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Islamic World News ( 1 Jan 2018, NewAgeIslam.Com)

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Muslim Leaders across the Middle East Work with Israeli Rabbis to Keep the Peace

New Age Islam News Bureau

1 Jan 2018

Photo: Sheikh Raed Bader and Rabbi Michael Melchior: key figures in the religious peace network ALF/UNAOC

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• AIMPLB Objects to Allowing Muslim Women to Travel for Haj without Male Guardian

• Pakistan Plans Takeover of Organisations Run By Hafiz Saeed, Says Secret Document

• "No More!” Trump Says US Got Only "Lies" From Pak for Billions in Aid

• More Than 3,000 Yazidis Still Missing After Collapse of Islamic State's Self-Styled Caliphate

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Mideast

• Muslim Leaders across the Middle East Work with Israeli Rabbis to Keep the Peace

• Bahrain Jails Two Pro-Democracy Activists, Revokes Their Citizenship

• Death Toll from Iran Protests Rises to 12: State TV

• 6,700 Palestinians Arrested by Israeli Army in 2017

• Shahindha Ismail investigated for 'anti-Islamic' tweet

• Israeli Army Detains More Palestinians in West Bank Raids

• Israel Seized 2,500 Acres of Palestinian Land, Destroyed 500 Buildings in 2017

• Israeli army arrests Palestinian parliamentarian Nasser Abdel Gawad

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India

• AIMPLB Objects to Allowing Muslim Women to Travel for Haj without Male Guardian

• Strike 3, Security Failure, Kashmiri Fidayeens: Warning Signs in Jaish Attack on CRPF Camp

• India, Pak Exchange List Of Nuclear Installations Under 30-Year-Old Pact

• Congress may push for making instant Talaq bailable crime

• On Mulayam Singh prodding, Muslims, Jats agree to take back riot cases

• Asaduddin Owaisi questions PM Modi’s claim on Haj journey of Muslim women

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Pakistan

• Pakistan Plans Takeover of Organisations Run By Hafiz Saeed, Says Secret Document

• Hafiz Saeed Calls for Jihad against the US

• Pakistan: 2017 saw big terrorist attacks on Shia mosques, shrines and Christian church

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North America

• "No More!” Trump Says US Got Only "Lies" From Pak for Billions in Aid

• Muslim-Americans Face Challenges When Confronting Leader's Misconduct

• US Airstrikes Claim More Lives in Eastern Syria

• American Converts to Islam, Seeks 2nd Wife Terror Plot

• FBI raids home of Pittsburgh man suspected of supporting Islamic State

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Arab World

• More Than 3,000 Yazidis Still Missing After Collapse Of Islamic State's Self-Styled Caliphate

• Syria: Terrorists in Idlib Issue Distress Call to Comrades

• Ansarullah: Saudi Arabia, UAE Failed to Divide Yemenis

• Over 2,000 Terrorists Deploy in Hama, Idlib to Slow down Syrian Army Advances

• FSA Commander Assassinated amid Intensifying Tensions with Rival Terrorists in Dara'a

• Imam Khamenei's envoy meets Hezbollah al-Nujaba leader in Iraq

• Turkish Air Defence Units Deploy Near SDF Positions in Northern Syria

• Syria: SDF Transfers More Terrorists from Deir Ezzur to Hasaka

• SDF Suffers Casualties in Clashes with Turkey-Backed Militants in Northern Syria

• Madinah Capital of Islamic tourism 2017 activities concluded

• Military operation launched to pursuit Islamic State in Diyala province

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South Asia

• Taliban Leader In Charge Of Suicide Attacks Killed In Helmand

• Taliban’s huge cache of heavy weapons discovered in Wardak province

• Tens of Terrorists Expelled from Southwestern Damascus, Israeli Plan for Golan Heights Fails

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Southeast Asia

• Najib: Malaysia Committed To Being Leading Global Voice for Islam

• Mustapha Emphasises Importance Of Education For Muslims

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Europe

• Young Glaswegian Muslims Take to the Streets for New Year Clean Up

• Seminar on 'Islamic Revolution' will be organized in Austria

• Irish man converts to Islam in Imam Reza Holy Shrine

• Seminar on 'Islamic Revolution' will be organized in Austria

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Australia

• Eradicating Islam Can’t Be Achieved In a Democracy

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Africa

• DRC: Death Toll Rises in Anti-Government Protests

• Bitcoin is forbidden in Islam: Mufti's counsellor

Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau

URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-leaders-across-middle-east/d/113773

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Muslim Leaders across the Middle East Work with Israeli Rabbis to Keep the Peace

1st January 2018

A remarkable alliance of Israeli orthodox rabbis and Muslim religious leaders in the Middle East is mediating behind the scenes following the anger and violence sparked by President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month.

As demonstrations continue throughout the region, Israeli forces clashing with Palestinian protesters and Israeli air strikes following rockets fired from Gaza have left at least a dozen Palestinians dead and hundreds injured.

The US Jerusalem declaration has also emboldened Arab calls to boycott associations with Israelis. But these Muslim and Jewish religious scholars remain dedicated to non-violent strategies for securing rights and security for both Israelis and Palestinians and to “stop people killing”, Sheikh ImadFalogi, a former Hamas leader in Gaza, tells The Art Newspaper.

The covert interfaith efforts, which religious leaders describe as a “religious peace network”, began in the early 1990s and spread across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, focusing especially on maintaining the peace in Jerusalem and its holy sites. In 2002, the senior Egyptian mufti Mohammed Sayed Tantawi joined several Holy Land religious leaders and the Archbishop of Canterbury to sign the Alexandria Declaration, a set of shared religious principles for non-violence.

Today the coalition includes a growing number of Muslim scholars in almost every Arab country; the network stretches from the North African Arab states to Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Some Muslim leaders have met with Israeli orthodox rabbis in Spain, Italy, Norway and Turkey. While they primarily focus on improving Jewish-Muslim relations, they also maintain close connections with church leaders from Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank. The Pope is kept apprised of their work, they say.

Despite anger with the US declaration that it will move its embassy to Jerusalem and with Israel over Palestinian rights, “big” numbers of Islamic leaders in the Middle East and around the world want to work with these Israeli rabbis “for a real peace and political and community rights”, Falogi says. Religious leaders must play a role, he explains, because they can achieve results better and faster than politicians as they have “more power in the Middle East”.

Falogi also says that the rabbis he sees as his allies have studied the Quran, as he has studied the Christian Bible and Jewish holy texts. “The rabbis in this network understand us—our religion and rights—better than the politicians.”

Equality not separation

AviGisser, an Israeli orthodox rabbi who heads the West Bank settlement of Ofra and is chair of Israel’s national religious education council, has deep respect for his Islamic partners. “I teach in the Jewish religious community that we need to build our life together, Jew and Arab, Jewish and Muslim; there must be equality, not separation,” he says. Gisser also now teaches on Islam and Palestinian rights, and advocates for interfaith connections for “security and to fight terror”.

“It is dangerous to talk to rabbis but I’m convinced it is good for the two sides,” says the Islamic law scholar, Ali Sartawi, who served as a Hamas-affiliated minister of justice in the 2007 Palestinian government. “We can’t build peace with the political side only. I don’t have any problems with Jewish people on the Israeli side. I respect the Jewish religion. But if fundamentalists grow on both sides, I will be afraid.”

“Of course there are extremist Jews and Arabs who don’t like [this alliance],” Gisser says. “But in the general population there is a lot of will for closer relations.” Earlier this year, when Sheikh Abdallah NimerDarwish, the co-founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel who also helped to set up the religious peace network, died, Gisser visited the mourning tent and was invited to speak. “They accepted me,” he says.

Worries intensified

The US Jerusalem announcement was widely seen as pre-empting the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. After Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it declared the territory part of its capital. But Palestinians and most of the international community consider East Jerusalem to be occupied and do not recognise Israeli sovereignty there. Palestinian residents in the area, who mostly do not have Israeli citizenship, want East Jerusalem to be recognised as their capital and to have equal rights. To Muslim and Christian Arabs, the US declaration is also a threat to the sacred spaces of East Jerusalem’s walled Old City, which is home to numerous sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and Jewish, Armenian, Muslim and Christian Arab quarters.

In the wake of Trump’s announcement, the network’s members have been scrambling to convince authorities and communities to avoid provocation and violence across the region, and especially in Jerusalem and at its most contested holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram Al Sharif, or noble sanctuary. The location of the second temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD70, remains the holiest site in Judaism. For centuries, the compound has been home to Muslim shrines, including the Al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem and the third holiest site in Islam.

