World News Roundup

ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015

16INTERNATIONAL

Subcontinent

Relatives of victims of an arson assault on a family home mourn following the attack in Faridabad on Oct 20. (Inset): Men look through a window into the burnt remains of a room. (AFP)

An Indian policeman throws bricks atKashmiri Muslim protesters during aprotest in Srinagar, Indian controlled

Kashmir on Oct 20. (AP)

Mishra Patil

4 suspected militants killed:Police say security forces have raided amilitant hideout in northwest Pakistan,sparking a gunbattle in which four sus-pected militants were killed.

Senior police officer Mohammad Sajjadsays Wednesday’s raid was carried out inthe town of Swabi based on intelligencereports that “terrorists” were hiding in ahome. He says no officers were hurt in theraid and that authorities were trying toidentify the bodies of the slain men.

Sajjad says that after the raid securityforces arrested 32 suspects from variousareas of Swabi and that the detained menwere being questioned.

Swabi is located about 100 kms (60miles) northeast of Peshawar, the capitalof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, border-ing Afghanistan. (AP)

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5 prisoners executed: Pakistan onWednesday hanged at least five more menfor murder, an official said, bringing thetotal number of people executed in just 24hours to 14.

The latest executions took place incities of Lahore, Bahawalpur, Toba TekSingh, Mianwali, Dera Ghazi Khan incentral Punjab province.

“One convict was hanged in each jail inthe five cities,” a senior prisons official,who did not want to be named, told AFP.

On Tuesday, Pakistan executed nineconvicts, also in prisons in Punjab.

The hangings brought the tally of exe-cutions to more than 250 since thePakistan ended a six-year moratorium onthe death penalty in December, afterTaleban militants gunned down more than150 people, most of them children, at aschool in the restive northwest.

Hangings were initially reinstated onlyfor those convicted of terrorism, but inMarch they were extended to all capitaloffences. (AFP)

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Soldier kills four: Police gunneddown an Indian army soldier Tuesdayafter he opened fire indiscriminately,killing four people and injuring four oth-ers following a suspected family feud, anofficial said.

The soldier, identified as Jagdip Singh,climbed onto the roof of his home inSangrur district in northern India where hewas on vacation and started shooting at ahouse below, the official said.

The dead include a child and Singh’saunt and sister-in-law, the official said,adding two of the injured are in a criticalcondition following the shooting inPunjab state

“We asked him to surrender but insteadhe started shooting on our men. In retalia-tion he was shot dead,” Jaskiranjeet SinghTeja, Sangrur police chief told AFP.

Teja said most of his victims were fam-ily members and neighbours and theshooting was the result of a suspectedfamily feud. (AFP)

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‘War crimes claims credible’:Allegations that Sri Lankan troops com-mitted war crimes are “credible”, a judgeappointed by the island’s former presidenthas concluded in a report presented to par-liament on Tuesday.

The findings mark the first time adomestic inquiry has said there is evi-dence the army committed war crimes,and are all the more remarkable given thatthe report was commissioned by MahindaRajapakse.

Sri Lanka’s former strongman leaderoversaw the final push against Tamil Tigerrebels in 2009 before losing power inJanuary, and has always fiercely deniedhis troops committed war crimes.

He ordered the inquiry in 2013 in a bidto deflect mounting international censure,and the new government made the find-ings public in line with a promise to theUN Human Rights Council last month.

A long-awaited report from the UnitedNations human rights office last monthlaid bare horrific wartime atrocities com-mitted by both the army and the separatistTamil Tiger rebels in the bitter 37-year

war.“There are credible allegations which,

if proved to the required standard, mayshow that some members of the armedforces committed acts during the finalphase of the war that amounted to warcrimes giving rise to individual criminalresponsibility,” said the 178-page reportpresented to parliament on Tuesday.

The government of Rajapakse’s succes-sor, Maithripala Sirisena, has vowed topunish war criminals and set up a truthcommission and a reparations office tohelp heal the wounds left by the conflict.

