Pakistan Ulema Council Supports Construction of First Hindu Temple In Islamabad
New Age Islam News Bureau
13
Jul 2020
•
Pakistan Restores Bank Accounts of Hafiz Saeed, His Four Top Aides: Report
•
Hagia Sophia The Latest Muslim-Christian Tussle Over Holy Sites
•
Bangladesh Restricts Public Eid Prayers Amid Pandemic
•
Sudan Allows Alcohol for Non-Muslims, Decriminalizes Apostasy
•
Saudi Arabia Highlights Support for Bosnia Massacre Victims
•
Pope Francis ‘Deeply Pained’ By Turkey’s Decision on Status of Hagia Sophia
•
US Created Daesh, Other Terrorist Groups, To Advance Own Imperial Agenda:
Analyst
-------
Pakistan
•
Pakistan Ulema Council Supports Construction of First Hindu Temple In Islamabad
•
Pakistan Restores Bank Accounts of Hafiz Saeed, His Four Top Aides: Report
•
Riyadh offers assistance for building Quran complex in Islamabad
•
NCOC meeting in Lahore today to discuss virus strategy for Eid
•
4 Pakistan Army soldiers martyred in intelligence-based operation in North
Waziristan: ISPR
•
PML-N leader demands midterm polls, claims PTI govt’s policies have failed
--------
Mideast
•
Hagia Sophia The Latest Muslim-Christian Tussle Over Holy Sites
•
Official: Yemen in Possession of Extensive Intel on Targets in S. Arabia, UAE,
Tel Aviv
•
Police: Tehran Medical Center’s Blast No Act of Sabotage or Terrorism
•
Deputy Minister: US Losing Strategic Advantages of Iran Due to Hostility
•
Turkey signed secret agreements with countries to abduct dissidents from
abroad: UN
•
Turkish FM says Libya’s GNA will only agree to ceasefire after taking Sirte,
Jufra
•
Iran says misaligned radar led to Ukrainian plane downing
•
Houthis back down over access to ‘ticking timebomb’ Red Sea tanker
--------
South Asia
•
Bangladesh Restricts Public Eid Prayers Amid Pandemic
•
10 Taliban militants killed, wounded in Ghazni province: Thunder Corps
•
Taliban attacks ‘damaging’ peace process, says Afghan government
•
Dhaka looks the other way as rights groups push for Rohingya relocation
•
Terror attacks in Afghanistan kill 26 security forces
--------
Africa
•
Sudan Allows Alcohol for Non-Muslims, Decriminalizes Apostasy
•
Four civilians killed as unrest to unseat President Keita rages in Mali capital
•
Mali opposition rejects president’s concessions aimed at ending political
impasse
•
Libya oil company says UAE ordered Haftar’s forces to re-impose blockade on
crude exports
•
Tunisian families battle to repatriate children of militants
--------
Arab world
•
Saudi Arabia Highlights Support for Bosnia Massacre Victims
•
Lebanon's Top Christian Cleric Takes To Criticizing Hezbollah During Sermons
•
Cutting access to aid in Syria will intensify suffering for 1.3 mln people:
Agencies
•
UN restarts cross-border aid to Syria via only 1 access point due to Russian
pressure
•
Saudi air defenses foil Houthi missile, drone strikes on civilian targets
--------
Europe
•
Pope Francis ‘Deeply Pained’ By Turkey’s Decision on Status of Hagia Sophia
•
UK Should Target Iranian Judiciary With Sanctions, MPs Told
•
UK selling spyware to 17 repressive regimes, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
•
Libyan, Italian top diplomats hold talk on migration
•
Four arrested in UK over suspected Islamist terrorism plot
--------
North America
•
US Created Daesh, Other Terrorist Groups, To Advance Own Imperial Agenda:
Analyst
•
UN Security Council renews Syria aid via Turkey
•
Jordan king meets US CENTCOM commander in Amman
--------
New Zealand
•
New Zealand Mosque Shooter To Represent Himself At Sentencing
--------
India
•
NIA Arrests Two People from Pune In Case Related to Islamic State: Report
•
Pak again breaches truce along LoC in J&K’s Nowshera sector
•
Revocation of Article 370 aimed at ending terrorism, anti-national activities
in J&K: Ram Madhav
•
Terrorist killed in ongoing encounter in J-K’s Anantnag
•
J&K: Three militants killed in encounter with security forces in Sopore
--------
SoutheastAsia
•
Continue Engaging with Transgenders Like You Used to As Mufti, Women’s Group
Urges Minister
•
Hurdling The Adverse State-Civil Society Relation Against Terrorism In
Southeast Asia?
•
Indonesia is failing to control coronavirus outbreak, say experts
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/pakistan-ulema-council-supports-construction/d/122359
--------
Pakistan
Ulema Council Supports Construction Of First Hindu Temple In Islamabad
July
11, 2020
Ashrafi said those opposing the construction of
the temple have an incorrect interpretation of Sharia. (Photo:
REUTERS/Representational)
-----
An
umbrella group of Muslim organisations in Pakistan has extended its support to
the construction of the first Hindu temple in Islamabad and denounced the
controversy over the issue, according to a media report on Saturday.
The
Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), whose members include Islamic clerics and legal
scholars of different Islamic traditions, also said the Constitution of
Pakistan categorically defines the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims living in
the country, Dawn newspaper reported.
“We
denounce the controversy over construction of the temple. This [making it
controversial] by extremist clerics is not correct. The PUC will call a meeting
and will also present its point of view to the Council of Islamic Ideology
(CII),” PUC chairman Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi said on Friday.
The
CII is a constitutional body responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic
issues to the Pakistan government.
Pakistan’s
religious affairs ministry has written to the CII to seek its opinion on the
government’s funding for the construction of the temple in the capital city
amid opposition from some Muslim groups.
Minister
of Religious Affairs NoorulHaqQadri on Wednesday said there was no problem
related to the construction of the temple, but the real issue was whether it
could be built with the public money.
The
government has approved Rs 10 crore for the Krishna temple, which will come up
in a 20,000 sq ft plot in the capital’s H-9 administrative division.
Ashrafi
said those opposing the construction of the temple have an incorrect
interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law).
“To
have their own place of worship and offer a life as per their faith and
tradition are the right given to all non-Muslims in the Constitution and as
well as in Sharia,” he was quoted as saying by the paper.
Ashrafi,
who is also the chairman of Muthahida Ulema Board, Punjab, said that the Hindus
living in Pakistan were not residents of any conquered land; therefore, the
interpretation presented by certain clerics about the rights of non-Muslims in
Sharia is not applicable to Hindus and members of other religious minorities
living in the country, the paper reported.
“Dozens
of worship places have been established in the country for religious minorities
and recently the government constructed the Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh
pilgrims,” he said. “Did anybody observed any threat to Islam – No.”
“We
are very clear; no extremist group or individual should be allowed to usurp the
rights of minorities in the country,” he added.
A
Pakistani court on Tuesday dismissed three identical petitions challenging the
construction of the first Hindu temple in Islamabad.
A
single bench of the Islamabad High Court delivered the judgement, making it
clear that there was no bar on the Institute of Hindu Panchayat from building
the temple on the land allotted to it, using its own funds.
Hindus
form the biggest minority community in Pakistan.
According
to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. However, according to
the community, over 90 lakh Hindus are living in the country.
Majority
of Pakistan’s Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share
culture, traditions and language with their Muslim fellows.
https://indianexpress.com/article/pakistan/pakistan-ulema-council-supports-construction-of-first-hindu-temple-in-islamabad-6501199/
--------
Pakistan
restores bank accounts of Hafiz Saeed, his four top aides: Report
Jul
12, 2020
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan has restored the bank accounts of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD)
chief and the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his four top
aides, a media report said on Sunday.
Saeed,
a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty on, was
arrested on July 17 last year in the terror financing cases. He was sentenced
to 11 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in February this year in two
terror financing cases. He is lodged at the Lahore's high-security Kot Lakhpat jail.
Abdul
Salam Bhuttavi, Haji M Ashraf, Yahya Mujahid and Zafar Iqbal - all on the UN
Security Council's terrorists list – were the other members of the JuD and
Lashkar-e-Taiba who got their bank accounts restored, The News reported.
They
are currently facing sentences ranging 1 to 5 years in Lahore jail for terror
financing cases filed against them by the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department
(CTD), the paper said.
"The
restoration of bank accounts has taken place following formal approval of the
Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council,” the paper said.
Citing
sources, the paper said that the JuD leaders had appealed United Nations for
restoring their bank accounts that they could run their family affairs.
"Initially
we did not want to file an appeal but we were advised to file it as it was
difficult for our leaders to run their affairs," a senior JuD leader was
quoted as saying by the paper.
These
leaders in their request to the government of Pakistan had also mentioned about
their financial income and sources of earning. The same was forwarded to the
UNSC along their bank account numbers and other related details, it added.
Saeed-led
JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is
responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people,
including six Americans.
The
US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated
Global Terrorist. He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267
in December 2008.
His
bank accounts were frozen by the Pakistani government complying with the UNSC
resolution.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-restores-bank-accounts-of-hafiz-saeed-his-four-top-aides-report/articleshow/76927211.cms
--------
Hagia
Sophia the latest Muslim-Christian tussle over holy sites
July
13, 2020
A top Turkish court has revoked the sixth-century
Hagia Sophia's status as a museum, clearing the way for it to be turned back
into a mosque (AFP Photo/Ozan KOSE)
-----
AFP
— Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia is to reopen for Muslim worship as a mosque
after an almost nine-decade hiatus, in the latest historic tussle with
Christianity over religious sites.
The
UNESCO World Heritage site was constructed as a cathedral during the Byzantine
empire but converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
in 1453.
A
Turkish court on Friday overturned a 1934 cabinet decision to turn Hagia Sophia
into a museum, clearing the way for a July 24 reversion to its status as a
mosque.
The
move adds to a long list of such conversions of holy sites over the centuries.
The following are examples:
Algeria
Algiers’
Ketchaoua Mosque was built in about 1612 and enlarged in 1794, making it one of
the country’s main mosques.
The
French, a year into their 1830-1962 colonial reign, turned it into the Catholic
church of Saint Philippe.
The
first mass was celebrated there on December 24, 1832.
In
1838, it was consecrated the Algiers Cathedral and enlarged, destroying most of
the old mosque.
But
with Algeria’s independence in 1962, Ketchaoua again became a mosque, hosting
its first Friday prayer in 130 years. Since then, it has been renovated with
Turkish funding.
Cyprus
Selimiye
mosque in northern Nicosia, originally the Roman Catholic cathedral of Saint
Sophia, was the work of French masons who accompanied the Crusades.
It
was built in the 13th century during the reign of the Frankish Lusignan dynasty
on the eastern Mediterranean island.
The
cathedral was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman seizure of Nicosia in
1570.
Tradition
has it that imams preparing to deliver the Friday sermon climbed into the
minbar, or pulpit, leaning on a sword used during the conquest of the city.
The
finest example of Gothic architecture on the island, the Catholic cathedral of
Saint Nicholas in the northeastern city of Famagusta was consecrated in the
14th century during the Lusignan period.
It
was transformed into Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque after the Ottoman empire
captured the coastal city in 1571.
Egypt
Attarine
Mosque in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria was originally an octagonal
church dating back to 370 and dedicated to St Athanasius, a pivotal figure in
the Coptic Orthodox church.
The
place of worship was converted into a mosque during the Islamic invasion of the
seventh century, and it is named after its location in the old spice market of
Alexandria.
During
the Napoleonic invasion, explorers believed the tomb of Alexander The Great was
buried inside the mosque in a green sarcophagus.
It
was renovated several times during Ottoman rule, and has been open to the
public since its latest rebuilding in 1976.
Lebanon
The
site of today’s Al-Omari Grand Mosque in downtown Beirut was a Roman temple or
bath site before the Byzantines built a church there.
After
the Islamic conquests it was converted into a mosque named after Islam’s second
caliph, Omar ibn al-Khattab.
But
when Frankish crusaders conquered Beirut in the early 12th century they turned
it back into a church, before its capture in 1187 by Muslim conquerer Saladin —
who turned it back into a mosque.
The
crusaders then recaptured it and transformed it into a cathedral in 1197.
Finally in 1291 the Mamluks captured Beirut and converted it back into a
mosque, which it has remained ever since.
West
Bank
Mosques
in the Palestinian West Bank town of Nablus also reflect its history throughout
the Byzantine era, the Islamic conquests, the Crusades and the Mamluk period.
A
number are linked to Judaism and early Christianity, such as Al-Khadra, which
has been a mosque since 1187 after having served as a church during the
Crusades.
The
city’s Great Mosque was originally a church built by Roman Emperor Justinian I
in the 6th century.
In
1186, it was converted into a mosque by the Ayyubids after Saladin’s conquest.
Spain
Cordoba
mosque, known as the Mezquita, in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia was the
holiest site of Muslim worship in the West during the Umayyad caliphate of the
10th and 11th centuries.
It
has been a Catholic site since the Christian reconquest of the city in 1236,
after which a cathedral was built inside the building.
Regarded
as one of the finest monuments of Moorish architecture, the mosque-cathedral
was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1984.
Syria
The
Umayyad mosque in the Old City of Damascus is one of the holiest places of
worship in Islam.
It
is located on the site of a temple of Jupiter which Roman Emperor Theodosius I
transformed into a church in the fourth century.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hagia-sophia-the-latest-muslim-christian-tussle-over-holy-sites/
--------
Bangladesh
restricts public Eid prayers amid pandemic
SM
NajmusSakib
12.07.2020
DHAKA,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh on Sunday barred congregational prayers
on the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha on traditionally-designated open grounds
-----
Bangladesh
on Sunday barred congregational prayers on the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha
on traditionally-designated open grounds to prevent the spread of the novel
coronavirus, according to senior officials.
