ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Pakistan’s government hanged a man on Wednesday for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl.
Imran Ali, 24, who was arrested after Zainab Ansari’s body was found in a garbage dump in Kasur, more than 50 km away from Lahore, was executed in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, at 5.30 a.m.
Officials handed over Ali’s body to his family for the last rites to be performed in Kasur.
Speaking to the local media soon after the execution, Zainab’s father, Amin Ansari, told Arab News: “Justice is served. I am satisfied … We are relieved today that the criminal has finally met his fate. The whole family is devastated. We miss our daughter … We can’t believe, even today, that she is no longer with us.”
The murder that shook the nation began on Jan. 4, when Zainab left her house for Qur’an studies at a madrassa nearby. Her parents were away in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, leaving her under the supervision of her aunt.
Unable to trace her whereabouts, Zainab’s uncle lodged a complaint with the police about his missing niece the next day. Four days later, on Jan. 9, Zainab’s body was recovered from a dumping ground.
The gruesome rape and murder led to nationwide protests, with people taking to social media to express outrage over the incident. It resulted in #JusticeForZainab becoming one of the top trends on Twitter at the time. Riots also broke out in the Kasur district after Zainab’s battered body was recovered, with people urging law enforcement agencies to bring the culprit to book.
Then Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe and resolve the case. “I will not rest until justice has been served to the affected family,” he said at the time.
The high-profile nature of the case brought several law enforcement agencies together; and amid pressure from civil society groups and the media, police were able to arrest Ali two weeks after the incident.
They had relied on CCTV footage that showed Zainab walking with Ali in a neighborhood alleyway. The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was called upon to identify the suspect based on a sketch, but failed to deliver any leads. Using the DNA tests of 1,150 men between the ages of 20 and 45 who matched the suspect’s age and were living within 2 km of Zainab’s house, the JIT finally zeroed in on Ali.
Ali had already been detained by the police in the initial stages of the case, but was released after Zainab’s family had intervened, reasoning that he was someone they knew and trusted. He further cemented their conviction by joining the team leading the search for Zainab.
Following his arrest, investigators conducted two other tests on Ali before confirming his involvement in Zainab’s rape and murder and those of four other girls from the same locality.
With all his appeals for clemency rejected by the superior courts and the president, Ali was finally convicted in February this year after a four-day trial.
Zainab’s father, who was present at the jail to witness Ali’s execution, said: “He didn’t look remorseful or ask for forgiveness. Perhaps he was aware of the gravity of the crime he had committed.”
Ansari had appealed to the Lahore High Court to publicly hang Ali as a lesson to others, but his request was denied. “Zainab cannot come back, but we hope that her killer’s execution will serve as a strong deterrent in the society,” he said.
Zainab’s murder was one among 12 to take place in Kasur since last year.
In 2015, a gang of pedophiles was arrested following allegations that it was responsible for abducting and sexually assaulting more than 280 children in the area.
Murderer, rapist of six-year-old girl hanged in Pakistan
Murderer, rapist of six-year-old girl hanged in Pakistan
- Imran Ali was convicted of raping and killing Zainab Ansari in Kasur, near Lahore
- The girl's parents were in Saudi Arabia for Umrah at the time of the horrific crime
Western France put on high flood alert after storm ‘Herminia’
RENNES: France placed swaths of Brittany in the west of the country on red weather alert on Monday as a violent storm brought flood levels not seen in decades.
The “Herminia” depression has unleashed downpours especially in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, with administrative center Rennes experiencing its worst flooding in 40 years.
Weather service Meteo France warned that the situation could get worse.
Eight other French departments were on orange weather alert for flooding, flash floods or, in the case of the French Alps, avalanches.
“Unfortunately we haven’t seen the worst of the flooding,” the mayor of Rennes, Nathalie Appere, said late Sunday.
“Water levels will not begin to subside slowly until Wednesday.”
The city over the weekend evacuated some 400 residents living in streets near the city’s Saint-Martin canal, and turned gyms into temporary shelters.
The rising water lifted house-boats on the canal to the same level as cars parked in the street. Brittany’s western-most area Finistere was on orange flash flood alert on Monday, a level that was to be widened to the entire west coast on Tuesday, Meteo France said.
Herminia, which brought on the heavy weather over western France, follows Storm Eowyn which hit Ireland and the United Kingdom before the weekend.
European parliament's largest far-right bloc to rally in Madrid next week
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and France’s Marine Le Pen are attending the rally
- Patriots for Europe is third-largest faction in the EU parliament
MADRID: The European Parliament’s largest far-right bloc will hold its first summit in Madrid next week with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and France’s Marine Le Pen in attendance, Spanish party Vox said on Monday.
Patriots for Europe will meet on February 7 and 8 under the presidency of Vox leader Santiago Abascal to outline their strategy for the coming months, party spokesman Jose Antonio Fuster told reporters.
The group has realigned the EU far right and became the parliament’s third-largest force after Orban helped launch it last year to shift Brussels rightwards.
Its 84 lawmakers include France’s National Rally, the Party for Freedom of Dutch anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, Vox, Austria’s Freedom Party and Chega from Portugal.
The bloc overtook the European Conservatives and Reformists, associated with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, after last year’s EU elections, in which the far right performed strongly in several countries.
Fuster said there was an alternative to the coalition between the European People’s Party of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the Socialists and Democrats.
