Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat Board, a Muslim Group in Mumbai Sets up Legal Cell to Fight Blasphemous Posts Instead Of Adopting a Confrontational Approach
New Age Islam News Bureau
16 February 2021
An officer at Mansehra police station holds the
controversial shoe. (Photo supplied)
------
• Fatwa Forbids Baseless Blasphemy Allegations in
Pakistan - Five Clerics Of Jamiat Ulema-E-Islam Advertised The Fatwa In Local
Newspapers
• Nigeria Says 81 Boko Haram Militants Killed In
Clearance Operations
• Taliban Must Do More to Meet Its Peace Deal
Commitments, Says NATO
• Judiciary Chief: Iran Ready to Open Doors of Jails
to Inspectors
• Bahrain Religious Discrimination Violates Numerous
International Laws: Analyst
• US-Based Cyber Security Company: Pro-India Malware
Spying On Pakistan Military
• Muslim Students Face Anti-Muslim Racism And
Islamophobia In Germany
• Malaysia Says No Refugees among 1,200 Myanmar
Nationals to Be Deported
India
• Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat Board, a Muslim Group in Mumbai
Sets up Legal Cell to Fight Blasphemous Posts Instead Of Adopting a
Confrontational Approach
• Honour Killing: Woman Burnt Alive By Family in Uttar
Pradesh for Having an Inter-Faith Love Affair
• Indian Muslims Should Face Current Critical
Situation in Country with Courage and Wisdom: Maulana Syed Muhammad Rabi Hasni
Nadvi
• Pained By Anti-Islam Sentiments, Chennai Muslim
Businessman Donates Rs 1 Lakh for Ram Temple, Aimed At Communal Amity
• 400-Year-Old Qutb Shahi Mosque Lies Entwined With
Vines and Dried Leaves Jutting Out Of a Cracked Boundary Wall
• Your protest has brought new ray of hope: Maulana
Sajjad Nomani to farmers
• Two associates of terror outfits LeT, TuM arrested
in Kashmir
• Naqvi offers 'chadar' on behalf of PM Modi at shrine
of Sufi saint Chisti in Ajmer
--------
Pakistan
• Fatwa Forbids Baseless Blasphemy Allegations in
Pakistan - Five Clerics Of Jamiat Ulema-E-Islam Advertised The Fatwa In Local
Newspapers
• Will live in Pakistan, won't go abroad, says Maryam
Nawaz
• UK journalist played role in Moussavi-Akbar meeting
• PTI disowns its official’s statement in funding case
• COAS witnesses Jidarul Hadeed in Thar desert
--------
Africa
• Nigeria Says 81 Boko Haram Militants Killed In
Clearance Operations
• Allows herdsmen do their business – Miyetti Allah
tells Nigerians
• Somalia, UN seek over $1B for humanitarian
assistance
• Separatists kill 3 soldiers in southwestern Cameroon
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South Asia
• Taliban Must Do More to Meet Its Peace Deal
Commitments, Says NATO
• The Taliban close in on Afghan cities, pushing the
country to the brink
• Bangladesh Court Sentences 5 to Death for Killing US
Blogger Avijit Roy
• Christians demand justice after attack on
Bangladeshi church
• Afghanistan should never become ‘safe-haven’ for terrorism
again
• Nangarhar ‘targeted killings’ claim 4, injures 2
• 42 Security members, civilians rescued from Taliban
clutches
--------
Mideast
• Judiciary Chief: Iran Ready to Open Doors of Jails
to Inspectors
• Israel hints at possibility of not engaging with
Biden on Iran nuclear strategy
• Palestinians shoot down another Israeli drone
• Gazans hold a sit-in to support Palestinian
prisoners
• Israel forces more Palestinian families to tear down
homes
• Turkey arrests 718 suspects nationwide over affiliation
to PKK militants after Iraq executions
• Turkish court jails 4 pro-Kurdish newspaper
employees over ‘terrorism’ charges
--------
Arab World
• Bahrain Religious Discrimination Violates Numerous
International Laws: Analyst
• Amnesty International urges Saudi officials to free
senior Hamas official, his son
• Repeated Israeli acts of aggression on Syria won’t
help to protect terrorists: Damascus
• Russia’s Putin and Saudi crown prince discuss OPEC+
deal: Kremlin
• US ‘Outraged’ By Attacks on Iraq’s Kurdistan Region:
Blinken
• Rocket attack on Kurdish northern Iraq kills
civilian, injures 6 people: US coalition
• Arab Coalition destroys Houthi drone heading towards
Abha Airport
• 10 years since uprising Bahrain in a worse state
• US-led coalition building new base in Syria’s
Hasakah near Iraq, Turkey borders: Report
--------
North America
• US-Based Cyber Security Company: Pro-India Malware
Spying On Pakistan Military
• Iran's February 21 deadline ‘wakeup call’ for Biden
administration
• US, Iran game of nerves revives tensions in region
--------
Europe
• Muslim Students Face Anti-Muslim Racism And
Islamophobia In Germany
• UN, UK Condemn Deadly Attack on Iraq’s Erbil, Demand
Action against Those Responsible
• PKK killing of Turkish citizens ‘deeply troubling’
• 'Nothing can justify terror': Germany on PKK
massacre
--------
Southeast Asia
• Malaysia Says No Refugees among 1,200 Myanmar
Nationals to Be Deported
• Indonesian president follows Pope John Paul II's
lead
• Sugarbook’s ‘immoral activities’ leave bitter taste,
says PAS
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/tahaffuz-namoos-e-risalat-board/d/124319
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Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat Board, a Muslim Group in
Mumbai Sets up Legal Cell to Fight Blasphemous Posts Instead Of Adopting a
Confrontational Approach
Feb 16, 2021
Mumbai: A group of Muslims in the city has decided to
fight provocative and blasphemous posts, videos and cartoons through the legal
route. Instead of hitting the streets and adopting a confrontational approach,
they will counsel youths not to get violent and find remedies within the
Constitutional framework.
Floating a legal cell under Tahaffuz Namoos-e-Risalat
Board (Protection of the Honour of the Prophet Board), the group held its first
meeting at Islam Gymkhana on Saturday and decided to counter blasphemous and
provocative posts and videos in a peaceful and democratic manner. “It has often
been seen that Muslim youths get agitated over blasphemous and provocative
posts and hit the streets and clash with the police. This results in arson,
rioting and then arrests and harassment. Now we have decided that, whenever
such a situation arises, the matter will be handed over to the legal cell to
file cases against the individuals or organisations involved in such
activities,” said senior cleric, peacenik and spiritual leader Maulana Moin
Ashraf Quadri (Moin Mian) who is leading the board. He added the events in
Bengaluru some months ago only showed the situation could go out of control if
the youth are not guided properly on how to respond to provocative posts and
photographs. He also said sentiments of no religion should be hurt and even
Sharjeel Usmani should not have said what he said about Hindus at the Elgar
Parishad meet in Pune last month.
A section of youths gets agitated over allegedly
blasphemous and provocative posts on social media and hits the roads and this
initiative is aimed at stopping them from taking the law into their own hands
while condemning alleged blasphemy.
Advocate Yusuf Abrahni, president of Islam Gymkhana,
said the best course for the aggrieved party is to approach the courts.
“Confrontation will not lead us anywhere and it will only make matters worse.
The legal cell will be strengthened and people will be directed to approach it
if any blasphemous or provocative posts or videos and cartoons are noticed on
social media,” said Abrahni.
Saeed Noorie, general secretary of Raza Academy, said
such a board and legal cells were long needed and will work to prevent clashes
and maintain peace and harmony.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/muslim-group-sets-up-legal-cell-to-fight-blasphemous-posts/articleshow/80934372.cms
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Fatwa Forbids Baseless Blasphemy Allegations in
Pakistan - Five Clerics Of Jamiat Ulema-E-Islam Advertised The Fatwa In Local
Newspapers
An officer at Mansehra police station holds the
controversial shoe. (Photo supplied)
------
Kamran Chaudhry
February 16, 2021
Clerics of a major political party have issued a
religious decree urging careful inquiries into blasphemy cases following a
police raid on a shoe shop in northwest Pakistan.
The fatwa was issued after police arrested five people
on Feb. 11 from Forever Boot, a shop in Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Local journalists had earlier filed a blasphemy case against the shop owner for
allegedly printing the name "Muhammad" on a shoe sole.
On Feb. 13, clerics of Dar al Fatah seminary in Mansehra
declared those arrested as innocent.
“Careful consideration is needed to confirm this
crime. Allegations of this crime without a complete inquiry and consultation
with scholars can be dangerous and target an innocent. Therefore, it is needed
that such matters should be avoided being public. It can cause unrest and
riots. Law enforcement agencies should also consult clerics in such matters,”
the clerics stated.
“The photo was examined carefully but nothing
objectionable was found. The criticized design under the shoe is a mere design,
flower or a print of a dye. An open-minded person cannot imagine it as the name
of Muhammad. A predetermined person can cause presumption. Therefore, it is not
right as per Sharia and law to act against the shopkeeper based on this
argument.”
Five clerics of religious political party Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) also advertised the fatwa in local newspapers.
It is not right to allege blasphemy based on suspicion
or a notion, they stated in the notice.
The alleged blasphemers were released on Feb. 15 but
Forever Boot remains closed.
“The name Muhammad carried two Ms [in Urdu]. This
isn’t the case here. The issue is very sensitive. This major sin could endanger
peace in the country. The shoe manufacturing company has been notified. We
thank our clerics for their timely intervention,” Umar Farooq, the brother of
the shop’s owner, told UCA News.
Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law carries an
automatic death penalty for anyone accused of insulting Prophet Muhammad. Critics
have repeatedly said that the laws are misused to settle scores and personal
vendettas. Minority Christians have often become the target of accusations of
blasphemy.
Bishop Azad Marshall, president of the National
Council of Churches in Pakistan, urged the government to take “concrete steps”
to stop the misuse of the blasphemy laws.
“We are witnessing a record increase in blasphemy
cases against all members of society irrespective of their faiths. This has become a norm here but we are glad
that a lot of our Muslim siblings have spoken out against the treatment to our
community,” he stated in a recent meeting of Church of Pakistan clergy at the
head office of Raiwind Diocese.
Last month Pakistan’s Ministry of Human Rights
launched the country’s first human rights information resource portal.
The portal, developed in partnership with the European
Union, is envisioned to serve as a “central repository of up-to-date and
cutting-edge human rights knowledge” for students, academics, practitioners and
citizens at large.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/fatwa-forbids-baseless-blasphemy-allegations-in-pakistan/91430#
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Nigeria says 81 Boko Haram militants killed in
clearance operations
February 16, 2021
Government troops killed 81 Boko Haram militants in recent
clearance operations in northeast Nigeria, the military said on Monday.
The operations covered “many villages” in the vast
Sambisa Forest in the northeastern state of Borno, said Farouk Yahaya, theater
commander of Operation Lafiya Dole.
He did not say when the operations were conducted or
how long they lasted.
“The relentless troops destroyed the terrorists’ camps
and recovered gun trucks and weapons as the air force aircraft continue to
provide close air and interdiction support to the ground forces,” Yahaya said.
During the operations, he said, one soldier was killed
and four others wounded in an incident involving improvised explosive devices
planted by Boko Haram militants.
Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist
state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The terror group has also extended
its attacks to other countries in the Lake Chad Basin.
https://africa.cgtn.com/2021/02/15/nigeria-says-81-boko-haram-militants-killed-in-clearance-operations/
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Taliban must do more to meet its peace deal
commitments, says NATO
FEB 15, 2021
Taliban militants in Afghanistan must do more to meet
the terms of a 2020 peace agreement and allow for any possible foreign troop
withdrawal by May, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
"We see that there is still a need for the
Taliban to do more when it comes to delivering on their commitments ... to make
sure that they break old ties with international terrorists," Stoltenberg
told a news conference.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/taliban-must-do-more-to-meet-its-peace-deal-commitments-says-nato-101613400147798.html
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Judiciary Chief: Iran Ready to Open Doors of Jails to
Inspectors
2021-February-15
“We are ready to open the doors of our prisons to any
country in the world that wants to see inside of them, provided that we will be
allowed to visit any prison in any country that we want; if this happens, it
will be clarified where human rights are respected and where these rights are
being ignored,” Rayeesi said on Monday, addressing the Judiciary officials.
“Today, the freedom-seeking people in the world do not
believe the westerners’ respect for human rights, and they know that the
westerners’ moves are political, and they have used human rights as a pretext
to put pressure on independent and developing countries,” he added.
Rayeesi also referred to the large number of Iran’s
furloughed prisoners to lower the rist of COVID-19 outbreak in jails, and said
no country in the world can compete with Iran in this regard.
Iran's Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Esmayeeli
announced in August that his country had authorized temporary leaves for more
than 100,000 prisoners, to prevent the outbreak of the new coronavirus in jails
across the country.
“Over 100,000 inmates have been furloughed in
different periods since the outbreak of coronavirus (in Iran) so that they and
their family members will not have any concerns,” Esmayeeli said.
He added that at present 60,000 prisoners have been
furloughed, noting that many of those who have used this possibility have been
freed or their prison terms have been commuted after the Supreme Leader’s
clemency on the occasion of different Islamic Eids.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13991127000785/Jdiciary-Chief-Iran-Ready-Open-Drs-f-Jails-Inspecrs
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Bahrain religious discrimination violates numerous
international laws: Analyst
15 February 2021
Bahraini regime’s brutal crackdown on dissent and its
systematic abuse of the Shia population and discrimination against them violate
numerous international laws, an American human rights expert and peace activist
says.
Daniel Kovalik, who teaches international human rights
at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in the state of Pennsylvania,
made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday.