Authorities
announced the decision after an inter-ministerial meeting that, precluding the
use of Eidgah -- open areas where prayers were usually held en masse -- instead
urging people to perform prayers in mosques, which are smaller.
Ministry
of Religious Affairs secretary Md. Nurul Islam chaired the meeting, senior
information official Mohammad Anwar Hossain confirmed to Anadolu Agency. The
meeting maintained a similar ruling on prayers for the previous Muslim ceremony
of Eid al-Fitr in May.
The
latest decision required carpets to be removed from mosques during the annual
prayer, the disinfection of mosque premises before prayers and greater
sanitation and social distance measures.
Instead
of the National Eidgah, the main congregational Eid prayer will be held at the
National Mosque Baitul Mukarram.
The
decision also ordered the elderly, children and those suffering from disease
not to attend the prayer.
Another
senior official of the ministry, Moazzem Hossain, told Anadolu Agency that
authorities would issue a formal order Monday on the decision.
He
said the ruling was arrived at via "consultation with experts, officials
and religious scholars at the meeting."
Eid-ul-Adha
is expected to be celebrated on July 31 or Aug. 1 in Bangladesh, subject to the
sighting of the moon.
The
South Asian country on Sunday registered 47 more coronavirus-related deaths, raising
the total to 2,352, as well as 2,666 daily infections for a total 183,795.
Besides,
some 5,580 people have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall
tally to 93,614 since the first case was detected on March 8.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/bangladesh-restricts-public-eid-prayers-amid-pandemic/1908129
--------
Sudan
allows alcohol for non-Muslims, decriminalizes apostasy
12.07.2020
Sudan
will allow non-Muslims to consume alcohol and has scrapped laws that had made
apostasy potentially punishable by death, the country's Justice Minister
NasredeenAbdulbari said.
The
changes come a year after Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir was toppled
following mass protests against his three-decade rule.
Sudan
now "allows non-Muslims to consume alcohol on the condition it doesn't
disturb the peace and they don't do so in public," Abdulbari said in an
interview Saturday evening on state television.
Alcoholic
drinks have been banned in the country since former President Jaafar Nimeiri
introduced Islamic law in 1983, throwing bottles of whisky into the Nile in the
capital Khartoum. While Islamic tradition forbids the faithful from drinking,
Muslim-majority Sudan has a significant Christian minority.
A
string of reforms
The
minister also said that Sudan will decriminalize apostasy and ban female
genital mutilation, a practice which typically involves the partial or total
removal of the external genitalia of girls and women. According to a 2014
report by the UNICEF, Sudan's FGM prevalence rate is 86.6%.
Furthermore,
women will no longer need a permit from male members of their families to
travel with their children.
"No
one has the right to accuse any person or group of being an infidel... this
threatens the safety and security of society and leads to revenge
killings," said Abdulbari, who is part of a transitional government that
took power after Bashir's ouster. The transitional administration, installed
under a deal between protest leaders and military generals, has so far pursued
a string of reforms.
A
constitution adopted for the three-year transition period omits mention of
Islam as a defining characteristic of the state.
Earlier
this month, the transitional government had promised major reforms, after
thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding greater civilian rule.
https://www.dw.com/en/sudan-allows-alcohol-for-non-muslims-decriminalizes-apostasy/a-54149786
--------
Saudi
Arabia Highlights Support For Bosnia Massacre Victims
July
13, 2020
GENEVA:
Saudi Arabia participated in the 25th anniversary memorial of the Srebrenica
genocide that took place in July 1995.
Foreign
Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah delivered the Kingdom’s speech
via video conference.
He
conveyed the greetings of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to
the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
SefikDzaferovic, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and dignitaries who
were participating in the event.
The
minister affirmed that Saudi Arabia stood side by side with its brothers, the
families of the victims of the massacre.
He
said: “Our participation on behalf of Saudi Arabia, its leaders, government,
and people, is a humanitarian and moral obligation that the Saudi leadership
stands by every year.”
The
minister added that King Salman continued to support and stand by Bosnia and
Herzegovina, further confirming the unique and friendly relations between the
two countries.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1703886/saudi-arabia
--------
Pope
Francis ‘deeply pained’ by Turkey’s decision on status of Hagia Sophia
12
July 2020
Pope
Francis said on Sunday that he is “deeply pained” over the decision by Turkey
to change the status of Hagia Sophia — which was originally built in Istanbul
as a Christian cathedral — from a museum to a mosque.
In
a very brief, improvised remark, Francis, speaking from his studio window
overlooking St. Peter’s Square, noted that the Catholic Church marked Sunday as
International Day of the Sea. “And the sea brings me a little far away with my
thought: to Istanbul,” the pontiff said. “I am thinking of St. Sophia and I am
deeply pained.”
Francis
said no more but was clearly referring to the move by Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan to formally convert the monumental building back into a mosque.
The colossal Santa Sophia cathedral was turned into a mosque after the Ottomans
conquered the city in 1453. The Turkish secular government in 1934 decided to
make it a museum.
The
pope, who heads the Roman Catholic church, is adding his voice to strong
objections a day earlier by the head of the Geneva-based World Council of
Churches. That organization described its “grief and dismay” in noting that
Hagia Sophia has been “a place of openness, encounter and inspiration for
people from all nations.”
The
council's membership comprises Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches.
Erdogan
declared the monument open for Muslim worship after a high court annulled the
1934 government decision.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/07/12/Pope-Francis-deeply-pained-by-Turkey-s-decision-on-status-of-Hagia-Sophia.html
--------
US
created Daesh, other terrorist groups, to advance own imperial agenda: Analyst
12
July 2020
The
United States has created the Daesh terrorist group, along with other terrorist
outfits, to advance its own imperial agenda, says an American political
analyst.
Stephen
Lendman, author and political commentator in Chicago, made the remarks in a
phone interview with Press TV on Saturday.
On
Friday, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations censured the US assassination
of top Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani as a big gift to
Daesh and other terrorist groups in the region.
Takht-Ravanchi
said the targeted killing of General Soleimani was a “brutal and cowardly” act
and an “obvious example of state terrorism” perpetrated in breach of
international law.
In
a drone attack on January 3, the US assassinated General Soleimani, commander
of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,
the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and a group
of their companions near Baghdad International Airport.
Both
commanders enjoyed deep reverence among Muslim nations over their endeavors in
eliminating the US-sponsored Daesh terrorist group in the region, particularly
in Iraq and Syria.
The
operation was conducted with the authorization of US President Donald Trump.
“Unlike
what the Pentagon and the Trump regime and others in Washington said, the
killing had absolutely nothing to do with self-defense. The US is threatened by
no other nations. The US has had no enemies since World War II ended except the
ones it invents, and it invents them because it doesn't have any real ones,”
Lendman told Press TV on Saturday.
“General
Soleimani was very instrumental in eliminating Daesh in Iraq. I agree with
Iran's UN envoy saying killing him was a gift to Daesh. Well, it was really a
gift to the US because the US created Daesh, uses it along with al-Qaeda and
like-minded terrorist groups as proxy fighters to advance its imperial agenda
wherever the US decides to employ the fighters,” Lendman added.
The
analyst went on to say that, “The name really doesn't mean anything; It's who
these people are, what they do, and who they are serving. They are serving US
interests. They're US fighters, they do US killing and die for the US imperial
agenda.”
“They
are armed, trained, funded, and housed at the US military bases... US
helicopters and other transport planes, I guess, transport these people to
various areas where they want them used as proxy fighters.”
In
a recent report, Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions, said the assassination of General Soleimani
was "unlawful," and said the US had failed to provide sufficient
evidence of an ongoing or imminent attack against its interests to justify the
strike.
On
Thursday, the rapporteur said the US has put the world at unprecedented peril
with the assassination, warning that it was high time the international
community broke its silence on Washington’s unlawful killings.
In
response to the assassination, the IRGC fired volleys of ballistic missiles at
a US airbase in Iraq on January 8.
Subsequently,
Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill demanding the withdrawal of all foreign
military forces from their country.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/07/12/629470/US-Daesh-terrorist-group-imperial-agenda-Stephen-Lendman
--------
Pakistan
Riyadh
offers assistance for building Quran complex in Islamabad
July
13, 2020
LAHORE
- Saudi Arabia has offered financial assistance for building Pakistan’s first
state-owned Quran Complex here in the federal capital, officials confirmed on
Sunday.
Earlier,
Religious Affairs Minister PirNoorulHaqQadri announced that the government
wanted to build the complex in the federal capital to preserve historical
manuscripts of the Muslim scripture.
“This
would be the first government-owned Quran complex. We have got offers of
financial assistance for the building of the complex from Saudi Arabia, the
Saudi-based World Muslim League and some other Gulf countries,” spokesman of
the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Imran Siddiqui said
in an interview with Arab News.
He
added that the ministry has already initiated the process of land acquisition
near the Golra area of in the Islamabad Capital Territory.
The
center will also oversee and set standards for the publication of the Quran in
the country and would recycle worn pages of the holy book.
“This
would be a huge complex on approximately 10-Kanal land in Islamabad. The
complex will have different sections like error-free publication of new Quran
and a plant for the recycling of worn pages of the book gathered from all over
the country,” Siddiqui said.
Dr
MasoomYasinzai, rector of the International Islamic University Islamabad
(IIUI), hailed the plan as one that can be unifying for Muslims.
“In
this Quran complex they should also work on research to unite all the Muslim
from different schools of thought in Pakistan. The government should take
guidance from the Quran complex in Medina. It should have a proper board,
editing, evaluation and monitoring system for the error-free printing of the
Quran,” he said. According to Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masud, former chairman of Pakistan’s
Council of Islamic Ideology, it is a constitutional obligation of the
government to oversee the publication of the Quran.
“Under
the Constitution of Pakistan, it is the responsibility of the government to
ensure error-free publication of the Quran. It would be a good step if the
government can implement standards like Saudi Arabia for the publication of the
holy book in Pakistan,” he said.
https://nation.com.pk/13-Jul-2020/riyadh-offers-assistance-for-building-quran-complex-in-islamabad
--------
NCOC
meeting in Lahore today to discuss virus strategy for Eid
Jul
13 2020
ISLAMABAD:
The federal government has decided to hold meetings of the National Command and
Operation Centre (NCOC) in the provincial capitals to devise a strategy to curb
the possible spread of Covid-19 during EidulAzha, and the first meeting in this
regard would take place in Lahore on Monday (today).
The
meeting would be chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and
Special Initiatives Asad Umar, an official statement said on Sunday.
In
the last 24 hours, 2,842 new virus cases and 87 fatalities were reported across
the country. The total caseload of the country, therefore, reached 250,977
while the total deaths stood at 5,257.
The
data released by the NCOC showed that about 400 patients, 393 to be exact, were
on ventilators across the country on Sunday while 1,427 ventilators were
available for new patients. Moreover, a total of 24,211 tests had been carried
out during the day.
Talking
to Dawn about the meeting to be held in Lahore, Mr Umar said: “Though there is
representation of the provinces in NCOC, but the idea behind the decision is to
hold separate meetings with the leadership of every province and discuss
different issues and difficulties faced by them.”
During
the meeting, he said, issues like the number of Covid-19 tests carried out each
day and contact tracing of patients would be discussed in detail.
The
strategy to deal with the ongoing health crisis has been formulated but the
main issue is how to implement the same in letter and spirit, according to the
minister.
“So
it has been decided that issues related to implementation will be discussed
with all the provinces and solutions will be suggested to them,” he said.
In
response to a question, the minister said that meetings with leaderships of all
the provinces would be held before Eid to ensure that the deadly virus did not
spread as much as it was feared during the upcoming religious festival.
“Though
it is not confirmed yet, but most likely we will hold the next meeting in
Sindh,” MrAsad said.
According
to the official statement, during the meeting in Lahore enforcement of the
standard operating procedures would also be discussed.
The
meeting would be attended, among others, by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar,
feberal Interior Minister retired Brig Ejaz Shah, the provincial health and law
ministers, chief secretary and inspector general of the province, and national
coordinator for NCOC.
Meanwhile,
Federal Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema, who tested positive
for Covid-19 three days ago, was admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical
Sciences, Islamabad, on Sunday.
According
to sources in the hospital, the 62-year-old minister, who is also a central
leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, is suffering from other ailments in
addition to Covid-19.
He
had initially quarantined himself at his home but had to be shifted to hospital
due to low oxygen level and other complications.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1568688/ncoc-meeting-in-lahore-today-to-discuss-virus-strategy-for-eid
--------
4
Pakistan Army soldiers martyred in intelligence-based operation in North
Waziristan: ISPR
Jul
12 2020
Four
soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred during an intelligence-based
operation (IBO) in North Waziristan, the military's media affairs wing said on
Sunday.
In
a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said: "Four
terrorists were killed during an IBO in Vezhda Sar, eight kilometres southwest
of Boya, Miranshah, North Waziristan district.
"Sanitisation
force conducted [an] operation against terrorists' hideout in Vezhda Sar this
morning. As soon as the troops cordoned off the area, terrorists opened fire.
All dug out terrorists were shot down by security forces," the statement
added.
Four
soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire, the ISPR said. The martyred
soldiers were identified as Sepoy Muhammad Ismail Khan, Sepoy Muhammad Shahbaz
Yasin, Sepoy Raja Waheed Ahmed and Sepoy Muhammad Rizwan Khan.
Meanwhile,
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute
to the martyred sepoys, calling them "heroes".
"No
sacrifice is greater than the supreme sacrifice of life for the motherland.
Valiant soldiers of our armed forces who laid down their lives in operation in
North Waziristan are our heroes," he said in a tweet.
"The
nation will remain grateful to them for their sacrifices."
In
May, seven soldiers were martyred in two separate terror attacks in Balochistan.
According
to the ISPR statement, terrorists targeted a vehicle of the Frontier Corps (FC)
in Mach using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), claiming the lives of six
Pakistan Army soldiers.