But it has resisted pressure to allow aforeign inquiry, which many members ofthe island’s Sinhalese majority consideran infringement of sovereignty.

The latest inquiry was overseen byretired judge Maxwell Paranagama andexamined claims in a documentary broad-cast by Britain’s Channel 4 that purported-ly showed Sri Lankan soldiers executingTamil prisoners.

‘Cricketer summons’Indian police said they have sum-moned Indian cricketer Amit Mishraover allegations that he assaulted awoman filmmaker in a hotel room insouthern Bangalore city, an officialsaid Tuesday.

The woman, identified by police asVandana, accused the 32-year-oldIndian right-arm spinner of assaultingher with a kettle at a luxury hotel onSept 25.

“We have filed an FIR (first infor-mation report) against Mishra on thebasis of the complaint Vandana filedon Sept 27 and issued a notice ask-ing him to appear before our investi-gating officer within a week,”Sandeep Patil, Bangalore deputycommissioner of police toldreporters.

Patil said they have sent a copy ofthe summons to the Indian cricketboard, as the accused was attendinga camp organised by the board in thecity when the alleged incident hap-pened.

The Mumbai-based film producersaid in her complaint she had knownthe cricketer for three years and hadgone to meet him at the hotel whenhe allegedly assaulted her.

Mishra has been named as amember of the Indian squad due toplay the remaining two one-day inter-nationals this month and the first twoTests against South Africa nextmonth.

The spinner plays for the Indianteam in all three formats of the game.(AFP)

India

Clashes erupt over beef killing

2 kids burned alive, 4 heldBALLABHGARH, India, Oct 21,(RTRS): Police in northern India havearrested four men over allegationsthat they burnt alive two low-castechildren, an official said onWednesday, a case that triggered astreet protest and drew condemnationfrom an opposition leader.

Authorities ruled out caste violenceas a motive for the crime but India hasa long history of such incidents, andthe attack will feed concerns over ris-ing intolerance after the rumour-fuelled killing of a Muslim man by aHindu mob recently.

On Wednesday, two men carried thebodies of the dead children wrapped inwhite shrouds during a protest byabout 1,000 people who blocked amajor highway to the northern city ofAgra, home to the Taj Mahal monu-ment, and argued with police.

Police in the northern state ofHaryana said a group of men killedthe children, a girl of 8 months andher two-year-old brother, by settingalight gasoline poured through thewindows of their home inBallabhgarh district, about 50 km (31miles) from the capital, New Delhi.

InjuredThe parents, who hail from the bot-

tom rungs of India’s millennia-oldsocial hierarchy rooted in the Hindureligion, were also injured in theattack, a state police official said.

The incident was a family feud andnot related to caste violence, however,said Jawahar Yadav, an official fromthe office of Harayana’s chief minister.

“This is a fight among families, notabout castes. It is an unfortunate inci-dent,” Yadav told television channelCNN-IBN.

The family has alleged it wasattacked by men belonging to a high-er caste, in revenge for separatekillings a year ago, the state policeofficer said, asking not to be namedbecause he was not authorised to dis-cuss the case with the media.

Family members could not imme-diately be reached for comment.

Indian Home Minister RajnathSingh has asked the state governmentfor a report on the incident.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposi-tion Congress party, visited the dis-trict and criticised federal and stateofficials for not making better effortsto protect poor people.

Caste-related violence has grippedIndia for decades.

In August, clashes erupted in PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s westernhome state of Gujarat after policearrested a young leader of the influen-tial Patel clan who organised a rally todemand more government jobs for hiscommunity.

Last month, a village councildenied allegations that it ordered twoyoung sisters to be raped becausetheir brother eloped with a highercaste woman. The disavowal fol-lowed an international outcry trig-gered by the purported ruling.

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At least two dozen people havebeen injured in clashes with policeafter protests erupted in IndianKashmir over the killing of a Muslimman by Hindus campaigning againsteating beef.

The clashes in Kulgam and Anantnagdistricts broke out on Sunday after atrucker was attacked in the Hindu-dom-inated Jammu region of Kashmir by acrowd believing him to be involved intransporting cows, police said.

