Archives for October 2022

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh leg of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra concluded on Friday as he once again crossed into neighbouring Karnataka.

After an overnight stay, Rahul Gandhi resumed his foot march at Mantralayam on Friday morning.

He crossed the AP border at Raichur and returned to Karnataka.

The Wayanad MP’s yatra passed through Anantapuramu and Kurnool districts in two legs, the first one for a few hours on October 14 and the next for four days from the October 18.

Huge crowds enthusiastically lined up to greet the Congress leader.

Rahul Gandhi himself observed that the Yatra drew “tremendous response” in AP, and pointed out that his party leaders were also “quite surprised at the enthusiasm and response that we have had.”

He saw the Bharat Jodo Yatra as “a very good starting point” to build the Congress in the state.

Post the bifurcation of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh for the creation of a new Telangana state, the Congress has lost its moorings in AP. But, during the course of his yatra, Rahul Gandhi observed that there was a huge distress among farmers, labourers and poor people in AP that gave the Congress a lot of room to grow.

Pune: Chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Soumya Swaminathan, on Thursday said some countries may see “another wave of infections” with the XBB subvariant of Omicron, a variant of COVID-19 virus.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) here, she clarified that as of now, there was no data from any country to suggest that these new variants are clinically more severe.

“There are over 300 subvariants of Omicron. I think the one that is concerning right now is XBB, which is a recombinant virus. We had seen some recombinant viruses earlier. It is very immune-evasive, which means it can overcome the antibodies. So slightly that we may see another wave of infections in some countries because of XBB,” she said.

Swaminathan said they are also tracking derivatives of BA.5 and BA.1, which are also more transmissible and immune-evasive.

As the virus evolves, it is going to evolve more and more transmissible, she said.

“As of now, there is no data from any country to suggest these new subvariants are more clinically severe,” she clarified.

Suggesting the measures that need to be taken, Dr Swaminathan said monitoring and tracking are the key steps.

“We need to continue to monitor and track. We have seen that testing has gone down across countries, the genomic surveillance has also gone down over the last few months. We need to maintain at least a strategic sampling of genomic surveillance so that we can keep tracking the variants as we have been doing and studying,” she said.

According to her, the Director General of the WHO has said that COVID-19 continues to be a public health emergency of international concern.

She added that 8,000 to 9,000 deaths are being reported every week worldwide due to the infection.

“So we have not said that the pandemic is over, which means that all precautions and tools continued to be used. Good thing is that we have now many tools and the most important thing is vaccines,” Dr Swaminathan said.

“As far as vaccine coverage is concerned, our goals are 100 per cent of people over the age of 60 and 100 per cent of health care and frontline workers. Then we have a goal of achieving 70 per cent of the country, but subgroups are more important because they are most likely to face morbidity and mortality,” she said.

She said that a number of deaths from elderly groups were seen when Omicron spread as they were not fully vaccinated.

“The full vaccination schedule is actually three doses. The primary two doses plus booster in the next four to six months. But in many countries, including India, the uptake of the booster is low. So we really encourage people to take the third dose,” she said.

She advised continuing to use masks for protection from infection.

“While vaccines are still protecting us from severe disease and hospitalization, the risk of long COVID conditions seems to increase with each infection. So it is not benign. We should not be too casual by saying that it is okay to get the infection.

“Many people just think that it is just like the flu or any other respiratory infection, but more and more data is coming out on how COVID is affecting all organ systems and not just the respiratory route. It also affects the cardiovascular system and the inflammatory environment. So we have seen the risk of diabetes doubling, we have seen the risk of heart attacks…and other neurocognitive problems,” Dr Swaminathan added.

Cairo: Two Sudanese officials say that tribal clashes in the country’s southern province of Blue Nile have killed 170 people over the past two days.

The officials say the fighting erupted on Wednesday. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

The clashes are the latest in inter-communal violence across Sudan’s neglected south. Fighting in Blue Nile that erupted in July had killed 149 people by early October and last week, renewed clashes there killed 13, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

OCHA had no confirmation of the latest surge and casualties but said the violence has displaced at least 1,200 people.

Senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil on Thursday claimed that the concept of jihad was not just in Islam but also in Bhagavad Gita and in Christianity.

