Month: May 2024

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the government would definitely go after the culprits of May 9 violent arson attacks with strict punishments through courts so that such unfortunate incidents must not recur in the future.

“There is no reprieve for the culprits of May 9 incidents. I assure you that the law will take its due course and that no such incident will recur in the country,” he said while addressing the families of martyrs at the Convention Centre.

The event was organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to mark the first anniversary of the May 9 (2023) violent incidents and to express solidarity with the martyrs and their families.

The prime minister said that the martyrs had rendered the supreme sacrifices for the safety of the people and the country.

He expressed the dismay that an organised group with a negative mindset had vandalised the martyrs’ memorials on that day last year.

He said that the perpetrators of the treasonous act, who attempted to create a gulf between the state institutions and the nation, would ultimately face the consequences.

Such elements must get exemplary punishment so that they should not dare to indulge such a heinous activity in the future, he added.

The prime minister, while paying tribute to the martyrs, said that they did sacrifice their lives to ensure a safe future for hundreds of thousands of children without becoming orphans.

“The whole nation is proud of its heroes for their utmost love for the motherland.”

At the moment, PM Shehbaz requested the audience to rise from their seats as a mark of respect for the martyrs and their families.

He said that the brave officers and soldiers of the Pakistan Army had always on the forefront to cope with the challenges – be a war or natural disaster.

The prime minister lauded the Pakistan Army for supporting the families of the martyrs over the years and added that such a mechanism should be adopted by other institutions as well.

He held out the assurance that the government would fully support the initiatives for the welfare of the martyrs’ families.

Earlier, Inspector General of Police Islamabad Ali Nasir Rizvi said he had been the DIG Operations Lahore on the fateful day last year and supervised the operation against rioters with the bleeding eye injuries for two and a half hours.

He said he could not forget the day when the miscreants resorted to full violence, brazenly using weapons, petrol bombs, iron rods and stones against the personnel, causing serious injuries to some 92 security officials.

The family members of the martyrs also expressed their feeling and shared memories of their loved ones. They said they were proud of their brave near and dear ones who had embraced martyrdom for the motherland.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, cabinet members, and political figures also attended the event.

General Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command (Centcom), called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir at the General Headquarters (GHQ) and discussed matters of mutual interest, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Thursday.

During the meeting, matters of shared interests, particularly cooperation in regional security matters came under discussion, the military’s media wing added.

It also said both sides discussed avenues of joint training and reiterated the need for enhancing training interactions between Centcom and the Pakistan Army.

The visiting dignitary acknowledged and appreciated the Pakistan Army’s successes in the fight against terrorism and Pakistan’s continued efforts to bring peace and stability to the region, the ISPR added.

In December last year, Gen Munir paid a maiden visit to the US since office in November 2022 wherein he met top US officials.

He had met the Centcom commander during a visit to the Headquarters of the Central Command in Tampa Bay, Florida last year.

The COAS had also visited the Centcom Joint Operations Centre, as per the ISPR.

The army chief had also held meetings with top US officials including Secretary of State Antony J Blinken, Secretary of Defence General (retd) Llyod J Austin, Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q Brown during the visit.

In the meetings, Pakistan and the US had agreed to enhance cooperation on matters related to counter-terrorism and defence collaboration, according to the ISPR’s statement.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Japan from May 20 to 23 when he will meet the emperor and the prime minister, Tokyo said Friday.

Saudi Arabia is a major oil supplier to Japan and its sovereign wealth fund owns a stake in gaming giant Nintendo as part of a major push into the sector.

The visit to Japan by Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader, known by his initials MBS, will be his first since 2019.

He will have an audience and “court luncheon” with Emperor Naruhito and will hold talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the government said.

Kishida plans to discuss bilateral cooperation and a “broad range” of areas affecting the Middle East and the international community, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters, without giving further details.

Prince Mohammed is said to be an avid gamer partial to “Call of Duty”, and Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in the sector since the 38-year-old became first in line to the throne in 2017.