It is critical for people to understand the strong emotions surrounding this site in the Arab world, says Sheikh Raed Bader, an Islamic law arbitrator and the leading legal authority of the Southern Islamic Movement of Israel. “Al-Aqsa is like Mecca” for Muslims everywhere, he says. At the same time, Bader says that many hours of conversations with rabbis have helped him to understand Jewish connections to holy sites, too. “We have tried to find the most positive, deep, creative solutions,” he says.

Nuclear site

The challenges to keeping the peace at the site are daunting. In recent years, religious and nationalist Jews have visited the site in much bigger numbers, while male Muslim worshippers aged under 50, who can be prohibited by Israel from visiting their mosque, say they feel disrespected and disenfranchised.

The Jerusalem rabbi Michael Melchior, a former cabinet member in Israel who co-founded the religious alliance, says the coalition is “always on guard”, as the holy site is “nuclear”. Tensions peaked in July, leaving several dead on both sides. But the violence would have been significantly worse if the network had not intervened, Melchior says. Extremists “who wanted to create a world war, a clash of civilisations, would have had thousands of people killed,” he says. “We were three minutes away from that happening. I had many calls from the chiefs of police. We negotiated the situation before the whole Middle East went up in flames.” The Muslim scholars tell the same story. Together they helped mediate between the Waqf, the Islamic council appointed by Jordan to oversee Muslim sites in the Old City, “with the support of a lot of players in the Muslim world and the Israeli police, approved by the Israeli cabinet”, Melchior says.

Radicalisation of Muslim and Jewish stakeholders at the Temple Mount/Aqsa Mosque complex is “aided and abetted by end-of-days Christian evangelicals who are exacerbating tensions,” says the Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem expert who advises policymakers.

“The next eruption of violence is only a matter of time,” he says. “These are growing religious movements that have weaponised faith, whose claims are exclusive, existential and absolute—Biblically driven Christian settlers, the messianically driven Jewish Temple Mount movement, the various iterations of extreme Islam, and ‘end-of-day’ Christians. The traditional religious leadership—the Holy See, the orthodox patriarchy, the mainline Protestant churches, chief rabbis and the traditional sharia courts—are being marginalised.”

Potentially destabilising

As a result, Israeli relations with Jordan, the custodian of Muslim sites, have never been worse. But engaging the faith communities could help, Seidemann says. “I don’t think anybody is considering turning over the political processes to faith communities or giving religious leaders a formal place at the negotiating table,” he says. “There is, however, a greater awareness that failing to address the faith dimension of this conflict has grave ramifications, creating flawed political processes, undermining the integrity of the city and potentially destabilising it.”

Until there is a peace agreement and rights and security on the ground for all residents, the network is trying to fill in where political, diplomatic and security efforts fail. “We are not a government or in power. But if we get requests to help, we all try to help each other,” Melchior says. “We do interventions all the time.”

Resolving sectarian disputes in Jerusalem can reverberate widely, Bader believes. “We need Muslims and Jews to explain that peace is not only good for Israelis and Palestinians, but a model that influences Libya, Iraq, Syria and Algeria. We want to meet rabbis who are of the same mind. I don’t meet with rabbis or sheikhs who want to make war," the sheikh says. "Look what happened in Egypt: 300 people in prayer killed in the name of religion. This also happens in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere. The people who do this do not represent our texts and do not represent God.”

theartnewspaper.com/news/muslim-leaders-across-the-middle-east-work-with-israeli-rabbis-to-keep-the-peace

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AIMPLB objects to allowing Muslim women to travel for Haj without male guardian

ANI | Updated: Jan 01, 2018 09:48 IST

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], Jan 1 (ANI): The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) does not concur with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of allowing the Muslim women to travel for Haj without 'Mehram' or male guardian.

"This is a religious issue, and not something to be brought up in legislation and passed in the parliament," AIMPLB secretary Maulana Abdul Hamid Azhari told ANI, adding, "99 per cent men and Muslims follow their religion in accordance with what their religious authorities say, and not what PM Modi ji or anybody else says."

According to Islam, Azhari said, a woman cannot travel longer than three days or more than 78 miles without a male guardian, be it for Haj or to any other place.

Addressing the nation in the 39th edition of his 'Mann kiBaat' radio programme on Sunday, Prime Minister Modi suggested single women pilgrims be excluded from the lottery system implemented to select Haj pilgrims.

Azhari, however, countered the suggestion saying single women were not obliged to go for Haj.

"If a woman does not have a Mehram (male guardian) and does not have the funds to take a male guardian with her to Haj, then she is exempted from the obligation to go," he said.

Meanwhile, women rights activist SudhaRamalingam supported the cause, but said the prime minister's announcement were not a change in the existing rules.

"This is nothing new at all. Saudi Arabia says women above 45 years can come unaccompanied, but in groups with a letter of permission from her male guardian. This is the condition given by Saudi Arabia," Ramalingam told ANI. (ANI)

aninews.in/news/national/general-news/aimplb-objects-to-allowing-muslim-women-to-travel-for-haj-without-male-guardian201801010828210003/

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Pakistan Plans Takeover Of Organisations Run By Hafiz Saeed, Says Secret Document

World | Reuters | Updated: January 01, 2018

Pakistan denied that the action against Hafiz Saeed under US pressure. Saeed carries a $10 million US reward for information leading to his conviction over the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan Plans Takeover Of Organisations Run By Hafiz Saeed, Says Secret Document

A Pakistani court has said it saw insufficient evidence to convict Hafiz Saeed for the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan's government plans to seize control of so-called charities and financial assets linked to 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, according to officials and documents reviewed by Reuters.

The Pakistani government detailed its plans in a secret order to various provincial and federal government departments on December 19, three officials who attended one of several high-level meeting discussing the crackdown said.

Marked "secret", the document from Pakistan's finance ministry directed law enforcement and governments in the country's five provinces to submit an action plan by December 28 for a "takeover" of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, both run by Hafiz Saeed.

The United States has labelled the JuD and FIF "terrorist fronts" for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which attacked Mumbai in November 2008, killing 166 people. Washington has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to Saeed's conviction over the Mumbai attacks.

Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks and a Pakistani court saw insufficient evidence to convict him.

Hafiz Saeed was released from his house arrest last November.

The Dec 19 document, which refers to "Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issues", names only Saeed's two purported charities and "actions to be taken" against them.

The FATF, an international body that combats money laundering and terrorist financing, has warned Pakistan it faces inclusion on a watch list for failing to crack down on financing terrorism.

Asked about a crackdown on JuD and FIF, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who co-chaired one of the meetings on the plan, responded only generally, saying he has ordered authorities "to choke the fundraising of all proscribed outfits in Pakistan".

In a written reply to Reuters, he also said Pakistan wasn't taking action under US pressure. "We're not pleasing anyone. We're working as a responsible nation to fulfil our obligations to our people and international community."

Spokesmen for the JuD and FIF both said they could not comment until they receive official notifications of the government's plans. "We don't have any intimation about any crackdown so far," FIF spokesman Salman Shahid told Reuters. "No one has asked us about our work or assets."

Saeed could not be reached for comment. He has frequently denied having ties to terrorists and says the organisations he founded and controls have no terrorism ties. He says he promotes an Islamic-oriented government through doing good works.

First Major Move

If the government follows through with the plan, it would mark the first time Pakistan has made a major move against Saeed's network, which includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services. The JuD and FIF alone have about 50,000 volunteers and hundreds of other paid workers, according to two counter-terrorism officials.

Participants at the meeting raised the possibility that the government's failure to act against the organisations could lead to UN sanctions, one of the three officials said. A UN Security Council team is due to visit Pakistan in late January to review progress against UN-designated "terrorist" groups.

Hafiz Saeed has enjoyed flagrant impunity from his inflammatory speeches in Pakistan.

"Any adverse comments or action suggested by the team can have far-reaching implications for Pakistan," the official said.

The Dec 19th document gave few details about how the state would take over Saeed's outfits, pending the plans submitted from the provincial governments. It did say it would involve government entities taking over ambulance services and accounting for other vehicles used by the organisations.

It says law enforcement agencies will coordinate with Pakistan's intelligence agencies to identify the assets of the two outfits and examine how they raise money.

The document also directs that the name of JuD's 200-acre headquarters, Markaz-e-Taiba, near the eastern city of Lahore be changed to something else "to make it known that the Government of "Punjab (province) solely manages and operates the Markaz (headquarters)".

