In Durga Puja Pandals in Kolkata Hindu and Muslim Women Perform Rituals, Nuns Share Space with Hindus, Loudspeakers Blare Mantras and Namaz Together
New Age Islam News Bureau
27 September 2022
Photo: Times of India
----
• Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, Islamist Leader of Arab
Revolts, a Spiritual Guide to the Muslim Brotherhood Dies at Age 96
• UN Speeches End With Silence from Myanmar,
Afghanistan
• Transgenders Part of Society, Should Be Given Full
Rights: PM Representative On Interfaith Harmony
• 'No Information on Whereabouts’ Of Former Afghan
Official Detained By Taliban, Says Family Member
India
• PFI Raids: ‘Futile Attempt to Scare Muslims’, Says
Jamaat-e-Islami Telangana President
• With Sikhs Practically Extinct in Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan, India’s Case As A Natural Homeland Deserves A Revisit
• Second round of NIA raids on PFI under way across
India: Latest developments
--------
Arab
World
• Islamic Minister Al-Sheikh: Juristic Judgment Catalyst
to Salvage Islamic Ummah
• Qatar: Ugandan worker celebrated after giving Friday
mosque sermon in perfect Arabic
• Iraq MPs to meet for first time since inter-Shia
bloodshed
• No more social distancing between worshippers in
mosques across UAE
• As Ukraine war grinds on, Saudi Arabia influence
grows
• Syria at UN demands withdrawal of US-led military
coalition
• German, Qatari leaders back diplomatic efforts to
revive JCPOA
--------
Europe
• World Needs A ‘New Paradigm for Peace,’ Indonesian
Foreign Minister Tells UN General Assembly
• UK’s Truss thanks Saudi Crown Prince for his
prisoner release efforts
• German foreign minister urges sanctions on Iran over
violence against protesters
• British police arrest anti-Iran rioters affiliated
with MKO terrorist group in London
--------
Pakistan
• Peshawar court acquits two of Ahmadi homeopath’s
killing
• 6 Pakistan Army officials martyred in Harnai
helicopter crash: ISPR
• Bilawal urges measures to combat Islamophobia
• Imran Khan accuses Maryam Nawaz of hatching plot to
kill him through 'religious fanatic'
• Pakistan's businessmen and economists ask govt to
import food from neighbouring countries, including India
• Imran’s harangue stirs up debate on campuses
prestige
• President Arif Alvi admits ‘personal’ role in
bringing stakeholders closer
--------
South
Asia
• 'No Information on Whereabouts’ Of Former Afghan
Official Detained By Taliban, Says Family Member
• As The Threat of Terrorism Becomes Common Again,
People In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Are Already Protesting
• Sylhetis Were Separated By Partition. Now,
Indo-Bangladesh Festival Aims to Bring Them Together
• WFP Needs $1.1bn as Winter Spells Hunger for
Afghanistan
• Mass grave containing remains of 12 people uncovered
in Afghanistan: Taliban
--------
Mideast
• My Views on ‘Rest in Peace’ Based On Islamic
Tradition, Says Turkish Scholar
• Türkiye condemns raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque complex
• Israel police storm Al-Aqsa to clear Muslims from
compound on Jewish New Year holiday
• Hamas slams ‘racist’ Israeli settler violations
against al-Aqsa
• At least 76 people killed in Iran protest crackdown:
NGO
• Iran steps up arrests of activists, journalists amid
anti-regime protest crackdown
• Turkey says Malaysia, Indonesia interested in buying
armed drones
• Terror group PKK seeking to exploit Iranian protests
for own self-interest, warns expert
• Unlawful foreign presence in Syria must end
immediately, unconditionally: Mekdad
--------
Southeast
Asia
• China's Failure to Invest In Afghanistan Is
Frustrating the Taliban
• Ummah Unity Shouldn’t Come At Others’ Expense, PAS
Told
• PAS Members, Leaders Told To Heed Spiritual Leader’s
Advice, Says Takiyuddin
• Alliance Islamic Launched Malaysia's First Book on
Zakat Microfinancing
• Coalitions are better for Malaysia, says PKR’s Wong
Chen
• Govt files notice of appeal over Zahid’s graft
acquittal
--------
Africa
• Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Nigerians Too Hungry To Bother
About Their Religious Faiths In 2023 Election – Keyamo
• At least five killed in western Libya clashes
• Algeria’s UN integration will develop with support,
says FM Lamamra
• ‘Dozen’ dead in suspected Burkina Faso militant
attack
--------
North
America
• Canada Sanctions Iran Morality Police as Protests
Flare
• US to give $10m for food security assistance, says
Blinken
• US adds fourth Iranian cargo plane to export
violation list over Russia flights
• US urges Greece, Türkiye to 'work together' for
regional peace
• Former US Congressman Ron Paul mocks US neocon ties
to Iran riots 'leader'
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/durga-puja-hindu-muslim-women-nuns-namaz/d/128047
--------
In Durga Puja Pandals in Kolkata Hindu and Muslim
Women Perform Rituals, Nuns Share Space with Hindus, Loudspeakers Blare Mantras
and Namaz Together
Photo: Times of India
----
Sep 27, 2022
KOLKATA: A Pandal where nuns from Missionaries of Charity
are set to share space with their Hindu neighbours. Another where the rituals
are performed by Hindu and Muslim women and sex workers help with arrangements.
Yet another where loudspeakers blare Durga mantras and namaz together. A common
string holds up these Kolkata pujas - the organisers are largely Muslims who
shine through the festival's glitz as emblems of communal harmony and peaceful
coexistence that their areas have witnessed for generations.
While some have been carrying on this legacy of inclusivity
for years, others have started recently.
The Alimuddin Street puja was revived by local Muslims
after a 16-year break last year. This time, nuns from Missionaries of Charity
will join their Hindu neighbours in the carnival. A six-member all-Muslim
committee is in charge here.
"We are organising this puja for a single Hindu
family that stayed back in our neighbourhood even as others left," said Md
Shabbir, a member of the committee.
Last year, this puja drew curious crowds from all
sections of society. Another lodestar on this firmament of inclusivity is the
Five Star Club Durga Puja in Kidderpore. Nearly 70 years old, this, too, is
steered by Muslims.As many as 13 of the organisers are Muslims.
Not far away is The Alipore 78 Pally Durga Puja. Set up
adjacent to a mosque, it has held up the tradition of inclusivity for over 63
years.
As per puja secretary Sourav Majumdar, 40 of the
organising committee's 70 members are Muslims. "They (Muslim members) are
involved in all activities - from collecting funds and distributing bhog
(offering) to participating in Sandhi Puja."
Elaborating on pandal design, artist Anirban Das
said,"As per the Purohitadarpana (a manual on rituals), using a handful of
soil from the doorstep of a brothel is a must in Durga Puja. But the festival
fails to add any colour to these women's lives. The pandal has been modelled
after a red-light area and visitors will be able to see the sad saga of the
residents' lives."
Source: Times Of India
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
--------
Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, Islamist Leader of Arab
Revolts, a Spiritual Guide to the Muslim Brotherhood Dies at Age 96
Sheikh Qaradawi, Islamist
champion of Arab revolts, dies at 96
- Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022
-----
September 26, 2022
Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a spiritual guide to the
Muslim Brotherhood who championed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and unsettled
rulers in Egypt and the Gulf with his Islamist preaching, died on Monday. He
was 96.
Born in Egypt, Qaradawi spent much of his life in
Qatar, where he became one of the most recognisable and influential Sunni
Muslim clerics in the Arab world thanks to regular appearances on Qatar's Al
Jazeera network.
Broadcast into millions of homes, his sermons fuelled
tensions that led Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to impose a blockade on
Qatar in 2017 and declare Qaradawi a terrorist.
His death was announced on his official Twitter
account.
Qaradawi, who studied at Cairo's Al-Azhar University,
was often described by supporters as a moderate who offered a counterweight to
the radical ideologies espoused by al-Qaeda. He strongly condemned the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and supported democratic politics.
But he also sanctioned violence in causes he favoured.
In Iraq after a 2003 U.S.-led invasion, he backed
attacks on coalition forces and he supported Palestinian suicide bombing
against Israeli targets during an uprising that began in 2000.
Several Western states banned him from entry.
During the Arab Spring uprisings he called for Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi to be killed and declared jihad against Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's government.
Qaradawi joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man.
Advocating Islam as a political programme, the Brotherhood has been seen as a
threat by autocratic Arab leaders since it was founded in 1928 in Egypt by
Hassan al-Banna, whom Qaradawi knew.
He turned down the chance to lead the organisation,
instead focusing on preaching and Islamic scholarship and building a following
that extended well beyond the group.
His prominence grew after the 2011 Arab revolts.
Visiting Cairo after the downfall of President Hosni
Mubarak, he told a packed Tahrir Square that fear had been lifted from
Egyptians who had toppled a modern day pharaoh.
The appearance captured the scale of change that
seemed to be sweeping the region, with long-oppressed Islamists enjoying new
freedoms and a Brotherhood member, Mohamed Mursi, being elected president in
2012.
When the military, encouraged by mass protests,
toppled Mursi a year later, Qaradawi condemned the new, army-led order as it
unleashed a ferocious crackdown on the Brotherhood.
He urged a boycott of the presidential election which
made army commander Abdel Fattah al-Sisi president in 2014.
"The duty of the nation is to resist the
oppressors, restrain their hands and silence their tongues," Qaradawi
said.
Death Sentence
"He's somebody who was committed to democracy and
popular sovereignty from an Islamic perspective," said David Warren, a
scholar of contemporary Islam and research fellow at Washington University in
St. Louis.
"But being a democrat doesn't mean that someone
has to be a pacifist, so in the context of a civil war like Libya and Syria, he
could hold those positions while similarly saying that Gaddafi is a tyrant who
should be killed...," he said.
Jailed numerous times in Egypt as a young man,
Qaradawi was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court in 2015, along
with Mursi and some 90 others. Qaradawi said the rulings, which related to a
mass jail break in 2011, were nonsense and violated Islamic law, noting that he
was in Qatar at the time.
He criticised Riyadh for backing Sisi, while his
attacks on Sisi and help for the Brotherhood fuelled tensions between Qatar on
the one hand and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, another supporter
of Egypt's new government, on the other.
Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation in 2014.
In 2014 when Riyadh and its allies withdrew
ambassadors from Doha, Qaradawi stopped his Friday sermons, saying he wanted to
ease some pressure on Qatar, his adopted home since the 1960s.
But he still criticised Egypt's new ruler in
statements.
Qaradawi, who memorised the Koran by age 10, chaired
the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). He opposed takfir, a concept
used by Islamist militants to justify killing Muslims who disagreed with them
by declaring them non-believers.
Qaradawi also opposed the ultra-radical Islamic State
group, saying he totally disagreed with Daesh "in ideology and
means".
When IS burnt alive a captured Jordanian pilot in
2015, the IUMS said the group did not represent Islam in any way.
However, he rejected the U.S. role in fighting the
group as self-interested. Critics noted how that position appeared to contrast
with his tacit support for U.S. action in Syria in 2013 when Washington
considered - but never carried out - strikes on the Syrian government over the
use of chemical weapons.
On that occasion, Qaradawi suggested foreign powers
were God's instrument for vengeance.
The war in Syria, where Sunni rebels battled the
Alawite-led state backed by Shi'ite Iran, turned Qaradawi against the Lebanese
Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which he had once praised for fighting Israel. He
condemned it as "the party of the devil".
He staunchly supported the Palestinian struggle with
Israel.
On a 2013 visit to Gaza hosted by its ruling Hamas
Islamist group, Qaradawi said: "We should seek to liberate Palestine, all
of Palestine, inch by inch."
Source: Fox News
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.foxnews.com/world/sheikh-youssef-al-qaradawi-islamist-leader-arab-revolts-dies-age-96
--------
UN Speeches End With Silence from Myanmar, Afghanistan
United Nations
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th session of the General
Assembly at U.N. headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
-----
September 26, 2022
UNITED NATIONS: For the second straight year,
Afghanistan and Myanmar were silent at the UN General Assembly’s leaders’
meeting, which ended Monday with no representative of either government
stepping forward to talk as the United Nations tries to resolve who should
represent them.
At the annual high-level meeting of leaders, there was
no speech from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, who now control the nation after a
US withdrawal last year, and no words from Myanmar, where a military junta
toppled the civilian government last year and detained its de facto leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi.
For Afghanistan, it mirrored last year’s assembly when
the Taliban — in its second chapter of ruling the nation — tried to figure out
how to interact with the United Nations.
Last month, the UN special envoy on Myanmar said she
wouldn’t visit the Southeast Asia nation again unless its military government
allows her to meet with Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison,
including a three-year term with hard labor imposed last week for alleged
election fraud.
Myanmar’s military seized power in February 2021 from
Suu Kyi’s elected government, plunging the country into what some UN experts
have described as civil war. Critics say the charges subsequently brought
against Suu Kyi and top figures in her Cabinet were fabricated to keep them out
of politics.
In December, the UN delayed actions on both
Afghanistan’s and Myanmar’s bid for seats. UN diplomats said then that the
decision to delay the requests by Myanmar’s junta and the Taliban had wide
support because of the actions of the two countries’ new rulers.
Myanmar and Afghanistan didn’t go entirely unmentioned
Monday. Bharat Raj Paudyal, foreign secretary of Nepal, brought up both of
them.
“Afghanistan has remained on the precipice of
uncertainty and violence,” he noted, and asked all parties in Myanmar to
“respect the will of the people to elect their representatives.”
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2170021/world
--------
Transgenders
Part of Society, Should Be Given Full Rights: PM Representative On Interfaith
Harmony
Special
Representative to the Prime Minister on Interfaith Harmony and Middle East
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Ashrafi
-----
26
September, 2022
ISLAMABAD
(Dunya News) – Special Representative to the Prime Minister on Interfaith
Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Ashrafi on Monday said
transgenders were a part of the society, just like other people, and they
should be given full rights.
Talking
to a delegation of Ulema and Mashaykh, Ashrafi, who is also the chairman of
Pakistan Ulema Council, clarified that religious and political parties were not
against the transgenders’ rights but they had valid objection on a sub-section
of the act which allowed anyone to formally register his/her gender based on
self-perceived identity without any approval.
“We
welcome the bill and amendments prepared by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)
with reference to the Transgender Act,” he said, adding the responsibility was
on the JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman’s shoulder as his party was the
largest religious and political party in the parliament.
He
said the bill was passed four years ago and the government’s proposal to form a
joint committee for amendments in the bill was a step in the right direction.
He
said the Constitution did not allow any law contrary to Islamic Shari’ah as the
Transgender Act had shortcomings on the part of all. “We should all admit that
everyone remained ignorant about approval of the bill four years back,” he
maintained.
