Marriage Without Completing Iddat Not Void And Does Not Constitute Zina: Lahore High Court
New Age Islam
News Bureau
08 January 2022
Representative Photo
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• Nikah or
Namaz-e-Janaza Would Not Be Performed If Any Family Played Music During
Weddings: Fatwa By Islamic Clerics In Jammu And Kashmir Sparks Debate
• Lawyers
Training School In Paris Accused Of Islamophobia; Muslim Student Threatened
With Expulsion From An Oath Ceremony For Wearing A Headscarf
• Imam Urges
Nigerians To Reveal Hideouts Of Bandits, Terrorists To Military
• Biden Sets The
Stage For The Next Muslim Ban With Minimal Checks Or Consultation With Congress
Pakistan
• Spiritual Figure
Pir Syed Ali Bahadur Gilani’s Body Stolen And Taken It For Reburial
• Tragedy that
Karachi pleads for its rights, says Siraj ul Haq
• Averting
Afghan humanitarian crisis imperative for regional stability: COAS
• Pak-Afghan
border fencing issue will be resolved through diplomatic channels: Qureshi
--------
India
• Probe Over
Video Of Villagers Pledging To Boycott Muslims In Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur
• Retired IPS
officer removed from MP IPS officers WhatsApp group over objectionable post
about Muslims
• In
Chhattisgarh Village, People Take Oath To Boycott Muslims
• Muslim man
dons Koragajja attire on his wedding in Karnataka, booked following protest
• Jharkhand: BJP
Activists Force Muslim Man To Chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’
--------
Europe
• Russian-Backed
Kazakhstan President Orders Shoot-To-Kill Sans Warning At Kazakh Protesters
• Progress made
on Iran nuclear talks but time running out: France’s foreign minister
• Kazakhstan
detains former security chief for treason
• UN calls on
all involved in Kazakhstan unrest to choose peace over violence
--------
Africa
• FG secures
$98m Islamic bank grant to build nine bi-lingual schools
• Cameroon
Christians and Muslims Pray for Peace in Cameroon During AFCON
• UN Security
Council to meet Jan. 12 on Sudan
• Roadside bomb blast
in Somalia kills 2 soldiers, injures 9 others
• EU calls for
independent probe into deaths, violence in Sudan
--------
North America
• US envoy
Malley meets with Saudi diplomat to discuss Iran nuclear deal
• US warns
Kazakhstan will find it 'difficult' to get Russian troops to leave
• Biden names
Kosovo, Iraq war veteran as Central Command chief
--------
South Asia
• Mullah Baradar
Asks International Community To Deliver Aid To Winter-Affected Afghans
• Over 2,500
Taliban affiliates dissociated over misdemeanour
• Afghan-Pak
territorial conflicts, Pakistani NSA to visit Kabul
• Afghans need
emergency humanitarian aid without 'political bias': Taliban
• Taliban thank
India for medical aid
--------
Southeast Asia
• 'Light'
Sentences For Indonesian Ahmadi Attack Spark Storm
• Amin asks
Muslims to help bolster Indonesia's economy
• UMNO strikes
back after Malaysia’s year of political melee
• Floods and
landslides kill seven in eastern Indonesia
• Terror Threat
In Asian Countries Declined In 2021
--------
Arab World
• Syrians Seek
Word Of Loved Ones Missing In Regime Jails
• Saudi Arabia
says Dakar rally accident investigation shows no criminal suspicions
• Saudi war on
drugs net over 37 tons of narcotics in 2021
• Saudi armed
forces delegation visits Greek military academies
• General Labour
Union president warns against ‘certain catastrophe’ in Lebanon amid economic
crises
--------
Mideast
• Israeli
Security Says Downed Drones Show Hezbollah Surveillance
• Artefacts To
Be Displayed In “Archeo-Park’ Near Selimiye Mosque
• Deputy FM: S.
Korea Must Pay Debt to Iran
• Iran displays
ballistic missiles amid nuclear talks with world powers
• 'Settlers
violence' sparks Israeli-European tension
• 22 injured as
Israeli forces attack Palestinian rallies
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/marriage-iddat-zina-muslim-women/d/126115
--------
Marriage Without
Completing Iddat Not Void And Does Not Constitute Zina: Lahore High Court
Representative Photo
-----
Wajih Ahmad
Sheikh
January 8, 2022
LAHORE: The
Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that a marriage without completing Iddat — a
period spanning about four months after separation between a married Muslim
couple or death of the husband — cannot be treated as void and does not
constitute the cognisable offence of Zina (adultery).
In a verdict
issued on a petition of a man who said his wife committed Zina by contracting a
marriage without completing her Iddat, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa explains that a
woman’s marriage before completion of her Iddat period would be “irregular”,
but not void. In this case, Iddat refers to a period a woman has to observe
after dissolution of a marriage.
Petitioner Ameer
Bakhsh had challenged a decision of ex-officio justice of peace of Muzaffargarh
whereby his application for registration of a criminal case against his former
wife and her new husband was dismissed.
He submitted
that the respondent, Amina Bibi, was legally married to him and residing in his
house being his legally wedded wife. She, with mala fide intentions, secretly
filed a suit for dissolution of marriage and got the same decreed ex-parte
against him from a family court.
According to
verdict, such a marriage can be called irregular
The petitioner
challenged the decree and his application is still pending before the family
court concerned.
The petitioner
said his wife after obtaining the ex-parte decree got married to Mohammad
Ismail the next day without observing iddat as ordained in the holy Quran. He
said this act of his wife and the respondent was against the teachings of Islam
and amounted to committing of zina under the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of
Hudood) Ordinance 1979, which is a cognizable offence.
However, he
said, the justice of peace dismissed his application without applying his
judicious mind and without appraising the facts of the case in their true
perspective.
In his verdict, Justice
Bajwa observes that a Sahih (valid) marriage is the one which is free from all
sorts of defects and infirmities and is in absolute conformity with the
requirements of Shariah.
For a valid
marriage, it is necessary that there should be no legal prohibition affecting
the capacity of the parties to marry. A marriage which is short of a valid
marriage will be termed an invalid marriage. There are two kinds of invalid
marriages — irregular (Fasid) and void (batil).
“Irregular
(Fasid) marriage is the one where the impediment to the validity of such
marriage is temporary, while in case of a void (Batil) marriage, such
impediment is permanent,” he adds.
Source: Dawn
Please click the
following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1668239/lhc-rules-marriage-without-completing-iddat-not-void-zina
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Nikah or
Namaz-e-Janaza Would Not Be Performed If Any Family Played Music During
Weddings: Fatwa By Islamic Clerics In Jammu And Kashmir Sparks Debate
Islamic experts in Poonch,
Jammu and Kashmir, have issued a fatwa prohibiting the use of music, DJs, and
drumming during weddings.
-----
Jan 05, 2022
Kashmir: Islamic
scholars in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district have now issued a fatwa against
playing music, DJs and beating drums during marriage functions. The
announcement was made in Mankote, with clerics warning that Nikah or
Namaz-e-janaza would not be performed if any family played music during
weddings.
The incident has
sparked outrage from several quarters. Speaking to Times Now, BJP leader
Yudhvir Sethi wondered why fatwas were not issued to ensure that the children
of Jammu and Kashmir, "drop guns and pick up laptops" and obtain an
education and earn well. "Why do they have a problem with those who work
as DJs etc and earn a living?" the Jammu and Kashmir BJP vice president
asked.
Thus far there had been no follow up comments from other leading political leaders from other parties in the Kashmir Valley.
J&K COVID
situationJammu and Kashmir: L-G Manoj Sinha chairs high-level meeting to review
COVID situation, vaccination drive
This however is
not an isolated incident. Recent reports from various locations indicate that
similar statements were also made in Uttar Pradesh last year. Soon after the
All India Muslim Personal Law Board issued an 11-point resolution letter to
curb social evils, Islamic scholars had said that they would not perform the
marriage ceremony if the groom demanded dowry from the girl's family or played
music or indulged in fireworks.
In 2018, clerics
in UP's Deoband had said that they would boycott weddings where music and dance
were taking place and a DJ was there as it was against Islam. "If the
music and dance happened before the nikah ceremony and qazi didn't know then
it's different," news agency ANI had quoted city Qazi Mufti Azhar Hussain
as saying at the time.
Source: Times
Now News
Please click the
following URL to read the text of the original story:
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Lawyers Training
School In Paris Accused Of Islamophobia; Muslim Student Threatened With
Expulsion From An Oath Ceremony For Wearing A Headscarf
File Photo/Islamophobia
----
Shweta
Desai
08.01.2022
PARIS
A young Muslim
student accused France’s foremost legal institution of Islamophobia after being
threatened with expulsion from an oath ceremony for wearing a headscarf.
Graduating
lawyer Sara, who only revealed her first name, told Revolution Permanente, a
far-left digital news site, that she was singled out for wearing a headscarf
during a ceremony Thursday at the Palais des Congres in Paris.
Four staff
members of the l'Ecole de Formation des Barreaux (EFB), a professional training
school for lawyers, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Paris Court of
Appeal, forced her to remove her head covering.
“You must take
off your headscarf. If you don't remove it, you walk out of the room and you
can't take the oath,” a school administrator demanded, she said.
She said the
incident made her feel threatened and humiliated after being yelled at in front
of other students and left her with no other choice.
According to
Sara, a magistrate accompanied her at the back of the auditorium to make sure
she removed the headscarf.
She was told not
to wear a headscarf if she aspired to be a professional lawyer.
The president of
the Paris bar and distinguished lawyer Richard Malka was a guest speaker at the
small oath-taking ceremony, a precursor to the main oath before becoming a
lawyer.
Malka, who
famously fought racism charges against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for
publishing Prophet Mohammad’s caricatures, gave a speech on upholding the
freedom of speech.
“Half an hour
before the speech, I was asked to take off my headscarf. I found that
completely hypocritical,” said Sara.
Another student
named Romane, who witnessed the incident, denounced the racist legal system
that discriminates against minorities.
“After a young
woman was publicly humiliated and exposed, R. Malka made a speech saying the
only place where we have absolute freedom of expression is in the courts,”
Romane said on Twitter.
Source: Anadolu
Agency
Please click the
following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/lawyers-training-school-in-paris-accused-of-islamophobia/2468351
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Imam Urges
Nigerians To Reveal Hideouts Of Bandits, Terrorists To Military
Representative Photo/ Parrot
Nigeria News
-----
08 Jan 2022
The Chief Imam
of the Abuja National Mosque, Dr Muhammad Kabir Adam, Friday, appealed to all
Nigerians to disclose the hideouts of bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other
criminals terrorising the country to the military.