“Since the 2011 uprising in Bahrain, the government
has brutally cracked down on dissent and on the Shia population of the
country. Human Rights groups have
reported on numerous cases of Shia being subjected to wrongful detention and
torture and of being fired from their jobs en masse. This type of religious discrimination
violates numerous international law instruments and would not be tolerated by
the West in other situations,” the academic said.
He added that “because Bahrain is a compliant state of
the West” the US and Europe largely turn the other way from these abuses,
warning that “US plans to sanction resistance groups — groups which have arisen
against this oppression — will only strengthen the hand of the Bahrain
government and therefore lead to increasing human rights abuses.”
The remarks come as Bahrainis took to the streets
across the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom to mark the tenth anniversary of a popular
uprising against the ruling monarchy, in spite of the regime’s brutal crackdown
on dissent.
The rallies took place on Saturday night, on the eve
of the 2011 uprising’s anniversary, with the participants chanting slogans
against the Al Khalifah regime and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah.
The protesters called for an end to human rights violations
and the release of political detainees.
They also urged the Al Khalifah regime to relinquish
power and allow the establishment of a just system representing all strata of
the society.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Kovali described the removal
of Yemen's popular Ansarullah movement from the terrorist list as “a move in
the right direction,” while commenting on a recent decision by the United
States to remove the movement from the list of foreign terrorist organizations
on February 16.
The decision came days after the administration of US
President Joe Biden announced an end to American support for the Saudi war on
Yemen, including a freeze on arms sales to the Riyadh regime.
The administration of former US president Donald Trump
had branded the Ansarullah movement as a foreign terrorist organization,
imposing the specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and foreign terrorist
organization (FTO) designations.
Trump took the action on his last full day in office
despite warnings by other governments, aid groups and the United Nations that
the US sanctions could push Yemen into a major famine.
The academic further expressed hope that the move
would lead to an improvement of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, but said,
“It is uncertain whether that change in designation will do much for the people
suffering under repressive monarchical rule in Bahrain.”
The popular uprising in Bahrain began in mid-February
2011, as recurring demonstrations throughout the years demanded that the ruling
Al Khalifah family relinquish power.
Manama has responded to the anti-regime protests with
an iron fist. The authorities have detained rights campaigners, broken up major
opposition political parties, revoked the nationality of several pro-democracy
activists and deported them.
The Bahraini regime has also arrested, injured and
killed thousands of people in the Persian Gulf country. Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates have also helped Manama in its ruthless crackdown.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645327/Bahrain-protests-dissidents-crackdown-Shia-population-discrimination-popular-uprising-anniversary
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US-Based Cyber Security Company: Pro-India Malware
Spying On Pakistan Military
Ovunc Kutlu
15.02.2021
Two malware programs on an Android-based platform that
emerged in India have been spying on the Pakistani military, according to a
US-based cyber security company.
In a Feb. 10 statement, Lookout said it has discovered
the two malware, Hornbill and SunBird, which are used by a cyber group named
Confucius that first appeared in 2013 as "a state-sponsored, pro-India
actor primarily pursuing Pakistani and other South Asian targets."
"Targets of these tools include personnel linked
to Pakistan’s military, nuclear authorities, and Indian election officials in
Kashmir," the statement said.
"Hornbill and SunBird have sophisticated
capabilities to exfiltrate SMS, encrypted messaging app content, and
geolocation, among other types of sensitive information," it added.
Confucius had created in the past malware for Windows
operating systems, but the group has been known developing mobile malware since
2017 when the spying app ChatSpy was created.
While SunBird has a remote access function that can
execute commands on a device by an attacker, Hornbill is a surveillance tool
that can extract data from users.
"SunBird has been disguised as applications that
include Security services, such as the fictional “Google Security Framework”,
Apps tied to specific locations (“Kashmir News”) or activities (“Falconry
Connect” and “Mania Soccer”), Islam-related applications (“Quran
Majeed”)," the report said.
The majority of applications appear to target Muslim
individuals, the report added.
Both malware, which is circulated as fake Android
apps, can access users' call logs, contacts, images, browser history, and they
take screenshots and photos with the device camera.
Some major targets included an ''individual who
applied for a position at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, individuals
with numerous contacts in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), as well as officers
responsible for electoral rolls (Booth Level Officers) located in the Pulwama
district of Kashmir", the analysis found.
"The data included information on victims in
Europe and the United States, some of which appear to be targets of spouse ware
or stalkerware. It also included data on Pakistani nationals in Pakistan,
India, and the United Arab Emirates that we believe may be targeted by
Confucius APT campaigns between 2018 and 2019," the detailed report added.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-pro-india-malware-spying-on-pakistan-military/2145536
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Muslim Students Face Anti-Muslim Racism And
Islamophobia In Germany
Aizbah Khan
16TH FEB, 2021
Muslim students in Germany say an online campaign has
been launched against them after digital meeting with Christian Democrat
politician Norbert Rutgen and they are facing anti-Muslim Racism and
Islamophobia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, the Christian
Democratic Union, recently held a digital meeting with Norbert Röttgen, a top
politician in the party, with some Muslim students studying at German
universities on scholarships. Students selected a few topics for this online
discussion and prepared to discuss them. Topics chosen by the Muslim students
in small groups included environmental policy, the future of the Christian
Democratic Union CDU after Merkel’s tenure, and arrangements for dealing with
the coronavirus crisis.
The Ibn Sina Scholarship Organization is a well-known
German institution that provides research facilities to students and
researchers from the Muslim world who come to Germany and become affiliated
with higher education institutions here.
The Muslim students associated with the scholarship
had prepared for a virtual discussion with CDU’s Norbert Rutgen, but they did
not expect any negative reactions.
The series began when Norbert Rutgen posted a few
photos of the meeting on social media platforms. The photos show about 20 young
girls with headscarves.
Nada Kanani, a 22-year-old student who hosted the
meeting, told Deutsche Welle, a German public state-owned international
broadcaster: “More and more comments came, many of them full of hate,” she
said. “Things like that are shared in far-right groups; they organize concerted
action there. It was an inferno.”
As another form of expression of Islamophobia, a
satire on Muslims continued after this recent online meeting. Nada Kanani says
that it seems like a headscarf is enough to excuse for many people to
disqualify any Muslim. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on your education
or career. You are considered a lowly human being as a Muslim woman. You’re
just a woman with a headscarf.
Prejudices against Islam
Yasemin El-Menouar is the head of the Bertelsmann
Foundation’s Religious Affairs Monitoring Body, whose job is to monitor
religious and social harmony. Speaking to Deutsche Welle, said that Muslims who
are known for their attire, such as women wearing headscarves, are particularly
vulnerable to this prejudice and hatred.
She said that it doesn’t matter who fits into society.
Many Muslims in Germany have experienced this prejudice since childhood and
many ‘religious monitor surveys’ have revealed this prejudice against Muslims.
Yasemin El-Menouar added that over the last ten years,
suspicions about Islam have gripped half of Germany’s population. Such
prejudices are no longer recognized as prejudices in society. In such an
environment, Islamophobic sentiments are expressed more openly and freely. The
internet certainly plays an important role here because the general principles
of social communication are not in vogue here.
https://www.bolnews.com/latest/2021/02/muslim-students-face-anti-muslim-racism-and-islamophobia-in-germany/
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Malaysia says no refugees among 1,200 Myanmar
nationals to be deported
15 Feb 2021
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — Malaysia said today it will not
deport any Rohingya Muslims or migrants registered with the UN refugee agency,
after Reuters reported that it was planning to send 1,200 Myanmar nationals
back to the country.
Malaysia had agreed to return them after the Myanmar
military, which seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, offered to send three navy ships
to pick up its citizens held in Malaysian immigration detention centres,
officials and sources told Reuters last week.
In response, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) had urged Malaysia not to hand over asylum-seekers, saying it
was concerned that a number of those in detention may require international
protection, including vulnerable women and children.
Muslim-majority Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN
Refugee Convention and treats all arrivals without proper documentation as
illegal migrants.
In the past, people from Myanmar held in Malaysian
detention centres have included members of the ethnic Chin, Kachin and Rohingya
communities fleeing conflict and persecution.
Malaysia’s Director-General of Immigration Khairul
Dzaimee Daud said today the Myanmar nationals to be deported would not include
UNHCR cardholders or Rohingya migrants.
They had been detained for offences such as not having
proper identification documents, or overstaying and misusing their travel
passes, he said in a statement.
“This is just part of the usual process of deporting
foreign citizens held in the Immigration Depots,” he said.
It was unclear whether any of the Myanmar nationals to
be sent back had sought asylum since being detained.
The UNHCR has not been allowed entry to Malaysia’s
detention centres since August 2019.
Malaysia is home to more than 154,000 asylum-seekers
from Myanmar. Rights groups have expressed concern over the safety of Myanmar
refugees after the military coup. — Reuters
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/15/malaysia-says-no-refugees-among-1200-myanmar-nationals-to-be-deported/1949998
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India
Honour Killing: Woman Burnt Alive By Family in Uttar
Pradesh for Having an Inter-Faith Love Affair
15th February 2021
GORAKHPUR: In a suspected case of honour killing, a
woman was burnt alive by her family members over an inter-faith love affair, police
said on Monday.
The woman's father, brother, brother-in-law and
another person have been arrested in this connection, they said.
According to police, the family had hired a contract
killer, Varun Tiwari, and paid him Rs 1.5 lakh to eliminate the woman over her
relationship with a Muslim man.
"The victim's father Kailash Yadav, brother Ajit
Yadav, brother-in-law Satyaprakash Yadav and one Sitaram Yadav were arrested on
Sunday. A petrol container and motorcycle used in the crime have also been
recovered by the police. A hunt is on to trace the contract killer," a
police official said.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday,
Superintendent of Police of Sant Kabir Nagar, Kaustubh noted, "A
half-burnt body of a young woman was found at village Jigina under Dhanghata
police station limit on February 4.
With the help of local police, surveillance, CCTV
footage, field unit and dog squad, the body was identified as that of Ranjana
Yadav of Belghat area in Gorakhpur.
" "The victim's father told the police that
his daughter was having an affair with a Muslim man.
He said when she was not ready to leave her lover, he
along with his son and son-in-law hired a contract killer from Mahuli to kill
her," he said.
According to police, one of the accused took the woman
to a deserted place in Jigina village on a motorcycle on February 3.
The other accused joined them and tied the woman's
hands and mouth.
The accused then set her afire by pouring petrol on
her, and fled the spot, police added.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/feb/15/woman-burnt-alive-by-family-in-uttar-pradesh-for-having-muslim-lover-2264353.html
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Indian Muslims should face current critical situation
in country with courage and wisdom: Maulana Syed Muhammad Rabi Hasni Nadvi
February 15, 2021
New Delhi: “The situation in the country is critical
at the moment, but the history of Muslims shows that they have gone through
many more difficult times. With courage and wisdom, we should be concerned
about the current situation and take appropriate measures, especially to convey
the message of truth to every individual in the country, and live with a
benevolent character. This is our religious and faithful duty.” This was stated
by Maulana Syed Mohammad Rabi Hasni Nadvi, President of All India Muslim
Personal Labor Board (AIMPLB).
Maulana Syed Mohammad Rabi Hasni Nadvi inaugurated the
15-day online sermons issued by the Board’s social media desk on “Series of
Invitation and Action.” In his address, he conveyed the message of humanity to
all the people of the country. He pointed out that any country develops through
humanity and morality. “Our country is the cradle of different religions and
different classes. This country can develop only if the followers of all
religions consider each other as their own. Treat them well, and live
together.”
He said that Muslims want the development of the
country and they want the welfare of every citizen living in the country and
expect good treatment from others.
In a statement, Maulana Muhammad Umreen Mahfooz Rahmani,
Secretary, All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Convener of Social Media
Desk, said that the thought-provoking speech of the President of All India
Muslim Personal Law Board is something that every Muslim should listen to and
act upon.
He said that the Law Board has set up a social media
desk on All India Muslim to try to make Muslims in India aware of the
activities of the board and the Muslim Personal Law Board, protection of
Shariah and unity. “The nation is doing a great job of reforming the nation,
relaying it to the people living in the country. Through various social
accounts, efforts are being made to spread the message of the Muslim Personal
Law Board and to point out the social evils prevalent among Muslims. They
should be encouraged to stay away from them. Many important series are being
successfully run by the social media desk and people are benefiting from them
in large numbers,” he said.
He said that the desk is launching a new and important
series of online sermons called “Series of Invitation and Thought,” which was
inaugurated last night by Maulana Muhammad Rabi Hasni Nadvi Damat Barakatham.
“It is gratifying to announce that the next sermon
Hazrat Maulana Syed Mohammad Wali Sahib Rahmani Damat Barakatham Kahoga,
General Secretary Ameer Shariat of Sunal Labor Board on India Muslim will prove
to be eye-opening and insightful in the current situation of the country,” he
said. He urged Indian Muslims to join the India Social Media Desk and be
entitled to the reward by participating in the service of conveying the message
of the Sun Law Board to all India Muslims far and wide.
http://twocircles.net/2021feb15/441022.html
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Pained By Anti-Islam Sentiments, Chennai Muslim
Businessman Donates Rs 1 Lakh for Ram Temple, Aimed At Communal Amity
February 16, 2021
In a gesture aimed at communal amity, a Muslim
businessman from the city has donated Rs 1 lakh towards the construction of the
Ram Temple at Ayodhya, as a voluntary contribution from devotees in Tamil Nadu
for the shrine in Uttar Pradesh has been growing.
Daily wage earners like cobblers and small traders are
among those making contributions to help raise the proposed magnificent
structure.
With the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJTK),
set up by the Centre to construct the temple, coming out with donation coupons
of Rs 10, 100 and 1,000, a large number of people came forward to donate, said
S V Srinivasan, VHP state organising secretary who is involved in raising funds
for the temple.
