ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government has imposed a travel ban on a leading journalist after he sparked an uproar by reporting that civilian officials had clashed with the military over its covert support for militants.
Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor at Dawn, the country’s oldest and most prestigious English daily, announced early Tuesday he had been placed on the “Exit Control List.”
His report published Thursday prompted threats on social media and was denied three times by the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“I am told and have been informed and have been shown evidence that I am on the Exit Control List,” he tweeted, followed a short time later by “I feel sad tonight. This is my life, my country. What went wrong.”
In his report, Almeida said leading civilian officials had warned the powerful army to renounce covert support for proxy fighters such as the Haqqani network allied to the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks — or face isolation.
Citing sources present at a high-level meeting, Almeida said the civilian government had issued a blunt warning to the military as part of a new high-stakes strategy: Do not interfere with the police when they take action “against militant groups that are banned or until now considered off-limits for civilian action”.
Pakistan was deeply embarrassed last month when it had to postpone a regional summit it was set to host following the withdrawals of India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan.
India has sought to diplomatically isolate Pakistan following a raid on one of its bases in the disputed region of Kashmir, which killed 19 soldiers and triggered public fury. New Delhi says the group which mounted the raid was based in Pakistan.
September’s “surgical strikes” followed that attack, with New Delhi saying the group behind the raid was based in Pakistan.
Kabul meanwhile accuses of Islamabad of failing to bring its influence to bear over the Afghan Taliban, whose leaders Pakistan hosts in its southern cities of Quetta and Karachi. Pakistan’s foreign policy, particularly toward India and Afghanistan, is believed to be guided by the military.
Human rights activists urged the government immediately to lift travel and other restrictions on Almeida and respect freedom of expression.
“Barring Cyril Almeida from traveling abroad and the apparent pressure on his employers, the highly respected Dawn newspaper, will cause distress to all those, at home and abroad, who believe in the freedom of expression and the rights of journalists,” said the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement.
The travel ban divided opinions on social media, with some arguing that the article endangered national security and others upholding the freedom of press. The paper itself, which was set up by the country’s founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, said it stood by the article.
Amnesty International condemned Pakistan Tuesday over the ban on Almeida.
Amnesty branded the language used by the premier’s office as “chilling” and a “crude intimidation tactic designed to silence journalists”.
“It is one thing for the authorities to dispute and contradict a media report. But it is quite another to threaten a journalist under the guise of national security,” said the group’s director of global issues Audrey Gaughran, calling on Sharif to “remember his promise” to improve conditions for journalists.
Pakistan is routinely ranked among the world’s most dangerous for journalists, and reporting critical of the military is considered a major red flag, with journalists at times detained, beaten and even killed.
Human rights activists urged the government immediately to lift travel and other restrictions on Almeida.
The ban “will cause distress to all those, at home and abroad, who believe in the freedom of expression and the rights of journalists,” said the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement.
For years Pakistan has been accused of cracking down on only those groups which have turned their guns inward towards the state, while harbouring those who fight abroad for its strategic ends.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Pakistan 147th on its world press freedom index in 2016, noting journalists were “targeted by extremist groups, militant organizations and Pakistan’s feared intelligence organizations”.
Pakistan bans leading journalist from leaving country over report
Pakistan bans leading journalist from leaving country over report
Tropical storm barrels toward Mozambique after leaving 3 dead in Madagascar
- Mayotte’s prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said the red alert — imposed since Saturday — would remain in place at least until nightfall
MAMOUDZOU: Tropical storm Dikeledi barreled toward Mozambique on Monday after leaving three dead in Madagascar and triggering floods in the French territory of Mayotte, less than a month after the cyclone-battered region was hit by Chido.
It had hit Madagascar’s northern tip as a cyclone Saturday, whipping up strong winds and torrential rains.
The storm left at least three dead, according to the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management on Sunday.
By Sunday, Dikeledi had weakened into a severe tropical storm, passing Mayotte — France’s poorest department — by about 100 kilometers at its closest point.
Mayotte’s prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville said the red alert — imposed since Saturday — would remain in place at least until nightfall.
“We have a territory that is very fragile so I decided to keep this red alert,” Bieuville, the top Paris-appointed official on Mayotte, said on television.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Diekledi came as the region was still reeling from the deadly Cyclone Chido. It left at least 39 dead in Mayotte, injuring more than 5,600, and causing colossal damage.
• When Chido made landfall in the southeast African country of Mozambique in December, it inflicted a more punishing toll — killing at least 120 people and injuring more than 900.
“We still have extremely strong winds and rainfall that is just as strong.”