This, the cleric
said, would support troops of the armed forces and other security agencies
fighting security challenges across the country to hasten their mandate in
bringing an end to the current menace in the country.
Dr Adam stated
this in an interview with defence correspondents shortly after a special Jumat
service prayers organised in commemoration of the 2022 Armed Forces Remembrance
Day.
According to
him, it may be difficult for Nigerians to reveal the dens of the adversaries
disturbing the peace of the country, but that it has become imperative
considering everyday killings in the country.
Dr Adam
explained that the Friday prayers were set aside to remember Nigeria’s fallen
heroes who sacrificed their lives in defence of the country’s territorial
integrity and ensured peace returned to the land.
Source: Daily
Trust
Please click the
following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://dailytrust.com/imam-urges-nigerians-to-reveal-hideouts-of-bandits-terrorists-to-military
--------
Biden Sets The
Stage For The Next Muslim Ban With Minimal Checks Or Consultation With Congress
Section 212(f) – remains
unchecked.
----
01/07/22
Five years ago
this month, on Jan. 27, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order he
labelled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United
States.” Known as the “Muslim ban,” the order – with its misspellings and
misstatements of facts and law – was enacted under Section 212(f) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which essentially gives a president
unilateral authority to ban certain classes of foreign nationals. The Muslim
ban triggered global outrage as thousands of Americans rushed to the airports
to support international travellers. Democrats, including then-candidate Joe
Biden, urged limits on the president’s power to unilaterally enact travel bans.
Fast forward
five years, and even though the Muslim ban is no more, the basis for it –
Section 212(f) – remains unchecked. Like his predecessor, Biden has leaned in
on using Section 212(f) to enact his own travel bans with minimal checks or
consultation with Congress.
Originally
enacted in 1952, Section 212(f) provides the president with authority to
suspend from entry “any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States”
whose entry would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” As
potent and open-ended as the statute is, few presidents bothered using Section
212(f) until President Trump. Referring to Section 212(f) as his “magical
authority” to restrict immigration, Trump turned to it in the first week of his
presidency to institute the Muslim ban that he had promised as a candidate.
Although lower courts rejected the Muslim ban as discriminatory, the Supreme
Court upheld the ban in Trump v. Hawaii.
That decision
predictably emboldened the Trump administration, which expanded the ban to 13
countries total, including more Muslim-majority countries, and targeted
particularly large numbers of African and brown immigrants. Trump would use
Section 212(f) to ban refugees and asylum seekers, Chinese students and
researchers, and to ban immigrants based on health care status and their
alleged harm to the U.S. economy.
In response to
Trump’s frequent use of Section 212(f), Democrats drafted the National
Origin-Based Anti-discrimination for Non-immigrants (NO BAN) Act to bar a
president from unilaterally banning entry of immigrants. The bill would amend
Section 212(f) to restrict travel bans to those supported only by credible
facts, are of a defined duration and are necessary to address specific acts
that threaten the safety of the American public.
Critically,
under the NO BAN framework, a ban may be used only if less severe policy
options would not work, and if it is crafted to affect no more people than is
essential to accomplish its purpose. Under the bill, the president also would
have to first consult with Congress then deliver a follow-up report within 48
hours or the ban would expire.
Biden not only
backed the NO BAN Act, he included language limiting presidential authority in
the comprehensive immigration reform bill he introduced on his first day in
office. Yet as soon as the Democrats took power and when faced with using
Section 212(f) within the confines of the NO BAN Act, the White House opted to
implement its travel bans in the same manner as President Trump. Indeed, on
Biden’s first day in office, he extended the travel ban imposed by Trump
against 27 European Union countries and Great Britain that Trump actually
attempted to end.
Just a month
ago, despite international protests, Biden implemented a ban on eight southern
African countries without much in the way of consultation with Congress. All of
this of course after then-candidate Biden criticized Trump-era travel bans
against Europeans and Africans in 2020 as counterproductive and
unnecessary.
Biden does not
need to wait on Congress to limit his authority. He can do so now, and there's
no better time to start than on the fifth anniversary of the Muslim ban. Biden
sympathizers may argue that unlike Donald Trump, we can trust him to use travel
ban authority fairly, sparingly and based on science. But presidential
authority is not about the president you trust today, but rather about the
future president you will not trust tomorrow. Whether it be over social media
checks, the Muslim Ban, family separation, the border wall or “extreme
vetting,” many of Trump’s immigration policies had foundation in programs from
his predecessors.
In terms of the
most recent bans adopted by Biden, scientists were far more split on their
effectiveness. The omicron variant, for example, may well have been circulating
in Europe even before South Africa identified it. And given the surging cases
of omicron in the United States, we can certainly say the Southern Africa travel
ban did nothing more than alienate our allies while scoring a few political
points with the public.
Finally, Biden
supporters may suddenly view such bans in the same manner Trump did: as
effective tools to respond to rapidly changing situations such as a pandemic.
Yet rather than inhibiting effective crisis management, adoption of the NO BAN
Act would help the president. Instead of taking knee-jerk reactions not rooted
in sound science, this president, or any president, would have to essentially
“show their work.” That is, they would need to demonstrate to Congress and the
public that the ban really is necessary and that no other options are
available.
Members of
Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, should be clamoring to rein in
executive power as the first step in reestablishing some semblance of checks
and balances in the relationship between Congress and the White House. What is
the point of electing a member of Congress or even having a Congress if they
merely serve as a rubber stamp or opponent to whoever is in the White House?
As we look back
on the Muslim ban from five years ago, the best way we can remember and honor
its victims is to ensure that no president, irrespective of party, has
unchecked power in the form of an immigration provision. Democrats have a short
window to limit the use of Section 212(f). Come November 2022, it's likely that
Republicans will win back the House and do all in their power to ensure the
return of Donald Trump come 2024. It is the time to restrict Section 212(f) before
it's too late.
Source: The Hill
Please click the
following URL to read the text of the original story:
https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/588729-biden-sets-the-stage-for-the-next-muslim-ban
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Pakistan
Spiritual Figure Pir Syed Ali Bahadur Gilani’s Body Stolen And Taken It For Reburial
Tariq Saeed
January 8, 2022
TOBA TEK SINGH:
The Garh police in Tandlianwala on Friday registered a case against 35 people
of Okara’s Sheiku Sharif area for allegedly exhuming the body of spiritual
figure Pir Syed Ali Bahadur Gilani and taking it to Okara for reburial there.
Gilani was laid
to rest and a shrine built in his honour six months ago.
The suspects
included two sons of Gilani from his first wife. The spiritual figure had left
his first wife in Okara and contracted second marriage and settled at Garh
several years ago.
Complainant Syed
Shahzaib, a son of Gilani from his second wife, claimed in his FIR registered
under sections 297, 395, 365, 186, 148 and 149 of PPC that his stepbrothers
Hasan Raza and Kazim Raza -- residents of Okara -- and their 33 accomplices
reached Garh at 2am on Friday by four vans. They broke the lock of the shrine
and tortured him and devotees and held them up, he said.
Shahzaib said
the suspects exhumed the body of his father and kept it in a van. When devotee
Bilal offered resistance, he said, they kidnapped him.
Speaking to
Dawn, the complainant claimed that he had come to know that the suspects had
buried his father at an unknown place with the sole motive of earning money in
the form of alms devotees give. He alleged that his stepbrothers had also
illegally occupied his land measuring more than three acres worth millions of
rupees and had yet to free Bilal.
Source: Dawn
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Tragedy that
Karachi pleads for its rights, says Siraj ul Haq
Imran Ayub
January 8, 2022
KARACHI: The
sit-in of the Jamaat-i-Islami outside the Sindh Assembly against the recently
passed Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act 2021 entered its second week on
Friday as the top leadership of the party expressed the resolve to continue the
protest until the announcement of the Pakistan Peoples Party to review the
‘black law’.
The JI
leadership also called for countrywide protests and rallies on Sunday
(tomorrow) to demand rights for Karachiites.
On the eighth
day of the sit-in, JI chief Senator Siraj ul Haq came to join the protesters
and address the participants.
He warned the
PPP government that it should not remain under the ‘illusion’ that the JI
workers would return after getting ‘tired’ from the sit-in.
He called it an
irony that a city that generated employment for people of every district and
town of the country was never owned by the rulers.
The JI chief
called it a great ‘tragedy’ that Karachi that deserved to become the world’s
centre was pleading for its due rights from its very own rulers.
He vowed that
the JI would further boost the momentum of its protest and soon different
cities of the country would hear slogans for Karachi rights.
“The PPP
government is playing the same dirty politics when it blames us that we are
doing politics of ethnicity,” he said.
“But let me tell
my PPP friends that the people can no more be fooled with the same hollow
claims and old tactics. Even a child of this country knows that the PPP is the
party which represents a feudal mindset in this country.
Source: Dawn
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1668181/tragedy-that-karachi-pleads-for-its-rights-says-siraj-ul-haq
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Averting Afghan
humanitarian crisis imperative for regional stability: COAS
January 7, 2022
Chief of Army
Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa met British High Commissioner Christian
Turner at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi on Friday.
COAS Bajwa
stated that the international community’s assistance to Afghanistan in averting
humanitarian crisis is imperative for regional peace and stability.
The military’s
media wing stated that during the meeting, matters pertaining to bilateral
cooperation and regional security situation, including Afghanistan, came under
discussion.
The British
envoy appreciated Pakistan’s efforts for regional peace particularly in the
Afghan situation.
Last month, COAS
Bajwa reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to cooperate with its international partners
for peace in the region and ensuring a stable and prosperous future for the
Afghan people.
The army chief
had said during a meeting with Andreas Papastavrou, Greek Ambassador to
Pakistan who paid a farewell call to COAS Bajwa at GHQ, according to the ISPR.
During the
meeting, the army chief stressed the need for global convergence on Afghanistan
and sincere efforts to avert a looming humanitarian catastrophe.
Source: Pakistan
Today
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Pak-Afghan
border fencing issue will be resolved through diplomatic channels: Qureshi
January 7, 2022
MULTAN: Foreign
Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said that the government has received
positive response from Afghan authorities to resolve Pak-Afghan border fencing
issue through diplomatic channels.
The foreign
minister expressed these views while addressing a press conference along with
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety
Senator Dr Sania Nishtar and PTI’s chief whip in National Assembly Malik
Muhammad Amir Dogar in Multan.
Fencing of
Pak-Afghan border is in the interest of both the countries to regulate and
facilitate trade and movement through the border so that unscrupulous elements
do not get any opportunity to misuse Afghanistan or Pakistan’s land for their
nefarious designs.
