Month: December 2022

QUETTA: Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove on Tuesday ordered the registration of a first information report (FIR) against Haq do Tehreek Chairman Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman over the martyrdom of a policeman during protests in Gwadar.

According to Balochistan Police, firing by protestors of Haq do Tehreek sit-in led to the martyrdom of Constable Yasir Saeed deployed for their protection.

Reacting to the death of the constable, Chief Minister Blaochistan in a statement directed the law enforcement agencies to arrest the suspects involved in the incident. A report of the incident has been requested and a special team has been ordered to be formed to arrest the suspects.

“Such incidents are intolerable. An FIR should be filed against chairman Haq do Tehreek,” said the home minister.

Meanwhile, Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman has called for the release of the missing leadership and workers of his movement. He also alleged that the police were responsible for the firing that occurred during their protests.

“The sit-in was peaceful for two months, all the big processions were peaceful. The government has resorted to violence after succumbing to the pressure of the mafia,” he said.

On the other hand, the coastal highway which was blocked by the protestors has been opened for traffic after the sit-in was called off.

Coastal Highway blocked

The Coastal Highway was blocked on Monday in protest near Gwadar’s Sarbandan area after seven “Haq do Tehreek” supporters, including their leader Hussain Wadala, were arrested by the police.

The protestors were demanding a reduction in the number of check posts, easier border trade, and a total end to deep-sea fish trawling in the sea next to Gwadar.

The HDT was protesting in Gwadar for nearly eight weeks under the leadership of Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman.

Balochistan government spokesperson Farah Azeem had alleged that the protestors tried to shut the Gwadar port after which the police took action and arrested some of them.

She added that the movement’s attitude is provocative.

Blizzard conditions persisted in parts of the northeastern US, the stubborn remnants of a sprawl of extreme weather that gripped the country over several days, causing widespread power outages, travel delays and deaths in nine states, according to official figures.

In New York state, authorities described ferocious conditions, particularly in Buff­alo, with hours-long whiteouts, bodies being discovered in vehicles and under snow banks, and emergency personnel going “car to car” searching for survivors.

NY governor calls it ‘Blizzard of the Century’

The perfect storm of fierce snow squalls, howling wind and sub-zero temperatures forced the cancelation of more than 15,000 US flights in recent days, including nearly 4,000 on Monday, according to tracking site Flightaware.com.

Buffalo — a city in Erie County that is no stranger to foul winter weather — is the epicentre of the crisis, buried under staggering amounts of snow.

“Certainly it is the blizzard of the century,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters, adding it was “way too early to say this is at its completion.” Hochul said some western New York towns got walloped with “30 to 40 inches (0.75 to one meter) of snow overnight.” Later on Monday, Hochul spoke with President Joe Biden, who offered “the full force of the federal government” to support New York state, and said he and First Lady Jill Biden were praying for those who lost loved ones in the storm, according to a White House statement.

Biden also approved an emergency declaration for the state, the White House said.

“Temperatures are expe­cted to moderate across the Midwest and the East over the next few days ahead of this system,” the National Weather Service said in its latest advisory early on Tuesday, but warned that “locally hazardous travel conditions” would persist.

Zero visibility

National Guard members and other teams have rescued hundreds of people from snow-covered cars and homes without electricity, but authorities have said more people remain trapped.

Drivers were being warned not to take to the roads — even as the nation reached what is usually its busiest time of year for travel.

PIDIE: The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) urged countries on Tuesday to help Rohingya Muslims stranded at sea as at least 20 reportedly died and hundreds more landed in Indonesia after weeks adrift in the Indian Ocean.

Nearly 500 Rohingya have reached Indonesia in the past six weeks while “many others did not act despite numerous pleas and appeals for help”, the UNHCR said in a statement.

It said on Monday said 2022 could be one of the deadliest years at sea in almost a decade for the Rohingya with a growing number of them fleeing desperate conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh. One boat carrying 180 people is believed to have sunk in early December, with all on board presumed dead, according to rights groups.