The move to seize the so-called charities could spark some concern from the powerful military, which has proposed plans to steer Saeed and the JuD into mainstream politics. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

In August, JuD officials formed a new political party, the Milli Muslim League, and backed candidates who fared relatively strongly in two key parliamentary by-elections.

Washington warned Islamabad of repercussions after a Pakistani court in late November released him from house arrest. Punjab's provincial government had put Saeed under house arrest for 10 months this year for violating anti-terrorism laws. He was released in November last year.

(By Asif Shahzad, additional reporting by DrazenJorgic; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

ndtv.com/world-news/pakistan-plans-takeover-of-organisations-run-by-hafiz-saeed-says-secret-document-1794405

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"No More!": Trump Says US Got Only "Lies" From Pak For Billions In Aid

World | Edited by DebanishAchom | Updated: January 01, 2018

US President Donald Trump said Pakistan has not given back anything despite the US giving it $33 billions in aid over the last 15 years

US President Donald Trump ripped into Pakistan on Monday, declaring on Twitter that American governments had over the last 15 years "foolishly" given 33 billion dollars in aid to Islamabad that gave "safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan".

"No more!" the US President tweeted, days after he had singled out Pakistan for criticism in announcing his national security strategy last month. "We make massive payments every year to Pakistan... They have to help," he had said at the launch of the security strategy just a few days earlier.

The use of a much harsher language in Donald Trump's tweet on Monday suggests an end to the debate within his administration and the decision to deliver on his threat to punish Islamabad for failing to cooperate on counter-terrorism. For now.

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" he tweeted.

The tweet comes against the backdrop of reports that the US was considering withholding $255 million in already delayed aid to Pakistan for its failure to crack down on terror groups in Pakistan.

US-Pakistani ties have chilled steadily under Mr Trump, who in August declared that "Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror".

In December, Mr Trump had already hinted that he may cut off the aid for good, news agency AFP reported. "We make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help," he said in unveiling his national security strategy.

The US said Pakistan has not acted against terror groups on its soil despite the US request

And last week, Vice President Mike Pence told American troops during a visit to Afghanistan: "President Trump has put Pakistan on notice."

In August last year, the US had warned an angry Pakistan that it could lose its status as a privileged military ally if it continues giving safe haven to Afghan terrorist groups. One day after President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy to force the Taliban to negotiate a political settlement with the Kabul government, his top diplomat upped the heat on Islamabad.

Mr Trump had warned that Pakistan's support for the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani terrorist network would have consequences, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had spelled these out.

"We have some leverage," Mr Tillerson had told reporters, as he fleshed out Mr Trump's speech, "in terms of aid, their status as a non-NATO alliance partner -- all of that can be put on the table."

As one of 16 "Non-NATO Major Allies," Pakistan benefits from billions of dollars in aid and has access to some advanced US military technology banned from other countries.

In 2017, the US already withheld $350 million in military funding over concerns Pakistan is not doing enough to fight terror, but the alliance itself was not in question.

ndtv.com/world-news/no-more-trump-says-us-got-only-lies-from-pak-for-billions-in-aid-1794453

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More than 3,000 Yazidis still missing after collapse of Islamic State's self-styled caliphate

January 01, 2018 03:00 AM

BAADRA, Iraq

Kept as a slave by Islamic State militants, the mother prayed for her rescue and made a promise to God: If she ever saw her 10 children again, she would fast for three months to demonstrate her gratitude.

Her prayers were partially answered. In September, as the militants were being driven from their last strongholds in Iraq and Syria, she was freed and reunited with four daughters and a son. Her daylight fast has now come to an end.

But five other sons, along with her husband, are still missing.

"I honestly don't know what hope is anymore," said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Seve, so as not to endanger family members who might still be held captive. "There are very few places that haven't been liberated, and my children still aren't back."

Her family belongs to Iraq's Yazidi minority, followers of an ancient faith linked to Zoroastrianism that was targeted as heretical by the militants who overran its heartland near Mount Sinjar in August 2014.

Thousands of Yazidi men and teenage boys were killed, while more than 6,000 women and children were taken captive. Sold at slave markets or gifted between fighters, they were passed from owner to owner like chattel across Islamic State-held lands in Iraq and Syria. Girls as young as 9 were pressed into domestic and sexual servitude, and boys were indoctrinated and trained as fighters or suicide bombers.

The collapse of the militants' self-professed caliphate over the course of last year raised hopes for family reunions. But, according to a tally kept by authorities in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish zone, as of late December barely half of those taken captive had been freed or managed to escape.

Now that major combat operations against Islamic State have been declared over in Iraq and Syria, Yazidi activists fear that the world's attention has moved on and that the same powers they accuse of failing to avert a genocide three years ago have again forsaken their people.

"There is no one asking about the fate of more than 3,000 people," said Ahmed KhudidaBurjus, deputy executive director of the U.S.-based advocacy group Yazda. "We were expecting that the international community would do more to help save our community from extinction."

Human rights activists fear that many of the missing are dead – killed by their captors, used as suicide bombers or fighters, or caught in the crossfire as Islamic State battled local forces backed by U.S. and Russian air power. Cities such as Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq were pummeled for months, leaving neighborhoods in ruis.

But Yazidi activists – including smugglers who have pulled off hundreds of daring rescues – are convinced that others are still being held by Islamic State fighters or their families.

As cities came under assault, the militants often moved their families and household slaves to areas they still controlled. There were also captive Yazidis mixed in with the tens of thousands of civilians who fled the fighting.

KhaleelAldakhi believes hundreds could still be alive – and he's trying to find them.

A lawyer married to a former member of the Iraqi parliament, he used his extensive contacts to set up one of several Yazidi rescue networks that operate out of the northern Iraqi city of Dahuk.

His collaborators would find opportune moments – often when the militants were at prayer – to sneak away with their captives. Those who were caught were beheaded.

The job became more difficult as Islamic State lost its territory and militants went underground. But Aldakhi said his network still averages two or three rescues a week, many of them captives brought to Syria by fighters driven out of Iraq. A few wound up in Turkey with Islamic State families.

On a recent evening, Aldakhi was drinking tea at a local cafe when his cellphone lit up. It was a WhatsApp message from a Sudanese fighter who was holding a teenage Yazidi girl in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.

The fighter wanted to sell the girl back to her family so he could use the money to escape to Turkey. "If you swear to Allah that you won't give my information to anyone, I will bring the Yazidi girl out," he wrote in Arabic.

Aldakhi gave his word, then laughed. He is Yazidi and wasn't bothered about an oath to Allah. His only concern was for the man's captive.

He called a contact in Syria and told him to do whatever it would take to get the girl into territory held by Kurdish militias – the United States' principal ally in northern Syria in the fight against Islamic State.

"Do it tonight. What happens to the Daesh guy, I don't care," Aldakhi said, using a derisive term in Arabic for Islamic State.

He is still waiting for word about whether the girl was rescued.

That same morning, he had delivered a 10-year-old boy named Zedan to his parents at a camp for displaced Yazidis outside Dahuk.

Zedan was captured with his grandmother after their car crashed as they tried to escape the fighters who attacked their village. Relatives assumed both were killed. But a year later, Zedan's father received a furtive call from a captive relative who had seen the boy with an Islamic State family in the Iraqi city of Tall Afar.

The father, KhalafKhodeida, met with government officials and aid groups, and he reached out to activists such as Aldakhi with contacts behind Islamic State lines. No one could locate the boy.

News of Tall Afar's capture by Iraqi forces in August revived his hopes, but there was still no word of Zedan. Then on Nov. 4, Khodeida received a text message from a stranger offering to return Zedan if someone could come pick him up in Syria.

It turned out Zedan's captors had taken him to the town of Mayadeen, one of Islamic State's last refuges there. The man who called was a neighbor who took pity on the unkempt little boy he saw running barefoot in the street and somehow managed to spirit him away from his captors.

Zedan couldn't remember his parents' names or where they were from. So the neighbor shared pictures of the boy on social media, hoping someone would recognize him. That's how he eventually got Khodeida's number.

"We thought our son was dead," Khodeida said, "and now he has been reborn."

Aldakhi recorded video of the reunion on his phone. In the clips, relatives crowd around Zedan, offering candy and kisses. The shy little boy in a green-and-gray hoodie appears confused. He no longer understands his native Kurdish, only the languages of his captors, Turkmen and a little Arabic.

