Month: August 2023

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed concerns over the “liberty of action available” to terrorists in Afghanistan, urging the Taliban-led interim government to take action to stop “transnational terrorism”.

The statement comes after PM Shehbaz along with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir visited Peshawar on Tuesday, two days after a deadly suicide attack claimed at least 54 lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district, according to a statement issued by the PM Office.

The deadly blast took place on Sunday evening in Bajaur district’s Khar, a former tribal area bordering Afghanistan, at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) gathering, killing at least 54 people and injuring over 100.

During the visit, the prime minister was briefed on the overall security situation in KP with a focus on the Khar suicide blast, the status of investigations under process and counter-terrorism efforts being undertaken to dismantle the terrorists’ network by disrupting the linkages between planners, executioners, and abettors, the official statement said.

PM Shehbaz noted with concern the involvement of the Afghan citizens in the suicide blasts and the liberty of action available to the elements hostile to Pakistan in planning and executing such cowardly attacks on innocent civilians from the sanctuaries across the border.

“The Interim Afghan government should undertake concrete measures towards denying its soil to be used for transnational terrorism”, the statement quoted the premier as saying.

The statement further said the prime minister also appreciated the emergency efforts undertaken by the army in the evacuation of wounded personnel from Khar to Peshawar, saving many lives.

PM Shehbaz and COAS Gen Munir also visited the wounded personnel under treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) and inquired about their health.

The premier directed authorities concerned to render the best possible healthcare services to the wounded patients until their full recovery.

While interacting with the bereaved family members of the victims of the Khar suicide blast, PM Shehbaz assured them that the entire nation stands with them in this hour of grief and shares the burden of their losses.

“These cowardly attacks by terrorists cannot weaken our resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism from Pakistan. Security forces and law enforcement agencies with the support of the nation will ensure that those responsible for the dastardly attacks are brought to justice as soon as possible,” he added.

Daesh behind suicide attack

Terrorist organisation Daesh, also known as Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on Monday.

Sharing the investigation update, Counter-Terrorism Department’s (CTD) Additional Inspector General Shokat Abbas had said the convention began at 2pm while the explosion occurred two hours later at 4:10pm.

He said that ball bearings and other stuff used in making the explosives had been found at the site of the explosion.

Abbas further stated that the terrorist group behind the attack had been identified, which had targetted someone “specific” in the gathering.

He said that the initial probe had led the CTD to close to the attack’s perpetrators.

Abbas said that many pieces of evidence have been found at the site of the explosion, and forensic reports are being expected soon.

He confirmed that 10-12kg of explosives were used in the blast.

The KP CTD registered an FIR against unidentified suspects on charges of terrorism, murder, attempted murder and others, on behalf of Khar Station House Officer Niaz Mohammad.

At least five people, including two police personnel, were killed in clashes between Hindus and Muslims that erupted on Monday around 50 km (30 miles) south of the Indian capital New Delhi, police officials told Reuters.

The violence erupted after a Hindu religious procession passed through the Muslim dominated Nuh region in Haryana state, the officials said. By the evening, the violence had spilled over into neighbouring Gurugram, where a mosque was torched, killing the cleric and injuring another person.

Officials from the local administration in Nuh said they were investigating the cause of the standoff that sparked the initial violence.

“The procession was meant to move from one temple to another but clashes broke out between two groups on the way, which resulted in the death of four people,” Krishan Kumar, spokesperson of Nuh police, told Reuters.

He said two of the dead were members of the home guard, a voluntary force that helps police control civil disturbances.

Another 60 people, including 10 police personnel, were injured in the clashes, local government officials said.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, in a post on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, also condemned the incident in Nuh, where curfew orders have been imposed, the internet shut off, and additional security forces deployed.

The country has been ravaged by violence in the two years since Suu Kyi was deposed in a coup and hit with 19 criminal cases ranging from corruption to breaching Covid-19 rules.

There have been concerns for the 78-year-old Nobel laureate’s health and the junta moved her from prison to a government building last week.

“Six years imprisonment will be reduced,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told reporters after it was announced she had been pardoned in five cases.

Suu Kyi still faces 14 cases despite the pardon. Rights groups have condemned the legal battle against her as a sham designed to remove a popular democratic leader from the public eye.

Former Myanmar president Win Myint, who was also removed in the 2021 coup, was granted a four-year reduction in relation to two cases, the junta spokesman said.

‘Cruel games’

Tuesday’s announcement was part of an amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent, including 125 foreigners who are to be released and pardoned.

An unspecified number of prisoners facing the death penalty also had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the announcement said.