“It was meant to
regulate movement across the border through visa and we are moving forward to
that end,” he added.
Qureshi said
almost 95 percent of fencing work has been completed, adding that the country
suffered difficulties, hurdles and martyrdoms during the work.
The foreign
minister said that he is hopeful that the issue would be resolved through
diplomatic channels and talks.
“There were some
incidents that we have taken up with the Afghan authorities. Our talks are
ongoing and they have given us a positive response,” the FM said.
“We must not
forget that there are spoilers who do not wish to see the exemplary friendly
relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan moving forward. They do create
hurdles and would continue with it but we will thwart their nefarious plans.”
He said that
while on way to muster up support from international community to help Afghan
people, Pakistan has recently contacted neighbours of Afghanistan and
established a new platform titled “The Immediate Neighbours of Afghanistan”,
adding that its first meeting has taken place in Islamabad, another in Tehran
and the third meeting is scheduled to take place in China in February.
Qureshi said
Pakistan has been making strenuous efforts in raising the serious issue of
humanitarian crisis and economic collapse in Afghanistan at different forums,
adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan has advocated the case of Afghan people
at the United Nations while he has himself talked to foreign ministers of
different countries to initiate a global effort to save Afghan people from
troubles.
He said that the
efforts resulted into an extraordinary meeting of around 30 OIC countries’
foreign ministers and deputy foreign ministers on December 19 last year.
Source: Pakistan
Today
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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India
Probe over video
of villagers pledging to boycott Muslims in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur
08th January
2022
By Ejaz Kaiser
RAIPUR: A brawl
between two villages took communal turn in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur district,
about 350 km north of Raipur, as some unidentified people held a meeting in
which villagers were seen in a video taking pledge to boycott the Muslims.
Seven accused
were arrested on Friday, additional SP (Ambikapur) Vivek Shukla told this
newspaper, adding that the police are closely monitoring the situation and had
reinforced its local intelligence network.
It all began
after some Muslim villagers from Aara, out on a New Year picnic, had verbal
altercation with the residents of Kundikala. Tempers became frayed resulting in
youths from Aara allegedly barging into some houses, thrashing the locals in
Kundikala and misbehaving with women.
Given the
sensitivity of the episode, the police were alerted and an FIR was lodged at
Lundra police station. Six were arrested but they got bail.
Later, villagers
protested at the police station alleging that strong offences were not pressed
against the accused. According to the police, the FIR was lodged after
evaluating the complaint.
Source: New
Indian Express
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Retired IPS
officer removed from MP IPS officers WhatsApp group over objectionable post
about Muslims
08th January
2022
BHOPAL: A
retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was removed from the WhatsApp group
of the Madhya Pradesh IPS officers, after he refused to delete an objectionable
post against the Muslim community on Friday.
The 1984 batch
IPS officer Maithili Sharan Gupta made the post containing objectionable
contents about the Muslims in the WhatsApp group, ‘IPS MP,’ on which the
state’s director general of police (DGP) Vivek Johri requested him not make
such posts in the group and asked to delete the post.
When Gupta
didn’t delete the post, the DGP asked one of the group admins to act in the
matter, after which the group admin rang Gupta, requesting him to remove the
objectionable post. With the retired senior IPS officer refusing to delete the
post, the Group Admin removed him from the IPS MP WhatsApp group.
When contacted
by the The New Indian Express in the matter, Gupta (who retired as Special
DG-Police Reform and was in the race to become DGP in 2020) defended himself
for making the post, “I don’t think there was anything objectionable in the
post, I posted what is true. I’ve written what is true to depict the sufferings
of Hindus in their own country,” Gupta said defending his post.
In the post, the
retired IPS officers shared a YouTube channel link which was aimed at
countering lyricist Javed Akhtar’s recent argument in support of forefathers of
present day Muslims choosing India as their home.
Along with the
YouTube link, the retired IPS officer posted, “Muslim League won from those
places which are part of India today. Those who voted for Muslim League stayed
back in India, if India was dear to them, then did they vote for creating
Pakistan.”
Source: New
Indian Express
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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In Chhattisgarh
Village, People Take Oath To Boycott Muslims
January 07, 2022
Bhopal: A video
from a Chhattisgarh village is being widely circulated where villagers can be
seen taking a pledge to boycott Muslims. The police said they have traced the
person who organised it, but have not found the involvement of any political
party or religious group
"We Hindus
will not buy goods from any Muslim shopkeeper, will not sell or rent our land
to any Muslim," the residents of Kundikala village in Sarguja district,
can be heard saying in the video.
"We Hindus
pledge to buy from vendors coming to our villages only after ascertaining their
religion. We also pledge to not work as labourers for them," they are
heard saying.
Officials said
the video surfaced after a brawl between residents of two villages -- Kundikala
and Aara -- on January 1.
On New Year's
Day, some boys of Aara village had come to Kundikala for a picnic and clashed
with the local men.
Later in the
evening, more than 10 people from Aara -- led by Iliyaas, a member of the local
government -- came in motorcycles and an SUV, entered the house of a local,
Birendra Yadav, and assaulted his family.
Everyone in the
house, including Birendra Yadav's minor niece, was injured.
The police came
soon after and arrested the assailants. They were accused of rioting, obscene
act, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation and trespass. But soon
after, they received bail from the court.
The villagers
alleged that the minor girl was also assaulted by the attackers but they got
bail as the police failed to apply the relevant sections.
After the
accused got bail, hundreds of villagers held a demonstration outside the Lundra
police station and raised slogans against the police.
Later the
villagers later took the oath, pledging to sever all ties with Muslims.
Source: ND TV
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-chhattisgarh-village-people-take-oath-to-boycott-muslims-2695736
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Muslim man dons
Koragajja attire on his wedding in Karnataka, booked following protest
07th January 202
A newly married
man has been booked for promoting disharmony, enmity and hatred between
different groups.
According to the
complainant Chethan from Vitlapadnur village, the accused Umarulla Bashith, a
native of Uppala in Kerala, donned the attire of Koragajja daiva, worshipped by
the Hindus and allegedly behaved indecently along with others during his
wedding. The incident occurred at Salethur in Kolnadu village in Bantwal on
Thursday night.
"The
accused also tried to disrupt peace in the society by making the video public.
This incident has hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus," said Chethan
demanding legal action against the bride's family, the groom and his friends.
The accused have
been booked under 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage
religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs)
and 153A(promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred on grounds of
religion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Source: New
Indian Express
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Jharkhand: BJP
Activists Force Muslim Man To Chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’
8th January 2022
Ranchi: A Muslim
man was allegedly thrashed, forced to lick his own spit and chant ‘Jai Shriram’
by BJP workers at Dhanbad. The man allegedly abused Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and the party’s Jharkhand president on Friday. Chief Minister Hemant Soren
has asked officials to investigate the matter and take stern action against the
guilty.
The incident
took place during a protest by BJP near the Gandhi statue in Dhanbad against
the security lapse during Modi’s Punjab visit. The man, reportedly a Muslim,
was a passerby and had allegedly abused the prime minister and BJP Jharkhand
president Deepak Prakash.
A purported
video of the incident and the man seeking pardon with his palms firmly together
was shared on Twitter.
While the police
did not say anything about the identity of the man, the tweet identified him as
a Muslim.
Soren retweeted
the link to the video and sought strict action against the culprits.
“Please
investigate the matter and take strict action against the culprits. There is no
place for enmity in this state where people live peacefully,” he said.
Dhanbad
superintendent of police (City), R Ramkumar told PTI, “Strict action will be
taken against the guilty.”
Neither the
victim nor BJP leaders have lodged any complaint with the police about the
incident till evening. BJP said it is probing the incident and if anyone is
found guilty action will be taken against the person.
Jharkhand BJP
spokesperson, Kunal Sarangi said “This kind of kangaroo justice is not
acceptable. It is not about any religion or political outfit. It applies to all
citizens of India.”
He said, “I
surely don’t approve of what the man had to say about our state president. But
that could have been reported to the local police to allow the law to take its
course instead of beating him and making him lick his own spit.”
Dhanbad MP P N
Singh, MLA Raj Sinha, district BJP president Chandrashekhar Singh and other
senior leaders of the party were present at the two-hour-long dharna.
Chandrashekhar Singh claimed that the man was handed over to the police to save
him from the ire of the party workers present at the spot.
Source: Siasat
Daily
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.siasat.com/jharkhand-bjp-activists-force-muslim-man-to-chant-jai-shriram-2254608/
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Europe
Russian-Backed
Kazakhstan President Orders Shoot-To-Kill Sans Warning At Kazakh Protesters
Jan 8, 2022
ALMATY: Security
forces appeared to have reclaimed the streets of Kazakhstan's main city on
Friday after days of violence, and the Russian-backed president said he had
ordered his troops to shoot to kill to put down a countrywide uprising. A day
after Moscow sent paratroopers to help crush the insurrection, police were
patrolling the debris-strewn streets of Almaty, although some gunfire could still
be heard. Dozens have died and public buildings across Kazakhstan have been
ransacked and torched in the worst violence the former Soviet republic has
experienced in 30 years of independence. Moscow said more than 70 planes were
ferrying Russian troops into Kazakhstan, and that these were now helping
control Almaty's main airport, recaptured on Thursday from protesters.
The uprising has
prompted a military intervention by Moscow at a time of high tension in
East-West relations as Russia and the US gear up for talks next week on the
Ukraine crisis. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev blamed foreign-trained
terrorists for the unrest, without providing evidence. "The militants have
not laid down their arms, they continue to commit crimes or are preparing for
them," Tokayev, 68, said in a televised address. "Whoever does not
surrender will be destroyed. I have given the order to law enforcement agencies
and the army to shoot to kill, without warning."
The
demonstrations began as a response to a fuel price hike but swelled into a
broad movement against the government and former President Nursultan
Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev, 81, was the longest-serving ruler of any ex-Soviet
state until he turned over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019. His family is
widely believed to have retained influence in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built
capital that bears his name.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has discussed the situation with Tokayev in several
phone calls during the crisis, the Kremlin said on Friday. The interior ministry
said 26 "armed criminals" had been "liquidated", while 18
police and national guard members had been killed. Those figures appeared not
to have been updated since Thursday. State TV reported more than 3,800 arrests.
Fresh gunfire could be heard on Friday near the main square in Almaty, where
troops had fought protesters on Thursday. Armoured personnel carriers and
troops occupied the square.
Source: Times of
India
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Progress made on
Iran nuclear talks but time running out: France’s foreign minister
07 January ,2022
Progress has
been made regarding the Iran nuclear talks although time is running out, said
French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday.