He is led to an elderly man sitting on a plastic chair: his grandfather. The man embraces the boy four times and starts to cry.

"The grandfather told me I have only one wish, to see my grandson before I die," Aldakhi said. "I got his wish done."

Tales like these sustain Seve as she waits for news of her children.

She lives in a sparsely furnished house lent by fellow Yazidis in the village of Baadra, near Dahuk, in Iraq's northern Kurdish zone. Her own home, in the farming community of Hardan, was destroyed by an airstrike after Islamic State took over the Sinjar region.

Seve's eldest daughter, who is married and lived in another village, managed to escape the militants, joining a massive exodus to the Dahuk region, to the north. But fighters took Seve's husband and two adult sons at gunpoint. Seve and the rest of her family were bused from one crowded prison to the next, where they were starved and beaten until they were sold off.

Three daughters – 19, 17 and 13 at the time – were the first to be dragged away. Then her mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and newborn grandson.Seve and the four boys, ages 5 to 12, were sold to a Saudi Arabian fighter who brought them to his 19-year-old sister and her husband in Mosul as domestic help.

The young woman told Seve she considered the boys like her own. If one of them wanted potato chips, Seve said, the woman, who never left home unarmed, would pick up her rifle and go buy chips.

"Daesh was very, very bad," Seve said. "But there were some who were better than others."

But the couple also told the boys that their parents were infidels; they forced the family to memorize passages from the Koran and pray five times a day.

When Seve was told the two older boys were going to be enrolled in a "military institute," she cried for days. She knew if her sons learned to handle weapons, they would be forced to fight.

After about six months, the couple sold Seve and the boys to another family who could not afford to keep them together. They took photographs of the children and posted them at checkpoints and military bases, until one by one, they were sold off.

The youngest, Saidou, was 6 when he was taken from Seve, who screamed and threatened to kill herself. The slave trader just laughed.

She eventually ended up cooking and cleaning for a couple in Raqqa, Islamic State's would-be capital in Syria. When that city came under assault, they brought her to Mayadeen. When it looked like Mayadeen too would fall, the couple decided to sell her back to her family.

They demanded $17,000, far more than Seve thought her relatives could afford. But they went door to door until they had raised the money. Smugglers were enlisted to drive Seve to a nearby village, where she caught a ride with civilians who were fleeing to Kurdish territory. A brother and other relatives picked her up from there.

To Seve's amazement, Saidou was with them in the car. His captors had sold him back to the family for $10,000 last year. Two daughters had also been rescued, found by Iraqi forces after being abandoned during the fighting in Mosul. But the family had to borrow more than $30,000 to smuggle Seve's mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandson and another daughter out of Islamic State territory.

The Kurdish regional government reimbursed most of the family's expenses. But it is in the midst of a financial crisis and has not yet reimbursed anything for Seve's rescue. She wonders how she and her family will repay their creditors or rebuild their lives.

"If I had my boys back, they would do something for us, but I don't know if they're still alive," she said, fighting back tears. "The world doesn't make sense if your children aren't around you."

(Special correspondent BawarIhsan in Dahuk, Iraq, contributed to this report. This story was reported with a grant from the United Nations Foundation.)

miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article192435659.html

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Mideast

Muslim Leaders across the Middle East Work with Israeli Rabbis to Keep the Peace

1st January 2018

Equality not separation

Worries intensified

Nuclear site

Potentially destabilising

theartnewspaper.com/news/muslim-leaders-across-the-middle-east-work-with-israeli-rabbis-to-keep-the-peace

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Bahrain Jails Two Pro-Democracy Activists, Revokes Their Citizenship

Mon Jan 01, 2018 2:29

On Saturday, Bahrain's Supreme Court of Appeal found the defendants guilty of “training in the use of weapons and munitions, in addition to the possession of a firearm without the authorization of the Ministry of Interior for terrorist purposes," Al-Waght reported.

Bahraini pro-democracy activists have dismissed the charges saying they are trumped-up.

The West-backed Bahraini regime has stepped up crackdown on political dissent in the wake of US President Donald Trump's meeting with Bahraini Ruler King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah during a summit in the Saudi capital city Riyadh in late May 2017.

Bahrain's top military court sentenced six individuals to death last Monday after convicting them over charges including plotting to assassinate the Persian Gulf state's armed forces chief.

The court also sentenced seven other people linked to the case to seven-year jail terms and deprived them too of their citizenship, while five men were acquitted.

Ten of the alleged defendants appeared in the court, while, authorities claimed, eight are at large in Bahrain or abroad, while it was not clear which of the absent eight were sentenced to death and which to jail.

It was the first official mention of any plot against the life of Field Marshal Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, who is a member of the ruling family, but the Bahrain News Agency gave no further details of when or where it was alleged to have taken place.

"The defendants were accused with the formation of a terrorist cell, attempting to assassinate the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Commander-in-Chief and committing other terrorist crimes," a statement read.

Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society described recent death sentences against six anti-regime activists as “null and void”.

"The sentences are null and void,” al-Wefaq said in a statement on Monday, stressing that they were based on false accusations and forced confessions.

Al-Wefaq further called on the international community to “bear its historical responsibility and save the Bahraini majority which has been oppressed” by the ruling regime.

Bahraini human rights organizations, including Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, Persian Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (GIDHR), SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, had issued a report under the title of "Death or Confession", a report that monitors the violations due to secret military courts that tried civilians whose confessions were extracted under torture.

Al-Wefaq had called on the Manama regime to halt the military trial of a group of civilians, slamming the military trial as a violation of both domestic and international laws.

The case is the first of its kind since Manama altered the country's constitution, granting military courts the right to try civilians, after Bahrain in March approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al-Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. In mid-March 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al-Khalifah regime’s crackdown.

en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961011000770

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Death Toll from Iran Protests Rises to 12: State TV

January 1, 2018

Iranian officials have so far confirmed the deaths of six people and injuries of several others during the recent protest rallies and riots across the country. The state TV has also declared the deaths of six others.

The IRIB (state TV) declared on Monday that 10 people have lost their lives during the Sunday night clashes across Iran, raising the death toll to 12 since the beginning of protests on Thursday.

The state TV did not provide further details about the victims. However, Mashallah Nemati, the governor of Doroud in Western province of Lorestan, had earlier confirmed that four people have lost their lives and six wounded during the recent protests in this city, according to official accounts.

“During the first day of protests (Saturday), two people were killed and six wounded,” he noted, according to the governor’s official website.

He stressed that there is no accurate account of the people killed or wounded during the second day yet, but two citizens were killed in a car crash caused by the rioters on Sunday.

A firefighting vehicle deployed to contain a fire in a bank was seized by rioters, and while put on neutral gear, it crash with another car in which a man and a young boy were killed, he was quoted as saying by ISNA.

HedayatollahKhademi, the representative of the city of Izeh in the Iranian Parliament, also told the Etemad Online news website that two people have been killed during the clashes on Sunday night.

He quoted the governor of Izeh, a city in southwestern Iran, as saying that the police forces had not been supposed to shoot people.

Therefore, we don’t think they have been killed by the Law Enforcement, he added.

Also in an interview with ILNA, he said this city has long been faced with the problem of ordinary people’s possession of guns and cold weapons, and this has caused troubles every now and then.

“I don’t know yet whether the police forces or the rioters opened fire on Sunday, and the issue is under investigation,” he added.

The protests, which started in the religious cities of Mashhad and Qom on Thursday, mainly focused on economic grievances, particularly the surge in prices and the financial corruption of the state bodies.

However, the ensuing protest rallies in other cities on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday involved more political slogans. Officials and analysts believe foreign and anti-Iran media and officials are trying to make the demonstrations political and provoke people to chant anti-Establishment slogans.

ifpnews.com/exclusive/iran-protests-confirmed-death-toll-rises-10/

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6,700 Palestinians Arrested by Israeli Army in 2017

Mon Jan 01, 2018 12:20

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)-linked Palestinian Committee of Prisoners and Released Prisoners' Affairs, Palestinian Prisoners Committee, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-MezanCenter for Human Rights, in a joint statement, said the arrests in 2017 included 1,467 children, 156 women, 14 Palestinian Legislative Council members and 25 journalists, Daily Sabah reported.

The statement also added that some detainees were later released.

It also announced that there are 6,950 Palestinian prisoners, including 359 children, 22 journalists and 10 MPs, in Israeli prisons.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society has also reported 620 Palestinians, including 170 minors, 12 women and three injured people, have been arrested since US President made his announcement.

