The body of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was likely burned in a large oven at the Saudi consulate general’s residence in Istanbul, an Al Jazeera investigation revealed.

New details of the writer’s murder by a Saudi assassination team were reported in a documentary by media that aired on Sunday night.

Turkish authorities monitored the burning of the outdoor furnace as bags believed to be carrying Khashoggi’s body parts were transferred to the Saudi consul’s house after he was killed inside the consulate a few hundred metres away.

Media interviewed a worker who constructed the furnace who stated it was built according to specifications from the Saudi consul. It had to be deep and withstand temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius – hot enough to melt metal.

Bags of meat were also cooked in the oven after the killing in order to cover up the cremation of the Saudi writer’s body, authorities reported. 

Turkish investigators also found traces of Khashoggi’s blood on the walls of the Saudi consul’s office after removing paint that the assassination team applied after killing the Washington Post columnist on October 2, 2018.

The documentary was based on interviews with security officials, politicians, and some of Khashoggi’s Turkish friends.

‘Rogue elements’

A critic of Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Khashoggi entered the consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork so he could marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.

Riyadh initially insisted Khashoggi had left the consulate alive before changing its account and admitting the journalist was killed in an operation it said was undertaken by “rogue elements”.

A CIA report said MBS likely ordered Khashoggi’s killing – an allegation Saudi Arabia denies.

Eleven suspects have been indicted for Khashoggi’s murder in Saudi Arabia, which has insisted it would handle the case and refused their extradition to Turkey.

United Nation’s special rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who is leading an international inquiry into the murder, called it “a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the state of Saudi Arabia”.

The international investigation started in late January and an official report is due in June.

Aljazeera

Foreign minister accuses Myanmar of ‘hollow promises’ over 700,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.7 hours ago

Bangladesh has told the United Nations Security Council it cannot take any more refugees from Myanmar, some 18 months after more than 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border amid a brutal military crackdown.

Attacks on security posts by Rohingya fighters in Myanmar’s Rakhine state triggered the violence that the UN, the United States, Britain and others describe as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies the accusations.

“I regret to inform the council that Bangladeshwould no longer be in a position to accommodate more people from Myanmar,” Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told the UN on Thursday.

Haque accused Myanmar of “hollow promises and various obstructionist approaches” during negotiations on returns.

“Not a single Rohingya has volunteered to return to Rakhine due to the absence of [a] conducive environment there,” Haque said.

Myanmar says it has been ready to accept returning refugees since January, but the Rohingya say they want guarantees over their safety and to be recognised as citizens before they go back to Rakhine.

The UN says conditions are not yet right for their return. The Western powers on the council on Thursday lamented the lack of action from Myanmar’s government.

‘Very disappointed’

“We’re very disappointed … that there hasn’t been more progress on getting the refugees back and that obviously includes creating the conditions where the refugees feel able to go back,” Karen Pierce, Britain’s UN Ambassador, told the council.

Several council members stressed the return of refugees needed to be safe, voluntary, dignified and secure, and pushed for the Myanmar government to allow the UN widespread and unconditional access to Rakhine.

UN envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner-Burgener told the council that the UN access was currently “insufficient”.

“The scale of what has been done to the Rohingya Muslims and the allegations of crimes against humanity really mark this out as one of the most terrible events of this century so far,” she said.

The 15-member UNSC has been split over how to deal with the crisis, with Western powers pitted against Russia and China, an ally of Myanmar.

China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Wu Haitao said it was mainly an issue between Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh “and as such it is up to the two countries to work out a solution”.

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy agreed.

In December, Britain circulated a draft resolution to council members that diplomats said aims to put a timeline on Myanmar allowing the return of refugees and addressing accountability, but China and Russia have boycotted talks on the draft.

Deputy US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen said: “The international community cannot ignore the world’s largest refugee camp.”

Aljazeera

Nasheman News :  Pakistan former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court against a decision by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejecting him bail in a corruption case.

Sharif was on December 24 sentenced to seven years in prison by an anti-corruption court in Al-Azizia Steel Mills case for owning a steel factory abroad without disclosing its ownership. 