Ashrafi
said the law minister had proposed to form a joint committee to redress the
Transgender Act’s sections opposing the Constitution and Islamic Shari’ah.
Expressing
condolence on the death of prominent religious scholar Al-Sheikh Yusuf
Qaradawi, he said his services to Islam and Muslim Ummah could not be
forgotten.
On
the occasion, he was flanked by Maulana Tahir Aqeel Awan, Allama Tahir Al
Hasan, Maulana Muhammad Ashfaq Patafi, Maulana Asadullah Farooq, Allama Zubair
Abid, Maulana Aslam Siddiqui, Maulana Saadullah Ludhianwi, Maulana Aziz Akbar
Qasim and others religious scholars.
Source:
Dunya News
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
'No
Information on Whereabouts’ of Former Afghan Official Detained by Taliban, Says
Family Member
FILE
- Map of Afghanistan and surrounding countries
----
September
27, 2022
WASHINGTON
—
The
family of a former Afghan official who was allegedly detained by the Taliban in
Kabul last month says that they have “no information on his whereabouts.”
Ahmad
Shah Habibi accused the Taliban of detaining his brother Mahmood Shah Habibi,
former deputy chief of Afghanistan’s Aviation Authority, in the Shash Darak
area of Kabul on August 10.
“The
Taliban, who were wearing civilian clothes, detained Mohammad Shah Habibi in
front of his house in the Shash Darak area. ... Later, they broke the gate,
forced their way into the house, and took some documents, books and a laptop
computer.”
The
Taliban's representative did not respond to VOA's request for comment about the
alleged disappearance and whether Habibi had been detained.
“No
[Taliban government] agency has given us any information on his whereabouts.
They have not let us meet him. And they have not told us why he was taken into
custody,” said Ahmad Shah Habibi, who lives in the U.S.
He
added that the armed men who detained Habibi introduced themselves to the
family as “Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate,” a name used by the Taliban for
their forces.
Habibi,
a U.S. citizen, was working as a consultant for the Asia Consultancy Group
(ACG), a Kabul-based telecommunication company.
A
spokesperson for the State Department told VOA that they are “monitoring the
situation but have no further comment at this time.”
“U.S.
citizens should not travel to Afghanistan due to civil unrest, armed conflict,
crime, terrorism, and kidnapping,” said the spokesperson in an email Monday.
In
August 2021, the United States and its NATO allies completely withdrew from the
country after almost two decades of war with the Taliban, paving the way for
the resurgent Islamist group to seize power.
Last
week, the Taliban released Mark Frerichs, a U.S. citizen, in exchange for a
Taliban drug lord, Bashir Noorzai, who was serving a life sentence in a U.S.
prison.
In
a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden said that after being in captivity for 31
months in Afghanistan, Frerichs release was “the culmination of years of
tireless work by dedicated public servants across our government and other
partner governments.”
He
added that his government “continues to prioritize the safe return of all
Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, and we will not
stop until they are reunited with their families.”
The
U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett expressed
his concerns earlier this month about the deteriorating security situation in
Afghanistan.
He
added that the U.N. received numerous reports of civilians being subjected to
house-to-house searches and what appeared to be collective punishment.
“I am
particularly concerned that former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces
and other officials of the former government remain subject to ongoing
arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances,
despite the amnesty declared by the Taliban,” Bennett said.
Bennett
said those committing these crimes appear to be acting with impunity and are
creating an atmosphere of terror.
Source: VOA News
Please
click the following URL to read the text of the original story:
--------
India
PFI
raids: ‘Futile attempt to scare Muslims’, says Jamaat-e-Islami Telangana
president
24th
September 2022
Hyderabad:
The President of Jamaat-e-Islami, Maulana Hamid Muhammad Khan strongly
condemned the raids of NIA and ED against PFI in various places of the state
and the country and said that the purpose of allegations is to indirectly
install fear in Muslims and lower the morale and courage of the youth.
“The
central government is under the control of fascist elements and is trying to
eliminate the voice of righteous people and by targeting democratic
institutions, human rights activists and journalists. The government is
providing undisclosed patronage to elements and organizations that are not only
involved in hatred and violence but are openly promoting terrorism,” he said.
He
further said that ‘this attitude of the government has become a ‘challenge to
the supremacy of the Constitution of India’.
“Continuously
targeting the largest minority in the country, insulting their holy
personalities, targeting the holy book and mosques and raising new objections
against the Muslim Personal Law has become a daily routine. Due to this, the
largest minority of the country has become a victim of insecurity,” he
remarked.
Source:
Siasat Daily
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
With
Sikhs practically extinct in Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, India’s case as a
natural homeland deserves a revisit
Monica
Verma
September
27, 2022
As
55 Hindus and Sikhs landed in New Delhi on a special flight from Afghanistan
this week, the plight of persecuted minorities in India’s neighbourhood once
again came to the fore. These Hindus and Sikhs are one of the very last lot of
persecuted minorities who have been provided with visa assistance from the
Indian government to help them escape from the torture in Islamic Emirates of
Afghanistan. Some of them were under imprisonment before they returned to New
Delhi with their hair butchered and pressure to convert to Islam. This has been
a common form of torture for Afghanistan’s micro minority, the Sikh community
which is all set to become extinct with just 22 Sikhs remaining in the country
today. In 2021, an attack on a gurdwara in Kabul by Islamic State Khorasan
Province (ISKP) had also claimed 50 lives.
The
persecution of Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan is a long story. While Guru
Nanak Dev himself travelled to the country to preach, leading many Afghans to
choose Sikhism, a large presence was also maintained by migration of Sikhs to
Afghanistan for trading purposes. During the partition of the Indian
subcontinent in 1947, many Sikhs fled from Pakistan and found a safe refuge in
Afghanistan instead. There are various estimates that peg Hindu and Sikh
populations between 5 lakh and 7 lakh in the 1970s. Some peg this population at
around 2,20,000. However, it sharply fell to 15,000 in the 1990s when
Mujahideen came to power.
By
2016, only 1,350 Hindus and Sikhs remained in Afghanistan. Active
discrimination against them has ranged from literal head counts of Hindus and
Sikhs for elimination and a diktat to wear yellow armbands for identification.
Religious persecution became a common feature of the Taliban rule as did the
torture done to the ethnic minorities of Hazara, Uzbek and Tajiks. About 99 per
cent of their population left the country in the last three decades with only a
handful left behind waiting to be evacuated by the Indian government.
Despite
religious persecution being a hard fact of life for many in Afghanistan,
Western powers who pontificate on human rights and religious intolerance to
other countries, never bothered to recognise it as a legitimate facet of
Taliban Rule. Neither were the persecuted Hindus and Sikhs recognised even once
as refugees nor was any leniency given in deporting them back to Afghanistan.
This has left them with India as their only hope.
Meanwhile
in India, the subject of persecuted minorities from the Indian subcontinent
getting citizenship has always sparked a huge debate. In late 2019 and early
2020, a series of protests rocked the country when the Narendra Modi government
tabled the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) that sought to give priority to
these persecuted minorities in getting citizenship. Unlike the massive
misinformation campaign that spread rumours that Muslims will be
disenfranchised, CAA simply sought to reduce years of naturalisation required
under the existing act by half. Even the cut-off was 2014, thereby not
addressing the plight of persecuted minorities in more recent years. Although
the CAA bill finally became a law, the rules under the act are still waiting to
be notified with the government seeking extension from the past two years.
There is a growing demand for increasing the cut-off to 2022 under CAA.
While
India has always been a home to persecuted people worldwide with Parsis, Jews
and even Tibetans finding a safe refuge in India, the case of religious
minorities is a different one. While all the other persecuted people come from
a different background to India, the persecuted people in the subcontinent have
a historical and civilisational link with India. It was the unfortunate event
of India’s partition on religious lines that made these persecuted people a
minority in what was once their own homeland. The need to address their plight
has been highlighted across the political spectrum with former prime minister
Manmohan Singh speaking on the matter in the Rajya Sabha in 2003.
The
fact that the Sikhs weren’t allowed to carry their scriptures by the current
Taliban government to India and the fact that Sikhs will soon be an extinct
minority in Afghanistan should revive the case for India as a natural homeland
for them. Currently they are dependent on Long-Term Visas (LTVs) to stay in
India and face multiple problems in settling here peacefully. Even the
persecuted Hindus who arrived from Pakistan are living in miserable conditions
in India.
History
has been very unkind to the Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Christians and other
minorities in the subcontinent. Whether it was the partition in 1947 or
liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 and the recent return of Taliban to
Afghanistan, Islamic regimes have adopted a governance and justice system that
outlaws any scope for survival or dignity for these non-Muslims. If they can’t
come back to India which was once the land of their ancestors, then where do
they go?
Source:
Firstpost
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Second
round of NIA raids on PFI under way across India: Latest developments
Sep
27, 2022
NEW
DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is conducting raids at multiple
locations linked to the Popular Front of India (PFI) members in at least eight
states. This is the second massive nationwide crackdown on people linked with
the outfit. While several activists of the Popular Front of India have been
arrested in the ongoing operation, many have also been detained.
Earlier
this week, over 106 members of PFI were arrested by the NIA and the Enforcement
Directorate (ED) for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.
Here
are the latest developments:
Twenty
five PFI activists have been arrested from different districts of Assam.
According to police, the highest number of 10 PFI activists were held in
Goalpara, five in Kamrup (Rural) and three in Dhubri, followed by arrests in
Barpeta, Baksa, Darrang, Udalguri and Karimganj.
Maharashtra
Police have arrested four activists of the outfit from different locations in
Thane district for alleged anti-national activities, an official said on
Tuesday. Two of the activists were nabbed from Mumbra and one each from Kalyan
and Bhiwandi towns, Laxmikant Patil, deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime),
said without elaborating.
The
Nashik Police also arrested two people liked with the organisation. Both the
arrested persons will be produced before the court later today.
More
than 30 PFI members have been detained by the Delhi Police during multiple
raids by central agencies in the national capital. As per latest reports, the
raids are still under way at several places in the city.
Several
PFI leaders have been detained in urban and rural areas of Dakshina Kannada and
Udupi districts early of Karnataka as well. Preventive detention cases have
been filed against them under sections 107 and 151 of Criminal Procedure Code
(CrPC) against the detained leaders, police sources said.
In
state-wide raids in Karnataka, more than 75 PFI workers of its political wing
Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and leaders were taken into preventive
custody.
At
least 10 people have been detained in Gujarat for questioning over links with
the Popular Front of India.
The
NIA is also conducting raids at the premises of PFI members at multiple
locations in western Uttar Pradesh, including Bulandshahr and Meerut. "We
are grilling them. As of now no arrest memos have been filed against any of
them. They are PFI members. We received fresh inputs after questionning PFI
members who were arrested following the September 22 pan-India raids," the
sources said.
Madhya
Pradesh Police have detained 21 people over links with the outfit, state home
minister Narottam Mishra said.
The
PFI has thousands of active members in Gulf countries where it has raised
substantial funds and is sending them to India through hawala transactions, the
Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Monday.
The
searches and arrests on September 22 – with the NIA alone searching 93
locations and arresting 45 PFI leaders and cadres – were in five cases
registered or re-registered by NIA in the recent past, of which three are being
probed by NIA’s Delhi branch and one each by its Hyderabad and Kochi branches.
The raids followed inputs and evidence that the PFI leaders and cadres were
involved in funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising training
camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned
organisations.
PFI
condemned the raids and 'unjust' arrests and accused the NIA and ED of engaging
in a witch-hunt against its members and supporters. “Popular Front will never
be intimidated by such scare tactics by a totalitarian regime that uses the
central agencies as its puppets,” the outfit said in a statement.
Source:
Times Of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Arab
World
Islamic
Minister Al-Sheikh: Juristic judgment catalyst to salvage Islamic Ummah
September
26, 2022
RIYADH
— Minister of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance Sheikh Dr. Abdullatif
Al-Sheikh emphasized that the methodology of Ijtihad (juristic judgment on
newly-surfacing religious issues) was and is still serving as the catalyst to
salvage the Islamic Ummah when it comes to confronting unprecedented
philosophical issues.
He
drew attention to the fact that any new fatwa (religious edict) should be based
on the outcomes of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon
him).
Speaking
to the Saudi Press Agency, while attending the 33rd international conference of
the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs being held in Cairo, Al-Sheikh
underscored the importance of fighting extremism, violence and terrorism on the
basis of the Islamic principles of moderation and tolerance.
Source:
Saudi Gazette
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Qatar:
Ugandan worker celebrated after giving Friday mosque sermon in perfect Arabic
26
September, 2022
A
Ugandan petrol station worker in Qatar won the hearts of social media users
after he stepped up to give the sermon during Friday prayers in perfect Arabic.
The
man, wearing his work overalls, took the place of the imam who was late for a
religious service in Doha, according to pan-Arab news website Arabi 21.
The
man spoke to the congregation through a mosque microphone for at least two
minutes and 20 seconds, as shown by a video circulating on social media.
"Mashallah
[that's amazing]. He gives a beautiful sermon," tweeted one user.
"May
Allah reward him. Islam does not differentiate between its members except in
piety," another wrote in reference to a famous anti-racist saying of the
Prophet Mohammed.
The
Ajial Educational Center tweeted a video of the worker being honoured by
participants in its "Wathiq" youth programme.
It
said the programme "aims to address the phenomenon of bullying and
highlight the intrinsic value of the human being".
"In
the context of promoting righteous behaviour and tolerant Islamic values, the
participants in the programme honoured the Ugandan gas worker" who gave
the sermon, Ajial added.
Source:
The New Arab
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/qatar-ugandan-worker-celebrated-giving-mosque-sermon
--------
Iraq
MPs to meet for first time since inter-Shia bloodshed
26
September, 2022
Iraq's
parliament, at the center of a months-long political paralysis, is to convene
Wednesday for the first time since deadly unrest in August and a sit-in protest
by supporters of Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Parliament
said in a brief statement on Monday that votes on the resignation of the
assembly's speaker, Mohammed al-Halbussi, and the appointment of a first deputy
speaker would top the agenda.
The
move is being seen by analysts as a vote of confidence in Halbussi.
The
speaker “is not planning to resign but by allowing a potential vote of
confidence to go ahead he is expecting his coalition partners to back him
strongly”, Sajad Jiyad, a fellow at the Century International think-tank, told
AFP.
He
said the aim was to “end any further attempts to unseat him.
“This
will cement his position as political leader of Iraq's Sunnis and put pressure
on” Shia and Kurdish parties to form a government, Jiyad added.
Iraq's
deeply divided political factions have failed to form a new government since
inconclusive elections last October, and the last session of parliament dates
back to July 23.