15 Palestinians were also killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during three weeks of protests against the Washington declaration of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, according to reports.

Also, thousands of Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli army's fire during demonstrations against the US President Donald Trump decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The Palestinian ministry of public health in Gaza has also announced that the Israeli occupation forces use unknown gas bombs which caused cases of stress, convulsion, vomiting, coughing and rapid heartbeat among the Palestinian civilians. It stressed that the Zionist forces fire bullets directly on the Palestinian protestors.

The Israeli regime forces use brutal and excessive force against the civilians and the rescue teams as well as the medics, according to the Palestinian ministry which called for denouncing the racist actions of the Israeli authorities.

US President Donald Trump announced early December 2017 that Washington would be recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital, stressing that the United States would relocate the embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

The move was hailed by Israel but condemned by the rest of the international community as one which undermines the peace talks.

Washington’s al-Quds move has raised a chorus of outcry across the international community. The Muslim world, the UN, world leaders from Europe to the Middle East to Australia, and even US allies in the West have criticized the bid, saying it would plunge the already tumultuous region into new upheaval.

Heavy clashes also broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters after Washington's decision in Jerusalem al-Qud's Old City, Hebron (al-Khalil), Bethlehem and Nablus in the West Bank as well as the besieged Gaza Strip.

People in different countries have also hit the streets to denounce Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a statement issued following an extraordinary summit in Turkey's Istanbul, declared East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine "under occupation" and urged the US to withdraw from the peace process and back down from its Jerusalem decision.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution condemning Trump’s decision and called on states not to move their diplomatic missions to the sacred city. The UNGA vote followed the US veto of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution.

en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961011000242

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Shahindha Ismail investigated for 'anti-Islamic' tweet

17 hours ago

A prominent human rights activist in the Maldives says she has received several death threats over an alleged anti-Islamic Twitter post, that has also prompted a criminal investigation.

Shahindha Ismail, executive director of Maldives Democracy Network (MDN), told Al Jazeera that anonymous accounts on Twitter and Facebook have been calling for her death, after a newspaper article and religious scholars accused her of advocating for secularism in the Sunni Muslim state.

"I do not feel safe in the Maldives and I fear for my life," she said on Sunday.

The furore over Ismail's post began on December 20, when she responded to a speech by President Abdulla Yameen, in which he had vowed to crack down on what he said were domestic and international efforts to propagate faiths other than Islam in the Maldives.

"Religions other than Islam exist in this world because Allah allowed for it. No other religion would exist otherwise, is it not?" Ismail said on Twitter.

Her post prompted threats, with one Twitter user, referring to Ismail, saying: "I'm one of hundreds who will cut people like that to pieces." That post has since been deleted.

Several comments on Facebook reviewed by Al Jazeera also called for attacks on Ismail and said she should "be thrown out of the country".

Islam is the official religion in the Indian Ocean archipelago of 400,000 people.

On December 28, amid the furore, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs issued a statement urging Maldivians to refrain from "nonsensical talk that advocates for any faith other than Islam in the Maldives".

Hours later, the police announced that it had launched an investigation against Ismail.

Several ruling party politicians, including Majority Leader Ahmed Nihan, thanked the police for the probe.

A police spokesman said Ismail was being investigated under the Religious Unity Act, which criminalises actions that may lead to religious strife in the Maldives.

It carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

"Police have announced an investigation against me while ignoring the open threats against me on social media," said Ismail.

"Human rights defenders have always been labelled as anti-Islamic or as Western agents to wipe out Islam," she added. "Too many of us have been attacked, disappeared and murdered for any of us to be safe any more."

A liberal blogger was stabbed to death earlier this year in the Maldives' capital, Male, after he lodged a police complaint over death threats against him, also for alleged secular and anti-Islamic views.

Ismail has previously criticised law enforcement agencies for inaction over attacks against liberal and moderate voices, which also include the disappearance of a journalist in 2014 and the killing of a parliamentarian in 2012. Both of these cases remain unsolved.

Police Superintendent Ahmed Shifan said he was uncertain if Ismail had filed any complaints.

"We assure you, however, if we can identify a potential threat, then we will launch an investigation," he told Al Jazeera.

'Profiling and incitement'

Rights groups have previously criticised the country's government for using new laws and criminal cases to silence, among others, human rights defenders and civil society groups.

A vocal critic of Yameen's human rights record, Ismail said threats against her "escalated" after the pro-government tabloid Vaguthu Online published a news article headlined, "Shahindha has indirectly called for other faiths in the Maldives."

The article prompted an outcry from some religious scholars.

In a Facebook post, one railed against what he called the spread of secularism in the Maldives and called on Ismail to repent, while the religious conservative group JamiyyathSalaf called for action against those who mock Islam.

The MDN, which Ismail heads, said it was "appalled" that the police have chosen to investigate the content of her Twitter post rather "than those who have openly called to kill and behead her".

Ismail said she believed the outcry over her tweet was "part of the same trend of extensive profiling and incitement" that preceded previous physical attacks on the blogger, journalist and parliamentarian.

Forum Asia, an Asian rights-group based in Thailand, said it was "seriously concerned" by the threats and the police inquiry against Ismail.

The police have "failed to respond appropriately" to calls for violence against critics and dissidents in the past, said RefendiDjamin, a board member of the organisation.

"The Maldives government must protect human rights defenders instead of targeting them," he told Al Jazeera.

aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/shahindha-ismail-investigated-anti-islamic-tweet-171231122510004.html

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Israeli Army Detains More Palestinians in West Bank Raids

Mon Jan 01, 2018 12:27

The Israeli Army arrested two Palestinians East of Bethlehem, after raiding and searching their home, WAFA reported.

Another two 20 year-old Palestinians from the town of Jaba, South of Jenin, were arrested at a military checkpoint on their way to the city of Ramallah.

Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinians during a raid into the city of Nablus.

Israeli forces also detained 10 Palestinians from the occupied city of Jerusalem, 9 of whom are from the town of Issawiya.

Also a young man from the town of Biddu, Northwest of Jerusalem, detained by Israeli soldiers.

The move was hailed by Israel but condemned by the rest of the international community as one which undermines the peace talks.

Over 620 Palestinians were detained by the Israeli forces since Washington’s move to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel.

15 Palestinians were also killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during three weeks of protests against the Washington declaration of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, according to reports.

Also, thousands of Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli army's fire during demonstrations against the US President Donald Trump decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

People in different countries have also hit the streets to denounce Trump's recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital.

en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961011000410

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Israel Seized 2,500 Acres of Palestinian Land, Destroyed 500 Buildings in 2017

Mon Jan 01, 2018 12:25

Israel seized Palestinian lands with “military aims” and the “aim to construct Jewish settlement units” in the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem, according to the report of the center, Anadolu Agency reported.

The report also recorded 900 incidents of violence and attacks of Israeli forces in East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque.

According to Israeli and Palestinian law institutions, activities of Jewish settlement in West Bank and East Jerusalem have increased by three times in 2017 compared with the previous year.

Peace Now movement also announced that Israeli government approved the construction of 1,982 houses in 2015, 2,629 houses 2016 and this figure increased to 6,500 in 2017.

The Israeli cabinet has approved the transfer of 40 million shekels ($11 million) in funding for settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the approval came a day after a group of Zionist rabbis met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked him to give higher priority to the settlements.

The Palestinian foreign ministry has also denounced a new Israeli settlement construction plan, which includes the building of 300,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem.

It held US President Donald Trump responsible for "Israeli arrogance" that has endorsed the annexation of East Jerusalem.

"The ministry affirms that this Israeli colonial arrogance would not have happened without US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital," the statement read.

"Trump's administration must bear the responsibility for new crimes that Israel, the occupying country, imposes on our people," it added.

The ministry urged the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to confront the move.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The separation wall, which Israel started building in 2002, snakes through the occupied West Bank's territory, dividing villages, encircling towns and splitting families from each other.

Much of the international community regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

Last month, the European Union urged the Israeli regime to stop plans for the construction of new settler units in the occupied West Bank, warning that such moves undermine peace efforts.

A UN Security Council resolution passed last year condemned all Israeli settlement construction on the occupied Palestinian territories. The landmark Resolution 2334, passed in December 2016, called the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds a “flagrant violation of international law.” The resolution also called on Israel to stop all such construction.

en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961011000284

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Israeli army arrests Palestinian parliamentarian Nasser Abdel Gawad

January 1, 2018 at 10:40 am | Published in: Israel, Middle East, News, Palestine

The Israeli army arrested a Palestinian parliamentarian in the West Bank city of Salfit this morning, according to a report by Anadolu Agency.