“I remain
convinced we can reach a deal. But time is running out,” Le Drian told BFM TV
and RMC Radio.
Iran is
currently negotiating with major world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal in
Vienna.
US State Department
spokesman Ned Price said earlier this week that those nuclear deal talks with
Iran in Vienna had shown modest progress, and that the United States hopes to
build on the progress that had been made.
Source: Al
Arabiya
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Kazakhstan
detains former security chief for treason
08 January ,2022
The former head
of Kazakhstan’s domestic intelligence agency has been detained on suspicion of
high treason, the agency said Saturday, after he was fired amid violent
protests.
The National
Security Committee, or KNB, said in a statement that its former chief Karim
Masimov had been detained on Thursday after it launched an investigation into
charges of high treason.
“On January 6 of
this year the National Security Committee launched a pre-trial investigation
into high treason,” the statement said.
“On the same
day, on suspicion of committing this crime, former chairman of the KNB K.K.
Masimov was detained and placed in a temporary detention centre, along with
others.”
Masimov, a close
ally of Kazakhstan’s founding president Nursultan Nazarbayev, was sacked from
his post as head of the KNB this week after protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest
city Almaty stormed government buildings.
Source: Al
Arabiya
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
UN calls on all
involved in Kazakhstan unrest to choose peace over violence
January 08, 2022
NEW YORK: The UN
on Friday appealed to all those involved in the unrest in Kazakhstan to
exercise restraint, refrain from violence and resolve their grievances through
peaceful means.
The country is
experiencing the worst street protests it has witnessed since the nation gained
independence from the Soviet Union three decades ago, and dozens reportedly
have been killed.
“It’s important
that there be a stop to the violence,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters at the UN headquarters in
New York.
“The killing of police
officers is unacceptable; the killing of protesters is as well. There is a
clear need in any situation to respect human rights and international standards
while we reestablish public order.”
Kazakhstan’s
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has referred to demonstrators as “terrorists.”
On Friday, he authorized security forces to shoot to kill when responding to
anti-government protests.
The
demonstrations began on Jan. 2, following a near-doubling of fuel prices, and
quickly spread across the country.
On Thursday,
Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, reminded the
Kazakh authorities that any use of force must be subject to “strict
requirements of necessity and proportionality.”
She added:
“Lethal force, in particular live ammunition, should only be used as a last
resort against specific individuals to address an imminent threat of death or
serious injury.”
A police
spokesperson in Kazakhstan’s main city of Almaty said that security forces have
killed dozens of protesters. More than 1,000 people reportedly have been
injured.
According to the
Kazakh interior ministry, 12 police officers were killed during the unrest and
more 300 have been injured.
“International
law is clear: People have the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression,”
Bachelet said. “At the same time, protesters, no matter how angry or aggrieved
they may be, should not resort to violence against others.”
Source: Arab
News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2000151/world
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Africa
FG secures $98m
Islamic bank grant to build nine bi-lingual schools
8 January 2022
The Federal
Government through the Universal Basic Education Commission has secured a grant
of $98m from the Islamic Development
Bank, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.
Our
correspondent gathered that the grant would be utilised towards building nine
bi-lingual schools.
Though the
Federal Government and the bank failed to disclose the details of the languages
involved, our correspondent learnt that the projects would be facilitated in
three states namely Borno, Adamawa and Gombe states with three bi-lingual
schools built in each of the states.
Three
different memos with reference numbers
FGN/ISDB/BEP/CW/AD/Lot1-3; FGN/ISDB/BEP/CW/BN/Lot1-3 and FGN/ISDB/BEP/CW/Lot1-3
on the project partly read, “The Federal Government of Nigeria has received
financing for the amount of $98m from the Islamic Development Bank towards the
cost of the Bilingual Education Project, and intends to apply part of the
proceeds towards payment under the contracts for civil works (construction of
three units each) of bi-lingual education boarding schools in Borno, Adamawa
and Gombe.”
In Gombe, the
schools will be located in Garin Hamza, Yamaltu-Deba Local government area of
Gombe, Dogun-ruwa Awak district in Kaltungo LGA
and Shamaki Wada-gombe LGA.
Source: Punchng
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://punchng.com/fg-secures-98m-islamic-bank-grant-to-build-nine-bi-lingual-schools/
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Cameroon
Christians and Muslims Pray for Peace in Cameroon During AFCON
January 07, 2022
YAOUNDE,
CAMEROON —
Cameroonian
officials have joined hundreds of Muslims and Christians in the capital,
Yaoundé, to pray for peace during the Africa Football Cup of Nations games.
Cameroon is
hosting Africa's top football championship starting Sunday, including in
western regions, where anglophone separatists have vowed to disrupt the games.
Police say the rebels set off a bomb Thursday in one of the towns where matches
will be held, but nobody was injured.
Imam Souleymane
Bouba of Yaoundé's Tsinga Mosques prays in Arabic for peace in Cameroon. During
the prayers Thursday (January 5) Bouba asked God to protect football players,
fans and match officials coming to Cameroon for the African Football Cup of
Nations which begins on Sunday (January 9).
Among the more
than 60 Muslim and Christian clerics present was Jean Mbarga, archbishop of
Yaounde. Mbarga says the prayer at the Mary Queen of the Apostles Basilica in
Yaounde asked God to intercede for a peaceful AFCON in Cameroon.
Mbarga says he
knows Cameroonians love football very much and will be coming out to cheer
their team, the Indomitable Lions, and other African teams they cherish. He
says the African Football Cup of Nations should therefore mark a new beginning
for a peaceful, strong and united Cameroon. He says Muslims and Christians have
jointly prayed for the safety of players, match officials and football fans who
will be in Cameroon for AFCON.
Mbarga said he
and the cleric who attended the prayer strongly believe that because Cameroonians
love football, AFCON will remove the country from the agony it has been going
through in several troubled spots.
Mbarga said the
Cameroon Association for Inter-religious Dialogue organized the prayer.
Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute represented President Paul Biya at
the prayer. The Cameroon Association for Interreligious dialogue said at least
400 civilians, 20 ministers and senior state functionaries attended the prayer.
Cameroon is
hosting the continent's top football tournament from Sunday to February 6.
Separatists
fighting to create an independent English-speaking state in the French-speaking
majority country have vowed to disrupt the games. On social media platforms
like Facebook and WhatsApp, the separatists say they are in ongoing battles
with Cameroon government troops. They add that Limbe and Buea are not safe
zones.
Limbe and Buea
are English-speaking western towns that will host group matches for teams from
Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, and Tunisia.
Separatist
fighters said Thursday they set off a roadside bomb in Half Mile, a
neighborhood in the town of Limbe.
Capo Daniel is
deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, a rebel group in
Cameroon's English-speaking North-West and South-West region. Capo says
fighters have vowed to disrupt the games in Limbe despite the heavy presence of
Cameroon troops.
"The
Cameroon government has drawn our forces [separatists] to those venues because
they have stationed their military in those areas so we shall combat them. On
the 30th of December we planted an IED [improvised explosive device] at Half
Mile, today [Thursday] again we planted another IED to send a message to all
the visitors that are coming to watch football to understand that they are
putting themselves in harm's way," Capo expressed.
Cameroon
military confirmed Thursday's explosion in Limbe but called it an isolated
attempt to scare football fans, players and officials. The government said no
one was injured but called on civilians to collaborate with the military by
reporting suspected fighters in their communities.
Source: VOA News
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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UN Security
Council to meet Jan. 12 on Sudan
08 January ,2022
The UN Security
Council will meet next Wednesday in an informal session to address the latest
developments in Sudan as demonstrations against military rule continue,
diplomatic sources said.
The session will
be behind closed doors, the sources said Friday, adding that the meeting was
requested by six of the council’s 15 members: the United States, Britain,
France, Norway, Ireland and Albania.
A common
position of the Security Council “is not expected, as China and Russia would
oppose it,” a diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Beijing and
Moscow in the past have stressed that the situation in Sudan, which has been on
the edge of chaos since an October 25 military takeover, was an internal matter
for the country and did not threaten international security.
The meeting will
allow the UN special representative for Sudan, Volker Perthes, to brief
Security Council members on conditions there since prime minister Abdallah
Hamdok resigned Sunday amid protests against the junta.
Hamdok had been
the face of the transition to civilian rule launched after the ouster of Omar
al-Bashir, but concerns have swelled about a slide back to dictatorship.
The United
States and European Union warned Sudan’s military against naming its own prime
minister after Hamdok quit.
On Thursday
three demonstrators were shot dead in the capital Khartoum and its suburbs,
according to doctors and witnesses, as people gathered there and elsewhere in
the country to protest against military rule.
Source: Al
Arabiya
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Roadside bomb
blast in Somalia kills 2 soldiers, injures 9 others
Mohammed
Dhaysane
07.01.2022
MOGADISHU,
Somalia
At least two
military personnel were killed and nine others wounded in a bomb blast
targeting a military convoy in central Somalia on Friday, officials said.
A military
official in the region's provincial capital Dhusamareb told Anadolu Agency over
the phone that the military convoy was hit by a landmine while traveling
between the town of Guriel and Dhusamareb, the administrative capital of
Galmudug State.
"The
military convoy belonged to Danab commandos, and we understand the attack was
an improvised explosive device (IED) planted near the road, killing
soldiers," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because
he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Mohamed Deeq
Abdi, a local journalist, told Anadolu Agency that nine wounded soldiers were
admitted to a hospital in Dhusamareb.
Sources in the
hospital told Anadolu Agency that four of the wounded soldiers sustained
serious injuries.
The
al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the
attack, claiming 15 soldiers were killed or injured.
Separately, on
Friday, Galmudug regional soldiers repulsed an al-Shabaab attack on the town of
Bahdo in the same region.
Somali national
TV reported that 17 terrorists were killed in the retaliatory attack, citing
military commanders as saying.
Somali military
kills 5 al-Shabaab operatives
Separately, the
Somali national army announced on Friday that it carried out a military
operation against al-Shabaab terrorists, killing at least five "top
operators."
The operation,
which took place near Gamboole in the Middle Shabelle region, was undertaken by
the country's elite commandos, called locally Danab (the lightning).
"Gambole is
one of al-Shabaab's strongholds in the Middle Shabelle region. A heavy gunfight
erupted during the operation, but our commandos killed many al-Shabaab
terrorists, including five senior commanders," a military official in the
region told Anadolu Agency over the phone.
Col. Ahmed
Abdullahi Nur, commander of the 16th Danab Commandos, also confirmed the
operation and the killing of al-Shabaab operatives.