In 2022, the crown prince announced a $38-billion investment strategy for the kingdom’s Savvy Games Group, owned by the deep-pocketed sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

PIF in 2023 became the largest outside shareholder of Nintendo with a stake of 8.6 percent, according to a filing last June.

It has reportedly also bought stakes in “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and “Street Fighter” maker Capcom.

Saudi Arabia aims to organise an eSports World Cup starting this year as part of a push to become the “premier global hub” for the industry that includes homegrown studios making games.

The kingdom is also planning a theme park based on Japan’s “Dragon Ball” manga franchise with at least 30 rides and a 70-metre (230-foot) model dragon.

The plans form part of Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030 programme to diversify Saudi Arabia economically away from oil and improve its image.

Campaigners say the push belies a dire human rights record where Saudi dissidents are imprisoned and executions are common.

Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in 2018 after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain travel documents.

More than 90 percent of resource-poor Japan’s oil imports come from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.

Japanese energy firms are also keen to invest in hydrogen and ammonia production projects in the Gulf, with a view to using these gases as fuel to reduce Japan’s carbon emissions.

CAIRO: Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded areas of Rafah on Thurs­day, Palestinian residents said, after President Joe Biden said the United States would withhold weapons from Israel if its forces mount a major invasion of the southern Gaza city.

A senior Israeli official said that the latest round of indirect negotiations in Cairo to halt hostilities had ended and Israel would proceed with its operation in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned.

Israel has submitted to mediators its reservations about a Hamas proposal for a prisoners’ release deal and the Israeli delegation was returning from the Egyptian capital, the official added.

In Gaza, Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters fired anti-tank rockets and mortars at Israeli tanks massed on the eastern outskirts of the city.

Residents and medics in Rafah said an Israeli attack by a mosque killed at least three people and wounded others in the eastern Brazil neighbourhood.

On the city’s eastern edge, residents said a helicopter opened fire, while drones hovered above houses in several areas, some close to rooftops.

Israel claims Hamas fighters are hiding in Rafah, where the population has been swelled by hundreds of thousands of Gazans seeking refuge from bombardments elsewhere in the coastal enclave, and it needs to eliminate them for its own security.

One of the displaced, Mohammad Abder-Rahman, said he feared the Israeli bombardments presaged an invasion of the city.

Ceasefire talks in Egypt’s capital made some headway, but no deal was reached, according to two Egyptian security sources.

The Hamas delegation left for Doha for consultations, blaming Israel for the lack of agreement so far.

Israel has said it is open to a truce, but has rejected demands for an end to bombing as it has vowed to demolish Hamas.

Biden, who says Israel has not produced a convincing plan to safeguard civilians in Rafah, issued his starkest warning yet against a full ground invasion.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah, … I’m not supplying the weapons,” Biden told CNN in an interview on Wednesday.

Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 80,000, most of them civilians, the health ministry in Gaza said.

On Tuesday, Israeli tanks seized the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, cutting off a vital aid route and forcing 80,000 people to flee the city this week, according to the United Nations.

“The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post on X.

Israel’s United Nations ambassador Gilad Erdan said the US decision to pause some weapons deliveries to Israel would significantly impair the country’s ability to neutralise Hamas power, according to Israeli public radio.

But Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel’s “enemies and friends” it would do whatever necessary to achieve its aims in Gaza, underlining the scale of the standoff.

Israel kept up tank and aerial strikes across Gaza and tanks advanced in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north, forcing hundreds of families to flee, residents said.

The Israeli military said it was securing Zeitoun, starting with a series of intelligence-based aerial strikes on approximately 25 targets.

Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, was heaving with people who had fled Rafah in recent days. Palestinian medics said two people, including a woman, were killed when a drone fired a missile at a group of people there.