According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli forces raided Nasser Abdel Gawad’s residence and arrested him.

Palestinian MP Fathi al-Qaraawi of the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform bloc said continuous arrests of deputies of the Palestinian Legislative Council who are entitled to parliamentary immunity is a flagrant violation of international law.

“Israel rejected the results of the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and arrested all Hamas deputies (in the West Bank including Jerusalem) and continues to punish the Palestinian people for this by arresting the group’s deputies,” al-Qaraawi said.

Read: Israel extends administrative detention of Palestinian MP Jarrar

The Change and Reform bloc won the 2006 Palestinian elections with an overwhelming majority.

Al-Qaraawi added the arrest is an attempt to block opposition to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The latest arrest raises the number of jailed Palestinian parliamentarians to 11.

middleeastmonitor.com/20180101-israeli-army-arrests-palestinian-parliamentarian-nasser-abdel-gawad/

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India

AIMPLB objects to allowing Muslim women to travel for Haj without male guardian

ANI | Updated: Jan 01, 2018 09:48 IST

According to Islam, Azhari said, a woman cannot travel longer than three days or more than 78 miles without a male guardian, be it for Haj or to any other place.

Azhari, however, countered the suggestion saying single women were not obliged to go for Haj.

"If a woman does not have a Mehram (male guardian) and does not have the funds to take a male guardian with her to Haj, then she is exempted from the obligation to go," he said.

Meanwhile, women rights activist SudhaRamalingam supported the cause, but said the prime minister's announcement were not a change in the existing rules.

aninews.in/news/national/general-news/aimplb-objects-to-allowing-muslim-women-to-travel-for-haj-without-male-guardian201801010828210003/

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Strike 3, Security Failure, Kashmiri Fidayeens: Warning Signs in Jaish Attack on CRPF Camp

Sheikh Saaliq | News18.com@sheikh_saaliq

Updated:January 1, 2018

Strike 3, Security Failure, Kashmiri Fidayeens: Warning Signs in Jaish Attack on CRPF Camp A CRPF jawan takes cover behind a tree in southern Lethpora village in Kashmir on December 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

At the start of the last week of December 2017, an alert was sounded throughout Kashmir about a possible Fidayeen attack on New Year’s Eve along the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

Days later, as feared by the security agencies, militants from the Jaish-e-Mohammad managed to sneak into a CRPF camp inside Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Commando Training Centre (CTC) in Lethpora, Pulwama.

In a 36-hour fierce gunbattle that started on the night of December 30, five CRPF personnel and two Jaish militants were killed.

Earlier this year, different militants groups operating in Kashmir targeted the highway stretch frequently. This time, however, heavy security was deployed along the stretch after the input.

In a press statement on Sunday, Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid acknowledged that there were prior “inputs” regarding the attack.

“There was an input in the last two to three days. The militants were trying. They probably could not get a place and time earlier. So they struck last night,” Vaid said at a press briefing in Srinagar.

Speaking to News18, a senior police officer who deals with counter-insurgency operations in South Kashmir confirmed the intel of a possible Fidayeen attack. "At least 12 hours before the attack, Jammu Kashmir police shared specific Intel about two Jaish militants who could attack the training," the officer said on condition of anonymity.

The Local ‘Fidayeen’

Apart from the grave security lapse, what also makes this daring pre-dawn attack by the Jaish all the more serious is that this was the first Fidayeen attack carried out by local militants in the recent history of militancy in Kashmir. The militants were identified as Manzoor Ahmad Baba of DrubgamPulwama and Fardeen Ahmad Khanday of NazneenPora, Tral. Fardeen was the son of a police constable.

Hours after the gunbattle, a video surfaced in Kashmir showing Fardeen, with a huge cache of ammunition in front of him, asking other Kashmiris to “join the fight against Indian aggression”.

“By the time this video reaches you, I’ll be in heaven,” Fardeen said in the video, thus making his plans clear.

The video was allegedly shot moments before the attack.

In the video, Fardeen also referred to Afaq and Bilal – two Jaish militants who had carried out two different suicide attacks in early 2000. While Bilal was a British Muslim student, Afaq Shah was a local.

Bilal had staged a car bomb explosion at an army unit in Srinagar on Christmas Day in 2000, killing 11 people, including five soldiers.

Hailing from Srinagar's Khaniyar locality, Afaq had driven a stolen red Maruti — laden with explosives — to the high-security barrier of the BadamiBagh Cantonment in Srinagar on December 27, 2000, and blown the vehicle up with him still in it. Eleven personnel had died in the attack.

Apart from Afaq, Mohammad Aslam, a J&K SPO (Special Protection Officer), was one of three other Fidayeen who attacked the Special Operation Group (SOG) complex in Srinagar on December 27, 2000, in which 11 personnel died. An SPO who deserted the ranks, Aslam came back to attack the very force he had been part of.

The Rise of ‘Afzal Guru Squad’

Saturday night’s attack was not the first Fidayeen strike carried out in Kashmir this year. There were two others before this one.

On August 26, militants stormed the District Police Lines in Pulwama, killing 10 people — four policemen, four CRPF personnel and two militants. On October 3, militants stormed a BSF base at Srinagar airport, killing one jawan and injuring three. Two militants were also killed in the attack.

The ‘Afzal Guru Squad’ of the Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit carried out both Fidayeen attacks.

Barely 90 Days Into the Fold

Another important detail of Saturday’s attack is that both Fardeen and Manzoor were recruited into militancy barely 90 days ago.

Sixteen-year-old Fardeen Ahmad Khanday was a Class 10 student and became a militant three months ago. The other one was Manzoor Baba (22), who hailed from Drubgam area of Pulwama district. A driver by profession, he had become a militant just two months ago.

Hours after the gunbattle, Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the attack, threatening that “such attacks will continue till the last Indian soldier leaves Kashmir.”

“Blood of martyrs is yielding results,” local news agency GNS quoted this Jaish statement.

How Well Did ‘Operation All Out’ Fare?

The security failure despite intelligence of such an attack also puts a question mark over claims by security agencies in Kashmir on ‘Operation All Out’.

The announcement of ‘Operation All Out’ by the Army in June 2017 has so far resulted in the killing of 219 militants, the highest in the last eight years. Among the 219 militants, 84 were local militants who were from different parts of the Valley.

While many security officials are claiming the operation to be a huge success, what could be a major worry for security forces is that the year also witnessed the killing of 124 armed forces personnel, which makes the ratio of militant to armed forces killings 2:1.

The Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) in its annual report said: “The comparison between militant and armed forces killings in last four years reveals that while 560 militants have been killed in the given period, the armed forces have lost 364 personnel to militant violence. The ratio of militant-armed forces killings has been close to 2:1 for the last four years.”

news18.com/news/india/strike-3-security-failure-kashmiri-fidayeens-warning-signs-in-jaish-attack-on-crpf-camp-1619671.html

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India, Pak Exchange List Of Nuclear Installations Under 30-Year-Old Pact

All India | Edited by DebanishAchom | Updated: January 01, 2018

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan today exchanged a list of nuclear installations that the two countries have under a three-decade-old bilateral pact to maintain transparency and avoid attacking each other's nuclear facilities.

Officials from the two sides exchanged the list in New Delhi, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The agreement on the "prohibition of attack against nuclear installations" was signed on December 31, 1988, and entered into force on January 27, 1991, the foreign ministry said in the statement.

According to the pact, India and Pakistan must exchange an updated list showing nuclear installations and facilities on January 1 every year. Today's exchange was the 27th consecutive exchange of the nuclear file -- the first exchange took place in on January 1, 1992.

In September 2017, India's atomic chief Dr SekharBasu had told NDVT that thanks to new explorations, India can now call itself a uranium-endowed country. "When I joined the atomic energy programme we were told India has just about 60,000 tonnes of mineable uranium. But today the quantity has grown by four to give times. Government is fully supporting us to make India uranium self-sufficient," Dr Basu had said during a visit by NDTV to Jaduguda uranium mine, the oldest site in the country.

The locally mined uranium is supplied to generate electricity and also to power nuclear weapons capability. India currently has 22 operating nuclear power plants which have an installed capacity of 6,780 megawatts (MW). Of these, the two nuclear plants at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu are run on uranium imported from Russia.