On February 25, the IHC dismissed the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader’s plea seeking bail and suspension of his sentence on medical grounds. 

A petition filed by Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris on Friday sought that the IHC decision be declared null and void.

The anti-corruption court judge had last year imposed hefty fines on Sharif after ruling that Al-Azizia Steel Mills — a Saudi Arabian firm carrying the name of his son — belonged to the three-time Premier and that he was unable to demonstrate how the project was funded.

Nasheman News : The US is offering a $1 million reward for information on the whereabouts of Hamza bin Laden, the son of slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who is emerging as a leader in the terror group’s network, the State Department has announced.

The reward was announced by Sales and State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Michael T. Evanoff on Thursday.

“He has released audio and video messages on the Internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the US and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the US in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by US military forces,” CNN quoted the Department as saying on Thursday.

It said that when Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, items seized from his hiding place indicated that he was grooming Hamza bin Laden to replace him as the leader of Al Qaeda.

Hamza bin Laden is married to the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, the State Department said.

As American officials hunt him down, UN member states are required to freeze Hamza bin Laden’s assets and comply with a travel ban and arms embargo, according to the State Department bureau of counter-terrorism.

US officials estimate Hamza bin Laden is aged between 30 and 33 years.

NashemanNews : Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has postponed his trip to Japan due to the “sensitive situation in the region” following the February 14 attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF troopers, his office announced on Monday.

According to a Foreign Office statement, Qureshi in a telephone call with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on Saturday explained that it was “imperative” that he remains in Pakistan due to the “extremely grave” situation which emerged in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, reports Dawn news.

The Pulwama attack has been claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit.

The Minister told Kono that he wrote to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to help stabilise the security situation.

He also requested his Japanese counterpart to brief Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the situation due to which the tour had to be postponed, the statement said.

Meanwhile, both foreign ministers have agreed to set a new date for Qureshi’s tour, it added.

Nasheman News : India and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday strongly condemned the terror attack on Indian forces in Pulwama, called upon countries to renounce use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy and underlined the importance of comprehensive sanctioning of terrorists and their organisations by the United Nations.

The remarks on the UN sanctions regime during discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman comes two days after the joint statement issued during visit of the Saudi Arabian leader to Pakistan which had “underlined the need for avoiding politicisation of UN listing regime”.

Briefing the media following delegation-level talks between Modi and Salman here, Secretary (Economic Relations) T.S. Tirumurti said they expressed strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

India is keen to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations. JeM has cliamed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel. 

Asked how the remarks of the two leaders squared up with Saudi-Pakistan joint statement, Tirumurti said he did now want to comment on it, but “if you are really looking at politicisation, you know who is politicising it”. 

Tirumurti said the two leaders called on all states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terrorist infrastructure, cut off any kind of support and financing to terrorists from all territories against other states and bring the perpetrators of terrorism to justice.

“The two leaders condemned in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attack on Indian forces in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. Both leaders called upon all countries to renounce use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. They called on states to deny access to weapons to commit terrorist acts against other countries. 

“Both leaders underlined the importance of comprehensive sanctioning of terrorists and their organisations by the United Nations. They called for concerted action by the international community against terrorism and early adoption of the UN comprehensive convention on international terrorism,” he said. 

Answering a query, he said the complicity of Pakistan in Pulwama attack was very much underlined. 

The official also said both sides agreed to set up a Strategic Partnership Council and Saudi Arabia will invest $ 100 billion in India in a range of areas. He said the two leaders agreed to constitute a comprehensive security dialogue at the level of NSAs. 

He said that Prince Mohammed appreciated “consistent efforts” by Modi since May 2014 including Prime Minister’s personal initiatives to have friendly relations with Pakistan”. 

“In this context both sides agreed on the creation of conditions necessary for resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan,” he said.

He also said that no mediation was offered by the Saudi authorities.

Tirumurti said that the Crown Prince highlighted extremism and terrorism as matters of common concern and expressed his determination to cooperate with India to fight this menace particularly through strong intelligence partnership.

“To enhance cooperation in counter-terrorism efforts and benefit mutually in real-time intelligence sharing, the two leaders agreed to constitute a comprehensive security dialogue at the level of National Security Advisors and set up a joint working group on counter-terrorism.