The
martyred soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Ihsan Ullah Khan, Naik Zubair
Khan, Naik Ijaz Ahmed, Naik Maula Bux, Naik Noor Muhammad and Abdul Jabbar.
In
a separate incident at Kech, another soldier, SipahiImdad Ali was martyred in
an exchange of fire with militants.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1568576/4-pakistan-army-soldiers-martyred-in-intelligence-based-operation-in-north-waziristan-ispr
--------
PML-N
leader demands midterm polls, claims PTI govt’s policies have failed
Jul
13 2020
HYDERABAD:
A Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader and former education minister Rana
Mashhood has said that mid-term elections are necessary for the survival of
democracy.
He
was speaking to the media at the residence of a local party leader, Anwar
Soomro, in Qasimabad on Sunday.
He
claimed that all policies of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)
government had failed, and remarked that “there must be an end to experiments.
Rana
Mashhood alleged that the present ruling team was corrupt and involved in flour
and sugar scam. He said the rulers allowed prices of medicines and urea to go
up. The government also failed to control coronavirus and save the national
economy from collapse.
He
claimed that it was due to the government’s flawed policy on Covid-19 control
that such cases had increased and several thousand people died of the virus. He
said that had government sealed the country’s borders timely, the situation
would have been different. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, the
economy had been in the doldrums, he added.
He
pointed out that new scams involving federal ministers were emerging.
He
observed that although the opposition had not disturbed it, the PTI
government’s performance appeared ‘zero’. He said it [the government] should
get full time. However, he said, the rulers must be held accountable.
Rana
Mashhood claimed that today, people were missing [convicted and ousted prime
minister] Nawaz Sharif as “his government had brought about prosperity in the
country”.
He
said that the PML-N had strengthened the country. The opposition parties had
agreed to raise the slogan of vote ko izzat do’ but then some parties fell prey
to expediencies, he said.
Commenting
on the PTI government’s position, he said that it could get only 160 votes for
the passage of the budget 2020-21 as against the simple majority of 172 votes.
“It has lost support of majority in the parliament,” he said.
He
also noted that there were only a few persons who were released funds from the
national exchequer. “They are the same people who had given money to Imran Khan
[in his election campaign] and now Mr Khan was obliging them.
The
PML-N leader said that whenever people’s mandate was insulted, everything would
reverse so far as development and prosperity was concerned. He said that the
man who used to collect donations, was now begging for Pakistan. He said that
soon a multi-party conference would be held and it would discuss everything
before taking decisions.
He
said that present rulers had destroyed economy. He said it was PML-N’s
government which had eliminated terrorism and launched the project like the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said that Nawaz Sharif had
endeavoured to strengthen Pakistan and Shahbaz Sharif developed the country.
He
said PML-N had promoted harmony and this was making people to recall Nawaz
Sharif’s era. He said that today provinces’ share in resource distribution was
being slashed and attempts were also being made to do away with the 18th
Constitutional Amendment.
Rana
Mashhood said that when government policies failed, it summoned mid-term
elections to seek people’s mandate.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1568633/pml-n-leader-demands-midterm-polls-claims-pti-govts-policies-have-failed
--------
Mideast
Official:
Yemen in Possession of Extensive Intel on Targets in S. Arabia, UAE, Tel Aviv
Jul
12, 2020
“The
Saudi-led coalition should not bomb the oil installations and economic
infrastructures in Ma’arib province. We are capable of targeting and
annihilating all their oil and economic facilities and we can give them a more
crushing response,” General Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim was quoted by
Arabic-language September 26 news website as saying on Sunday.
“The
Yemeni Armed Forces are in possession of extensive intelligence on a large
number of vital and key points in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Tel Aviv and farther
areas,” he added.
Al-Hakim
said that the Army and popular committees of Yemen will soon deploy in Ma’arib
city in the Central parts of the country.
In
relevant remarks earlier this month, the spokesman for Yemen’s Armed Forces
censured Saudi Arabia for waging a war against the impoverished Arab country
over destruction of two civilian vessels in the strategic Red Sea, vowing that
Yemeni troops and allied fighters will respond to the act of aggression.
Brigadier
General Yahya Saree denounced the attack as a flagrant violation of an
agreement reached between the warring Yemeni sides during a round of
UN-sponsored peace negotiations in Sweden back in December 2018.
Saree
noted that the attack on the Yemeni boats, which took place 6 kilometers (3.7
miles) South of the Yemeni port of Salif on Thursday, was as an attempt by
Saudi Arabia to cover up its crimes.
He
emphasized that the Yemeni army troops and allied fighters from Popular
Committees will not sit idly by and watch such criminal acts and violations.
Saree
also criticized the United Nations for its support of the Saudi war and siege
on Yemen, urging the world body to assume its responsibilities and immediately
stop the attacks and ongoing naval blockade.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990422000949
--------
Police:
Tehran Medical Center’s Blast No Act of Sabotage or Terrorism
Jul
12, 2020
“The
criminal investigation department of the police in Tehran have come to the
conclusion in their investigations that the fire at Sina clinical center was
not related to security issues at all and was the result of flaws,” General
Hodavand told FNA on Sunday.
He
added that 12 people were arrested in relation to the case, adding that 10 of
them have been released after investigations two days ago, one was freed on
bail yesterday and another person is still in custody due to inability to
provide bail.
Hodavand
said that most of the detainees were the clinic’s officials.
The
heavy explosion due to gas leak in ‘Sina Athar’ medical center in Northern
Tehran on Tuesday resulted in death of 19 people and injury of 14 others.
In
a message on Wednesday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah
Seyed Ali Khamenei expressed condolences on the deadly explosion and ensuing
fire to the families of the victims, and called on the relevant bodies to
launch an immediate probe to ascertain the causes of the incident accurately
and expertly.
He
also emphasized the need for special care for the injured and the bereaved
families of victims of the incident.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990422000996
--------
Deputy
Minister: US Losing Strategic Advantages of Iran Due to Hostility
Jul
12, 2020
“It
is true that a part of the US hostility towards Iran is due to the Middle-East
issues, the Zionist regime of Israel’s security and Iran’s defense for the
Palestinian people’s rights, but the major part of this hostility more than any
anything else derives from Iran’s geopolitical and strategic importance,”
Baharvand wrote in a memo in the Persian-language Iran newspaper on Sunday.
“The
US has lost Iran’s strategic advantages. They have chosen the wrong path and
embarked on enmity towards Iran instead of concessions to Iran, in a bid to
prevent the presence of their rivals in the region and compensate for their
failures,” he added.
The
Iranian officials have many times stressed that they cannot trust Washington
and its allies due to their enmities.
Last
September, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali
Khamenei underlined the necessity for the country's interaction with different
world states, except Israel and the US, and said Washington and the European
states which have shown clear animosity towards the Iranian nation should not
be trusted.
"The
way for interaction and negotiation with any country, except the US and the
Zionist regime, is not closed but the countries which have hoisted a flag of
hostility against the Islamic Republic, headed by the US and some European
countries, should not be trusted at all because they clearly show animosity
towards the Iranian nation," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing members
of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran.
"The
Europeans step onto the scene seeming as a mediator and negotiate. They make
contacts, speak for a long time, and make promises, but all in vain," he
said, and added, "They are neither able enough nor dominant enough nor
have sufficient possibilities, yet their thoughts are the very same thoughts of
the Americans."
Ayatollah
Khamenei blasted the European states for disloyalty to the nuclear deal and
their practical commitment to the US sanctions, and said they are unlikely to
act any differently in future as well; "therefore, we should be fully
disappointed at the Europeans".
He
stressed that there is no ban or problem with meeting or signing contracts with
the European states, but no hope should be pinned on them and no trust should
be laid in them.
Ayatollah
Khamenei referred to the social, political and economic situation of the US and
Europe, and said, "The US which is our main enemy is today the most hated
government in the world and the Europeans are themselves admitting their
weaknesses and decline of their power."
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990422000904
--------
Turkey
signed secret agreements with countries to abduct dissidents from abroad: UN
12
July 2020
Turkey
signed secret agreements with multiple countries in order to conduct
extraterritorial abductions of suspected state dissidents, according to a joint
letter penned by four UN rapporteurs.
The
letter, dated early May, notes allegations of secret agreements signed with
Azerbaijan, Albania, Cambodia, and Gabon – all countries that the UN has
received reports of human rights violations regarding abductions of Turkish
nationals.
Turkey
also targeted nationals in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lebanon and
Pakistan, according to the letter.
“The
Government of Turkey, in coordination with other States, is reported to have
forcibly transferred over 100 Turkish nationals to Turkey, of which 40
individuals have been subjected to enforced disappearance, mostly abducted off
the streets or from their homes all over the world, and in multiple instances
along with their children,” the letter reads.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app
Turkey’s
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has intensified a crackdown against his critics
in recent months, particularly against those with an alleged affiliation with a
religious movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim preacher who lives
in the United States.
Last
week news surfaced that arrest warrants had been issued for over 400 people,
including soldiers, doctors, and teachers.
Erdogan
has targeted the Gulen movement since 2016, when the organization, known in
Turkey as Hizmet, was designated a terrorist organization and Gulen along with
his supporters charged with leading a failed coup attempt in mid-2016.
The
agreements signed were written in a way that has deliberately allowed Turkey to
pursue its crackdown abroad, the UN letter said.
“The
[Turkish] Government has signed bilateral security co-operation agreements with
multiple States allegedly containing broad and vague references to combatting
terrorism and transnational crime. Sources claim that the agreements have been
phrased ambiguously to allow for expulsion or abduction of anyone deemed to be
a “security risk” from third countries party to the agreements,” it said.
Abduction,
torture, deportation
The
abductions generally tend to follow a similar pattern, the letter said.
After
Turkey has failed to secure a legal extradition, authorities resort to illegal
covert operations. Targeted individuals are placed under “around-the-clock
surveillance, followed by house raids and arbitrary arrests in undercover
operations by law enforcement or intelligence officers in plainclothes,” the
letter explained.
Once
arrested, the target is taken to an unmarked vehicle by force, after which they
can remain forcible disappeared for up to several weeks before deportation.
“During
that period they are often subjected to coercion, torture and degrading
treatment aimed at obtaining their consent on voluntary return and at
extracting confessions that would inform criminal prosecution upon arrival in
Turkey,” the letter said.
Turkish
operatives tended used a variety of torture methods to obtain these forced
confessions, including food and sleep deprivation, waterboarding, electric
shocks and beatings, the rapporteurs wrote in the letter based on personal
testimonies.
“This
is coupled with threats against lives, security and personal integrity of
family members and relatives,” the letter said.
Turkey
denies this claims. In a response to the UN letter dated mid-June, Turkey calls
the claims of torture “unfounded,” despite the testimonies listed by the UN.
Turkish
President Erdogan had previously vowed to “chop the heads off the traitors”
behind the 2016 coup. But Gulen leadership believe it was actually Erdogan that
planned the “staged” coup as “an excuse…to expand the persecution,” Alp
Aslandogan, a board member of the Gulen Institute and president of New
York-based nonprofit Alliance for Shared Values, which is associated with the
movement, told Al Arabiya English last week.
Turkey
has a history of using broad measures with a vague aim of state security to
crack down on dissenting voices.
In
one example, Amnesty International calls Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws “vague
and widely abused” in order to trump up charges against troublesome
journalists. Over 319 journalists have been arrested in Turkey since 2016, with
189 media outlets shut down, according to Turkey Purge, a website run by
Turkish journalists that documents arrests in the country.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/07/12/Turkey-signed-secret-agreements-with-countries-to-abduct-dissidents-from-abroad-UN.html
--------
Turkish
FM says Libya’s GNA will only agree to ceasefire after taking Sirte, Jufra
12
July 2020
The
Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya will only agree to
a ceasefire if the Libyan National Army (LNA) withdraws from the strategic
positions of Sirte and Jufra, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut
Cavusoglu told the Financial Times (FT) on Sunday.
Cavusoglo
told the FT that there is a “determination” among GNA officials to resume its
offensive against the LNA if it does not retreat from the strategic positions
in central Libya.
He
also hinted that Turkey could support a GNA offensive, saying that Ankara
considers the GNA’s “preconditions” for the ceasefire “legitimate and
reasonable,” according to the FT.
Turkey’s
intervention in Libya in May changed the course of the war in favor of the GNA,
which had been under siege in the capital Tripoli by the LNA, led by military
Gen. Khalifa Haftar.
The
GNA, supported by thousands of Syrian mercenaries sent to Libya by Turkey as
well as Turkish air defense systems, weapons, and troops, broke the LNA’s siege
and captured the strategic al-Watiya air base to the south of the capital.
Since
then, the GNA has been poised to attack Sirte and Jufra in central Libya, but
has not began a forward offensive. Both sides have vowed to control the
strategic center of the country, with Egypt and its allied LNA describing it as
a “red line” that would prompt escalation.
Sirte
is the western gateway to the country’s “oil crescent,” the central region that
contains over 60 percent of Libya’s oil, while Jufra is home to the al-Jufra
airbase.
The
GNA and Turkey rejected the Cairo Initiative, put forward by Gen. Haftar and
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, which called for an immediate
ceasefire.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/07/12/Turkish-FM-says-Libya-s-GNA-will-only-agree-to-ceasefire-after-taking-Sirte-Jufra.html
--------
Iran
says misaligned radar led to Ukrainian plane downing
12
July 2020
Iran
said that the misalignment of an air defence unit’s radar system was the key
“human error” that led to the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane
in January.
“A
failure occurred due to a human error in following the procedure” for aligning
the radar, causing a “107-degree error” in the system, the Iranian Civil
Aviation Organisation (CAO) said in a report late Saturday.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
This
error “initiated a hazard chain” that saw further errors committed in the
minutes before the plane was shot down, said the CAO document, presented as a
“factual report” and not as the final report on the accident investigation.