David Mathieson, an independent analyst on Myanmar, said the partial pardon was a “cynical ploy to tell the world that there might be some kind of political resolution coming. When we know that there is not”.

“I think they are just playing cruel games with a political prisoner,” Mathieson said.

“All the charges against her are absurd and shaving six years off 33 isn’t mercy.” Human Rights Watch’s Asia division deputy director Phil Robertson said the junta aimed “to create the impression of moderation and dialogue when in fact there really is none on offer”.

Joe Freeman, a spokesman on Myanmar for Amnesty International, said the reductions showed the arbitrary nature of the junta’s military courts.

Zhuozhou is in Hebei province, which has borne the brunt of the worst storms to hit northern China in over a decade, killing at least 20 people.

The city also borders Beijing, which was inundated with the most rainfall in 140 years between Saturday and early Wednesday, official data showed.

 

Authorities in Hebei have declared a state of emergency as rainfall averaged 355 mm since Saturday, the heaviest since at least July 2012.

More than 134,000 Zhuozhou residents have been affected, with over one-sixth of the city’s population evacuated.

At the confluence of several rivers, Zhuozhou is one of the hardest hit cities in Hebei as floodwaters migrated downstream, according to state media, waterlogging residential areas more than twice the size of the French capital, and affecting nearly 650 hectares of agricultural land.

The local public security bureau said on Tuesday the city faced water shortages and a partial power outage, adding that it urgently needed rafts, life jackets and emergency supplies.

Residents said waters rose as high as four metres.

 

Some 9,000 rescuers have been dispatched to Zhuozhou, with more rescue teams rushing over from neighbouring Henan and Shanxi provinces, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A satellite image taken on Tuesday showed Zhuozhou surrounded by floodwaters on three sides.

The Global Times newspaper reported that a large amount of water was flowing from Beijing into three rivers around Zhuozhou.

Many Zhuozhou residents took to social media to complain about how long rescue and recovery efforts were taking.

“We are taking on the flood water discharge from Beijing, so they should provide us with rescue and equipment, but there has been nothing,” a netizen vented on China’s popular microblog Weibo.

Floods have also hit warehouses in the city, a logistics hub. Hebei authorities said they had opened another flood diversion area in Yongding River on Wednesday to help ease the flooding.

BooksChina.com, an online bookstore, said on its WeChat account on Tuesday night their staff were waiting for rescue workers on the fourth floor of their flooded warehouse where over four million books were stored.

As the floodwaters flow south, the authorities in the city of Gaobeidian have evacuated 113,000 residents, as well as opened reservoirs to trap the excess water, Xinhua reported.

In Japan, a typhoon has also struck its southwestern Okinawa prefecture. The storm is expected to veer westwards in the East China Sea but then turn northeast, potentially towards Japan’s third largest island Kyushu.

Ferrier travelled to London and spoke in the Commons while awaiting the result of a Covid test in 2020. She then got a train home to Glasgow after testing positive.

Here are five reasons why the by-election will be an interesting one – and why it could have ramifications UK-wide.

Presentational grey line
1. It’s a marginal swing seat
Rutherglen and Hamilton West has changed hands at the last three general elections, bouncing back and forth between the SNP and Labour.

Like many other seats in the west of Scotland’s central belt, it had been a Labour stronghold until those red seats were washed away by an SNP-yellow tidal wave following the 2014 independence referendum.

Labour’s Tom Greatrex secured a stonking majority of 44.7% in 2010, but Ms Ferrier turned that into an SNP majority of 17.4% in 2015.

Ged Killen then won it back for Labour by just 265 votes – a majority of 0.5% – in 2017, as Jeremy Corbyn led a brief revival of the party’s fortunes.

Ms Ferrier was able to retake the seat comfortably in 2019 with a majority of 9.7%.

But less than a year later she was sitting as an independent MP, having been suspended from the SNP for breaking Covid-19 restrictions.

She would go on to plead guilty to “culpable and reckless conduct” and be given a community sentence, as well as a suspension from the House of Commons. And that suspension triggered the recall petition which has now been her ousted from her seat.

The first declaration in Scotland sees Labour take Rutherglen and Hamilton West from the SNP.
Image caption,
Labour’s Ged Killen took the seat from Margaret Ferrier in 2017 – but she won it back again in 2019
2. Campaigning has been going on for months
Technically, the by-election campaign will get underway once a writ has been issued in the Commons and the local returning officer has got their ducks in a row.

But in reality, the campaign in Rutherglen and Hamilton West has been running for months. Labour and the SNP were both registered as official campaigners in the recall petition process, signalling their intent.

