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Pakistan hangs Shafqat Hussain despite appeals

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Defenders say convict was a teenager when he killed a boy in 2004 and that he was tortured into confessing.

Shafqat Hussain

by Al Jazeera

Pakistan has executed a man whose case triggered an international outcry after his lawyers said he was arrested as a juvenile and tortured into confessing to a murder.

Shafqat Hussain was hanged on Tuesday at a jail in Karachi for allegedly killing a seven-year-old boy in 2004.

His lawyers and family say he was only 15 years old at the time of the killing but according to a federal investigation, he was 23.

“Despite opposition from within the country as well as Amnesty International, Pakistan went ahead with the execution,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Prison officials handed the body over to his brothers, who alleged the execution was not carried out properly.

“There is a cut mark on his neck and half of his neck is separated from his body,” Abdul Majeed, his brother, told AFP.

Family outrage

At Hussain’s hometown in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, his family was distraught.

“Why did they hang my innocent brother, only because we were poor?” said his sister Sumaira Bibi, beating her chest and weeping.

“My son was innocent, only Allah will prove his innocence in his court,” his mother Makhni Begum told AFP.

“We can’t do anything but they [executioners] will face Allah on the day of judgement,” she said.

United Nations rights experts have said Hussain’s trial “fell short of international standards” and urged Pakistan to investigate claims he confessed under torture, as well as his age.

Lawyers for Hussain said school records showed he was 17 in 2004 when he was burned with cigarettes and had fingernails removed until he confessed to killing a child.

Hussain was originally due to face the noose in January but won four stays of execution as his lawyers fought to prove he was under 18 at the time of his offence and could therefore not be executed under Pakistani law.

Pakistan has hanged nearly 200 people since December, when a massacre by the Taliban at an army-run school in Peshawar prompted the government to lift a de facto ban on capital punishment.

Only Iran and China have executed more people than Pakistan this year, says Amnesty International.

Anti-Houthi forces recapture Yemen’s largest army base

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Backed by Saudi-led air strikes, forces fighting on the side of President Hadi recapture southern al-Anad base.

Spread over 40 square kilometres, al-Anad houses a military airport, a war college, and an arms depot [Reuters]

Spread over 40 square kilometres, al-Anad houses a military airport, a war college, and an arms depot [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Forces battling Houthi rebels in Yemen say they have captured the country’s largest military base following intense clashes which left dozens killed.

In a statement on Monday, the exiled government claimed the complete control of al-Anad base, which is in Lahej province in southern Yemen.

“With the help and back-up of the Arab-led coaltion, this achievement was possible,” the statement said.

Troops were also supported by Popular Resistance Committees who have sided with the government in the fight against the Houthis.

The Houthis’ loss of the base deals a significant blow to the Shia rebel group, which has seized large parts of the country but recently lost control of the southern port city of Aden.

Nasser Hadour, an officer in the Popular Resistance, told Al Jazeera that their forces were also able to enter another military base between al-Sader and al-Madina al-Khadra in Lahej province.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, who has covered Yemen extensively, explained that while the Popular Resistance Committees are against the Houthis, they form a loose umbrella group whose members do not necessarily back exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

“They have been forced together by the Houthi threat but they have different agendas. Many of them are southern secessionists who in fact see Hadi as a threat,” he said.

The Yemeni army has been split since the Houthis’ advance last year. Some units backing deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh are fighting alongside the Houthis, while others remain loyal to Hadi.

“The Saudi-led coalition is training anti-Houthi forces, providing them with new weapons to build a new army from scratch,” our correspondent said. “Their aim is to maintain Yemen united under one leader and a professional army. But that aim will depend on how the different factions get along. Yemen remains divided along regional and sectarian ties.”

Houthi rebels and its allies had been in control of al-Anad since March.

Spread over 40 square kilometres, the base houses a military airport, a war college, and an arms depot.

