Asia Thursday, April 25, 2019 09 Gunmen kill Pakistan police officer Imran offers Sri Lanka anti-terror assistance Bangladesh marks 6th year of factory protecting polio team in Bunar area disaster with new safety warnings Agencies the death toll had risen to Reuters The police constable was ISLAMABAD 359 from 321 overnight, with Savar: Six years after one of since the disaster, yet nothing PESHAWAR on duty with a polio team in about 500 people wounded at the world’s most devastating has happened to the perpetra- the remote Buner district in Prime Minister Imran Khan three churches and four hotels factory disasters, moves to cut tors. The victims haven’t had Gunmen in Pakistan shot northern Pakistan when un- on Wednesday telephoned his hit by the bombers on the day international safety monitoring any justice. Six years later, and killed a police officer known gunmen opened fire, Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil of Easter, media reported on of Bangladesh clothes factories safety issues in the factories guarding a polio immuniza- police chief Irshad Khan Wickremesinghe to offer assis- Wednesday. led Wednesday to warnings of a have not been fixed,” said Joly tion team on Wednesday, Yousafzai said. tance to fight terrorism while Prime Minister Imran Khan new threat to lives. Talukder, a top union leader. the latest attack on efforts “He was shot in the head condemning horrifying suicide called his counterpart to offer Hundreds of workers at- Under intense pressure at to protect children from the and shoulder and died imme- attacks that have killed 359 Pakistan PM Imran Khan. condolences. tended commemorations for the time, top brands such as crippling and sometimes diately,” he said, adding that people so far As per details, PM In a telephonic conversa- the collapse of the nine-floor H&M, Inditex, Carrefour and deadly disease. officers had been assigned Khan condoled with the fami- tance to the island country for tion with Sri Lankan Prime rabbit warren of textile factories Gap set up two watchdogs Polio workers are often to polio teams in the district lies of deceased and extended curbing terrorism. Minister Ranil Wickremesing- at Rana Plaza on April 24, 2013 to look at more than 4,500 targets in Pakistan where after a rise in threats against wishes for the speedy recovery During the phone call, pre- he, Imran strongly condemned that killed 1,138 workers. factories that make clothes hardline clerics and Islam- workers. Pakistan is one of of the injured. mier Khan asserted that terror- the terrorist attacks that took Some laid wreaths at a for Western stores. One, the ist militants have claimed the the only three countries, along “Pakistan has been a vic- ism has no religion, no border place on Easter Sunday and makeshift memorial, demand- Alliance for Bangladesh Worker government’s polio eradica- with Afghanistan and Nigeria, tim of terrorism, we empathize and it has ruined the peace of conveyed condolences to the ing justice for the victims Safety, has already wrapped up tion campaign is a foreign ploy that suffers from endemic po- with the pain of Sri Lankan na- the entire globe. bereaved families and pro- as well as highlighting their after reviewing nearly 1,000 to sterilize Muslim children or lio, a childhood virus that can tion,” the prime minister said Sri Lankan police spokes- found prayers for the speedy safety fears. factories that produced mostly a cover for Western spies. cause paralysis or death. while offering complete assis- man Ruwan Gunasekera said recovery of the wounded. “Six years have passed for US brands. (AFP)

News Will go after the fixers in brief Intelligence handling Philippine troops in Indian judiciary: SC kill four suspected Islamist militants IANS New Delhi Allegation Manila: Four suspected row stokes political A bench, headed by Justice Islamic militants were killed The Supreme Court on on Wednesday in an offen- Wednesday said “fixing” has no Arun Mishra, took a very sive by government troops in place in the judiciary and it will serious note of advocate the southern Philippines, the go to “the bottom of the conspir- Utsav Bains’ affidavit, which military said. Soldiers were acy” to identify those involved claimed that conspiracy of conducting an operation to tensions in Sri Lanka as it heard a case pertaining to levelling an allegation of track down a leader of the conspiracy to frame the Chief sexual harassment against Abu Sayyaf group in Basilan Some top officials purposefully hid warnings of Easter bombings: PM aide Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in the CJI was hatched by two province, 900 kilometres