Flight
752, a Ukraine International Airlines jetliner, was struck by two missiles and
crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s main airport on January 8, at a
time of heightened US-Iranian tensions.
The
Islamic republic admitted several days later that its forces accidentally shot
down the Kiev-bound plane, killing all 176 people on board.
The
CAO said that, despite the erroneous information available to the radar system
operator on the aircraft’s trajectory, he could have identified his target as
an airliner, but instead there was a “wrong identification.”
The
report also noted that the first of the two missiles launched at the aircraft
was fired by a defence unit operator who had acted “without receiving any
response from the Coordination Center” on which he depended.
The
second missile was fired 30 seconds later, “by observing the continuity of
trajectory of the detected target,” the report added.
Tehran’s
air defenses had been on high alert at the time the jet was shot down in case
the US retaliated against Iranian strikes hours earlier on American troops
stationed in Iraq.
Those
strikes were carried out in response to the killing of a top Iranian general,
Qassem Soleimani, in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/07/12/Iran-says-misaligned-radar-led-to-Ukrainian-plane-downing.html
--------
Houthis
back down over access to ‘ticking timebomb’ Red Sea tanker
July
13, 2020
JEDDAH:
Houthi militias in Yemen finally backed down on Sunday over access to a
stricken oil storage vessel to prevent it from leaking more than a million
barrels of crude into the Red Sea.
Engineers
from a UN inspection team are now expected to board the FSO Safer in the next
few days to assess the vessel’s condition and carry out emergency repairs.
The
45-year-old Safer has been moored 7 km off the coast of Yemen since 1988. It is
stationary, with no engine or means of propulsion. The vessel fell into the
hands of the Iran-backed Houthis in March 2015, when they took control of the
coast around the port city of Hodeidah.
The
militants have refused for more than 5 years to allow international engineers
to board the Safer to carry out essential repairs, and as the vessel’s
condition deteriorates there are fears that the 1.4 million barrels of oil it
contains will start to seep out. A breach would have disastrous results for Red
Sea marine life and tens of thousands of people who depend on fishing for their
livelihood.
Apart
from corrosion, essential work on reducing explosive gases in the storage tanks
has been neglected for years. The Yemen government has warned the Safer could
explode and cause “the largest environmental disaster, regionally and
globally.”
The
latest problem came in May with a leak in a cooling pipe. “The pipe burst,
sending water into the engine room and creating a really dangerous situation,”
said Ian Ralby, chief executive of the maritime consultancy IR Consilium.
If
the vessel ruptures, “you’re going to have two catastrophes,” said Lise Grande,
the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.
“There’s
going to be an environmental catastrophe that’s bigger than almost any other
similar kind ... and it’s going to be a humanitarian catastrophe because that
oil will make the port of Hodeidah unusable.”
Critics
say the Houthis have been using the Safer to blackmail Yemen’s legitimate
government into offering concessions in peace talks brokered by the UN and to
enable them to sell the vessel’s oil. Yemeni Prime Minister MaeenAbdulmalik
Saeed wants the proceeds from selling the oil to be spent on health care and
humanitarian aid.
Crude
stored in the Safer’s tanks is worth about $40 million, half what it was before
prices crashed, and experts say it may be of poor quality and worthless.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1703881/middle-east
--------
South Asia
10
Taliban militants killed, wounded in Ghazni province: Thunder Corps
12
Jul 2020
The
Afghan National Defense and Security Forces killed at least 8 Taliban militants
and wounded two others during separate incidents in South-eastern Ghazni
province.
The
203rd Thunder Corps in a statement said a group of Taliban militants attacked
the security posts in Mangoor Bazar area located in the outskirts of Ghazni
city.
The
statement further added that the security forces killed 5 Taliban militants and
wounded 2 others during the clash.
The
security forces also destroyed a vehicle and 5 motorcycles during the clash,
the 203rd Thunder Corps added in its statement.
Meanwhile,
the 203rd Thunder Corps added that the Taliban militants attacked the security
forces in Khalo Khel area of Qarabagh district which resulted into a clash
between the two sides.
The
security forces killed 3 Taliban militants during the clash and destroyed 15
sacks of explosives, 25 rounds of 82mm rockets, 24 boxes of PKM machine gun
munitions and some other military kits, the 203rd Thunder Corps said.
https://www.khaama.com/10-taliban-militants-killed-wounded-in-ghazni-province-thunder-corps-08955/
--------
Taliban
attacks ‘damaging’ peace process, says Afghan government
SAYED
SALAHUDDIN
July
13, 2020
KABUL:
Afghanistan’s government on Sunday accused the Taliban of increasing its attacks,
casting doubt on future negotiations with the insurgent group.
A
promise of future peace talks was part of a historic peace deal signed in
February between the Taliban and the US in Doha, Qatar. But negotiations have
already been delayed twice because of disagreements between President Ashraf
Ghani’s government and the Taliban. The talks were expected to pave the way for
a total withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan by next year.
In
a series of tweets on Sunday, SediqSediqqi, Ghani’s chief spokesman, said the
“intensification of violence by the Taliban lately,” which also claimed
civilian lives, “damages hopes for the start of the talks and stable peace in
the country.”
It
follows a statement by HamdullahMohib, Ghani’s national security adviser, who
said in a statement last night that the escalation of Taliban attacks was the
“main cause for the postponement of the talks.”
He
said: “The Taliban have intensified their violence in many parts of
Afghanistan, disrupting the process of direct talks and making it harder.”
Mohib’s
spokesman, Javid Faisal, said on Saturday that in the past week alone, the
Taliban had staged attacks in 16 of the country’s 34 provinces, resulting in
the deaths of at least 23 civilians.
He
did not give an estimate of casualties sustained by government forces. However,
official data released last month showed that hundreds of army and police
personnel died during Taliban attacks in June.
The
Taliban has rejected the claims of the government. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid
blamed Kabul for several strikes which “led to the fatalities among
non-combatants.”
These
include a rocket attack at a cattle market in southern Helmand in June, where
human rights groups say dozens of civilians, including children, were killed.
“A
political solution is the only alternative that we have for ending the war and
changing the situation in Afghanistan. No hindrance should be created against
this,” Mujahid told Arab News on Sunday.
He
accused Kabul of blocking the start of peace talks by not releasing 5,000
Taliban prisoners, a condition demanded by the insurgent group ahead of
negotiations.
While
Kabul has freed over 4,000 Taliban prisoners, it said last week that it would
not release 600 of them, “as they had committed various types of crimes.”
Mujahid
described the government move as “one excuse after the other.”
He
said: “The release of the rest of the prisoners is a must. If the process of
release of prisoners is not completed, the talks cannot begin, and there is a
possibility that fighting will intensify and then we will have to settle the
conflict through military means.”
Experts
warn that Ghani’s government is under increasing pressure.
Former
diplomat and analyst Ahmad Saeedi said Ghani is under pressure from Washington,
which “wants to show that it is keen to conduct talks, but from the other side
wants this process to continue for five years,” until Ghani’s term ends.
“Ghani
wants the Taliban to join his government, while the Taliban consider his
government fragile, arguing that if he does not engage in talks, then they will
take power by force after the US pulls out troops,” Saeedi said.
Another
analyst, Taj Mohammad, said the lack of progress in setting a fixed time for
the talks was a blow for the peace process and “showed that the actual negotiations
would be highly complicated and difficult.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1703776/world
--------
Dhaka
looks the other way as rights groups push for Rohingya relocation
July
12, 2020
DHAKA:
Bangladesh has yet to decide on the relocation of more than 300 Rohingya
refugees, including children, from Bhasan Char Island to the camps in Cox’s
Bazar district, more than two months after they were quarantined there amid the
nationwide coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, officials told Arab News on
Sunday.
“As
of today, there is no decision to relocate the Rohingya to the mainland refugee
camps in Cox’s Bazar. The Rohingya are (being) taken care of by the Bangladesh
Navy, and everything is going well over there,” Shah Rejoan Hayat, joint
secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MDMR), said.
The
Rohingya were rescued by the Bangladesh Navy on May 2 and sent to Bhasan Char
after being stranded at sea for weeks following Malaysia’s decision to deny
them entry due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
However,
the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Bangladesh to move the Rohingya
from the “flood-prone island” in the Bay of Bengal, accusing officials of using
the pandemic to “detain refugees” on Bhasan Char, which it says is extremely
vulnerable to monsoon storms.
“Bangladesh
authorities are using the pandemic as an excuse to detain refugees on a spit of
land in the middle of a churning monsoon sea while their families anxiously
pray for their return,” HRW said in a statement released on Thursday.
It
added that the Bangladeshi government was “inexplicably delaying aid workers’
access to support the refugees with immediate care, and refusing to reunite
them with their families in the Cox’s Bazar camps.”
According
to HRW, the quarantined refugees “do not have access to food, clean drinking
water or medical care,” while others have allegedly been “beaten up and
mistreated by the authorities,” the statement said.
However,
Bangladeshi authorities have rejected HRW’s claims, reasoning that the 308
refugees were sent to the island because authorities were afraid they might
have contracted COVID-19.
“These
Rohingya were denied access by Malaysia, Thailand and driven out from Myanmar.
Bangladesh was kind enough to accept them on humanitarian grounds. So
Bangladesh doesn’t deserve any criticism in this regard, it might be applicable
for some other countries,” Mohammad Shamsuddoza, additional refugee relief and
repatriation commissioner, told Arab News.
Hayat
said HRW’s concerns were unfounded because Bhasan Char, an artificial island
completed in 2006, had been constructed to be protective.
“The
Bangladesh Navy has a forward base over there and enough protective measures to
ensure the safety of inhabitants on the island,” Hayat, who is also the chief
of the MDMR’s refugee wing, said.
He
added that to safeguard Bhasan Char from tidal floods and natural disasters,
the navy had built a 13 kilometer long and 3 x 37 meter dam on the island,
which also has 120 cluster villages for nearly 100,000 refugees.
Each
Bhasan Char house has concrete rooms measuring 2 x 2.5 meters, with small
windows and a toilet, for 11 people. The current ratio in Cox’s Bazar camps
stands at 1 house to 22 people, with around 1.5 million refugees living there.
Additional
measures include 120 cyclone shelters that are constructed 4 feet above land,
with a “full-fledged medical unit and enough food supplies” available for the
refugees on the island, a source from the Bangladesh Navy’s headquarters told
Arab News, requesting anonymity.
“The
lives of the inhabitants on the island are completely safe during any tidal
floods and cyclone. Around 200 of our members are stationed on the island
including ten officers,” he added.
Meanwhile,
the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was waiting for the government’s approval
for a visit to Bhasan Char to “assess the immediate humanitarian situation and
specific needs” on the island.
“Terms
of reference have been shared with the government, and we are continuing to
await feedback. Several months have passed since the refugees were transferred
to Bhasan Char, and it is now urgent for the UN to have access to them,” Louise
Donovan, UNHCR spokesperson at Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Sunday.
Donovan
added that the impending monsoon season could pose a higher risk.
“With
the onset of monsoon and cyclone seasons, the UNHCR is concerned for the safety
of all people living in low lying coastal areas of India and Bangladesh,
including on islands such as Bhasan Char, as well as those Rohingya refugees
who may remain on boats at sea,” Donovan added.
Bangladesh
has spent around $300 million to make the island habitable for 100,000 Rohingya
in a bid to decongest overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, to accommodate refugees
fleeing persecution. Most fled from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State following
a brutal military crackdown.
A
plan to relocate the first batch of Rohingya was postponed last November after
the UN raised questions about the safety measures and living conditions on the
island.
Buddhist-majority
Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though
their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all of them
have been denied citizenship for decades, and they are also denied freedom of
movement and other basic rights.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1703756/world
--------
Terror
attacks in Afghanistan kill 26 security forces
Shadi
Khan Saif
13.07.2020
KABUL,
Afghanistan
At
least 26 security forces were killed in northern Afghanistan amid a surge in
Taliban claimed attacks, officials confirmed on Monday.
Spokesman
for the governor of Kunduz province, EsmatullahMuradi told Anadolu Agency the
insurgents staged coordinated attacks in Chahar Dara and Imam Sahib districts
late Sunday evening. He confirmed that 14 security forces and three Taliban
insurgents were killed in exchange of fire.
The
Taliban took responsibility for the attacks in Kunduz. The group's spokesman
Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in a statement that 19 government forces have been
killed in attacks on check points in both districts.
In
nearby Badakhshan and Ghor province, the Taliban orchestrated similar deadly
assaults killing at least 12 security forces, officials told Anadolu Agency.
In
another statement, the group's spokesman also claimed this attack, asserting
that eight policemen were killed.
The
local Salam Afghanistan radio reported that a suicide car bombing rocked
northern Samangan province early on Monday. It added casualties were feared in
this attack targeting the local office of the intelligence agency NDS.
The
Taliban in Afghanistan on Sunday out-rightly rejected growing calls for
cease-fire by the Afghan government and international community saying they are
yet to find "an alternative" to the ongoing insurgency.
Mujahid
earlier said in a series of tweets that implementation of the Doha agreement
with the US and start of intra-Afghan negotiations are necessary toward
deescalation and end of war. "If anyone seeks ceasefire before talks then
such is illogical. War is raging precisely b/c we have yet to find an
alternative," he said.
Last
week, Afghan President Mohammed Ashraf Ghani warned the peace process might
face "serious challenges" if Taliban continued with the war.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/terror-attacks-in-afghanistan-kill-26-security-forces/1908479
--------
Africa
Four
civilians killed as unrest to unseat President Keita rages in Mali capital
13
July 2020
Four
people, including two teenagers, were killed in violence that raged in the
Malian capital Bamako on Saturday and through the night, a hospital official
said.
Clashes
have erupted in Bamako as demonstrators push for the resignation of President
Ibrahm Boubacar Keita in the worst such civil unrest in years.
