Month: March 2023

ISLAMABAD: The capital’s police have arrested at least 25 people and registered a terrorism case after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s appearance at the city’s judicial complex led to vandalism and riot.

Khan had appeared before multiple courts in connection with different cases. He received bail from two courts and another issued non-bailable arrest warrants for him. The PTI chief also managed to secure interim bail from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in another case.

Security arrangements at Sector G-11 of the judicial complex were disrupted as PTI workers removed all barriers during their chief’s appearances in the different courts. On the occasion, some of the workers vandalised the building and undermined the decorum of the courts.

According to a spokesperson for the capital’s police, the case has been registered under Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act (ATA) and other charges on the behalf of the state.

Taking to Twitter, the spokesperson said that more than two dozen people have been arrested so far, adding that a Kalashnikov and other weapons have been recovered.

Under a premeditated plan, the mob attempted to attack the high court and the judicial complex, the spokesperson added.

“Police teams have been deployed to different provinces to arrest the people involved in the incident,” he added.

The spokesperson maintained that leaders of a “political party” were leading the mob, adding that they provoked the people, which led to vandalism.

The spokesperson added that government property was damaged at the judicial complex, while the police prevented any such move in the high court.

Sanaullah vows to arrest culprits

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, while reacting to the incident, said that the government would take action against perpetrators for “attacking” the judicial complex, rioting, and sabotaging the judiciary’s dignity.

In a press conference alongside Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Azma Bukhari and Talal Chaudhry, the minister said that the culprits would be booked and arrested on terror charges.

Sanaullah said: “The banking court, which is present in the judicial complex, was stormed by around 400 ‘worker-like goons’ who were with them.”

“They attacked the policemen on duty by pushing them and ripping their uniforms apart and caused damage to the building by breaking its glass,” the interior minister said.

He added that despite the riots, Khan was still granted bail. However, the minister — who is also a PML-N leader from Punjab — said that the government will take strict legal action against these goons.

Sanaullah said that the “pampering behaviour” of the courts encourages hostility among Khan’s supporters. “The event that took place today, in which the judicial complex and the judiciary were attacked, only happened because they are receiving mild treatment.”

He condemned the attack and asserted that legal action is inevitable after what has happened today.

WASHINGTON: Iran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in “about 12 days,” a top US Defense Department official said on Tuesday, down from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl made the comment to a House of Representatives hearing when pressed by a Republican lawmaker why the Biden administration had sought to revive the deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)

“Because Iran’s nuclear progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable. Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb’s worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days,” Kahl, the third ranking Defense Department official, told lawmakers.

“And so I think there is still the view that if you could resolve this issue diplomatically and put constraints back on their nuclear programme, it is better than the other options. But right now, the JCPOA is on ice,” Kahl added.

US officials have repeatedly estimated Iran’s breakout time – how long it would take to acquire the fissile material for one bomb if it decided to – at weeks but have not been as specific as Kahl was.

While US officials say Iran has grown closer to producing fissile material they do not believe it has mastered the technology to actually build a bomb.

Under the 2015 deal, which then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Iran had reined in its nuclear programme in return for relief from economic sanctions.

Trump reimposed US sanctions on Iran, leading Tehran to resume previously banned nuclear work and reviving US, European and Israeli fears that Iran may seek an atomic bomb. Iran denies any such ambition.

The Biden administration has tried but failed to revive the pact over the last two years.

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged government officials to engineer a “fundamental transformation” in agricultural production, state media reported on Tuesday, amid fears that the country’s food shortage is worsening.

Kim said hitting grain production targets this year was a top priority and emphasised the importance of stable agriculture production during the second day of the seventh enlarged plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Monday, according to state news agency KCNA.

The report did not elaborate on what measures North Korea would take, but Kim said the changes need to happen in the next few years.

Collective farms account for the vast majority of North Korea’s agriculture, according to researchers. Such farms typically host multiple small farmers who produce crops with joint labour.

Kim’s remark comes amid reports of growing food shortages in the country, though North Korea has denied suggestions that it cannot provide for its citizens.

Earlier this month, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said the food situation in the North “seemed to have deteriorated”.

The ministry said at the time that it was rare for North Korea to announce a special meeting on agriculture strategy which was slated for late February.

In his address at Monday’s meeting, KCNA said Kim mentioned the “importance of the growth of the agricultural productive forces” in ensuring socialist construction.

North Korea is under strict international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, and its economy has been further strained by strict self-imposed border lockdowns aimed at stopping COVID-19 outbreaks.

The full extent of the food shortages in North Korea is unclear, but in a January report, the US-based 38 North project said that food insecurity was at its worst since famines that devastated the country in the 1990s.