Later
in July, al-Sadr's supporters stormed the assembly and staged a month-long
sit-in on its grounds.
Tensions
boiled over into clashes on August 29 between the Sadrists, rival Iran-backed
factions and the army in which more than 30 demonstrators were killed.
The
violence followed months of disagreements between al-Sadr and his rivals within
Iraq's majority Shia camp, as the impasse has left the country without a new
government, prime minister or president since the elections almost a year ago.
Iraq's
standoff pits al-Sadr against the Iran-backed Coordination Framework, which
includes lawmakers from the party of his longtime foe, ex-prime minister Nuri
al-Maliki.
Al-Sadr
wants snap elections and the dissolution of parliament but the rival Shia bloc
wants a new head of government appointed before any new polls are held.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
No
more social distancing between worshippers in mosques across UAE
September
27, 2022
The
UAE has eased a number of restrictions related to the Covid-19 starting from
Sept.28.
In
a media briefing on Monday, the authorities announce the easing of a number of
restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic at the state level and the
updates that are taking place in various sectors.
The
country has moved on to expand by actively contributing to finding scientific
and health solutions to the Covid-19 pandemic through vaccine experiments in
the country and working on scientific research that contributes to developing
vaccines, in addition to education and remote work, which the UAE was one of
the first countries to implement.
Among
the first restrictions eased were in the mosques.
Mosques
and places of worship
•Cancelling
the distance between worshippers.
•Worshippers
must carry their own prayer mats.
•We
recommend wearing a mask for the elderly and those with chronic diseases in all
open and closed spaces.
•Wearing
a mask is mandatory in mosques and places of worship in order to preserve
health the elderly and those with chronic diseases.
The
authorities said that the society played a key role in awareness and commitment
to implementing all preventive and precautionary measures to achieve the
results.
Source:
Gulf Today
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
As
Ukraine war grinds on, Saudi Arabia influence grows
Sep
27, 2022
RIYADH:
Saudi Arabia's unexpected role in brokering the release of foreign fighters
detained in Ukraine was just the latest example of how the kingdom is seeking
to bolster its international standing, diplomats and analysts say.
It
also enables Riyadh to argue that preserving ties with Moscow -- a source of
tension with Washington, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- can
be a positive factor, while potentially deflecting attention from human rights
concerns that consistently generate negative headlines.
The
release of the 10 foreign fighters, including two from the United States and
five from Britain, came alongside a broader prisoner-of-war swap, brokered by
Turkey, that saw 215 Ukrainians walk free while Russia received 55 prisoners.
A
former Ukrainian lawmaker and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin were
among those released.
The
foreigners, who landed in Riyadh on a chartered jet last Wednesday, also hailed
from Morocco, Sweden and Croatia.
Expressions
of gratitude for Saudi Arabia immediately poured in from Washington, London and
beyond, with officials highlighting the personal involvement of Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman.
"It
is a first for sure," Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the
government, said of the deal.
"In
this case, it was an opportunity to leverage Saudi's ties with Russia for a
good cause," he said, adding that similar arrangements could be possible
in the future.
Before
war broke out in Ukraine seven months ago, Saudi Arabia -- and Prince Mohammed
in particular -- was still struggling to overcome diplomatic isolation
resulting from the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's
Istanbul consulate.
Last
year, US President Joe Biden declassified an intelligence report that found
Prince Mohammed had approved the operation against Khashoggi, an assertion
Saudi authorities deny.
But
the spike in energy prices triggered by Russia's invasion spurred a number of
Western leaders to travel to Saudi Arabia to appeal for ramped-up oil
production, notably then-UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Biden himself, who
swallowed an earlier vow to make the Saudi leadership a "pariah".
German
chancellor Olaf Scholz this weekend became the latest major leader to visit the
kingdom.
Saudi
Arabia has largely resisted the calls to pump more oil, coordinating with the
OPEC+ cartel it jointly leads with Russia.
At
the same time, the world's biggest crude exporter has benefited financially
from the war. Oil giant Saudi Aramco announced record profits and the kingdom's
economy is expected to grow 7.6 percent this year, according to the
International Monetary Fund.
Moves
like mediating a prisoner swap allow Prince Mohammed "to prove to the West
that he is a reliable person in international affairs" -- despite, or even
because of, his close ties with Putin, said a Riyadh-based Arab diplomat.
"His
intervention in this way also creates headlines that cover up stories like
harsh judicial rulings" against government critics, the diplomat said,
citing the cases of two women who received decades-long prison sentences,
apparently for their social media posts.
The
Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, told the BBC at the weekend
that the Saudi mediation was for purely "humanitarian reasons" and
that it was "very cynical" to think the kingdom was out to burnish
its reputation.
Several
of Saudi Arabia's neighbours have traditionally embraced mediation roles in
pursuit of diplomatic clout within and beyond the region.
Oman
has leveraged ties with Iran to negotiate prisoner swaps, including for
detained Americans, and Qatar has done the same with groups like the Taliban
and Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in Syria.
"Turkey
has also increasingly taken on this kind of role in recent years, especially in
Syria and more recently in Ukraine," said Alex Stark, senior researcher at
the New America think-tank in Washington.
"Saudi
Arabia has also seen how Turkey has won praise and attention for brokering the
grain deal with Russia and Ukraine, and may be seeking to replicate that
success."
In
addition to the Ukraine war, Riyadh has long been active closer to home
including in Lebanon and Yemen, where it is leading a military coalition
against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
All
the while, though, the kingdom is making clear its soft-power ambitions extend
further than ever -- even to space, where, under a programme unveiled last
week, it plans to send astronauts next year, including a woman.
Source:
Times Of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Syria
at UN demands withdrawal of US-led military coalition
26
September, 2022
Syria’s
top diplomat pressed Monday for a US-led military coalition to get out of his
country and told the UN General Assembly meeting of world leaders that Damascus
wants compensation for losses suffered by its oil and gas industry during an
11-year-long and ongoing civil war.
Hundreds
of US troops are stationed in eastern Syria to help the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF) fight ISIS terrorist group.
Syrian
Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the coalition’s presence contradicts
international law and “must end immediately and without conditions.”
“Fighting
terrorism does not happen through an illegitimate international coalition that
violates the sovereignty of states and destroys cities and villages,” he said,
arguing that battling terrorism can’t work without “coordination” with Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The
civil war began in 2011 with anti-government protests demanding democratic
reforms but quickly escalated into fighting.
Hundreds
of thousands of people have been killed, large parts of the country have been
destroyed, half the country’s pre-war population has been displaced.
Amid
the chaos, ISIS took over significant parts of Syria.
Though
the group in 2019 lost the last sliver of land its fighters controlled, its
sleeper cells are still active.
Mekdad
said “direct and indirect” losses in Syria’s oil and gas sector have reached
$107 billion since the conflict began.
He
added that Damascus will demand compensation for these losses, an apparent
reference to the US- SDF control of much of the oil fields in eastern Syria.
Amid
the war, the US, some other countries and the European Union have imposed
sanctions on Syria’s government and oil industry.
Mekdad
complained that his country had been “economically besieged” by powers bent on
imposing their will and retaining their wealth.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
German,
Qatari leaders back diplomatic efforts to revive JCPOA
26
September 2022
Germany
and Qatar have expressed their support for efforts aimed at reviving Iran’s
2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA).
The
United States, under former president Donald Trump, abandoned the JCPOA in May
2018 and launched a “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic in
order to destroy the agreement.
Talks
to salvage the agreement kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna in April
last year, months after US President Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump, with the
intention of examining Washington’s seriousness in rejoining the deal and
removing its anti-Iran sanctions.
Qatar’s
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in a joint press conference with
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Doha on Sunday that the two leaders had
agreed on the significance of supporting the Vienna-based diplomatic efforts to
conclude an agreement on restoring the JCPOA.
Sheikh
Tamim noted that the accord would contribute to enhancing security and
stability in the region.
In
recent weeks, there have been unfruitful, indirect exchanges of responses
between Tehran and Washington over an EU draft proposal on restoring the JCPOA,
with Iranian officials urging their American counterparts to show “realism” and
“flexibility” in order to secure a final agreement.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/09/26/689872/Germany-Qatar-back-efforts-restore-Iran-nuclear-deal
--------
Europe
World
needs a ‘new paradigm for peace,’ Indonesian foreign minister tells UN General
Assembly
September
26, 2022
LONDON:
Peaceful solutions offer the only hope for resolving conflicts around the
globe, Indonesia’s foreign minister told the UN General Assembly Debate on
Monday.
Focusing
in particular on the plight of the peoples of Palestine and Afghanistan, Retno
Marsudi said the world needs a “new paradigm to reignite the spirit of peace,”
and added that it is a global responsibility to apply it “consistently, not
selectively or only when we see fit.”
She
continued: “The fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity
are non-negotiable. For far too long, the people in Palestine have suffered and
longed for peace. Until Palestine can truly become an independent state,
Indonesia will stand firm in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and
sisters.
“People
in Afghanistan also deserve a peaceful and prosperous life, where the rights of
all people, including women, are equally respected, where access to education
for women and girls are granted.
“Without
this new paradigm, peace will remain an elusive dream.”
Marsudi
also said the developing world is looking to the members of the G20, of which
Indonesia currently holds the presidency, to spearhead economic recovery
efforts worldwide.
“The
whole world is pinning their hope on the G20 to be a catalyst of global
economic recovery, especially for developing countries,” she said.
“The
G20 must not fail. We cannot let global recovery fall at the mercy of geopolitics.
We must act urgently to address food and energy crises and prevent a fertilizer
crisis from happening, otherwise billions more people would be at risk,
particularly in developing countries.”
Marsudi
also echoed the growing calls during the General Assembly for reforms within
the UN.
“Inclusive
and meaningful engagement must trump a take-it-or-leave-it approach (and) the
voices of all countries — big and small, developed and developing — must
equally matter,” she said.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2170016/world
--------
UK’s
Truss thanks Saudi Crown Prince for his prisoner release efforts
27
September, 2022
UK
Prime Minister Liz Truss thanked Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman during a phone call on Monday for the role he played in the release of
10 foreign prisoners last week as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia
and Ukraine, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The
Crown Prince’s meditation efforts successfully resulted in the arrival of 10
prisoners, who included British and American citizens, to Saudi Arabia last
week.
“The
Prime Minister thanked the Crown Prince for his personal role in securing the
release of five British detainees held by Russia-backed forces in Eastern
Ukraine last week, to the great relief of their families,” a spokesperson for
the British leader’s Downing Street office said in statement.
During
the phone call, the Crown Prince and Truss also “reviewed bilateral relations
and ways to develop them within the framework of the Saudi-British Strategic
Partnership Council,” SPA added.
For
his part, the Crown Prince offered his condolences to Truss on the passing of
Queen Elizabeth II and congratulated King Charles III on his accession to the
throne.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
German
foreign minister urges sanctions on Iran over violence against protesters
Erbil
Basay
26.09.2022
BERLIN
Germany's
foreign minister on Monday urged sanctions against Iran for the use of violence
to quell protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police
custody after she was arrested for not wearing hijab properly.
Annalena
Baerbock told German news agency DPA that attempts to suppress peaceful
protests with deadly violence in Iran should not go unanswered and those
responsible should face sanctions.
Emphasizing
that women's rights are an important criterion for the state of a society, she
said if women are not safe in a country, nobody is safe.
At
a press conference in Berlin on Monday, German Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
Christian Wagner said that Iran's ambassador to Berlin was summoned to the Foreign
Ministry.
Amini
died on Sept. 16 in mysterious circumstances after being detained and taken to
the headquarters of the morality police in Tehran.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
British
police arrest anti-Iran rioters affiliated with MKO terrorist group in London
26
September 2022
Violent
rioters who assembled in front of the Islamic Center of England in north-west
London on Sunday faced stiff resistance from the supporters of the Islamic
Republic of Iran who joined the police to foil the unruly demonstration.
The
crowd of demonstrators affiliated with the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization
(MK0), an anti-Iran terrorist group, had gathered in Maida Vale on Sunday,
throwing stones at the police and the windows of the center and breaking the
glass.
One
of the rioters climbed his way to the top of the center’s roof but was stopped
by the police officers before he could vandalize the property.
Earlier
in the day, at least five people were arrested for resorting to
"aggressive acts" following violent protests in front of the Iranian
embassy in London, according to reports.
This
came after hundreds of unruly demonstrators clashed with riot police in London
over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, in police custody
on September 16.
The
demonstrators reportedly pelted stones at the police and resorted to vandalism
outside the Iranian diplomatic mission in the country.
Large
crowds have been gathering all week outside the Knightsbridge compound in
protest against the death of Amini since her death.
The
investigation to ascertain the cause of her death is currently underway, but
preliminary reports suggest that she died of a cardiac arrest, ruling out any
foul play or torture in the police custody.
According
to London’s Metropolitan Police, “a substantial group” of the large crowd were
“intent on causing disorder” and tried to break police lines and storm towards
the embassy compound, which led to the injury of some police officers,
including broken bones, but none are believed to have been seriously hurt.
“While
the majority of those who attended the embassy on Sunday continued to act
responsibly, a significant group who arrived actively sought to confront
officers and protesters from groups they were not in agreement with,” the Met
Police said in a statement.
Holding
signs in their hands, the demonstrators chanted slogans against Iranian
officials and the Islamic Republic of Iran, leading to violent altercations.
The
development came after Iran's foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador
in Tehran, Simon Shercliff, over the creation of a "hostile
atmosphere" by London-based Farsi-language media outlets.
In
a statement, the ministry said a "strong protest" was registered
against the UK government for "hosting" the media that has
"incited disturbances and riots" while calling it
"interference" in Iran's internal affairs and the violation of the
country's sovereignty.
Apart
from the UK, there have been demonstrations in other European countries as
well, including Italy and France.
Footage
circulating on social media showed French police officers making several
protesters lie on the ground and handcuffing them.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Pakistan
Peshawar
court acquits two of Ahmadi homeopath’s killing
September
27, 2022
PESHAWAR:
A local court has acquitted two men on the charge of killing an Ahmadi
homeopath in his clinic on the outskirts of the provincial capital last year.
Additional
sessions judge Attaullah Jan ruled that the accused facing trial, Ehsanullah of
Bara tehsil in Khyber tribal district as well as his co-accused of Darra
Adamkhel, a juvenile person,were given the benefit of doubt for acquittal in
the murder case.
He
added that Ehsanullah, who was in custody, would be released forthwith if he
was not wanted in any other case.
The
co-accused has already been freed after the grant of bail.
Gives
accused benefit of doubt in case
The
deceased, Dr Abdul Qadir, 65, was attacked in his clinic in Bazidkhel area on
Feb 11, 2021, by the prime accused during a visit. Ehsanullah, who pretended to
be a patient, allegedly fired gunshots at the homeopath and tried to escape.