The
embattled Keita had on Saturday announced the dissolution of the West African
country’s constitutional court in a bid to calm the unrest.
“Among
the four dead civilians we have two minors aged 15 and 17,” a senior emergency
room official said on condition of anonymity.
Another
three civilians were found dead on Friday.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app
Witnesses
said on Saturday that security forces fired live rounds during violent
confrontations with the protesters.
Clashes
were particularly violent near the mosque where sermons are given by Imam
Mahmoud Dicko, who has emerged as the leading figure of the protest movement.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/07/13/Four-civilians-killed-as-unrest-to-unseat-President-Keita-rages-in-Mali-capital.html
--------
Mali
opposition rejects president’s concessions aimed at ending political impasse
12
July 2020
Mali's
opposition has rejected concessions by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita aimed
at resolving an escalating political crisis that has sparked deadly protests,
saying it would be satisfied only if he resigns.
Keita
announced in a speech late on Saturday he was dissolving the Constitutional
Court and would move to implement recommendations made last month by regional
bloc ECOWAS, which included re-running some of March's contested legislative
elections.
A
spokesman for M5-RFP, a coalition of political, religious and civil society
leaders that launched protests over a month ago calling for Keita to resign,
rejected his proposal on Sunday.
"We
are not going to accept this nonsense," the spokesman, Nouhoum Togo, told
Reuters, adding, "We demand his resignation plain and simple."
Keita,
who won a second term in 2018, has faced mounting public discontent over a
perceived failure to address the country's security and economic problems. The
wave of protests was sparked by a dispute over the elections. The court that
Keita proposed dissolving reversed several provisional results, handing
additional seats in parliament to the president's party.
Four
people died in the capital Bamako on Friday during a demonstration where
protesters occupied the parliament and national broadcaster, the government
said. It was the third major protest organized by the M5-RFP since June 5.
Togo
said the police shot and killed eight opposition supporters on Saturday, though
it was not immediately possible to corroborate that.
Police
officials could not be reached for comment.
Asked
about the claim, a security ministry spokesperson said he did not have any
information about that yet.
In
his speech, Keita said he remained open to dialogue with his opponents but
condemned acts of vandalism.
"The
state will take responsibility and fundamental liberties will be protected as
long as I have the great privilege to serve you," he said.
The
turmoil is a worry for Mali's neighbors and outside powers like France who are
waging a joint military campaign against extremist insurgents linked to
al-Qaeda and Daesh in West Africa's Sahel region.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/07/12/629448/Mali-opposition-Keita-concession-protest
--------
Libya
oil company says UAE ordered Haftar’s forces to re-impose blockade on crude
exports
13
July 2020
Libya’s
national oil company says the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been behind a
decision by eastern-based rebel forces to hinder its latest efforts to resume
crude exports for the first time in six months and re-impose a blockade on the
country’s oil industry.
Libya’s
Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC) said in a statement on Sunday that
oil exports had resumed on July 10 following negotiations with the rebel forces
led by renegade general Khalifa Haftar.
The
blockade, however, returned in place only a day later as Haftar’s forces
stepped back from the negotiations, added the NOC.
“NOC
has been informed that the instructions to shut down production were given to
(Haftar-led rebes) by the United Arab Emirates,” it said in a statement on
Sunday, resuming “force majeure on all oil exports.”
“This
is gravely disappointing, especially following repeated statements by very
senior representatives of the UAE last week in support of international efforts
to restart oil production in Libya,” it added.
The
NOC is the only Libyan firm that can produce and sell oil under UN-endorsed
agreements, which stipulate that revenues from the sales must flow into the
Central Bank of Libya in Tripoli.
Following
an agreement between Haftar’s forces and the internationally-recognized
government in Tripoli, the oil company announced on Friday it had lifted the
force majeure and resumed crude exports from all its key terminals.
Later
in the day, the Vitol tanker Kriti Bastion docked and loaded at Es Sider port
before sailing on Saturday, the first legal export of Libyan oil since the
blockade was imposed.
But
the rebel forces said Saturday that the blockade would remain in place until
the rebels’ demands were met on the distribution of the country’s oil income.
Haftar’s
forces say proceeds from oil sales should be fairly distributed among all
Libyan regions and not fund the sectors of the Tripoli government.
Ahmad
al-Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar’s militia, also called for the opening of a
bank account in a “foreign country” for the distribution of oil revenue.
Libya
— which sits atop the largest oil reserves in Africa — has been forced to stop
oil production since the rebel forces took control of the export terminals and
fields in the east in January and launched a push to squeeze resources of the
Tripoli government.
The
blockade has cost Libya 6.5 billion dollars in lost revenue, according to NOC.
The
NOC further said the states responsible for this blockade should be held to
account by the United Nations Security Council.
Haftar’s
forces began an offensive in April 2019 in an attempt to seize Tripoli and
unseat the government.
The
Libyan government, however, launched a counter-offensive backed by Turkey and
has so far managed to retake most of the areas seized by Haftar’s forces.
The
rebels have the support by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Russia, among
others.
The
North African country first plunged into chaos in 2011 when a popular uprising
backed by a NATO intervention led to the ouster of long-time dictator Muammar
Gaddafi.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/07/13/629485/Libya-oil-blockade-UAE-Haftar
--------
Tunisian
families battle to repatriate children of militants
July
13, 2020
KAIROUAN,
TUNISIA: Over WhatsApp from Tunisia, Taheyya has watched her grandchildren grow
up in Syria, where her son joined a militant group.
She
hopes one day to be able to hold the three surviving siblings in her arms, but
for now they are stuck in a displacement camp in the war-torn country.
“These
are our grandchildren. All we are asking is to be able to take care of them,
for them to live somewhere other than in war, poverty and ignorance,” Taheyya
said.
Like
others AFP spoke to, she preferred not to provide her surname for fear of
reprisals against the children.
For
three years, Taheyya has done the rounds of ministries and NGOs to try to
repatriate her three-year-old granddaughter and two grandsons, aged five and
six.
Their
father left for Syria in 2012, where he joined Daesh group and was killed.
She
said the eldest grandchild needed treatment for a head injury, and two other
siblings have already died because of a lack of medical care.
In
a folder, Taheyya carefully keeps a bundle of documents that sums up their
torturous lives: Pixelated photos, identity papers issued by the fleeting IS
caliphate.
The
children now live in a camp on the Turkish-Syrian border with their mother, a
young Syrian who was married when she was not yet 14.
Tunisians
have constituted one of the largest groups of foreign militants in Syria, Iraq
and Libya since 2011, with almost 3,000 departures, according to the Tunisian
authorities.
Like
Taheyya, dozens of other families are trying to repatriate at least 140
Tunisian children stuck in conflict zones, where their parents are suspected of
joining jihadist groups.
The
Observatory of Rights and Freedoms of Tunis, which is in contact with the
families, counts 104 children in Syria, almost all of them in camps. Three
quarters were born there and are under the age of six.
Another
36 are in Libya, either detained by militias or being looked after by the Red
Crescent.
While
public opinion at home is hostile toward the return of militants, President
Kais Saied raised families’ hopes in January by bringing back six orphans from
Libya and promising to “speed up the repatriation” of the others. But since
then, there have been no further returns.
From
a middle-class family in central Kairouan, Taheyya’s son was one of the first
in his neighbourhood to leave for Syria.
A
cook in the merchant navy, he survived a hostage-taking by Somali pirates and
later joined groups fighting the regime in Syria.
He
opened a restaurant in the city of Raqqa, once the de-facto capital of Daesh in
Syria, and was killed in late 2018 while trying to flee, according to his
family.
“He
had asked me to take care of his children,” his younger brother said, adding
that he himself had travelled to Turkey twice but had failed to obtain their
return.
“We
talk to them every two or three days, when the network allows, but we have gone
for several months without news,” Taheyya said.
“I
have never been able to hug them.”
Officials
at the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said that “the will exists” for repatriations,
pointing the finger at foreign authorities and the novel coronavirus pandemic
that has slowed down discussions.
The
Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria
denied the Tunisian government had contacted them about repatriations.
AFP
correspondents in Syria said they saw many Tunisians leaving the former Daesh
bastion of Baghouz during the final battle of 2019.
People
there were taken to the Kurdish-run Al-Hol camp, now home to thousands of Daesh
wives and their children.
No
specific figures were available for the number of Tunisians currently at
Al-Hol.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1703911/middle-east
--------
Arab world
Lebanon's
top Christian cleric takes to criticizing Hezbollah during sermons
12
July 2020
Lebanon’s
top Christian cleric stepped up criticism of the Iran-backed Shia group
Hezbollah and its allies without naming them on Sunday, saying Lebanese
rejected being isolated from their allies and driven into decline.
Lebanon
is suffering a financial meltdown which marks the biggest threat to its
stability since the 1975-90 civil war.
For
the second sermon in a row, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai stressed
the importance of Lebanon’s neutrality, implicit criticism of the heavily armed
Hezbollah over its support for Iran in conflicts with Sunni-led Gulf Arab
states.
Rai
carries weight as the head of the Maronite church, the Christian community from
which the president must be drawn in a sectarian system of government.
His
last two sermons have been seen to mark a shift to a more openly critical
stance against the policies of both Hezbollah and its ally President Michel
Aoun.
Both
back the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
“The
intervention was seen as a shift in his politics away from supporting the
president and more into criticizing the political position of the country,
regionally and internationally,” MohanadHage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East
Center said.
Rai,
in a copy of the sermon sent by email, said Lebanese “rejected any ...
parliamentary majority messing with the constitution ... and Lebanon’s model of
civilization, and that it isolate it from its brothers and friends ... and that
it move it from abundance to want and from prosperity to decline.”
Lebanon’s
crisis is rooted in decades of state corruption and bad governance by the
sectarian ruling elite.
Hezbollah’s
opponents say it shoulders blame as its alliance with Iran has led Gulf Arab
states that once supported Lebanon to keep their distance, closing off an
important source of aid.
Hezbollah
leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has called on Lebanon to look east as it seeks
help fix the economy, though he said last week this does not mean the country
should cut itself from the rest of the world.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/07/12/Lebanon-s-top-Christian-cleric-takes-to-criticizing-Hezbollah-during-sermons.html
--------
Cutting
access to aid in Syria will intensify suffering for 1.3 mln people: Agencies
12
July 2020
A
UN Security Council resolution that leaves only one of two border crossings
open for aid deliveries from Turkey into opposition-held northwestern Syria
will cost lives and intensify the suffering of 1.3 million people living there,
aid agencies said.
Western
states had pressed for aid access to continue through two crossings at the
Turkish border, but Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally in his war
against, and China vetoed a last-ditch effort on Friday to keep both open.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“In
northwest Syria, where a vital cross-border lifeline has been closed ... it
will be harder to reach an estimated 1.3 million people dependent on food and
medicine delivered by the UN cross-border,” aid agencies operating in Syria
said in a joint statement.
“Many
will now not receive the help they need. Lives will be lost. Suffering will
intensify.”
“With
the first case of COVID-19 confirmed in Idlib, an area with a severely weakened
health infrastructure, this is a devastating blow,” the statement added.
For
more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.
In
a separate statement, Physicians for Human Rights said the resolution had shut
down “direct routes to hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians in dire need
of food and medicine.”
Russia
and China have argued that the northwest can be reached from within Syria,
meaning via government-held territory, and that aid deliveries from Turkey
violate Syria’s sovereignty.
“This
issue should not be politicized,” deputy Russian UN envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy
said after the vote.
Louis
Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Council members buckled
and gave Moscow what it wanted – a further drastic reduction of cross-border
aid to desperate Syrians who rely on it for survival.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/07/12/Cutting-access-to-aid-in-Syria-will-intensify-suffering-for-1-3-mln-people-Agencies-.html
--------
UN
restarts cross-border aid to Syria via only 1 access point due to Russian pressure
12
July 2020
The
UN Security Council on Saturday passed a resolution to restart cross-border
humanitarian aid to Syria, but only after caving to Russian pressure to close
one of two access points into the war-torn country.
Following
a week of division and seven ballots, the Council passed a proposal submitted
by Germany and Belgium allowing the use of the Bab al-Hawa crossing point for
one year.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
measure passed with 12 of 15 votes, with Russia, China and the Dominican
Republic abstaining, diplomats said.
Authorization
for the continued transport of aid to Syria, a system in place since 2014,
expired Friday night after Moscow and Beijing used their veto power and the Council
then rejected a counterproposal from Russia.
With
the approval of the German-Belgian proposal on Saturday, the Bab al-Hawa
crossing point on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey will be maintained
for a year, until July 10, 2021.
This
will allow badly needed humanitarian aid to continue flowing to several million
Syrians living in the insurgent region of Idlib, which the Syrian regime does
not control.
For
weeks, Russia, Syria's most important ally, has been demanding an end to the
use of the Bab al-Salam border crossing, which leads to the Aleppo region in
northern Syria.
European
countries and the United States had wanted to maintain both crossing points.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/07/12/UN-restarts-cross-border-aid-to-Syria-via-only-1-access-point-due-to-Russian-pressure.html
--------
Saudi
air defenses foil Houthi missile, drone strikes on civilian targets
July
13, 2020
RIYADH:
Saudi Arabia's Air Defense Forces intercepted and destroyed two ballistic
missiles and six drones fired by the "terrorist Houthi militia"
toward Saudi Arabia on Sunday night, the alliance said early Monday.
Colonel
Turki al-Maliki, spokesman of the Arab Coalition supporting Yemen's legitime
government, said the Iran-backed militia fired the missiles and booby-trapped
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from the Yemeni capital Sanaa toward civilian
targets in Saudi Arabia.
It
was fortunate that the weapons of war were destroyed before they could hit
their targets, Al-Maliki said, without mentioning which places were targetted.
