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Erdogan in China amid tension over treatment of Uighurs

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Turkey president to meet Chinese counterpart in bid to improve souring ties over Beijing’s treatment of Uighur minority.

NATO countries are concerned over Turkey's move to secure an air defence system deal with China [Getty Images]

NATO countries are concerned over Turkey’s move to secure an air defence system deal with China [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Beijing to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart and other senior officials amid increased tensions between the two countries over China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority.

Erdogan, who is due to meet Xi Jinping later on Wednesday, has repeatedly accused China of systematic oppression against the Uighurs, who share close linguistic, cultural and religious ties with Turks.

The president has previously accused Beijing of “genocide” in the region, and the gap between Chinese and Turkish views of the Uighurs are likely to complicate the upcoming discussions on improving relations.

The two sides engaged in a row this year over Uighurs who fled China to seek refuge in Thailand, with Turkey offering them shelter against Beijing’s wishes.

Bangkok said this month that it had deported about 100 Uighurs back to China, after sending more than 170 Uighur women and children to Turkey in late June.

China’s state-run China Daily said in a Wednesday editorial that the “Uighur issue … if left unattended, may poison ties and derail cooperation”.

The newspaper suggested that Beijing would pressure Erdogan to stop Turkish officials issuing Uighurs who “illicitly left China” with travel documents.

As tensions over the refugees mounted this month, activists stormed the Thai consulate in Istanbul and burned the Chinese flag outside Beijing’s consulate in the city. China “strongly condemned” the acts.

Missile deal

Turkey entered discussions in 2013 with a Chinese state-run company over an anti-missile system contract worth $3.4bn, raising eyebrows among other NATO members.

A final deal has been elusive, with Erdogan noting “impediments” have emerged after an initial Chinese proposal, but he said the issue will be on the agenda in Beijing.

“Any offer that will enrich this appropriate proposal will be welcomed by us,” he told China’s official news agency Xinhua in an interview published on Tuesday.

“I believe this visit will give more momentum to bilateral relations.”

Boosting Turkish exports to China is also likely to be high on Erdogan’s agenda, with Ankara running a large trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy, according to official Chinese statistics.

 

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq, two sons killed in Muzaffargarh ‘encounter’

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Malik Ishaq

by Imran Gabol, Dawn

Lahore: Malik Ishaq, chief of banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, his two sons Usman and Haq Nawaz, and 11 others were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police personnel late on Tuesday night.

At least six policemen were injured in the alleged encounter.

Ishaq and his sons were arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department a week ago. Following their latest arrest, the police had interrogated them and had subsequently taken them to Shahwala in Punjab’s Muzaffargarh district to aid the police in recovering weapons and explosives, sources in the CTD said.

The encounter appears to have taken place as militants attacked security forces and tried to free Ishaq who was killed in the ensuing exchange of fire, security sources say.

A spokesman for CTD Multan said Ishaq, his two sons, one Ghulam Rasool Shah and two other accused, all from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, were taken to Muzaffargarh by the counter-terrorism department to aid in the recovery of arms and explosives.

The spokesman said that when the police party was returning after making the recovery, it was attacked by some 12 to 15 gunmen who succeeded in freeing Ishaq, his sons and the other accused and fleeing away on motorcycles.

The militants were met with by SHO CTD police station who had quickly been informed about the attack on the police party and was travelling on the route that the militants had taken, the spokesman said, adding that that’s how the encounter ensued.

The SHO challenged the militants, resulting in the encounter in which six police personnel sustained injuries, the spokesman said. They were shifted to the district headquarters hospital.

The spokesman added that 14 militants, including Malik Ishaq and Ghulam Rasool Shah, were killed by the attackers themselves.

A large amount of weapons and ammunition was recovered from the attacking men and an investigation has been initiated into the events.

All bodies have been shifted to DHQ Muzaffargarh. The bodies of Ishaq and his sons will undergo a postmortem before being taken to Rahim Yar Khan, where he was based.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is regarded as the most extreme Sunni terror group in Pakistan and is accused of killing hundreds of Shias after its emergence in the early 1990s. The organisation is also said to have links with Al Qaeda.

The organisation was banned more than a decade ago by former president Pervez Musharraf.

Ishaq, who is a leader of the feared organisation, has been implicated in dozens of cases, mostly murder.

He was arrested in 1997 and is implicated in dozens of cases. He was released on bail in July 2011 after serving a jail term of nearly 14 years.

 

Since his 2011 release he has been frequently put under house arrest as his sermons raised sectarian tensions. He was also arrested in 2013 over deadly sectarian attacks targeting the Hazara Shia community in Quetta. The first attack took place on Jan 10, 2013 targeting a Hazara snooker hall and killing 92 people and the second bomb attack occurred on Feb 16, killing 89 people. The attacks were claimed by Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

Ishaq was also accused of masterminding, from behind bars, the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, which wounded seven players and an assistant coach, and killed eight Pakistanis.

