ISLAMABAD/KABUL: Pakistan’s tribesmen, who have been protesting since Feb. 1 to seek justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud, have formally announced they will call off their sit-in after the government assured them in writing it will fulfil their demands within a month.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has accepted two out of five demands put forth by the tribesmen including the arrest and bringing the accused Rao Anwar to justice as soon as possible, and clearance of land mines from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The PM has, however, apparently not acknowledged three demands that included an end of what they have described as extrajudicial killings of tribal people in Karachi and other parts of the country; recovery of all missing tribal people and presenting them in court; and ending curfews in tribal areas after any untoward incident.
“Genuine grievances raised by jirga members from different quarters would also be addressed as soon as possible,” the prime minister assured the tribesmen in the written promise.
Rao Anwar, who is accused in the killing of 27-year-old aspiring model Mehsud in a staged encounter in Karachi last month, is still at large despite a suo moto notice by the Supreme Court.
“We are ending our sit-in, but we have given a one-month deadline to the authorities and if, during this period our demands are not met, we will come again,” protest organizer Noor Rehman told Arab News.
Addressing protesters outside the National Press Club this evening, the prime minister’s adviser on political affairs, Amir Muqam, said that India and other countries have been propagandizing against Pakistan due to the sit-in; therefore, it immediately should be called off.
The chief spokesman of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday said that he hopes the protest by group of tribesmen in Islamabad will turn into a “civil move” against extremism which has become an obstacle against development because the region has fallen victim to terrorism.
“The world, media, and civil society need to back this historical move,” Shah Hussein Murtazawi told Arab News.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday voiced his support in favor of the protest in Pakistan by ethnic Pashtuns.
A social media savvy group of young Pashtuns organized a sit-in in Islamabad, creating the hashtag #PashtunLongMarch.
“I fully support the historical #PashtunLongMarch in Pakistan. The main purpose of which is to mobilize citizens against fundamentalism and terrorism in the region,” Ghani said in a tweet.
“I hope #PashtunLongMarch will also succeed in uprooting and eradicating terrorism from their region. The historical importance of this march traces back to the great proponent of non-violence, Bacha Khan, whose philosophy was based on a non-violent ideology,” he added.
Khan was a national hero of the Pashtuns and pushed for the reunion of millions of people of the ethnic group, separated by British colonialists from ancient Afghanistan under a deal with a former Afghan ruler.
Ghani urged the media to help the protesters present their demands, calling the march as “a wake-up call against fundamentalism.”
Pakistani tribesmen, who were holding the long march to seek justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud, found Ghani’s statement uncalled for.
“We are patriotic Pakistanis and cannot allow anyone to interfere in our internal issues,” Mehmood Khan Mehsud, a tribal elder who is supporting the protest, told Arab News.
“The Afghan president should try to put his own house in order by cracking down against militants instead of poking his nose in Pakistan’s internal affairs,” he suggested.
He said their protest was apolitical and they were just struggling to get justice for Mehsud.
“Ashraf Ghani has tried to incite the tribal people against our government and we condemn it with one voice,” said another tribal leader Samiullah Burki.
“We have rendered invaluable sacrifices in the war against terrorism and continue to do so to make Pakistan a peaceful and prosperous country,” he said.
Pakistani tribesmen call off sit-in, reject Ghani’s support of their protest
Pakistani tribesmen call off sit-in, reject Ghani’s support of their protest
Suspected drug trafficker dies in Spain police boat chase
The Moroccan man died despite attempts by Civil Guard officers to resuscitate him, the spokesman added
MADRID: A suspected drug trafficker died on Monday night off the southern coast of Spain while being chased by a police boat, the authorities said Tuesday, the latest such incident in the region.
The chase began shortly before 10:00 p.m. when Spain’s Civil Guard spotted a suspicious boat loaded with packages with four people on board some 20 nautical miles from the mouth of the Guadalquivir River near the city of Cadiz, a spokesman for the police force told AFP.
One of the passengers, a 23-year-old Moroccan, fell into the water during the chase.
Police threw him a rope and a life preserver, and an officer jumped into the water to try to rescue the man but he “refused the help,” the spokesman said.
The Moroccan man died despite attempts by Civil Guard officers to resuscitate him, the spokesman added.
Police arrested two other passengers of the suspected drug boat while a fourth was also injured during the chase and was hospitalized.
The authorities seized some 600-700 kilos (1,300- 1,500 pounds) of a yet-to-be determined type of drug from the boat.
The mouth of Guadalquivir River is frequently the scene of chases between police and drug traffickers.
It is considered one of the main points of entry for drugs into Europe, due to its proximity to Morocco, a top cannabis producer.
In November 2024 a drug trafficker died in the region when the boat he was traveling in collided with a Civil Guard vessel during a chase.