The BJP hit out at the Congress over Patil’s remarks and accused it of playing vote bank politics.

Speaking at the launch of Congress veteran and former Union minister Mohsina Kidwai’s biography, the former Lok Sabha Speaker and Union minister Patil stated that it is said there is a lot of discussion of jihad in the religion of Islam. The concept comes to the fore when despite having the right intentions and doing the right thing, nobody understands or reciprocates, then it is said one can use force, he said.

“It is not just in Quran, but in Mahabharata also, the part in Gita, Shri Krishna also talks of jihad to Arjun and this thing is not just in Quran or Gita but also in Christianity,” he claimed in his remarks in Hindi.

“If after explaining everything, people are not understanding, they are coming with weapons then you cannot run, you cannot call that jihad and you cannot call it wrong, this is what must be understood, there should not be this concept of making people understand with weapons in hand,” the 87-year-old leader said.

Patil further said Mohsina Kidwai’s book also talks about respecting all religions while following your own. He also said there is a need for peace in the world.

Hitting out at the Congress over Patil’s remarks, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said in a tweet, “After AAP’s Gopal Italia & Rajendra Pal, not to be outdone in Hindu hatred & votebank politics, Congress’ Shivraj Patil says Shri Krishna taught ‘Jihad’ to Arjun!

“Congress coined Hindu/Saffron terror, opposed Ram Mandir,Questioned Ram JI’s existence, said Hindutva=ISIS,” Poonawalla tweeted.

In his speech, Patil also said he voted for Mallikarjun Kharge in the Congress presidential polls. He, however, mistakenly referred to Kharge as Khandelwal a couple of times in the speech.

Patil spoke at length and talked about disparate topics in his address.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has arrested four activists of the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) from Panvel in neighbouring Raigad district, an official said on Thursday.

Those arrested include a local member of the banned outfit’s state expansion committee, a local unit secretary and two other workers, he said.

The ATS had specific information about a meeting of two functionaries of the PFI and few workers in Panvel, even as the organisation has been banned by the Government of India, the official said.

Accordingly, an ATS team conducted a search in Panvel, located about 50 km from Mumbai, and apprehended the four PFI activists, he said.

After questioning, all the four were placed under arrest in a case registered at the Kalachowki unit of the ATS in Mumbai under section 10 of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the official said.

Further probe into the case is on, he added.

The government had last month banned the PFI and several of its associates for five years, accusing them of having “links” with global terror groups like ISIS.

More than 250 people allegedly linked with the PFI were detained or arrested in raids across multiple states last month.

New Delhi: Newly elected Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will take over his new assignment at a function at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters on October 26.

The certificate of his election to the post will also be presented to him at the function on the day and he will assume his new role from then on.

The Congress on Wednesday elected ‘loyalist’ Mallikarjun Kharge as its new president, the first non-Gandhi to head the 137-year-old party in 24 years and succeed long-time chief Sonia Gandhi.

The 80-year-old Kharge trounced his 66-year-old rival, Shashi Tharoor bagging over 84 per cent of the votes in the presidential election. Kharge polled 7,897 Pradesh Congress Committee delegate votes out of 9,385, while Tharoor bagged 1072.

“Function for the presentation of the certificate of election to the newly elected Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge will be held on Wednesday the 26th October 2022, at 10.30 am at AICC Headquarters, 24 Akbar Road, New Delhi,” AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said on Twitter.

Kharge was the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, a post from which he resigned soon after filing his nomination for the top post in the Congress. He was earlier the Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha. He has been a Union minister for almost a decade.

Though Kharge has been a nine-time legislator in Karnataka, he could not become the chief minister of the state.

He hails from a humble Dalit family and has reached the top position in the party from the grassroot level.

UNITED NATIONS: China on Wednesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to blacklist Pakistan-based militant Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, in the second such move within two days.

Hafiz Talha Saeed, 46, is a key leader of the dreaded terrorist group LeT and the son of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

In April this year, he had been declared a terrorist by the Indian government.

It is learnt that China placed a hold on the proposal to add Hafiz Talah Saeed under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

It is the second time in less than two days that Beijing put a hold on the bid submitted by India and the US to designate a Pakistan-based terrorist as a global terrorist.