The attacks saw Pakistan stripped of its right to co-host the 2011 cricket World Cup and jeopardised the future of international cricket in the country.

BCCI refuses to revoke ban on cricketers

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bcci

New Delhi: The BCCI Wednesday made it very clear that it was not having second thoughts on revoking the ban on former India pacer S Sreesanth and spinner Ankeet Chavan in the wake of a Delhi Court dropping all charges against them in the IPL 2013 spot-fixing case.

All the 36 accused persons including Sreesanth, Chavan and Ajit Chandila were discharged in the IPL-6 spot fixing case by Patiala House Court last week but the Indian board had refused to lift their ongoing ban.

The Kerala Cricket Association had made a plea to the BCCI for allowing Sreesanth to play again but Thakur said there will be no rethink on the life ban of the two cricketers.

“The earlier decision of BCCI’s disclipinary commitee ban on this case will stay on,” Thakur told reporters.

“Disciplinary proceedings are different, criminal proceedings are different. The action taken in the past were based on the disciplinary action for the indiscipline of these players, reports submmitted by the the anti-corruption unit. So the same decision of ban will continue on these players,” he added.

All the three accused cricketers had to spend time in jail during the course of investigation. Of the three, Sreesanth and Chavan are currently serving life bans imposed by the BCCI after the scandal shook the high-profile league, while Chandila’s hearing is still on.

Anshu Gupta, Sanjiv Chaturvedi win Magsaysay Awards

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Anshu Gupta Sanjiv Chaturvedi

New Delhi: Social worker Anshu Gupta and former AIIMS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi on Wednesday won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay awards for “enterprising leadership” and for exposing corruption.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said Gupta was being recognized for “his creative vision in transforming the culture of giving in India, his enterprising leadership in treating cloth as a sustainable development resource for the poor”.

The award citation also credited Gupta with “reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity”.

The foundation said Chaturvedi was being recognized for “his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly investigating corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting programmes and system improvements to ensure that government honourably serves the people of India”.

Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honour and is widely regarded as the region’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Gupta heads the NGO Goonj, which believes in reusing clothes and other material to turn into a valuable resource, to create “a parallel economy which is not cash-based but trash-based”.

An elated Gupta told IANS: “I am certainly very happy to receive this award… Our work has been recognized.”

Chaturvedi said he would make a statement later in the day.

Other winners announced on Wednesday are Kommaly Chanthavong (Laos),
Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa (The Philippines) and Kyaw Thu (Myanmar).

The Magsaysay awards celebrate the memory and leadership example of the third Philippine president after whom the award is named.

It is given every year to individuals or organisations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service and transformative influence that ruled the life of the late Filipino leader.

The five 2015 Magsaysay awardees join the community of 307 other Magsaysay laureates who have received the honour to date.

(IANS)

Supreme Court upholds death warranty against Yakub Memon

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Yakub Memon's photograph on his IGNOU records.

Yakub Memon’s photograph on his IGNOU records.

Mumbai: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court has upheld the death warrant issued against 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon saying there was no lapse in the earlier dismissal of his curative petition.

Following the Supreme Court verdict, the Maharashtra Governor reportedly dismissed Memon’s mercy plea.

A mercy petition that lies with the President Pranab Mukherjee is the only hope Yakub Memon, who faces gallows tomorrow, is left with.

The bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, before rising for lunch recess, said it will pronounce the order today itself, if the counsel for the parties “cooperate”. The arguments will continue after the lunch break.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachndran, appearing for Memon, initiated arguments by referring to the separate, divergent orders passed by Justice A R Dave and Justice Kurian Joseph yesterday and said that the procedures established by the law have not been followed while deciding the curative petition of the convict.

Ramachandran said, “The judges, who were part of judicial process earlier, must be party to curative petition. It cannot be decided by judges who are strangers to the matters.”

He further said that besides the three senior most judges, the curative petition should have been circulated to the judges, if available, who had decided the criminal appeal and the review petition.

Senior advocates T R Andhyarujina and Anand Grover both supported the contention of Ramachandran and said that this death warrant is illegal and can not be executed tomorrow.

A three-judge bench headed by CJI had on July 21 rejected Memon’s plea, contending that the grounds raised by him for relief did not fall within principles laid down by the apex court in 2002 in deciding curative petitions.

Memon, in his plea, had claimed he was suffering from schizophrenia since 1996 and has remained behind bars for nearly 20 years, much more than a person serving life term has to spend in jail.

He had sought commutation of death penalty, contending that a convict cannot be awarded life term and the death sentence for the same offence.

The apex court had on June 2, 2014 stayed the execution of Memon and referred his plea to a Constitution Bench as to whether review petitions in death penalty cases be heard in an open court or in chambers.

