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Palestinians rebury bodies exhumed from Gaza cemetery

Palestinians rebury bodies exhumed from Gaza cemetery
People bury their dead on January 5, 2024, in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip following Israeli bombardment, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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Updated 07 January 2024
AFP
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Palestinians rebury bodies exhumed from Gaza cemetery

Palestinians rebury bodies exhumed from Gaza cemetery
  • Hamas on Saturday accused Israeli military of “destroying 1,100 graves” at Gaza cemetery
  • Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza since Oct. 7 has resulted in killing of over 22,700 Palestinians 
Updated 07 January 2024
AFP
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GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Bereaved Palestinians on Saturday reburied bodies exhumed from a cemetery in Gaza City, where the Israeli army has been leading a ground offensive against Hamas militants since late October, an AFP video showed.
The footage from the cemetery in Al-Tuffah neighborhood showed bodies wrapped in bags and laid out on mounds of soil.
Other bodies were strewn around smashed up graves, as a dozen men clad in masks worked with shovels to rebury them, the video showed.
Hamas on Saturday accused the Israeli military of “destroying 1,100 graves” at the cemetery and “stealing 150 bodies of recently buried martyrs.”
When reached for comment by AFP, the Israeli army said they were checking the claims without elaborating further.
“We were surprised to see the bodies exhumed” on Saturday morning, said a local man surnamed Aliwa, who was among the people reburying the bodies. He declined to give his first name.
Without offering evidence, he accused the Israeli army of “running over bodies” with a “bulldozer.”
Imprinted in the soil near the graves were what looked like track marks.
“We are currently retrieving the corpses present in the cemetery,” he said, adding that only a “small number” of bodies had been identified.
The war began on October 7 with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel.
Israel responded by bombarding the territory and sending in ground forces, killing at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Israel

Imran Khan remanded to police for five days in case involving violence at Rawalpindi rally 

Imran Khan remanded to police for five days in case involving violence at Rawalpindi rally 
Updated 22 sec ago
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Imran Khan remanded to police for five days in case involving violence at Rawalpindi rally 

Imran Khan remanded to police for five days in case involving violence at Rawalpindi rally 
  • Main charges include terrorism, vandalism, destruction of property, attempted murder 
  • Khan, jailed since August 2023, claims all charges against him are politically motivated
Updated 22 sec ago
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani lower court has remanded former prime minister Imran Khan to Rawalpindi police for interrogation for five days in a case pertaining to violence at a rally organized by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in September, the party said on Thursday.

Khan was arrested in the rally case on Wednesday night, hours after the Islamabad High Court had granted him bail in another case that has popularly come to be called the new Toshakhana case, filed in July and involving a jewelry set worth over €380,000 gifted to the former first lady by a foreign dignitary when Khan was prime minister from 2018-2022. The couple was accused of undervaluing the gift and buying it at a lesser price from the state repository. Both deny wrongdoing. 

Khan has been in jail since August last year following his conviction in four cases, two of which have been suspended, including an original one relating to state gifts, and he was acquitted in the rest.

“An anti-terrorism court granted a five-day physical remand to Rawalpindi police in the first information report (FIR) registered on Sep. 28,” the PTI party said in a statement. “The FIR surfaced last night and Rawalpindi police declared the arrest shortly afterwards.”

The PTI party added that arresting a suspect in a case registered in September right after he was granted bail in another case was an “absolute mockery of the law.”

The police report of the case lists terrorism, attempted murder, vandalism, destruction of public and state property, and interference in government operations as the main charges. It says participants of the PTI rally created unrest, obstructed public access by burning tires and caused difficulties for citizens.

It also charged PTI leaders and supporters with raising anti-government slogans, hurling stones at the police and attacking them with iron rods during the protest. PTI rallygoers damaged several police vehicles and one police officer was injured, the report adds.

Khan was in prison when the Sept. 28 rally took place. The former premier denies any wrongdoing and alleges all the cases registered against him since he was removed from power in 2022 were politically motivated to keep him in jail.

