BANGKOK: Thai police left empty handed after a day-long search of a massive Buddhist temple for a monk wanted over a multi-million-dollar scam on Thursday, the latest twist in a saga highlighting a split over the nation’s faith.
The sweep of the powerful and ultra-rich Wat Dhammakaya temple on Bangkok’s outskirts comes after Thailand’s junta chief invoked special powers to put its sprawling 1,000-acre compound under military control.
But it became the latest failed attempt to arrest Phra Dhammachayo, the septuagenarian monk who founded the breakaway Buddhist order in 1970, after police said they were unable to find him but would resume their search the following day.
The former abbot is believed to be holed up inside the compound, which is famous for its space-age architecture, though he has not been seen in public for months.
Police issued a warrant for his arrest last year on charges of money laundering and accepting embezzled funds worth 1.2 billion baht ($33 million) from the jailed owner of a cooperative bank.
Previous attempts to raid the temple have been thwarted after thousands of devotees showed up to defend the elderly abbot.
Desperate to avoid clashes with monks and other disciples, the Thai junta endorsed a sudden order early Thursday that gave authorities special powers to block off the area.
In a day of high drama and stagecraft, some 4,000 unarmed police and soldiers descended on the site before dawn, locking down roads leading to the compound.
After hours of negotiation with monks, some officers managed to enter one gate and cut the lock off on another — a breakthrough compared to previous stand-offs.
But after scouring “15-20 percent” of the sprawling compound investigators retreated empty handed.
“We still have to keep searching in our all targeted areas, only then can can we say whether he is in there or not,” Woranun Srilam, deputy spokesman of Thailand’s equivalent of the FBI, told reporters.
Speaking to media outside the temple, a Dhammakaya spokesman said he could not confirm whether the spiritual leader was inside.
“I do not know his whereabouts — I have not seen him in about nine months,” said Phra Sanitwong Wutthiwangso.
Temple staff have previously said the ex-abbot is innocent but too ill to be questioned by police.
Historically, Thailand’s secular authorities have been reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy in the Buddhist-majority country.
But hostility toward the Dhammakaya sect has mounted in recent years, with critics from the mainstream Buddhist establishment accusing the temple of promoting a pay-your-way to nirvana philosophy.
Aided by a sophisticated PR operation, the sect has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past three decades, raising tens of millions of dollars and opening outposts around the world.
It is also famous for hosting visually-stunning mass gatherings of monks on Buddhist holy days — events derided by critics as a display of the sect’s “cultish” approach.
The controversy is fueled in part by speculation that the temple has links to Thaksin Shinawatra — the ex-premier who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and lies at the heart of the Kingdom’s rancorous political divide.
The administration of his sister Yingluck, who was also prime minister, was toppled by the military again in 2014.
Thai cops search scandal-hit temple for wanted monk
Thai cops search scandal-hit temple for wanted monk
Air India cuts narrowbody jet routes, suspends international flights after deadly crash
- This is the second such reduction after the crash killed all but one of 242 people aboard this month
- The airline said in a post on X that the reductions will strengthen its network-wide operational stability
NEW DELHI: Air India said on Sunday it is temporarily reducing less than 5 percent of its narrowbody jet routes for “operational stability,” its second such reduction following a plane crash earlier this month that killed all but one of the 242 people on board.
The airline, reeling from the deadliest crash in decades, said in a post on X that the cuts will strengthen its network-wide operational stability.
Two daily flights from India to Singapore will be suspended along with disruptions on 19 domestic routes until July 15, it said.
On June 18, the airline cut international operations on its widebody aircraft by 15 percent, citing ongoing safety inspections and operational disruptions.
UK govt plan to ban Palestine Action ‘absurd’
- Member: Proscription would ‘rip apart the very basic concepts of British democracy’
- Amnesty International UK: ‘Terrorism powers shouldn’t be used to ban them’
LONDON: A member of the UK’s Palestine Action, which on Friday carried out a high-profile protest by breaking into an air force base, has described government plans to proscribe the group as “absurd.”
Saeed Taji Farouky told the BBC that the plan to effectively brand the group a terrorist organization “rips apart the very basic concepts of British democracy and the rule of law.” He added: “It’s something everyone should be terrified about.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is believed to be drafting a written statement on the proscription to be delivered before Parliament on Monday, the BBC reported.