The apex court had on April 9 this year dismissed Memon’s petition seeking review of his death sentence which was upheld on March 21, 2013.

Memon’s review petition was heard by a three-judge bench in an open court in pursuance of the Constitution Bench verdict that the practice of deciding review pleas in chambers be done away with, in cases where death penalty has been awarded.

12 coordinated blasts had rocked Bombay, as the city was then known, on March 12, 1993, leaving 257 dead and over 700 injured.

(Agencies)

Modi saved Kodnani, Bajrangi from the noose, Asaduddin Owaisi says

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Asaduddin Owaisi

Hyderabad: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the then Narendra Modi government in Gujarat had asked the prosecution not to press for death sentence of former minister Mayaben Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, convicted in 2002 post-Godhra riot case.

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP questioned whether those responsible for killing people during riots should get death penalty.

“Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi were convicted by a court which sentenced them to life imprisonment in connection with the killing of 92 persons. The prosecution wanted capital punishment. But Modi, who was then Gujarat chief minister, asked prosecution not to appeal against the ruling (in HC) and let the punishment be life sentence,” the All-India Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader alleged.

“Shouldn’t those who killed 92 persons get death sentence?” Owaisi asked.

He was addressing a public meeting here Saturday night on the occasion of 7th death anniversary of Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, former president of AIMIM.

During his speech, Asaduddin, who had recently suggested that 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon was awarded capital punishment because of his religion, read out a media report against the death penalty.

“Is it not true that Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had met then President Pratibha Patil with a mercy petition seeking clemency for Rajoana (assassin of former Punjab CM Beant Singh)?” he said.

Asaduddin challenged the BJP, which shares power in Punjab with Shiromani Akali Dal, to hang the killers of Beant Singh.

The AIMIM leader said Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 but that case is still dragging on.

(PTI)

Powerful earthquake hits Indonesia’s Papua

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Magnitude 7.0 quake strikes west of provincial capital Jayapura.

earthquake Papua

by Al Jazeera

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake has hit Indonesia’s Papua region, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake struck at 6.41am on Monday, almost 250km west of the provincial capital Jayapura.

No tsunami warning was issued after the quake, which struck inland, and Indonesia’s national disaster agency said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

“The quake was felt very strongly for four seconds,” disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told the AFP news agency.

“Residents panicked and rushed out of their homes.”

Nugroho said there were no initial reports of damage but added the region around the epicentre, in Indonesia’s remote east, was difficult to reach, and data was still being collected.

The Earthquake-Report monitoring website said the area has “steep mountain ranges and its vegetation is rainforest, which means that the chance of dangerous landslides is real”.

Weak shaking was reportedly felt in Jayapura for a few seconds.

Both Indonesian authorities and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of any tsunami waves from the quake, which occurred beneath a jungle.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam sentenced to death

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Son of slain Libyan leader sentenced in absentia to die by firing squad along with other members of former regime.

Saif al-Islam had appeared by video link in sessions at the start of the trial [EPA]

Saif al-Islam had appeared by video link in sessions at the start of the trial [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Saif al-Islam, the most prominent son of Libya’s slain leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by firing squad.

He was sentenced in absentia on Tuesday in Tripoli along with eight other senior members of the former regime, which was overthrown in 2011.

They were accused of war crimes and suppressing peaceful protests during the revolution, a state prosecutor said in early June.

The trial had started in April 2014 before fighting between rival factions resulted in a power struggle with two governments competing for authority – one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other one in Tobruk in the east.

Saif al-Islam has been held since 2011 by a former rebel group in Zintan that opposes the Tripoli government.

Abdullah Senussi, the former intelligence chief, was among the former regime officials sentenced, as well as former prime minister Baghdadi Ali Mahmudi.

Salah al-Bakkoush, a Tripoli-based political analyst, said he did not expect the rulings to have strong resonance in Libya.

“Libyans in general have so many problems right now that many were not even following the trial,” he told Al Jazeera. “Those who participated in the struggle against the regime of Gaddafi will be following and will be happy.”

The International Criminal Court and other human rights organisations worry about the fairness of Libya’s justice system although the North African country won the right in 2013 to try Gaddafi’s former spy chief at home instead of at the ICC in The Hague.

Saif al-Islam’s appearances before the court have been by video link and there have been none since May last year.

The Zintanis have refused to hand him over, saying they do not trust Tripoli to ensure he would not escape, but had agreed before the trial to have him tried in a court there.

Anas El-Gomati, a political analyst and director of Tripoli-based Sadeq Institute, said the trail had been “anything but legal and fair”.

“I don’t think the Zintanis will give him up,” he told Al Jazeera. “They will not look for any solution going forward. These are two [administrations] who oppose each other and show no signs of trying to work together.”