His PTI party is staging a “long march” to the capital city, Islamabad, on Nov. 24, aiming to pressurise the government to release him.
 

Topics: Imran Khan imran khan jail imran khan pti PTI protest

Pakistan urges action after UN labels Israel’s war in Gaza consistent with genocide

Pakistan urges action after UN labels Israel’s war in Gaza consistent with genocide
Updated 6 min 1 sec ago
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Pakistan urges action after UN labels Israel’s war in Gaza consistent with genocide

Pakistan urges action after UN labels Israel’s war in Gaza consistent with genocide
  • The UN report pointed at high civilian casualties, Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war
  • Pakistan welcomes the report’s condemnation of Israel’s smear campaign against UN agencies
Updated 6 min 1 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday urged the international community to hold Israel accountable for its conduct in Gaza, citing a recent United Nations report describing it as consistent with genocide.
The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, established in 1968, released its latest findings on Nov. 14. The report highlights mass civilian casualties and widespread destruction in Gaza, pointing out the intentional imposition of life-threatening conditions on Palestinians, including starvation as a weapon of war.
It also called for immediate international intervention to address the humanitarian crisis and ensure accountability for violations of international law.
“We welcome the last, latest report of the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices released last week,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during her weekly news briefing. “The report describes Israel’s warfare practices in Gaza as acts of genocide and documents millions of civilian casualties and grievous conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians.”
“Pakistan welcomes the committee’s condemnation of the ongoing smear campaign and attacks against UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] and the United Nations, and supports its call on all member states to uphold their legal obligations to prevent and stop Israeli violations of international law and holding it accountable,” she added.
The UN report was released in the context of intensified violence in Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes and a crippling blockade have led to a deepening humanitarian catastrophe. According to the document, the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure and essential supplies has compounded the suffering of millions of Palestinians.
Pakistan has consistently advocated for Palestinian rights and the two-state solution. It also expressed “deep regret” over the United States’ veto of a ceasefire resolution a day earlier, noting that Washington cast the “sole negative vote” among UNSC permanent members.

Topics: MOFA Pakistan Foreign Ministry pakistan palestine ties

COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries

COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries
Updated 56 min 6 sec ago
AP
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COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries

COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries
  • Introducing the plan, lead negotiator from Azerbaijan, Yalchin Rafiyev, emphasized how balanced the plan was
  • “We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said
Updated 56 min 6 sec ago
AP

BAKU, Azerbaijan: Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.
The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.
So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku, are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.
Negotiators slam an ‘unbalanced’ draft
Introducing the plan, lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but all sides kept saying it was anything but balanced and pointed time was running out.
“We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said.
Poor nations blasted both rich nations and the presidency with Honduras delegate Malcolm Bryan complaining that the plan was a “completely unbalanced text that doesn’t bring us any closer to a landing .... It is high time for developed countries put their numbers on the table.’’
The EU’s climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “imbalanced, unworkable, and not acceptable.”
In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the drafts “are not final.”
“The COP29 Presidency’s door is always open, and we welcome any bridging proposals that the parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible numbers for a finance goal will be released in the next iteration of the draft.
COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened the Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides and hammer out a compromise. He said that “after hearing all views, we will outline a way forward regarding future iterations.”
No figure for climate cash leaves many disappointed
Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.
Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue said, slammed the lack of a number in the draft deal.
“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”
She added: “I don’t even know if we’re going to be here for a COP 30 or COP 31. Something needs to happen.”
Adao Barbosa, a top negotiator from the Indian ocean nation of Timor-Leste said all developing countries are unhappy with the climate finance deal. As things stand, the deal is weak, Barbosa said.
Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We came here to talk about money. The way you measure money is with numbers. We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.
Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said he was “at a loss for words at how disappointed we are at this stage to have come this far without serious numbers on the table and serious engagement from the developed countries.”
He said that some developed nations “are slowly waking up” to the fact that keeping warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times will require over a trillion dollars in finance. “But many are still asleep at the wheel,” he said.
There’s a lot of work left to do
There are three big parts of the issue where negotiators need to find agreement: How big the numbers are, how much is grants or loans, and who contributes.
Official observers of the talks from the International Institute of Sustainable Development who are allowed to sit in on the closed meetings reported that negotiators have now agreed on not expanding the list of countries that will contribute to global climate funds — at least at these talks. Linda Kalcher, of the think tank Strategic Partnerships, said on the question of grants or loans, the draft text suggests “the need for grants and better access to finance.”
She added that the lack of numbers in the draft text could be a “bluff.” The COP29 presidency, which prepares the texts “should know more ... than what they put on the table,” she said.
Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve also seen little movement.
European nations criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
“The current text offers no progress” on efforts to cut the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases, said Germany delegation chief Jennifer Morgan. “This cannot and must not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”
Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister, also criticized “backsliding” on cutting fossil fuels from last year’s deal.