"All those whom we approached have been generous
in donating for the noble cause," he added.
And when the members of the Hindu Munnani, accompanied
by the volunteers from the SRJTK approached him, W S Habib gifted a cheque for
Rs 1,00,008, taking the fund raisers by surprise.
"I want to foster communal amity between Muslims
and Hindus. We are all children of god. I donated the sum with this
belief," Habib, a property developer, told PTI.
He said he was pained to see Muslims being painted as
anti-Hindus or anti-India by some sections.
Pointing out that there was nothing wrong in donating
for a good cause, Habib remarked, "I wouldn’t have donated to any other
temple but the Ram temple is different as decades-old Ayodhya dispute came to
an end."
The Hindu Munnani, which is also involved in the
campaign, said road shows are being held in various parts of the state to raise
funds.
"All those whom we approached willingly donated.
A gentleman who suddenly emerged from the crowd presented a cheque for Rs
50,000. The response from Ram bhakts is overwhelming," A T Elangovan,
Hindu Munnani's Chennai president, said.
According to K E Srinivasan, Chennai organiser of
Dharma Jagran Manch a wing of RSS not only the affluent in the society but also
the poor contributed.
"At Perambur, for instance, cobblers and other sections
came forward to donate Rs 10," he said.
At Kodungaiyur when the members solicited funds for
the temple construction, shop keepers contributed their mite.
An enthusiastic seller of vermilion (kumkum) near a
temple, who happened to be a Muslim, gave Rs 200 for the cause.
The Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam has already appealed to the
devotees to donate liberally. Janakalyan, a spiritual and cultural service
organisation, is utilising its office with several prominent personalities to
contribute towards the initiative, its city secretary V Subramanian said.
The Supreme Court in November 2019 settled the
decades-old dispute and paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple by a
Trust at the disputed site at Ayodhya.
It had then directed the Centre to allot an
alternative 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a
"prominent" place in the holy town in UP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on August 5, 2020
laid the foundation stone for the construction of a grand temple at Ayodhya.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/chennai-muslim-businessman-donates-rs-1-lakh-for-ram-temple-1769664-2021-02-16
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400-Year-Old Qutb Shahi Mosque Lies Entwined With
Vines and Dried Leaves Jutting Out Of a Cracked Boundary Wall
16th February 2021
By Aihik Sur
HYDERABAD: The
blue rusty-framed signboard of the Archaeology and Museums department in front
of a Qutb Shahi mosque in Shaikpet lies entwined with vines and dried leaves
jutting out of a cracked boundary wall.
In a way, the signboard is a perfect allegory for the
condition of the age old mosque. This approximately 400-year-old mosque that
may once have housed hundreds of worshippers, is currently in ruins and has
been neglected, despite it being a protected site as per the Andhra Pradesh Ancient
and Historical Monuments Act.
Nestled between residential houses, the Qutb Shahi
structure characterised by two Charminar-like minarets is now dilapidated, with
vegetation pouring out from its various cracks. Entry to the mosque is
restricted by a rusty iron gate, the front of which has become a dumping
ground.
Although locals in the area could not pinpoint to an
exact year when it may have been constructed, many said that its condition
worsened due to the heavy rainfall in the city last year. Historians opine that
the design of the mosque suggests that it was a precursor to the Toli Mosque in
Karwan.
Ironically, the archaeology department signboard
reads, “The structure is in a fair state of preservation and deserves more
attention.” An official said a few years ago a notice was sent to the Waqf
Board for its restoration, but no response was received.
Protected site
The mosque that once may have housed hundreds of
worshippers is currently in ruins and is neglected, despite it being a
protected heritage site
https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2021/feb/16/400-year-old-qutb-shahi-mosque-lies-in-ruins-2264503.html
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Your protest has brought new ray of hope: Maulana
Sajjad Nomani to farmers
Feb 15, 2021
NEW DELHI: The ongoing farmers' protest against the
three farm laws has brought a new ray of hope against injustice in the country,
Maulana Sajjad Nomani said on Monday.
The spokesperson of All India Muslim Personal Law
Board was speaking at the Singhu border, one of the major sites of the farmers'
agitation.
"So many organisations have been, for years,
trying to create awareness about the injustices in the country, and this
movement has brought a new ray of hope from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
"Thanks to you and your leadership, who realised
that 'enough is enough' and decided to raise your voices, we have been
reassured that the era of darkness in the country is ending and that justice is
not very far away," Nomani said.
Ever since the farmers' agitation started in November
last year, the Islamic scholar has regularly been extending his support to the
movement through his YouTube channel.
On Monday, he said the Muslims of the country were
standing behind the farmers in their fight.
"On behalf of the Muslim society, I assure you
that we are all standing behind you and support you, and request you to not
lose hope and continue this fight.
"It is because of your strength that God has
chosen you to lead this movement," he said.
Criticising the government's decision to introduce the
laws during the difficult period of the pandemic, Nomani said the farmers'
movement was not just a protest against the three laws, but also a
"freedom struggle".
"The three laws ensure that the produce generated
out of the blood and sweat of lakhs of Indian farmers gets locked up in the
hands of private businessmen.
"The protest is not just a fight against the
three laws, but a fight for freedom. The country that became independent after
so much struggle, is being made a slave again, but India is not meant to be a
slave," he said.
"The government has constantly been saying that
the MSP (Minimum Support Price) was, is and will be there, but why isn't it
making it a written law?" he added.
Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar
Pradesh, have been camping at three Delhi border points -- Singhu, Tikri and
Ghazipur -- for nearly 80 days, demanding a repeal of the three agri laws and a
legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP).
In the absence of the MSP, the farmers fear they will
be left at the mercy of private corporations.
Nomani also warned the protesting farmers against
attempts to divide their movement.
"There is a conspiracy to divide this movement,
but we should all remain united, because India is a country of love and
brotherhood," Nomani said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/your-protest-has-brought-new-ray-of-hope-maulana-sajjad-nomani-to-farmers/articleshow/80926660.cms
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Two associates of terror outfits LeT, TuM arrested in
Kashmir
FEB 15, 2021
Police on Monday said that they arrested two
associates of terror outfits during an operation in Budgam.
According to the police, the arrested persons were
affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen (TuM).
A police spokesman said a police team, along with 53
Rashtriya Rifles, arrested two associates of proscribed terror outfits LeT and
TuM.
Also Read | Army conducts career counselling camp in
remote village of J-K’s Rajouri
“They have been identified as Sameer Ahmed Ittoo and
Ubaid Ameen Mallah of Kulgam. Incriminating materials, including flags, banners
and letter pads have been recovered from their possession,” the spokesman said.
He said that during the preliminary investigation,the
police found that these persons were involved in grenade lobbying incidents in
Pulwama and Kulgam districts of south Kashmir, and were also making posters,
banners and flags of banned terror organisations on the directions of their
handlers for distribution at various locations in central and south Kashmir.
“They were also actively involved in recruiting
terrorists and overground workers with the aim to carry out terror activities
in Budgam. A case under relevant sections has been registered at the Chadoora
police station and further investigation has been initiated,” the spokesman
added.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news
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Naqvi offers 'chadar' on behalf of PM Modi at shrine
of Sufi saint Chisti in Ajmer
Feb 16, 2021
AJMER: A harmonious co-existence of various religions,
sects and beliefs associated with them is a magnificent heritage of our
country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a message on Tuesday as a
'chadar' was offered on his behalf at Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin
Chishti's shrine here.
Union minister for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi offered the chadar on the occasion of the 809th Urs and also read out the
message of the Prime Minister in which he had conveyed greetings to the
followers of Moinuddin Chishti on the occasion of the annual Urs.
The minister said PM Modi is "personally committed
to the culture of Sufi saints and devoted to good governance and inclusive
development", according to a release from Naqvi's office.
Naqvi said tolerance and harmony is the DNA of India
and nobody can defame and demolish the proud legacy of the country.
The Prime Minister, in his message, said, "Khwaja
Moinuddin Chishti, who has left an indelible imprint on society with his Sufi
thoughts, is the ideal symbol of our great spiritual traditions. Promoting the
spirit of love, unity, service and harmony, Gharib Nawaz's values and views
will always continue to inspire humanity."
Modi, in his message, said the annual celebration is a
beautiful example of social unity and brotherhood.
The Urs festival is an annual festival held at Ajmer
which commemorates the death anniversary of the Sufi saint. Thousands of
pilgrims visit the shrine from all over India and abroad during the Urs.
On the occasion, Naqvi said the life of Gharib Nawaz
gives inspiration to strengthen the commitment to communal and social harmony.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/naqvi-offers-chadar-on-behalf-of-pm-modi-at-shrine-of-sufi-saint-chisti-in-ajmer/articleshow/80976057.cms
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Pakistan
Will live in Pakistan, won't go abroad, says Maryam
Nawaz
Feb 15, 2021
LAHORE: Pakistan's deposed prime minister Nawaz
Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz said on Monday that she will not leave the
country to join her father in London for her treatment despite the Imran Khan
government's apparent offer to go abroad.
"Even if someone (from the government) comes to
my home and offers me to go abroad, I will decline it straightaway," she
said while talking to reporters at her Jati Umra Raiwind residence here.
"I know some ministers are saying that if Maryam
is allowed to go abroad the opposition's movement (against the government) will
fizzle out. But let me make it clear that I will not leave my country come what
may, and will not seek removal of my name from the no-fly list," she said.
The PML-N vice president further said that she had to
undergo a 'little surgery' which is not possible in Pakistan. "But despite
this I will not leave Pakistan. I will live and die in my country," she
asserted.
Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has
said that the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif's passport will be cancelled on
February 16.
Sharif has been living in London since November, 2019
after he was allowed to leave the country for medical treatment.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and
Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar said that United Kingdom authorities had been
asked to deport the convicted former prime minister from their country.
He said Pakistan had written a letter to the UK to
cancel the visa of Sharif which was issued for medical treatment after taking
an undertaking.
Prime Minister Imran Khan in October said he would
contact British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, if needed, to discuss his
deportation and his adviser Akbar wrote a letter to British Home Secretary
Priti Patel on October 5 urging her to deport the former premier whom he said
is responsible for pillaging the state.
Maryam has alleged that the "selectors" (a
reference to the army chief Gen Bajwa and others) are being questioned within
the institution regarding imposing inept and incompetent Imran Khan on the
nation.
"Now voices are being raised within the
institution for imposing this incompetent Imran on the nation who made the
lives of the people miserable," she said and lamented "inhuman
statement" of Sheikh Rashid regarding use of water cannon on protesting
government employees.
Rashid had said that the government had tested water
cannon on the employees. "Tomorrow, this government will say that it is
using atomic bomb on the masses to test it," Maryam said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/will-live-in-pakistan-wont-go-abroad-says-maryam-nawaz/articleshow/80927019.cms
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UK journalist played role in Moussavi-Akbar meeting
Atika Rehman
February 16, 2021
LONDON: Broadsheet owner Kaveh Moussavi has alleged
that British journalist David Rose asked for a commission in exchange for his
assistance in recovering the sum of about $29 million from the Pakistan
government.
The journalist, who writes for The Mail on Sunday and
Mail Online and whose story against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president
Shehbaz Sharif is presently at the centre of a defamation suit, has denied
asking for any commission.
In October 2019, when Mr Moussavi was desperate to
recover the court-mandated award of $29m from the Pakistan government, he
approached Mr Rose and asked for his assistance. It has now emerged that Mr
Rose set up the first meeting between Mr Moussavi and Special Assistant to the
Prime Minister on (SAPM) Accountability Shahzad Akbar at the Royal Garden Hotel
in Kensington, and that he was present during the meeting.
In an interview to Geo News, Mr Moussavi said: “David
Rose said he knew Shahzad Akbar so we had a chat at my house and he later
organised the meeting [with Akbar]. He [Rose] asked what was in it for him, and
wanted his mortgage to be settled if Broadsheet entered into a deal with
Pakistan.
“We shook hands that I would settle his mortgage of
GBP250,000,” said Mr Moussavi, indicating that if he had recovered the payment
from Pakistan at the time, he would have paid Mr Rose the commission.
David Rose says he introduced Broadsheet owner to
SAPM, but denies asking for commission
Mr Rose tweeted on Monday, saying Mr Moussavi asked
him to arrange the meeting. “I’ve known Shahzad for a long time too, so I
agreed to do this. So far as I was concerned, I was just doing a favour for a
friend, though twice Kaveh said he would pay me a commission if he concluded a
settlement,” he wrote.
“At first I thought he was joking, but when he
repeated the offer by text, I told him (verbally) I couldn’t accept this. I
never asked for and never received any payment in relation to this meeting.”
Broadsheet was engaged by Gen Musharraf some 20 years
ago to investigate the offshore property of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif
and his family members.
In December 2018, former English court of appeal Judge
Sir Anthony Evans QC, as sole arbitrator, issued an order for payment of $22m
to Broadsheet by the government of Pakistan. In July 2019, the government
appealed the arbitration, but was unsuccessful in its bid. The arbitrator found
that Pakistan and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had wrongfully
repudiated an asset recovery agreement with Broadsheet and ruled that the
company is entitled to damages. For the next few months, Broadsheet was in
correspondence with members of NAB as well as the AGP for the payment of the
funds.
In October 2019, Mr Moussavi met with Mr Akbar to
demand the $22m payment as ordered by the court, but Mr Akbar sought a discount
to limit the loss to the national exchequer. Mr Moussavi rejected requests for
a discount and approached the court to enforce the payment. In December 2019,
the company successfully secured a third party debt order which forced the
payment of around $29 million to Broadsheet which accumulated into $28.7m due
to non-payment of interest, which incurred at a rate of $4,758 per day.
When asked to comment on this development, SAPM
Shahzad Akbar told Dawn, “I didn’t have any contact with Kaveh prior to October
2019. David made me meet him — it wasn’t a secret meeting.”
Mr Akbar said he has no knowledge about any request
for commission.