It follows a protest by two members of Palestine Action who broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed red paint inside the jet engines of two military aircraft.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer branded the protest “disgraceful,” and the story has raised questions in the national media over the security of British bases.
Farouky told the BBC that he had been convicted for criminal damage after a separate Palestine Action event.
The government move to proscribe the group is a “knee-jerk reaction” that is “being rushed through,” he added.
Palestine Action’s “whole reason for being is to break the material supply chain to genocide,” he said, describing the break-in on Friday as an “escalation in tactics because the genocide has escalated.”
RAF Brize Norton is a hub for strategic air transport and refueling operations, and military aircraft regularly fly from there to the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, which serves as an operational center for British reconnaissance flights over Gaza.
After the Brize Norton protest, a Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US and Israeli fighter jets.”
After self-recorded footage of the break-in was posted online, counterterrorism police launched an investigation. The government also launched a security review of military bases across Britain.
Amnesty International UK on Friday said it is “deeply concerned” over the use of British counterterrorism to target protests.
“Terrorism powers should never have been used to aggravate criminal charges against Palestine Action activists and they certainly shouldn’t be used to ban them,” it said.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza, Palestine Action has carried out protests against arms companies, including Israel’s Elbit Systems, which operates factories in Britain.
Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC that the group had “gone beyond protest to blackmail.”
He added: “It’s got to a point where they’ve started to say: ‘We will carry on causing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of damage unless you stop.’”
The UK has proscribed 81 groups as terrorist organizations under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Syrian refugees in UK threaten legal action over Home Office pause on settlement decisions
- The number of Syrians awaiting a decision on permanent settlement is not known
- UK government department citied need to “assess current situation” in the wake of Assad’s regime collapsing
LONDON: Five Syrian refugees in the UK are threatening legal action against the British Home Office after their applications for permanent settlement were left in limbo after a government decision to halt all decisions on Syrian asylum and settlement cases.
The Home Office paused interviews and decisions on Syrian asylum claims on Dec. 9 last year, citing the need to “assess the current situation” in the wake of the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime.
The freeze also applies to Syrians who have already been granted refugee status and are now seeking indefinite leave to remain, The Independent reported on Sunday.
According to government figures cited by the newspaper, at least 7,000 people have been affected by the wider pause on asylum decisions as of the end of March.
However, the number of Syrians awaiting a decision on permanent settlement is not known.
The five people mounting the challenge are being represented by law firm Duncan Lewis, which has issued pre-action letters to the Home Office arguing that the pause is unjustifiable.
Lawyers contend that if the government cannot assess whether Syria is safe to return to, it must uphold its obligations under UK immigration rules and international law.
“Our clients have all fled violence and persecution in Syria, and sought refuge in the United Kingdom,” said Manini Menon of Duncan Lewis, in comments published by The Independent.
“In granting them refugee status, the home secretary guaranteed our clients the protections afforded by the Refugee Convention and assured them that they would be treated fairly and in line with the immigration rules as approved by parliament.
“Those rules are clear: as long as the home secretary cannot conclude that individuals who have been recognised as refugees may safely return to Syria (and that they are therefore no longer entitled to refugee status), she must grant their applications for settlement,” Menon added.
Refugees are eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain five years after being granted asylum. But with the Home Office yet to provide a timeline for when decisions will resume, concerns are growing about the uncertainty faced by Syrians living in the UK.
The pause follows the toppling of Assad in December by a rebel offensive led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.
Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the group’s leader, is now interim president, although HTS remains a proscribed terrorist organisation under UK law.
Al-Sharaa, who previously had a $10 million US bounty on his head, met with US President Donald Trump in May.
“I think he has got the potential,” Trump said after the meeting.
In January, Home Office minister Lord Hanson told parliament that decisions had been paused because “we do not yet understand what has happened in Syria on a permanent basis or know how stable Syria is as a whole.”
Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle echoed the stance in February, saying: “As soon as there is a sufficiently clear basis upon which to make determinations, asylum decision making will recommence.”
A Home Office spokesperson told The Independent: “The Home Office has paused decisions on all Syrian asylum cases whilst we continue to assess the current situation, including those for individuals who arrived under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. We are keeping this pause under constant review.”