The Rohingya have long been persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which borders Bangladesh. For years many have fled to neighbouring states like Thailand and Bangladesh, and to Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia between November and April when seas are calmer.

Nearly 1 million live in crowded conditions in Bangladesh, including many of the hundreds of thousands who fled a deadly crackdown in 2017 by Myanmar’s military, which denies committing crimes against humanity.

Rights groups have recorded a significant increase in the number leaving the camps, from about 500 last year to an estimated 2,400 this year. It is not clear what is driving the larger exodus. Some activists believe the lifting of Covid restrictions around Southeast Asia, a favoured destination for the Rohingya, could be a factor.

’Dangerous voyages’

A boat washed ashore in Aceh province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Monday carrying 174 Rohingya, most of them dehydrated, fatigued and in need of urgent medical care after weeks at sea, local disaster agency officials said. Some survivors recounted stories of hunger and desperation, saying more than 20 of the passengers died on the way.

“We came here from the largest Bangladesh refugee camp with the hope that the Indonesian people would give us the opportunity of education,” said Umar Farukh, who spoke in a shelter crowded with Rohingya men, women and children receiving care from Indonesian medics.

Thai authorities said after rescuing six people found clinging to a water tank floating in the Andaman Sea that the survivors reported their boat being denied access to Malaysia and turning back towards Bangladesh. Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Monday’s landing in Indonesia was the latest in a series of Rohingya boat landings and rescues around the region in recent weeks, prompting Bangladesh authorities to try and stop people from risking their lives on boats to Southeast Asia.

“We’re doing everything possible to stop them from taking the dangerous voyages,” Bangladeshi Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said on Monday.

Beijing considers self-ruled, democratic Taiwan a part of its territory, to be taken one day, by force if necessary, and the island lives under the constant fear of a Chinese invasion.

China’s sabre-rattling has intensified in recent years under President Xi Jinping, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further deepened worries in Taiwan that Beijing might move similarly to annex the island.

China’s “intimidation and threats against Taiwan are getting more obvious”, President Tsai Ing-wen told a press conference after a high-level government meeting on national security.

“No one wants war… but my fellow countrymen, peace will not fall from the sky.” “The current four-month military service is not enough to meet the fast and ever-changing situation,” she said. “We have decided to restore the one-year military service from 2024.” The extended requirement will apply to men born after January 1, 2005, Tsai added.

Mandatory service used to be deeply unpopular in Taiwan, and its previous government had reduced it from one year to four months with the aim of creating a mainly volunteer force. But recent polling showed more than three-quarters of the Taiwanese public now believes that is too short.

Tsai described the extension as “an extremely difficult decision… to ensure the democratic way of life for our future generations”.

“We can only avoid a war by preparing for a war and we can only stop a war by being capable of fighting a war.”

The prospect of a Chinese invasion has increasingly worried Western nations and many of China’s neighbours. Xi has made clear that what he calls the “reunification” of Taiwan cannot be passed on to future generations. Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and Tsai has said becoming a part of China is not acceptable to the people of the island.

Taiwan is a mountainous island and would present a formidable challenge to an invading force, but it is massively outgunned with 89,000 ground forces compared with China’s one million, according to a Pentagon estimate released last month.

“A very emotional moment this afternoon as I presented my letter of credentials to the President,” Lillian, who had been serving as Israel’s charge d’affaires in Ankara, wrote on her Twitter account.

“Looking forward to many more positive developments in the bilateral relations”.

The ceremony at Erdogan’s presidential complex in Ankara marks the latest step in warming ties between Israel and Turkiye. Bilateral relations began to fray in 2008 following an Israeli military operation in Gaza.

Relations then froze in 2010 after the deaths of 10 civilians following an Israeli raid on the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship, part of a flotilla trying to breach a blockade by carrying aid into the Gaza enclave.

A brief reconciliation lasted from 2016 until 2018, when Turkiye withdrew its ambassador and expelled Israel’s over the killing of Palestinians during a conflict with Gaza.