Later on Geo anchor Shahzeb Khanzada’s show, Mr Akbar
said Mr Rose is his friend and has known him for six years.
Mr Moussavi in the past has accused the Sharifs,
former president Asif Ali Zardari, Gen Musharraf, an unnamed general and an
unidentified individual of bribery, kickbacks and selective accountability. He
has also criticised Mr Khan and his cabinet for apathy and an ‘insincere’
accountability drive. The government has formed a commission to probe the Broadsheet
saga.
Mr Rose’s publication the Mail on Sunday is currently
in the midst of a defamation suit filed by Shehbaz Sharif, who said the
journalist has wrongly accused him of corruption.
The paper alleged in a 2019 story that Shehbaz
misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money, in particular government aid intended for
the victims of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Shehbaz denies the charges and
has demanded a retraction, an apology and damages.
After the story was published, the PML-N president
accused the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government of feeding ‘fake news’ to
the Mail. He named Prime Minister Imran Khan and Special Assistant to the Prime
Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar as having been behind the report and
vowed to take legal action against the paper and the government officials. At
the time, the PM’s aide had dismissed Mr Sharif’s remarks about the
‘politically-motivated story’, and said he was willing to place evidence of the
alleged corruption before London courts.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1607575/uk-journalist-played-role-in-moussavi-akbar-meeting
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PTI disowns its official’s statement in funding case
Iftikhar A. Khan
February 16, 2021
ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)
has disowned the statement of its central finance secretary claiming the
receipt of donations from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the accounts of
four of its paid employees.
During the brief proceedings of the ECP’s scrutiny
committee, the PTI submitted a written response to petitioner Akbar S. Babar’s
application seeking investigation into ‘front accounts of the PTI employees’
who had been authorised to collect funds from Pakistan and abroad.
The application demanded that all the personal front
accounts of four PTI employees be requisitioned from the State Bank of Pakistan
(SBP) to ascertain full scale and scope of the illegal fund raising.
The response was filed by counsel for the ruling party
Shah Khawar.
Petitioner claims he has been offered post of Senate
chairman, but he declined it in national interest
On Monday, the scrutiny committee met for a short time
before the meeting was adjourned for Tuesday (today) as the DG Law chairing the
committee had to attend ECP business before the Supreme Court.
The PTI in its response stated the “respondent does
not own such statement made by any of the office-bearers of PTI. In the same
manner, the referred so called report by Auditors ‘Ahsan and Ahsan’ has already
been declared a non-party by this worthy scrutiny committee.”
Interestingly, the PTI disowned its central finance
secretary’s admission to the front accounts and illegal funding from the UAE,
but it did not disown the decision made by the PTI finance board to allow funds
collection by PTI employees in a meeting dated July 1, 2011.
The minutes of the meeting are available with this
correspondent.
It is important to mention here that Ahsan & Ahsan
audit of PTI donations was authorised on the written sanction of the PTI
Chairman Imran Khan on March 9, 2013. The audit report certified all the allegations
of the petitioner regarding illegal funding of the PTI. In his statement, the
central finance secretary had acknowledged the existence of the special audit
report including transfer of funds from the UAE to the personal accounts of PTI
‘employees’.
The latest turnaround in PTI stance comes in the wake
of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement on January 20 in Wana where he offered
to end secrecy of the foreign funding case, which was also disowned by PTI
lawyer later.
The petitioner has repeatedly asked the scrutiny
committee to investigate the PTI employees’ bank accounts which had been
illegally used as a front to collect donations. Despite sharing ample evidence
till date, the ECP scrutiny committee had made no effort to investigate these
accounts under PTI pressure, according to the petitioner.
He said the committee continued to keep PTI records
and bank statements secret against ECP orders. According to him, the record
includes 23 PTI bank accounts revealed on the SBP instructions and mostly kept
secret from the ECP under ‘documented’ PTI pressure.
The foreign funding case against the ruling PTI has
been pending before the ECP since November 2014.
Talking to reporters outside the ECP office,
petitioner Babar said it was incumbent on the scrutiny committee to probe the
front accounts of PTI employees illegally used to collect donations. He said
the committee was a fact-finding body but instead of probing and digging out
facts, the committee has chosen to keep evidence secret, which was not only illegal
but also raised fundamental questions on the transparency of the whole scrutiny
process.
On August 27, last year, Mr Babar said, the ECP
rejected the initial scrutiny report filed after a gap of 28 to 29 months. A
report prepared in secrecy without even authenticating the evidence or probing
leads would remain merely an attempt to cover facts, he alleged. This would not
be allowed even if it meant seeking SC intervention. He said the ECP was
responsible for the committee’s conduct. The commission could not isolate
itself from the lack of transparency and blatant violations of due process by
the scrutiny committee.
The petitioner said he had faced death threats and
fake cases. Lately he was offered any post of choice including the position of
Senate chairman that he declined as the foreign funding case was not for his
personal but national gains.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1607632/pti-disowns-its-officials-statement-in-funding-case
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COAS witnesses Jidarul Hadeed in Thar desert
February 16, 2021
KARACHI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar
Javed Bajwa on Monday visited training area in Thar Desert near Chhor where he
witnessed the integrated maneuvers of infantry and mechanized forces in a
defensive role.
The army chief witnessed the training exercise,
Jidarul Hadeed, wherein the operational capability of field formations
operating in desert is being tested in near battlefield environment, according
to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The troops have been undergoing this exercise under
strenuous field conditions for over two weeks. It will culminate on Feb 28.
Gen Bajwa was earlier given a detailed briefing by
exercise commander in the field area on the aim and objectives of the ongoing
exercise and drills/procedures being practised to ensure complete dominance in
the battlefield.
Training exercise to conclude on 28th
While lauding the standard of training of the
participating troops, the army chief expressed his complete satisfaction over
operational preparedness and combat readiness of the formation.
Vigorous training and highest standard of preparedness
in peacetime were the only guarantors of peace, the COAS said.
Earlier, on arrival at the exercise area, the COAS was
received by Corps Commander Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1607585/coas-witnesses-jidarul-hadeed-in-thar-desert
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Africa
Allows herdsmen do their business – Miyetti Allah
tells Nigerians
February 16, 2021
By Seun Opejobi
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria,
MACBAN, has appealed to Nigerians to allow herders carry out their businesses
peacefully.
MACBAN’s Southeast Zonal Chairman, Gidado Siddiki,
said herdsmen should be allowed to carry out their businesses until a
beneficial alternative is provided.
Speaking in Enugu, Siddiki appealed to Nigerians to
seek a common solution amid the insecurity challenges in the country.
Siddiki also cautioned Nigerians against utterances
capable of spreading fear among Nigerians.
He said: “The spate of insecurity and outbursts of
emotive utterances across the country is further fanning the embers of fears
among Nigerians.
“For the ordinary man, the situation is enough to
infer that Nigeria might just be on the verge of activating its emergency
security mode.
“What we face today is a situation where the
misdemeanor of others have rubbed off largely on us but these trials shall come
to pass.
“We only ask to be allowed to do our business until
such a time when viable and more beneficial options are realised.”
This is coming at a time the Bauchi State branch of
the group called on the government to allow carrying of arms by herdsmen.
Sadiq Ibrahim Ahmed, Chairman of MACBAN in Bauchi
State, said herdsmen and Nigerians should be allowed to carry arms to protect
themselves amid the spate of insecurity.
Ahmed had also accused the government of
irresponsibility in the area of ensuring the security of lives and property of
Nigerians.
https://dailypost.ng/2021/02/16/allows-herdsmen-do-their-business-miyetti-allah-tells-nigerians/
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Somalia, UN seek over $1B for humanitarian assistance
Mohammed Dhaysane
15.02.2021
MOGADISHU, Somalia
Mogadishu and the UN on Monday sought $1.09 billion to
assist Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021.
The federal government of Somalia and the UN's Office
for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched the 2021 Humanitarian
Response Plan.
The plan aims to assist 4 million people out of the
5.9 million in need of assistance including IDPs, host communities, refugees,
and returnees, to access life-saving assistance, basic services, and livelihood
support.
Adam Abdelmoula, the UN representative in Somalia,
said the funding is needed to counter the "triple threat" of climate
shocks, locusts, and COVID-19.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/somalia-un-seek-over-1b-for-humanitarian-assistance/2145914
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Separatists kill 3 soldiers in southwestern Cameroon
Rodrigue Forku and Peter Kum
15.02.2021
YAOUNDE, Cameroon
Three members of the Cameroonian Navy have been killed
in an ambush attributed to English-speaking separatists, a local official said
Monday.
The incident occurred on Sunday in Ekondo-Titi, a
coastal town in the country's South West region.
“Four soldiers belonging to the 21st battalion of the
Navy were ambushed in the village Bekora Barombi in Ekondo-Titi, not far from
their post,” Nwafua Laurence, a local official, told Anadolu Agency.
“Three of the sailors were killed while the fourth was
seriously injured.”
Ekondo-Titi, located near the border with Nigeria, is
regularly targeted by English-speaking separatists.
The Central African country has been marred by
protests and violence since 2016, with residents in English-speaking regions
saying they have been marginalized for decades by the central government and
the French-speaking majority.
They are calling for independence or a return to a
federal state.
Violence in the Anglophone regions has claimed an
estimated 3,000 lives and caused the displacement of over 730,000 civilians,
according to the Human Rights Watch.
In 2020, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said for
a second year running that Cameroon topped the list as the most neglected
crisis on the planet.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/separatists-kill-3-soldiers-in-southwestern-cameroon/2145673
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South Asia
The Taliban close in on Afghan cities, pushing the
country to the brink
February 15, 2021
Written by Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Taimoor Shah
The Taliban have been encroaching on key cities around
Afghanistan for months, threatening to drive the country to its breaking point
and push the Biden administration into a no-win situation just as the United
States’ longest war is supposed to be coming to an end.
Around the northern city of Kunduz, despite the
winter’s fierce cold, the Taliban have taken outposts and military bases, using
small armed drones to terrorize Afghan troops. In neighbouring Pul-i-Khumri,
they have seized important highways in a stranglehold of the city, threatening
main lifelines to Kabul, the country’s capital.
And here in the city of Kandahar, a bedrock of
historic and political importance and an economic hub for the country’s south,
Taliban fighters have pummeled the surrounding districts, and moved closer to
taking the provincial capital than they have in more than a decade.
The Taliban’s brazen offensive has put the Biden
administration into a dangerous political bind. Under the deal struck by
President Donald Trump with the Taliban last year, all foreign troops —
including the remaining 2,500 U.S. service members who support Afghanistan’s
beleaguered army and security forces — are scheduled to withdraw by May 1,
leaving the country in an especially precarious state.
If the Biden administration honors the withdrawal
date, officials and analysts fear the Taliban could overwhelm what’s left of
the Afghan security forces and take control of major cities like Kandahar in a
push for a complete military victory or a broad surrender by the Afghan
government in the ongoing peace negotiations.
But if the United States delays its withdrawal
deadline, as a congressionally appointed panel recommended on Feb. 3, the
Taliban would likely consider the 2020 deal with the United States void, likely
leading to renewed attacks on U.S. and NATO troops, and potentially drawing the
United States deeper into the war to defend Afghan forces, whom the Taliban
could still retaliate vigorously against.
“The threat of Taliban military victories, especially
in an area as symbolic and strategic as Kandahar, makes it difficult for the
Biden administration to swallow the risks of finalizing a troop withdrawal,”
said Andrew Watkins, a senior analyst on Afghanistan for the International
Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict resolution organization. “Pulling out
might be politically impossible if Kandahar was on the nightly news.”
In Panjwai, a district that neighbours Kandahar city,
the low thud of artillery punctuated a recent warm winter afternoon, signalling
the Taliban’s proximity to its populated center.
At the edge of the district, a lone police outpost
sandbagged into the rock overlooked what was now Taliban territory. One
officer’s head was bandaged from a roadside bomb blast, another wore a gauze
sling under his uniform, propping up a shoulder wounded from a sniper’s bullet.
“They are still working here; we can’t replace them,
because we don’t have enough forces,” said Safiullah Khan, the police officer
in charge. “Our commanders steal from our fuel, food and our supply.”
During an offensive in the fall, the Taliban took
swathes of territory and then mostly held their ground despite attempts by the
Afghan security forces and U.S. airstrikes to dislodge them.
Taliban commanders told tribal officials in the
district that the insurgent group deliberately stopped short of taking Panjwai,
said Haji Mahmood Noor, the district’s mayor, because they were told to wait
and see how the next phase of peace negotiations played out.
“When the trees turn green the situation will get
worse,” Noor said, referring to the spring, when the Taliban can move more at
ease under the cover of blooming foliage.
Panjwai’s near collapse and the growing threat to
Kandahar city are partially the consequence of the death in 2018 of Gen. Abdul
Raziq, who had been the province’s police chief since 2011. Known for settling
disputes with threats and bloody retribution, and accused of many human-rights
abuses, Raziq also used his close relationship with the U.S. military, to keep
Kandahar province mostly secure for years.
After Raziq’s death at the hands of a Taliban
infiltrator, his brother, Gen. Tadeen Khan, was made a general overnight and
took over as police chief, but his lack of military experience meant he was
largely disconnected and absent from his duties. As his officers taxed and
abused their residents with little oversight, the Taliban forged alliances with
local tribal leadership and paid low-level police officers to abandon their
posts before their fall offensive, local and provincial officials said.
When the Taliban pushed into the districts around
Kandahar, the police put up very little fight. Many outposts were already
barely staffed, Noor and other local officials said. Some Afghan government
officials disputed that accusation, saying they retreated in fear. Others said
they didn’t know why they retreated at all.