It was previously used by US forces as an intelligence gathering hub and base for drone attacks on al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The assault by anti-Houthi forces began after new weapons, including armoured vehicles that had been supplied by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, arrived to reinforce fighters.

At least 50 Houthis and troops loyal to Hadi were killed in fighting for the base, military sources told Al Jazeera. At least 23 Popular Resistance fighters were also killed, the sources added.

There was no word from the Houthis on the outcome of the battle, but the Houthi-run Saba news agency said earlier that Saudi-led air raids had repeatedly struck the military base.

Al-Anad lies on road to Taiz, the next target for the coalition after their recapture of Aden.

The military says controlling al-Anad will help the push to recapture Taiz and the southern provinces.

Hadi remains in Saudi Arabia, where he fled in March as the Houthis closed in on his refuge in Aden.

The Houthis broke out of their northern strongholds and seized control of the capital Sanaa in September, plunging Yemen into another bout of conflict.

Iranian Foreign Minister: Time for US, other nuclear powers to disarm

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif calls on US, Israel, and other atomic weapons nations to begin ‘new era’ of non-proliferation

"I sincerely believe that the nuclear agreement between my country—a non-nuclear-weapon state—and the P5+1 (which control almost all nuclear warheads on Earth) is symbolically significant enough to kickstart this paradigm shift and mark the beginning of a new era for the non-proliferation regime," said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. (Photo: Marc Muller/Wikimedia/cc)

“I sincerely believe that the nuclear agreement between my country—a non-nuclear-weapon state—and the P5+1 (which control almost all nuclear warheads on Earth) is symbolically significant enough to kickstart this paradigm shift and mark the beginning of a new era for the non-proliferation regime,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. (Photo: Marc Muller/Wikimedia/cc)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

In the wake of the historic agreement between Iran and world powers, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday called on known nuclear weapons states, including the United States and Israel, to walk the walk and begin disarming their own atomic arsenals.

Writing in the Guardian, Zarif declared: “I sincerely believe that the nuclear agreement between my country—a non-nuclear-weapon state—and the P5+1 (which control almost all nuclear warheads on Earth) is symbolically significant enough to kickstart this paradigm shift and mark the beginning of a new era for the non-proliferation regime.”

“One of the many ironies of history is that non-nuclear-weapon states, like Iran, have actually done far more for the cause of non-proliferation in practice than nuclear-weapon states have done on paper,” Zarif noted.

There is no public evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, and assessments by multiple U.S. government agencies have concluded the country has no plans to develop one.

“Meanwhile, states actually possessing these destructive weapons have hardly even ‘talked the talk,’ while completely brushing off their disarmament obligations under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and customary international law,” Zarif declared, referring to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

“That is to say nothing of countries outside the NPT, or Israel, with an undeclared nuclear arsenal and a declared disdain towards non-proliferation, notwithstanding its absurd and alarmist campaign against the Iranian nuclear deal,” Zarif added.

All of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the U.S., Russia, France, the U.K., and China—are known to possess nuclear weapons. Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also posses nuclear arsenals but have not signed onto the NPT treaty.

However, in the U.S., opponents of the Iran deal, and even some supporters, have stoked fear about the alleged threat that Iran poses to the world.

“One step in the right direction,” Zarif urged, “would be to start negotiations for a weapons elimination treaty, backed by a robust monitoring and compliance-verification mechanism.”

UN condemns arson attack by Israeli settlers

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Security forces inspect the West Bank house destroyed in an arson attack on July 31, 2015. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

Security forces inspect the West Bank house destroyed in an arson attack on July 31, 2015. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

by Andolu Ajansi

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday sharply condemned an arson attack by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank that killed an 18-month-old Palestinian boy.

Ban “calls for the perpetrators of this terrorist act to be promptly brought to justice”, read a statement issued from his office.

Ali Saeed Dawabsheh was burned to death early Friday when Jewish settlers attacked a house in Duma village in the West Bank’s southern city of Nablus. His parents and brother also suffered serious injuries.

Palestinian officials said the attack was carried out by Jewish settlers affiliated with the Price Tag militant group.

“Continued failures to effectively address impunity for repeated acts of settler violence have led to another horrific incident involving the death of an innocent life. This must end,” the UN statement said.

It said the absence of a political process and Israel’s illegal settlement expanding activities, as well as its demolition of Palestinian homes, had “given rise to violent extremism on both sides.

“This presents a further threat to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood as well as to the security of the people of Israel,” read the statement.

International law views East Jerusalem and the West Bank as occupied territories and deems any construction of Israeli settlements on the land to be illegal.

Earlier Friday, UN’s top Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov also condemned the “heinous” attack, calling it an act carried out for a political objective.

“We must not permit such acts to allow hate and violence to bring more personal tragedies and to bury any prospect of peace,” said Mladenov, who is the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

“This reinforces the need for an immediate resolution of the conflict and an end to the occupation,” he added.

Direct peace talks between Israel and Palestinians remain deadlocked amid Israel’s unilateral settlement-building policies in occupied lands and Palestinians’ efforts on international recognition of their statehood.

Taliban elects new leader after Mullah Omar’s death

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Taliban sources tell Al Jazeera that Mullah Akhtar Mansoor is new leader of the group, confirming death of Mullah Omar.

Mullah Omar

by Al Jazeera

The Taliban has elected Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as its new leader, Taliban sources have told Al Jazeera, as the group confirmed the death of Mullah Omar.

The election, which was reported on Thursday, however, was not officially confirmed by the group.

The Afghan government said on Wednesday that Omar died more than two years ago, in a hospital in Karachi.

Following the announcement, a second round of peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have been postponed.

While backed by US, Saudi coalition accused of war crime in Yemen

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New report from Human Rights Watch investigates bombings that killed at least 65 civilians in the city of Mokha on Friday

A residence that houses workers of the Mokha Steam Power Plant and their families after it was destroyed by Saudi-led coalition bombings on 24, 2015. (Photo: Ole Solvang/Human Rights Watch)

A residence that houses workers of the Mokha Steam Power Plant and their families after it was destroyed by Saudi-led coalition bombings on 24, 2015. (Photo: Ole Solvang/Human Rights Watch)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition—which is backed by the United States—committed an “apparent war crime” when they bombed residential housing in the Yemeni city of Mokha on Friday, killing at least 65 civilians and wounding dozens more, Human Rights Watch declared on Monday.

“The Saudi-led coalition repeatedly bombed company housing with fatal results for several dozen civilians,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher for HRW, of the attack that claimed ten children among its victims. “With no evident military target, this attack appears to be a war crime.”

However, HRW said there are no signs that Yemen’s government or any coalition partners are investigating the attack, which struck residential compounds that house family and workers of the Mokha Steam Power Plant on Friday.

“Again and again, we see coalition airstrikes killing large numbers of civilians, but no signs of any investigation into possible violations,” said Solvang.

Researchers with the rights group who visited the aftermath of the attack saw craters and destroyed buildings that indicate multiple bombs “had struck the plant’s main residential compound, which housed at least 200 families.” Another bomb tore through a separate compound that also housed temporary workers.

“After the third strike the entire building began to collapse on top of us,” Wajida Ahmed Najid, the wife of a plant employee who lived in one of the compounds targeted, told researchers. “Then I knew we needed to leave because it was not safe to stay. I grabbed my girls and we started running in the direction of the beach, but as we were running pieces of metal were flying everywhere and one hit Malak, my 9-year-old daughter. Thank God she is going to be okay. While we were running I saw bodies, seven of them, just lying on the ground, in pieces.”

HRW noted that the civilian death toll could be higher than 65, with many people still reported missing. In the following video, resident after resident testifies that there was no reason for the coalition to target them. “This is a dirty war,” said a resident of one of the buildings whose name is not revealed in the video. Warning: video contains disturbing images.

The Saudi-led military coalition includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, and Sudan. While the United States and United Kingdom both say they are not formally part of the coalition, they are both providing direct assistance—including logistics and intelligence—as well as serving as major weapons suppliers for the campaign.

Since the bombing campaign began nearly four months ago, the coalition has bombed homes, schools, warehouses storing humanitarian aid, and refugee camps, killing at least  1,693 civilians and wounding another 3,829,according to the estimates of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The bombings and naval blockade have touched off an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis as residents of the impoverished country arecut off from water, food, and medical aid.

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.

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.

Wedding celebrations in Afghanistan turn bloody

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At least 20 people killed by gunmen who opened fire at wedding guests in northern Baghlan province.

Afghanistan

by Al Jazeera

At least 20 people have been killed by gunmen who opened fire at a wedding in Afghanistan’s north, officials said.

The attack, apparently linked to a feud between two families, happened in the Andarab district of Baghlan province on Sunday night. One family was hosting a wedding as members of a rival family arrived and started shooting at male guests, sources told Al Jazeera.

The bride and groom survived the attack.

Most of the dead were wedding guests aged from 14 years old to 60 years old, Jaweed Basharat, the governor of Baghlan province, told the AP news agency. He said 10 people were also injured.

The remote district, with little government presence, has witnessed frequent family disputes over land and other issues, Al Jazeera’s Qais Azimy said. Deaths in such disputes are reported almost every month but the number of casualties at the wedding was unusually high.

Police has sent reinforcement to the area, but gunfire was still reported there on Monday morning.

Fatal gun fights and celebratory gun fire are common at Afghan weddings, which have boomed in recent years in a country battered by nearly 40 years of war.

Afghan soldiers fired mortars at a wedding party in late December in the southern province of Helmand, killing 17 women and children.

Turkey says parts of Syria to become ‘safe zones’

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Foreign minister says areas cleared of fighters belonging to ISIL can become haven for Syrians displaced by war.

Turkey says areas cleared of ISIL fighters in Syria could be used as safe zones for displaced Syrians [Reuters]

Turkey says areas cleared of ISIL fighters in Syria could be used as safe zones for displaced Syrians [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Turkey has said areas in north Syria cleared of fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group will become safe zones.

Saturday’s announcement made by Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, came after Ankara announced it had begun bombing ISIL positions in Syria and and Kurdish fighters’ camps in northern Iraq.

“When areas in northern Syria are cleared of the (ISIL) threat, the safe zones will be formed naturally,” Cavusoglu told a news conference.

“We have always defended safe zones and no-fly zones in Syria. People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe zones.”

The conflict in Syria has displaced more than 10 million people, with many residing in makeshift camps near the Turkish border.These areas have been targeted a number of times by Syrian military bombardment. The Turkish government has repeatedly called for the setting-up of safe zones to protect these people.

Several Turkish media outlets had earlier reported the government was considering setting up a 33km-wide safe zone inside Syria, stretching from the outskirts of Kurdish-held Kobane to areas controlled by pro-Western rebel groups.

Its purpose would be to strengthen the rebels’ hand against ISIL and prevent the Kurdish fighters from capturing new border areas.

Third wave of attacks

Turkish forces on Saturday unleashed a third wave of air strikes and ground attacks against the two targeted factions.

“We have given instructions for a third series of strikes in Syria and Iraq. Air and ground operations are under way,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara, adding that 590 suspected ISIL and PKK members were arrested in raids across Turkey.

The military action by Ankara was seen as a potential game changer in the war against ISIL.

Turkey earlier this week approved the full use of its airbases by the US-led coalition against ISIL, according to the foreign ministry, marking a major change in its policy following a suicide bomb attack in Suruc , bordering Syria.

The offensive against the PKK came after the Kurdish group claimed attacks on security forces in the last days.

A spokesman in Iraq for the PKK, which has been fighting Turkey for autonomy since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies, said the strikes likely spelled the end of the peace process.

“Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire,” Zagros Hiwa told the AP news agency.

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