However,
he was allegedly overpowered by the deceased’s cousin, Dr Ibne Amin, who was
present in the clinic at that time.
The
co-accused was arrested after he, as the police claimed, was named by the prime
accused as his accomplice during initial investigation.
The
prime accused had allegedly told police that the co-accused had provided him
with the pistol used in the murder.
The
FIR of the targeted killing was registered at the Inqilab police station under
Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 13 of the Arms Act.
The
complainant in the case was Dr Ibne Amin, who claimed that he was present at
the clinic and had gone to another room for attending a phone call when he
heard fire shots.
The
complainant claimed that he chased the prime accused and caught him near the
clinic before handing him over to the policemen, which showed up later.
He
claimed that his cousin was killed for religious reasons.
The
family members of the deceased didn’t pursue trial.
The
defence counsel contended that the prosecution’s case was ‘full of doubts’ and
that the accused were falsely implicated in it.
He
argued that there was no witness to the killing, so merely on basis of rumours
and allegations, the accused couldn’t be convicted.
BAIL
DENIED: A child protection court has turned down the bail plea of a man
arrested on charge of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy.
Additional
sessions judge Hina Mehwish observed that the offence allegedly committed by
the petitioner was ‘sensational in nature, bore deeper repercussions on
collective moral fabric of society and fell within the prohibitory clause of
Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure’, so he was not entitled to the
concession of bail.
The
accused was named in an FIR registered at the Tehkal police station on July 24
under Section 377 (unnatural offence) of the PPC and Section 53 (sexual abuse)
of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712150/peshawar-court-acquits-two-of-ahmadi-homeopaths-killing
--------
6
Pakistan Army officials martyred in Harnai helicopter crash: ISPR
Naveed
Siddiqui
September
26, 2022
The
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Monday that six Pakistan Army
officials, including two majors, were martyred after a helicopter crashed
during a flying mission near Khost in Harnai, Balochistan.
"All
six personnel on board, including two pilots, have embraced shahadat," the
military's media affairs wing said, adding that the incident occurred late last
night.
The
martyred officials were identified as:
39-year-old
Major Khurram Shahzad (pilot), a resident of Attock. He was married with one
daughter.
30-year-old
Major Muhammad Muneeb Afzal (pilot), a resident of Rawalpindi. He was married
with two sons.
44-year-old
Subedar Abdul Wahid, a resident of Sabirabad village in Karak. He was married
with four children, including three sons and a daughter.
27-year-old
Sepoy Muhamad Imran, a resident of Makhdoompur in Khanewal. He was married with
two daughters and a son.
30-year-old
Naik Jalil, a resident of village Bhutta, Lohara, Teh Kharian in Gujrat
district. He was married with two sons.
35-year-old
Sepoy Shoaib, a resident of village Khatarphatti PO Syeeda Teh Jhand in Attock
district. He was married with one son.
The
ISPR has yet to release details about the cause of the crash which comes more
than a month after a similar incident occurred in Balochistan.
Meanwhile,
the funeral prayers of the martyred soldiers were offered at Quetta Garrison,
according to the ISPR. Balochistan corps commander as well as senior military
and civil officials attended the funeral.
The
bodies of the martyrs are now being sent to their native towns where they will
be buried with full military honours, the ISPR added.
On
August 1, a Pakistan Army helicopter with six people on board, including
Commander 12 Corps Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ali, lost contact with the air
traffic control in Balochistan's Lasbela district.
A
day later, the wreckage of the helicopter was found near Musa Goth, with all
personnel on board embracing martyrdom. According to the ISPR, the accident
occurred due to bad weather.
'Too
many crashes'
Reacting
to the news of the latest crash, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that he was
deeply grieved. He prayed for the deceased and their family members, adding
that the entire nation shared the grief of the bereaved.
President
Arif Alvi also expressed grief over the incident and paid tributes to the
martyred officials.
An
official statement on Twitter said the president prayed for the martyrs and
extended condolences to their families.
PTI
chairman Imran Khan extended condolences and prayers to the families of the
brave soliders.
Interior
Minister Rana Sanaullah said he was deeply saddened to hear of the incident,
terming it to be "tragic".
PTI's
Fawad Chaudhry said helicopter flying was getting dangerous, adding that this
required "engineering evaluation".
"Too
many crashes [...] rest in peace bravehearts. All were too young to die,"
he said.
Climate
Minister Sherry Rehman offered her condolences over the lives lost in the
crash. She also prayed for the families of the martyred officials.
Balochistan
Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo expressed deep grief and sorrow over
the helicopter crash. In a statement, he said the entire nation paid rich
tribute to those who sacrificed their lives while performing their duties.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712054/6-pakistan-army-officials-martyred-in-harnai-helicopter-crash-ispr
--------
Bilawal
urges measures to combat Islamophobia
September
26, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday met Miguel Moratinos, UN
high-representative for the alliance of civilizations (UNAOC), on the sidelines
of the 77th annual session of the General Assembly in New York.
A
Foreign Office statement said Zardari held a discussion on the work of the UN
body and avenues for collaboration with Moratinos. They also deliberated on
strengthening interreligious dialogue, and combating Islamophobia as well as
intolerance based on religion or belief.
The
two diplomats underlined the need for achieving harmony among diverse cultures
and societies.
The
foreign minister emphasised that Islamophobia was prevalent in Western
countries but its most virulent manifestation was on display in India. He
called upon the body to step up its efforts to halt and reverse Islamophobia,
bigotry and discrimination based on religion and belief.
While
encouraging interfaith and intercultural dialogue and exchange of ideas at the
local, national and international levels, Moratinos reiterated the willingness
of UNAOC to support all efforts that promote continued dialogue and foster
mutual respect and understanding, including on ways to combat Islamophobia.
Separately,
Zardari also held a bilateral meeting with his Algerian counterpart, Ramtane
Lamamra, and discussed the established framework for cooperation and exchanges
characterised by mutual trust and friendship between the two countries.
According
to Foreign Office, the foreign minister expressed satisfaction at the
historically fraternal ties between the two nations. He expressed pride in
Pakistan’s role in Algeria’s independence.
Lamamra
welcomed Pakistan’s principled position on the Middle East and other issues.
Both ministers agreed that the commitment of Pakistan and Algeria to
international principles was the pillar of their close relationship.
Source:
Pakistan Today
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/09/26/bilawal-urges-efforts-to-combat-islamophobia/
--------
Imran
Khan accuses Maryam Nawaz of hatching plot to kill him through 'religious
fanatic'
Sep
26, 2022
LAHORE:
Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan on Monday accused senior politician
Maryam Nawaz of propagating "sectarianism and religious hatred"
against him and hatching a plot to kill him through a "religious
fanatic".
Khan
also said Maryam, the daughter of former premier Nawaz Sharif, is so desperate
that she is also making sure that he is disqualified by the Election Commission
of Pakistan (ECP) in the Toshakhana case for not disclosing the information
regarding the gifts received from the state depository in his assets
declaration.
“Maryam
Nawaz along with her accomplices propagated sectarianism and religious hatred
against me to make a ground that any religious fanatic gets motivated and kill
me,” Khan, 69, said during his address with businessmen here.
“I
am not afraid of death as it will be decided by Allah (God) and none else,” the
69-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said.
In
a rally in Rahim Yar Khan, some 400 kms from Lahore, the Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman last Saturday had also talked about the conspiracy to
kill him.
“Four
people had decided behind ‘closed doors' to get me killed,” he claimed.
Earlier,
Maryam, a senior Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader, had uploaded two purported
statements of Imran Khan and as many verses of the Quran on her Twitter account
to draw a comparison between them.
“This
man (Imran) is using religion for his politics and promoting his false
narrative. Save your faith and the country from this Satan," she said.
Last
week, the Punjab Police booked two federal ministers, as well as two senior
officials of state-run PTV on terrorism charges for allegedly fanning religious
hatred against Khan and endangering his life.
The
FIR was filed against Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Federal
Minister Mian Javed Latif, PTV Managing Director Sohail Khan, as well as the
broadcaster's Controller Programmes, Rashid Baig, on the complaint of a local
leader.
They
were booked under Section 9 (punishment for acts intended or likely to stir up
sectarian hatred) and Section 11X(3) (responsibility for creating civil
commotion) of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.
Latif
had declared Khan a “non-Muslim and “supporter of minority Ahmadi community.”
Source:
Times Of India
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Pakistan's
businessmen and economists ask govt to import food from neighbouring countries,
including India
Sep
26, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan's leading businessmen and economists have asked the government to take
emergency measures to import food from neighbouring countries, including India,
in the wake of possible food shortages following the devastating floods that
destroyed standing crops in thousands of acres in the country.
The
Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectual Forum (PBIF) said in a statement that the
government should abolish all taxes until the country's agricultural production
situation improves and returns to normalcy.
"We
urge the government to allow imports from all four neighbouring
countries," the PBIF statement quoted its President Zahid Hussain as
saying.
He
said that the war between Russia and Ukraine had caused a lot of damage to
global agriculture and the prices of all agricultural commodities had
skyrocketed.
"The
grain which fell prey to this with the biggest impact was wheat, whose prices
jumped record high, and now following the disastrous floods, its entire crop
standing on millions of acres wiped out in Pakistan," said the statement.
Although
imports from Iran and Afghanistan were allowed, the supply of foreign exchange
to importers was stopped which increased the cost of their business significantly,
it said.
It
said while India was the best choice for quick and cheap food import, it was
not allowed by the government as the mainstream opposition could use it as a
weapon for political advantage.
"In
the absence of direct trade with India, Indian and Pakistani businessmen are
forced to trade through the United Arab Emirates at extra cost," it said.
The
government should give priority to the welfare of the people and give
preference to the neighbouring countries instead of importing agricultural
products from distant countries.
Moreover,
if $17 billion or Rs 4000 billion are given to Pakistani farmers in the form of
interest-free loans there can be a revolution in the country's agricultural
production, it said.
Otherwise,
the situation could worsen even further by 2050, when Pakistan's population is
projected to reach 380 million, it warned.
Pakistan
has reported over $40 billion of economic losses due to floods and there is
fear that damage to crops may result in a food crisis.
However,
despite throwing positive feelers, the government has been hesitant to allow
imports from India.
On
Sunday, former prime minister Imran Khan said that his government had snapped
trade ties with India after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and
Kashmir in 2019 and claimed that the Shehbaz Sharif-led government wanted to
resume it.
In
recent weeks, several business chambers have urged the government to import
essential items like onion and tomato from India for the sake of consumers in
the wake of soaring prices of the vegetables following the devastating floods
in the country.
Relations
between India and Pakistan have often been strained over the Kashmir issue and
cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
However,
the ties between the two countries nosedived after India abrogated Article 370
of the Constitution, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and
bifurcating the state into two Union territories on August 5, 2019.
India's
decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic
ties and expelled the Indian envoy. Trade ties between Pakistan and India have
largely been frozen since then.
Source:
Times Of India
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Imran’s
harangue stirs up debate on campuses prestige
Zulqernain
Tahir | Kashif Abbasi
September
27, 2022
LAHORE:
The Government College University (GCU) on Monday became a ‘centre of
controversy’ following former prime minister Imran Khan’s hard hitting speech
targeting his political opponents especially PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz
at the varsity’s Oval ground.
A
social media trend purportedly generated by the PML-N against GCU
Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi for what the party of the Sharifs said
“allowing Imran Khan to hold his public meeting at the prestigious
institution.”
Acting
swiftly, the PML-N led federal government removed Dr Zaidi from the VC’s Search
Committee.
Over
50,000 tweets were made till Monday evening mostly targeting the VC
(#RemoveVCofGCU) with PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz
calling for ‘action’ against him (Dr Zaidi).
GCU
VC stripped of search panel membership
Even
Federal Education Minister Rana Tanvir Hussain and Punjab Governor Balighur
Rehman jumped into the controversy and supported their leader (Maryam) in this
respect.
The
GCU VC was quick to remind his detractors that in known universities of the
world, students got the opportunity to hear all kinds of political views from
the varsity forum. “The varsities have the right to be engaged in the political
debate of the time. The world over, political leaders come to universities to
address youth, and we don’t discriminate on the basis whether they are in the
government or in the opposition,” Dr Zaidi said in a talk with Dawn.
The
VC further said the Punjab Information Technology Board had organised the event
and chose the guest list. “When the chief guest is speaking he cannot be
instructed what to say and what not,” he said and added the GCU operated within
the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab, so it was bound to follow the
directions of the Punjab government.
In
a tweet Maryam Nawaz said: “Strict action must be taken against the GCU VC for
desecrating an educational institution by lending it to a Fitna &
organising his jalsa on the premises. Using a seat of learning for political
hate-mongering is a crime that should not go unpunished.”
Governor
Baligur Rehman in a statement said: “As a chancellor, I have taken notice of
organising a political programme in the GCU. There is no scope for such
political gatherings in universities. Children are our future and they should
not be pushed into politics.”
Punjab
Information Technology Minister Dr Arslan Khalid replied to Ms Nawaz on Twitter
saying: “Why don’t you (Maryam) or Shehbaz Sharif go and visit GCU or any
university yourself and make whatever speech you want? Political leaders go to
universities everywhere in the world. If you ppl can’t face youth, it’s not our
fault.”
 to take action against the VC “in accordance with law.”
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712181/imrans-harangue-stirs-up-debate-on-campuses-prestige
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President
Arif Alvi admits ‘personal’ role in bringing stakeholders closer
Imran
Ayub
September
27, 2022
KARACHI:
Without confirming or denying reports of his meetings with military brass and
key political figures that drew sharp criticism from leaders of the ruling
coalition, President Arif Alvi on Monday conceded his recent “efforts in
personal capacity” to bring the “stakeholders closer” to one another.
President
Alvi talked about his role to “consult, negotiate and deliberate” in personal
capacity during his interaction with Karachi-based journalists and TV show
hosts at Governor House, where he was asked a range of questions including one
in the context of media reports that he had facilitated a meeting between
ex-premier Imran Khan and army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa at the presidency
this month, some participants in the meeting shared with Dawn.
They
said the president didn’t respond to the question directly but in the overall
context of different queries and his role as president, he came up with an
explanation which covered the issue indirectly.
A
statement later issued by the press information department about the
president’s meeting with journalists also made his observation clear.
Describes
audio leaks of PM, Maryam and others as ‘worrisome’
“He
said he was trying to bring the stakeholders closer together in his personal
capacity through democratic means of consultations, negotiation and
deliberations at the appropriate level,” the official statement quoted
President Alvi as saying.
Reports
of Mr Khan’s meeting with the army chief went viral on the social media earlier
this month, with no confirmation from any side.