The
Houthis have for the past five years targetted various civilian areas and
industrial sites in the Kingdom. Among these were the airport in Riyadh, an oil
refinery in the Eastern Province, various targets in western regions of Najran,
Jazan and Asir, as well as the holy city of Makkah.
Al-Maliki
accused the Houthi militia of escalating the hostilities to target civilians
inside Yemen and neighboring countries and that such atrocities would not go
unpunished.
He
said the Coalition and takes will "take the necessary operational measures
to stop these terrorist acts ... in accordance with international humanitarian
law and its customary rules."
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1703851/saudi-arabia
--------
Europe
UK
should target Iranian judiciary with sanctions, MPs told
Paul
Peachey
July
12, 2020
A
new UK law targeting human rights abusers should sanction Iranian security
forces, judges and diplomats involved in illegal “hostage-taking”, British MPs
have been told.
Anti-torture
charity Redress said the UK should use new powers to restrict the travel and
freeze the assets of officials involved in detaining dual-nationals and using
them as bargaining chips in broader diplomatic battles.
“The
clear purpose of Iran’s unlawful detention of British and dual nationals has
been to exert diplomatic leverage over the UK,” said Charlie Loudon, the
group’s international legal adviser. “It is essentially a practice of hostage
taking.”
He
told the parliamentary Foreign Affairs committee, which is examining the UK’s
relations with Iran, that sanctions could be used to target security forces,
prison officers, judges and diplomats “who effectively market the detainees in
return for diplomatic advantage”.
He
claimed that the tactic had been effective in the case of US pastor Andrew
Brunson who spent two years in a Turkish jail. He was released two months after
the US froze the assets of two Turkish ministers.
UK
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced last week that 49 people would be
targeted under Britain’s first independent regime after leaving the European
Union. The 49 were from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and North Korea.
Families
of detainees in Iran had backed the use of the measure in December, claiming
that the failure of the UN and governments to punish Iran for illegal
detentions had emboldened the regime to continue with the tactic.
“There
should be a real clear cost for hostage taking,” Richard Ratcliffe, the husband
of jailed charity administrator Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, said last year. “It
should be anathema in the modern world.”
But
another expert told the MPs on Tuesday that attempts to sanction Iranian
officials would be ineffective using the new law named after Sergei Magnitsky,
a corruption whistleblower who died after torture in a Russian prison.
“They
[the sanctions] will be resented in a country that is constantly criticised and
that has a history of sanctions,” said Anicée Van Engeland, a senior lecturer
in international security at Cranfield University. “The population jokes about
sanctions and wonder when the US will sanction the air and the water.”
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/uk-should-target-iranian-judiciary-with-sanctions-mps-told-1.1048158
--------
UK
selling spyware to 17 repressive regimes, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
13
July 2020
Britain
is providing more than a dozen repressive regimes around the world with
wiretaps, spyware and other telecommunications interception equipment likely to
be used to spy on dissidents, according to public records.
The
rules are quite clear on this. The UK should not export security goods to
countries that might use them for internal repression. However, ministers have
quietly signed off more than £75 million in such exports over the past five
years to states rated “not free” by the NGO Freedom House.
Recipient
countries, 17 in all, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, as well as the United
Arab Emirates, which was the biggest recipient of licenses totaling £11.5
million alone since 2015.
The
UK has been accused of systematically failing to conduct proper checks on who
it sold arms to, while Labour called on the government to show it is working to
prove that it is complying with its own rules against arming dictators.
The
UK has also exported such goods to other states that are not officially rated
“not free” but where supplying spyware could cause concern.
Hong
Kong, while repressing protests, had a £2 million shipment approved last year,
and the Philippines, where police extrajudicial killings are rampant, has also
provided steady business for British firms peddling surveillance systems.
Labour’s
shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry told The Independent,
“The government has a legal and moral duty to ensure exports from Britain are
not used by other countries for the purposes of internal repression, and that
risk should clearly be at the forefront of their mind when those countries have
a track record of harassing political opponents and undermining democratic
freedoms, and when the equipment concerned is ripe to be abused in that way.
“The
government needs to show urgently how those risks were assessed in these cases,
and how this equipment was ultimately used.”
A
government spokesperson said, “The government takes its export responsibilities
seriously and assesses all export licenses in accordance with strict licensing
criteria. We will not issue any export licenses where to do so would be
inconsistent with these criteria.”
But
Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International UK’s program director for
military, security and police affairs, was alarmed that the UK did not seem to
be undertaking proper risk assessments when selling such equipment and said the
government’s controls were becoming “notorious” for their “faulty
decision-making”.
“These
figures are cause for real concern, unless and until UK ministers can
demonstrate that proper safeguards against repressive misuse were in place when
this equipment was dispatched,” he said.
“With
numerous human rights defenders arrested and jailed in countries like Saudi
Arabia, the UAE and Turkey in the past five years, there’s a greater need than
ever for the UK to be absolutely scrupulous in assessing the risk of UK
telecoms technology being used unlawfully against human rights activists,
journalists, and peaceful opposition figures.
“It’s
just not clear that the UK is undertaking proper risk assessments when selling
this equipment, and it’s not clear whether UK officials are making any effort
to track how the equipment is used in one, two or three years’ time.
“With
the UK’s licensing of arms exports already notorious for its faulty
decision-making, these figures are yet another reminder of why we need a
complete root-and-branch overhaul of the UK’s failing arms and security
equipment export control system. This overhaul should include the introduction
of a far more coherent and comprehensive system of reporting that clearly shows
exactly what we are selling, to whom and why.”
Earlier
in the week, international trade secretary Liz Truss announced the UK would be
resuming arms exports to Saudi Arabia, despite a court having previously
ordered that they be suspended.
The
government said it had reexamined claims that Saudi forces in Yemen had
breached international humanitarian law, and that any possible breaches were
“isolated incidents” because they had happened in different places and
different ways.
Andrew
Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade, a UK-based campaigning organization
working towards the abolition of the international arms trade, said the sale of
the spying equipment raised “serious questions and concerns”.
“These
sales are symptomatic of a dangerous and hypocritical foreign policy that has
consistently prioritized arms exports over human rights,” he said.
“Spyware
and surveillance equipment is often used against human rights defenders. Many
of the regimes buying the technology have a long history of inflicting brutal
and repressive laws and targeting campaigners and activists.
“Policing
in the UK and around the world is becoming even more militarized, and
surveillance is becoming even more intrusive. For companies and arms-dealing
governments like the UK to be promoting and selling this kind of equipment is
extremely irresponsible and reckless. It could fuel abuses for years to come.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/07/13/629488/UK-selling-spyware-and-wiretaps-to-repressive-regimes-including-Saudi-Arabia-China
--------
Libyan,
Italian top diplomats hold talk on migration
12.07.2020
TRIPOLI,
Libya
The
foreign ministers of Libya and Italy on Sunday discussed how to deal with
irregular migration, according to diplomatic sources.
The
spokesman of Libya's Foreign Ministry, Mohammed Al-Qablawi, said the
counterparts held a phone call on recent developments concerning migration in
Libya, as well as the measures taken by Tripoli on the issue.
Libya
lies on a major migration route to Europe as it grapples with civil war.
The
country's premier, Fayez Al-Sarraj, had attended the opening ceremony of an
immigration coordination center in Malta's capital Valletta on July 9.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/libyan-italian-top-diplomats-hold-talk-on-migration/1908127
--------
Four
arrested in UK over suspected Islamist terrorism plot
Paul
Peachey
July
10, 2020
Armed
police arrested four people during raids at a series of homes in the UK to foil
a planned Islamist terrorism plot.
Two
men, aged 27 and 31, and a 17-year-old boy were arrested in London while
another man, 32, was held in Leicestershire, central England, according to
police.
Raids
at the two homes in north-east London on Thursday were captured on camera by
onlookers.
The
footage showed a group of about eight officers at the doorway of the
semi-detached home ordering a man to put his hands on his head before he was
pulled out of the house and led away. Another video showed officers near a
block of flats.
Police
said that the 27-year-old suspect was bitten on the foot by a police dog during
the operation and was taken to hospital. His injuries were not serious.
The
four have been detained on suspicion of preparing terrorist attacks and were
held in custody while officers searched four properties.
Police
said the raids were part of an investigation into a possible Islamist terrorist
plot.
The
UK’s security services currently rate the threat of terrorism as ‘substantial’,
suggesting that an attack is likely.
Three
people died in a park in Reading, west of London, on June 20 in what was
described by police as a terrorist attack. A man, KhairiSaadallah, has been
charged with three counts of murder.
British
police have issued warnings that the Covid-19 lockdown has hampered
deradicalisation efforts and extremists could be using the opportunity to
exploit vulnerable youngsters spending more time online.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/four-arrested-in-uk-over-suspected-islamist-terrorism-plot-1.1047206
--------
North America
UN
Security Council renews Syria aid via Turkey
Betul
Yuruk
12.07.2020
NEW
YORK
The
UN Security Council on Saturday approved delivering humanitarian aid to Syria
for a year through one border gate.
The
15-member council reduced the number of gates for aid deliveries from Turkey to
Syria to one. Now only the Bab al-Hawa on the opposite of Cilvegozu border
crossing will remain open for aid delivery for another year.
After
strenuous backroom negotiations, the arrangement was reached to prevent
Russia’s veto and to renew the authorization -- which was in effect since 2014
and expired on Friday.
The
council had been deadlocked, with most members pitted against Syrian allies
Russia and China, in the council’s fifth vote this week on the issue.
The
resolution drafted by Germany and Belgium was supported by 13 countries, while
Russia, China, and the Dominican Republic abstained.
Under
the resolution, Bab al-Salam border crossing on the opposite of Oncupinar will
remain closed for UN aid deliveries.
Earlier,
Turkey had asked for an extension of the UN Security Council Resolution 2504
for another year to keep the Cilvegozu and Oncupinar border gates open for
delivering aid to Syria.
As
many as 300,000 vulnerable Syrians in northern Aleppo used to get the UN aid
through the Bab al-Salam, which now stands closed.
Around
2.8 million people in northwestern Idlib will, however, continue receiving aid
through the Bab al-Hawa, which will remain open.
While
the humanitarian aid was delivered to Syria previously through four border
crossings, Russia closed ar-Ramtha border crossing between Syria and Jordan,
and al-Yarubiyah with Iraq last year.
Syria
has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar
al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.
Since
then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million
displaced, according to UN figures.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/un-security-council-renews-syria-aid-via-turkey-/1907497
--------
Jordan
king meets US CENTCOM commander in Amman
Laith
al-Junaidi
11.07.2020
Jordanian
King Abdullah II held talks on Saturday in Amman with Gen. Kenneth McKenzi, the
head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM).
The
talks dwelt on the strategic partnership between the two sides and regional
developments, including the Palestinian issue, according to the official Petra
news agency.
The
discussions also touched on regional and international counter-terrorism
efforts, Petra said.
It
was not clear when the US military commander had arrived in Amman.
The
visit, however, came shortly after a US soldier died recently in Jordan, but
the circumstances of his death were not yet clear.
Jordan
is part of a US-led coalition against the Daesh\ISIS terrorist group in Syria
and Iraq.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/jordan-king-meets-us-centcom-commander-in-amman/1907240
--------
New Zealand
New
Zealand mosque shooter to represent himself at sentencing
July
13, 2020
The
gunman behind New Zealand's Christchurch mosque shootings sacked his lawyers
Monday and opted to represent himself, raising fears he would use a sentencing
hearing next month to promote his white-supremacist views.
Australian
national Brenton Tarrant will be sentenced on August 24 on 51 murder
convictions, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism arising from last
year's massacre, the worst mass shooting in New Zealand's modern history.
He
has pleaded guilty to the charges.
At
a pre-sentencing hearing on Monday, High Court judge Cameron Mander allowed
Tarrant's lawyers, Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson, to withdraw from proceedings
at the request of their client.
However,
the judge ordered "standby counsel" to be available next month in
case Tarrant -- who appeared in the Christchurch court via video link from an
Auckland prison -- changes his mind.
New
Zealand Muslim Association president Ikhlaq Kashkari questioned Tarrant's
motives, saying victims could be re-traumatized if the gunman were allowed to
spout far-right rhetoric from the dock.
"My
first concern when I read this was 'Oh my God, what's this guy up to, is he
going to use this as a platform to promote his views and thoughts?'," he
told AFP.
"A
lot of people are still going through trauma and this was seen as one of those
events that would give them closure. I hope it's not going to be something that
will trigger more pain instead."
'He
wants attention'
In
March 2019, Tarrant gunned down Muslim worshippers during Friday prayers at two
Christchurch mosques, live-streaming the killings as he went.
His
victims included children, women and the elderly.
The
former gym instructor unexpectedly reversed his not-guilty plea in March this
year, removing the need for a lengthy trial.
The
terror and murder charges all carry life sentences, setting a minimum
non-parole period of 17 years while also giving the judge power to imprison
without the possibility of release. New Zealand does not have the death
penalty.
Survivors
and the families of victims will be present during the three-day sentencing
hearing and Islamic Women's Council of New Zealand spokeswoman Anjum Rahman
said many would not want to hear from Tarrant.
While
she did not want to speculate on Tarrant's motive for representing himself, she
said: "He has shown in the past that he likes to get attention and he
wants attention.
"I
feel this is all part of that mindset."
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/07/13/new-zealand-mosque-shooter-to-represent-himself-at-sentencing.html
--------
India
NIA
arrests two people from Pune in case related to Islamic State: Report
Jul
13, 2020
The
National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two persons from Pune in
connection with a case related to activities of the Islamic State-Khoradan
Province (ISKP), sources said on Sunday.
The
accused were identified as Nabeel Siddique Khatri a resident of Pune’s Kondhwa
and Sadiya Anwar Sheikh resident of Yerwada from Pune.