Tadeen rejected any accusations of corruption and
abuse and denied that his police forces were withering around Kandahar.
“The Taliban do not have more power,” he said, from
his well-guarded compound in Kandahar city. “The Afghan forces can defend
themselves.”
The deteriorating situation in Kandahar is a broader
reflection of security around the country. The Taliban have spent the past
months capturing military bases and police outposts and installing highway
checkpoints near capital cities in provinces such as Helmand and Uruzgan in the
south, and Kunduz and Baghlan in the north.
Though Taliban tactics vary from region to region, the
outcomes are usually the same: increased taxation on highways, plummeting
morale among the Afghan security forces with dwindling U.S. support and growing
fear among those living in once-secure areas.
The Taliban’s aim is to force the Afghan government
into complying with their terms of peace. In Qatar, Taliban leaders have
demanded the release of around 7,000 more prisoners and the establishment of an
interim government, two requests that Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s president,
has so far refused.
“The Taliban seem to believe that applying this
pressure, staging their fighters to potentially strike Kandahar and other urban
centers, will pressure the U.S. to withdraw, or else,” Watkins said. “The
strategic logic might have the opposite effect.”
To prepare for a possible multipronged attack should
the United States stay beyond the May 1 deadline, the Pentagon has requested
additional military options — including an increase of U.S. troops or a
commitment of more air support from U.S. Central Command, which oversees
operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan, according to two U.S. officials.
Whether these requests will be granted depends on the Biden administration’s
next move, which it is expected to be announced in coming weeks upon completing
a review of the current agreement in place with the Taliban.
The unrest has already delayed the handover of
Kandahar Airfield, a sprawling U.S. base east of the capital, to Afghan forces
in recent months. For now, a small detachment of U.S. and NATO troops remain to
support the struggling Afghan forces, according to a U.S. military official.
With the police force mostly in ruin, the Afghan army
and commandos have moved into Kandahar, beginning operations in November to
retake territory that was then retaken by the Taliban. Commando officers said
their forces had been exhausted by frequent orders to fill in for their police
counterparts.
In nearby Arghandab District, the site of the
Taliban’s northern offensive on Kandahar city, army leaders and police officers
say they’re severely understaffed and their pleas for support have gone
unheeded by officials in Kabul.
One outpost was using two armored vehicles likely left
over from the 1980s Soviet invasion to defend against Taliban positions on the
river banks below.
In December, nearly 200 checkpoints in Kandahar were
abandoned by the Afghan army, according to a U.S. government watchdog report
released Feb. 1. The collapse of some military bases in the fall afforded the
Taliban troves of military equipment and ammunition, including several pieces
of heavy artillery.
Afghan security forces are also contending with
portions of a populace that have more faith in the Taliban than in the
government. In capturing new territory, the Taliban installed their own
administrative services, explained Lal Mohammad, 23, a wheat and grape farmer
who now lives behind the Taliban’s front line in Panjwai.
Insurgent fighters have smashed smartphones and banned
music, imposed a curfew, dug defensive tunnels between people’s homes and used
empty rooms in them as fighting positions. Roadside bombs are everywhere, he
said. But land disputes and petty crime are well managed, compared to the Afghan
government’s corrupt bureaucracy, said Mohammad said.
“People like it,” Mohammad said, adding that he just
wants someone to take over Kandahar so people can get back to their lives.
These sentiments are common in more rural areas of
Afghanistan. But the Afghan government’s incompetence and widespread corruption
have brought that attitude to the doorstep of one of the country’s most
populated cities.
“The government,” Mohammad said, “has failed.”
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/taliban-afghanistan-us-biden-army-7190032/
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Bangladesh Court Sentences 5 To Death For Killing US
Blogger Avijit Roy
February 16, 2021
Dhaka: A court in Bangladesh sentenced to death five
members of an Islamist militant group on Tuesday for killing a US blogger
critical of religious extremism six years ago.
Avijit Roy, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was
hacked to death by machete-wielding assailants in February 2015 while returning
home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida
Ahmed suffered head injuries and lost a finger.
"Charges against them were proved beyond any
doubt. The court gave them the highest punishment," public prosecutor
Golam Sarwar Khan said after the verdict, amid tight security at the Special
Anti-Terrorism Tribunal in the capital, Dhaka.
The court also jailed one man for life in the attack,
Khan said.
He said the six men convicted on Tuesday belong to the
al Qaeda-inspired domestic militant group Ansar Ullah Bangla Team, which police
say was behind the murders of more than a dozen secular activists and bloggers.
Syed Ziaul Haq, a sacked army major believed to be the
leader of the group and who masterminded the killing, and one other member of
the group were tried in absentia and received death sentences, Khan said.
Nazrul Islam, defence lawyer for the six men, said
they would appeal against the sentences in the higher court.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh saw a string of deadly
attacks between 2013 and 2016 targeting bloggers, secular activists and
religious minorities, claimed by Islamic State or al Qaeda-aligned groups.
The most serious attack came in July 2016, when gunmen
stormed a cafe in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka and killed 22 people, most of
them foreigners.
After the cafe siege, more than 100 suspected militants
were killed and hundreds more were arrested as the government cracked down on
Islamist groups to preserve its image as a moderate Muslim nation.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/bangladesh-court-sentences-5-to-death-for-killing-us-blogger-avijit-roy-2371637
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Christians demand justice after attack on Bangladeshi
church
February 16, 2021
Christian leaders have expressed frustration and
demanded justice after a church in northern Bangladesh was allegedly vandalized
and looted by Muslims.
On Feb. 10, four Muslims who came by motorbike
attacked the Emmanuel Church of Bangladesh at Aditmari in Lalmonirhat district,
according to a complaint submitted to the district police chief on Feb. 14.
The attackers destroyed the church signboard, cut down
trees, entered the church after breaking the lock and left with 30 chairs and
two floor mats worth 14,000 taka (US$167), the letter said.
The plaintiff, Pastor Lovlu S. Levy, said he lodged a
complaint with the local police station but the police did not take action to
investigate and arrest the culprits. Instead, under the influence of local
Muslim leaders, the church has been accused of conversion.
Pastor Levy said the violence was caused by incitement
against Christians by a locally organized waz mahfil (Islamic gathering) where
hate speeches were delivered.
Stories Transform Lives
He said it was not the first time he and the church
had come under attack and threats.
The pastor recalled that in 2015, amid a rise in
Islamic militancy, he received death threats from extremists. In 2019, a group
of Muslims physically assaulted him on his way to the church.
“I have been in a panic since the attack. Our
constitution allows freedom of religion in the country but fundamentalists have
put the freedom under threat. The waz mahfil made various provocative
statements about minorities and especially Christians, which encouraged the
fundamentalists to attack our church,” Pastor Levy told UCA News.
He added that the church has 46 members and all are
living in fear since the violence.
Police described the incident as a land dispute and
denied the presence of any church.
“We came to know the incident was due to a dispute
over land. According to the locals, there is no church there. The banner of the
church is to focus on land grabbing. In government documents, there is no
listing of the church and no prayer takes place in the church here,” Saiful
Islam, officer in charge of Aditmari police station, told UCA News.
The Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA) dismissed
the police refusal to acknowledge the church.
“We know the church and the pastor well. Last year we
provided blankets and some money for the church members before Christmas
celebrations,” BCA president Nirmol Rozario told UCA News.
“The incident is a result of the predominance of
Islamic fundamentalists who want to intimidate Christians. The government must
take proper action to stop such violence.”
Bangladesh has been known as a moderate
Muslim-majority country. However, since 2013 it has seen an upsurge in Islamic
militancy which has claimed the lives of 50 people including secular bloggers,
liberal academics, publishers, gay activists, foreigners and religious
minorities including Hindus, Shia and Ahmadi Muslims and Christians.
During this period, four Christian clergy including an
Italian Catholic priest were attacked and two Christians were murdered by
militants, while dozens received death threats.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/christians-demand-justice-after-attack-on-bangladeshi-church/91418
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Afghanistan should never become ‘safe-haven’ for
terrorism again
15 Feb 2021
In a pre-ministerial press conference on Monday, NATO
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the presence of international
troops in Afghanistan as condition-based, he said that NATO will not leave the
country before the time is right.
“Our common goal is clear. Afghanistan should never
again serve as a haven for terrorists to attack our homelands. So, our presence
is conditions-based,” Stoltenberg said. While no ally wants to stay in Afghanistan
longer than necessary, we will not leave before the time is right” said
Stoltenberg.
“NATO has significantly adjusted our presence as part
of the peace process,” he said.
Based on the unacceptably high level of violence in
Afghanistan Stoltenberg said, “However, peace talks remain fragile and the
level of violence remains unacceptably high, including the Taliban attacks on
civilians. The Taliban must reduce violence, negotiate in good faith and live
up to their commitment to stop cooperating with international terrorist
groups,” he added, “No ally wants to stay in Afghanistan longer than necessary,
but the threat of terrorism must be considered,”.
Stoltenberg expressed that NATO strongly is in favor
of the peace process in Afghanistan and that it is the best opportunity for “a
lasting political solution”.
Situational assessment on the ground will continue and
developments are closely monitored, Stoltenberg indicated that NATO “will
continue to take more measures to ensure the safety of our troops and consider
next steps in a deliberate and coordinated way,” he said.
Stoltenberg reiterated that NATO’s priority is that
Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terrorists once again.
NATO’s main and only priority is that Afghanistan
should not be transformed into safe haven for terrorism again and to fight
terrorists he added, “We also realize that one of the best weapons we have in
the fight against terrorism is to train local forces,”.
Most of the Afghans are concerned over losing the
gains the country achieved in the past two decades, Stoltenberg reaffirmed that
“I hear the calls from many Afghans
https://www.khaama.com/nato-afghanistan-should-never-become-safe-haven-for-terrorists-again-334433/
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Nangarhar ‘targeted killings’ claim 4, injures 2
16 Feb 2021
At least four people, including a doctor, were
assassinated in two separate attacks by unidentified armed men.
The incident happened in the city of Nangarhar
province on Tuesday morning, reports indicate.
The first incident occurred in the early morning in
PD3 of Jalalabad, when gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle, one ANP member
was killed and two others were wounded.
According to provincial police, gunmen are still at
large and have escaped from the area.
The second incident happened after a few minutes in
this incident unknown gunmen attacked a vehicle in PD4 of Jalalabad city.
Three people including a doctor was killed in the hail
of bullets.
Some media outlets reported that two policemen and a
doctor were killed, while others reported a doctor named Dr. Maihan Yousuf and
two of his bodyguards were murdered when assassins opened fire on their
vehicle.
Dr. Maihan Yousuf was on his way to work when gunmen
opened fire at his vehicle, similarly, suspects are at large and fled the area
following the shooting.
No group or individual has so far claimed
responsibility for the attack, and local officials have also not commented on
the attacks.
This comes as six Afghan national police members were
killed and two others were injured when the Taliban attacked a security outpost
in Qalat, the central part of Zabul province.
The incident happened on Monday and the Taliban have
reportedly captured three policemen as prisoners.
Two military vehicles, weapons, and ammunition in the
security outpost were also taken by the Taliban.
Both local officials and the Taliban have not
commented on the clashes.
https://www.khaama.com/nangarhar-targeted-killings-claim-4-injures-2/
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42 Security members, civilians rescued from Taliban
clutches
16 Feb 2021
Afghan Army’s 217th Pamir Corps said Tuesday, that
Afghan commandos in a special operation have rescued and freed 42 security
force members and civilian prisoners from clutches of Baghlan province.
According to the statement, 25 Afghan commandos and 17
civilians were released from Taliban prison during the operation.
On Monday night, six ANA soldiers, 19 policemen, and
17 civilians were freed from the Taliban prison in a special operation in the
Nawrozak area located in the city of Baghlan province, the statement read.
The prison was completely destroyed by the Afghan
special forces unit of commandos, the statement added.
This is the second time Afghan national defense and
security forces destroy Taliban prisons in Baghlan and rescue the detained
individuals.
Previously, MoD stated that the Afghan special forces
have rescued a number of military and civilians held captive by the Taliban in
Logar province.
MoD stated Army’s SF unit released seven military and
15 civilian prisoners from a Taliban prison in the Charkh district of Logar
province.
During the operation, the Commando members discovered
and confiscated weapons and heavy rounds of ammunition.
https://www.khaama.com/42-security-members-civilians-rescued-from-taliban-clutches-3334433/
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Mideast
Israel hints at possibility of not engaging with Biden
on Iran nuclear strategy
16 February ,2021
Israel held out the possibility on Tuesday it would
not engage with US President Joe Biden on strategy regarding the Iranian
nuclear program if he returns to a 2015 deal with Tehran.
The remarks by Israel's envoy to Washington came at a
touchy juncture for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Up for re-election next
month, he has revived tough rhetoric on Iran while not yet having any direct
communication with Biden.
The new administration has said it wants a US return
to the 2015 nuclear deal - which former President Donald Trump quit, restoring
sanctions on Tehran - if the Iranians recommit to their own obligations.
Washington has also said it wants to confer with allies in the Middle East
about such moves.
“We will not be able to be part of such a process if
the new administration returns to that deal,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan told
Israel's Army Radio.
Netanyahu aides have privately questioned whether
engaging with US counterparts might backfire, for Israel, by falsely signaling
its consent for any new deal that it still opposes.
Israel was not a party to the 2015 deal. It has
powerful advocates within the US Congress, however, and Netanyahu's threats to
take unilateral military action on Iran if he deems diplomacy a dead end also
figure into big-power planning.
“We think that if the United States returns to the
same accord that it already withdrew from, all its leverage will be lost,”
Erdan said.
“Essentially, the moment it removes the sanctions the
Iranians will have no real incentive to negotiate and reach a deal that is
truly capable of ruling out nuclear capabilities.”