Speculations
deepened when senior PTI leader Ishaq Khakwani in a TV interview claimed the
party held a meeting with Gen Bajwa at the presidency, facilitated by President
Alvi.
During
his media interaction, he sounded worried about audio leaks revealing
conversations of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and
some federal cabinet members.
Source:
Dawn
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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South
Asia
As
The Threat Of Terrorism Becomes Common Again, People In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Are
Already Protesting
September
26, 2022
Since
the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, the situation in Pakistan’s
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province is getting worse day by day. As in the past, a
series of target killing and terrorism incidents started again. The current
rise of the Taliban is not limited to Waziristan – in ex-FATA – but rapidly
diffusing to adjacent areas of the province like Bannu, Bajaur, Swat, Buner and
Mohmand. But this time, the Pashtun people are not naïve to the changing
situation in their lands. They are protesting against the resettlement of TTP
in their lands and condemning this move of the state. However, unfortunately,
the mainstream media and leading political parties are silent on this issue and
completely ignoring the protests and rallies happening against this
resettlement. These are the same media and political parties that used to
criticise terrorism hourly on the TV screens, just before the US withdrawal
from Afghanistan.
Freely
roaming terrorists late at night in districts of Dir, Buner, Swat, Mohmand have
once again become common. Residents of these areas, aware of this movement,
reported the matter to the authorities. So far, no significant actions have
been taken in this regard. Tribal leaders and elders from the area had already
warned the law enforcement and administration to address the matter, or they
would opt for street protests to record their discontent.
Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) MPA Malik Liaquat Ali, who was protesting against the
administration’s indifference and failure to stop terrorism, met with an attack
which resulted in the killing of his family members and bodyguard. Sadly, the
provincial government of Pakhtunkhwa being led by PTI did not say a single word
against the terrorists. But, this time, the people there are organising mass
demonstrations against this fresh wave of Talibanisation and terrorism. The
role of youth in this regard is remarkable. Their simple demand is the
elimination of terrorism and a long-term peace and stability in the area. On
the other side, these protests are completely blacked out by the mainstream media.
Recently,
two mass protests were recorded against the terrorists; none of the protests
was broadcast or covered by the news media. People severely criticised the
security agencies’ performance. They argued that a common citizen is stopped at
each check-post for hours and is subjected to search, while terrorists, along
with their assault weapons, are free to travel from area to area. This sparks
suspicion about security forces. Many of the locals has reported seeing
terrorists travelling in state forces’ vehicles, which is a big question mark
on state policies and the efforts to eliminate armed militancy from the region.
A
few weeks ago, an unpleasant incident took place between the Taliban and the
police in Matta area of Swat, which is the native area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Chief Minister Mehmood Khan. The Taliban took prisoner a Deputy Superintendent
of Police, a major from the army, and a few others as hostages. The alleged
video of this incident was released by the Taliban, showing injured DSP and the
army officer in their custody. In this alarming situation, the role of local
law enforcement agencies i.e. police appeared to be very helpless as the
mentioned hostages were not released by law enforcement action, but with the
efforts of a local jirga. This incident, and the alleged footage and audio
messages, caused fear and anxiety among the public. The common people are
forced to think: when the government cannot protect its own officials, what
protection will it provide to the common people? Meanwhile, the complete
silence of the provincial government sends the message that all this is
happening with the will of the provincial government. The people of Swat vowed
to do every possible thing to block the way for Talibanisation in their region.
They have no option but to take streets and express their disapproval against
this armed unrest and a generally destabilised situation.
There
has recently even been talk of the reintroduction of Talibanisation to Buner.
The sudden wall-chalking with the slogans of Taliban and Da’esh (ISKP) and the
complete silence of the local government and the district administration on
this whole situation is mysterious. As in Swat, the masses in Buner, too,
demonstrated in large numbers, sending the message that they want peace in the
area. “We do not want to see Taliban and terrorists here, we want education and
peace for our children,” the protestors chanted.
Nevertheless,
a positive take-away from this whole situation is that unlike the past, when
people were tricked in the name of religion and Shariah, this time they are
straightforward and not in favour of any “Islamic system” introduced by the
Taliban.
In
North Waziristan, a protest for life, property, honour and peace has been going
on for 40 days, in which all the tribes of North Waziristan are participating.
The protest is also against Talibanisation, terrorism and target killing. The
people there protested even on the country’s independence day. On that day, all
the people had put up black flags on the houses, markets and protest camps.
These people have a simple demand: a halt to terrorism on their land. They are
of the view that it is the responsibility of the state and the security
agencies to protect every citizen, but they have completely failed to fulfill
this responsibility – or, in a possibility that is yet more sinister, they may
be deliberately launching a new project of religious fundamentalist militancy.
There
is a demand from the tribes there that they will hold talks with local military
leadership and the representatives of the mainstream political parties will be
present as witnesses. Still, the security forces and bureaucracy are evasive.
In
South Waziristan’s Mehsud tribe districts, the Taliban, coming from different
areas, are swiftly regrouping and, like in the past, they once again
established their check-posts. They could be seen holding arms and patrolling
various areas of Mehsud constituency. This situation has left residents in deep
fear. Threatened by the Taliban, they are scared to speak against them, as in
the past when dissent against terrorists would result in death. Surprisingly,
this whole regrouping and reorganisation of Taliban is happening when the
security forces are still present in the area. This, after all, is an area
where locals are not allowed to keep weapons for their safety, but Taliban
could be seen flaunting assault weapons openly, in broad daylight.
Some
people are already describing it as the familiar nexus of state security and
the Taliban.
The
situation in In Bannu, Jani Khel and Bakkakhel is not very different from that
in other Pashtun areas. As was the case in the past, the Taliban have started
to approach every businessman, trader and contractor to demand extortion money.
People have been protesting in these areas for months, but no government
official approached them to ensure meeting their demands of peace. “We don’t
want war, we want peace. The state security agencies are responsible for our
security. We don’t want rations from them, but protection.” Locals from Khyber
district, Tirah Valley and Bara Bazar repeated their demands as political
alliances and thousands of people from different walks of life came out to
record their protest. As usual, mainstream media did not show these protests,
which increased the disenchantment of the people. They were wondering why it is
that Pashtuns end up with stepmotherly treatment from the state, even when it
comes to their fundamental security.
In
Momand district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the residents are protesting for the
same cause, including state atrocities towards them. They have held multiple
protests and sit-ins – some of which are still going on – to little avail.
Bajaur
district is also in the grip of terrorism. Over the past four years, terrorist
activities have again increased. Taliban started to approach the influential
and wealthy people – traders, builders and businessmen – of the area, forcing
them to evacuate and to shift their businesses outside the ‘danger-zone.’
For
their part, the military and various security agencies emphasise that they
eliminated the terrorism from the region, and that the current wave of
terrorism is caused by the terrorists who entered from the other side of Durand
Line – i.e. from Afghanistan. The new breed of Pashtun, being more educated and
aware of the geo-political situation of the region, are not quick to accept
such claims. They argue, instead, that the Pak-Afghan border is all fenced:
which raises questions on how such large numbers of terrorists cross the fence
without being noticed by the security personnel guarding the fence.
It
is important to mention here that similar to Swat and other tribal districts,
another security operation to curb terrorism was conducted in Bajaur Agency,
which resulted in mass damage of public property like schools, business centre,
markets and houses. But after all this loss and damage, the terrorists are back
again, which raises questions about the immense sacrifices that locals made to
bring peace to their homeland.
It
should be noted that the military has been negotiating with the TTP for several
months and government officials from the region have been sent to Afghanistan
to hold meetings with the Taliban there. But despite ongoing peace negotiations
and an announced ceasefire, the attacks on innocent civilians and security
personnel are still continued. Activities like ambush attacks on law
enforcement agencies, bomb blasts, target killings and extortion demands have
again become a routine practice.
The
Taliban started to gain strength in the region right after US and NATO forces
left Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban overthrew the
internationally-recognised government of Ashraf Ghani and established their own
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Right after that, ex-ISI chief Gen. Faiz Hameed
was appointed as Corps Commander Peshawar, who initiated peace talks with the
Pakistani Taliban. Multiple ceasefires were announced, and the state released
hundreds of Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture.
Source:
The Friday Times
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Sylhetis
were separated by Partition. Now, Indo-Bangladesh festival aims to bring them
together
Angana
Chakrabarti
27
September, 2022
Guwahati:
In 1947, the Muslim-majority Sylhet district of Assam province became a part of
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), causing many Hindu Sylhetis to migrate from
their homeland to India as refugees. While this episode from Assam’s Barak
Valley region has become a footnote in the discourse around Partition, it will
be the fulcrum of a festival to “celebrate the age-old people-people connect”
across both sides of the border.
The
Silchar-Sylhet Festival, slated to be held in Assam’s Silchar town from 29 to
31 October, is being organised by the think-tank India Foundation “under the
aegis” of the Union government’s Ministry of Culture and in association with
the Bangladesh Foundation for Regional Studies.
“Sylhetis
are on either side of the border… now it is time to forget the past of
Partition and forge new alliances and links, especially between the twin cities
of Silchar and Sylhet,” BJP leader and Sylhet Lok Sabha MP Dr Rajdeep Roy told
ThePrint.
According
to a press release, the three-day long festival will see sessions and addresses
by “ministers from India and Bangladesh, governors, chief ministers, industry
leaders, litterateurs, academics, and practitioners”.
“The
festival will showcase tribal culture, cuisine, arts, crafts, and local
produce, entertainment and bring together eminent people from both sides to
discuss and deliberate on issues of mutual growth and opportunity,” the press
communique from Saturday stated.
Roy
told ThePrint that discussions pertinent to diplomatic relations between India
and Bangladesh are also likely to take place on the sidelines.
Several
dignitaries from both Bangladesh and India are expected to attend the event.
The
guest list from Bangladesh includes Minister for Foreign Affairs A.K. Abdul
Momen, Minister for Commerce Tipu Munshi, and State Minister for Cultural
Affairs K.M. Khalid.
From
the Indian side, prominent attendees will include the Governor of Assam Jagdish
Mukhi, Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of North-East Region
(DONER) G. Kishan Reddy, and Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
Sarbananda Sonowal, among others.
A
cross-border Sylheti identity
The
Bengali-speaking region of Sylhet was historically a part of the erstwhile East
Bengal, but the British tacked it on to the newly created province of Assam in
1874 in order to boost the ‘backward’ region’s economic strength.
Silchar
was linguistically and culturally closer to Calcutta than anywhere in the
northeast part of India, and many inhabitants were against the move. However,
according to some scholars, Hindus were more rankled than Muslims.
“[T]he
Hindus of Sylhet demanded for a return to the more ‘advanced’ Bengal, whereas
the Muslims of Sylhet by and large preferred to remain in Assam where its
leaders… found a more powerful political voice,” wrote researcher Anindita
Dasgupta in her 2008 paper ‘Remembering Sylhet: A Forgotten Story of India’s
1947 Partition’, published in the Economic and Political Weekly.
Most
of the local Assamese, too, were not pleased by the presence of the
Bengali-speaking “Sylhetis” due to increased competition for jobs and the fear
that the perceived interlopers would try to assert cultural dominance in the
region.
Meanwhile,
the years from 1874 saw Sylhetis migrating to different parts of the northeast,
and creating sizeable pockets in areas of southern Assam like Silchar (in
Cachar district) and Karimganj.
“Over
time there emerged a de-territorialised Sylheti identity in Assam/ India,”
Dasgupta wrote.
Then
in 1947, the Sylhet referendum was held to decide whether the district would
remain with India, as a part of undivided Assam, or East Bengal, a part of the
newly created Dominion of Pakistan.
The
majority voted in favour of joining Pakistan, but on 17 August 1947, the
announcement of the Radcliffe Line — which delineated the geopolitical border
between India and Pakistan — resulted in Karimganj joining India.
Neighbouring
areas of Cachar district like Silchar had also felt the effects of the
Partition. In a paper on the demographic growth of Silchar, scholars N.B. Dey
and Purusottam Nayak noted that the town’s population grew by 10.5 per cent
between 1941 and 1951, “mainly due to Partition”.
The
influx comprised predominantly Hindu refugees from the part of Sylhet that had
joined erstwhile East Pakistan.
There
are currently sizeable populations of Sylhetis in not just the Barak valley
(comprising Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi districts) but also Hojai in
Assam, Meghalaya, North Tripura, and Manipur.
The
Sylheti identity is marked by a distinctive dialect, cuisine, and culture. It
is this cross-border identity, whether in Bangladesh’s Sylhet or India’s
Silchar, that the upcoming festival aims to highlight.
Source:
The Print
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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WFP
Needs $1.1bn as Winter Spells Hunger for Afghanistan
By
Saqalain Eqbal
27
Sep 2022
While
the World Food Programme (WFP) urgently needs US$1.1 billion to continue
supplying them with monthly food and nutritional support for the upcoming six
months, millions of Afghan families lack the resources necessary to cope with
another cold winter.
The
country is now facing its greatest risk of famine in 20 years, according to a
statement released by the WFP on Monday, September 26. The country’s economy
has withered and development assistance and assets are still mostly frozen.
The
country has seen jobs disappear, and the economic collapse and climate shocks
exacerbate the already precarious food security. It is estimated that the
needed $1.1 billion will help nearly 18 million families experiencing food
insecurity throughout the winter.
Farmers
are still suffering from one of the country’s worst droughts in decades, and
their shrunken harvests are increasing the already alarmingly high levels of
hunger. According to the statement, middle-class and urban households are now
also affected by food insecurity and hunger.
A
decrease in hostilities, according to the statement, has been one of the few
positive aspects of the last year, making it easier for humanitarian workers to
reach isolated, vulnerable areas.
The
funds, if received on time, allow the WFP to pre-position food in remote
difficult areas as winter renders many towns inaccessible. This will reduce the
risk of food insecurity and allow for timely aid distribution.
According
to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA),
$4.4 billion in financial resources have been requested this year to assist 22
million people in Afghanistan; however, only 43% of this request has been
fulfilled after nine months.
Source:
Khaama Press
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/wfp-needs-1-1bn-as-winter-spells-hunger-for-afghanistan-67486/
--------
Mass
grave containing remains of 12 people uncovered in Afghanistan: Taliban
26
September, 2022
A
mass grave containing the remains of 12 people has been uncovered in
Afghanistan, Taliban officials said on Monday.
The
grave was found by villagers over the past few days in the town of Spin Boldak,
bordering Pakistan, a site of fierce fighting between former Afghan government
forces and Taliban fighters before the Taliban seized power last year.
Government
spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the people were killed nine years ago when
the US-backed government was in power but the site has not been independently
investigated.