Source: Anadolu
Agency
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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EU calls for
independent probe into deaths, violence in Sudan
Bahram Abdel
Moneim
07.01.2022
KHARTOUM, Sudan
The Delegation
of the European Union to Sudan on Friday called for an independent
investigation into the deaths and violence that occurred during countrywide
protests since last year's military coup.
“The EU reiterates
the need for independent investigations into all deaths and associated
violence, and call for the perpetrators to be held accountable,” the delegation
said in a statement.
“Attacks on
hospitals, detentions of activists and journalists, and communication
blackouts, must also stop,” it added.
Sudan’s Doctors
Committee reported the killing of three protesters in Khartoum on Thursday,
bringing the total number of deaths to 60 since rallies for "civilian
rule" began.
Resistance
committees have issued a public call to hold a new round of demonstrations in
the capital and other cities to demand full civilian rule.
Sudan has been
in turmoil since Oct. 25, 2021 when the Sudanese military dismissed Abdalla
Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency.
Prior to the
military takeover, the country was governed by a sovereign council of military
and civilian officials tasked with overseeing the transition period until
elections in 2023.
Source: Anadolu
Agency
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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North America
US envoy Malley
meets with Saudi diplomat to discuss Iran nuclear deal
07 January ,2022
US Special Envoy
for Iran Rob Malley on Friday met with Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the
International Organizations in Vienna to discuss the latest developments in
talks to revive a nuclear deal between Tehran and Western powers.
According to Al
Arabiya, Prince Abdullah bin Khalid Al-Saud convened with Malley after separate
meetings with French and Russian officials in the days prior, where he was
provided with updates to the talks.
For all the
latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Russia’s
ambassador to Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted a photo of the meeting,
revealing that he briefed the Saudi side on the situation in the Vienna talks.
“We also exchanged views on prospects of security dialogue in the [Gulf]
area,’” the Russian diplomat wrote.
Asked about a
reported meeting between Prince Abdullah and Malley earlier in the week, a
State Department official told Al Arabiya English that the pair would
“periodically” meet. “These engagements are part of the US commitment to
consulting closely with our regional partners on the ongoing talks,” the
official added.
Gulf countries
have long been demanding a seat at the negotiating table, citing their
geographical proximity to Iran and the direct threats imposed by Iran’s nuclear
and ballistic missile programs.
Saudi Arabia has
voiced its support for a deal that would put a halt to Iran’s nuclear program
and ensure the security of the region.
Source: Al
Arabiya
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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US warns
Kazakhstan will find it 'difficult' to get Russian troops to leave
Michael
Hernandez
07.01.2022
WASHINGTON
US Secretary of
State Antony Blinken warned Kazakhstan on Friday that it will have a
"difficult" time getting the Russian forces it invited to the country
to quell unrest to leave.
Addressing
reporters at the State Department, Blinken pointed to recent examples of
Russian troops entering foreign nations, saying "one lesson" learned
from those experiences is that "once Russians are in your house it's
sometimes very difficult to get them to leave."
Amid nationwide
protests prompted by a spike in some fuel prices, Kazakh President
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev requested assistance from a multinational Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Eurasian military alliance of five
former Soviet republics and Russia.
Troops from
Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan began deploying on
Thursday to quell the unrest, and Tokayev has ordered security forces to
"open fire to kill terrorists without warning."
"When it
comes to the CSTO we have questions about the nature of the request, why it
came about," Blinken said. "It would seem to me that the Kazakh
authorities in government certainly have the capacity to deal appropriately
with protests, to do so in a way that respects the rights of protesters while
maintaining law and order. So it's not clear why they feel the need for any
outside assistance."
He further
called on Kazakh and CSTO forces to "adhere to international human rights
standards."
Source: Anadolu
Agency
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Biden names
Kosovo, Iraq war veteran as Central Command chief
January 08, 2022
WASHINGTON:
President Joe Biden is nominating Army Lt. Gen. Michael Kurilla to lead the US
Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the
Pentagon announced Friday.
If confirmed by
the Senate, General Kurilla will succeed Marine General Kenneth McKenzie at the
head of Centcom, which oversees military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan
and Yemen.
According to his
official biography, Kurilla, 55, currently leads the 18th Airborne Corps, which
groups the majority of the United States Army’s response forces at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina.
A West Point
graduate, he fought in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, where he was seriously
wounded by gunshot during an assault on Mosul in 2005. Kurilla also held
responsibilities at the General Staff of the United States Army and commanded
the prestigious 82nd Parachute Division, known for having participated in the
Normandy landings in 1944.
Source: Arab
News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2000246/world
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South Asia
Mullah Baradar
asks International Community to deliver aid to winter-affected Afghans
08 Jan 2022
As the freezing
winter, heavy snow, and rainfall that triggered floods continue to affect the
lives of tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan has asked the International community and humanitarian agencies not
to forget these people and provide them with urgent relief assistance.
Deputy Prime
Minister of IEA Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in a video clip on Friday, January
7, 2022, said that the world must put an end to “brutal sanctions” and do their
parts in addressing what he called a critical situation.
Baradar said
that it was the time for the world to put apart politics and do their parts on
basis of humanity.
“Ongoing
sanctions on Afghanistan on the one hand, on the other hand, no infrastructure
has been carried out so that the people of Afghanistan could make use of that
for living and now the floods have adversely affected lives of hundreds of
people.” Said Baradar.
Meanwhile, the
Deputy PM assured people of full preparedness of IEA in addressing the effects
of natural disasters and that provincial authorities across Afghanistan have
been directed to deliver aids to the victims of recent floods and avalanches.
Source: Khaama
Press
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Over 2,500
Taliban affiliates dissociated over misdemeanour
08 Jan 2022
Ranks’
Purification Commission has said that they have so far dissociated 2,514
Taliban affiliates from their ranks and the process is going on across Afghanistan.
Head of the
commission Lutfullah Hakimi has said that the process of purifying the Taliban
ranks has been completed in some provinces and that in others it has been
expedited.
The commission
is one of the newly founded bodies of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan that
was created after the Taliban regained power on August 15 last year.
It works on
identifying the Taliban affiliates who mistreat people, have links with ISIS-K,
and misuse the name of the Taliban to do illegal activities.
Lutfullah Hakimi
said that their activities of identifying and dissociating the people are based
on the complaints and information of common people, reports of mainstream
media, and social media.
Source: Khaama
Press
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/over-2500-taliban-affiliates-dissociated-over-misdemeanor/
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Afghan-Pak
territorial conflicts, Pakistani NSA to visit Kabul
08 Jan 2022
Following recent
territorial conflicts between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s borders guards in
different bordering provinces of the latter, Pakistan’s National Security
Advisor Moeed Yusuf to visit the Afghan capital Kabul later this month-January.
The Pakistani
delegation headed by Moeed Yusuf will be discussing fencing by Pakistan on
Durand Line.
The exact date
of the visit is not clear though, it is rumored that the Pakistani delegation
will leave for Afghanistan on January 16-17.
This is after a
Taliban commander said that they will no longer allow Pakistan to erect barbed
wire on the Durand line no matter which forms or when.
Earlier, foreign
ministries of both Pakistan and Afghanistan announced to be resolving the issue
through diplomatic means.
Source: Khaama
Press
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-pak-territorial-conflicts-pakistani-nsa-to-visit-kabul-876785/
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Afghans need
emergency humanitarian aid without 'political bias': Taliban
January 7, 2022
The Taliban
appealed on Friday for emergency humanitarian aid without “political bias”, saying
recent snow and flooding had worsened the plight of the Afghan people.
Since the
Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, the country has plunged
into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging.
Billions of
dollars of the country's assets have been frozen by the United States, while
aid supplies have been heavily disrupted.
Read:
Trickle-down misery — how Afghanistan's asset freeze hurts everyone
Global aid
agencies have warned that more than half of Afghanistan's 38 million people are
expected to face hunger this winter.
In a video
appeal, deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar said the world had an
obligation to help.
“In various
places right now, people do not have food, accommodation, warm clothes or
money,” Baradar said.
“The world has
to support Afghan people without any political bias and carry out their
humanitarian obligations.”
Snow has
blanketed most of central and northern Afghanistan in recent days while
flooding has affected parts of the south. Many Afghans are struggling to afford
heating, with the country facing regular electricity blackouts.
Baradar said the
weather had worsened the already “sensitive situation” of the Afghan people,
adding that the Taliban were prepared to help with the distribution of international
aid across the country.
“We call for the
international community, NGOs and all the countries not to forget our poor
people,” Baradar said in what was the first direct appeal made by a senior
Taliban leader to tackle the deteriorating humanitarian crisis.
Kabul, which has
not seen regular snowfall for years, was covered on Friday in a thick blanket
of snow, affecting air and road traffic and forcing businesses to shutter.
No country has
yet formally recognised the Taliban government and diplomats face the delicate
task of channelling aid to the stricken economy without propping up the
hardline group.
In December,
Muslim nations however resolved to work with the United Nations to try to
unlock the frozen assets, mainly held in the United States.
The special
meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was the
biggest conference on Afghanistan since the previous US-backed government fell
in August and the Taliban returned to power.
Also in
December, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a US-proposed resolution
to help humanitarian aid reach desperate Afghans, while seeking to keep funds
out of Taliban hands.
Source: Dawn
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1668158
--------
Taliban thank
India for medical aid
Jan 08, 2022
The Taliban have
thanked India for its medical assistance to Afghanistan after a third batch of
essential life-saving medicines were handed over to Indira Gandhi Hospital in
Kabul on Friday.
Taliban
spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that besides six tonnes of medicines that
arrived in Kabul in the morning, New Delhi had also sent five lakh doses of
Covid vaccine and “many other items”.
“The Islamic Emirate
is grateful to India for its humanitarian assistance and cooperation,” said
Mujahid.
Source: Tribune
India
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/taliban-thank-india-for-medical-aid-359211
--------
Southeast Asia
'Light'
sentences for Indonesian Ahmadi attack spark storm
Ryan Dagur
January 07, 2022
Indonesian
rights activists have condemned what they say were lenient sentences handed
down by a district court in West Kalimantan province against 21 people who
attacked an Ahmadi mosque.
The Pontianak
District Court on Jan. 6 sentenced them to four months and 15 days in prison for
ransacking the Miftahul Huda mosque and setting fire to a nearby building in
Balai Haram, Sintang district, in September last year.
With time
already served on remand, the 21 convicted people will be due for release on
Jan. 22. They had faced possible jail terms of up to six years.
The Advocacy
Team for Freedom of Religion and Belief expressed dismay at the punishment,
saying it was "too light."