The Biden administration has said it wants to
strengthen and lengthen constraints on Iran, which denies seeking nuclear arms.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/16/Nuclear-Israel-hints-at-possibility-of-not-engaging-with-Biden-on-Iran-nuclear-strategy
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Palestinians shoot down another Israeli drone
16 February 2021
Palestinian resistance fighters have reportedly shot
down an Israeli spy drone in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Palestinian media outlets cited Israeli reports as
saying that the Palestinian forces had taken control of the unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV) after it was downed in the northern part of the Gaza Strip on
Monday night.
The aircraft brings to four the number of Israeli
drones shot down by the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance fighters over the
past two weeks.
Israel’s English-language Jerusalem Post has lamented
that "Israeli military drones are dropping like flies" in the
Lebanese and Palestinian territories, as resistance forces gain momentum in
their defense against the Israeli regime intrusions.
Palestinian resistance fighters shot down an Israeli quadcopter
on January 31 over Beit Hanoun Crossing on Gaza's northern border with the
occupied territories. The drone was shot down while taking images of the area,
according to the Arabic-language Palestine Today news agency.
On February 1, the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance
movement downed an Israeli UAV as it crossed into Lebanon near the border
village of Blida. In a statement after the incident, Hezbollah said it was in
control of the drone.
On February 2, Palestinian fighters shot down another
Israeli drone east of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and
took control of it.
The Israeli military frequently uses drones over the
Gaza Strip either to monitor and photograph Palestinian military units or
launch aerial attacks against targets.
The Tel Aviv regime also frequently violates Lebanon's
airspace in flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution
1701 and the country's sovereignty.
Israel blocking COVID-19 vaccines to Gaza
Separately, Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila
said in a statement on Monday that Israel had blocked the transfer of some
2,000 coronavirus vaccine doses destined for health workers into Gaza.
Israel has "full responsibility for this
arbitrary move," said al-Kaila, adding that the Health Ministry was
coordinating with international organizations to allow the vaccines into the
blockaded strip as soon as possible.
The Gaza Strip has been under Israeli land, air, and
sea blockade since June 2007, after Hamas, which has vowed to resist Israeli
occupation, rose to power in the enclave of two million. The blockade has
caused a sharp decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented
levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the strip.
About 115,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in
the West Bank, including nearly 1,400 deaths, and almost 53,600 cases have been
registered in Gaza, including 537 deaths.
International rights groups and the UN have urged
Israel, which began its coronavirus inoculation drive on December 19, to
guarantee coronavirus vaccine doses for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority (PA)
received 10,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.
The ban on the delivery comes as Israel is mulling
linking the transfer of the vaccine doses to Gaza to the release of the remains
of two Israeli soldiers who were killed in the 2014 Israeli war on the
blockaded enclave and two Israeli captives held in Gaza since then.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that a number of
officials told the Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee that “No
vaccines have been transferred to Gaza” to date.
According to the report, Col. Eyal Zeevi, who heads
the operations department for the Office of the COGAT, an Israeli military
unit, said the transfer of 1,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccines, which
had been delivered to the PA earlier this month, had been delayed pending
Israel's decision on Gaza policy.
FADC chairman MK Tzvi Hauser called for demanding, at
the very least, information regarding the fate of the captive Israelis Hisham
Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.
Maximally, he said, the demand should be both for the
release of the two captives, and the return of the remains of the two Israeli
soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.
The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement said the
Israeli captives held in Gaza since 2014 will not be released until a
"real" agreement is reached on exchanging prisoners.
The debate whether to allow the PA to transfer the
doses was, however, decried by the Arab Joint list member of the Knesset, Ofer
Cassif as both "criminal and shameful."
Israel's so-called "National Security
Council" is expected to state its opinion on Tuesday.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/16/645385/Palestinians-shoot-down-another-Israeli-drone
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Gazans hold a sit-in to support Palestinian prisoners
15 February 2021
Ashraf Shannon
Families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails
and human rights activists have held a sit-in inside the office of the International
Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip. They protested Tel-Aviv’s
inhumane treatment of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli
detention facilities.
The Palestinian prisoners kept in these facilities are
denied basic human rights. Many of them are detained during overnight raids
across the occupied territories.
Prisoners’ advocacy groups have condemned Israel for
the inhuman condition of these detainees, especially those suffering from
chronic medical conditions amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Israeli regime has also issued more than 50,000
so-called administrative detention orders against Palestinians since 1967.
Administrative detainees are denied due process and their detention orders can
be renewed for indefinite periods of time.
Palestinian prisoners are also subjected to torture
and psychological pressures by the Israeli prison authorities, including daily
raids and solitary confinement.
People here are calling on the international community
to end its silence and help Palestinian prisoners.
According to prisoners’ advocacy groups Israel is
currently holding around five thousand Palestinians, including women and
children, behind bars.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645356/Gazans-hold-a-sit-in-to-support-Palestinian-prisoners
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Israel forces more Palestinian families to tear down
homes
15 February 2021
Israeli authorities have forced a number of
Palestinian families to tear down their own homes in East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Palestinian media reported on Monday that at least
three families had been left with no choice but to demolish their own homes in
predominantly Palestinian neighborhoods in and around the occupied holy city.
Jihad Awadallah, one of the victims, said his family
razed their 20-year-old two-story building in Shu’afat neighborhood.
Israeli municipal authorities also forced Nimr Nimr to
demolish his son’s apartment in the village of Sur Baher, southeast of East
Jerusalem al-Quds.
In Silwan, south of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound,
Israeli troops forced Omar Siyam to raze his cattle sheds.
The municipality’s demolition order was issued under
the pretext of lacking the necessary construction license – almost impossible
to obtain.
Since January 2020, the Israeli regime has forced
dozens of Palestinians in the city to raze their homes amid hardships caused by
the coronavirus pandemic.
In May 2020, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem
reported that the Tel Aviv regime used other strategies to block Palestinian
use of land in order to pave the way for new settlements.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under
international law.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future
independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645343/Israel-Palestinian-families-homes
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Turkey arrests 718 suspects nationwide over
affiliation to PKK militants after Iraq executions
15 February 2021
The Turkish Interior Ministry says hundreds of people
have been arrested during nationwide counter-terrorism operations against the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, a day after the militants killed
13 Turkish civilians in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The ministry announced in a statement on Monday that
counter-terrorism units of the Security Directorate and Gendarmerie Command
carried out operations in 40 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, detaining a total of 718
suspects.
It noted that provincial and district heads of the
pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were among those captured.
The Turkish government has long accused the HDP of
having links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the
United States as well as the European Union, and has been calling for an
autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.
The HDP, which is Turkey's second-largest opposition
party, denies all formal links to the PKK.
Monday’s detentions came in the wake of the execution
of 13 Turkish citizens by PKK terrorists in a cave in northern Iraq's Gara
region.
“In a search of a cave taken under control, the bodies
of 13 of our abducted citizens were found. In a first inspection it was
determined that 12 of our innocent and unarmed citizens were shot in the head
and martyred and one shot in the chest and martyred,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi
Akar said.
“According to initial information given by two
terrorists captured alive, our citizens were martyred at the start of the
operation by the terrorist responsible for the cave,” he noted at the
operation’s control center near the Iraq border, which he was visiting with
military officials.
The PKK said the 13 men had died when Turkish forces
bombed the cave, where the captives were being kept.
Speaking at the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) congress in the Black Sea province of Rize on Monday, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the US has sided with the PKK and its
Syrian offshoot, the so-called People's Protection Units (YPG), providing
truckloads of ammunition to them.
“The US statement on the PKK’s execution of Turkish
citizens in northern Iraq is ridiculous. They claim they do not support the
PKK, but they certainly do,” Erdogan commented.
“If you want to continue our alliance globally and at
NATO, then you must stop siding with terrorists,” he added.
The Turkish president said that the blood of innocent
people killed in northern Iraq is on the hands of all those who defend, support
and sympathize with PKK terrorists.
Last week, the Turkish military launched out the
Claw-Eagle 2 operation in northern Iraq against PKK terrorists.
The forces carried out launched Operations Claw-Tiger
and Claw-Eagle in the area last June.
Back on January 20, Akar said Turkey was prepared to
provide assistance to Iraq in clearing PKK militants from the semi-autonomous
Kurdistan region.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645344/Turkey-arrests-718-nationwide-over-affiliation-to-Kurdish-PKK-militants
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Turkish court jails 4 pro-Kurdish newspaper employees
over ‘terrorism’ charges
15 February 2021
A court in Turkey has handed down jail sentences to
four employees of a now-defunct pro-Kurdish newspaper over links with a
‘terrorist’ organization.
Media outlets, quoting judicial sources, reported on
Monday that Eren Keskin, the co-editor-in-chief, along with two other Ozgur
Gundem officials, were each sentenced to six years and three months in prison.
Zana Bilir Kaya, the other co-editor-in-chief,
received a term of two years and one month for spreading ‘terrorism’
propaganda.
Ozcan Kilic, a lawyer in the case, said the verdict
was politically motivated.
“The court gave a very harsh verdict. We thought it
was related to the developments in the operation in northern Iraq. Courts are
influenced by conflicts,” he said of the ongoing cross-border operation by
Turkey’s army against Kurdish militants.
The newspaper was among more than 130 media outlets
the government closed during a state of emergency it declared following a coup
attempt in July 2016.
Back then, two dozen Ozgur Gundem staff were detained
as part of an investigation into alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK).
The paper had focused coverage on the PKK conflict in
Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
Separately on Sunday, Turkish officials said PKK
militants had executed over a dozen kidnapped Turks, including military and
police personnel, in a cave in northern Iraq.
Turkish police on Monday detained 718 people in 40
cities over alleged links to the Kurdish militants it blames for executing the
13 people.
The Turkish Interior Ministry said heads of the
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in cities and districts were among those
detained. The HDP is Turkey's second-largest opposition party.
In recent years, Ankara has jailed dozens of mayors
and other officials from the HDP.
Rights advocates have criticized Ankara for suing
people over expressing opinions, describing it as a means of aggressive
muzzling of dissent in Turkey.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645322/Turkish-court-Kurdish-newspaper
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Arab World
Amnesty International urges Saudi officials to free
senior Hamas official, his son
16 February 2021
Amnesty International has called on Saudi officials to
order the release of a high-ranking official of the Palestinian Hamas
resistance movement and his son, citing his worsening health condition and lack
of access to adequate health care.
The human rights group said on Monday that the health
of 83-year-old Dr. Mohammed al-Khudari has been deteriorating as he cannot
obtain essential medical service, including care for his bladder
catheterization.
Amnesty International went on to say that Dr. Khudari
had undergone surgery and was being treated for prostate cancer when Saudi
authorities arbitrarily arrested him and his son, Dr. Hani, in early April
2019.
#Saudi authorities have denied an 83-year-old man and
cancer patient access to adequate health care while his health has been
steadily deteriorating in detention. His life is at risk and must be released
immediately and provided with urgent medical care. https://t.co/KfJCYHpeqe
pic.twitter.com/4LJ4mM8BcV
— Amnesty Gulf (@amnestygulf) February 15, 2021
The Britain-based organization said the two
Palestinians were brought before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) in the
capital Riyadh one year later in a mass trial marred by serious due process
violations.
Amnesty International has already called on Saudi
Arabia's King Salman to order the dropping of unfounded charges against Dr.
Khudari and his son, and their release.
It also urged the Saudi monarch to order the urgent
transfer of the distinguished Palestinian figure to a hospital, where he is
able to receive the essential specialized medical care he needs.
Dr. Khudari and his son Hani were arbitrarily arrested
on April 4, 2019 and remained in detention without charge until March 8 last
year. Both men were forcibly disappeared for one month after their arrest, and
held incommunicado and in solitary confinement for the next two months of their
detention.
A month into the senior Hamas official’s detention,
his wife received a phone call from authorities in the maximum-security Dhahban
Prison near the Red Sea port city of Jeddah requesting his medical records. Two
weeks prior to his arrest, Dr. Khudari had undergone surgery.
Dr. Khudari is currently being held in al-Hai’r Prison
in Riyadh, while his son is detained in Dhahban Prison.
Khudari has been living in Saudi Arabia for over 30
years, and represented Hamas between mid-1990s and 2003 in Saudi Arabia.
His son is a university professor and has no political
affiliation.
On March 22 last year, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the
Hamas political bureau, in a letter addressed to the Saudi monarch pleaded with
him to make a quick decision and order the freedom of Palestinian detainees in
Saudi prisons.
“In light of the pandemic of the novel coronavirus
that has spread across the globe, due to fears for the lives of our honorable
brethren and given all humanitarian and religious considerations … the release
of the Palestinians becomes a humanitarian and national necessity. We are all
confident that His Majesty will not hesitate to do so,” the letter read.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/16/645381/Amnesty-International-urges-Saudi-officials-to-free-senior-Hamas-official-his-son
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Repeated Israeli acts of aggression on Syria won’t
help to protect terrorists: Damascus
16 February 2021
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates
has censured the Israeli regime over its repeated attacks on the Arab country,
saying such acts of aggression will not help to protect the terrorist groups,
which are wreaking havoc on the nation with the support of Tel Aviv and its
allies.
The ministry, in two identical letters addressed to UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and rotating President of the Security
Council Barbara Woodward, said Israeli forces launched a barrage of missiles at
01:18 local time on Monday from the direction of the occupied side of Syria’s
Golan Height and al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank on some targets
near the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The attacks, the letters added, fall within the
framework of the Tel Aviv regime’s systematic policy of state terrorism and
continuous support for terrorist groups in Syria, and are in flagrant violation
of Security Council Resolution 350 (1974) and the 1974 Disengagement of Forces
Agreement between Israel and Syria.
