LONDON: The UK government on Friday defended an immigration raid that inflamed tensions in Glasgow’s Muslim community at the start of Eid Al-Fitr, insisting there was no connection to the Islamic festival.
Thursday’s deportation raid targeted a property housing two illegal immigrants from India, who were not themselves believed to be Muslim.
A UK Home Office van was blockaded by hundreds of chanting protesters, and the pair were eventually released on bail as Glasgow police intervened in a bid to defuse tensions.
“The operation was routine and in no way connected to Eid. We are tackling illegal immigration and the harms it causes,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman told reporters.
“We will continue to tackle illegal immigration,” he added.
The area in Scotland’s biggest city is home to a large Muslim community, and is part of the constituency of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
“The Home Office needs to ask itself hard questions,” she said.
“Doing this on Eid, in the heart of our Muslim community, and in the midst of a serious Covid outbreak, was staggeringly irresponsible — but the even deeper problem is an appalling asylum and immigration policy.”
The incident came after Sturgeon’s pro-independence party and allies secured a majority in the Edinburgh parliament in elections last week, and it fueled anti-UK sentiment in sections of the Scottish media.
Friday’s front-page headline on the pro-independence National newspaper read: “Glasgow 1 ‘Team UK’ 0.”
The raid also caused trouble for Britain’s main opposition Labour party, after a prominent union official tweeted that London-born Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is of Indian descent, should herself be “deported.”
Labour leaders suspended the Unite union’s Howard Beckett, who apologized for the tweet but said he stood by his criticism of the government’s “racist” policies.
UK stands by Eid immigration raid in Glasgow
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UK stands by Eid immigration raid in Glasgow
- Thursday’s deportation raid targeted a property housing two illegal immigrants from India, who were not themselves believed to be Muslim
- A UK Home Office van was blockaded by hundreds of chanting protesters
Kabul hails Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume activities at Afghanistan embassy
- In November 2021, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming consular services in Afghanistan
- The Kingdom also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSrelief charity
Kabul: The Afghan foreign ministry on Monday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume its diplomatic operations in Kabul, more than three years after Riyadh withdrew its staff during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“We are optimistic about the possibility of strengthening relations and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan through the resumption of these activities,” said Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Zia Ahmad in a statement.
“We will also be able to respond to the problems of Afghans residing in Saudi Arabia.”
Riyadh had posted its decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul on social media platform X.
“Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22,” it said.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the level of Saudi representation in Kabul.
Riyadh on August 15, 2021 said it had withdrawn its diplomats from the Afghan capital because of the “unstable situation” created by the Taliban’s return to power following the United States’ withdrawal from the country.
In November 2021, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming consular services in Afghanistan. It also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSRelief organization.
The Taliban government remains unrecognized by any country.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries, the others being Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, that recognized the first Taliban government which came to power in 1996 and was overthrown by the US invasion of 2001.
Kremlin rejects media reports about Asma, Assad’s wife, seeking divorce and wanting to leave Russia
- Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma Assad had filed for divorce in Russia
MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Asma Assad, the British-born wife of former Syrian president Bashar Assad, wanted a divorce and to leave Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Assad had been confined to Moscow and had his property assets frozen.
Asked on a conference call if the reports corresponded to reality, Peskov said: “No they do not correspond to reality.”
Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma Assad had filed for divorce in Russia, where the Assad family were granted asylum this month after militants took control of Damascus following a lightning advance.
Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Sheikh Hasina’s family
- Sheikh Hasina fled to India after being toppled by a revolution in August
- Key allegations are connected to the funding of the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant
DHAKA: Bangladesh has launched a probe into the alleged $5 billion embezzlement connected to a Russian-backed nuclear power plant by ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, the anti-corruption commission said Monday.
Along with Hasina, the now-former prime minister who fled to India after being toppled by a revolution in August, those subject to the inquiry include her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and niece, Tulip Siddiq, a British lawmaker and government minister.
The allegations were raised by a writ seeking an investigation filed in the high court by Hasina’s political opponent, Bobby Hajjaj, chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement party.
“We seek justice through our court,” Hajjaj said on Monday.
Key allegations are connected to the funding of the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, the South Asian country’s first, which is bankrolled by Moscow with a 90 percent loan.
A statement Monday from the commission said it had launched an inquiry into allegations that Hasina and family members had “embezzled $5 billion” from the Rooppur plant via “various offshore bank accounts in Malaysia.”
It said its investigations were examining “questionable procurement practices related to the overpriced construction” of the plant.
“The claims of kickbacks, mismanagement, money laundering, and potential abuse of power raise significant concerns about the integrity of the project and the use of public funds,” the commission said.
Graft allegations also include theft from a government building scheme for the homeless.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter on August 5 into exile in India, infuriating many Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder.”
It was not possible to contact Hasina for comment.
Siddiq has “denied any involvement in the claims” accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to a statement from the British prime minister’s office.
Joy, who is understood to be based in the United States, was also unavailable for comment.
US president Joe Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Biden had faced growing calls to commute the sentences of those on death row
- There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death sentences of 37 of 40 federal inmates, taking action ahead of the return of Donald Trump who oversaw a sweeping number of lethal injections during his first term.
With less than a month left in office, Biden had faced growing calls from death penalty opponents to commute the sentences of those on death row to life in prison without parole, which the 37 will now serve.
The move leaves only a handful of high-profile killers who acted out of hate or terrorism facing the federal death penalty – for which there has been a moratorium under Biden.
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in a statement.
“I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” he said.
The three inmates who will remain on federal death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, an avowed white supremacist who in 2015 shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers during a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.
Those commuted included nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience...I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added.
Biden campaigned for the White House as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he became president.
During his reelection campaign, Trump spoke frequently of expanding the use of capital punishment to include migrants who kill American citizens and drug and human traffickers.
There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.
He oversaw 13 by lethal injection during his final six months in power, more than any US leader in 120 years.
The last federal execution – which was carried out by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana – took place on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left office.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others – Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee – have moratoriums in place.
In 2024, there have been 25 executions in the United States, all at the state level.
Indian police kill three Sikh separatist militants
- The campaign for Khalistan stirred a diplomatic firestorm last year after Indian intelligence operatives were linked to the killing of a Sikh leader in Canada
- The three men belonged to the Khalistan Zindabad Force militant group, police have recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and ammunition , official says
Lucknow: Indian police said on Monday they had killed three Sikh militants fighting for a separate homeland known as “Khalistan,” the struggle for which sparked deadly violence in the 1980s and 1990s.
The campaign for Khalistan was at the heart of a diplomatic firestorm last year after Indian intelligence operatives were linked to the killing of a vocal Sikh leader in Canada and an attempted assassination in the United States — claims New Delhi rejected.
In the latest incident, the Khalistani rebels were killed after a gunbattle in Pilibhit district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The men were wanted for their alleged involvement in a grenade attack on a police outpost in Punjab state this month.
Pilibhit police superintendent Avinash Pandey said officers had surrounded the men after a tip-off, with the suspects launching “heavy fire.”
“In the retaliatory action, all three were critically injured and later died in hospital,” he said.
Police recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and a large cache of ammunition.
The three men belonged to Khalistan Zindabad Force, a militant group, Punjab police chief Gaurav Yadav said in a statement.
The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations.
New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of “terrorism.”