On the defence front, they agreed to hold the first naval exercises at the earliest and expand defence relations in other areas like defence exercises, joint production, supply chain development,” he said. 

Tirumurti said the meeting was held in “an atmosphere of great warmth and friendship testifying to the close rapport between the two leaders”. 

He said the visiting leader conveyed his appreciation of the Indian model which signifies the ethos of inclusiveness, pluralism and tolerance. 

“Both sides agreed to set up a Strategic Partnership Council which will be guided by Prime Minister and the Crown Prince and will have ministerial representation covering all aspects of bilateral relations. This is an extremely important development in line with desire of Saudi Arabia to deepen partnership with eight strategic partners one of which is India.”

He said Modi welcomed the announcement of Crown Prince to invest $ 100 billion in India in a range of areas like energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing. 

“This is a clear reflection of confidence of Saudi Arabia in the vibrancy of Indian economy,” he said adding there was talk of realising untapped potential in trade particularly non-oil trade.

He said they expressed satisfaction at first joint venture in energy of a refinery and petrochemical project estimated at $ 44 billion and the prime minister welcomed Saudi Arabia’s participation in India’s strategic petroleum reserves.

Tirumurti said the two leaders agreed to increase the frequency of of direct flights of carriers India and Saudi Arabia by 3,84,000 seats per annum which will give a huge boost to tourism as well as large Indian community.

He said at India’s request, Saudi Arabia decided to increase haj quota from India to two lakhs. India, he said, has also decided to extend e-visa facilities to Saudi nationals. 

Tirumurti said Saudi Arabia also agreed to resolve issues related to Indian workers who are currently stranded in SA due to closure of one foreign country. 

The two leaders agreed to enhance maritime security in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean Region and agreed to cooperate along with other Indian Ocean rim countries in serving as the net security provider for IOR.

In a veiled reference to China’s ‘One Belt, One Road project’ which also includes China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Triumurti said both sides agreed that regional connectivity projects should be based on univsersally recognised international norms including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. 

The two leaders expressed serious concern over cyber terrorism and misuse of cyber space and said they will also work together to address the problems and issues of fugitive economic offenders. 

Answering queries, Tirumurti said Afghan situation was not discussed, but there was a discussion on areas relating to Middle East, Syria, Palestine.

Answering a query, he said the two sides agreed for comprehensive sanctioning of not only terrorists but terrorist organisations by the UN. 

Nasheman News : Amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the deadly Pulwama attack on February 14, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website was not working in several countries including the US on Saturday, the media reported.

Blaming India for the attack on the website, Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal alleged that New Delhi was behind the attack out of fear of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) proceedings against Kulbhushan Jadhav, the Express Tribune reported.

The public hearing in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case is slated to commence on Monday before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Jadhav, 48, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for espionage in April 2017 following which India moved the ICJ. A 10-member ICJ bench restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till the case was adjudicated.

Users in US, Britain, Holland, Norway and Australia were unable to access Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on Saturday, the report said.

According to a report in the Dawn, cross-border hacking attacks have been sporadic yet common since at least 1998.

Fingers were pointed to India-based hackers when the official website of PPP was found defaced in June 2017. In December that year, the official website of Karachi police was hacked and defaced, allegedly by Indian hackers, the report said.

Earlier, in July 2016, hackers claiming to be from Pakistan defaced websites of seven Indian embassies, high commissions, and consulates in various countries with pro-Pakistan Army slogans. 

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website was accessible in India on Monday, but an attempt to open the Pakistan Army website showed the following message:

“The owner of this website (www.pakistanarmy.gov.pk) has banned the country or region your IP address is in (IN) from accessing this website.”

There were unverified reports that several other websites in Pakistan were not working following the February 14 Pulwama attack on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers for which Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility.

Nasheman News :  The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has expressed “extreme” disappointment over the removal of posters of Pakistan Prime Minister and World Cup-winning skipper Imran Khan in the Cricket Club of India, Mumbai, and elsewhere and IMG Reliance pulling out of the deal to produce and broadcast PSL 2019 in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attacks.