They
were arrested by the NIA team in an earlier case registered with them with the
help of local ATS and Pune city Police.
Sheikh
(20) was earlier arrested by the ATS team in connection with ISIS links in 2015
and was later released after counselling.
In
2015 she was arrested from Airport while allegedly attempting to fly Syria to
join ISIS.
Both
accused are being sent to jail and further investigation is underway, according
to sources.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/pune-news/nia-arrests-two-people-from-pune-in-case-related-to-islamic-state-report/story-NlJTKdt7FUjqKhwu7cHiEP.html
--------
Pak
again breaches truce along LoC in J&K’s Nowshera sector
Jul
12, 2020
JAMMU:
Pakistan on Sunday evening again resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation
along the Line of (LoC) Control in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir’s
Rajouri district.
“Today
at about 7.30 pm, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing
with small arms & shelling with mortars along the LoC in Rajouri district’s
Nowshera sector,” Jammu-based defence spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said.
“Indian Army is befittingly retailing to the firing,” he said and added that
more details are awaited.
There
has been a spurt in ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the two frontier
districts of Rajouri and Poonch and five soldiers have been killed since June
4. Pakistan violated ceasefire in the Nowshera sector twice on July 10 and a
soldier, Havildar Sambur Gurung, was killed in the firing early on Friday
morning.
An
elderly woman was killed on July 8 and another was injured when Pakistan
initiated heavy firing and shelling along the LoC in Poonch district.
Havildar
Mathiazhagan P from Tamil Nadu was killed on June 4 in Sunderbani sector of
Rajouri district and Naik Gurcharan Singh (28) of Punjab was killed on June 10
in Manjakote sector of the same district. Sepoy LungambuiAbonmei (29) was
severely injured in Kirni sector of Poonch and succumbed to his injuries on
June 13 and Havildar Dipak Karki was critically injured in the firing and later
succumbed to his injuries in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district on June 22.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pak-again-breaches-truce-along-loc-in-jks-nowshera-sector/articleshow/76929415.cms
--------
Revocation
of Article 370 aimed at ending terrorism, anti-national activities in J&K:
Ram Madhav
Jul
12, 2020
SRINAGAR:
Ram Madhav, BJP national general secretary, on Sunday said the revocation of
Article 370 was aimed at ending terrorism and anti-national activities in Jammu
& Kashmir.
Madhav,
who arrived here to pay condolences to the surviving family members of slain
BJP politician, Waseem Bari, in Bandipora, later addressed party workers at a
meeting in memory of their late party member: “Some people are promoting
anti-national activities and guiding the youth down a wrong path. These
terrorists are targeting party workers and innocent civilians. The solution
lies in teaching a lesson to those (Pakistan) who make them militants and
export them here. Every person is ready to sacrifice for this country. We won’t
spare those who killed Waseem Bari and promote terrorism.”
Soon
after his arrival here, Madhav, along with MoS in PMO’s office, Jitendra Singh,
J&K BJP president Ravindar Raina, and a few other party members visited
Bari’s home in Bandipora, in north Kashmir.
“We
have come here to offer condolences to the bereaved family and provide them all
help. BJP leaders and workers stand with the party workers of Kashmir. Those
who committed this act (killed Bari, his father, and brother) will be tracked
soon and neutralized,” Madhav told reporters.
Waseem
Bari, his father, and brother were killed on Wednesday evening at their shop.
Following
the incident, 10 PSOs on the security detail of the Bari family were arrested
and dismissed from the services.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/revocation-of-article-370-aimed-at-ending-terrorism-anti-national-activities-in-jk-ram-madhav/articleshow/76929411.cms
--------
Terrorist
killed in ongoing encounter in J-K’s Anantnag
Jul
13, 2020
An
identified terrorist was gunned down by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s
Anantnag during a gunfight, officials said on Monday.
They
said two to three terrorists are holed up in Srigufwara area of Anantnag, where
the encounter erupted early in the morning. A woman has also been arrested,
according to officials.
On
Sunday, three terrorists were killed in a day-long encounter with security
forces in Sopore in the northern district of Baramulla.
Lashkar-e-Taiba’s
(LeT’s) Usman was among those killed in the encounter in Reban.
“He
was involved in a recent terror attack at Sopore in which one CRPF jawan was
martyred and a civilian was also killed. Big success for police and security
forces,” Vijay Kumar, Kashmir’s inspector general of police, said.
“Incriminating
materials including arms and ammunition recovered. Searches were going,”
Kashmir Police Zone also tweeted.
Suspected
terrorists also attempted to attack a deployment of central armed forces with
grenades at Awantipora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama.
“Terrorist
attempted an attack on CAPF at 1645 hours today at Chersoo, Awantipora.
Suspects moving on a bike threw two grenades on CAPF (who were) deploying
without taking out pins. Grenades did not explode. Efforts are on to nab the
terrorists,” a spokesperson of the Indian Army said.
Officials
have said around 134 terrorists have been killed in Kashmir so far this year
with 48 of them in June, the highest monthly toll in recent years. Majority of
these militants have been killed in south Kashmir.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/terrorist-killed-in-ongoing-encounter-in-j-k-s-anantnag/story-UDmIS4nVPQ44QBdhXj1AVK.html
--------
J&K:
Three militants killed in encounter with security forces in Sopore
July
12, 2020
Hours
after an encounter broke out between militants and security forces in Sopore
area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district, three militants were eliminated
Sunday, news agency PTI reported.
According
to the Police, the encounter started at the Rebbaan area of Sopore.
A
police official told PTI that the forces had launched a cordon and search
operation around midnight in Reban area of Sopore town in the wake of
information about militant presence in the area.
The
search operation turned into an encounter in the wee hours of Sunday when the
hiding militants opened fire at the security forces which was retaliated. The
official added that arms and ammunition have been recovered from the site of
the encounter.
Last
week, three members of a family, all linked to the BJP, were killed in a
militant attack on Wednesday evening in North Kashmir’s Bandipore, leading to
the arrest of their entire security detail. The attack happened right outside
the Bandipore Police Station, when the three were at the family shop, run out
of their home. The dead included a member of the BJP state executive committee,
Sheikh Waseem Bari, 27, and his father Sheikh Bashir Ahmad and brother Sheikh
Umar, who were also office-bearers of the party.
The
police later said that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the attack. Speaking to
reporters in Bandipore, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar
said they had identified the two militants involved in the attack. “One of them
is Abid (a local militant) and another is a foreigner,” he said.
In
another encounter, a militant and an Army soldier were killed while two security
forces personnel were injured in a gunbattle in South Kashmir’s Pulwama last
week.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/jammu-kashmir-baramulla-sopore-encounter-live-updates-6501606/
--------
SoutheastAsia
Continue
engaging with transgenders like you used to as mufti, women’s group urges
minister
12
Jul 2020
BY
ZURAIRI AR
KUALA
LUMPUR, July 12 — Sisters in Islam (SIS) has urged Datuk Seri Zulkifli Mohamad
to continue his engagement with the transgender community like he previously
did as a mufti, rather than calling for enforcement to “rehabilitate” them.
The
Muslim women’s rights group said the religious affairs minister should instead
remember how Islam teaches its adherents kindness, compassion and not to
discriminate, shame or act violently, regardless of their backgrounds, gender
or identities.
“Enforcement
to educate the transgender community back to the right path would only heighten
the stigmatisation against them and aggravate the aggression towards them by
the public, making them more vulnerable to violence and threats to their lives.
“In
the past, Zulkifli had positively engaged with the transgender communities in
his capacity as the mufti of the Federal Territories,” the group said in a
statement.
“We
urge that such engagements continue, in order to understand the situation and
challenges faced by the community and to show more compassion and empathy
towards them and treat them with full recognition of their humanity and
dignity,” it added.
In
2018, when he was then Federal Territories mufti, Zulkifli had called on
religious authorities to revisit a fatwa, or Islamic edict declaring
transgenderism as un-Islamic, adding that the phenomenon is not inherently
wrong.
He
had also in 2017 reached out to the transgender community via a discussion
which he streamed “live” on his Facebook in a session organised by charity
group Pertubuhan Kebajikan dan Kesihatan Umum Malaysia together with social
activist Syed Azmi Alhabshi.
Zulkifli
explained he was there not to judge or punish but instead to build bridges
between communities.
SIS
also questioned the so-called standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the
Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department’s (Jawi) enforcement.
“How
effective are these SOPs in ensuring that the individual is protected from any
kinds of harm? Will their dignity be preserved during raids? What kinds of
mechanisms are in place to ensure that these SOPs are properly adhered to?” it
asked.
On
Friday, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department said Jawi would not
merely be conducting arrests but also provide religious education so that the
transgender community can “return to the correct path”.
Zulkifli’s
remark appeared to be in response to risqué photos on social media by cosmetics
entrepreneur Nur Sajat, which prompted the ire of some Muslim hardliners.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/07/12/continue-engaging-with-transgenders-like-you-used-to-as-mufti-wom/1883711
--------
Hurdling
The Adverse State-Civil Society Relation Against Terrorism In Southeast Asia?
By
Rizal G. Buendia
July
13, 2020
In
the United Nations (UN) Security Council’s meeting in April 2020, UN
Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres acknowledged that in spite of the current
COVID-19 pandemic, “the threat of terrorism remains alive.” Terrorist groups
see a “window of opportunity” to violently attack governments while their
attention is turned towards addressing the pandemic. Likewise, in the opening
of the 2020 virtual Counter Terrorism Week in July 2020, Guterres states that
the pandemic has highlighted the use of “new and emerging forms of terrorism,
such as misuse of digital technology, cyberattacks and bioterrorism,” hence
calls for vigilance.
Evidence
from the ground had shown that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is
real and serious. The European Union’s (EU) Counter-terrorism Coordinator,
Giles de Kerchove, says in a confidential briefing to EU member states that
terrorists and Islamic militants seek to exploit the crises to “change
societies and governmental systems through violence.” Meanwhile, Norway’s top
military official in Iraq confirms that attacks by Islamic State in the Middle
East are on the rise as the region grapples with the pandemic.
The
situation in Southeast Asia is not much different. Between February and March
2020, the International Police (INTERPOL) led an operation of law enforcers
coming from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines (BIMP) that resulted in the arrest of 180
individuals suspected to be members of terrorist groups including the Abu
Sayyaf Group. Captured with the suspects were high-powered firearms, illegally
assembled explosives, and illicit goods. The operation also rescued 130 human
trafficking victims. The operation confirmed that COVID-19 pandemic has not
stopped terrorist and organized crime groups from carrying out their
activities.
Terrorism
continue to be a global challenge in spite of the global health crisis. It is
real and serious. Islamic militants and far right-wing extremists have been
emboldened to pursue their activities as governments have concentrated their
efforts in addressing the pandemic in their own national domain.
Given
this predicament, UN Secretary-General Guterres suggested in his address on the
Counter-Terrorism Week that one of the key counter-measures in resolving
terrorism is the vital participation of “civil society representatives, the private sector, women and young people”
not only in preventing terrorism but also in “building (an) inclusive and resilient
societies.”
Civil
society organizations (CSOs) and terrorism
Generally,
civil society is associated primarily with non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) or groups, and charities. It is oftentimes referred to as the civic or
“third,” community, and non-profit sector, in contradistinction to public
(government) and private sectors. It consists usually of a range of voluntary
associations including political parties, trade unions and professional bodies,
private foundations, educational and research institutions and think tanks,
religious, faith‐based, and community‐based organizations, and women’s, human
rights, social and environmental groups working on a definite and defined
interest and aspiration of a particular sector of society but operating outside
of governmental and private (commercial and for-profit) sectors or spheres.
As
early as 2006, the UN has already recognized the role of CSOs in mitigating
terrorism through the General Assembly’s adoption of the Global
Counter-Terrorism Strategy (Resolution 60/288) (UNGA 2006a). The Strategy
affirms the determination of UN member states to “further encourage
non-governmental organizations and civil society to engage, as appropriate, on
how to enhance efforts to implement the Strategy” (UNGA 2006 par 3[e]). The
vital role of non-governmental and civil society organizations (NGOs/CSOs) in
the global strategy against terrorism has likewise been highlighted by then UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan in his April 2006 report entitled “Uniting against
Terrorism: Recommendations for a Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy”. (UNGA
2006b A60/825).
In
Southeast Asia, its regional organization, the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), had recognized the role of CSOs in abating terrorism only in
2017 on the occasion of the 31st ASEAN Summit. It endorsed the Manila
Declaration to Counter the Rise of Radicalization and Violent Extremism . The
Declaration was further adopted at the 11th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on
Transnational Crime (hereinafter referred to as the AMMTC) as ASEAN
Comprehensive Plan of Action on Counter Terrorism . The Plan of Action (POA)
was elaborated at the 12th AMMTC in 2018
and updated at the 13th AMMTC in 2019 to
cover up to 2025.
The
late recognition of the CSOs in addressing terrorism lies on the peculiar
characteristics of CSOs in the region as well as the lukewarm appreciation of
the state on CSOs’ potential, capability, and key role in resolving terrorism.
Peculiarities
of civil society in Southeast Asia (SEA)
Southeast
Asia’s diversity in terms of state system, type of regime, societal structure,
stage of economic development, cultural framework, and breadth and depth of
peoples’ activism, makes the region an excellent case in which to interrogate
the scope and limits as well as ascertain the quality of civil society. Understanding
civil society in Southeast Asia would give us a better appreciation how it
would be able to contribute in mitigating if not eradicating the roots of
terrorism in the region.
Unlike
in Europe or in North America where civil society is highly distinguishable
from the state, civil society in Southeast Asia is less distinct. Schak and
Hudson (2003) argue that the dividing line between the spheres of civil society
on one hand and public and private sectors on the other hand in Asia is
blurred; the state plays a central, if not domineering role, in the formation
and establishment of CSOs. They are not just autonomous non-state voluntary
organizations but intricately intertwined with the power and function of the
state. The independence of CSOs from the state is therefore dubious.