Protesters also pelted police withstones, police said, without specifyingwho had been injured since Monday.

Protesters have blocked theSrinagar-Jammu National Highway,the only road link to the Kashmir val-ley. Schools and offices remainedshut in the valley following a strikecalled by separatist leaders andtraders in protest at the murder.

“We imposed restrictions inAnantnag today as a precautionarymeasure after there were clashes soonafter the death of truck conductorZahid Ahmad,” said SJM Gillani,head of the state police, said on

Tuesday, referring to curbs on themovement of traffic and people.

Tempers had already been runninghigh in Jammu and Kashmir, India’sonly Muslim majority state, aftermembers of a little known Hindugroup blackened the face of a statelegislator with ink for throwing aparty where he served beef.

Cows are considered holy by many,but not all, Hindus, who form a majori-ty of India’s 1.2 billion population. Beefis eaten by Muslims and Christians, aswell as many lower-caste Hindus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has longadvocated a ban on killing of cows,but the constitution guarantees equalrights to minority Muslims andChristians, and Modi has called forreligious harmony.

Nonetheless, the government isstruggling to rein in hardline Hindugroups in parts of the country.

Hindu activists have stepped uptheir campaign in recent weeks onissues ranging from a ban on slaugh-tering cows to cricket matches withPakistan, saying their rival neighbourmust first stop Islamist groups operat-ing from its soil.

Police in the southern city ofBengaluru ordered an inquiry after anAustralian man complained in aFacebook post that he had beenharassed by a mob and forced to writean apology by police for sporting atattoo of a Hindu goddess on his leg.

Modi’s critics say there is a climateof intolerance and that his party ispushing the agenda of the Hindumajority. President PranabMukherjee said tolerance was theessence of India’s civilisation.

“Humanism and pluralism shouldnot be abandoned under any circum-stance,” he said in remarks widely inter-preted as a signal to the Modi adminis-tration to crack down on fringe groups.

The latest trouble began when aHindu mob lynched a Muslim manand beat up his son near the Indiancapital, saying they had stored beef intheir fridge.

At the time Sri Lanka’s military dis-missed the documentary, “No Fire Zone:Sri Lanka Killing Fields”, as a fabrication.

But Paranagama concluded there wasevidence to suggest the footage — show-ing prisoners stripped naked and blind-

folded, their arms tied behind their backs,being shot dead by mocking soldiers —was genuine. (AFP)

Maldives Home Minister Umar Nazeer (right), and Assistant Commissioner ofPolice Abdullah Nawaz attend a press conference in Male, Maldives on Oct

20. (AP)

Lat/Am

‘Mexico to use drones’: Mexico’sgovernment will mount a new search intandem with international experts for theremains of dozens of students training tobe teachers who were abducted and appar-ently massacred a year ago, bowing towidespread domesticand internationalpressure.

The plan, whichincludes a newinvestigations teamand the use of dronesand satellite technol-ogy, could helpPresident EnriquePena Nieto restorepublic trust in hisgovernment’s abilityto act against corrup-tion and a perceived culture of impunity.

Mexico government says that 43 stu-dents were abducted by corrupt municipalpolice, and then handed over to be massa-cred by a local drug gang that believed thestudents had links to a rival outfit in thecrime-racked, impoverished state ofGuerrero.

Forensic experts have already identifiedthe remains of one of the group from abone fragment, and have identified a pos-sible match for a second victim.

But an international team of expertsreviewing the case last month questionedthe government account of how the gangmembers incinerated the students’remains, ground up the charred bodies,and then dumped the ashes in a river,arguing its investigation was sloppy andfull of holes. (RTRS)

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Mexican man gets 27 yrs: A federaljudge has sentenced a Mexican man to 27years in prison for his role in the killing ofUS Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in a2010 shootout with a gang that hadcrossed the border illegally to rob drugsmugglers.

Rosario Burboa-Alvarez pleaded guiltyin August to first-degree murder in theslaying, in which weapons left at thescene were traced to the US government’sfailed “Fast and Furious” gun-runninginvestigation. He was sentenced onMonday.