“Food availability has likely fallen below the bare minimum with regard to human needs,” the report said.

North Korea’s pursuit of self-sufficiency means almost all its grain is produced domestically, but that has left the country vulnerable, 38 North found.

“Achieving adequate agricultural output in North Korea’s unfavourable soils has, ironically, generated a heavy reliance on imported goods and left the country exposed to global shocks, diplomatic conflicts, and adverse weather,” the report said.

The long-term solution to the problems lies partly in resolving the standoff over nuclear weapons and sanctions, but also requires economic reforms.

The initiation of domestic economic reforms would unshackle North Korea’s productive capacity and allow it to export industrial products and tradable services, earn foreign exchange and import bulk grains on a commercially sustainable basis, 38 North said.

Protesters were furious that Mayor Chiang Wan-an was hosting the memorial service because his purported great-grandfather, president Chiang Kai-shek, oversaw the violent suppression nearly eight decades ago.

Carrying a white banner with the words, “kneel and apologise”, the protesters rushed towards Chiang, who turned his back on them while security guards swooped in and ushered the crowd away from the stage.

Known as the “228 Inci­dent”, the crackdown eventually killed up to an estimated 28,000 people. It started after an inspector beat a woman selling untaxed cigarettes in Taipei, prompting an island-wide uprising on Feb 28.

 

On Tuesday, Chiang acknowledged the “historical pain” and said he would “work hard… so all residents can face each other more honestly, embrace each other and remember the 228 [Incident]”.

To quell the 1947 protests, Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek — whose Kuomintang (KMT) party governed the island as part of China at the time — called in troops from the mainland.

The violence was also a prelude to the “White Terror”, the purges and executions under martial law imposed by Chiang, who had fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war in 1949 to communists.

The legacy of the massacre still lingers in Taiwan, which the Kuomintang ruled as a one-party authoritarian state until martial law was lifted in 1987.

In 1995, president Lee Teng-hui officially apologised for 228. Today, just blocks away from the Presidential Office Building, a museum and park commemorate the victims. Some descendants of the victims boycotted Tuesday’s ceremony over Mayor Chiang’s presence.

“It’s unacceptable for us to stand side by side with Chiang Wan-an, who is the descendent of butchers,” said Amy Lee, whose grandfather and another relative were killed in the massacre.

The Chiang family have not recognised Chiang Wan-an or his father John Chiang, who says he is the born-out-of-wedlock son of former president Chiang Ching-Kuo.

At the memorial service on Tuesday, former president Ma Ying-jeou advocated for reconciliation. “Historical mistakes perhaps can be forgiven but historical facts can’t be forgotten,” he said.

Around 200 boycotters of the official event gathered at a ceremony organised by victims’ families outside a memorial hall named after Chiang Kai-shek.

A passenger train carrying hundreds of people collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train in a fiery wreck in northern Greece, killing 32 and injuring at least 85, officials said Wednesday.

Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision near the town of Tempe on Tuesday just before midnight. Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights before dawn on Wednesday as they searched frantically through the twisted, smoking wreckage for survivors.

Survivors said several passengers were thrown through the windows of the train cars due to the impact. They said others fought to free themselves after the passenger train buckled, slamming into a field next to the tracks near a gorge about 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens where major highway and rail tunnels are located.

“There were many big pieces of steel,” said Vassilis Polyzos, a local resident who was one of the first people on the scene. “The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.”

He said dazed and disoriented people were escaping out of the train’s rear cars as he arrived.

“People, naturally, were scared — very scared,” he said. “They were looking around, searching; they didn’t know where they were.”

The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greece’s Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.

“Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed,” he said.

Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the cars to search for trapped people. Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train.

Hospital officials in the nearby city of Larissa said at least 25 of those hurt had serious injuries.

“The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains,” said Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a spokesperson for Greece’s firefighting service.

The possible cause of the collision was not immediately clear. Two rail officials were being questioned by police but had not been detained.

Passengers who received minor injuries or were unharmed were transported by bus to Thessaloniki, 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north. Police took their names as they arrived, in an effort to track anyone who may be missing.

A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.

“Our carriage didn’t derail, but the ones in front did and were smashed,” he said, visibly shaken.

He added that the first car caught fire and that he used a bag to break the window of his car, the fourth, and escape.

Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.

Agorastos described the collision on state television as “very powerful” and said it was “a terrible night.”

“The front section of the train was smashed. … We’re getting cranes to come in and special lifting equipment clear the debris and lift the rail cars. There’s debris flung all around the crash site.”

Officials said the army had been contacted to assist.