In Cairo, delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar had been meeting since Tuesday. CIA Director William Burns has shuttled between Cairo and Jerusalem, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

Izzat El-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political office in Qatar, said the Hamas delegation had left Cairo, having reaffirmed its approval to the mediators’ ceasefire proposal. The plan entails the release of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza and a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.

The closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt has prevented the evacuation of the wounded and sick and the entry of medical supplies, food trucks and fuel needed to operate hospitals, the Gaza health ministry said on Thursday.

The only kidney dialysis centre in the Rafah area had stopped operating due to the shelling.

“There used to be medical aid coming in, and now there is no medical aid,” said Ali Abu Khurma, a Jordanian surgeon volunteering at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Instead, the main contenders for the three seats in the Muslim-majority region are powerful local parties, the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). They will contest against each other but both say they are opposed to the Hindu nationalist BJP and will align with the Congress party-led opposition alliance.

Analysts and opposition parties say the BJP decided to skip contesting the election because the outcome is likely to contradict Modi’s narrative of a peaceful, more integrated IoK since he removed the region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019 and brought it under New Delhi’s control.

The BJP, along with allies, is contesting in every other part of India and is tipped to win a majority of parliament’s 543 seats on the back of its Hindu-first image.

“Why are they absent from the election?” asked Omar Abdullah, a leader of the National Conference and a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state.

“Clearly there is a gap between what the BJP claims to have done and the reality on the ground,” he said, speaking in his home in IoK’s main city, Srinagar.

 

 

Modi says his 2019 decision brought normalcy to IoK after decades of bloodshed and that he will bring investments and jobs soon.

Home Minister Amit Shah backs up the government’s position by claiming that youths now hold laptops in their hands instead of “stones that they used to throw at security forces in the past”.

As part of the move, the Jammu and Kashmir state was split into two federally ruled areas — the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley with the Hindu-dominated Jammu plains, and mountainous, Buddhist-dominated Ladakh.

The government slapped a harsh lockdown on IoK at the time and Abdullah and almost all other local leaders were held in custody for months.

Ravinder Raina, the chief of the IoK unit of the BJP, said the party’s decision to skip the election was part of a broader strategy, although he declined to give specifics.

“The BJP will not fight, but support a candidate who will work for peace, happiness, brotherhood and democracy” in each of the three seats, he said. The BJP has not yet announced which of the many small parties in the fray it will support.

Alienation, discontent

Interviews with over a dozen residents, political leaders, security officials and analysts in IoK and New Delhi indicate that discontent and alienation continue to simmer in the heavily militarised Himalayan region.

Besides the three-decade freedom movement, Kashmir is divided into IoK and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, claimed in full by both India and Pakistan.

India alleges that Pakistan has supported the freedom movement in IoK while Islamabad says it only provides moral support to Kashmiris.

Abdul Hameed, a 50-year-old garment store owner in Pulwama town near Srinagar, said the federal government had kept the lid on IoK since 2019, masking the true situation.

“But it is like a spring. Right now they have crushed it. But who knows when will it burst open again,” he said.

Although there are fewer restrictions on people’s movements compared to five years ago, there are still tens of thousands of troops in the valley to enforce the peace.

For decades, residents and human rights groups have accused Indian security forces of atrocities against the mainly Muslim population. The government says cases of abuse are isolated acts and it prosecutes any soldier found guilty of human rights violations.

Indian military data shows there are over 100 active fighters in the region, who allegedly target security forces and workers from other parts of India. Fighters killed an air force soldier in an attack on a military convoy on Saturday, officials said.

“The absence of an elected system over here is an indication of the fact that things are not as they are portrayed,” said Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a retired law professor in Srinagar. “They (the BJP) should have treated [this election] as a referendum in their favour. But they seem to be scared.”

In the May 2019 general election, the BJP contested all three seats in IoK, losing them to Abdullah’s National Conference. This year, BJP is contesting the two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh, all of which it had won in 2019.

Mehbooba Mufti, the chief of the PDP, is contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, which many believed might have been the BJP’s best bet to enter IoK in this election.