“These
were individuals who were arrested from villages by the former cruel commander
General Raziq. They were all civilians who were killed and buried in a mass
grave,” he said, referring to Kandahar’s late police chief -- a powerful
commander known for his effective battles against Taliban fighters during the
20-year war.
“We
are looking into the issue of this mass grave after which we will decide on
what kind of investigation should be conducted.”
The
remains have been reburied nearby, along with that of another individual found
in a separate unmarked grave, said Haji Zaid, the spokesman for the governor of
Kandahar province.
UN
Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, tweeted
that it was “important these remains are not disturbed and damaged further
pending forensic examination.”
Videos
posted to social media, shared by Taliban officials, show villagers gathered
around heaps of bones.
General
Abdul Raziq was shot dead by a bodyguard in October 2018, minutes after a
meeting with then top US commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller.
The
Taliban claimed responsibility, saying they had targeted Raziq who had a
reputation of being a ruthless opponent in Kandahar and neighboring provinces.
Raziq’s
brother Tadin Khan rejected the Taliban accusations.
“This
is an attempt to malign our family,” Khan, who had succeeded Raziq as Kandahar
police chief, told AFP in a brief comment by telephone.
Human
Rights Watch called for an investigation into the killings.
“Discovery
of grave sites makes it all the more urgent the authorities prevent acts of
revenge,” tweeted Patricia Grossman, associate director at HRW.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Mideast
My
Views on ‘Rest in Peace’ Based On Islamic Tradition, Says Turkish Scholar
Sean
Augustin
September
27, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: Turkish scholar Mustafa Akyol has responded to critics who questioned his
credentials in contradicting a mufti’s views on the use of the phrase “Rest in
peace”.
Akyol
said his religious arguments were based on views within the Islamic tradition.
“I
am not a mufti, and don’t claim to be,” he said. “But I have been researching
contemporary issues in Islam, and writing about them with both traditional and
academic sources, for almost 30 years,” he told FMT.
Some
of his detractors had disparagingly referred to him as an academic and author,
implying that he was in no position to challenge the mufti’s view.
Akyol
is a senior fellow with a US-based libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute
for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
He
had disagreed with the federal territories mufti Luqman Abdullah, who said last
week that Muslims were prohibited from saying “Rest in peace”. Luqman held that
Muslims were not allowed to pray for forgiveness for non-Muslims as prescribed
in several hadiths.
However,
Akyol disagreed. To back his argument, he cited two Quranic verses that
promised salvation to Jews and Christians, in addition to Muslims.
Akyol
said he respected muftis for their knowledge and goodwill, but no mufti had the
last word on Islam in any issue. This was why there are fatwas (religious
edicts) with differing verdicts on a plenitude of topics, he said.
As
an example, he quoted the differing views of scholars about the word “Islam” as
used in the Quranic verse “If anyone seeks a religion other than Islam, it will
not be accepted by him”.
He
said “Islam” in this verse could mean merely submission to God, as some of the
earliest exegetes put forward. A later exegete understood “Islam” to mean “an
active approach on the part of the individual” towards God. It was not meant as
a group reference, Akyol said.
Only
later did scholars begin to define the word as “the specific, historical path
of Muhammad”. Akyol said many people in Malaysia seemed to know only this
rather late view represented by Ibn Kathir, but not its alternatives.
Liberal
take on Islam?
He
said the liberal view on Islam that he advocated was that there must not be any
coercion in religious practice or belief, a conviction based on the Quranic
exhortation that “there is no compulsion in religion”.
He
said there were other verses that also touched on there being no compulsion,
but a study of Islam’s traditional jurisprudence revealed that those verses had
been “abrogated” by verses about war, or were limited by certain hadiths,
including ones that commend killing apostates.
He
said such abrogation was very much debatable, and hadiths with a single
narrator were questionable as human error was always possible in transmission.
“There
is nothing which makes the coercive view of Islam more ‘religious’, or any of
my ‘liberal’ views more secular. Both are religious views,” he said.
Can
non-Muslim monotheists be saved?
Akyol
said the idea that Jews and Christians could be saved in the afterlife without
converting to Islam was a view that had been defended by prominent Islamic
scholars throughout the past century.
They
include Musa Jarullah Bigiev, Rashid Rida, Süleyman Ateş, Sayyid Hosen Nasr and
Fazlur Rahman.
Even
the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Turkey’s equivalent to Jakim or the
Islamic development department, mentions it as an “alternative interpretation”
in its Encyclopedia of Islam.
He
said even within the mainstream interpretation, the all-prominent Imam
al-Ghazali had argued that non-Muslims could be excused by God if they only
heard about Prophet Muhammad in a negative way.
And
today, there were some conservative scholars who think that this may be applied
to non-Muslims who hear about Islam via Islamophobic circles, or through
militant interpretations.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Türkiye
condemns raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque complex
Seda
Sevencan
26.09.2022
ISTANBUL
Türkiye
condemned on Monday the raid by some Israeli radical groups on the Al-Aqsa
Mosque complex in the occupied East Jerusalem, calling on Israeli authorities
to take necessary measures.
“We
condemn and find it unacceptable that radical Israeli groups raided the Al-Aqsa
Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem under the protection of Israeli security
forces,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“We
call on the Israeli authorities to take the necessary measures immediately so
that these practices that violate the sanctity and the status based on
international law of the Al-Aqsa Mosque are not allowed and tensions do not
escalate,” it added.
Source: Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/turkiye-condemns-raid-on-al-aqsa-mosque-complex/2695357
--------
Israel
police storm Al-Aqsa to clear Muslims from compound on Jewish new year holiday
26
September, 2022
Israeli
police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday
to clear Muslims from the compound so Jews can enter on Rosh Hashanah, or
Jewish New Year.
Officers
raided Al-Aqsa, the third-holiest place in Islam, and attacked Muslims who were
at the compound for early morning prayers, according to officials from the
Islamic Waqf, the department tasked with administering the mosque.
The
officials said Muslim faithful were pushed out of the site as Jewish extremists
waited close to a nearby entrance, official Palestinian news agency Wafa
reported.
Israeli
police manning the eight gates on the way to Al-Aqsa stopped Muslims below 40
years old and students from accessing schools within the compound.
Meanwhile
Jewish extremists carried out acts of worship in violation of the longstanding
status-quo agreement that governs the site.
Radical
Israeli groups have urged their supporters to raid Al-Aqsa on Monday and over
the coming weeks as Jewish religious holidays are observed.
Palestinians
consider Israeli raids at Al-Aqsa, which are a common occurrence, part of an
attempt to change the status-quo agreement and either transform the compound
into a wholly Jewish site or split it between the two faiths.
Palestinian
and Islamic leaders have urged Muslim believers to maintain a constant presence
at Al-Aqsa to stop this.
The
Monday raid comes after Israeli authorities recently banned over 100
Palestinians from Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem, a move Wafa said aims to make raids at
the site easier.
Source:
The New Arab
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/israel-police-storm-al-aqsa-clear-muslims-compound
--------
Hamas
slams ‘racist’ Israeli settler violations against al-Aqsa
26
September 2022
The
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has censured the Israeli regime’s
escalation of violations against the al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Jewish
holidays, saying settler incursions into the holy site in the occupied Old City
of al-Quds prove Israeli racism in dealing with the Palestinians.
Fawzi
Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, was cited by the Palestinian Information Center
(Palinfo) as saying in a statement on Monday that the violations against the
al-Aqsa Mosque reflected the injustice to which the Palestinian people are
subjected.
"Thanks
to our people's resistance and steadfastness, these incursions were turned into
a continuous state of depletion to the Israeli occupation," Barhoum said.
The
Hamas spokesman called on the Palestinians from al-Quds, the West Bank and the
1948 occupied territories to mobilize in defense of the holy shrine. Barhoum
said the Arab and Muslim nations are required to support the Palestinians in
their battle against the occupying regime.
Earlier
in the day, hundreds of settlers broke into the al-Aqsa Mosque under the
protection of Israeli forces and provocatively performed rituals there. It was
the first day of the Jewish holidays which will continue until mid-October.
Also
on Sunday, scores of Israeli settlers, escorted by military forces, broke into
the compound through the Moroccan Gate and provocatively performed rituals and
Talmudic prayers.
The
incidents took place amid calls by Israeli settler organizations to hold mass
break-ins into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound ahead of the Jewish holidays on
September 29. The compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza,
houses both the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
At
least 76 people killed in Iran protest crackdown: NGO
26
September, 2022
The
Iranian authorities' crackdown on protests following the death of Mahsa Amini
has left at least 76 people dead, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO
said on Monday.
“We
call on the international community to decisively and unitedly take practical
steps to stop the killing and torture of protesters,” said IHR director Mahmood
Amiry-Moghaddam, adding that video footage and death certificates obtained by
the group showed “live ammunition is being directly fired at protesters.”
It
said deaths have been recorded in 14 provinces in Iran, with the highest number,
25, recorded in the northern Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea. Three
deaths have been recorded in Tehran, it said.
IHR
also said “most families have been forced to quietly bury their loved ones at
night and pressured against holding public funerals.
“Many
families were threatened with legal charges if they publicized their deaths.”
According
to Iran's official toll, 41 people have been killed including several members
of the security forces.
Amini's
death following her arrest by morality police sparked nationwide
demonstrations.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Iran
steps up arrests of activists, journalists amid anti-regime protest crackdown
26 September,
2022
Iran
is stepping up arrests of activists and journalists in a crackdown against
civil society as anti-regime protests continue to rage nationwide, activists
said on Monday.
Eighteen
journalists have been imprisoned since the protests erupted earlier this month
over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the country’s
notorious morality police, according to the Washington-based Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Numerous
activists and lawyers have also been held, including the prominent freedom of
speech campaigner Hossein Ronaghi who was arrested over the weekend, reports in
Persian-language media abroad said.
The
arrests come on top of severe Internet restrictions and blocking of sites
including Instagram and WhatsApp, which activists say is aimed at preventing
details of the protests filtering out to the outside world.
“By
targeting journalists amid a great deal of violence after restricting access to
WhatsApp and Instagram, the Iranian authorities are sending a clear message
that there must be no coverage of the protests,” Reporters Without Borders
(RSF) said in a statement.
Ronaghi,
who is bitterly critical of Iran’s Islamic leadership and has contributed to
the Washington Post, said in a video posted at the weekend that he had
initially eluded arrest by escaping his flat when agents came for him at home.
But
security forces detained him on Saturday along with both his lawyers,
London-based Iran International said, saying that he had told his family from
prison that he had been beaten in detention.
Activists
also said two university students in their early 20s who were also beginning
careers as writers -- Banafsheh Kamali and Maedeh Jamal -- had been arrested.
Videos
were posted on social media claimed to show the moment when Jamal was arrested
with a female voice yelling “Help! Help!”
Among
the 18 journalists held, according to the CPJ, are photojournalist Yalda
Moaiery, who won international recognition for an iconic 2019 photo of protests
and reporter
Nilufar
Hamedi who exposed the case of Amini by going to the hospital where she was in
a coma.
Meanwhile,
the authorities also arrested five prominent members of the Bahai religious
minority in different cities across the country, said Diane Alai,
representative of the Bahai International Community (BIC) to the UN in Geneva.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Turkey
says Malaysia, Indonesia interested in buying armed drones
26
September, 2022
Turkey
said on Monday that Malaysia and Indonesia had expressed keen interest in
buying armed drones from Turkish defense firm Baykar, which has supplied the
weapons to several countries after battlefield successes.
“Many
Asian countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia, show great interest in our
defense industry products. Agreements are being signed,” Turkish foreign
minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a press conference in Tokyo.
“We
would most gladly meet Japan’s need for drones,” the minister added on a visit
there to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Source:
Al Arabiya
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Terror
group PKK seeking to exploit Iranian protests for own self-interest, warns
expert
Dilara
Hamit
26.09.2022
The
terrorist group PKK and its Iranian affiliates are trying to take advantage of
nine days of protests following the Sept. 16 killing of a young woman in police
custody, said a Turkish expert on the ongoing protests.
Cagatay
Balci, a PhD from the Ankara-based National Defense University, told Anadolu
Agency that although the protests started independently of the armed groups, these
groups soon sought to steer this process, and the IKPD, PJAK – an Iranian
terror group affiliated with the terrorist PKK – and Komele groups began to get
involved in demonstrations concentrated in Kurdish-majority cities.
Referring
to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, he said: "Of course, the most
important reason for this advantage for Kurdish armed groups is that (Amini)
was born in Saqqez, in Iran's Kurdish region, and her death was seen as an
attack on Kurdish identity in Iran, or discrimination against Kurdish society,
or subconscious discrimination. It triggered the experience of exclusion, and
they began to use the very clear expression of this consciousness that evolved
in Kurdish armed groups.”
He
also stated that this was presented and perceived as a women's liberation
movement, particularly abroad, and said armed groups in Iran dominated by
Kurds, like the IKPD, tried to mobilize it around Kurdish identity, whereas
Komele and the PJAK see themselves as taking part in a women's liberation movement
alongside Kurdish identity, adding that seeing the protests as a women's rights
movement also generates a favorable environment.
Türkiye,
the US, and Iran have all designated the Iranian-based PJAK as a terrorist
group.
In
its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a
terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for
the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
"Furthermore,
given the ideology, it got from the (terrorist group) PKK, for many years the
PJAK has been presenting its actions as campaigning for women's rights. In
reality, many political fronts were founded for this goal, as were women's
armed wing organizations. During these rallies, I believe the PJAK was
successful in both safeguarding Kurdish identity and combining the themes and
arguments of the women's liberation movement," he said.
No
major upheaval expected
"I
don't believe the protests will escalate into a major rebellion in Iran's
Kurdish territories, as happened in 1979 (the year of the country’s revolution
overthrowing the shah). Of course, the ultimate goal of these groups is to
incite a rebellion and insurgency, but this can’t happen due to Iran's security
measures," Balci explained.
He
said the security measures will not allow these groups potentially escalate the
protests into an uprising, but added that the groups will simply try to deepen
the protests as much as possible, intensify them, and make them as massive as
possible.
"But
we will see how successful this can be within days because Iran has already
begun to implement tough measures," he added.
Attack
on Iran's Embassy in Athens
Early
Sunday, attackers threw Molotov cocktails at the Iranian Embassy in Athens,
reportedly causing no significant damage. Balci said that looking at Greece's
relations with terror groups, the terrorist group PKK might have organized the
attack.
"In
recent days, the Lavrion camp, in particular, has become increasingly
prominent,” said Balci, referring to a camp in Greece that Türkiye has charged
became a terrorist headquarters and training ground.
“This
camp is home to many terrorist groups, particularly those operating against
Türkiye. This brings up the fact that these groups are very active in Greece.