"The
judge's decision is supposed to have a deterrent effect and be a warning to
other people not to commit such actions, but this very light sentence will
almost certainly encourage perpetrators," it said in a statement.
The group said
the whole court process appeared to favor the defendants as prosecutors had
demanded only six months instead of six years and they ended up with a sentence
lower still.
During the
trial, the judge provided an opportunity for one of the defendants "to
deliver hate speech against the Ahmadi community,” it added.
The group said
it would report the prosecutors and judges to the Attorney General's Office and
the Supreme Court for violating their code of ethics.
Muhammad Isnur,
from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said the trial process showed
discrimination and intolerance towards minority groups.
He pointed to
the blasphemy case in which Basuki Tjahja Purnama, a Christian former governor
of Jakarta, was jailed for two years in 2017.
He said it
seemed the judges and prosecutors tailored the sentences to fit the period of
detention that the defendants had already served.
Fitria Sumarni,
a representative of the Ahmadi legal team, said they needed security guarantees
for the Ahmadi community in Sintang.
She added that
they had asked the police and relevant authorities to ensure the protection of
the Ahmadi community and to allow the reopening of their mosque.
The Ahmadi, who
number around 400,000 in Indonesia, are often targeted by other Muslims, who
consider them heretics for believing that Muhammad was not the last prophet.
Source: UCA News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.ucanews.com/news/light-sentences-for-indonesian-ahmadi-attack-spark-storm/95633
--------
Amin asks
Muslims to help bolster Indonesia's economy
08 Jan 2022
Palu, Central
Sulawesi (ANTARA) - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has urged Indonesian Muslims to
unite and help strengthen the national economy at the family and community
level to bring Indonesia on par with other major global economies.
Muslims must not
only toil to perform religious rituals, but they must also not neglect their
duty to boost their households' economic conditions and livelihoods in their
community, Amin said adding, the religion considers economic activity performed
by Muslims for earning a living as a good deed.
"Allah the
Almighty has said, through The Holy Quran, that if Muslims have completed their
prayer obligation then they must disperse in the land to seek Allah's bounty.
We must also remember that eradicating poverty is our duty as well," Amin
said while delivering a sermon after the congregational Friday prayer at
Al-Mujahidin Mosque within the Central Sulawesi Governor's Office complex in
Palu city on Friday.
"Even
Prophet Muhammad said, as narrated by an authentic Hadith, that Muslims,
particularly male Muslims, who are leaving their home to make a living for
their wife, children, parents, and family members, are regarded to perform a
good deed," he added.
"But if
they otherwise seek fortunes only for personal pride and to enrich themselves,
then they are seeking the way of the Devil," Amin remarked.
The Vice
President warned that poverty would make Muslims physically and spiritually
weak and easily swayed to commit heinous acts prohibited by Islam.
He also
highlighted the necessity of innovation in all economic aspects to establish a
resilient economy amidst fierce economic competition.
Source: Antara
News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://en.antaranews.com/news/208473/amin-asks-muslims-to-help-bolster-indonesias-economy
--------
UMNO strikes
back after Malaysia’s year of political melee
7 January 2022
William Case
For nearly half
a century, Malaysia’s political dynamics were demarcated by a stable hybrid
regime, an amalgam of democratic procedures, electoral manipulations, and
repressive controls. This regime was anchored in the single-party dominance of
the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
Protesters hold
placards and black flag during a demonstration to demand the resignation of the
then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 31 July 2021
(Photo: Mohd Firdaus/NurPhoto).
UMNO perpetuated
its dominance by unifying party elites through lavish, though retractable state
patronage. It mobilised mass-level Malay-Muslim voters through modest and
conditional state subsidies. The loyalties of the Malay-Muslims were also
redoubled by confrontation with residual ‘non-Malay’ categories — mainly local
Chinese, scorned for their grievances over Malay political and cultural
‘supremacy’ and redistributive entitlement.
But in 2018,
after a ‘stunning’ electoral turnover to which hybrid regimes are occasionally
susceptible, these systems were weakened. UMNO and its subordinate partners
were dislodged by the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition. Yet
Malaysia’s hybrid politics were merely destabilised, rather than fully democratised,
as Pakatan remained tepid towards enacting institutional reforms. But despite
its caution, after barely 22 months, through extra-parliamentary machinations,
party defections, royalist interventions, and a renewed mobilisation of
Malay-Muslim resentments, Pakatan was ousted. UMNO thus found its way back to
power — albeit as part of a quarrelsome coalition, with the leader of the
Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), Muhyiddin Yassin, claiming the
prime ministership.
Throughout 2021,
Malaysia’s central political dynamic involved a frenzied quest by UMNO to
regain its dominance. By instigating a new round of defections in August, UMNO
replaced Muhyiddin with one of its own party vice-presidents, Ismail Sabri.
Bersatu has since slumped into a redundant splinter vehicle. UMNO also managed
to heighten factionalism within Bersatu’s closest ally in the coalition, the
Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). At the same time, Sabri has pacified Pakatan
in opposition, forging an unusual ‘MOU’ and securing a Confidence and Supply
Agreement by which to pre-empt no-confidence motions and challenges to budget
bills.
Sabri next
turned his hand to reenergizing Malay-Muslim voters, launching a galvanising,
but deceptively labelled campaign of Keluarga Malaysia (‘Malaysian family’). He
firmed this shibboleth with new distributions of ethnically defined patronage
and subsidies. In late November, UMNO registered its gains through an important
election held in the small but indicative Malay heritage state of Malacca. In
this contest, waged by UMNO against its nominal partners, Bersatu and PAS, as
well as a divided and mismanaged Pakatan in opposition, UMNO swept the field.
Amid UMNO’s
revival, the party’s old guard has regained prominence. Indeed, UMNO’s former
prime minister, Najib Razak, so overshadowed Sabri in Malacca’s campaigning
that speculation has mounted that he is the party’s top candidate for the prime
ministership in the next general election. Conversely, calls are widespread for
Pakatan’s leader, Anwar Ibrahim, an advocate of pluralist politics, to step
down. Anwar’s ally in Pakatan, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), is also beset
by doubts, with its once ardent Chinese supporters adjudging the party as
spent.
At the end of
2021, broad trends remain difficult to discern. Democracy’s prospects are
constrained by hard structural realities wherein the Malay-Muslim community
values democracy less than its own supremacy. Democracy is also weakened by
pandemic controls, COVID-19 surveillance, and tight limits on civil liberties.
But even as
parties and factions tirelessly skirmish, their hold on state power is still
principally ratified by contesting elections and amassing legislative seats.
During 2021, a period of emergency rule was imposed, elections were suspended
and defections were plotted, enabling the king to emerge as chief arbiter. Yet
in Malaysia, manipulated though competitive elections under hybrid conditions
remain the only game in town.
Within these
parameters, UMNO appears to be reasserting its single-party dominance.
Factional battling still smoulders within the party and ruling coalition as
Sabri, the fledgling prime minister, struggles to keep his vehicle aligned with
Bersatu and PAS. But he is increasingly outweighed by UMNO’s old guard,
featuring Najib and his combative ally, the party’s current president, Ahmad
Zahid Hamidi. But no sooner have Najib’s fortunes perked up than he has been
undercut by the corruption cases in which he and Zahid are ensnared.
Accordingly, the
record of governance and judicial independence remained mixed in 2021.
Elite-level patronage continues to pulse within UMNO. PAS’s long-time
president, Haji Hadi Awang, lent sanction, proclaiming in February that
corruption was not covered by hudud law. The courts then dropped sundry
prominent cases over corrupt payments and tax avoidance, delivering a sheepish
judgement of ‘dismissal not amounting to acquittal’.
Though this may
signal the weakening of governance in Malaysia, Najib’s conviction on 1MDB
corruption charges were upheld in December by the Court of Appeals. The court’s
lead judge pronounced that Najib’s conduct as prime minister had done less to
advance the national interest than to produce ‘national embarrassment’.
These
ambiguities in Malaysian politics rest atop a social structure which, by
contrast, has grown in clarity. The Malay-Muslim community is no longer so torn
over the 1MDB scandal, instead taking collective fright over the threat to
Malay supremacy that it believes Pakatan to have conveyed. Even so, this communal
profile grew more nuanced during 2021.
‘Black’ and
‘White Flag’ protest movements erupted across ethnic lines over the
government’s perceived neglect of ordinary citizens during the pandemic.
Discontents swelled again over the inept responses of emergency services during
flooding that displaced some 70,000 people.
Source: East Asia
Forum
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/01/07/umno-strikes-back-after-malaysias-year-of-political-melee/
--------
Floods and
landslides kill seven in eastern Indonesia
Ryan Dagur
January 07, 2022
Floods and
landslides in Jayapura, capital of Papua province, have killed seven people and
displaced hundreds.
The National
Disaster Management Agency said the floods and landslides were triggered by
heavy rain accompanied by strong winds since Jan. 6 afternoon.
Abdul Muhari,
spokesman for the agency, said the water level reached 150-200cm in a number of
locations, while in the main market area of the city, Yotefa Abepura, it
reached 300cm.
In addition to
the seven victims, three of whom have already been identified, more than 500
residents whose houses were still submerged were evacuated, with many seeking
refuge at Maranatha Protestant Church in Kota Raja.
Muhari added
that the deluge had affected a number of public facilities, including Aryoko
Hospital and the Governor's Office.
Neles Siep, a Catholic
resident of Jayapura, said three of the victims who died were his relatives.
“The three men
were sleeping when their house was hit by a landslide at 3am. They were found
still lying in their room. Two other people in the house managed to escape but were
injured," he said.
He added that
the rain had stopped but many people living in landslide-prone areas chose to
stay outside. He said they were raising aid for the victims.
Jayapura and its
surroundings are categorized by the disaster agency as an area with a moderate
to high potential for flooding.
Apart from
natural factors, the agency also called the flood a disaster because some areas
in the city's highlands, which were previously forests, have been turned into
settlements and fields.
Source: UCA News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.ucanews.com/news/floods-and-landslides-kill-seven-in-eastern-indonesia/95638
--------
Terror Threat In
Asian Countries Declined In 2021
January 7, 2022
Terrorist
threats in Southeast and South Asian countries declined in 2021, a Singapore
think-tank said in its annual threat assessment published this week, noting that
COVID-19 movement restrictions had “flattened the curve of terrorism.”
There were fewer
terror-related incidents in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Bangladesh
as governments battled the pandemic, according to the Counter Terrorist Trends
and Analysis report published by researchers at the S. Rajaratnam School of
International Studies.
