ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police Wednesday said an Italian woman who died under suspicious circumstances last month was strangled to death, in a case that made headlines in Italy over claims she was murdered in a so-called honor killing.
Police in the eastern city of Gujrat launched an investigation into the death of Sana Cheema — of Pakistani origin and believed to have been in her mid-twenties — after allegations she had been murdered by relatives spread online.
Her body was later exhumed and an autopsy performed, leading to the discovery she had been brutally assaulted.
“It has now been confirmed that she was strangled to death. And according to the report, her neck was also broken,” Irfan Sulehri, a senior police officer in Gujrat told AFP.
A second police officer from Gujrat, Waqar Gujjar, confirmed the findings of the forensics report.
“The accused persons are already in police custody,” Sulehri added.
Cheema’s father, brother and uncle were taken into custody for questioning after the investigation was launched.
According to family members, Cheema died in early April after succumbing to an unspecified illness.
Police said Cheema’s father Ghulam Mustafa brought her back to Pakistan to get married.
According to the woman’s family, this led to a confrontation with a nearby family who spurned the offer of a match.
Because of the rejection Cheema refused to eat, fell ill and died, relatives told police.
However, reports in Italian newspapers alleged Cheema was murdered because she wanted to marry a man in Italy against her family’s wishes.
Hundreds of women in Pakistan are killed by their relatives each year after allegedly bringing shame on their families in the deeply conservative Muslim country.
Under previous legislation the culprits — usually men — could escape punishment if pardoned by members of their own family.
A new law removes the power to forgive culprits in such cases but critics contend some loopholes still exist.
Pakistan police say Italian woman ‘strangled to death’
Pakistan police say Italian woman ‘strangled to death’
- "It has now been confirmed that she was strangled to death. And according to the report, her neck was also broken,” said Irfan Sulehri, a senior police officer in Gujrat
- Cheema’s father, brother and uncle were taken into custody for questioning after the investigation was launched
Western powers resume contacts in Syria to prevent chaos
Europe’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas was heading to Damascus on Monday, after a number of countries, including the United States, announced they had made initial approaches.
The situation in Syria, long allied with Iran and Russia, remains volatile and Western nations are wary of the Al-Qaeda roots of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) that seized power in a lightning offensive.
But none wants to pass up the opportunity to forge links, given the risk of fragmentation and resurgence of Daesh, which has never been completely eradicated.
“The first reaction of the West has without a doubt been to say that they don’t meet terrorists,” said Denis Bauchard, from the French Institute of International Relations.
HTS, which has its roots in Al-Qaeda, maintains it has renounced extremism yet remains proscribed as a terrorist group by several Western countries, including the United States.
“But there’s a political reality... and clearly a race to establish contact the fastest,” added Bauchard, a former ambassador.
“The main objective,” he added, is that Syria does not fall into “total chaos.”
As well as Brussels and Washington, Paris plans to send a diplomatic mission to Damascus from Tuesday, to “retake possession” of French real estate and make “initial contact” with the new authorities.
Spain is to appoint a special envoy while the UK has announced that diplomatic contacts have been established with HTS.
“Europeans waited for the American reaction, which encouraged them to take the step,” said Hasni Abidi, director of the Study and Research Center for the Arab and Mediterranean World in Geneva (CERMAM).
The approach was “pragmatic” while the Syrian people welcomed the militants, he added.
“It was necessary to be among the first to show the Europeans’ willingness to help the Syrian people” and to have “a position of choice by offering not legitimacy but a certain respectability to HTS which has de facto authority status.”
Diplomats are not hiding the difficulties, with Syria at risk of fragmentation and from extremists, the outgoing French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in Brussels Monday.
In his first comments since his flight from Damascus, Bashir Assad said on Monday that Syria was now “in the hands of terrorists.”
He also insisted he had not planned to leave when the militants took the capital and that his evacuation from the city was requested by Moscow.
Europe has several levers at its disposal, including financial reconstruction aid and the eventual lifting of sanctions to push Syria’s new authorities toward a political transition acceptable to the West.
Britain’s foreign minister David Lammy on Sunday said London had “diplomatic contact” to ensure that a “representative government” is established and stocks of chemical weapons secured.
Volker Perthes, from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), said this weekend that it was in everyone’s interest to back a “UN-supported but Syrian-owned political process” for inclusive government.
Sri Lanka’s new leader visits India on first overseas trip
- India extended over $4bn in aid during Sri Lanka’s financial crisis
- Economic support was main focus of Dissanayake’s trip, expert says
NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka is seeking closer relations on energy, trade and capacity-building with India, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Monday as he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Dissanayake is on his first overseas trip after assuming the top job in September. Last month he further consolidated his grip on power after his National People’s Power alliance won a majority in the legislature.
“I am so happy that I am able to come to Delhi on my first state visit,” Dissanayake said at a joint press conference.
“This visit will pave the way for cooperation between the two countries to be further developed … We faced an unprecedented crisis two years ago and India supported us immensely to come out of that quagmire. It has also helped us in the debt-restructuring process.”