And in September 2024 another drug trafficker died when his boat loaded with bales of hashish crashed at full speed into the banks of the Guadalquivir River while trying to escape from police.
Two police officers died at the start of 2024 after their boat was struck by a drug boat during a chase in the port of Barbate, in the province of Cadiz.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska deemed their deaths “murder” and vowed “zero impunity” against drug trafficking in the region.
France probes 2012 reporters’ deaths in Syria as crime against humanity
- US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by an explosion in the east of the war-torn country
- Edith Bouvier: ‘This wasn’t a case of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time — we were deliberately targeted’
PARIS: The French judiciary is investigating the 2012 deaths of reporters in Syria as a possible crime against humanity, anti-terror prosecutors told AFP on Tuesday.
Prominent US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by an explosion in the east of the war-torn country in what a US court later ruled was an “unconscionable” attack that targeted journalists on the orders of the Syrian government.
The French judiciary had been treating the alleged attack as a potential war crime, but on December 17 widened the investigation to a possible crime against humanity, a charge for which French courts claim universal jurisdiction regardless of locations or nationalities involved.
The anti-terror prosecutors’ office told AFP that new evidence pointed to “the execution of a concerted plan against a group of civilians, including journalists, activists and defenders of human rights, as part of a wide-ranging or systematic attack.”
Colvin — a renowned war correspondent whose career was celebrated in a Golden Globe-nominated film “A Private War” — was killed in the Syrian army’s shelling of the Baba Amr Media Center in Homs on February 22, 2012.
The Washington federal court, which in 2019 ordered Syria to pay $302.5 million over her death, said in its verdict that Syrian military and intelligence had tracked the broadcasts of Colvin and other journalists covering the siege of Homs to the media center.
They then targeted it in an artillery barrage that killed Colvin and Ochlik.
French investigators also believe that both were “deliberately targeted.”
In addition, they told AFP, they extended the probe to cover suspected Syrian government “persecution” of civilians, including Colvin and Ochlik, as well as British photographer Paul Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier — who were wounded in the attack — and Syrian translator Wael Omar, as well as “other inhumane acts” committed against Bouvier.
One of Bouvier’s lawyers, Matthieu Bagard, said the new probe “opens the door to treat a certain number of procedures against journalists in armed conflict zones as crimes against humanity.”
His lawyer colleague, Marie Dose, called the shift in the investigation “a great step forward for war reporters.”
Clemence Bectarte, a lawyer for Ochlik’s family, said she now expected judges to issue arrest warrants “for the high-ranking political and military officials whose involvement has been established.”
In March 2012, France opened a probe for murder into the death of Ochlik and for attempted murder over the injury of Bouvier, both French nationals.
The probe was widened into potential war crimes in October 2014, and in 2016, non-French plaintiffs joined the legal action.
“This wasn’t a case of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Bouvier in 2013. “We were deliberately targeted.”
In 2016, then-Syrian president Bashar Assad claimed that Colvin was “responsible” for her own death.
“It’s a war and she came illegally to Syria,” he said, accusing the reporter of working “with the terrorists.”
The battle of Homs, Syria’s third city, was part a civil war triggered by the repression of a 2011 revolt against Assad’s government.
Colvin, who was 56 and working for the Sunday Times when she died, was known for her fearless reporting and signature black eye patch which she wore after losing sight in one eye in an explosion during Sri Lanka’s civil war.
Assad was ousted in December after rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group seized control of Damascus, ending more than 50 years of his family’s iron-fisted rule.
Pro-Russian hackers attack Italian websites after president compares invasion of Ukraine to Nazis
- The NoName57 hacker group hit the websites of the defense, interior and transport ministries
- The group on Monday said it attacked Italian banks, ports, airports and local transport agencies
MILAN: A pro-Russian hacker group attacked Italian government websites on Tuesday in what it said was a reaction to a speech by Italian President Sergio Mattarella that compared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Nazis ‘ “wars of conquest.”
The NoName57 hacker group, which announced the attacks on social media, hit the websites of the defense, interior and transport ministries, as well as law enforcement agencies. Access to the sites was spotty.
The group on Monday said it attacked Italian banks, ports, airports and local transport agencies, but those attacks did not cause major disruptions.
Mattarella, asked about the attacks during a visit to Montenegro, said that he hoped Russia “will return to play a significant and important role in the international community, respecting the principals of international law and the dignity and sovereignty of every country.”
In a speech in Marseille, France, on Feb. 5 Mattarella said that patterns that led to World War II were repeating, including “wars of conquest.”
“This was the project of the Third Reich in Europe. Today’s Russian aggression against Europe is of this nature,’’ he said.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed dismay about Mattarella’s remarks.
