AHMEDABAD: India convicted 49 people on Tuesday over a 2008 attack in the western city of Ahmedabad that left over fifty dead, in what perpetrators said was retaliation for earlier deadly communal violence. The string of bombings killed 56 people and wounded more than 200 others as shrapnel ripped through markets, buses and other public places in Gujarat state’s commercial hub. A group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility, and said the act was revenge for 2002 religious riots in the area that left thousands dead. Nearly 80 people were charged but 28 were acquitted, prosecutor Amit Patel told…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
GENEVA: A Taliban delegation has arrived in Geneva for talks with Swiss officials and NGOs on humanitarian access and human rights, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The delegation from Afghanistan’s new rulers is due to hold talks with the Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations in the Swiss city, which is also home to several United Nations agencies. “The members of the delegation will have discussions around humanitarian access to populations in need, the protection of humanitarian actors and respect for human rights,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. “The protection of children during conflicts and the management of land…
BERLIN: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he saw a path forward on easing tensions with Russia over Ukraine, after conducting an urgent round of shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Kiev. Macron held talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev a day after a five-hour meeting at the Kremlin with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as the West scrambles to defuse fears Moscow could invade its ex-Soviet neighbour. The French leader said he now saw the “possibility” for talks involving Moscow and Kiev over the festering conflict in eastern Ukraine to move forward, and “concrete, practical solutions” to lower tensions…
A hijab-clad student was heckled and jeered at by a mob of Hindutva supporters in India’s Karnataka state on Tuesday while she retaliated by shouting back “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). Muskan Khan parked her scooter in the parking of her college in Mandya and was subsequently beset by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mob which shouted at her and tried to surround her. Undaunted, she continued walking towards her college building in footage that soon went viral on social media. “Since I started studying [here], I’ve always worn the burqa and hijab. When I entered class, I removed the…
A gas explosion in downtown Abu Dhabi prompted a warning of a possible attack early on Wednesday following a series of recent drone and missile assaults by Yemeni rebels. The US embassy issued a security alert after the blast in a building on Hamdan Street just after midnight sent a fireball into the sky and set off a blaze. But emergency teams in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital “put out a fire caused by a gas cylinder explosion”, the official WAM news agency said. “The teams managed to control the situation after extinguishing the fire and safely vacating the residents,” it…
RAWALPINDI: After an inquiry ordered by the inspector general of police (IGP) Punjab against 19 station house officers posted by the city police officer (CPO) a week ago, the regional police officer (RPO) on Tuesday removed seven of them and directed them to report to the Police Lines Headquarters. In police circles, the CPO’s posting of the SHOs and their removal by the RPO in light of the investigation is being considered as a surprising move. The posting of 19 SHOs about seven days ago had been made by the newly-posted CPO Omer Saeed Malik on the recommendation of a…
ISLAMABAD: Top leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were criticised in the Senate on Tuesday over alleged mega corruption and money laundering amidst walkout by the opposition against ‘absence of ministers’. The objection against absence of the minister concerned was raised by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami on the very first question pertaining to rising cases of AIDS in Pakistan, when Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan was on his feet to respond. The opposition made it a point to stage a walkout from the house, leading to adjournment of the…
ISLAMABAD: While educationists and a former senator on Tuesday criticised the government’s decision to clip powers of Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri, Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood defended the move and said the commission with a majority of votes had revoked the powers of the HEC head. In light of the decision taken by the commission of the higher education body on Monday, powers of the HEC chairman have been delegated to the commission’s executive director (ED). The commission passed a resolution moved in this regard by Education Secretary Naheed S. Durrani. The HEC on Tuesday also…
ISLAMABAD: Giving protection to mothers in relation to the custody of their children, the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Act 2020 bill passed by the upper house of parliament says the real mother is entitled to the custody of her male child until he attains the age of seven years and of a female child until she attains puberty or the age of 16 years. Moved by Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Farooq H. Naek as a private member’s bill, the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Act 2020, which is yet to be approved by the National Assembly, clarifies the existing case law…
MUZAFFARABAD: A common leopard was stoned and strangled to death by angry villagers after it descended on a human settlement in Jhelum valley district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday and allegedly caused injuries to at least three persons. Video footage shot by different people and shared on social media showed the carnivore strolling on a link road and hiding itself beneath a slope in Sarai village, located on the right bank of River Jhelum a little ahead of district headquarters Hattian Bala. In one clip, screams of panicked women could also be heard as they feared the…