Gerrrymandering

In 2022, a federal government-appointed commission changed the borders of constituencies in IoK.

To Anantnag, which had around 1.6 million largely Muslim votes in 2019, it added around 1m mostly Hindu voters from Jammu’s Poonch and Rajouri districts.

Mufti told Reuters that by clubbing them, the Modi administration was “changing the balance of the voters”. The BJP, she said, wants to “disempower and they want to divest, dispossess Muslims, especially the Kashmiris.”

National Conference’s Abdullah also claimed that the redrawing of the district was done to give BJP an “advantage”.

But they still didn’t field a candidate, which “tells you just how bad things must be for the BJP”, Abdullah said.

However, BJP’s Raina said that the redrawing has made the constituencies more representative of the region.

Protesters laid three rolled-up white sheets with red stains on them on the square outside the European Commission’s head office in the Belgian capital. On the three ‘bodies’ the words International Law, EU Treaties and Genocide Convention were written, in a protest of the way Israel has responded to the Gazans.

“We’re coming together in a peaceful assembly, to stand up for those rights, principles and values that the European institutions are build on,” EU Commission staff member Manus Carlisle said.

“The reasons why we work here and love to work here. Those values of human rights, human dignity and

freedom especially.” Fellow protester Simona Baloghova, who works for the European Committee of the Regions, added the protest should not be seen as a political statement.

The statement comes a day after Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Maj-Gen Ahmed Sharif said that the planning for the attack was done in Afghanistan and the suicide bomber was also its national.

“Terrorists and their facilitators were also being controlled from Afghanistan and the suicide bomber was also an Afghan national,” the ISPR DG had stated.

He had also listed other terror incidents, including by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), that he said continued from Afghan soil despite repeated complaints to the neighbour’s rulers.

 

Five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed in the suicide bombing on March 26 as their bus was attacked in the Bisham city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district. They were travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in KP’s Dasu.

The attack had prompted China to demand a thorough probe into the deadly blast and security for its citizens. In response, Islamabad had announced a swift probe to hold the “perpetrators and accomplices” accountable. After a joint investigation team was formed to probe the incident, action was ordered against five senior police officials.

No group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on Chinese nationals.

In a statement issued today, Afghan defence ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khwarazmi termed the claims “irresponsible and far from the reality”.

He said blaming Afghanistan for such incidents was a “failed attempt to divert attention from the truth”, adding that the killing of Chinese citizens in an area which was “under tight security cover of the Pakistani army shows the weakness of the Pakistani security agencies”.

“The Islamic Emirate has assured China on this matter and the country has also understood the fact that Afghans are not involved in such issues,” the spokesman said.

He claimed that members of the militant Islamic State group were “entering Afghanistan from Pakistan”.

“We have much evidence of Daesh (IS) who came to Afghanistan from the territory of Pakistan, and Pakistan’s territory being used against us for which Pakistan should answer,” Khwarazmi said.

He added that Kabul considered the stability and security of Pakistan to be in the interest of Afghanistan and the region and believed in the “brotherhood and good relations between the people of the two nations.

Some of the experts believe that public accusations by Pakistani and Afghan officials will further complicate the situation.

Former Pakistani Ambassador Ayaz Wazir said a public blame game would increase mistrust and further deteriorate relations.

“Both governments should hold a wide range of talks and explore ways for solutions to problems. Pakistan should clearly convey its concerns over the TTP presence in Afghanistan and also pay attention to the concerns of the other side,” Wazir told Dawn.com.

Wazir has served as the Pakistan consul general in Afghanistan’s northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and was part of a negotiation team between the Afghan Taliban and then-opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masoud in the 1990s.

He further said that Pakistan should not blame the Afghan government for incidents in Pakistan and focus on security problems.

The tit-for-tat verbal response between the two countries’ officials shows the growing mistrust between the two countries despite several channels of communication, including a joint border coordination committee to review security issues.