Russia will continue supplying uranium for the entire 60-year life of the atomic plants. Each 1,000 MW reactor of Kudankulam needs several tonnes of uranium to function round-the-clock.

"The plant is ready to supply fuel to Kudankulam on a long-term basis," Alexey V Zhiganin, the chief of Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, the uranium processing facility in Russia's Siberia, told NDTV last month. "We are happy about the results of our co-operations and we have very good technical results of our nuclear fuel exportation to the nuclear reactor," he added.

ndtv.com/india-news/india-pak-exchange-list-of-nuclear-installations-under-30-year-old-pact-1794445

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Congress may push for making instant talaqbailable crime

TNN | Updated: Jan 1, 2018

NEW DELHI: Congress is thinking of diluting its demand that the 'criminalisation' clause be deleted from the triple talaq bill, as it finalises its stance in Rajya Sabha where the legislation will come up for consideration this week.

Sources said the party was veering towards asking the government that the provision in the triple talaq bill be made bailable. Clause 4 in the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, renders the offence 'non-bailable' with a prison term up to three years along with a fine.

The Congress believes that the penal provision, with an assured prison term for the offending husband, will hurt the interests of Muslim women by putting a spanner in finalisation of maintenance to be paid. Also, it will hurt the prospects of reconciliation among spouses.

However, sources said the leadership was keen to focus on the limited issue while supporting the rest of the legislation. The party is mulling if instead of railing against the penal provision, it should only demand that the offence be made 'bailable'.

Sources aware of in-house discussions told TOI that Congress president Rahul Gandhi does not want the party to appear as blocking the triple talaq bill. The stand is influenced in a big measure by the criticism that has dogged Congress since the Rajiv Gandhi government piloted a bill to nullify the Shah Bano judgment.

In Lok Sabha, which passed the bill last week, Congress lashed out against the 'criminalisation' clause and sought its vetting by a parliamentary committee.

However, when it came to voting on the bill, it did not back the amendments moved by either party MPs or by other 'secular' outfits.

Congress's position will be critical in the upper House where the Modi government lacks numbers and the opposition can make or mar passage of the contentious bill.

While a section of the Congress is adamant that the party back the bill - even drop the demand for its scrutiny by a parliamentary committee - a final decision may be influenced by the position that other opposition parties take.

If SP or BSP or the Left put pressure that the bill be sent to a parliamentary panel, concerns of opposition unity could force Congress's hand.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/congress-may-push-for-making-instant-talaq-bailable-crime/articleshow/62320300.cms

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On Mulayam Singh prodding, Muslims, Jats agree to take back riot cases

MohdDilshad | TNN | Updated: Jan 1, 2018, 12:32 ISTMUZAFFARNAGAR: Five days after a delegation of Jat and Muslim leaders from Muzaffarnagar met former UP chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav at his Delhi residence to use his influence over both the communities for a compromise, victims from both the communities in five riothit villages agreed to take back cases.

The people of the villages, Kutba, Kutbi, Purbaliyan, Kakda, Hadoli, which were the worst affected during the 2013 riots and where a dozen innocent people were killed during the violence, took the decision at a meeting held in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday. As a result of the compromise, 29 cases in these five villages will be withdrawn. Around 1,400 people from the region were booked under various cases during the riots that killed 63 and displaced more than 50,000 four years ago.

As reported first by TOI, more than 100 Muslims from Muzaffarnagar, including riot victims, and many prominent Jat leaders, including VipinBalian, president of RashtriyaJaatSanrakshanSamiti, had met the former defence minister on Tuesday. A committee, which will work under his direction and has riots victims as its members, was formed to work out resolution of these cases and bring back peace in the region. Ompal Nehra, former cabinet minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government, has been chosen to head the committee.

"As decided at Mulayam Singh's house in Delhi, people from five worst riot-hit villages agreed for a compromise on Sunday. Now, the residents will submit affidavits in courts on the next hearing. This compromise will lead to settlement of more cases in the region following years of unrest," said Balian.

Former Samajwadi Party MP Ameer Alam, SP MLA NawajishAlam, former BSP MP Kadir Rana and former Congress MP Harendra Singh Malik, who is a prominent Jat leader, were also present during the meeting held in Muzaffarnagar city on Sunday.

Mohammad Hassan, a riot victim from Kutba village who lost his mother in the riot, said, "I was at Mulayam Singh Yadav's house too. VipinBalian had invited me. Many other Jat and Muslim leaders who want peace in the region were also present there. I agree to their compromise formula."

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/meerut/days-after-meeting-with-msy-muslims-jats-of-five-2013-riot-hit-villages-in-muzaffarnagar-agree-to-take-back-cases/articleshow/62317816.cms

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AsaduddinOwaisi questions PM Modi’s claim on Haj journey of Muslim women

Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen chief, AsaduddinOwaisi disapproved claims by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi that he had facilitated Muslim women's travel for Haj without 'Mahram'. 'Mahram' is a male relative of a woman with whom she is permanently forbidden to marry by Islam. He said if PM Modi had so much concern for Muslim women, he should do justice to Zakia Jafri, the widow of former MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

By IANS | Updated: 1 January 2018, 5:37 PM

MIM chief AsaduddinOwaisi on Monday rejected claims by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he had facilitated Muslim women’s travel for Haj without ‘Mahram’. The Hyderabad MP said that a regulation by Haj authorities of Saudi Arabia was in force for many years which allow women above the age of 45 years to perform Haj without a ‘Mahram’ if they travel with a group. He told reporters here that women above 45 years of age from Indonesia, Malaysia and several other countries had been performing Haj under this Saudi regulation. ‘Mahram’ is a male relative of a woman with whom she is permanently forbidden to marry by Islam.

Modi in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ speech on Sunday had said that his government had removed the restriction which allows Muslim women to perform Hajj only in the company of ‘Maharam’. He had stated that injustice was done to women for decades. “It has become the habit of the Prime Minister to claim credit for everything. If tomorrow women in Saudi Arabia are allowed to drive, he will claim credit for the same,” he said.

The MP said if Modi had so much concern for Muslim women, he should do justice to Zakia Jafri, widow of former MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots. “This is all tokenism. If Modi is really concerned about Muslim women, he should provide 7% reservation for them in education. He has a two-thirds majority in Parliament and he can bulldoze a bill in this regard,” the MP said. On the passing of a bill in Lok Sabha over triple talaq, the Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen (MIM) President said that if it became a legislation, it would be the biggest injustice to Muslim women.

He argued that since marriage in Islam was a civil contract, there could be no penal provision. He also pointed out that the Supreme Court in its order on the issue did not ask the government to bring a criminal law. “The government is saying that Muslim countries have banned triple talaq but the fact is that there is no penal provision in any Muslim country,” Owaisi alleged that the real objective of the government was to do away with all forms of talaq and snatch Sharia from Muslims.

The MP said abandonment of married women was a bigger problem than divorce. “The rate of abandonment is twice the rate of divorce. There are 24 lakh abandoned women and they include 20 lakh Hindu women, two lakh Muslim and 90,000 Christian women,” he said.”The married women should get their right to live with their husbands whether they are in Gujarat or in Delhi,” he said.

newsx.com/national/asaduddin-owaisi-questions-pm-modis-claim-haj-journey-muslim-women

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Pakistan

Pakistan Plans Takeover Of Organisations Run By Hafiz Saeed, Says Secret Document

World | Reuters | Updated: January 01, 2018

Pakistan denied that the action against Hafiz Saeed under US pressure. Saeed carries a $10 million US reward for information leading to his conviction over the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan Plans Takeover Of Organisations Run By Hafiz Saeed, Says Secret Document

A Pakistani court has said it saw insufficient evidence to convict Hafiz Saeed for the Mumbai attacks.

Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks and a Pakistani court saw insufficient evidence to convict him.

Hafiz Saeed was released from his house arrest last November.

The Dec 19 document, which refers to "Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issues", names only Saeed's two purported charities and "actions to be taken" against them.

The FATF, an international body that combats money laundering and terrorist financing, has warned Pakistan it faces inclusion on a watch list for failing to crack down on financing terrorism.

First Major Move

Hafiz Saeed has enjoyed flagrant impunity from his inflammatory speeches in Pakistan.

"Any adverse comments or action suggested by the team can have far-reaching implications for Pakistan," the official said.

It says law enforcement agencies will coordinate with Pakistan's intelligence agencies to identify the assets of the two outfits and examine how they raise money.

In August, JuD officials formed a new political party, the Milli Muslim League, and backed candidates who fared relatively strongly in two key parliamentary by-elections.