However, no casualties have been reported from the storm, he said.
Diekledi came as the region was still reeling from the deadly Cyclone Chido.
It left at least 39 dead in Mayotte, injuring more than 5,600, and causing colossal damage.
When Chido made landfall in the southeast African country of Mozambique in December, it inflicted a more punishing toll — killing at least 120 people and injuring more than 900.
By Monday, Dikeledi was 150 kilometers off the coast of Mozambique, according to French weather administration Meteo-France.
It is expected to intensify over the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel to reach “the stage of an intense or very intense tropical cyclone,” Meteo-France said.
Despite the storm’s passage, heavy rains were still expected in Mayotte, Floriane Ben Hassen of Mayotte’s meteorological center said on television, recommending “great caution in all coastal villages ... around these high tide peaks.”
About a dozen houses in the south and the center of the archipelago had been washed away, according to local emergency services Sunday, while several villages had been inundated, including Mbouini, on the southern coast.
“We’re traumatized by everything that happened here. We’ve already been traumatized Chido, and now we’re at a loss for words,” Massa, a resident of Mbouini said.
“We’re only in the middle of the rainy season, so we don’t know what’s going to happen between now and February or March,” she said.
Due to the red alert — which banned all travel except for rescue services and other authorized personnel — Mayotte’s inhabitants have been confined to their homes since Saturday until further notice.
But in the capital Mamoudzou, some residents ventured out Sunday onto the streets, a few taking advantage of the rain to wash their vehicles. In nearby Pamanzi, residents braved the red alert to shore up their roofs weakened by the rain.
More than 4,000 people have been mobilized in Mayotte, including members of the police and the military, while France’s overseas territory minister said that 80 accommodation centers were set up to host 14,500 people.
As Dikeledi approaches Mozambique, its Nampula region “should experience very degraded conditions,” Meteo-France said, warning of torrential rainfall and “very destructive winds,” as well as dangerous sea conditions.
Cyclones usually develop in the Indian Ocean from November to March. This year, surface water temperatures are close to 30 degrees Celsius in the area, which provides more intensity to storms, a global warming phenomenon also observed in the North Atlantic and the Pacific.
Pakistani security forces kill 27 insurgents during raid in Balochistan
- The operation in southwestern Pakistan was conducted in Kachhi, a district in Balochistan province, the military said in a statement
QUETTA: Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout on Monday, killing 27 insurgents, the military said.
The operation in southwestern Pakistan was conducted in Kachhi, a district in Balochistan province, the military said in a statement. Security forces were acting on intelligence.
The slain “terrorists were involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as innocent civilians,” and were being sought by law enforcement agencies, the statement said.
It provided no further details about the slain men, but small Baloch separatist groups and Pakistani Taliban have a strong presence in Balochistan, which is the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, mainly on security forces.
The separatists are demanding independence from the central government.
UK’s Starmer urged to fire minister hit by Bangladesh graft probe
- Siddiq, 42, has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August
- Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges including mass murder
LONDON: Britain’s Keir Starmer faced fresh pressure Monday to sack his anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, as Bangladesh’s graft watchdog filed new cases against her and her aunt, the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina.
Siddiq, 42, has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August after a student-led uprising against her decades-long, increasingly authoritarian tenure as prime minister.
Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges including mass murder.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission announced she and family members including Siddiq were subject to another graft probe, this time over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka.
Family members including Siddiq had already emerged as named targets of the commission’s investigation into accusations of embezzlement of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.
Bangladeshi money laundering investigators have since ordered the country’s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to Siddiq as part of the probe.
Earlier this month, the UK minister referred herself to Starmer’s standards adviser, following the flurry of allegations, which also included that she lived in properties linked to her aunt’s Awami League party.
Siddiq has insisted that she has done nothing wrong.
Asked Monday whether her position in the UK government remained tenable, senior British minister Pat McFadden told Sky News she had “done the right thing” with the self-referral.
He insisted the standards adviser had the powers to “carry out investigations into allegations like this.”
“That is what he is doing, and that is the right way to deal with this,” McFadden said.
However, following further accusations in British newspapers over the weekend, UK opposition politicians want Siddiq fired.
“I think it’s untenable for her to carry out her role,” the Conservatives’ finance spokesman Mel Stride told Times Radio on Sunday.
The party’s business spokesman Andrew Griffith sought to focus the spotlight on Starmer, arguing Monday it was “about the tone at the top.”
“Remember he called himself ‘Mr Rules’, ‘Mr Integrity’,” he told LBC News, referring to Starmer’s pitch to voters before last year’s general election that he represented a break with years of Tory scandals.