Topics: Pakistan at COP29 COP29

Police say gunmen open fire on vehicles in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least eight

Police say gunmen open fire on vehicles in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least eight
Updated 21 November 2024
AP
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Police say gunmen open fire on vehicles in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least eight

Police say gunmen open fire on vehicles in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least eight
  • Attack happened in Kurram, district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province 
  • Sectarian clashes have killed dozens of people in the region in recent months
Updated 21 November 2024
AP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles carrying members of the Shiite minority in restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding others, police said.

The attack happened in Kurram, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where clashes between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites have killed dozens of people in recent months.

No one has claimed responsibility but Kurram has been a scene of sectarian violence in recent months, and the latest violence came a week after authorities reopened a key highway in the region after keeping it closed for weeks following deadly clashes.

Local police official Nusrat Hussain said several vehicles carrying passengers were traveling in a convoy from the city of Parachinar to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when gunmen opened fire.

He said at least five passengers were in a critical condition at a hospital.

Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million population of Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the two communities.

Topics: Pakistan Shiite Muslims kurram

Investment deals on the table as Belarus president to visit Pakistan next week

Investment deals on the table as Belarus president to visit Pakistan next week
Updated 21 November 2024
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Investment deals on the table as Belarus president to visit Pakistan next week

Investment deals on the table as Belarus president to visit Pakistan next week
  • Pakistan and Belarus, world’s 74th-largest economy by GDP, celebrated thirty years of diplomatic relations this year
  • Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 
Updated 21 November 2024
Fatimah Amjad

ISLAMABAD: The president of the Republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Grigorievich Lukashenko, will be in Islamabad on a three-day official visit from Monday, with several investment deals and memorandums of understanding likely to be discussed, the foreign office said on Thursday.

Pakistan has been pushing for foreign investment from allies old and new in recent months in a bid to shore up its $350 billion economy as it navigates a tough reforms agenda mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“President of the republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, will undertake an official visit to Pakistan from Nov. 25-27,” the foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said at a weekly press briefing. “President Lukashenko will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and discuss the areas of bilateral cooperation,”

Pakistan and Belarus, the world’s 74th-largest economy by GDP, celebrated thirty years of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year. Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and maintains an embassy in Minsk.

The prime minister of Belarus was in Islamabad earlier this year where he met his counterpart as well as the chief of the Pakistan army, among other key leaders. 

In September, Pakistan and Belarus discussed different options for a joint venture to establish a tractor plant in the country and reached a consensus on collaborating on a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine to protect cattle, as well as on the capacity building of agricultural engineers in machinery design.

They also agreed to enhance cooperation in the sectors of livestock and seeds, and work together on the mechanization of agriculture and on increasing market access for agricultural and livestock products. Belarus also wants to set up a veterinary medicine plant in Pakistan.

The First Pakistan-Belarus Joint Economic Commission (JEC) was held in 2015 in which the two countries agreed to initiate joint ventures in the textile, pharmaceutical and lighting solution industries and share technological expertise.

Topics: Pakistan Belarus Ties Belarus president Aleksandr Grigorievich Lukashenko Arab News Pakistan

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