The Syrian ministry further highlighted that the
Israeli missile attack came at a time when Syrians were marking the 39th
anniversary of the national strike of February 14, 1982, to express their
rejection of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, which the regime has
occupied since 1967.
The letters noted that the Golan Heights are
incontestably an integral part of Syria, and they will return to the Damascus
government’s sovereignty sooner or later.
The ministry then warned Israel against the dangerous
repercussions of its repeated acts of aggression on Syrian territory under
false pretexts, and as part of the regime’s support for the terror groups as
well as its occupation of Arab lands, including the Syrian Golan Heights.
It called on the Security council to assume its
responsibility to condemn flagrant Israeli acts of aggression and hold the
regime to account for its crimes, which violate the international law and the
UN Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 350 (1974) and 497
(1981).
Israel frequently targets military positions inside
war-ravaged Syria, especially those of the Hezbollah resistance movement that
has helped the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-sponsored Takfiri
terrorists.
The Tel Aviv regime mostly keeps quiet about the
attacks on Syrian territories, which many view as knee-jerk reaction to Syrian
government’s increasing success in confronting terrorism in the country.
Israel has been a staunch supporter of the terrorist
groups that have violently opposed the government of President Bashar al-Assad
since foreign-backed militancy gripped the Arab country back in March 2011.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/16/645373/Repeated-Israeli-aggressions-on-Syria-won%E2%80%99t-manage-to-protect-terrorists-Damascus
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Russia’s Putin and Saudi crown prince discuss OPEC+
deal: Kremlin
15 February ,2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the implementation of the OPEC+ oil output
deal in a telephone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.
The Kremlin said Putin backed continued close
cooperation between Moscow and Riyadh to support the stability of the global
energy market.
https://english.alarabiya.net/business/energy/2021/02/15/Russia-s-Putin-and-Saudi-crown-prince-discuss-OPEC-deal-Kremlin
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US ‘outraged’ by attacks on Iraq’s Kurdistan region:
Blinken
16 February ,2021
Tamara Abueish
The United States is “outraged” by the attacks that
left one dead and injured several members of the US Coalition on the Kurdistan
region in northern Iraq, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said early on
Tuesday.
Multiple rockets hit Erbil and its surroundings at
9:30 p.m. local time, according to Reuters.
A civilian contractor was killed and six others,
including a US service member, were injured, the US coalition said.
“We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi
Kurdistan Region. Initial reports indicate that the attacks killed one civilian
contractor and injured several members of the Coalition, including one American
service member and several American contractors,” Blinken said in a statement.
“We express our condolences to the loved ones of the
civilian contractor killed in this attack, and to the innocent Iraqi people and
their families who are suffering these ruthless acts of violence. I have
reached out to Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani to
discuss the incident and to pledge our support for all efforts to investigate
and hold accountable those responsible,” he added.
At least three rockets landed near the Erbil
International Airport, according to Reuters. Several loud explosions were
reportedly heard at the scene and a fire broke out near the airport.
Attacks on Erbil airport are rare, and the rockets
were the first to strike the area in five months.
The Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed responsibility for
the attack, which they said was targeted the “American occupation” in Iraq. It
provided no evidence for its claim.
US troops occupy a military base adjacent to the
civilian airport.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/16/Terrorism-US-outraged-by-attacks-on-Iraq-s-Kurdistan-region-Blinken-
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Rocket attack on Kurdish northern Iraq kills civilian,
injures 6 people: US coalition
Tuqa Khalid
16 February ,2021
A rocket attack at a US-led military base in Kurdish
northern Iraq killed a civilian contractor and injured six other people
including a US service member, the US coalition in Iraq said on Monday.
"Initial reports that Indirect Fire landed on
Coalition Forces in Erbil tonight. There was 1 civilian contractor killed, 5
civilian contractors injured and 1 US service member injured," Spokesman
Colonel Wayne Marotto said.
The Kurdish regional government said in a statement
multiple rockets hit Erbil and its surroundings at 9:30 p.m. local time on
Monday and several people were injured, but provided no further details.
Kurdish security sources told Reuters at least three
rockets landed near Erbil International Airport in the autonomous region late
at night. Reuters reporters heard several loud explosions and saw a fire break
out near the airport.
A group calling itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed
responsibility for the attack on the US-led base, saying it targeted the
"American occupation" in Iraq. It provided no evidence for its claim.
US troops occupy a military base adjacent to the
civilian airport.
It was the most deadly attack to hit US-led forces for
almost a year in Iraq, where tensions have escalated between US forces, their
Iraqi and Kurdish allies on one side and Iran-aligned militias on the other.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/16/Rocket-attack-on-Kurdish-northern-Iraq-kills-civilian-injures-6-people-US-coalition
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Arab Coalition destroys Houthi drone heading towards
Abha Airport
Tamara Abueish
16 February ,2021
The Arab Coalition announced it had intercepted and
destroyed a drone launched by the Iran-backed Houthi militia that was heading
towards the Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Scraps from the drone were scattered around the
airport after the coalition intercepted the attack, a spokesperson said. No
casualties or injuries were reported.
The Houthis’ recent attacks targeting Saudi Arabia and
civilians are all planned by Iran’s militia in Sana’a in Yemen, the coalition
said.
The Houthis have launched several attacks targeting
the Kingdom and civilian objects, such as airports, in recent months.
Iran backs the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war against
the internationally-recognized government. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) supplies the Houthis with missiles, drones, and training, allowing
the group to target airports and other critical infrastructure.
Currently, the Houthis have control of the Yemeni
capital Sana’a, while the government is based in the city of Aden.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2021/02/16/Terrorism-Arab-Coalition-destroys-Houthi-drone-heading-towards-Abha-Airport-
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10 years since uprising Bahrain in a worse state
16 February 2021
Bianca Rahimi
In February 2011, people took to the streets in
Bahrain in protest for democracy. The crackdown that followed was brutal.
Hospitals overflowed with the dead and injured and the prisons filled up.
On the 10th anniversary of the pro-democracy movement,
the European Center for Democracy and Human Rights held a conference. According
to the speakers, the situation in Bahrain is worse now, than before 2011, with
hundreds of journalists, human rights defenders and opposition figures still
behind bars.
The US and the UK have military bases in Bahrain.
Human rights organizations say both are complicit in the monarchy’s rights
abuses, by refusing to exert the influence they obviously have over the
monarchy.
Britain’s top military brass were in Manama 5 days
before the 2011 crackdown, in which 1,000 Saudi troops, trained and equipped by
the UK, backed Bahrain’s security forces. And since then Britain has given
Bahrain 6.5 million pounds worth of technical assistance. Pressure is growing
on Westminster to end the collusion, but downing streets damning record proves
strategic interests trump human rights concerns every time.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/16/645366/10-years-since-2011-uprising-Bahrain-in-a-worse-state
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US-led coalition building new base in Syria’s Hasakah
near Iraq, Turkey borders: Report
15 February 2021
The so-called US-led military coalition is reportedly
building a new base in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah near the border
with Iraq and Turkey.
The Lebanon-based and Arabic-language al-Mayadeen
television news network reported on Monday that the military site is being
built in the town of Ayn Dewar, which lies just north of the small Syrian city
of al-Malikiyah.
Ayn Dewar is located in the most northeastern point of
the country, and sits on the border with Iraq and Turkey.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said a convoy of about 50 trucks belonging to the US-led alliance and carrying
logistics as well as military equipment entered Syrian territories through
al-Waleed border crossing on Sunday.
The sources added that the convoy arrived at US-led
coalition bases in the Kurdish-populated city of Qamishli and elsewhere in
Hasakah.
US military forces have reportedly been redeployed on
the outskirts of al-Ya'rubiyah town in al-Malikiyah region after establishing a
new military base inside a former agricultural service airport.
US forces have apparently surrounded the site with
concrete walls, and built a helipad to provide a safe environment for military
helicopters to perform landing and takeoff operations.
This comes as other sources also told SANA that US
occupation forces, in a new step to seize the Syrian oil and boost their
control over the oil areas, brought in dozens of military vehicles, coming from
the Iraqi territories and heading towards al-Malikiyah region in Hasaka
northeastern countryside.
This is while Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on
February 8 that US forces in Syria are no longer responsible for protecting oil
fields in the country, while admitting that an American firm is looting Syrian
crude oil without authorization from Damascus.
Kirby told reporters that since an American firm had
signed a deal with Kurdish militants in northern Syria last year to help
exploit the country’s oil reserves, US troops were not involved.
Damascus has said the agreement — signed between the
so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militant group and an American oil
company named by media sources as Delta Crescent Energy LLC — is null and void,
and that the parties involved are plundering Syria’s national resources.
Pentagon official added that the US military personnel
and contractors “are not authorized to provide assistance to any other private
company, including its employees or agents seeking to develop oil resources in
northeast Syria.”
Kirby said about 900 US service members were deployed
to Syria to in a declared claim to fight the remnants of the Daesh terrorist
group.
“It’s important to remember that our mission there
remains to enable the enduring defeat of ISIS,” he said, using an alternative
acronym for Daesh.
Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates,
in two identical letters addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and
former rotating President of the UN Security Council Tarek Ladeb on January 20,
strongly condemned the actions of US occupation forces in the country’s
northeast, saying they amount to a blatant violation of the Syrian sovereignty
and territorial integrity, and a flagrant breach of international law.
The ministry also renewed the Damascus government’s
calls for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US forces from the
Syria’s territory.
It added that US occupation forces continue their
regular hostile measures in Jazira region of Hasakah province, including
“systematic looting … of the Syrian resources, agricultural crops and oil …, in
addition to bringing in huge military reinforcement, logistic equipment,
various kinds of weapons, tools and military vehicles from Iraq” to some of the
US military bases in the countryside of al-Ya'rubiyah town via the al-Waleed
crossing.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645330/US-led-coalition-intends-to-establish-new-base-in-Syria-Hasakah-near-Iraq-Turkey-Report
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North America
Iran's February 21 deadline ‘wakeup call’ for Biden
administration
15 February 2021
Iran’s decision to end its voluntary implementation of
the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Safeguards Agreement should the other parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear
agreement fail to honor their commitments by the deadline of February 21 is “a
wake-up call” for the administration of US President Joe Biden, a political
analyst and former US Senate candidate says.
Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster in San Antonio,
Texas, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday, after Iran’s
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a weekly press conference
on the same day that the implementation of the Additional Protocol will be
halted, unless the other parties to the nuclear deal, officially called the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPAO), return to fulfilling their
abandoned commitments.
“The February 21st deadline is indeed a legitimate
wakeup call to the Biden administration in regard to the president’s stated
intentions in the electoral campaign of 2020 to re-enter [the] JCPOA. This
deadline will test whether or not Biden is serious about re-establishing
American involvement in what the United States agreed to in this multilateral
treaty, or will cave in to Israeli pressure on him,” Dankof said.
“Evidence of this pressure came on January 21st, the
day after the president’s inauguration. A report appeared in the Times of
Israel that an unnamed senior Israeli official was threatening to terminate its
political and diplomatic relationship with the new administration if the United
States re-entered JCPOA,” he added.
The analyst further noted that “the United States must
demonstrate that it has the political will to rejoin JCPOA and honor its
previous commitments.”
He also said Washington should indicate that it has
the political will to resist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and “do what is in the best
interest” of the other signatories of the nuclear deal.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Dankof said the Biden
administration should welcome the Russian-Chinese initiative if it has any
sincere commitment to the JCPOA and “restore all of the commitments in the
original deal, without any changes or modifications.”
“Anything less will indicate that Biden and [US
Secretary of State Anthony] Blinken are acquiescing to Israel and its domestic
lobby in the United States, including AIPAC and the Democratic Majority for
Israel,” he added.
The remarks came after Russia’s Deputy Foreign
Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia and China have discussed an initiative by
Beijing that aims to arrange for a multilateral meeting with the final goal of
convincing the US to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran.
The analyst further stressed that “the basis for
honest dialogue is for Biden to state his unequivocal commitment to return the
United States to the JCPOA”, and to immediately lift all the economic sanctions
imposed on Iran by the administration of former US president Donald Trump.
The JCPOA was unilaterally ditched by Trump in May
2018, in pursuit of what he called the “maximum pressure” policy against the Islamic
Republic through unilateral sanctions. Iran has denounced the policy as an act
of “economic terrorism.”
The US withdrawal from the deal was met with worldwide
criticism, and was followed, a year later, by Iran’s gradual reduction of its
nuclear commitments. However, Tehran has repeatedly proclaimed that it will
return to its nuclear obligations as soon as its interests under the JCPOA are
met.
Iranian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the
Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions in December, which tasked the
Iranian administration with suspending more commitments under the JCPOA.
The law, among other things, tasked the Iranian
administration to stop allowing inspections beyond the Safeguards Agreement,
including the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol, if the other
parties to the JCPOA failed to deliver on their commitments, normalize Iran’s
banking relations and remove obstacles to Iran’s oil export.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/15/645351/Iran-JCPOA-nuclear-deal-US-Joe-Biden-NPT-implementation-Additional-Protocol
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US, Iran game of nerves revives tensions in region
Syed Zafar Mehdi
15.02.2021
The delay in the new US President Joe Biden’s promise
to revive the Iran nuclear deal has once again raised tensions in the region
with Tehran announcing to disallow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
inspectors to visit the nuclear sites from Feb. 21.
Following recent tensions between the two long-time
adversaries, which peaked in the final weeks of Trump's presidency, Iran's
parliament adopted legislation that required the country to accelerate nuclear
enrichment activities and end its commitments under the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abolfazl Amouei, the
lawmaker and the spokesperson for Iranian parliament's national security and
foreign policy commission, said the law shall take effect if the sanctions are
not lifted before the Feb. 21 deadline given by the parliament.