PCB Managing Director Wasim Khan said in a statement that cricket has always played a key role in building bridges between people and countries.

“Unfortunately, denying India cricket fans the right to follow HBL PSL by blocking all digital coverage as well as covering or removing portrait of former Pakistan cricket captain and Prime Minister Imran Khan and other legendary cricketers from one of the most historic cricket clubs and venues are highly regrettable actions.

“The PCB has also noted the recent turn of events and expresses its extreme disappointment as we have always believed and emphasised that sports and politics should be kept separate. History tells us that sports, particularly cricket, have always played a key role in building bridges between people and countries.” Wasim said in a statement. 

He, however, remained positive about the PCB managing a new partner by Monday while expressing disappointment that the Indian public will be denied the opportunity to watch the PSL.

“We have been informed by IMG Reliance that they will be unable to partner with us for the remaining HBL PSL 2019 and PCB has reserved all its rights. The PCB always had a contingency plan in place and we are confident we will be in a position to announce the new partner on Monday after the completion of the formalities,” he said.

Wasim said that the PCB will take up the matter with its Indian counterparts, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the global cricket governing body in the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) committee meeting in Dubai later this month.

“The PCB intends to take up these incidents with the BCCI and the ICC at the upcoming ICC committee meeting in Dubai later this month,” he said.

In protest against the killing of 49 CRPF troopers by a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber near Srinagar on Thursday, the Cricket Club of India (CCI) and the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali had on Sunday removed the portraits and pictures of Imran Khan and other Pakistani cricketers which were placed in their premises, 

Nasheman News : Pakistan on Monday summoned its High Commissioner in India, Sohail Mahmood, for “consultations” following diplomatic tensions between the two countries after the suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir killed 49 CRPF troopers.

“We have called back our High Commissioner in India for consultations. He left New Delhi this morning,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

The February 14 attack in Pulwama district was claimed by the Pakistan-based outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

On Friday, New Delhi had summoned the Pakistan High Commissioner and lodged “a very strong demarche” or diplomatic protest over the bombing.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale told him that Pakistan must take immediate and verifiable action against the JeM and that it must immediately stop any groups or individuals associated with terrorism and operating from Pakistani territory.

India also withdrew the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status given to Pakistan and also slapped a 200 per cent import duty on all goods originating from Islamabad.

Nasheman News : A Pakistani JeM terrorist who plotted the suicide bombing on a CRPF convoy and an Indian Army Major were among seven people killed in fighting between militants and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, police said on Monday.

The Pakistani terrorist was identified as Kamran, a JeM commander who reportedly masterminded the February 14 attack on the CRPF which left 49 troopers dead in the worst loss suffered by security forces at one go since militancy erupted in the state in 1989.

The second slain militant was identified as Bilal Ahmed Naik, a Kashmiri militant, police sources said.

A Major and three soldiers besides a civilian were also killed in the fighting which erupted overnight Sunday barely 10 km from the spot where the suicide bombing took place on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). 

Another Major and two soldiers were injured in fresh firing by militants when the security forces were searching the area after killing the two JeM militants. 

They were rushed to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said: “One of the two slain JeM (Jaish-e-Mohammed) terrorists was a top commander and belonged to Pakistan.” The civilian who died was identified as Mushtaq Ahmad. 

The gunfight started after security forces, including the Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group of the state police and the CRPF, surrounded Pinglena village following a tip that JeM militants were hiding there.

“As the cordon was tightened, the holed-up militants fired, triggering the gunfight,” Col Kalia added.

In the initial burst of gunfire, four soldiers and a civilian sustained critical gunshot injuries and died in a hospital.

The soldiers were identified as Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal, Hawaldar Sheo Ram and Sepoys Hari Singh and Ajay Kumar.

The bodies of the two terrorists had been retrieved from the site.

As the fighting raged, civilians poured out of their homes in nearby areas and pelted stones at the security personnel in a bid to help the militants escape.

The security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.

“Citizens are requested not to venture inside the encounter zone since it is a prohibited zone and can prove dangerous due to stray explosive materials,” an official said. 

“People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials if any.”