video conference system during the
opening hearing of a new trial against him, which human rights groups have
denounced as unjust and politically motivated.
Kavala, 63, was acquitted earlier this year of
terrorism-related charges for allegedly organizing and financing mass
anti-government protests that erupted in 2013. But as his supporters awaited
his release from prison, authorities issued a warrant for his re-arrest, this
time accusing him of links to a 2016 failed coup attempt.
The businessman faces a life term in prison if found
guilty of the charge of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and
another 20 years for alleged “military and political espionage” against Turkey.
Kavala denies the charges.
Academic Henri Barkey, who lives in the US and was
also charged in the case, is being tried in absentia.
A 64-page indictment alleges Kavala and Barkey
collaborated over the coup, which Turkey’s government says was orchestrated by
a network headed by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. It cites as
evidence mobile phone signals suggesting that Kavala and Barkey met in Turkey
around the time of the coup attempt. Human rights groups have described the
indictment as “absurd.”
Kavala told the court that his more than three-year
pre-trial detention was a violation of his rights and amounted to “a kind of
mental cruelty,” according to Punto 24 website which monitors freedom of
expression trials in Turkey. He also rejected the charges against him saying he
had opposed military coups throughout his life.
“My life experience, my world views and ethical values
do not allow me to support coups,” Kavala said, adding that none of the
evidence backed the accusations of espionage.
Kavala has been in prison since he was detained in
October 2017, despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling for his release.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court is reviewing his complaint challenging his
lengthy pre-trial detention.
Several human rights groups have called for his
immediate release and for all charges against him to be dropped, insisting that
there is no evidence to support the accusations.
“Osman Kavala is facing more baseless, politically
motivated charges in a prosecution which is part of a wider attempt by Turkish
authorities to silence independent civil society,” said Amnesty International’s
Europe Director, Nils Muizniek. “Osman Kavala should not have spent a single
minute behind bars, let alone more than three years in pre-trial detention.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had in February
criticized Kavala’s acquittal of the terror charges and had called for respect
for the decision to re-arrest him. An investigation was launched into a panel
of judges that acquitted him, casting a further shadow on the independence of
the Turkish courts.
Kavala is known for his support of the arts and his
funding of projects promoting cultural diversity and minority rights.
Erdogan, however, has accused Kavala of being the
“Turkish leg” of billionaire US philanthropist George Soros, who the Turkish
leader alleged has been behind insurrections in many countries.
Earlier this year, Kavala was the recipient of a
Turkish human rights prize, and wrote a speech that was read on his behalf at
the ceremony.
“The most burning issue for many of our citizens like
myself is the erosion of the rule of law, one of the main pillars of the
(Turkish) republic” Kavala wrote. “The judiciary does not act in accordance
with the legal norms, but rather in line with the political priorities and
instructions of the government.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/18/Turkish-philanthropist-on-trial-for-alleged-failed-coup-ties
--------
Yemen announces new government formation: State TV
Ismaeel Naar
18 December 2020
A new government has been formed in Yemen, according
to a state television report, following recent developments of the country
adopting the Riyadh Agreement setting up a power-sharing structure between the
Southern Transitional Council and the Yemeni government.
Yemeni diplomat Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak has been named
Yemen’s new foreign minister. Mubarak has previously served as Yemen’s
ambassador to the United States.
Lieutenant General Mohammed Ali al-Maqdashi has been
appointed as Yemen's new defense minister under the new government formation.
Al-Maqdashi was previously the chief of staff of the Yemeni Armed Forces.
Yemeni Major General Ibrahim Haydan has been appointed
as Yemen’s interior minister.
Saudi Arabia introduced the Riyadh Agreement in November
2019 to try to end the dispute in the country’s south that emerged in 2017
between Yemen’s UN-recognized government and the separatists Southern
Transitional Council (STC)
An Arab Coalition source said earlier last week that
the new Yemeni government would be formed as soon as the military transfers
under the Riyadh Agreement were completed.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/12/18/Yemen-announces-new-government-formation-State-TV
--------
Iran’s First Vice President Hopes Stronger Iran, Qatar
Ties
2020-December-18
Jahangiri, in a letter to Qatar’s Prime Minister
Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani on Friday, felicitate the country’s
National Day and voiced hope that the two neighboring countries would benefit
from the current potentials to promote relations in various fields.
He also hoped that the growing cooperation between
Tehran and Doha would definitely benefit the joint interests of the two
nations.
Qatar National Day is the commemoration of Qatar's
unification in 1878 and is celebrated annually on December 18.