(By Asif Shahzad, additional reporting by DrazenJorgic; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

ndtv.com/world-news/pakistan-plans-takeover-of-organisations-run-by-hafiz-saeed-says-secret-document-1794405

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Hafiz Saeed calls for Jihad against the US

Jan 1, 2018, 04.45 PM (IST)

Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) Chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed continues to spread religious hatred from the Pakistan soil as he, recently, invited all Islamic states to launch 'Jihad' against the United States and Israel.

Hundreds of JuD activists participated in a rally 'TahafuzBaitulMuqaddas' at the Istanbul Chowk here. The event was attended by JuD leaders, including Hafiz Saeed and Abdul RehmanMakki.

The event was conducted in the wake of the US President Donald Trump-led administration unilaterally identifying and declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) co-founder, while addressing the gathering, said, "The day Jerusalem (Bait-ul-Muqaddas) becomes the capital of Israel, a caravan of 'Jihad' will be launched. Pakistan's army chief General (Qamar Javed) Bajwa, Prime Minister ShahidKhaqanAbbasi and all leaders of the political parties need to unite. Pakistan's atomic bomb is the asset of `Islam', which should be used to free Jerusalem. This is my open announcement."

He added, "We should organise an Islamic conference to be attended by chiefs of the Islamic states to declare 'Jihad'. The influence of the ISIS will weaken and the conspiracy of the United States against Islam and holy war (Jihad) will come to an end."

The United Nations- and US-designated terrorist was recently released from house arrest after a Pakistani court cited lack of evidence against him in the Mumbai attack case.

Abdul RehmanMakki, the second in-command of the JuD, said: "May Allah almighty willing this 'Ghazwa-e-Hind' (Battle of Hind) and 'Ghazwa-e-Saleeb' (Battle of Christianity) will continue and this conference had pledged and promised they would wage jihad for Palestine like JuD had been waging Jihad in Kashmir."

Hafiz Saeed, who formed Milli Muslim League (MML), is planning to contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan.

India has protested against Pakistan time and again for harbouring Saeed. He is wanted for allegedly plotting the Mumbai attacks that took place on November 26, 2008.

wionews.com/south-asia/hafiz-saeed-calls-for-jihad-against-the-us-28248

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Pakistan: 2017 saw big terrorist attacks on Shia mosques, shrines and Christian church

January 1, 2018 - 10:09 AM

Saudi-US backed Takfiris terrorists of Pakistan continued to attack Shia mosques, shrines saints and Christian’s church alongside massacring innocent people from Parachinar to Quetta throughout 2017.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Eidgah Market, Parachinar - January 21

The beginning of 2017 saw a deadly attack in Eidgah Market in Shia majority Parachinar city of Kurram Agency. Shia Muslims had gathered to buy and sell fruits and vegetables in the agency's major town when a powerful explosion struck leaving more than 25 Shia Muslims dead and over 60 injured.

The wounded were rushed to Agency Headquarters Hospital, but those with critical injuries had to be shifted to Peshawar as the facility in Parachinar lacked the material required for proper treatment.

However, the state of the hospital in Parachinar remained the same during emergency situations in the explosions that followed.

Charring Cross, Lahore - February 13

In February, Lahore fell target to terrorist designs when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest near the Punjab Assembly as hundreds of people gathered for a protest.

The Lahore blast claimed the lives of at least 14 people, including senior police officers.

The protest near the Punjab Assembly was being held by chemists and owners of medical stores against the drug rules imposed by the provincial government.

Lal ShahbazQalandar shrine, Sehwan - February 16

Hardly three days had passed since the Lahore incident when another powerful explosion took place in Sehwan city. On the evening of February 16, hundreds had gathered at the shrine of Lal ShahbazQalandar for the dhamaal – the place was jam-packed when a loud blast occurred.

The incident left at least 90 people dead and over 300 injured. Just like Parachinar, in Sehwan too, there was no proper health facility where blast victims could be treated, compounding the agony of the victims and their families.

Parachinar Shia Mosque/Imam Bargah - March 31

On March 31, terror returned to yet again to Parachinar. A busy marketplace outside a Shia mosque Imam Bargah was targeted by a powerful bomb explosion, killing at least 24 Shia Muslims and leaving 90 others injured.

This time too, locals said the injured persons and their attendants were faced with difficulties at the Agency Headquarters Hospital Parachinar due to the dearth of medical facilities and staff.

Bedian Road, Lahore - April 5

In April, Lahore was once again targeted by terrorists, this time a census team, escorted by Pakistan Army was the target.

At least six people were killed and 15 others were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated its explosives on Lahore’s Bedian Road.

While speaking to Geo News, a spokesperson for the Punjab government, Malik Ahmed Khan, had said the target seemed to be the census team and the soldiers accompanying them.

Mastung, Baluchistan - May 12

In May, it was Baluchistan that became the target of terror attacks not once, but multiple times in the months which followed.

On May 12, a suicide bomb blast targeting the convoy of a senior politician in Baluchistan killed at least 27 people while 30 others were injured.

The incident occurred in Mastung district of the province — not very far from the provincial capital — where a vehicle carrying Senate Deputy Chairperson Maulana Abdul GhafoorHaideri was struck by the blast.

The targeted person, Haideri, escaped the attack with light injuries but his driver and an aide were killed.

Turi Bazaar, Parachinar - June 24

For the third time in the year, another major attack took place in Parachinar, Kurram Agency.

This time, twin blasts occurred in the bustling Turi Bazaar area of Parachinar, where Shia Muslims were shopping for iftar and Eid, which was to be celebrated in most parts of the country the following day.

At least 45 Shia Muslims were killed and 300 others were wounded in the explosion. While speaking about the incident, a local official, Nasrullah Khan, had said the first explosive device detonated when the market was crowded with shoppers. He added the second blast took place when people rushed to the site to rescue the wounded. The twin blasts hit Parachinar just a day before Eid despite security arrangements being in place in the area.

KotLakhpat Lahore SabziMandi, Lahore - July 24

In July, it was Lahore again, when an explosion in a busy vegetable market claimed lives of at least 26 people, including nine policemen.

The attack was a suicide blast, the bomber detonated his explosives amid a crowd in KotLakhpatSabziMandi near Arfa Karim Software Technology Park on July 24.

The explosion came a few days after the Army started its operation, Khyber IV, in Rajgal Valley of Khyber Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Pishin bus stop, Quetta - August 13

After Eid celebrations were marred by violence, an attempt was also made ahead of Independence Day, with a huge suicide explosion targetting Pakistan Army personnel in Quetta.

At least eight army men were martyred and seven civilians killed in the blast that took place in a vehicle at Pishin bus stop on August 13.

The subsequent fire caused by the explosion took the surrounding vehicles into its folds.

JhalMagsi shrine, Baluchistan - October 5

After a month’s lull, the people of Baluchistan witnessed terrorism once again, a suicide blast at Fatehpur shrine in JhalMagsi district of the province on October targeted worshippers as they visited a Sufi shrine.

At least 20 people were killed and 33 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up after he was intercepted by police guards on duty outside the shrine.

It was said that the shrine was packed with people at the time of the incident – many had gathered to attend the anniversary celebrations of Syed Cheezal Shah.

Directorate of Agriculture Extension, Peshawar - December 1

As the year neared its end, a students’ hostel was targeted in Peshawar, leaving nine dead and more than 30 injured.

Early in the morning on December 1, Directorate of Agriculture Extension on University Road, Peshawar was attacked by terrorists.

SSP Operations Sajjad Khan said five attackers wearing suicide jackets reached the compound in a rickshaw.

They were said to be wearing burqas in the rickshaw so as to avoid detection.

The police official said the attackers' first target was the security guard of the premises, following which they made their way inside towards the students' hostel of the Agriculture Training Institute, attacking whoever crossed their path.

Bethel Memorial Methodist Church, Quetta - December 17

A church in Quetta was attacked in the week leading up to Christmas, killing nine and injuring at least 50 others.

Bethel Memorial Methodist Church was hit by terrorists when a service was underway with at least 400 people in the hall for prayers.

Although the security personnel managed to stop the terrorist from wreaking havoc inside the church, families who lost their loved ones were left devastated regardless, not being able to celebrate Christmas the way they would have wanted to.

en.abna24.com/news/central-asia-subcontinent/pakistan-2017-saw-big-terrorist-attacks-on-shia-mosques-shrines-and-christian-church_875186.html