Labour selected its candidate – teacher and activist Michael Shanks – back in May. Sir Keir Starmer visited the constituency later that month, following up on an earlier appearance in March.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is an even more frequent visitor.

And the same is increasingly true of First Minister Humza Yousaf, who has taken part in door-knocking sessions as part of a series of “days of action” as he establishes himself as SNP leader.

His party has also already picked a candidate, Cambuslang councillor Katy Loudon, who will hope to hold the seat, while the Conservatives have announced that their candidate will be Thomas Kerr.

Other parties will doubtless put forward candidates in due course too – including the Liberal Democrats, who stood last time out. Ms Ferrier herself is free to stand again as an independent should she wish to do so.

There will be a national spotlight on this seat, which will mean representatives of all sorts of different causes will put themselves up. Last month’s by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip featured 17 candidates, while another in Selby and Ainsty had 13 names on the ballot paper.

Humza Yousaf has been out campaigning in Rutherglen several times already
3. It’s a key test for Labour
This is actually not the first SNP-Labour clash of the Sir Keir Starmer era – that came in Airdrie and Shotts in 2021, after Neil Gray opted to move to Holyrood. Anum Qaisar held the seat for the SNP with a reduced majority of 8%.

That – like Rutherglen – is one of only five seats in Scotland where Labour can target an SNP majority in single digits.

The party hopes to win a lot more than five seats in its bid to propel Sir Keir into Downing Street, so this will be an important test of how well its messages are cutting through north of the border.

Sir Keir be desperate to build momentum ahead of the next general election after a mixed set of results in last month’s English by-elections.

The difficulty for the Labour leader is that the vast majority of the seats he wants to win in England are held by the Conservatives. In Scotland, they are all held by the SNP.

That means contests north of the border are going to be fought on the left of politics, while Labour’s UK-wide messaging is more tuned into winning over right-leaning Tory voters.

The SNP have pounced gleefully on issues like the two-child cap on some benefits, which Sir Keir has said he would retain in the name of fiscal responsibility.

The plan may be to allow Scottish Labour to take the lead and shape more local messaging – even if that stands in contrast to some of the UK party’s positions. This by-election will be a measure of how well that can work.

Anas Sarwar and Sir Keir Starmer have both been out and about in the constituency
4. It’s an early measure of Humza Yousaf’s leadership
The by-election is an early electoral test for the SNP’s new leader.

Humza Yousaf came into the job having happily accepted the mantle of “continuity candidate” from the Nicola Sturgeon era.

However he has since slashed his predecessor’s policy platform to ribbons, ditching a succession of key pledges and kicking others into the long grass, all while promising “a fresh start”.

This by-election will be a chance to see how popular that approach has been with the electorate, and whether Mr Yousaf can continue Ms Sturgeon’s record of success at the ballot box.

The SNP clearly see Labour as their key rivals at the next election, and have been workshopping attack lines against them for months.

Their core campaign message is coming into focus too – that while Labour may offer a change of government at Westminster, only the SNP are offering “real change” via independence.

Indeed the phrase “SNP only party offering real change with independence” now features as the second line in nearly all one of their press releases, with almost 20 of them during the month of July alone.

That slogan will shortly feature prominently on leaflets dropping through letterboxes across South Lanarkshire.

But Labour will not want to engage in a constitutional bunfight the way the Conservatives are always happy to – so it will be intriguing to see the extent to which the question of independence factors in the campaign.

The SNP look set to put independence at the heart of their campaign – but Labour will not
5. It’s the final showdown
Whoever wins the seat will know that they will likely have to fight the campaign all over again in about a year’s time, with a general election looming.

This will be no dress rehearsal though – in fact it will likely be the last election to Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

New constituency boundaries have been drawn up and look set to be confirmed ahead of the next election, and a decent number of locals will be guaranteed to have another new MP – potentially their third in a year.

The constituency is being split up, with Rutherglen becoming a seat in its own right while absorbing more of Uddingston, while the western patch will join a new Hamilton and Clyde Valley seat.

Boundary changes are planned right across the UK, with some big changes having been drawn up in the first alterations since 2005.

So not only will the winner be back out on the doorsteps within a matter of months, they might not even be canvassing the same streets.

But they will feel they have built some crucial momentum ahead of that pivotal UK-wide contest.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday approved Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023, paving the way for a punishment of up to five-year rigorous imprisonment to any person guilty of disclosing any information, acquired in an official capacity which is or may be prejudicial to the security and interest of Pakistan or the armed forces.

Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar moved the bill, which has already been passed by the Senate, in the lower house of parliament. Addressing the house, Tarar made it clear that no provision of this bill is applicable to civilians. The bill will not have any effect on the ongoing case in the Supreme Court, he added.