"If within next two weeks, there is no opening of
the sale of Iranian oil and improvement in Iran's banking transactions, as per
Article 6 of the Strategic Action Law to Lift Sanctions, the voluntary
implementation of the additional protocol by Iran will be stopped," he
said.
In 2015, the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—and Germany
together with the European Union signed an agreement with Iran called the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) placing significant restrictions on its
nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
But in 2018, the US under President Donald Trump
withdrew from the agreement and subsequently reimposed all sanctions on Iran
lifted by the accord.
In 2003, Iran had signed an additional protocol under
the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), granting access to the UN nuclear agency
IAEA inspectors to inspect and verify the country's nuclear program.
The protocol requires signatories to provide an
elaborate declaration of their nuclear activities and gives the UN agency access
to their nuclear sites, even though the action is voluntary.
Onus on the US
Iran has put the onus on the revival of the deal on
the US, maintaining that it was Washington that had abandoned the deal and
stopped implementing its commitments.
"Iran is in no hurry to revive JCPOA but will
return to its obligations after the effective lifting of sanctions. We have
adopted a policy of neutralizing sanctions," said the lawmaker.
While nuclear enrichment has already surged up to 20%
in recent weeks, the law mandates the government to disallow inspection of the
country's nuclear sites from Feb. 21, if the new US administration does not
revive the deal.
Amouei said Iran will still accept inspections under
the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog, based on the safeguard agreement,
but will not accept inspections based on the NPT protocol.
"Iran had voluntarily accepted the implementation
of the additional protocol within the framework of JCPOA in lieu to lift
sanctions. But with sanctions not lifted, rather added, Iran sees no reason to
implement the protocol at this time," he said.
He further said the action is in line with paragraphs
26 and 36 of the nuclear accord signed by Iran with world powers in 2015 and if
other parties want to "revive" it, they must "first fulfill
their obligations".
Iranian lawmaker asked the new US administration to
undertake a “fundamental assessment" of the "failure" of the
previous administration's maximum pressure policy toward Iran and "reverse
that approach".
Iranians say Biden pursuing Trump policy
According to Sayed Mohammad Marandi, who was part of
the Iranian team that negotiated the 2015 deal, since the US under Biden
continues to pursue Trump's policy of violating the nuclear deal, Iran cannot
continue carrying out its commitments.
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif last week said his
country was committed to the Feb. 21 deadline, while stressing that not
implementing an additional protocol does not mean shutting the doors to the
2015 accord.
He urged Washington to act promptly to return to the
nuclear pact, before the stipulated deadline.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also declared that
the country will return to full compliance with the deal only after the US
lifts sanctions in a way that Iran can "verify them".
Last month, a senior lawmaker had warned that Iran
will expel the IAEA inspectors if the US sanctions are not lifted by February
21.
“Iran, without a doubt, will stop the voluntary
implementation of additional protocol if the sanctions against Iran, especially
in finance, banking, and oil sectors are not lifted by the mentioned day. This
is a law passed by the Iranian Parliament. The government is committed to
implementing this law,” said lawmaker Ahmad Amirabadi.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran (AEOI) also said that his agency will abide by the law
completely on the issue of nuclear inspections by the UN watchdog. He also
announced that 1000 IR2M centrifuges will be installed at Natanz nuclear
facility "within three months". The IR2M can enrich two or three
times faster than the present equipment being used by Tehran, according to the
experts.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-iran-game-of-nerves-revives-tensions-in-region/2144947
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Europe
UN, UK condemn deadly attack on Iraq’s Erbil, demand
action against those responsible
16 February ,2021
Tamara Abueish
The United Nations deplores the deadly rocket attacks
on Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region that left one person dead and several
others injured, UN Special Envoy to Iraq Jeanine Hennis said on Tuesday.
A civilian contractor was killed and six others,
including a US service member, were injured on Monday night when multiple
rockets hit Erbil and its surrounding area at 9:30 p.m. local time.
“We deplore the deadly rocket attack on Erbil. Such
heinous, reckless acts pose grave threats to stability. Iraq must be shielded
from (external) rivalries. We call for restraint and for close Baghdad-Erbil
collaboration to bring culprits to justice,” Hennis wrote on Twitter.
For his part, the British Ambassador to Iraq condemned
the attack and called for all those responsible to be help accountable.
At least three rockets landed near the Erbil
International Airport, according to Reuters. Several loud explosions were
reportedly heard at the scene and a fire broke out near the airport.
Monday’s attack was claimed by the Saraya Awliya
al-Dam group, who said that they were targeting the “American occupation” in
Iraq.
Iraqi officials say the group is linked to Iran.
Several groups with ties to the Iranian regime have claimed a series of rocket
and roadside bomb attacks against coalition forces, contractors working for the
coalition and US installations - including the embassy in Baghdad - in recent
months.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/16/The-United-Nations-deplores-deadly-attack-on-Iraq-s-Erbil-Envoy-
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PKK killing of Turkish citizens ‘deeply troubling’
Omer Tugrul Cam
15.02.2021
BRUSSELS
The European Union on Monday expressed condolences
over the killing of 13 Turkish citizens by the terror group PKK.
“We have seen deeply troubling reports about the
killing of 13 Turkish citizens by the PKK – a designated terrorist organisation
– in northern Iraq last week,” Peter Stano, EU Commission spokesperson, told
Anadolu Agency.
“We would like to offer our condolences to the Turkish
people and express our heartfelt sympathies to the families of the victims,” he
added.
The Turkish nationals, who had been held captive for
several years by the PKK, were executed by the group in Gara, northern Iraq
over the weekend, during Turkey’s anti-terror operation in the region.
Operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle began last June
to ensure the safety of people and Turkey's borders.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against
Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU
– has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women,
children, and infants.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/pkk-killing-of-turkish-citizens-deeply-troubling-/2145926
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'Nothing can justify terror': Germany on PKK massacre
Ayhan Simsek
15.02.2021
BERLIN
The German government on Monday expressed condolences
over the massacre of 13 Turkish citizens by the terror group PKK in northern
Iraq, saying no such action could be justified.
“We would like to extend our most heartfelt
condolences to the families of the victims,” Foreign Ministry deputy
spokeswoman Andrea Sasse told a news conference in Berlin.
“Nothing can justify terror. International humanitarian
law must be fully respected in armed conflicts,” she added.
The Turkish nationals, who had been held captive for
several years by the PKK, were executed by the group in Gara, northern Iraq
over the weekend, during Turkey’s anti-terror operation in the region.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against
Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the
EU – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women,
children, and infants.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/nothing-can-justify-terror-germany-on-pkk-massacre/2145599
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Southeast Asia
Indonesian president follows Pope John Paul II's lead
Justin L. Wejak
February 16, 2021
More than three decades ago, from Oct. 9-14, 1989,
Pope John Paul II was in Indonesia for a state and pastoral visit. The cities
visited by the pontiff included Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Medan and Maumere.
The choice of cities was not without reason. Jakarta
is the national capital, Yogyakarta is widely known as the city of culture and
education, Medan has the largest number of Catholics on the island of Sumatra,
and Maumere (Flores) is the “Catholic kitchen.”
Of course, the pope's visit was a tribute to
Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Nicknamed
the pilgrim pope, John Paul II, born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, visited dozens of
countries and Indonesia was the 76th country he visited after being elected in
1978 until his death in 2005.
At that time, President Suharto, who was said to be
tolerant of minority religions and ethnicities in Indonesia, welcomed the
arrival of the head of the Vatican. Security forces were prepared by the state
for the protection of the pope. The Indonesian government certainly did not
want its name tarnished in the eyes of the world if the pope's security was
disturbed due to the actions of certain individuals.
During his visits the pope always echoed the motto
totus tuus, which means "to you I devote everything." As the youngest
and first pope from outside Italy in papal history, John Paul II offered his
entire self as a selfless servant or public servant.
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He did not hesitate to greet and bless anyone he met.
He never gave the impression of serving the people half-heartedly. He appeared
sincere and wholehearted in his ministry mission, as reflected in his motto.
Unsurprisingly, then, Pope John Paul II is remembered
as one of the most influential figures of the faith of the late 20th and early
21st centuries. His achievements in promoting world peace and interfaith
dialogue are among the most beautiful legacies to be remembered and celebrated.
He was an inclusive and embracing leader; he came to bring light and a message
of peace to the world.
In particular, in the eyes of the world's Muslims,
Pope John Paul II is remembered as the first pope in history to visit a mosque
— the Omayyad mosque in Damascus, Syria, on May 6, 2001, four years before he
died. He passed away on April 2, 2005, at the age of 84. The visit to the
Omayyad mosque was a historical breakthrough, and the pope's visit to Indonesia
was a symbol of his recognition of the importance of establishing
Christian-Muslim relations in promoting world peace.
For the people of Flores (and the province of East
Nusa Tenggara) in particular, the pope's visit to Maumere, capital of Sikka
regency, on Oct. 10-11, 1989, was a sign of the pope's recognition of Flores'
important role in the history of spreading and inculcating Christian values in
Indonesia. It is undeniable that in the last three decades, East Nusa Tenggara
has become the province that sends the most Catholic missionaries throughout
the world as well as to other areas in the archipelago.
Moreover, some Indonesian clergy have assumed key
roles in the leadership of the universal Church. For example, Paulus Budi
Kleden is currently the general superior of the Society of the Divine Word in
Rome, while Markus Solo Kewuta was recently an official at the Vatican in
matters of interreligious dialogue.
In addition, in the course of Indonesia's history,
there have also appeared Christian lay figures (Catholic and Protestant) who
have had national influence. Among them are Ignatius Joseph Kasimo, Fransiskus
Seda, Harry Tjan Silalahi, Jusuf Wanandi, Johannes Leimena, Benny Moerdani,
Cosmas Batubara and Ben Mboy.
In my opinion, the presence of Pope John Paul II in
Maumere carried a strong message of solidarity for residents of East Nusa
Tenggara province in their struggle to alleviate economic backwardness. The pope
was present with the hope that after dark, light must rise. However, this light
only emerges if there is a sense of solidarity and cooperation that is
consistent in developing the region.
Jokowi's message of solidarity
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) planned to return to
East Nusa Tenggara on Feb. 16. Unfortunately, the plan was postponed a day
before his scheduled visit. Two places were on Jokowi’s itinerary — Central
Sumba regency and Sikka regency. In Sumba, Jokowi wanted to closely monitor the
implementation of the National Food Estate Program. Meanwhile, in Sikka, he
planned to inaugurate the Napung Gete dam.
Jokowi's planned visit, although delayed, is not the
first time he has visited East Nusa Tenggara. Jokowi has several times set foot
there and in other provinces in eastern Indonesia. Jokowi's visits have been
seen as evidence of his urgent intent to help disadvantaged people to be free
from their downturn. Most East Nusa Tenggara residents who live on agricultural
products must be helped. Their yields, specifically maize, rice, bananas and
yams, need to be multiplied.
For Jokowi, the most appropriate way to help farmers
is to prepare dams, agricultural land, seeds and fertilizers, agricultural
tools, and open farming and isolation roads. For this, Jokowi ordered
governors, mayors and regents to help people achieve welfare targets. The
question is: To what extent have the regional heads seriously carried out
President Jokowi's orders?
In the context of Lembata, Jokowi's hopes and orders
seem underestimated. Rather than helping the poor, the Lembata district
government and legislators are busy developing a kind of “justification
regulation” to double their monthly allowance for 2021.
The regent of Lembata, for example, stipulates that
his allowance is 408 million rupiah (US$29,000) per month, excluding his basic
salary and private resort rental for the regent's residence for almost two
periods running. The public considered the increase of the allowance as
insensitive to the economic conditions of the poor.
That is just a matter of allowances, not to mention
projects stalled since Lembata became an autonomous district in October 1999.
The state lost billions of rupiah without any tangible results for the people.
Of course the people did not remain silent. Several
reports have been submitted to the authorities. Unfortunately, public reports
are slow to be followed up, if at all. The most recent example is the floating
jetty project in Awololong. In plain view, the project failed to take off,
while 85 percent of the total budget has been used up.
Like Pope John Paul II, who cared about the interests
of the people, Jokowi's presence in East Nusa Tenggara (also in underdeveloped
areas in eastern Indonesia) is proof of his solidarity. Jokowi is always there
with the message — solidarity and hope — that people are not alone in their
struggles for life. The government continues to strive to achieve social
justice for all Indonesian people.
Justin Wejak studied philosophy in Indonesia, theology
and anthropology in Australia and currently teaches at the University of
Melbourne. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-president-follows-pope-john-paul-iis-lead/91424
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Sugarbook’s ‘immoral activities’ leave bitter taste,
says PAS
Teoh Jie Ying
February 15, 2021
GEORGE TOWN: PAS has continued to take aim at
Sugarbook, joining forces with the party’s non-Muslim wing in lodging a police
report urging the government to take action against the dating website’s
“immoral activities”.
The Tanjong and Jelutong PAS branches here urged
authorities to end “this moral decadence” before it “infects” the rest of the
nation.
The branch chiefs and the PAS non-Muslim supporters
congress held an online press conference today after lodging the police report.
“We are doing this in good faith to preserve the
reputation of Malaysian graduates who risk being besmirched by these
activities.
“We hear that our country is ranked fifth in the
region for such immoral activities. All of us here, regardless of race or
religion, are very disappointed by this development,” PAS Tanjong branch chief
Yaacob Omar said.
He added that they did not want to be known as a
country where young girls are selling their dignity to make a living.
“This not only goes against Islamic values, but also
attacks the roots of the cultural beliefs of all Malaysians.”
Yesterday, the womens’ wing from PAS, PPBM and Umno in
Masjid Tanah also lodged police reports against Sugarbook.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/02/15/sugarbooks-immoral-activities-leave-bitter-taste-says-pas/
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/tahaffuz-namoos-e-risalat-board/d/124319
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