In relevant remarks earlier this month, Iranian
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Iran’s relations with
Qatar are not affected by other players in the region, stressing that Tehran
welcomes settlement of tensions in the Persian Gulf.
Khatibzadeh said on Monday December 7 that Tehran-Doha
relations cannot be impacted by other governments, assuring his country’s
support for resolving crises and ending tensions in the sensitive region of the
Persian Gulf.
“Iran has always been standing by the regional
countries through all ups and downs,” the spokesman said.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13990928000349/Iran%E2%80%99s-Firs-Vice-Presiden-Hpes-Srnger-Iran-Qaar-Ties
--------
Africa
Turkey hails US removal of Sudan from terrorism list
Jeyhun Aliyev
18.12.2020
Turkey hailed the US on Thursday for its decision to
remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after more than 27
years.
"We consider the U.S. decision to rescind Sudan
from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which we have been desiring for a
long time, as a step in the right direction,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami
Aksoy said in a statement, responding to a question on the matter.
Aksoy said that Turkey, as it has been stressing from
the outset, is against unilateral sanctions.
"Our country will continue to support the
transition process in Sudan, the reform efforts carried out within this scope,
and to stand by the brotherly Sudanese people," he added.
The US embassy in Khartoum on Monday confirmed Sudan’s
removal from the terrorism list after nearly three decades.
"The congressional notification period of 45 days
has lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating
rescission of Sudan's State Sponsor of Terrorism designation is effective as of
today (Dec. 14), to be published in the Federal Register,” the embassy said in
a statement.
On Oct. 23, US President Donald Trump formally
notified Congress of his intent to rescind Khartoum's placement on the list.
The terror delisting won plaudits in Sudan, with the
head of the country’s ruling Sovereign Council, Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan, saying
the move will open new doors for development in the country.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/turkey-hails-us-removal-of-sudan-from-terrorism-list/2080899
--------
Ethiopia offers reward for information on dissenting
Tigray leaders
18 December 2020
Ethiopia on Friday offered a reward in exchange for
information that could help locate leaders of the Tigray region’s ruling party,
who have been the target of a major military offensive.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, last year’s Nobel Peace
Prize winner, announced the military campaign against the Tigray People’s
Liberation Front (TPLF) on November 4, saying it came in response to TPLF-orchestrated
attacks on federal army camps.
Abiy declared victory after federal forces took the
regional capital Mekele in late November, but the UN says clashes persist in
the region and TPLF leaders remain on the run.
The military will pay 10 million Ethiopian birr
(roughly $250,000 / 205,000 euros) to “any person who knows the exact location
of the TPLF junta leadership”, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation quoted
Lieutenant General Asrat Denero, head of the military’s community information
department, as saying Friday.
Asrat also provided a hotline where citizens could
give tips.
Two days after Mekele fell, Abiy told lawmakers that
federal forces were monitoring TPLF leaders closely from “the situation room”
and would apprehend them soon.
He said TPLF leaders had fled west of the city, though
Debretsion Gebremichael, president of Tigray when the conflict started, told
AFP at the time that Abiy had the location wrong.
Debretsion and other TPLF leaders have been
unreachable for nearly two weeks.
On November 13 federal police announced arrest
warrants for Debretsion and 63 other TPLF leaders.
It was not immediately clear Friday if the reward
offer applied to all of them.
The fighting in Tigray has left thousands dead,
according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, and sent tens of
thousands of refugees streaming across the border into Sudan.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/18/Ethiopia-offers-reward-for-information-on-dissenting-Tigray-leaders
--------
UN appeals for $254 million in aid for Mozambique
conflict victims
18 December 2020
The United Nations launched an appeal Friday for $254
million to help hundreds of thousands caught in an insurgency aimed at carving
out a caliphate in northern Mozambique.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
A group known locally as Al-Shabab unleashed a violent
campaign in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in 2017 that has since killed
more than 2,300 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
The UN said many people fled with just the clothes
they were wearing and warned that 1.1 million people would need help next year.
“They lost their belongings, their livelihoods, their
future,” said Myrta Kaulard, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the country.
“Humanitarian assistance is vital to alleviate their
suffering.”
The extremists have launched hundreds of attacks since
starting their campaign by killing two police officers in the port city of
Mocimboa da Praia in 2017.
The violence escalated this year and the militants now
control swathes of the coast --including strategic ports and cities with gas
installations -- and have advanced inland.