In Thailand in
2021, meanwhile, violent incidents connected to an insurgency in the far south
were similar to those in the previous year, the researchers found.
“Ultimately, the
2021 survey underscored the continuing imperative for states to address the
longer-term underlying grievances that fuel violent extremism,” the analysis
said.
In Indonesia,
Southeast Asia’s largest country, the number of attacks and plots by violent
extremist Islamic militant groups dipped during the past two years compared
with before the outbreak of COVID-19, according to the report.
Jamaah Ansharut
Daulah’s (JAD) relatively stagnant activities in 2020-2021 and the decline of
Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen’s (MIT) terror activities in 2021, it said, “can
be partly attributed to movement restrictions and higher costs associated with
domestic travels due to the pandemic.”
In 2021, JAD was
involved in at least nine incidents, including five using explosive materials.
Those included two suicide bomb attacks and a suicide bomb plot, compared with
11 incidents the previous year.
Police were the
most common targets of terrorist incidents in Indonesia, the analysis found.
Others targeted by Indonesian extremists last year were “civilians, including
Christians, as well as both Indonesian and mainland Chinese,” the report said.
On Tuesday,
Indonesian security forces announced they had killed Ahmad Gazali, a suspected
MIT member, in the mountains of Central Sulawesi province, cutting MIT’s
membership down to only three.
Both MIT and JAD
are pro-Islamic State (IS) extremist groups.
Malaysia,
Philippines
The analysis
specifically linked the COVID-19 pandemic to the drop in terror activities in
Malaysia last year.
“The
pandemic-driven movement restrictions that hampered inter-state and
international movements also ‘flattened the curve of terrorism’ in Malaysia,”
it said.
Authorities made
no terror-related arrests in Peninsular Malaysia last year – but made about 15
in Sabah between May and September. There were seven arrests in 2020; 72 in
2019; 85 in 2018; 106 in 2017 and 119 in 2016, the analysis found.
Still, the
analysis expressed concern that terror threats had moved online.
“The
government-imposed lockdowns have forced people to spend more time online,
raising the likelihood of vulnerable individuals being exposed to radical
ideologies in the cyber domain. Around the region, groups such as IS have
increased their recruitment and radicalization efforts through social media
during the pandemic,” it said.
Elsewhere, the
Armed Forces of the Philippines drew praise for retaking terror bases in the
southern region of Mindanao.
Nationwide, “the
number of successful terrorist incidents dropped from 134 in 2019, to 59
incidents in 2020 and 17 in 2021, the analysts said, defining a successful
incident as an attack that injured or killed others.
The analysis
noted that government-imposed COVID-19 lockdowns affected terror operations.
“Given they
significantly limited the movements of the general population, as well as those
of terrorists, this has rendered terrorist logistics vulnerable to being
detected more readily,” it said.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh in
2021, “there were two failed attacks compared to four successful ones in 2020,”
the report said, adding that authorities had arrested about 130 terrorist
suspects nationwide.
Neo-JMB, a
pro-Islamic State breakaway faction of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh,
“appeared to target law enforcement agencies, churches, noted Hindu and
Buddhist personalities and workers of non-governmental organizations,” the
analysis said.
It also said
that Neo-JMB sought to “‘train all its members in the production of IEDs,’ as
well as ‘chloroform bombs to target buses, classrooms and public places in its
bid to kill silently.’”
Thailand
In Thailand’s
insurgency-hit southern border region, 423 violent incidents were recorded,
leaving 104 dead and 169 injured through November 2021, according to the
report. The scale was similar to 2020 when 335 violent incidents occurred,
leaving 116 dead and 161 injured.
In the
Muslim-majority Deep South, as the region is known, more than 7,000 people have
been killed since separatist groups resumed an insurgency against the
Buddhist-majority 18 years ago.
Source: Eurasia
Review
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/07012022-terror-threat-in-asian-countries-declined-in-2021/
--------
Arab World
Syrians seek
word of loved ones missing in regime jails
08 January ,2022
More than 70
families gathered in the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz on Friday to highlight
the plight of loved ones missing in the government’s feared jail system.
Since civil war
broke out in Syria in 2011, nearly one million people have been detained in the
network of prisons and camps run by the various security services, according to
Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Of those, around
105,000 have died in custody, while others have been released, but tens of
thousands remain unaccounted for, according to Observatory figures.
Lama Andani said
it was nine years since her husband was arrested.
For 18 months,
she had received some updates indirectly, but then nothing.
“I know what
it’s like to be tortured in the jails of the regime,” said Andani, who said she
spent nine years in prison during a previous outbreak of political unrest in
Syria during the 1980s.
“We came here in
the hope of getting our message through to the international community... so
that it isn’t forgotten.
“I dream of
seeing my husband... and of knowing what happened to him,” she said, as she
joined others in posting messages in a square in Azaz.
The northern
town, hard by the border with Turkey, was occupied by Turkish troops in 2016 to
prevent it falling to US-backed Kurdish forces, which had taken swathes of
northern Syria from the Islamic State group.
It has since
been under the control of rebel groups supported by Ankara.
In 2013, a
military defector known as “Caesar” smuggled more than 50,000 photographs out
of Syria, many of them documenting the deaths of prisoners in detention centers
or military hospitals.
The name went on
to be used in the title of US legislation that provides for economic sanctions
against Syria.
Source: Al
Arabiya
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Saudi Arabia
says Dakar rally accident investigation shows no criminal suspicions
08 January ,2022
Saudi Arabia’s
foreign ministry said on Friday that initial results of an investigation an
accident during the Dakar car rally, which left one French contestant injured
last week, showed no criminal suspicions.
The Kingdom is
liaising with the concerned French authorities to share available evidence
related to the accident, the ministry added in a statement.
Source: Al
Arabiya
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Saudi war on
drugs net over 37 tons of narcotics in 2021
January 07, 2022
RIYADH: The
Saudi Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority reported that it seized more than 37,000
kilograms of illegal drugs in 2021, in addition to 190 million pieces of the highly
addictive Captagon pills.
It came as part
of authority's mission to protect society, support the national economy and
improve international trade.
The smuggling of
Captagon pills, narcotics, counterfeit products and other contraband threatens
the security and safety of Saudi society, and poses a major threat to the
growth of the economy, the authority said.
Hashish, heroin,
cocaine and khat are among the most common illegal substances smuggled into the
Kingdom.
The authority,
working with other bodies including the Directorate General of Narcotics
Control and General Directorate of Border Guards, also seized more than 234,000
liquor bottles and 4,155 liters of illegal alcohol last year.
It confiscated
more than 3.9 million counterfeit products as part of its efforts to eliminate
commercial fraud.
The authority
operates in 41 customs ports around the Kingdom, using modern security
techniques, sniffer dogs and other methods to seize contraband.
The authority’s
record in 2021 demonstrates its success in tightening customs control over
imports and exports, as well as combating smuggling in all its forms.
The authority
called on members of the public to help its mission and protect society by
using the designated phone number for security reports (1910), the international
number (00966114208417) or by email (1910@zatca.gov.sa).
Source: Arab
News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2000141/saudi-arabia
--------
Saudi armed
forces delegation visits Greek military academies
January 08, 2022
ATHENS: Gen.
Konstantinos Floros, chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, on
Friday met the chief of staff of the Saudi Armed Forces, Ahmad Al-Mutairi.
Al-Mutairi is
currently leading a delegation visiting the Hellenic Armed Forces’ military
academies to examine how Greece develops its non-commissioned officers and
soldiers.
Source: Arab News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2000176/saudi-arabia
--------
General Labour
Union president warns against ‘certain catastrophe’ in Lebanon amid economic
crises
January 07, 2022
BEIRUT: General
Labor Union President Bechara Al-Asmar has warned against “a certain
catastrophe, since hospitalization is now accessible to the wealthy only.”
At a press
conference on Friday, he commented on the multitude of crises facing the
Lebanese, including “the ongoing madness in the dollar exchange rate, insane
increases in fuel prices, electricity bill, the removal of medicine subsidies
and the loss of the depositors’ savings as a result of bank circulations —
viewed as organized robbery.”
He warned that
“the draft budget included a provision for raising the customs dollar, which
would raise the prices of goods by 30 percent, and raise all taxes and duties.”
He added: “This
is unacceptable because it entails the removal of subsidies on everything in
exchange for nothing, which is surrendering to the IMF conditions without any
supervision.”
The fresh
warning came as the ruling elite attempted to resolve its many conflicts that
are blocking political and administrative progress.
President Michel
Aoun has signed a decree calling on parliament to hold an extraordinary session
starting from Monday and ending on March 21.
This will
restore the parliamentary immunity of the ministers charged for the crime of
the Beirut port blast, including current MPs, one of whom had an arrest warrant
issued for him in absentia and that has not yet been executed.
The
parliamentary session sets the stage for the transfer of power from a judicial
investigator to a parliamentary body for the prosecution of ministers and
deputies allegedly to blame for the explosion.
Lawyer and
activist Hassan Bazzi said that “the key parties to the settlements are
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President
Michel Aoun.”
This follows the
intense political discord between Aoun and Berri that reached its peak last
week.
Bazzi said the
settlement moved Aoun to sign a decree calling on parliament for a special
session.
He also said
that the parliamentary session’s agenda includes amending the law under review
before the constitutional council — approving only six seats for expatriates’
voting instead of letting them participate in nationwide elections.
Bazzi also
indicated that parliament was likely to approve the amendment to the code of
criminal procedure, setting up a judicial parliamentary panel to look into
appealing the decisions of Judge Tarek Bitar who has issued arrest warrants for
several ministers.
While Cabinet is
called to convene under this basis, Bazzi said the appointments for the panel
would be made on a quota basis, where “the diaspora loses the opportunity for
change and the political system regains control.”
Berri and Aoun
tried to hide the parameters of this settlement by sparking a new debate
concerning the special parliamentary session.
Although the
main title of the urgent session is the discussion and approval of the two
draft budgets, the presidential decree — bearing the signature of Prime
Minister Najib Mikati — has on its agenda “the ratified laws that the president
may request to be reconsidered and drafts or proposals of urgent and necessary
laws related to the parliamentary elections.”
Berri indicated
in a statement on Friday that “parliament is independent and is not restricted to
any description of projects or proposals that the bureau of the parliament
decides to put forward and the president has the right to respond after they
are issued by the General Authority.”
The statement
added: “This is the constitution’s provision and jurisprudence.”
The president’s
team replied indirectly through unidentified sources that “they do not want to
get into a debate with Berri.”
They added that
article 33 of the constitution “stipulates that the parliament may be convened
to extraordinary sessions by a decree setting their opening, end and agenda.”