Gaddafi was killed in October 2011 after being captured by rebels during Libya’s war. He had ruled Libya for four decades.

SC bench split over Yakub Memon’s plea, refers it to CJI

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Yakub Memon's photograph on his IGNOU records

Yakub Memon’s photograph on his IGNOU records

New Delhi: A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court today delivered a split verdict on a plea by Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, the lone death convict in 1993 Mumbai blasts case, seeking stay of his scheduled execution on July 30 and referred the matter to the Chief Justice to take call on it.

While Justice A R Dave dismissed his plea, Justice Kurian Joseph stayed the death warrant issued on April 30 for his execution on July 30.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and other senior advocates, including Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Memon, said that since the two judges have differed on staying the death warrant, “there will be no order in law if one judge has stayed it and the other has not”.

The bench referred the matter to Chief Justice of India H L Dattu to take an urgent call at 4 PM in view of the divergence of opinion on the issue of death warrant.

The bench also requested the Chief Justice to constitute an appropriate bench and list the matter for hearing tomorrow.

Justice Dave dismissed the petition filed by Memon and said it will be open for the Maharashtra Governor to dispose of his mercy plea before the scheduled date of execution of death warrant.

While rejecting the petition in which Memon has contended that the correct procedure was not adopted in deciding his curative petition on July 21, Justice Dave disagreed with Justice Kurian on the issue of staying death warrant issued by the TADA court in Mumbai on April 30.

“Sorry, I will not like to be part of staying the death warant. Let CJI decide,” Justice Dave said and quoted a couplet from Manu Smriti relevant to the issue.

Justice Kurian said he is expressing his inability to agree with Justice Dave as there is a “procedural violation” in deciding the curative petition filed by Memon.

Justice Kurian said once it is found that the procedure established under law is not followed while dealing with the curative petition, that too when the life of a person is concerned, and there is error apparent on the face that the mandatory process has not been followed, then such defects need to be cured.

While holding that Memon’s curative petition is required to be heard afresh, Justice Kurian referred to the order dismissing his curative petition, saying, “The curative petition itself was not decided in accordance with the rules laid down by this court. That defect needs to be cured otherwise there will be a clear violation of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.”

Justice Kurian said the technicalities involved in dealing with the matter should not stand in the way of justice being done to a person as this court under the Constitution is for the protection of life of a person.

He said, “The technicalities should not stand in the way as the law is for common man and also law is not helpless and this court should not be rendered powerless.”

He noted that Article 21 deals with the right to life of a person and same shall be deprived only in accordance with the procedure adopted by law.

“It has been noticed that the procedure by law was not followed in this case while depriving the right to life of a person,” he said.

(Agencies)

Muslim organisations in Karnataka appeal for cancelling death punishment to Yakub Memon

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(L-R) Umar Shariff (DIET), Mr. Mahir (MPJR), Syed Mohammed Iqbal (KMMM), Syed Shafiullah (JDS), Mr. Khalid (MPJR)

(L-R) Umar Shariff (DIET), Mr. Mahir (MPJR), Syed Mohammed Iqbal (KMMM), Syed Shafiullah (JDS), Mr. Khalid (MPJR)

Bengaluru: A collective of Karnataka-based Muslim organisations including, Mission Possible for Justice & Rights (MPJR), Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Mahaz (KMMM), Discover Islam Education Trust (DIET), All India Dawah Centres Association (AIDCA) and Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Tehreek (KMMT) today urged the Centre not to hang 1993 Mumbai blast death row convict Yakub Memon.

Addressing the press here, Mr. Umar Shariff, president of DIET said that, “Yakub Memon has already spent around 22 years behind the bars for the role which has not even been clearly or convincingly established. He or his family should not be punished for the alleged crimes of his brother”.

Referring to the view of the late head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) B Raman, who had favoured clemency for Yakub Memon on the ground that he had cooperated with investigating agencies and does not deserve to be hanged, Syed Shafiullah of Janatal Dal (Secular) urged the government to commute the death penalty to life sentence, for if carried out, it would not serve the interests of justice.

He also presented former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Markandey Katju, who last week said that the evidence on which Memon has been found guilty is “very weak”, and there has been “gross travesty of justice” in the case.

Syed Mohammed Iqbal, general secretary of the Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Mahaz, questioned what he termed as ‘double standard’ practiced in the decision to hang Menon.

“Justice B N Srikrishna’s report, submitted in 1998, had named Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray as the man who directed the violence in the January 1993 phase of the riots, which claimed the lives of over 900 innocent people, yet he was given a state funeral. He pointed out that those scheduled to hang for two other crimes, the assassinations of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, have not yet been hanged. All we are asking is to give Memon the same clemency that these people have been granted.”

The organisation stated that there many in the country, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI, MDMK and others, who feel feel that Yaqub Memon should not be hanged.

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