India extended more than $4 billion in aid to Sri Lanka when the island nation was hit by the worst economic crisis in its history in 2022 and its defaulted economy shrank by 7.8 percent.
Dissanayake said he sought Modi’s support on digitizing public services in Sri Lanka, and discussed cooperation in trade, energy, capacity-building, education, agriculture and social protection.
“With your visit, there is a new momentum and energy coming to our relationship. We have adopted a futuristic vision for our partnership,” Modi said.
The two leaders also discussed plans to supply liquefied natural gas to Sri Lanka’s power plants, connect the two countries’ power grids and lay a petroleum pipeline between them, a joint statement issued by the Indian External Affairs Ministry said.
Their meeting showed “willingness on both sides to continue and strengthen relations,” said Dr. Gulbin Sultana, an associate fellow at the South Asia Center at Delhi’s Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
“When the new government under President Dissanayake came into power there were lots of apprehensions regarding how the bilateral relationship would take shape,” she said.
“I think the current president is taking a pragmatic approach and so, by choosing to visit India as an official visit as president, I think he has shown that he is committed to follow the same path, the same trend which previous presidents of Sri Lanka had been doing.”
For Dissanayake, economic support was another focus of his trip to India.
“Of course, he would like economic support. He needs that (and) he is very hard-pressed for resources at this time and there is nothing much he can do because he does not have the money,” Jehan Perera, executive director at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, told Arab News.
“I think he wants to ensure that Sri Lanka’s best interests are met and his goal is that he wants Sri Lanka to come out of the problems it has (and) to develop.”
Indian capital tightens anti-pollution measures as air quality worsens
- India directs schools to move to hybrid mode for some grades, asks government offices to stagger staff timings
- Government has also imposed restrictions on vehicles in Delhi and adjoining regions to control air pollution
NEW DELHI: India directed schools to move to hybrid mode for some grades, asked government offices to stagger timings for staff and imposed restrictions on vehicles in Delhi and adjoining regions as air quality deteriorated in the country’s north on Monday.
Delhi recorded “very poor” air on Monday with an air quality index (AQI) reading of 379 in the 24 hours to midday, the Central Pollution Control Board said.
Pollution was expected to worsen on Tuesday to “severe” levels above an AQI reading of 400, which poses a risk to healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases.
The restrictions were imposed “considering the highly unfavorable meteorological conditions including calm winds,” said the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), which handles air quality in the national capital region.
Its order, among other measures, directed schools to conduct classes in hybrid mode — online and in-person — for students up to Grade 5, and asked the federal government to decide on staggering timings of its office hours.
North India battles intense air pollution every winter as cold air and low temperatures trap vehicular pollutants, construction dust, and smoke from farm fires set off illegally in the adjoining states of Punjab and Haryana.
Delhi recorded its highest pollution during this season last month when AQI readings shot up to 494, prompting the government to close schools and advise offices to allow 50 percent of employees to work from home.
Russian troops are advancing fast along Ukrainian frontline, defense minister says
- Some 427,000 servicemen have signed contracts with the army this year
MOSCOW: Russian troops have pushed Ukrainian forces out of almost 4,500 square kilometers of territory this year and are advancing an average 30 square kilometers per day, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said on Monday.
Some 427,000 servicemen have signed contracts with the army this year, Belousov told a meeting of defense officials and President Vladimir Putin.
Military spending had reached 6.3 percent of gross domestic product, he said, a figure in line with Russia’s budget proposals.
Philippines eyes Gulf investors in bid to diversify investment partners
- Philippines is currently in negotiations for a free-trade agreement with the UAE
- Manila seeks Gulf investment in food processing, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy
Manila: The Philippines is prioritizing efforts to attract investors from the Gulf region, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority said on Monday, as Manila seeks to diversify its investment partners.
PEZA, an agency under the Department of Trade and Industry, has been working to attract Gulf investors as part of a broader economic growth strategy, and to increase cooperation with more partner nations beyond the US and Japan.
The Philippines is seeking Gulf investments in various fields, including food processing, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy, PEZA’s Director-General Tereso Panga said on Monday.
“For investments coming from the Middle East, especially UAE and even Saudi (Arabia), we are looking at food processing, agro-based industries, renewable energy development.
“And there’s also a potential to bring some pharmaceutical companies into the Philippines from those countries,” Panga said. “We will continue our investment promotions in the Middle East … It’s a priority.”
The DTI’s Secretary Cristina Roque previously said that UAE investors were looking to invest PHP25 billion ($425 million) in the Philippines, including on ports development, following her visit to the Gulf nation in October.
The Philippines sees an opportunity “to position itself as an attractive destination for more Gulf investors” as Middle East nations diversify away from oil to agriculture and manufacturing, PEZA said in a statement.
Manila has been in negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the UAE since the beginning of this year. Once finalized, it will be the Philippines’ first free-trade pact with a Gulf nation.