New Delhi, Doha upgrade ties to strategic partnership during Qatari emir’s visit
- Among GCC countries, India already has strategic partnerships with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Kuwait
- India and Qatar set target to double bilateral trade within 5 years, from the current $14bn
NEW DELHI: India and Qatar elevated on Tuesday their ties to a strategic partnership, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on his state visit to New Delhi — the first in nearly a decade.
On the two-day trip, the Qatari ruler was accompanied by a high-level delegation, including ministers and business leaders. This is his second official visit to India. The first was in March 2015.
Breaking with established norms, Modi personally welcomed the emir at the New Delhi airport as he arrived in the Indian capital on Monday evening. Their meeting was held at Hyderabad House on Tuesday afternoon.
“Both sides have today agreed to elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership, and India and Qatar have signed an agreement in this regard today,” Arun Kumar Chatterjee, international affairs secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters after the meeting.
“What we are looking at is deepening cooperation in the fields of trade, energy investment, (and) security, as well as in the regional and international forum.”
Among Gulf Cooperation Council countries, India already has strategic partnerships with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Kuwait.
“Trade, investment and energy were among the major topics of discussion between the two leaders today. The trade today between India and Qatar is about $14 billion annually. Both sides have agreed to set a target to double this in the next five years,” Chatterjee said.
“Both leaders today identified a number of areas in which the Qatar Investment Authority can increase investments in India. This includes infrastructure, ports, shipbuilding, energy — including renewable energy, smart cities, food, parks, startups and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning.”
The QIA, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, currently has about $1.5 billion in direct foreign investment in India’s retail, power, IT, education, health, and housing sectors.
Indians make up the largest expatriate community in Qatar with over 700,000 Indian nationals living and working in the Gulf state.
An agreement on the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion was also signed during the visit, as well as memoranda of understanding on cooperation in archives and documentation, youth affairs and sports.
Anil Trigunayat, former diplomat and a distinguished fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation think tank in New Delhi, told Arab News that while the key feature of the visit was the “strategic partnership, which means greater collaboration in defense security, space and cyber cooperation,” it was significant not only for bilateral relations, “but also for exchanging views on the US approach to the region and ending the Gaza war, where Qatar is playing a critical role.”
UN condemns ‘summary executions’ of children by M23 in DR Congo
- “Our office has confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week,” rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said
- “We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons“
GENEVA: The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has summarily executed children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The UN rights office warned the situation in eastern DRC was “deteriorating sharply, resulting in serious human rights violations and abuses.”
“Our office has confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week,” rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
“We are also aware that children were in possession of weapons,” she said.
She urged “Rwanda and M23 to ensure that human rights and international humanitarian law are respected.”
M23 fighters and Rwandan soldiers have seized Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces respectively.
In South Kivu, more than 150,000 people have been forced to flee, UN refugee agency UNHCR said.
UN experts say Rwanda effectively controls M23 and has at least 4,000 troops fighting alongside it.
The DRC government accuses Rwanda of “expansionist ambitions” and says it is stealing vast amounts of minerals.
Shamdasani said the situation was “very chaotic,” and the UN rights office was “receiving a lot of information... which we are not able to confirm or verify.”
It had, however, confirmed a case of three boys, thought to be aged between 11 and 15, who had been killed in Bukavu on Sunday “during an altercation with members of M23.”
The boys were allegedly wearing uniforms and carrying weapons found in an abandoned DRC army camp, firing shots and looting stores, she said.
“What appears to have happened is that they were asked to surrender their weapons and they refused to do so and they were killed,” she said.
The rights office had also documented cases of “ill treatment, conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, child and forced recruitment, intimidation and death threats,” she said.
Prison breaks from South Kivu’s Kabare and Bukavu jails on Friday had made matters worse.
“We have received protection requests from victims and witnesses (who) fear retaliation from escapees, given their active participation in the trials against some of these prisoners convicted of grave human rights violations and abuses, some of which amount to international crimes,” she said.
She said the UN had received “reports that journalists, human rights defenders and members of civil society organizations have been threatened, and forced to leave.”
UN rights chief Volker Turk “expresses his horror at the events unfolding in South and North Kivu, and the impact this is having on civilians,” she said.
“The risks of this spilling over into an even deeper and wider conflict are frighteningly real.”
The fighting has already spurred an exodus toward neighboring Burundi, UNHCR warned.
“Between 10,000 and 15,000 people have crossed into Burundi over the last few days,” spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters.
“Most of those arriving are Congolese, mainly from the Bukavu area,” he said.
He highlighted reports of thousands more people arriving through “unofficial border points,” including across rivers, “with reports of several individuals drowning.”
“Conditions in the communities near the border are extremely dire, with a lack of shelter, water and sanitation facilities,” he said.