This incident may have been carried out by the PKK; sure, this is a normal
process; we're talking about a process that every state that protects terrorist
groups would face at some point.”
Turkish
officials have long warned that any country that harbors or protects terrorist
groups will eventually find itself targeted by those same groups.
Protests
in Iran erupted on Sept. 17 following the funeral of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old
who died after being detained by the morality police in the capital Tehran for
allegedly wearing her hijab head covering improperly.
Authorities
have sought to pin blame on her death on a heart attack, but her family and
many others in Iran have rejected the claim, saying she was the victim of
police brutality. Authorities have promised a thorough investigation of Amini's
death.
Her
death has triggered a wave of angry protests in Iran over the past week, with
protesters calling for justice and accountability.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Unlawful
foreign presence in Syria must end immediately, unconditionally: Mekdad
26
September 2022
Syria’s
Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has condemned unlawful presence of foreign
forces in the country, calling for an immediate end to such presence.
According
to Syria's official SANA news agency, Mekdad made the remark while addressing
the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, saying,
"The unlawful presence of foreign forces in Syria must end immediately and
unconditionally."
"Countering
terrorism," the Syrian top diplomat added, "does not mean occupying
other people's land, establishing a safe zone, or backing terrorists."
The
United States forces have been actively involved in Syria under the guise of
fighting the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh since 2014. Washington extended
its troops' presence in Syria since 2017, although, the Arab country and its
allies defeated the terror outfit that year.
Numerous
reports and regional officials have, meanwhile, pointed to the US’ role in
transferring Daesh elements throughout the region and even airlifting supplies
to the group.
The
US military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the
Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oil fields in
the area from falling into the hands of Daesh. Damascus, however, asserts that
the deployment is aimed at plundering the country's rich resources.
Al-Mekdad
also touched on the Israeli regime's 1967-to-present occupation of Syria's
Golan Heights, and Tel Aviv's incessant violations against the country.
"Israel
exercises the most heinous violations in the Syrian occupied Golan, which
include the illegal settlement expansion, demographic changes, and stealing the
natural resources, not to mention supporting the terrorist organizations and
repeatedly attacking Syrian territories,” Syrian foreign minister said.
Damascus
maintains that the occupying regime backs Daesh and al-Nusra Front--which is
al-Qaeda's Syria-based offshoot--and carries out attacks against civilian
airports in Syria, Mekdad added, referring to the regime's multiple assaults so
far against international airports in the Syrian capital and the western city
of Aleppo.
Elsewhere
in his remarks, the top diplomat said the foreign presence and violations that
have been carried out by Washington and its allies against Syria, have caused
the country to incur material damage running up to $107 billion.
Source:
Press TV
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Southeast
Asia
China's
failure to invest in Afghanistan is frustrating the Taliban
Sep
27, 2022
BEIJING:
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war opened up an
opportunity for China to expand its influence and lock down access to the
country's vast mineral deposits.
It
hasn't worked out that way.
More
than a year after US troops left, Afghanistan's economy is collapsing, 19
million people are at risk of acute hunger and the investment the Taliban were
counting on from Beijing hasn't arrived. Both sides blame the other.
"There
has not even been a penny of investment by China," Khan Jan Alokozay, vice
president of Afghanistan's Chamber of Commerce and Investment, said in an
interview. "Many of their companies came, met with us, conducted research
and then left and vanished, which is frustrating."
From
China's perspective, the Taliban haven't shown they are doing enough to crack
down on a group that has ties to separatists in its far western Xinjiang
region, according to two people familiar with the issue. What's more, the
people said, the Taliban are also seeking to renegotiate the terms of existing
projects to tap Afghanistan's resources.
While
the Taliban has vowed not to allow terror groups to operate on Afghan soil,
China on multiple occasions has implored the group to take action against the
East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, a Muslim separatist group seeking to
establish an Islamic state overlapping with China's vast Xinjiang region. China
and Afghanistan share a 76-kilometer (47 mile) border.
The
Taliban have repeatedly said ETIM isn't operating in Afghanistan and that they
"won't allow anyone to use Afghan soil against any other country,"
according to Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban's political office in
Doha. But a UN report in May cites several nations saying ETIM remains a
presence in Afghanistan.
Support
for any group stoking tensions in Xinjiang is a red line for Beijing, which has
been accused by the US and other nations of "genocide" for pressing
the region's largely Muslim Uyghur population into forced labor camps after a
spate of unrest more than a decade ago. China rejects those charges and says
critics are trying to meddle in its domestic affairs.
"The
ETIM is certainly a ticking time bomb for China, which makes it a long-term
threat," said Faran Jeffery, deputy director at Islamic Theology of
Counter Terrorism, a UK-based think tank known as ITCT.
Zhao
Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, directed questions about the
Taliban's ties to ETIM to officials in Kabul, but added, "according to our
communication with the Afghan Taliban, the Taliban side said on multiple
occasions that they will not allow their territory to be used by any terrorist
forces to attack countries, including China."
The
dream of mining riches in Afghanistan dates back centuries. After the US
withdrawal, China signaled it would help make it happen -- both by activating
earlier joint ventures that had stalled and breaking ground on new projects.
With many nations pausing support for Afghanistan to see how the Taliban would
rule, China was one of the few countries to promise the new regime an economic
lifeline.
China
"is ready to step into the void left by the hasty US retreat to seize a
golden opportunity," Zhou Bo, a military strategist and former colonel in
the People's Liberation Army, wrote in the New York Times just days before
American forces left last year. He cited access to Afghanistan's mineral wealth
as a key benefit of enhanced ties.
To
facilitate those ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met repeatedly with
Taliban representatives before and after the US exit. In March he made a rare
visit to Kabul for talks with acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. After
praising the country's leaders and hinting at support for Afghanistan's
participation in the belt and road infrastructure program, Wang's statement
afterward cut to the chase.
"China
hopes that the Afghan side will earnestly fulfill its commitment and take
effective measures to resolutely crack down on all terrorist forces, including
the ETIM," according to the statement.
But
Beijing still isn't convinced that's happening, leaving billions in promised
and future investments on hold. That includes a $3 billion deal with
state-owned Metallurgical Corporation of China, which was awarded a contract in
2007 to mine a copper deposit in the Mes Aynak area for 30 years. The Taliban
had expected to earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year from the
long-stalled project.
Also,
a project by China National Petroleum Corp. is either not fully operational or
making little progress in extracting oil from the Amu Darya basin in northern
Afghanistan after getting its contract from the previous government. Building a
refinery was part of the deal that never came to fruition.
The
Taliban's ties with ETIM date back to the 1990s, when they ruled Afghanistan
for five years before being ousted by the US following the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks.
"The
Taliban see ETIM as their guests who have fought alongside the Taliban against
US and NATO forces" the past two decades, said Jeffery, adding that such
ties are proving difficult to turn their backs on.
A
UN report in May -- citing comments by member states -- said the ETIM has
expanded its "operational space" in Afghanistan by forming alliances
with local Taliban commanders and "covertly" purchasing weapons,
aiming to improve its capabilities for "terrorist activities."
Estimates of the group's size vary widely, from a few dozen fighters to as many
as 1,000, according to the report.
While
the Taliban are trying to restrain the movement of ETIM militants in
Afghanistan to satisfy China -- such as pressing them back from the border with
Xinjiang -- they also "worry that if they come down too hard against ETIM,
many of their members could end up defecting" to Islamic State, one of the
Taliban's biggest threats, said Jeffery of the ITCT.
Beyond
the ETIM, the Taliban also wants to renegotiate the terms of some of the
previously-reached investments, including raising the royalty rate for copper
mining at the Mes Aynak site. China has previously sought to lower the 19.5%
rate.
A
spokesman for Afghanistan's ministry of mines and petroleum, Mufti Esmatullah
Burhan, downplayed any security risk to China, saying the Taliban have
tightened control throughout the country and that a "suitable business
environment" has emerged for China and other countries to
"leverage" the country's resources.
That
hasn't been enough to persuade Beijing.
For
now, the continuing standoff means that Afghanistan's mineral treasures --
including deposits of gold, copper and lithium -- will remain underground even
longer. By some estimates, the assets could be worth more than $1 trillion --
but only if they can be mined.
Experts
who follow the country say that after two decades of warfare, the Taliban
haven't managed to transition from insurgents to rulers. The government is run
largely based on orders from spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, who rules
from the Taliban birthplace in the Kandahar region bordering Pakistan.
All
of that is also giving China pause, said Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate
fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in the UK.
Source:
Times Of India
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Ummah
unity shouldn’t come at others’ expense, PAS told
September
26, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: PAS should not use its agenda of “uniting the ummah” as an excuse to seek
out its own profit at the expense of other parties, says Umno Supreme Council
member Isham Jalil.
In
a Facebook post, Isham reiterated that PAS must ditch Bersatu, its partner in
Perikatan Nasional, if it wanted to work with Umno.
Claiming
that Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin was helping fund PAS, he said the
Islamic party cannot hope to be financed by the former prime minister while
asking Umno for seats for the next general election (GE15).
This
was not normal in a genuine friendship, he said, but was the strategy of a
party that was seeking to take advantage of others.
“One
party cannot profit while the others suffer losses and are cheated supposedly
in the name of the unity of the ummah,” he said.
The
top leadership of PAS and Umno have been going back and forth over the past
month on the possibility of cooperation in GE15, despite Muhyiddin declaring
Barisan Nasional as PN’s enemy in nationwide polls.
Previously,
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said the party’s political foes were
Pakatan Harapan and its allies, not BN.
He
had said that only unity among the Malay political parties could guarantee a
government that would be fair and equal to all people.
Isham
said there cannot be too many Malay splinter parties like Bersatu, Pejuang and
others if the Malay people were to be united, adding that Umno and PAS were
sufficient.
“If
there are too many Malay splinter parties, the Malays will be at odds and
eventually split up,” he said.
He
maintained that Umno will not work with Bersatu for betraying the party in the
past.
“If
they genuinely want to return to struggling for the Malay people and to Umno,
they must not push to be given seats,” he said.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
PAS
members, leaders told to heed spiritual leader’s advice, says Takiyuddin
26
Sep 2022
KUALA
LUMPUR, Sept 26 — All PAS leaders and members have been urged to comply and
give wala’ (loyalty) to the order of PAS Mursyidul Am (spiritual leader) Datuk
Hashim Jasin, that all parties who want unity and stability in the country
should appreciate and realise the unifying agenda of the ummah.
PAS
secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said PAS is always committed to
carrying out all efforts towards achieving the unification of the ummah,
especially among Malays and Muslims.
“In
this regard, PAS cannot accept the stand of any party that labels other Muslim
Malay groups as its main enemy, let alone on matters involving the position and
power of Muslims in the government of a country where the majority is made up
of Muslims like Malaysia.
“Such
a statement is especially seen as inappropriate and embarrassing if a party
which is labeled as the main enemy is a partner in the joint government,” he
said in a statement today.
Source:
Malay Mail
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Alliance
Islamic launched Malaysia's first book on zakat microfinancing
September
26, 2022
KUALA
LUMPUR: Alliance Islamic Bank Bhd launched Malaysia's first book on zakat
microfinancing, titled 'Zakat and Microfinance', which pioneers the productive
distribution of zakat funds as microfinancing to empower the underprivileged or
asnaf micro-entrepreneurs.
As
the objective of zakat is to alleviate poverty, the book aims to promote
equitable development and financial inclusion of all categories of
entrepreneurs.
Alliance
Islamic chief executive officer Rizal IL-Ehzan Fadil Azim said the bank sees
the potential of using Islamic social funds such as zakat to help the asnaf
community, especially after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Through
this, we hope to serve the community better and create a greater social impact.
"The
book and our upcoming pilot Zakat Microfinancing Programme lead the way in
promoting financial inclusion by providing accessible funding to this
segment," he said.
The
utilisation of zakat funds for microfinancing to empower communities and
progress asnaf micro-entrepreneurs out of poverty through business is a
breakthrough concept.
It
pioneers Malaysia's first social financing model that utilises zakat for microfinancing
and is aligned with Bank Negara Malaysia's Value-Based Intermediation (VBI)
agenda, which promotes a socio and eco-centric banking model in furtherance of
the intended outcomes of shariah.
Alliance
Islamic Bank consulted with various organisations and committees to obtain
input on the permissibility of productively distributing zakat funds as
microfinancing to asnaf micro-
entrepreneurs.
"We
understand that asnaf micro-entrepreneurs have difficulties scaling their
business due to limited access to financing and lack of business guidance.
"To
help address these challenges, we have embedded training and peer support into
the pilot Zakat Microfinancing Programme.
"By
providing them with an opportunity to grow their business professionally and
with accountability, we support and partner asnaf micro-entrepreneurs in their
progress towards financial resiliency, transforming them from a zakat recipient
into a future zakat contributor," Rizal said.
Alliance
Islamic conducted extensive research in collaboration with subject-matter
experts, Islamic studies researchers specialising in social financing from
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Pusat Pungutan Zakat – Majlis Agama Islam
Wilayah Persekutuan.
The
book discusses the principles of distributing zakat funds to asnaf
micro-entrepreneurs as qard (repayment without profit).
Source:
NST
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Coalitions
are better for Malaysia, says PKR’s Wong Chen
Samuel
Chua
September
27, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: Coalition politics is better for Malaysia instead of a single multiracial
party which, as a dominant party, would not be good for any democracy,
according to Subang MP Wong Chen.
He
said coalitions had always been part of Malaysia’s political history, as they
provided the public with the freedom to choose the path they want.
A
coalition of many parties was likely to happen because the north, south, east,
and west regions of the peninsula, and Sabah and Sarawak, all had their own
concerns.
“This
is a wonderful thing about Malaysia. It makes us diverse and flexible in
dealing with the world in terms of doing business with Indonesians, Indians and
the Chinese. We have it all,” he told FMT.
Wong,
a member of PKR’s leadership council, said coalition politics were likely to
stay for decades to come.
“Race-based
politics has to stop. This kind of crazy politics that demeans and lowers each
of us in terms of values has to stop. Therefore, a multiracial platform of many
parties is best,” he said.
He
said it was important for other parties to believe in progressive ideas that
focused on class rather than on race-based issues.
Wong
also said a strong government might not be as useful as before, pointing out
that weak governments are now being forced to deliver reforms in the country.
He
said the memorandum of understanding signed between the government and Pakatan
Harapan was proof that reforms were being implemented.
“We
need a very distinctive opposition and government. For me, a ‘mega government’
is not something in my mind. I don’t think that should happen.”
