Month: December 2022

Those arrested on Wednesday included “a dangerous mix of people with irrational convictions, some with a lot of money and others in possession of weapons”, Holger Muench told the ARD broadcaster.

They had put in place “a plan that they also intended to carry out… That makes it dangerous and that is why we intervened,” he said.

Weapons were found in 50 of the locations searched, Muench said, including crossbows, rifles, and ammunition.

Fifty-four people are under investigation for links to the group, which prosecutors say was planning to overthrow the German state and install its own government.

Twenty-five people were arrested, including an ex-MP, former soldiers, and aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, who was reportedly earmarked to be Germany’s new leader after the coup.

However, “We should not assume that a group with a few dozen members, maybe a hundred, is able to really challenge the state system in Germany,” Muench said.

More arrests are likely to be made, he added.

“We have identified other people whose status in relation to this group we do not yet know exactly,” he said.

The group is thought to be made up of supporters of the “Citizens of the Reich” (Reichsbuerger), an ideological movement in Germany that encompasses far-right extremists, conspiracy theorists, and gun enthusiasts.

The Reichsbuerger generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy and several groups declared their own states.

The group planning the plot had been under surveillance since the spring, Thomas Haldenwang, Germany’s domestic security chief, told the RTL broadcaster.

“This is the first time a nationwide network has been set up with very concrete plans,” he added, stressing that there were “plans to overthrow the government, plans to actually implement an overthrow”.

There are around 21,000 Reichsbuerger in Germany, he said, around 10 percent of whom are considered likely to use violence.

On the face of it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s widely advertised “magic” worked for his party in Gujarat where the BJP scored a one-sided victory winning 156 of the 182 seats.

The Congress came a distant second with 17 seats, and the Aam Aadmi Party announced its arrival capturing 5. On the flip side, the Congress emphatically evicted the BJP from power in a straight fight in Himachal Pradesh. It won 40 of 68 seats with the BJP reduced to 25.

To call it Modi magic then would require answers. Why did it work in Gujarat and not in Himachal Pradesh? Biting the BJP even harder was the Aam Aadmi Party’s win in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi where the BJP was dethroned after 15 years in the saddle. The fact that the top most BJP leaders campaigned in Delhi only added insult to the injury.

AAP won 134 seats against the BJP’s 104. The Congress again was a distant third. AAP rules Delhi and Punjab, and its wins in Gujarat have established it as a national party, a calculation based on vote share and the number of states involved.

The MCD sits on a 15,500 crore rupee budget, and AAP is expected to move swiftly to establish how it was being squandered.

Reacting to the MCD victory, AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal said: “This is the fourth election we have won in Delhi on the issues of electricity, water, education and health. Only AAP is practising positive politics in the country today. To make India number 1, we need positivity; we need to focus on schools, hospitals, electricity, water and other issues that affect the common man.”

By contrast the BJP needed the release of 11 convicted rapists and killers in a controversial move on India’s Independence Day to shore up its communal campaign in Gujarat. Together with the divisive politics, the BJP has also benefited the state with the abrupt and questionable transfer of three mega projects from different states to Gujarat.

Two major states where the BJP explains its rule to Modi magic — Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka — were snatched by toppling opposition governments with forced defections, a worry that still looms over opposition parties. But that is different from the attribute of any magic or charm.

A disturbing feature in some unexpected successes for the BJP in Bihar and close calls for the opposition in Gujarat was the presence of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (Hyderabad-based MIM) that cut into the secular votes. Samajwadi Party won a parliament seat and an assembly seat while the BJP was able to breach Azam Khan’s fortress in Rampur.

The fire-breathing Muslim orator has spent several years in jail under the BJP’s government in Uttar Pradesh. Despondent, he didn’t have much of a say in the polls. Among all the indifferent news from Gujarat, there is something that the opposition can cheer about and it is the victory of the Congress party’s Dalit face Jignesh Mevani from Vadgam. Jignesh had shot to fame in 2016 after the flogging of Dalits in Una, Gujarat, won the election from the same constituency with the support of Congress in 2017.

Notably, reports said, the Congress Dalit leader was not only fighting BJP, he was also contesting AIMIM and AAP. AIMIM fielded Kalpesh Sundhia as its candidate and was expected to cut away Muslim votes of Jignesh. The polls over, the opposition has indicated a change of stance. In a show of unity, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Trinamool Congress, which have been questioning the Congress’s status as the lead Opposition party, participated in a meeting of Opposition parties hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday, the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament.

“In the Moscow region, firefighters are putting out a fire the size of 7,000 square metres (75,300 square feet),” Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Telegram.

Russian media later reported that one person had been killed in the fire at the Mega Khimki shopping centre, about seven kilometres (four miles) from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

More than 70 firefighters and 20 fire trucks were working at the site, emergency services said, adding that their work was hampered due to the design of the building.