Parliamentary
sources replied to Aoun’s party that “the procedural authority may certainly
set for the parliament the agenda it wants to look into in this extraordinary
session, provided that parliament’s work is not limited to this agenda only.”
The settlement
meant to be followed requires the re-convening of the Cabinet.
However,
Hezbollah’s bloc of MPs ignored the issues of governance and only supported the
opening of an extraordinary parliamentary session extending until the date of
the ordinary session, in view of the urgent need to adopt laws relating to
“rescue, accountability and state regularity.”
Source: Arab
News
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2000116/middle-east
--------
Mideast
Israeli security
says downed drones show Hezbollah surveillance
07 January ,2022
Israeli security
sources claimed Friday that drones captured after being flown across the
frontier from neighboring Lebanon have provided insight into the growing aerial
surveillance capabilities of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization.
Lebanon and
Israel are technically in a state of war and drones have become a regular
feature of their heavily guarded border.
Images extracted
from one drone downed in August, shown to AFP, showed what the source said was
Hezbollah drone operators and pictures of other drones, as well as an aerial
shot of a northern Israeli settlement and military post.
The source,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said he believed the footage showed
Hezbollah special forces training in how to use drones, which he said was the
first such glimpse for Israel.
A second source
said that five drones seized last year, including a small observation drone
downed on Tuesday, belonged to Hezbollah.
“We are learning
about the enemy and the enemy is learning about us,” said the second source,
also speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is kind of a learning race between
Hezbollah and us.”
Israel is a
leader in developing and using drones in warfare, but it is seeing its
technological superiority challenged by arch-foe Iran, which is also developing
unmanned aerial vehicles for military use.
The drones used
by Hezbollah were not necessarily Iranian made, but rather ordinary
commercially available devices, the second source said.
“It is so easy
to just take a drone from the store and gather intelligence and do whatever you
imagine,” he said.
Source: Al
Arabiya
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
--------
Artefacts To Be
Displayed In “Archeo-Park’ Near Selimiye Mosque
January 08 2022
All historical
artifacts unearthed in excavation sites nearby the Selimiye Mosque in the
northwestern province of Edirne will be displayed in an “archeo-park,” which is
currently under construction.
“We have been
working on the project for about four months and hope to finish it and open to
tourism in the spring,” Edirne Mayor Recep Gürkan told Demirören News Agency on
Jan. 7.
The excavation
site is on some 4,000-square-meters land, where there are tombs and water wells
from the Roman era and structures constructed during the period of the Ottoman
Empire.
“We want to make
an archeo-park, an agora that will be suitable with the glorious Selimiye
Mosque. That is why the preparation process took so long,” Gürkan noted.
The Selimiye
Mosque, a complex which has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 2011,
was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and constructed by Mimar Sinan, known as
“the Grand Architect,” between 1568 and 1575.
Sinan called the
mosque his “masterpiece.”
Bahri Dinar, the
head of the Edirne Promotion Association, agreed with the mayor, saying that
“the archeo-park will make a 100 percent contribution to the city’s economy.”
“Until now, the
place nearby the Selimiye Mosque looked inert. I am sure that the agora will be
fantastic,” he added.
When asked about
the importance of the Selimiye Mosque for the province, the mayor said: “It is
the climax of Islamic art and Ottoman mosque construction. The mosque in the
center of the city has always been in use since the first day.”
“With the
Ottomans conquering the city, Edirne has been a prominent center since 1361.
After the construction of the mosque, the agora nearby the mosque has been a
social-cultural zone for people for centuries,” he highlighted.
Once the
archeo-park project will be in progress, the area will be closed to vehicular
traffic. “There will be no smoke exhaust or noise pollution. Only pedestrians
will be able to tour the agora,” the mayor added.
Source: Hurriyet
Daily News
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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Deputy FM: S.
Korea Must Pay Debt to Iran
2022-January-7
The South Korean
government is bound to pay its debts to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Baqeri
Kani said in a meeting with South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi
Jong Kun in Vienna on Thursday.
He noted that
the US unilateral sanctions are not a good reason for South Korea’s refusal to
pay its debts to Iran.
Baqeri Kani
noted that Seoul has to act immediately to unfreeze Iranian assets.
The South Korean
official, for his part, said that his country would make every efforts to pay
its debts to Iran.
The Iranian foreign
ministry had on Wednesday confirmed the meeting, but stressed that the meeting
is not related to talks between Tehran and the world powers.
Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Baqeri Kani, who is also the deputy
foreign minister for political affairs, will meet and hold talks with his South
Korean counterpart in Vienna.
Khatibzadeh said
that Baqeri Kani will meet his Korean counterpart in Vienna, Austria.
The presence of
the South Korean Foreign Ministry official in Vienna is a personal decision and
third parties are requested to be present in Vienna because of bilateral and
multilateral issues, he added.
Khatibzadeh
noted that the request for a meeting with the Iranian delegation has been
announced by the South Korean side.
Stating that the
meetings had nothing to do with the Iran-the G4+1 negotiations, he highlighted
that the South Korean officials met and held talks with some of the delegations
in Vienna, and such meetings are usually common on the sidelines of these
meetings.
South Korea said
on Wednesday that it had sent a delegation to Vienna to hold talks with Iran
and other countries over how to resolve the issue of frozen Iranian assets held
in the Asian country.
The South Korean
foreign ministry said its vice foreign minister Choi Jong-kun had arrived in
Vienna with a delegation to "explore ways to resolve the issue of frozen
Iranian assets in Korea" through consultations on the sidelines with Iran
and in coordination with the US, France, Germany and Britain.
Iran and the remaining
signatories of a 2015 nuclear deal on Monday resumed discussions to remove
sanctions on the Islamic Republic and bring the US back to compliance with the
agreement.
About $2.7
billion deposited by the Seoul branch of Iran's Bank Mellat is held by the Bank
of Korea, while more than $7 billion worth of Iranian oil money is stuck at the
Industrial Bank of Korea and Woori Bank, according to Yonhap news agency. South
Korea’s refusal to free them has caused a diplomatic spat.
South Korea was
the biggest client of Iranian gas condensate with 300,000 barrels per day (bpd)
on top of 100,000 bpd of crude oil, but the country stopped the imports in
November 2018 even before the illegal US sanctions imposed on Iran’s oil
industry kicked in.
Gas condensate
is an ultra light oil which has a wide range of utilization in the
petrochemical industry.
Source: Fars
News Agency
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14001016000436/Depy-FM-S-Krea-Ms-Pay-Deb-Iran
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Iran displays
ballistic missiles amid nuclear talks with world powers
07 January ,2022
Iran put three
ballistic missiles on display at an outdoor prayer esplanade in central Tehran
on Friday, as talks in Vienna aimed at reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal with
world powers flounder.
The missiles,
known as Dezful, Qiam and Zolfaghar and with official ranges of up to 1000-km
(620 miles), were already-known models, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard
said.
Diplomats from
countries that remain in the 2015 nuclear deal — Britain, France, Germany,
Russia and China — are working with Tehran to revive the accord, which had
sought to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for trade.
American
diplomats are present in Vienna but they are not in direct talks with Iranians.
The accord collapsed in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump unilaterally
withdrew the US and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.
A report by state
TV said the missiles on display were the same types as those used to strike US
bases in Iraq.
The display came
on the second anniversary of ballistic missile attacks on American bases in
Iraq in retaliation for the US drone strike that killed top Iranian general
Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.
The Iranian
military mistakenly shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 with
two surface-to-air missiles after the attacks, killing all 176 people on board.
After days of denial, the Guard publicly apologized, blaming air defense
operator who authorities said mistook the Boeing 737-800 for an American cruise
missile.
An Iranian
military court in December held a hearing for 10 people suspected of having
role in downing the Ukrainian airliner.
Source: Al
Arabiya
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
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'Settlers
violence' sparks Israeli-European tension
Ali
Rezzakoğlu
07.01.2022
JERUSALEM
An
Israeli-European dispute broke out after European diplomats lodged a joint
formal protest over “settler violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank,
according to a report.
Israeli news
website Walla reported that "diplomats and ambassadors from 16 European
countries arrived at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in [West] Jerusalem two weeks
ago to hold a routine meeting with the head of the European Department at the
Foreign Ministry, Aliza Bin Noun, regarding the situation in the West
Bank."
The portal
quoted three European and Israeli diplomats, without mentioning their names, as
saying that the meeting was tense.
According to the
report, representatives of the European countries, led by the UK, attended the
meeting to lodge a joint official protest over "settler violence against
Palestinians in the West Bank."
Bin Noun
responded very "sharply and said that the European allegations were
insulting," the report said.
The Israeli
official "criticized the European diplomats, saying: After everything the
new government in Israel has done for the Palestinians, do you come to
complain?"
Some European
diplomats, who attended the meeting, were quoted as saying that they were
interested in having a professional and non-emotional dialogue on the issues
that concern them, but Bin Noun refused to engage in a substantive discussion.
"European
diplomats said that the atmosphere at the meeting was very difficult and that
it got out of control very quickly."
European
countries called on Israel to stop the expansion project of settlements in
Jerusalem.
The EU believes
new settlements in Jerusalem will eliminate the chances of a two-state solution
by establishing a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel.
Source: Anadolu
Agency
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following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/settlers-violence-sparks-israeli-european-tension/2468254
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22 injured as
Israeli forces attack Palestinian rallies
Awad
al-Rujoub
07.01.2022
RAMALLAH,
Palestine
At least 22
Palestinians protesting against illegal Israeli settlements were injured by
Israeli forces on Friday in different areas across the occupied West Bank.
In a statement,
the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medical teams treated 19
Palestinians in the Beita village, southern Nablus city in the north of the
West Bank.
It added that
four Palestinians were injured by rubber-coated bullets and 15 others suffered
tear gas inhalation.
Beita village is
a flashpoint for clashes with Israeli forces, with virtually daily protests
over Israel's confiscation of Palestinian property for the development of an
Israeli settlement on Mount Sbeih near Beita.
Meanwhile, Eid
Abu Monshar from the Red Crescent Society told Anadolu Agency that three
Palestinians were injured by the Israeli forces in Hebron city, southern West
Bank, during a rally protesting the Israeli settlement policy.
On weekly basis,
Palestinians hold demonstrations against illegal Jewish settlements in
different parts of the West Bank, especially in Beita, Beit Dajan, and Kafr
Qaddoum villages.
Source: Anadolu
Agency
Please click the
following URL to read the full text of the original story:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/22-injured-as-israeli-forces-attack-palestinian-rallies/2468230
--------
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