Johan
Saravanamuttu (1997), using his survey of civil societies across the region,
declares that CSOs are weak compared to the power of the state because they
“have had their incipient features shaped primarily by the economic milieu
engendered by a dominant state structure,” rather than having grown organically
out of politics (p. 2). Ben Kerkvliet (2003) says that while there are several
budding and emerging CSOs in Vietnam, they continue to be highly constrained by
the state. In spite of their peaceful advocacies for reforms in government
institutions, laws, and communication and media, they are not allowed to
criticize Communist Party leaders or officials, the military, and national
policies, and thus cannot be unreservedly “political” lest they lose what space
they have (pp. 15-16).
David
Brown and David Martin Jones (1995) avow that the dominant party regime in
Singapore has effectively restrained the political participation and free
exchange of ideas among the middle class. This renders the process of
democratization in illiberal democratic Singapore “the expansion of political
participation and consultation within the limits defined by the state” rather
than the project of an adversarial civil society. (p. 84; also in Jones and
Brown 1994). In a later study of Jones (1998), he finds out that a “modular
civil society” – one premised on the differentiation of political and
socioeconomic spheres – is not emerging in the region but a “political change
reflects a conservative, managerial strategy to amplify political control by
forging a new relationship with an arriviste middle class (p. 163).
The
proliferation of NGOs since the 1980s until late 1990s in Malaysia allowed them
to perform a central role in both electoral and informal politics. The active
participation of NGOs in politics outside the state pressured the latter to
open a wider democratic space notwithstanding the presence of institutional
constraints that inhibit the promotion of human rights and advancement of the
rule of law – less independent judiciary, controlled media, and employment of
the Internal Security Act (ISA), among others.
Francis
Loh (2003) argues that Malaysians disillusioned with political parties and
electoral politics precipitated CSOs to engage in informal politics. The
political mobilization of CSOs did not only offer the venues for participation
outside the channels of electoral politics, but also permit them to work with
opposition political parties that eventually helped “to enrich those parties as
well as hasten the process of political reform” (see also Weiss 2006). However,
Saliha Hassan (2002) warns that NGOs need to beware of both exclusionary
tendencies and state co-optation to enjoy the expanding space for democratic
participation,
Gerard
Clarke’s (1998) in-depth study of the Philippines notes that NGOs both
strengthen and weaken civil society. He illustrates how state-civil society
collaboration fortifies the state and expands civil society political
participation. His study shows that civil society is less concerned with its
autonomy from the state when they can achieve their objectives through a
strategic alliance with the state.
Indonesia,
according to Robert Hefner (2000), is as an Islamic state that supports
“democracy, voluntarism, and a balance of countervailing powers in a state and
society” (pp. 12-13). He notes the emergence of a Habermasian public sphere in
Muslim Indonesia by highlighting “civil pluralist Islam.”
Overall,
civil society in the region may not be so consistently a force for
democratization or so staunchly independent of the state as most Western
literature presumes, yet may still be an important space, among others, for
political engagement and transformation. This recalibration of the concept
“civil society” offers a clearer lens on the notion of civil society-state
nexus in the region more generally.
Furthermore,
Alagappa (2004) concludes, among others, in his volume Civil Society and
Political Change in Asia that Asian civil societies bear features of both
neo-Tocquevillian/liberal democratic (associational) and neo-Gramscian/New Left
(cultural and ideological frames with the former gaining ascendancy as state
institutions gain legitimacy.
Although
there has been a proliferation of CSO, it has not resulted in the
institutionalization of non-state public sphere. CSOs generally have yet to
establish themselves as independent and autonomous entity from the state. While
CSOs have checked the power of the state on the one hand, and influenced the
political dynamics of communities on the other hand, interactions between these
two spheres vary significantly in contemporary Southeast Asia.
The
opportunities for civil society to engage or enter into partnership with
government may be limited in countries where civil society structures are weak
or non-existent and conversely, may be boundless in countries where civil
society is robust and vigorous.
CSOs
and state relations
Given
the colonial history of Southeast Asian countries, except Thailand which served
as a buffer state between the British and French empires, and difficulties
encountered by leaders to building their nation-state after their respective
independence owing to numerous rebel groups seeking power, relationship between
state and civil society is tainted with mistrust. Many governments are deeply
suspicious of civil society, and would actively resist any national or
international effort to boost its power relative to the state.
Sumpter
(2018) opines that security forces engaged with counterterrorism are not
accustomed to working with community stakeholders and civil society
organisations. This predicament results in a poor engagement between civil
society and state. Cooperation, co-ordination, and exchange of information
related to terrorism between civil society and government cannot materialize in
a hostile environment. It was even accounted that a number of CSOs in Indonesia
having CVE programmes are not being coordinated nor harmonized with the efforts
of the state, hence lead to wastage of resources.
The
dilemma in establishing a working relationship between civil society and state
is compounded when one operates in a less democratic and less politically open
society, in an authoritarian or anocratic states. In such situation,
radicalization is not atomized but open and widespread — deepening the conflict
between contending forces and widening the fissures of society amid parties,
ethnicities, social groups, and ideologies.
The
inability of autocratic and anocratic regimes in SEA to accommodate civil
society or provide CSOs reasonable democratic space to engage in socio-economic
activities and political reform endeavours on the notion that they threaten the
stability of the state does not rest on any material basis. Gnanasagaran (2018)
says that there is a disconnect between the state and CSOs. He cites that in
2016, under Lao PDR’s chairmanship of ASEAN, Vientiane refused to host the
ASEAN People’s Forum (APF).
Tadem
argues that from 2005 to 2015, individual ASEAN states have consistently
resisted CSO participation and engagement in ASEAN critical issues, including
terrorism. Despite the rhetorical emphasis on participatory regionalism,
Allison and Taylor (2016) contend that regional CSOs and non-state actors have
limited capacity to influence ASEAN.
Generally,
Southeast Asian political elites have restrictive attitude towards CSOs as the
latter speak out against human rights abuses, demand resolution of local
grievances, and clamour for social justice. However, it has been an established
fact that restricting CSOs from undertaking their legitimate functions simply
exacerbate the risk of future terror. Jeong-Woo and Murdie (2018) study yielded
no evidence proving that legal restrictions on civil society diminish the
number of terrorist attacks within the country.
Greer
and Watson (2016) claim that traditional “retributive” anti-terror approaches —
which include military/police action and legal imprisonment – though urgently
needed, “aggrieve or isolate populations vulnerable to radicalization.” They
claim that “retributive approaches do little to reduce recidivism rates or
disrupt the underlying cycles of anger and grievance central to
radicalization.”
Singapore’s
multi-stakeholder collaboration and grassroots approach, despite a less
democratic society, is worth mentioning. Its Religious Rehabilitation
Group is a voluntary group of ulama and
asatizah (Islamic scholars and teachers) in Singapore, has been deemed
successful in countering extremism through “restorative” approach. Its mission
is to restore and rectify the “misinterpretation” of Islamic concepts and
disrupt or counter the narratives assumed central to radicalization. It works
within the “hearts-and-minds strategies which aims at understanding one’s
personal motivations and refocussing them to a more constructive venture.
Similarly,
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiya, two of Indonesia’s largest Muslim civil
societies, launched programs to counteract Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIS) narratives. Following the January 2015 Indonesian terror attacks, NU
denounced ISIS through the social media under the hashtag #KamiTidakTakut
(#WeAreNotAfraid).
Conclusion
It
is important to understand that civil society engagement is about participation
and partnership with the state.
Contracting an institutional relationship, either formal or informal,
with the state is complementary, not a rival, to parliamentary democracy or
representative democracy. Citizen participation carries its own legitimacy; it
does not need to borrow its legitimacy from representation, not even to any
institutions or instrumentalities of government. Its legitimacy emanates from
what it does.
The
legitimacy of CSOs and their networks are bolstered by the validity and
integrity of their ideas, by the values and interests they promote, and by the
issues and programmes they care about. CSOs provide the platform and channel to
variegated voices of social groups and causes of marginalized sectors which the
state needs to hear and act upon. Rosand (2009) moreover imparts that CSOs can
promote a culture of tolerance and pluralism and play a strategic role in
protecting local communities, countering extremist ideologies, and dealing with
political violence.
CSOs
are important to every society, regardless of regime and state system not only
because they reflect peoples’ concern but also due to their potential of
filling in the imperatives of socio-economic and political development. And
through them society can get things done better either by offering an
alternative system of delivering public goods and services or providing
unorthodox strategies in achieving development goals and objectives.
CSOs
are not only effective agents and facilitators of change agents but also effective
institutions in mitigating politico-cultural exclusion and socio-economic
marginalization of the poor. Although
CSOs are neither elected, thus not accountable to the electorate, nor have any
contractual relationship with the governed and cannot claim any form of
representation, their limitations constitute a comparative advantage since
their sense of virtual independence, in whatever manner or form give them
relative freedom, flexibility, and space imperative in national and good
governance.
*About
the author: Rizal G. Buendia, PhD (Political Science)Independent Political
Analyst in Southeast Asian PoliticsWales, UK
References
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» Hurdling The Adverse State-Civil Society Relation Against Terrorism In
Southeast Asia? – Analysis
https://www.eurasiareview.com/13072020-hurdling-the-adverse-state-civil-society-relation-against-terrorism-in-southeast-asia-analysis/
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Indonesia
is failing to control coronavirus outbreak, say experts
12
Jul 2020
Attempts
to control a growing coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, the worst-hit country
in south-east Asia, are being hampered by a lack of testing, poor communication
from the government and the promotion of bogus cures, health experts have
warned.
The
country has so far recorded more than 74,000 cases and 3,535 deaths from the
virus, though it is feared that this could be a vast underestimate. While
testing rates have improved, they remain among the lowest in the world.
Jakarta
and East Java are Indonesia’s worst-affected regions, but outbreaks have spread
across the country, the fourth most populous in the world, prompting calls for
stronger public health messaging and surveillance.
Transmission
will continue to rise unless the public is urged to follow recommendations on
physical distancing, said Prof Pandu Riono, an infectious disease expert at the
University of Indonesia. “There’s no serious behaviour change communication
being done by the government,” he said.
His
comments follow criticism of Syahrul Yasin Limpo, the agriculture minister, who
provoked controversy by stating his ministry had developed a eucalyptus
necklace that helped prevent Covid-19 – a claim rejected by disease experts.
Researchers
fear there is a lack of awareness among the public in some areas. “One study in
Jakarta [suggests some people] think they have a low risk of getting infected.
There is a misconception,” said Pandu.
Joko
Widodo, the president of Indonesia, warned of a “red light” after an increase
in cases last week, and said that transmission would rise further if the public
did not cooperate with prevention measures.
Restrictions
have continued to ease in the country. Bali is now allowing domestic tourists
and plans to open to international tourists in September. Dr I Gusti Agung
NgurahAnom, chairman of Indonesia Doctors Association (IDI) in Denpasar, Bali’s
capital, said he was worried about a big increase in transmission. The city’s
472 isolation beds are fully occupied. “The number of cases has jumped but we
have no idea yet when it will peak,” he said. So far, more than 2,000 cases
have been recorded.
Medical
staff work flat out, without removing their protective clothing at all during
eight-hour shifts because they fear they could contract the virus, said Ngurah:
“We almost don’t have time to drink or to pee, some wear Pampers [nappies].”
In
some cases, he said, patients lie about having had contact with an infected
person, making it even harder for staff to determine the risk of transmission.
“We
hope that the government does more testing, testing, and testing, so that we
can trace the cases,” Ngurah added.
Pandu
has called for the use of polymerase chain reaction tests to be tripled, and
said the use of antibody tests – which detect whether a person had, rather than
has, the virus – should be abandoned. He has estimated that without stronger
interventions the outbreak will continue to grow until at least September, and
that Indonesia could record up to 4,000 new cases a day.
Efforts
to control the virus have been complicated by the stigma associated with a
positive diagnosis, which some fear will result in loss of work. In June,
hundreds of traders in traditional markets in Bali, Sumatra and Jakarta refused
to be tested.
The
importance of holding Muslim burials, during which family members wash the body
of the deceased, has also posed a challenge to disease control measures. In one
incident at a hospital in Sulawesi island, more than 100 people broke into a
ward, threatening staff, and carried away the body of an Islamic preacher so he
could be given a full burial.
Counselling
families who struggle to accept a diagnosis is among the hardest aspects of the
job, said AriefBakhtiar, a doctor specialising in pulmonology in Surabaya.
“There was one case I experienced when a woman died from coronavirus, but all
the children couldn’t accept it,” he said Arief. They went ahead with a
religious burial, he added. “After two weeks, I heard two of their family
members died, allegedly from Covid-19.”
Delays
in receiving test results can make it even harder to persuade families that the
deceased had Covid-19, though Prof Amin Soebandrio, director of the Eijkman
Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta, said improvements in laboratory
processes had sped up the delivery of results. He said testing capacity has
also increased, which may be why daily case numbers had risen, but added: “We
understand in some area the cases are still quite difficult to control.”
According
to the real-time statistics website Worldometer, Indonesia conducts 3,797 tests
per 1 million people.
In
its latest report on Indonesia, the World Health Organization urged the
government to prioritise tests for patients suspected of having the virus – not
people who were recovering – and citied a “substantially high” number of deaths
among this group.
In
Surabaya, Dr Brahmana Askandar, who is chairman of the Indonesia Medical
Association in the city, said local government had raised awareness of the need
to avoid crowds and wear face masks. “We can see some things improved in the
past two weeks,” he said.
“It
is like you are running but don’t know when the race will finish,” he said, but
he added that it is public behaviour will ultimately determine the future of
the outbreak.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/indonesia-is-failing-to-control-coronavirus-outbreak-warn-experts-testing-government-messages-bogus-cures
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