In a notification, India’s Home Ministry had said that Hafiz Talha Saeed has been actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, and planning and executing attacks by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan.

He has also been actively visiting various LeT centres across Pakistan, and during his sermons propagating for jihad against India, Israel, the United States of America and Indian interests in other western countries, it had stated.

Hafiz Talha Saeed is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the terrorist organisation.

China on Tuesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to list Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist.

Beijing placed a hold on the proposal by India and the US to designate Mahmood, 42, as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

The US Department of Treasury had designated Mahmood as well as another LeT leader Muhammad Sarwar in December 2016 as part of the action ‘to disrupt LeT’s fundraising and support networks.’

According to information on the US Department of the Treasury’s website, Mahmood has been a longstanding senior LeT member based in Karachi, Pakistan, and has been affiliated with the group since at least 2007.

As early as June 2015 through at least June 2016, Mahmood served as the vice chairman of Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a humanitarian and fundraising arm of LeT.

In 2014, Mahmood was the leader of FIF in Karachi. In August 2013, Mahmood was identified as a LeT publications wing member, the website said.

“Mahmood was previously part of LeT’s overseas operations team led by Sajjid Mir. Additionally, in August 2013, Mahmood was instructed to forge covert links with Islamic organizations in Bangladesh and Burma, and as of late 2011, Mahmood claimed that LeT’s primary concern should be attacking India and America,” the US Department of Treasury said.

This is the fifth time in four months that China has put a hold on listing proposals to designate Pakistan-based terrorists under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime.

In June this year, China put a hold, at the last moment, on a joint proposal by India and the US to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the 1267 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

Makki is a US-designated terrorist and brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed.

New Delhi and Washington had put in a joint proposal to designate Makki as a global terrorist under the 1267 ISIL and Al Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council but Beijing placed a hold on this proposal at the last minute.

Then in August, China again put a hold on a proposal by the US and India to blacklist Abdul Rauf Azhar, the senior leader of Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM).

Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, had been sanctioned by the US in December 2010.

The US Department of Treasury had in December 2010 designated Abdul Rauf Azhar for acting for or on behalf of JEM.

The US said as a senior leader of JeM, Abdul Rauf Azhar has urged Pakistanis to engage in militant activities.

He has served as JEM’s acting leader in 2007, as one of JEM’s most senior commanders in India, and as JEM’s intelligence coordinator.

In 2008 Azhar was assigned to organise suicide attacks in India.

He was also involved with JEM’s political wing and has served as a JEM official involved with training camps.

In September, Beijing put a hold on a proposal moved at the United Nations by the US and co-supported by India to designate Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir, wanted for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, as a global terrorist.

Mir is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of USD5 million placed on his head by the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

In June this year, he was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan, which is struggling to exit the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Pakistani authorities had in the past claimed Mir had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death.

This issue became a major sticking point in FATF’s assessment of Pakistan’s progress on the action plan late last year.

Mir is a senior member of the Pakistan-based LeT and is wanted for his involvement in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

“Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a leading role in their planning, preparation, and execution,” the US State Department has said.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session in September had said that “The United Nations responds to terrorism by sanctioning its perpetrators”.

“Those who politicise the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes even to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril.

Believe me, they advance neither their own interests nor indeed their reputation,” he had said.

Amid repeated holds on proposals to designate terrorists under the UN sanctions regime, Jaishankar had told reporters here last month that terrorism should not be used as a political tool and the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason challenges common sense.

“We do believe that in any process, if any party is taking a decision, they need to be transparent about it. So the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason, it sort of challenges common sense,” Jaishankar had said in New York in response to a question by PTI on the issue of repeated holds and blocks on proposals to list terrorists under the UN sanctions regime.

Earlier also, China, an all-weather friend of Islamabad, has placed holds and blocks on bids by India and its allies to list Pakistan-based terrorists.

In May 2019, India won a huge diplomatic win at the UN when the global body designated Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”, a decade after New Delhi had first approached the world body on the issue.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, China was the sole hold-out in the 15-nation body on the bid to blacklist Azhar, blocking attempts by placing a “technical hold”.