The
call for a single multiracial party to be formed came from political author Lim
Teck Ghee last week, who said such a party could be a gamechanger as politics
was mired in racial and religious issues.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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Govt
files notice of appeal over Zahid’s graft acquittal
V
Anbalagan
September
26, 2022
PETALING
JAYA: The Attorney-General’s Chambers has filed a notice of appeal to challenge
former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s acquittal of charges of receiving
bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from a company handling a
foreign visa system.
According
to a source the notice was filed at the High Court in Shah Alam at 4.40pm
today.
The
attorney-general, Idrus Harun, later confirmed the filing. He told Bernama in a
text message: “Yes, the prosecution has filed an appeal against the decision of
the High Court in DS Zahid’s case this afternoon.”
The
appeal comes days after Idrus had said the prosecution would study the judgment
of High Court judge Yazid Mustafa who had ruled that the prosecution had failed
to establish a prima facie case against Zahid.
He
said three key prosecution witnesses in the case were unreliable and not
credible. He also said they led a luxurious lifestyle and owned expensive
property and vehicles, giving credence to an inference that the alleged bribe
money could have been distributed among the three.
Zahid,
69, had been accused of 33 counts of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56
million (RM42 million) from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd between 2014 and 2018 while he
was home minister.
The
prosecution said the alleged bribes were to extend the firm’s contract to
handle a foreign visa system and a one-stop centre in China.
Source:
Free Malaysia Today
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Africa
Muslim-Muslim
ticket: Nigerians too hungry to bother about their religious faiths in 2023
election – Keyamo
By
Jimisayo Opanuga
26
September 2022
Minister
of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, says Nigerians are too
hungry to be swayed by their religious faiths in the choice they will make in
the 2023 general elections.
Keyamo,
a spokesperson of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential
Campaign Council, stated this during an interview with Channels Television on
Sunday while reacting to the criticisms of the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The
minister argued that Nigerians would like to see policies that will address
their hunger rather than worrying about their faiths.
“Nigerians
are hungry and want to see how the hunger issue can be addressed and not the
same-faith ticket.
“They
want to see our policy on Agriculture and see what Asiwaju has done before as
governor of Lagos State and he can bring over such dexterity,” Keyamo said
The
ruling APC has chosen Bola Tinubu, a South-west Muslim, and Kashim Shettima, a
North-east Muslim, as its presidential and vice presidential candidates in the
February election.
The
Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), an arm of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) in recent interview stated that its opposition to the
Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC remains unchanged.
PFN
noted that the group has no affiliation with members of the Pentecostal Bishops
Forum of Northern Nigeria who met with Tinubu, the APC presidential flagbearer
in Abuja on Friday.
Keyamo
reacting to this stated that PFN should concentrate on its primary assignment,
which is to seek how to lead the Christian to paradise and not the presidential
villa.
He
said; “The purpose or duty of pastors, we have said so before, is to lead
people to heaven. It is not to lead people to villa. The PFN should go and vote
for their choice of candidates on Election Day if they seek to. They should not
be questioning the decision not our party publicly.
“They
are called by God to lead to heaven. If I go to Church every Sunday, I want to
hear the sermon of God, not the sermon of politics on who should rule me. I
want to listen to them talk about salvation, not villa.”
According
to the Minister, PFN and CAN are not members of APC and should stop interfering
in the affairs of the ruling party.
Keyamo
added that the Christian bodies should join the political party if they want to
take part in the country’s decision-making process.
“Is
the PFN or CAN a member or structure of APC? The vice presidential candidate is
a decision of our party leaders. It is our party’s decision. These external
bodies are not part of us.
Source:
Guardian Nigeria
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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At
least five killed in western Libya clashes
26
September, 2022
Five
people were killed and 13 wounded in gun battles in the western Libyan town of
Zawiyah, the latest unrest in the troubled North African nation, medics said
Monday.
Fighting
late Sunday broke out between rival forces equipped with heavy weapons, with
one group linked to the defense ministry and the other to the interior
ministry, local media reported.
Libya’s
ambulance service reported five dead, including a 10-year-old girl, and 13
injured in Zawiyah, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital Tripoli.
The
United Nations mission in Libya (UNSMIL) condemned the deadly clashes.
“The
UN in Libya is greatly concerned about reports that civilians were injured and
killed during armed clashes in Zawiyah,” it tweeted.
“We
condemn the use of heavy artillery in densely populated neighborhoods.”
A
security source, who requested anonymity, said the fighting broke out after a
member of one group was killed by a supporter of the other in a dispute over
fuel smuggling, which is common in this region bordering Tunisia.
The
fighting comes amid a political crisis between backers of rival Libyan prime
ministers Abdulhamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bashagha, whose administrations are
vying for control of the oil-rich nation.
Dbeibah’s
government was installed in Tripoli as part of a UN-led peace process last
year, while Bashagha was appointed by Libya’s eastern-based parliament in
February.
In
late August, fighting between rival militias in Tripoli left 32 people dead and
159 injured.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Algeria’s
UN integration will develop with support, says FM Lamamra
September
27, 2022
LONDON:
Algeria’s development remains on track and will continue with the support of UN
member states, the country’s foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra said on Monday.
During
his speech at the General Assembly Debate, Lamamra also reaffirmed his
country’s push for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
“My
country is a member of the UN, it celebrates this year the 60th anniversary of
independence,” he said. “It resolutely pursues the process of building a new
Algeria under the leadership of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.”
He
continued: “My country reaffirms its compliance with the values and principles
(of the UN) and its determination to revive the role of multilateral action in
keeping international peace and security and the achievement of comprehensive,
fair, and sustainable development.”
Lamamra
outlined Algeria’s commitment to the principles of the UN charter ahead of
elections scheduled for next June on membership in the Security Council.
“Algeria
is aware of the magnitude of unprecedented challenges that arise at the
international and regional levels,” he said.
“Therefore,
it has submitted its candidacy for the position of non-permanent member of the
Security Council, a candidacy endorsed by the African Union, the League of Arab
States, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.”
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2170236/middle-east
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‘Dozen’
dead in suspected Burkina Faso militant attack
September
27, 2022
OUAGADOUGOU:
A suspected militant attack in the north of Burkina Faso has killed around a
dozen people, mostly soldiers, security sources said on Monday.
Violence
has raged in the landlocked west African country after Lt. Col. Paul-Henri
Sandaogo Damiba seized power in a January coup, ousting Burkina’s elected
leader and promising to rein in militants.
But
as in neighboring countries, insurgents affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh
group have stoked the unrest.
In
the latest attack, a convoy carrying supplies to local residents and escorted
by a military unit “was the target of a terrorist attack” near Gaskinde in the
Sahel region, an army statement said.
“The
attack unfortunately caused human and material losses,” and a full toll would
be established “as soon as possible,” it said.
A
security source said that a preliminary toll indicated “about a dozen dead among
elements of the unit. There were also a number of seriously wounded.”
The
source added that reinforcements had been sent to the area, both to secure it
and to aid the victims.
On
Sunday an improvised explosive device that targeted another army-escorted resupply
convoy in the Sahel wounded four people, security sources said.
These
attacks followed one on Saturday in the country’s east near the borders with
Niger and Benin. The army said at least two soldiers and two civilian
auxiliaries were killed in an ambush on their patrol.
Thousands
have died and about two million people have been displaced by the fighting
since 2015 when the insurgency spread into Burkina Faso.
Source:
Arab News
Please
click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2170161/world
--------
North
America
Canada
sanctions Iran morality police as protests flare
26
September, 2022
Canada
on Monday announced sanctions against Iranian officials over the Islamic
republic's lethal crackdown on protests driven by the death of a young woman
after her arrest by the morality police.
“We
will implement sanctions on dozens of individuals and entities, including
Iran's so-called morality police,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news
conference.
“We
join our voices, the voices of all Canadians, to the millions of people around
the world demanding that the Iranian government listen to their people, end
their repression of freedoms and rights and let women and all Iranians live
their lives and express themselves peacefully,” he added.
At
the same time, Canada's foreign minister, Melanie Joly, offered her support to
Iranian women at the UN General Assembly, saying in a speech their protests
have been “met with arrests and bullets.”
“We
salute their courage and join them in sending a strong message that women's
rights are human rights,” Joly said.
More
than 1,200 angry demonstrators have been arrested, along with reformist
activists and journalists, since the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in
custody 10 days ago, and at least 41 people have died, according to official
figures.
State
television aired footage of “rioters” on the streets in north and west Tehran
as well as “some provinces”, and said they had set fire to public and private
property.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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US
to give $10m for food security assistance, says Blinken
Anwar
Iqbal
September
27, 2022
WASHINGTON:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday he was pleased to announce
another $10 million for food security assistance, adding he was sending a
simple message that “we are here for Pakistan just like we have been in the
past”.
Secretary
Blinken said this during a meeting with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
where they had a “good and engaging and extensive conversation” on a host of
issues.
At
the meeting, Mr Blinken also talked about managing a responsible relationship
with India. He said: “Our colleagues also spoke about China and we also
critically talked about deepening our relations.”
Secretary
Blinken said: “We are convinced to do much more on trade and convinced that the
[bilateral] relationship is strong and will continue to be stronger.”
In
meeting with Bilawal, vows to rebuild ties
During
the meeting, Mr Blinken also said: “We are meeting when Pakistan’s one-third
[area] is under water. We have a sense of urgency and sense of determination.
We’re looking ahead to rebuild [bilateral ties].”
He
further said that both countries had worked together on mutual threats and
worked together on counterterrorism and shared common objectives on
Afghanistan.
“This
is a resilient relationship, capable of coming over all challenges,” Secretary
Blinken said.
FM
Bhutto-Zardari reached Washington on Sunday evening with Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and other members of his team.
Soon
after his arrival, the foreign minister met US State Department’s Special
Representative for Commercial Affairs Dilawar Syed and discussed with him
various options for the expansion of trade ties.
In
the meeting, Mr Syed “emphasised US private sector’s role in rebuilding
infrastructure post-floods,” the foreign minister said in a tweet.
He
said he also “highlighted Pakistan’s potential and sought greater US
investment” in the country and in the government’s green energy plan.
Mr
Syed said that in his meeting with the foreign minister, he expressed “our
solidarity with the millions of Pakistanis impacted by the devastating floods”,
adding that the US was leading the international effort to support Pakistan
with an initial direct assistance of $53m. “We discussed building on the
momentum from my recent visit to Islamabad to expand US-Pakistan economic
relationship,” he said.
The
United States is Pakistan’s largest single country export market and one of the
largest sources of foreign investment, with US direct investment growing by 50
per cent in the past year. The US-Pakistan bilateral trade reached nearly $9
billion in 2021.
US
companies and their local affiliates are among Pakistan’s largest employers,
with roughly 80 US companies directly employing more than 125,000 Pakistanis,
and more than one million Pakistanis employed indirectly. In 2021, US firms
invested up to $5.7m in corporate social responsibility initiatives in
Pakistan.
Mr
Bhutto-Zardari also met US corporate leaders, representatives of various
American companies and prominent members of the Pakistani American community at
the residence of the Pakistani ambassador.
At
an earlier briefing to Dawn, State Department’s counselor Derek Chollet
acknowledged that the US wanted to maintain friendly ties with Pakistan and it
did not want Pakistan to abandon China for improving its relations with
Washington.
In
a meeting with a delegation of Medicines San Frontier (MSF), the foreign
minister appreciated the role this international NGO is playing in providing
health facilities to flood-affected people.
Source:
Dawn
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1712180/us-to-give-10m-for-food-security-assistance-says-blinken
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US
adds fourth Iranian cargo plane to export violation list over Russia flights
26
September, 2022
The
US Commerce Department said on Monday it had added a fourth Iranian cargo plane
serving Russia to a list of aircraft believed to violate US export controls under
Biden administration sanctions.
The
department added three Iranian cargo planes to the list on Sept. 19. The fourth
plane belongs to Iran’s Saha Airlines, which is owned by Iran’s air force, the
department said in a statement.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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click the following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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US
urges Greece, Türkiye to 'work together' for regional peace
Michael
Hernandez
26.09.2022
WASHINGTON
The
US appealed to fellow NATO allies Greece and Türkiye on Monday to "work
together" to ensure regional peace and security after Ankara said Athens
breached international law.
"Now's
not the time for statements or any actions that could raise tensions between
NATO allies," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
"We are encouraging our NATO allies to resolve any disagreements they may
have diplomatically. We think we should remain focused on what is a collective
threat to all of us, and that's Russia's aggression."
Turkish
military drones recorded the deployment of Greek armored vehicles on the
islands of Midilli (Lesvos) and Sisam (Samos), which Ankara maintains is in
violation of international law. The footage was released on Sunday.
Türkiye
on Monday summoned the Greek ambassador and called for an end to violations on
Aegean islands and restoring their non-military status, according to the
Foreign Ministry.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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Former
US Congressman Ron Paul mocks US neocon ties to Iran riots 'leader'
26
September 2022
Former
US Congressman Ron Paul has mocked the claim that a US-government-hired Iranian
opposition figure is “leading” what Washington is projecting as a “freedom”
movement in Iran amid deadly riots over the death of a young woman.
In
a Twitter post on Monday, Paul pointed to the close ties between Masih Alinejad
-- a commentator for Washington’s official Persian language propaganda network
Voice of America (VOA) – and the ultra-rightwing neoconservative elements
(neocons) in US politics and ridiculed the notion as “totally legit.”
“Doesn’t
it strike anyone as strange that the “leader” of this “freedom” movement in
Iran is a US government employee and bosom buddy of the neocons? But hey, sure,
it’s totally legit…,” the ex-lawmaker wrote, posting a photo of Alinejad with
former hawkish US Secretary of State and CIA Director, Mike Pompeo.
The
deadly riots, backed by the Western regimes, in the past week in many Iranian
cities have seen armed rioters beating and killing police officers, public
works servants as well as ordinary civilians while vandalizing banks and other
public and private properties.
The
riots -- also sponsored and encourage by terrorist groups, such as the Komola,
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Paris-based MKO, as well as UK-based
propaganda media networks like the state-funded BBC and the Saudi-financed Iran
International – started after the death of an Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini,
during her brief detention in Tehran by law enforcement officers for failing to
adequately observe hijab.
Police
authorities in Tehran insist that Amini was not mistreated by law-enforcement
personnel, and released video footage showing that she suddenly fainted while
attending an educational workshop on the proper observance of the country’s
dress code regulations.
After
initial peaceful protests demanding official explanations surrounding the
circumstances of Amini’s death, foreign-based anti-Iran media outlets as well
as opposition and terrorist leaders used it as an opportunity to incite violent
riots across Iran.
Meanwhile,
investigations to ascertain the cause of Amini’s death are underway with
results likely to be made public in a couple of weeks.
Source:
Press TV
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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/09/26/689879/-Ron-Paul-mocks-US-ties-to-Iran-riot--leader-
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