“Due to the collapse of the roof, the fire spread instantly to a large area,” the Moscow region’s emergency services said on Telegram.

Russian news agencies quoted sources in emergency services as saying that “arson” was suspected but state news agencies later quoted sources as saying that safety violations were more likely the cause.

Videos on social media showed a huge fire, with people fleeing the burning building into a parking lot.

JAKARTA: A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s main island of Java on Thursday with no immediate reports of damage, less than a month after another quake in the same province killed more than 300 people.

The quake struck at 07:50 am local time (0050 GMT) around 15 kilometres from the town of Cianjur, epicentre of November’s devastating tremor, the United States Geological Survey said.

It said there was a low likelihood of casualties or damage following the quake, which struck at a depth of 123 kilometres (76 miles).

No damage was immediately reported in Cianjur or Sukabumi, the city nearest the epicentre, local disaster mitigation agency officials said Thursday.

But schools were temporarily evacuated in Sukabumi, according to local TV.

“The epicenter of the earthquake is in Sukabumi, so it was only lightly felt in Cianjur. No reports of damage to houses or casualties,” said Wawan Setawan, a disaster agency official in Cianjur told AFP.

“We have yet to receive reports of damage caused by the earthquake”, Imran Wardhani, an official in Sukabumi, said soon after the tremor.

Last month, a shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Cianjur, triggering landslides and collapsing buildings, killing at least 334 people, injuring thousands and leaving tens of thousands more homeless.

Save the Children warned this week that evacuees faced a “ticking time bomb” of disease and infection due to poor living conditions. Thousands of cases of respiratory infections and hundreds of cases of diarrhoea have been reported.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is visiting the area on Thursday to distribute aid to affected residents.

The tremor that struck Cinajur on November 21 was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 quake and resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the island of Sulawesi.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

The quake comes days after a volcanic eruption in the country’s Mount Semeru on the main island of Java on December 4. The volcano erupted spewing hot ash clouds a mile into the sky and sending rivers of lava down its side, prompting authorities to raise the alert status to the highest level.

The eruption of the highest mountain on Indonesia’s main island of Java, around 800 kilometres (500 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta, sparked over 2400 evacuations of nearby villages exactly one year after its last major eruption killed dozens of people.

Tension has been building this week after the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a massive rally on Saturday to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.

Opposition spokesman Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie said police fired at around 5,000 opposition supporters who peacefully gathered outside the BNP main office in central Dhaka on Wednesday.

“We allowed traffic to move. But police suddenly attacked us, firing at our activists and supporters. At least 100 people were injured,” Annie said. The BNP said at least two of their activists, including a student leader, were killed by police fire.

Live footage shared on BNP’s verified Facebook page — which could not be independently corroborated — appeared to show injured party activists lying on the stairs of the office.

Abdul Hye, a police constable posted at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said that one dead body and at least eight injured people were brought to the hospital. He could not say whether the body was hit by live or rubber bullets.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruq Ahmed blamed the BNP for the clashes, saying they were trying to clear roads for traffic when party activists attacked law enforcement officers with rocks and Molotov cocktails. “We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to evacuate the people from the road,” he said.Current BNP chief Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said “police arrested at least 500 activists from inside the party headquarters”. “This is a breach of human rights and the constitution,” he told reporters.

The activists chanted slogans against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while being driven away in prison vans: “It will fall! God willing the Hasina regime will fall”.

The clashes came after BNP officials expressed fears that the police would trigger violence to scuttle Saturday’s rally, which the party expects will draw hundreds of thousands of people.

Rizvi Ahmed, another party spokesman, said at least 1,430 BNP activists and supporters had been arrested since November 30 in an attempt to stop the rally from taking place. The BNP want Hasina to resign and for a caretaker administration to govern until fresh elections are held.

On Friday, Secretary Blinken designated Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern …” for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” India, however, was spared.

 

For the last three years, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has demanded that because of widespread discriminations against religious minorities, India should also be put on the violators’ list.

USCIRF is a bipartisan agency of the US Federal Government which monitors religious freedom across the globe and recommends various actions against the violators.

“Secretary Blinken, given the totality of the facts and the circumstances, determined that religious freedom concerns in India do not warrant a Country of Particular Concern designation or placement on the Special Watch List,” said State Department Spokesperson Ned Price when asked why India was excluded.

“But of course, these are conversations that we continue to have with our Indian partners and with partners around the world,” the spokesperson added.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that India be designated a “country of particular concern” for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom.

The report noted that in 2022, religious freedom conditions in India remained poor. During the year, the Indian government at the national, State, and local levels continued to promote and enforce policies, including laws targeting religious conversion, interfaith relationships, and cow slaughter, that negatively affect Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits and Adivasis.