Slamming “their climate fanaticism and their open-door policies to mass immigration,” Fuster said his group “represents millions of Europeans who want common sense to return to European institutions.”
India and China agree to resume air travel after nearly five years
- Tensions soured between the two nations after a 2020 border clash, following which India made it difficult for Chinese companies to invest in the country
- Relations have improved over the past four months with several high-level meetings, including talks between President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Modi in Russia
BEIJING/NEW DELHI: India and China have agreed to resume direct air services after nearly five years, India’s foreign ministry said on Monday, signalling a thaw in relations between the neighbors after a deadly 2020 military clash on their disputed Himalayan border.
Both sides will negotiate a framework on the flights in a meeting that will be held at “early date,” the ministry said after a meeting between India’s top diplomat and his Chinese counterpart.
Tensions soured between the two nations after the 2020 clash, following which India made it difficult for Chinese companies to invest in the country, banned hundreds of popular apps and severed passenger routes, although direct cargo flights continued to operate between the countries.
Relations have improved over the past four months with several high-level meetings, including talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Russia in October.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Beijing that the two countries should work in the same direction, explore more substantive measures and commit to mutual understanding.
“Specific concerns in the economic and trade areas were discussed with a view to resolving these issues and promoting long-term policy transparency and predictability,” the Indian foreign ministry statement said in a statement.
Their meeting was the latest between the two Asian powers following a milestone agreement in October seeking to ease friction along their frontier.
Reuters reported in June that China’s government and airlines had asked India’s civil aviation authorities to re-establish direct air links, but New Delhi resisted as the border dispute continued to weigh on ties.
In October, two Indian government sources told Reuters that India would consider reopening the skies and launch fast-tracking visa approvals.
Both nations have also agreed to resume dialogue for functional exchanges step by step and with an early meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism, India’s foreign ministry said.
China and India should commit to “mutual support and mutual achievement” rather than “suspicion” and “alienation,” Wang said during the two officials’ meeting, according to the Chinese foreign ministry’s readout.
German Holocaust remembrance under fire from far right
- US tech billionaire Elon Musk told AfD supporters that “children should not be guilty for the sins of their great grandparents"
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticizes slogans made at a far-right rally without mentioning Musk by name
FRANKFURT: As the world remembers Auschwitz, the German far right has pushed back against the country’s tradition of Holocaust remembrance, now with backing from US tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“I think there’s too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that,” the ally of US President Donald Trump told an Alternative for Germany (AfD) rally in a video discussion at the weekend.
“Children should not be guilty for the sins of their great grandparents,” he told supporters of the AfD, an anti-immigration party he has strongly supported ahead of February 23 elections.
Musk’s comments flew in the face of those made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to mark 80 years since the liberation of the extermination camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland and on the “civilizational rupture” of the Holocaust.
“Every single person in our country bears responsibility, regardless of their own family history, regardless of the religion or birthplace of their parents or grandparents,” Scholz said in a speech.
Musk’s comments were all the more divisive as they came ahead of Monday’s 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than one million Jewish people and over 100,000 others died between 1940 and 1945.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is hosting commemorations, was quick to criticize slogans made at Saturday’s rally, although he did not mention Musk by name.
“The words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about ‘Great Germany’ and ‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” the Polish leader wrote on X.
“Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”
Scholz, who went to Poland for the anniversary events, responded to Tusk’s message: “I couldn’t agree more, dear Donald.”
India, China agree to resume flights 5 years after stoppage
- Around 500 monthly direct flights operated between China and India before the pandemic, according to Indian media outlet Moneycontrol
NEW DELHI: India and China agreed in principle on Monday to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions halted them.
The announcement came at the conclusion of a visit to Beijing by New Delhi’s top career diplomat and heralds the latest signs of a thaw in the frosty ties between the world’s two most populous nations.
Indian foreign ministry secretary Vikram Misri’s trip to the Chinese capital marked one of the most senior official visits since a deadly Himalayan troop clash on their shared border in 2020 sent relations into a tailspin.
A statement from India’s foreign ministry said a visit by a top envoy to Beijing had yielded agreement “in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries.”
“The relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date,” it said.
India’s statement also said China had permitted the resumption of a pilgrimage to a popular shrine to the Hindu deity Krishna that had also been halted at the start of the decade.
Both sides had committed to work harder on diplomacy to “restore mutual trust and confidence” and to resolve outstanding trade and economic issues, the statement said.
Around 500 monthly direct flights operated between China and India before the pandemic, according to Indian media outlet Moneycontrol.
A statement from China’s foreign ministry did not mention the agreement on flight resumptions but said both countries had been working to improve ties since last year.
“The improvement and development of China-India relations is fully in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries,” the Chinese statement said.
India and China are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia.
Flights between both countries were halted in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
Services to Hong Kong eventually resumed as the public health crisis receded but not to the Chinese mainland, owing to the bitter fallout of the deadly troop clash later that year.
At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in the skirmish in a remote stretch of the high-altitude borderlands along their 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) frontier.
The fallout from the incident saw India clamp down on Chinese companies, preventing them from investing in critical economic sectors, along with a ban on hundreds of Chinese gaming and e-commerce apps, including TikTok.
Beijing and New Delhi agreed last October on a significant military disengagement at a key flashpoint of their disputed border.
The accord came shortly before a rare formal meeting — the first in five years — between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Misri’s visit to Beijing came weeks after a diplomatic tour by India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval, a key bureaucratic ally of Modi.