The bill seeks to amend the provision of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, so as to provide the structural underpinnings of raising and maintaining the Army.

As per the bill, the Pakistan Army upon direction or with the concurrence of relevant authorities of the government, may directly or indirectly, carry out activities related to national development and advancement of national or strategic interest.

The bill also bars dual nationals to take a commission in the armed forces. It authorises the federal government, in extraordinary circumstances, to retain any person of the army compulsorily in service up to 60 years of age with the recommendation of the army chief.

The bill further recommends that a person will not engage in political activity of any kind within a period of two years from the date of his retirement, release, resignation, discharged, removal or dismissal from the service.

Besides, any person who remained posted, employed, seconded, tasked or otherwise attached to sensitive duties, shall not take part in political activities during a period of five years from the date of his retirement.

The legislation also forbids personnel from entering into employment consultation or other engagement with an entity having a conflict of interest with any of the activities of the armed forces of Pakistan or its affiliated entities in a manner or position that utilises the skills or experience acquired during association with armed forces.

However, this provision will not apply to employment made after prior approval from the army chief. Any person who is guilty of an offence will be punished with imprisonment for a term of up to two years or with a fine not exceeding Rs0.5 million or both.

The bill also deals with the electronic crimes under which a personnel, involved in undermining, ridiculing or scandalising the armed forces shall be punished.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chan­drachud, was hearing petitions by the two women who were paraded naked and raped. The bench observed it was surprised to find both the centre and the state groping for facts about crimes which are “public knowledge, reported widely in the national media”.

The court set up hearings on Tuesday, and said it was shocked to know that the Manipur police took 14 whole days to register even a ‘Zero FIR’ (an FIR that can be filed in any police station) on the sexual assault and gang-rape of two women in Thoubal district on May 4,

While the video of the horrific visuals of the sexual violence went viral on July 19, the case was transferred to the relevant police station on June 21 a day after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the video.

Rape victims allege ‘collaboration’ between govt and mob, object to transferring cases to CBI

The arrests, seven in number, were made only after the apex court took judicial note. “What were the police doing from May 4 to May 18? The incident came to light involving three women paraded naked in the presence of a mob. At least, two of them were raped. What were the police doing for 14 days?” Chief Justice Chandrachud asked Attorney General R. Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the centre and the Manipur state government.

Alleging “collaboration” between the state police and the mob, the two women, represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, have objecting to the government decision to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which works under Home Minister Amit Shah.

Mr Sibal said the police, instead of taking the women away from the mob, took them towards the crowd and abandoned them to their fate.

The court proposed appointing its own special investigation team.

‘Systemic acts of violence’

The chief justice said the May 4 incident was not an isolated one. “This is apparent from the home secretary’s affidavit. As much as we want to give justice to the two women, we also want to put in place a mechanism by which justice is available to all other women. We have to put in a mechanism to ensure complaints are filed, FIRs are lodged… The process of justice should go to the victims’ doorsteps,” he observed.

The solicitor general claimed the government was “serious” and had “nothing to hide”, saying that the government was open to the Supreme Court monitoring the investigation. “There are reasons why the case investigation was transferred to the CBI, so that it is a neutral investigation… After the video went viral, people were arrested in 24 hours,” he claimed.

The law officer explained the 14-day delay in registering the Zero FIR, saying “May 18 was the day when the incident was brought to our notice”. But the court asked whether the Thoubal incident was a “standalone” instance of perpetration of violence on women in Manipur during the clashes. “Let us say for example if there are 1,000 of them, will the CBI be able to cope? How many such FIRs are there really? Here we are dealing with systemic acts of violence committed in the course of communal and sectarian strife,” the court told the government.

The bench said it had to first see a “breakdown” of the 6,000 FIRs the government was said to have registered.

Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, had swept northwards through China since hitting southern Fujian province on Friday after first scything through the Philippines.

Heavy rains began pummelling Beijing and its surrounding areas on Saturday, with nearly the average rainfall for the entire month of July dumped on the capital in just 40 hours.

 

Swathes of suburban Beijing remain badly hit by the rains — some of the city’s heaviest in years.

On Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported the rains had killed at least 11 people and that 27 were missing. Among the dead were two workers “killed on duty during rescue and relief” efforts, it said.

More than 100,000 people across the city deemed at risk had been evacuated, state-owned tabloid The Global Times reported.

On the banks of the Mentougou river, one of the areas worst affected by the flooding, AFP reporters saw muddy debris strewn across the road.