Burboa-Alvarez admitted hiring sixmen to enter the United States to retrievehidden weapons from a cache near theborder, then rob marijuana smugglers,according to court documents. Instead,they ended up in a gunbattle with US bor-der agents.

“Agent Terry’s murder was a tragicallyforeseeable consequence of Defendant’srecruitment of a ‘rip crew’ to engage inarmed robberies,” prosecutors said in asentencing memorandum. (RTRS)

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Artist E1 Sexto freed: Cuba onTuesday released a graffiti artist whomAmnesty International had considered aprisoner of conscience and Cuban dissi-dents had celebrated as a touchstone caseas he was jailed over a satire of Fidel andRaul Castro.

Danilo Maldonado, 32, best known as“El Sexto” (The Sixth), was held for 10months for “disrespect of the leaders ofthe revolution” for painting “Fidel” and“Raul” on the backs of a pair of animalsin apparent reference to former leaderFidel Castro and his brother and currentpresident, Raul Castro, AmnestyInternational said.

Amnesty in September declaredMaldonado the country’s only prisoner ofconscience but said it was consideringother cases.

Government officials “don’t have asense of humor,” Maldonado toldreporters after his release. “The crazything is, the show didn’t even happen andlook at the repercussion it had.” (RTRS)

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Colombians killed in 1985 ID’d:The remains of three Colombian womenthat vanished in fighting when leftistrebels briefly captured the Justice Palacein 1985 have been identified, the attorneygeneral’s office said Tuesday.

The victims — Cristina del PilarGuarin Cortes, Lucy Amparo Oviedo andLuz Mary Portela Leon — were among 11people who vanished when M-19 guerril-las captured the building on Nov 6-7,1985.

In the dramatic attack a small group ofguerrillas held hundreds of lawyers,judges, and Supreme Court justiceshostage and demanded that the presidentbe put on trial.

The government refused to bargain andsoldiers surrounded the building. Theyeventually stormed the site with armoredvehicles, and some 100 people died in theensuring battle, including 11 magistrates.

The building was gutted by fire andpiles of court documents went up inflames.

The incident to this day remains highlycontroversial.

Of the three victims, two worked in thebuilding cafeteria while the third was afrequent visitor.

The remains of two of the women werefound in common graves at two Bogotacemetaries, while Amparo Oviedo’sremains were found in “two boxes held atthe attorney general’s office.” (AFP)

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‘State of emergency extended’:Venezuela extended a state of emergencyin parts of its border with Colombia foranother 60 days on Tuesday, saying therestrictions on civil liberties were neededto combat smuggling and crime.

The measure prolongs the govern-ment’s authority to search homes and taptelephones without warrants; it also limitsthe right to assembly and bans firearms.

President Nicolas Maduro has imposedthe state of emergency in three borderstates since Aug 21 in a crackdown thatled to mass expulsions of Colombian resi-dents and sent thousands more fleeing thecountry.

The crackdown has come as the coun-try heads into legislative elections Dec 6amid a severe economic crisis and publicdisenchantment that have sent Maduro’sapproval ratings to 20 percent.

The extension decreed on Tuesdayinvolves six municipalities in the westernborder state of Tachira, which also hasbeen a focus of anti-government protests.(AFP)

Nieto

‘Explosive was underpresident’s usual seat’MALE, Maldives, Oct 21, (AP):An explosion on the Maldives’presidential speedboat last monthwas caused by a device placedunder the seat usually occupied bythe president, who escaped unhurtbecause he wasn’t sitting there, thegovernment said Tuesday.

Home Minister Umar Nazeertold reporters in the capital, Male,that a formal criminal investigationhas been launched based on thatfinding.

Nazeer said President YameenAbdul Gayoom’s usual seat wasunoccupied at the time of theSept 28 explosion, which injuredhis wife, an aide and a body-guard.

“Fortunately the president hadshifted and was seated next to thefirst lady,” Nazeer said.