Albanian boy freed from Daesh camp on way home to Italy

Alvin, an 11-year-old Albanian boy who was taken to Syria by his mother when she joined Daesh, is accompanied to Damascus airport by Red Cross and Red Crescent official. (AP)
Updated 07 November 2019
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Albanian boy freed from Daesh camp on way home to Italy

  • The story of 11-year-old Alvin has captivated public attention in Italy
  • Some 70,000 people now reside in Al-Hol camp, mostly women and children including about 11,000 foreigners

BEIRUT: An Albanian boy who was taken to Syria by his mother when she joined the Daesh group has been freed from a crowded detention camp in northeastern Syria and is on track to return home with his father in Italy, Red Cross and Red Crescent officials said Thursday.

The story of 11-year-old Alvin, who found himself with no family at the Al-Hol camp after his mother and siblings died amid fighting in northeast Syria, has captivated public attention in Italy after a glitzy TV news show reported on his father’s agonized efforts to bring him home.

The evacuation also comes amid the shifting strategic landscape in Syria’s northeast. The Kurdish-led forces that run Al-Hol camp have recently aligned themselves with the Syrian government, after they were effectively abandoned by the US after years of fighting Daesh together.

The Kurds’ pivot to Damascus paved the way for the boy’s release Wednesday and his flight under Red Crescent escort from the northeastern city of Qamishli to the Syrian capital, Damascus, instead of through northern Iraq. Alvin was crossing into Lebanon on Thursday afternoon.

Some 70,000 people now reside in Al-Hol camp, mostly women and children including about 11,000 foreigners. The site has been the largest holding facility for people linked to Daesh. A few other detainees have been returned home to countries like France, Russia and Australia. But Alvin’s release was the first case to be facilitated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“I hope that this will bring some peace and the prospect of healing to his family,” said IFRC President Francesco Rocca, who personally participated in Alvin’s case. “What we can and should be focusing on is the fact that there are still over 68,000 people — two-thirds of which are children — living in the Al-Hol camp.”

“This morning’s news is positive news, but it is barely a drop of relief in an ocean of suffering,” he added.

Five years ago, Alvin’s mother joined Daesh and took him with her into territories that it controlled. After his mother was killed, word got out confidentially through the Red Cross and Red Crescents’ “Restoring Family Links” program.

Through that program, the father, identified as Afrim Berisha on the Italian TV show “Le Iene,” got a message from his son: Alvin was alive, alone at Al-Hol, and asking to be brought home. Today, the only language Alvin can speak fluently is Arabic.

Alvin’s father reached out the Italian Red Cross, and after a negotiation with the Italian and Albanian authorities, the boy now has an Albanian passport and a permit to stay in Italy with his family.

The case got a jolt from the flashy, fast-paced Italian TV news magazine and satire program, which trekked to Al-Hol with the father for a teary-eyed reunion with the boy weeks ago.

However, he wasn’t allowed to leave with his son. According to the report, the Kurdish authorities refused to hand over the boy because no Albanian official was present. So the father returned empty-handed to Italy, where he has permanent residence.

Social media and public opinion then kicked in to shift political will. Mounting pressure in the Lombardy region, where the boy was raised, led the regional council to pass a resolution to bring the boy home.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent opened up a negotiation with Italian and Albanian authorities to arrange the necessary paperwork and authorizations. On Wednesday, the boy spent the night in a room with a psychologist, and was taken to the Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

The Damascus connection has raised the prospect that Syria’s President Bashar Assad might be trying to get political mileage and reap a public-relations success from the boy’s release.

A number of European countries have been reluctant to let former members of Daesh or their relatives return — but the groundswell of public attention appears to have made an exception of Alvin’s case.

“I fully appreciate that the situation in Al-Hol is complex. There is no simple solution, and there are legitimate concerns that have been raised by governments,” said Rocca, the IFRC president. “But those concerns must be balanced with the need to treat people humanely.”