“Women and girls are at risk of abduction,
gender-based violence and exploitation, while boys are at risk of being killed
or recruited by armed actors,” said Kaulard, expressing particular concern
about those trapped in isolated areas.
Thousands of refugees have poured into nearby towns
and cities, staying with relatives or even strangers, leaving local services
stretched to breaking point, the UN warned.
It said more than 90 percent of the displaced were
living with family or friends already struggling with meager resources.
“Shelter is missing, they don’t have food, water is a
problem. Then you have also sanitation, like latrines, all these are problems,”
Valentin Tapsoba, the UNHCR head for southern Africa told AFP.
“We definitely need the international community to
act, and acting is acting now. We should not wait,” he said.
With the rainy season approaching, many areas hosting
those fleeing the violence are expected to flood, ramping up the pressure to
find a quick solution.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/18/UN-appeals-for-254-million-in-aid-for-Mozambique-conflict-victims-
--------
60% of South Sudan population facing acute hunger: UN
18 December 2020
Roughly 60 percent of South Sudan's population face
severe hunger by the middle of next year, the government and UN agencies warned
Friday, calling for urgent assistance to address the growing crisis.
In a new joint report they also said that 1.4 million
children face acute malnutrition in the conflict-ravaged eastern African
nation.
"The food security situation and nutrition
situation has deteriorated," Isaiah Chol Aruai, chairman of South Sudan's
National Bureau of Statistics, said in the capital Juba as he released the
country's latest hunger assessment.
"This is because of pockets of insecurity that
have led to population displacement, low crop production because of climate
shocks such as floods and drought," he said, also pointing to the COVID-19
pandemic, an economic crisis, desert locust infestation and "inadequate
"humanitarian aid.
UN-backed assessments use a ranking called the
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which rates hunger levels
from one to five.
According to the latest update, an estimated 5.8
million people face a phase-three "crisis" level of acute food
insecurity between December 2020 and March 2021.
That number is predicted to rise to around 7.2 million
by July, representing more than 60 percent of the population.
"This is the highest number since South Sudan
gained independence" in 2011, World Food Program deputy country director
Makena Walker said, adding it was a five percent increase compared to last
year.
Friday's update comes after two independent reports
published by IPC last week said that tens of thousands of people were likely to
face "famine conditions" in Pibor, in the country's east.
Pibor was given the highest food insecurity level of
five on Friday, along with the counties of Akobo, Aweil South, Tonj East, Tonj
North and Tonj South.
Meshack Malo, the Food and Agriculture Organization
representative in South Sudan, called for urgent humanitarian access to Pibor
"to prevent an already dire situation from turning into a full-blown
catastrophe".
Aruai said that humanitarian aid needed to be quickly
scaled up "in order to save lives and warn total collapse of
livelihoods".
South Sudan is struggling to emerge from a six-year
civil war that claimed some 380,000 lives and officially ended with the
creation of a government of national unity in February.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/18/641017/South-Sudan-hunger
--------
Nigerian leader welcomes release of over 300 students
Olarewaju Kola and Rodrigue Forku
18.12.2020
Nigeria’s president has welcomed the release of over
300 students kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Katsina State last week.
Muhammadu Buhari described their safe return as a big
relief to their families, the entire country, and international community, said
a statement by his spokesperson Garba Shehu late Thursday.
“The spirit of partnership and the collaborative
efforts of the governments of Katsina and Zamfara states and military led to
their release,” Buhari said.
“Katsina Governor Aminu Bello Masari and the army
worked extremely hard. As soon as I got the information, I congratulated them.
The Armed Forces know their job. They have been well trained and properly
motivated,” he added.
On Tuesday, Nigerian authorities said they had entered
into negotiations with the kidnappers.
“When this latest incident happened, we put in our
efforts and today we have this result to show,” Buhari said.
About 500 students were initially reported to have
been abducted from a public school at Kankara, a small community in northwest
Katsina State on Dec. 11. Updated school statistics and the return of 17 boys
later indicated 302 students were missing.
The kidnapping caused an outcry in the country and
around the world. The UN described the abductions as an attack on educational
institutions, while many Nigerians, including members of parliament, demanded
the removal of military leaders.
This incident marked the third abduction of students
over a decade by the Boko Haram terrorist network after 270 Chibok schoolgirls
were kidnapped in Western Africa in 2014 and 110 girls were abducted from a
school in the northeast of the country in 2018.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/nigerian-leader-welcomes-release-of-over-300-students/2081045
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/hindu-man-custody-eloping-with/d/123817
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism