Tag: South Asia

Muzaffarabad (TIP): A jeep fell from a mountain road into a ravine in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on July 10, killing 14 people and injuring two others, officials said.
The incident happened in the Neelam Valley, government administrator Nadeem Janjua said.
Rescuers had transported the dead and injured to a hospital while the cause of the accident is still to be determined, Janjua said.
Kashmir is divided between neighbouring India and Pakistan, with both claiming the entire territory.
Road accidents are common in Pakistan mainly because of to poor road infrastructure and poor enforcement of traffic laws and safety standards.
Last month, a van fell into a river in the same district, killing 16 people, mostly children. (AP)

KATHMANDU (TIP): As many as 65 people were believed missing in Nepal after two buses were swept by a landslide triggered off the highway and into a swollen river on July 9, officials said.
The two buses with 63 passengers, and two drivers went missing in the Trishuli river in the landslides at Simaltal area along the Narayanghat-Mugling road in Chitwan district.
Rescuers were trying to locate the bus and and help with rescue the passengers but the continuous rain was making rescue efforts difficult.
“As per the preliminary information both the buses were carrying a total of 63 people including the bus drivers. The landslide swept the buses at around 3:30 am. We are at the incident site and a search operation is underway. Incessant rain is hampering our efforts to search for the missing buses,” Indradev Yadav, Chief District Officer, Chitwan confirmed to ANI.
The route leading to the accident area was also blocked in several places by landslides, said government administrator Khima Nanada Bhusal.
One bus had 24 people while the other had 42 but more could have boarded the bus while on the route, Bhusal said.
Expressing grief over the disappearance of the bus in the Trishuli River, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has issued directives for immediate search and rescue operations. Further details are awaited.(Agencies)

COLOMBO (TIP): At least 60 Indian nationals part of a group engaged in online financial scams have been arrested by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department. They were arrested on June 30 from the Colombo suburbs of Madiwela and Battaramulla and from the western coastal town of Negombo. According to Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa, the CID conducted simultaneous raids in these mentioned areas, leading to the seizure of 135 mobile phones and 57 laptops.
The crackdown follows a complaint from a victim who was lured into a WhatsApp group promising cash for social media interactions.
Further investigation revealed a scheme where victims were coerced into making deposits after initial payments. In Peradeniya, a father-son duo admitted to aiding the fraudsters, Daily Mirror Lanka newspaper reported.
Key evidence uncovered during a luxury house raid in Negombo led to the initial arrest of 13 suspects and the seizure of 57 phones and computers.
Subsequent operations in Negombo yielded 19 additional arrests, exposing international links in Dubai and Afghanistan. (PTI)

COLOMBO (TIP): R Sampanthan, a veteran Sri Lankan politician and a moderate Tamil leader, passed away on July 3 while receiving treatment in a hospital, the Tamil National Alliance has announced. Sampanthan, 91, led the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) from 2004 and became only the second Tamil to become the main opposition leader in the Sinhala-majority country.
He was ailing for a long time and was missing the current parliamentary sessions for a long time.
He was a moderate Tamil who had been leading the political movement to achieve a negotiated political settlement to the Tamil demand for political autonomy. The Tamils put forward their demand for autonomy since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, which, from the mid-70s, turned into a bloody armed conflict.
He took office as the leader of the opposition in 2015 and was actively involved in the process of drafting a new Constitution until 2019.
A brilliant lawyer, Sampanthan entered Parliament for the first time in 1977 from the eastern port district of Trincomalee.(PTI)

ISLAMABAD (TIP): Amidst a legal tussle over the reserved seats in Pakistan’s legislatures, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa has ruled that the election commission is not a subordinate institution to the Supreme Court or the government but an independent authority with a constitutional role to conduct elections. He was heading a full court of the Supreme Court (SC) hearing on July 1 on a set of appeals by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) against the denial of reserved seats to women and non-Muslim candidates, the Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday. The top judge said the Supreme Court can only exercise its jurisdiction if it is convinced that the commission has gone beyond its constitutional role, pointing out that ideally, all institutions should function within their own prescribed domain.
The Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to do a calculation by applying the formula of allotting reserved seats among political parties based on the election results of 2018 by excluding, as well as including, independents to understand the difference, the report said. (PTI)

Islamabad (TIP): Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on June 26 extended an olive branch to his predecessor and political rival Imran Khan, offering to hold talks with him if was facing “troubles” in jail. “If their [PTI] founder is facing troubles [in jail], then I reiterate: come, let’s sit down and talk,” Sharif said in the National Assembly. “Let us sit together to take the country ahead. Let us talk…” (PTI)

Dhaka (TIP): Accusing PM Sheikh Hasina of a “personal political vendetta” against her political rival Khaleda Zia, a leader from her party BNP today claimed she is on her “deathbed” as she has been deprived of advance medical treatment abroad.
A report in The Daily Star said Zia, 78, was rushed to a hospital here around 3:30 am on June 23 as she fell ill. Hasina’s action is a result of “personal political vendetta,” BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged. (PTI)

Cox’s Bazar (TIP): At least nine Rohingyas were killed in landslides caused by heavy torrential rain in Ukhiya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar June 19 morning, The Daily Star reported.
Quoting Mohammad Samsudduza, additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, The Daily Star that the landslides took place in camp no. 9 and 10.
“Nine bodies were recovered,” he said, adding that they are working to evacuate Rohingyas living in risky hilly areas.
Around 1.2 million Rohingyas, most of them fled to Bangladesh facing atrocity by the Myanmar junta forces in 2017, have been living in 33 camps of Ukhiya and Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar, the report said. Cox’s Bazar has been witnessing heavy rainfall since June 18.

KUALA LUMPUR (TIP): The father of a Malaysian man who attacked a police station and killed two police officers last month was charged on June 19 with inciting terrorism in his family. His Singaporean wife and three other children were also brought to court to face charges.
Radin Imran Radin Mohd Yassin, 62, faces four charges including promoting terrorist acts by allegedly instilling the violent ideology of the Islamic State group in his family, including his 21-year-old son Radin Luqman, who was killed by police in the attack.
Radin Luqman stormed the police station in southern Johor state near Singapore in the early hours of May 17 with a machete. He hacked a police constable to death and then used the officer’s weapon to kill another. He wounded a third officer before being shot dead. Police initially said the man could have been planning to take firearms from the station.
The incident sparked concerns of a wider security threat but government officials said the man and his family were reclusive, and that the attacker was believed to have acted on his own.
Radin Imran, who is unemployed, was also accused of supporting terrorist acts by keeping four homemade air rifles in his home for Islamic State activities, according to charge sheets seen by The Associated Press.
He also allegedly pledged allegiance in 2014 to Islamic State’s then-leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria in 2019. A book linked to the Islamic State was found in his possession.
His eldest son, Radin Romyullah, 34, faces two separate charges of pledging loyalty to Abu Bakar and of possessing an external hard drive containing materials related to the Islamic State, the charge sheets showed. Both father and son face life imprisonment, which in Malaysia is up to 40 years, and a fine.
Radin Imran’s Singaporean wife, Rosna Jantan, 59, and two daughters aged 19 and 23 each face a vague charge related to the omission of information related to the spread of terrorism. No details were given.
Local media said the five were brought to a court in Johor under heavy security. The Star newspaper said no plea was recorded but the five, who were not represented by lawyers, said they understood the charges against them. The next hearing in the case will be on July 31. (AP)

PESHAWAR (TIP): A Pakistani journalist was gunned down on June 18 by unknown gunmen in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the country’s northwest, according to a tribal journalist association.
Khalil Jibran, associated with Pashto News Channel ‘Khyber News’ was shot dead by shooters near his home in the Mazrina Sultankhel area of the Khyber district.
Another person, identified as Sajid, was injured in the shooting.
The attackers managed to flee from the scene after killing the journalist.
Police contingents were on their way to the shooting site, according to sources.
The Mazrina area of the tribal district is a hotbed of militants.
Family sources confirmed Jibran’s killing, and a senior journalist alleged that it was a case of targeted killing. (PTI)

Kathmandu (TIP): The sales and distribution of Biotax 1gm, manufactured by an Indian firm, has been banned in Nepal due to “health risks.”
The Department of Drug Administration suspended the antibiotic injection since it was not in compliance with the production specifications, The Kathmandu Post reported.
Biotax 1gm injection is an antibiotic medicine used to treat bacterial infections, including those of the brain, lungs, ear, urinary tract, skin, soft tissues, bones and joints, blood, and heart. It is also used to prevent infections during surgery.
The injection is manufactured by Zydus Healthcare Ltd.
“We have directed the manufacturing company, importers and distributors to immediately suspend sales, import and distribution of the said medicine, until further notice,” said Pramod KC, spokesperson at the department. “Some serious issues have been detected in the said antibiotic. Decisions about further actions will be taken once the investigation is completed,” he was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.
According to the department, which carried out the testing in its own laboratory, BIOTAX-1gm batch F300460 is not safe for use and could risk patients’ lives. (AP)

Kathmandu (TIP): Six Indian tourists, mostly senior citizens, were injured when the jeep they were travelling in overturned near a lake in Nepal’s Chitwan district on June 2, officials said. The accident took place near Darai Lake at Khaireni. The tourists were heading towards Chitwan National Park for a jungle safari, said Kedarnath Panta, chairperson of ward number 12, Khaireni municipality. Chitwan National Park, 250 km south of Kathmandu, is famous for one-horned rhinos and Bengal Tigers. All those who sustained injuries hail from the Bendali Thana area in Mumbai and most of them are above 60, police said. They are identified as Ramchandra Yadav, Sudesh Shanker Khadia, Pankaj Gupteshwor, Vaishali Gupteshwor, Sushmita Sudesh Khadia and Vijaya More. The injured are undergoing treatment at hospitals in Bharatpur and Ratnanagar, police said, adding that they have taken the jeep driver, a Nepalese, into custody. (PTI)

KATHMANDU (TIP): Nepal government has recalled ambassadors from 11 countries, including those serving in India and the US and appointed under the Nepali Congress’ quota, three months after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ terminated his alliance with the party and joined hands with KP Sharma Oli. Despite strong reservations from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the government on June 6 recalled these ambassadors, including Nepal’s envoy to India Shankar Sharma, The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported. (PTI)

Dhaka (TIP): Bangladesh on May 27 launched an intensified evacuation campaign in vulnerable areas as it prepares for severe cyclonic storm ‘Remal’ forecast to make landfall by evening or midnight with a potential high tidal surge and heavy rainfall in the country’s coastal districts of Satkhira and Cox’s Bazar.
According to the latest cyclone warning bulletin, ‘Remal’ is likely to move in a northerly direction and may cross Sagar island of West Bengal-Khepupara coast near Mongla by evening or midnight, the BSS news agency reported.
“A large-scale evacuation has already started. All vulnerable people are presumed to be moved to safer places at the shortest possible time,” Director General of the Department of Disaster Management Mizanur Rahman was quoted as saying by the BSS. On Saturday, State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md Mohibur Rahman said that the authorities have kept ready the cyclone centres and taken all types of preparations to tackle it.
“The district administration has turned social, educational and religious institutions to makeshift shelters alongside 4,000 designated cyclone shelters in coastal districts to accommodate a large number of people including the most vulnerable ones living in remote areas,” Mohibur said.
“A total of 78,000 volunteers from the Cyclone Preparedness Program (CPP) have been kept ready to deal with cyclone ‘Remal’ in the coastal district,” he said.
Around 4,000 cyclone shelter centres have been readied in the coastal districts, equipped with adequate dry food supplies. Some 8,600 Red Crescent volunteers and others joined a campaign asking people at risk to move to safety alongside the government officials while the district administration mobilised transports to carry them to the cyclone shelters, the minister said.
Leaves of officials of all ministries, divisions and subordinate offices have been cancelled to tackle the possible aftermath of Cyclone Remal, the Daily Star newspaper reported.
The Chattogram Port Authority has suspended all operations in the port as cyclone Remal heads towards the coast, it said. According to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper, flight operations at the Chittagong airport have been suspended for eight hours.
On Sunday morning, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department asked the Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar ports to hoist great danger signal no 9, the paper said. The coastal districts — Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Jhalakathi, Barguna, Bhola, and Patuakhali will also be under great danger signal number 10. Cyclone Remal has now intensified into a severe cyclonic storm. (PTI)