One local elderly man told AFP he had not seen flooding this bad since July 2012, when 79 people were killed and tens of thousands evacuated.

“This time it’s much bigger than that,” he said, declining to give his name.

“It’s a natural disaster, there’s nothing you can do,” a man in his 20s surnamed Qi told AFP as he waited for a taxi outside a hospital with his grandmother.

“(We) still have to work hard and rebuild,” he added.

About a dozen emergency vehicles, including trucks with water tanks and bulldozers, were spotted on the road between Shijingshan and Mentougou districts.

Parts of the road were still closed off and workers in bright orange raincoats used shovels to clear the road

 

Chaotic scenes

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for “every effort” to rescue those “lost or trapped” by the rains.

Local authorities “must do a good job in treating the injured and comforting the families of victims, and minimize casualties”, CCTV quoted Xi as saying.

“They must properly relocate affected people, work quickly to repair damaged transportation, communication and electricity infrastructure, and restore the order of normal production and life as soon as possible,” he added.

“Xi Jinping emphasised that it is currently the critical period for flood control in late July and early August,” state media said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended the Pakistani nation’s condolences over the lives lost in the torrential rainfall. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost their loved ones,” he said.

“Pakistan and China are enduring friends and partners sharing weal and woe. The entire Pakistani nation stands by our Chinese brothers and sisters in this hour of grief,” he said.

“I also extend my best wishes for the ongoing relief and rescue efforts, and we are ready to extend all possible assistance,” PM Shehbaz added.

 

Live images from broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday morning showed a row of buses half submerged in floodwater in Beijing’s southwest Fangshan neighbourhood.

Around 150,000 households in Mentougou were without running water, the local Communist Party newspaper Beijing Daily said, with 45 water tankers dispatched to offer emergency supplies.

Local media on Monday published footage of chaotic scenes aboard high-speed rail trains stranded on tracks for as long as 30 hours, with passengers complaining they had run out of food and water.

Parts of neighbouring Hebei province remain under red alert for rainstorms, with authorities warning of potential flash floods and landslides.

The city activated a flood control reservoir on Monday for the first time since it was built in 1998, the Beijing Daily said.

And in Handan, Hebei province, rescuers lifted by crane reached a man trapped atop his car by floodwaters, lifting him to safety before the vehicle was flipped over and washed away by the current.

China has been experiencing extreme weather and posting record temperatures this summer, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

The country is already preparing for the arrival of another typhoon — Khanun, the sixth such storm of the year — as it nears China’s east coast.

General Li Yuchao who headed the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Rocket Force unit and his deputy had “disappeared” for months.

Former deputy navy chief Wang Houbin and party central committee member Xu Xisheng were named as replacements.

This is the biggest unplanned shake-up in Beijing’s military leadership in almost a decade.

“The latest purge is significant… [as] China is undertaking one of the most profound changes in nuclear strategy in decades,” said Lyle Morris, a foreign policy and national security fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“Xi has consolidated control of the PLA in unprecedented ways, but that doesn’t mean it’s complete. Xi is still worried about corruption in the ranks and has signalled that absolute loyalty to the [party] has not yet been achieved,” he said.

Mr Xi is also chairman of China’s top military command, the Central Military Commission.

At a meeting late last month, Mr Xi stressed the need to focus efforts on “addressing prominent issues faced by party organisations at all levels, in aspects such as maintaining the party’s absolute leadership over the military”, Chinese state media reported.

Xi Jinping at a PLA parade
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
The replacement of Rocket Force leaders mark the biggest irregular shake-up in Beijing’s military leadership in almost a decade
Beijing has not commented on the whereabouts of Gen Li and his deputy General Liu Guangbin, but a South China Morning Post report last week suggested that the commission’s anti-corruption arm had launched a probe into the two men, as well as Gen Li’s former deputy Zhang Zhenzhong.

The report cited two unnamed sources.

Mr Wang’s and Mr Xu’s new appointments came a day before the 96th anniversary of the PLA’s founding on 1 August. They were announced at a ceremony at the commission’s headquarters in Beijing.

Both have been promoted from the rank of lieutenant general to full general which in China marks the highest rank for active service officers.

Mr Morris said Gen Li’s downfall, together with the recent replacement of former foreign minister Qin Gang, presents one of the biggest leadership challenges for Mr Xi in recent times.

Mr Qin had been absent from public commitments for a month before he was replaced, unexplained, by his predecessor Wang Yi last week.

In 2014, a broad purge among China’s military ranks saw former deputy chairs of the Central Military Commission Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong ousted and prosecuted for corruption. Guo was sentenced to life in jail by a military court, while Xu died before his trial.