Siddiq is an MP for a north London constituency whose ministerial job is part of the finance ministry and responsible for the UK’s financial services sector as well as anti-corruption measures.
Over the weekend, a Sunday Times investigation revealed details about the claims that she spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen.
The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi lawyer with links to Hasina, her family and her ousted government, according to the newspaper.
It also reported Siddiq and her family were given or used several other London properties bought by members or associates of the Awami League party.
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer who heads a caretaker government, demanded a detailed probe in light of the allegations.
He told the newspaper the properties could be linked to wider corruption claims against Hasina’s toppled government, which he said amounted to the “plain robbery” of billions of dollars from Bangladesh’s coffers.
India’s Modi opens strategic tunnel to disputed frontier with China
- New tunnel is part of a $932 million infrastructure project linking Kashmir with Ladakh
- Last March, Modi also inaugurated a tunnel in disputed northeastern border state
NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated on Monday a strategic Himalayan road tunnel that would give year-round accessibility to areas along the contested border with China.
The Sonamarg tunnel is part of a $932 million infrastructure project that helps connect Indian-administered Kashmir with Ladakh, a high-altitude, cold desert region nestled between India, Pakistan and China that has been the subject of territorial disputes for decades.
As the 6.4-km-long passage, also known as Z-Morh, stretches beneath a treacherous mountain pass cut off by snow for four to six months a year, it is expected to increase mobility in the region and allow rapid deployment of military supplies.
“With the opening of the tunnel here, connectivity will significantly improve and tourism will see a major boost in Jammu and Kashmir,” Modi said at the opening ceremony in Sonamarg.
The massive infrastructure project also includes a series of bridges, high mountain roads and a second tunnel — expected for completion in 2026 — of about 14 km that will bypass the challenging Zojila pass and connect Sonamarg with Ladakh.
“The inauguration of the tunnel ensures uninterrupted supply chains for military essentials, safeguarding lives by mitigating avalanche-related risks,” Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari said.
India’s new tunnel opened amid an ongoing border dispute with China, which came to a head in 2020 following deadly clashes on their de facto Himalayan border known as the Line of Actual Control.
The conflict led the two countries to deploy thousands of troops to the area, as both sides stopped patrolling several points on the border in Ladakh to avoid new confrontations.
Last October, New Delhi and Beijing reached a deal to resolve the military stand-off after multiple high-level meetings aimed at resolving the conflict.
“India has been trying to reinforce its border network so that it is able to provide logistics support for the army and in the process also help civilians,” Prof. Noor Ahmad Baba from the political science department at the University of Kashmir told Arab News.
He said the tunnel is significant for its security and defense aspect and how it is improving connectivity to tourist spots like Sonamarg.
“(The tunnel) gives all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region … which is a strategically significant region because of the continuous tension with China.”
India and China have been unable to agree on their 3,500-km border since they fought a war in 1962.
Last March, Modi inaugurated the Sela tunnel in the northeastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh, which the government has said will strengthen strategic capabilities along the LAC.
Germany welcomes release of German-Iranian rights activist from prison in Iran and her return home
- FM Annalena Baerbock: It’s ‘a great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally embrace her family again’
- Taghavi was arrested in October 2020 during a visit to Tehran and later sentenced to prison for alleged involvement in an ‘illegal group’
BERLIN: Germany’s foreign minister on Monday welcomed the release of a German-Iranian rights activist from prison in Iran and her return to Germany.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on the social media platform X that it’s “a great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally embrace her family again.”
Baerbock retweeted a post by Taghavi’s daughter, Mariam Claren, with a photo of herself hugging her mother, which said: “It’s over. Nahid is free! After more than 4 years as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran my mother Nahid Taghavi was freed and is back in Germany.”
The German Foreign Office expressed delight that Taghavi’s “time of suffering has come to an end and that she has been reunited with her family.”
“Ms. Taghavi and her family have endured unbearable hardship,” the ministry said, adding that the German government had worked hard for her “overdue release.”
Taghavi was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison in Iran in 2021.
Rights group Amnesty International, which lobbied for Taghavi’s release for years, said in a statement Monday that “after more than 1,500 days in arbitrary detention, Iranian-German women’s rights activist Nahid Taghavi has been released.”
“Since her arrest, Amnesty International had been campaigning for her unconditional release and an end to her persecution,” the group said, adding that Taghavi landed in Germany on Sunday.
Taghavi was arrested in October 2020 during a visit to Tehran and later sentenced to prison for alleged involvement in an “illegal group” and for “propaganda against the state” and was held incommunicado for months and tortured, Amnesty International said.