Pakistan locks down capital ahead of a planned rally by Imran Khan supporters

Updated 3 sec ago
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Pakistan locks down capital ahead of a planned rally by Imran Khan supporters

  • Interior Ministry is considering a suspension of mobile phone services in parts of Pakistan in the coming days
  • Pakistan has banned gatherings of five or more people in Islamabad for two months to deter Khan’s supporters
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is sealing off its capital, Islamabad, ahead of a planned rally by supporters of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan.
It’s the second time in as many months that authorities have imposed such measures to thwart tens of thousands of people from gathering in the city to demand Khan’s release.
The latest lockdown coincides with the visit of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrives in Islamabad on Monday.
Local media reported that the Interior Ministry is considering a suspension of mobile phone services in parts of Pakistan in the coming days. On Friday, the National Highways and Motorway Police announced that key routes would close for maintenance.
It advised people to avoid unnecessary travel and said the decision was taken following intelligence reports that “angry protesters” are planning to create a law and order situation and damage public and private property on Sunday, the day of the planned rally.
“There are reports that protesters are coming with sticks and slingshots,” the statement added.
Multicolored shipping containers, a familiar sight to people living and working in Islamabad, reappeared on key roads Saturday to throttle traffic.
Pakistan has already banned gatherings of five or more people in Islamabad for two months to deter Khan’s supporters and activists from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI.
Khan has been in prison for more than a year in connection and has over 150 criminal cases against him. But he remains popular and the PTI says the cases are politically motivated.
A three-day shutdown was imposed in Islamabad for a security summit last month.

Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

Updated 30 min 29 sec ago
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Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

  • Doctors sent Rohitash Kumar, 25, to mortuary instead of conducting postmortem after he fell ill
  • Kumar was rushed to hospital on Friday for treatment but was confirmed dead later

JAIPUR: An Indian man awoke on a funeral pyre moments before it was to be set on fire after a doctor skipped a postmortem, medical officials said Saturday.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, who had speaking and hearing difficulties, had fallen sick and was taken to a hospital in Jhunjhunu in the western state of Rajasthan on Thursday.
Indian media reported he had had an epileptic seizure, and a doctor declared him dead on arrival at the hospital.
But instead of the required postmortem to ascertain the cause of death, doctors sent him to the mortuary, and then to be burned according to Hindu rites.
D. Singh, chief medical officer of the hospital, told AFP that a doctor had “prepared the postmortem report without actually doing the postmortem, and the body was then sent for cremation.”
Singh said that “shortly before the pyre was to be lit, Rohitash’s body started movements,” adding that “he was alive and was breathing.”
Kumar was rushed to hospital for a second time, but was confirmed dead on Friday during treatment.
Authorities have suspended the services of three doctors and the police have launched an investigation.


NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump

Updated 39 min 8 sec ago
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NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump

  • NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security

Brussels: NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the “global security issues facing the alliance,” a spokeswoman said Saturday.
The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, NATO’s Farah Dakhlallah said in a statement.
In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defense spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5, and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia.
Trump’s thumping victory to return to the US presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine.
NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte said recently at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest.
“At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea,” which he warned was threatening to the “mainland of the US (and) continental Europe.”
“I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.


Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

Updated 51 min 14 sec ago
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Indian man awakes on funeral pyre

JAIPUR, India: An Indian man awoke on a funeral pyre moments before it was to be set on fire after a doctor skipped a postmortem, medical officials said Saturday.
Rohitash Kumar, 25, who had speaking and hearing difficulties, had fallen sick and was taken to a hospital in Jhunjhunu in the western state of Rajasthan on Thursday.
Indian media reported he had had an epileptic seizure, and a doctor declared him dead on arrival at the hospital.
But instead of the required postmortem to ascertain the cause of death, doctors sent him to the mortuary, and then to be burned according to Hindu rites.
D. Singh, chief medical officer of the hospital, told AFP that a doctor had “prepared the postmortem report without actually doing the postmortem, and the body was then sent for cremation.”
Singh said that “shortly before the pyre was to be lit, Rohitash’s body started movements,” adding that “he was alive and was breathing.”
Kumar was rushed to hospital for a second time, but was confirmed dead on Friday during treatment.
Authorities have suspended the services of three doctors and the police have launched an investigation.


Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 33 people

Updated 23 November 2024
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Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 33 people

  • Senior police officer said Saturday armed men torched shops, houses and government property overnight
  • Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram

PESHAWAR: Fighting between armed Sunni and Shiite groups in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 33 people and injured 25 others, a senior police officer from the region said Saturday.
The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people.
Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities.
Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram.
The senior police officer said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property.
Intense gunfire was ongoing between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the Lower Kurram area.
“Educational institutions in Kurram are closed due to the severe tension. Both sides are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons,” said the officer, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Videos shared with The Associated Press showed a market engulfed by fire and orange flames piercing the night sky. Gunfire can also be heard.
The location of Thursday’s attack was also targeted by armed men, who marched on the area.
Survivors of the gun ambush said assailants emerged from a vehicle and sprayed buses and cars with bullets. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack and police have not identified a motive.
Dozens of people from the district’s Sunni and Shiite communities have been killed since July, when a land dispute erupted in Kurram that later turned into general sectarian violence.