Toll in lynching of Nigeria wedding guests rises to 12
JOS: The number of people killed after a mob stormed a bus carrying Muslim wedding guests in central Nigeria’s volatile Plateau state has risen to 12, according to the Nigerian presidency.
The dead include the groom’s father and brother, it said.
President Bola Tinubu has condemned the killings, the latest attack to hit the region where tensions are high after a series of bloody attacks in recent days, with ethnic Fulani nomadic Muslim herders suspected of killing dozens of people in Plateau’s Mangu local government area.
Police, survivors and local organizations said around 30 people on a bus to a wedding lost their way, stopped to ask for directions, and were accosted by an irate mob.
They were attacked with sticks, machetes and stones and their bus set ablaze, a survivor told AFP. Initially authorities had confirmed eight dead with four reported missing.
Tinubu described the lynching “as unacceptable and barbaric,” said a statement from his office which said the dead included the groom’s father and brother.
The Nigerian leader ordered the arrest and punishment of the culprits as he urged the Plateau state government to “take decisive action in handling these vicious cycles of violence.”
Fulani herders in the state have long clashed with settled farmers, many of whom are Christian, over access to land and resources.
Police say they have arrested 22 suspects in connection with the attack.
Saudi dentists bring new expertise home from South Korea’s top medical schools
- Around a dozen Saudi dentists begin residency programs in South Korea each year
- They are part of a program by the health ministries of Saudi Arabia and South Korea
SEOUL: When Mohammed Al-Keshan left Makkah to study at South Korea’s top university, he found himself not just 8,000 km away from home, but also in a place where everything seemed different from what he was used to.
Al-Keshan was already 32 when he started his dentistry residency at Seoul National University in 2017. He neither knew the language nor culture — and at that time, there were not many other students in Saudi Arabia with the experience of pursuing medicine in South Korea.
“Then, there was loneliness and homesickness. The courses were more intense (than in Saudi Arabia), and it took me about two to three months to adapt,” he told Arab News.
“It is not easy to learn at this age and to adapt to the culture. But the Korean people are very kind and smart. They gave me a lot of advice and were very helpful.”
Al-Keshan became one of the pioneers in a growing medical exchange program under the Saudi and Korean ministries of health that places a special focus on dental sciences.
The Seoul National University School of Dentistry, where he was enrolled, is ranked among the world’s 30 best dental schools.
After completing his residency in 2021 and receiving certification from the Saudi board, he returned to South Korea in 2024 to pursue further professional development at a special facility that his school runs: the Seoul Dental Hospital for the Disabled.
While in other countries dental care for people with disabilities is usually part of general dental care or is provided at specialized departments within broader hospitals, the South Korean hospital is the only dedicated dental hospital in the world exclusively for patients with disabilities.
“Saudi Arabia does not have a whole dental hospital that is dedicated to special needs care like the one at SNU. So, I would like to coordinate with the Ministry of Health to create one when I go back to Saudi Arabia,” Al-Keshan said.
“I would like to help build something similar … because people with special needs have different dentistry needs.”
The Saudi-Korean medical exchange program, which began in 2015, initially accepted no more than five dentists per year. The number has since more than doubled.
“I was the second batch that the MOH was sending to Korea. The first batch was in 2015 … It was usually under five people,” Al-Keshan said.
“I think it is around 11 or 12. So, there are many more people now.”
For South Korea, the initiative has become a model for global cooperation in healthcare and is resulting in a wave of medical professionals bringing global expertise back to the Kingdom.
Prof. Lee Yong-moo, head of SNU Dental Hospital, vowed during this year’s commencement ceremony for Saudi doctors to continue the training program to “nurture talent to develop Saudi Arabia’s dentistry field” as the program “has become a milestone global exchange project that contributes to the growing friendship between the two countries.”
As the program expands, more young Saudi dentists are coming to South Korea to study at its top institutions. One of them is Youssef Bajnaid, a 33-year-old dentist from Jeddah, who arrived in South Korea in 2023. He is currently completing his residency in prosthodontics at Kyung Hee University — another institution known for its strong dental program.
He studied dentistry for seven years in Saudi Arabia and after a year of learning Korean at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies is now a resident in the prosthodontics department.
“My batch is 11 doctors … We want to know the (latest) treatment methods in the dentistry field,” he said.
“And I want to represent my country during my work. I get a lot of support from my professors at Kyung Hee … We have the same vision.”