a sexual harassment case. apex court staffers recently south of Manila, when they A bench, headed by Jus- sacked in connection with encountered the militants, tice Arun Mishra, took a very Ericsson case order said Lieutenant General serious note of advocate Utsav Arnel Dela Vega, a regional Bains’ affidavit, which claimed military chief. The firefight that conspiracy of levelling an court that the two conspirators occurred before dawn in a allegation of sexual harassment have met in person and he was remote village in the town of against the CJI was hatched by waiting for it to happen. He re- Ungkaya Pukan, where the two apex court staffers recently sponded positively when Jus- military also dispatched air sacked in connection with Eric- tice Mishra inquired if he was support to go after militants sson case order. carrying a mobile phone. who fled.(dp a) The staffers were charged The SC bench, which had with tampering with the court’s earlier met the chiefs of the Indian state court order, in collusion with power- Central Bureau of Investi- lifts ban on Chinese ful corporate lobbyists linked gation, the Intelligence Bu- video app TikTok with the “cash for judgment” in reau and the Delhi Police and the Supreme Court. shared the details of Bains’ af- NEW DELHI: An Indian state As at the beginning of the fidavit, said that a decision on court on Wednesday moved to second phase of hearing at 3 ordering of high level probe re- lift a ban on popular video app p.m., Bains handed over some garding the conspiracy will be TikTok in the country, two law- documents to the bench, sen- taken on Thursday. yers involved in the case said, ior advocate Indira Jaising Bains will file an additional in a boost for its developer sought to know the nature of affidavit in the court on Thurs- Beijing Bytedance Technology these documents. day. Justice Mishra said that Co. Earlier this month, the The bench, however, said Bains will have to corroborate court in the southern state of that these documents were his contentions regarding for- Tamil Nadu ordered the fed- highly confidential and it may mer SC employees hatching a eral government to prohibit Tik- not be appropriate to let her conspiracy in collusion with Tok downloads, saying the app know about it. Bains told the some powerful lobbyists. was encouraging pornography and could expose children to sexual predators. Acting upon subsequent instructions from the federal IT ministry, Apple Security forces stand guard at St. Antony shrine, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Intense fighting flares between Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Wednesday. (REUTERS) last week removed TikTok Taliban and IS in Afghanistan from their Indian app stores. Reuters US denies possessing advance an ally of the prime minister, (reuters) COLOMBO said on Wednesday that “some Reuters point since they were ousted intelligence on suicide bombings top intelligence officials hid KABUL from power nearly 18 years Delhi MP Udit Raj Political tension mounted the intelligence information ago, was not available for joins Congress, in Sri Lanka on Wednesday Colombo: The US ambassador to Sri Lanka has denied the United purposefully”. Afghan Taliban insurgents comment. Islamic State fight- calls BJP anti-Dalit over the handling of advance in- States had prior knowledge of the Easter militant attacks that “Information was there, but are battling fighters loyal to ers first appeared in eastern telligence related to Easter Sun- it passed to the Colombo government, CNN television reported the top brass security officials Islamic State over control of Afghanistan in around 2014 New Delhi: Dumped by the day’s suicide bombings, with an Wednesday. “We had no prior knowledge of these attacks,” US am- did not take appropriate ac- territory in eastern Afghani- and have battled the Taliban BJP, Delhi MP Udit Raj on ally of the prime minister charg- bassador Alaina Teplitz told the US channel in an interview on the tions,” Lakshman Kiriella, who stan in some of the heaviest as well as government and Wednesday joined the Con- ing that top officials deliberately suicide attacks on Sunday that killed 359 people, including at least is also minister of public enter- clashes over the past year be- foreign forces. gress and alleged that he was withheld critical information. four Americans. A Sri Lankan minister had said earlier this week prise, told parliament. tween the rival militants, offi- The Afghan affiliate of denied a ticket for the Lok The attacks on church- that India and the United States had provided information before He said information about cials said on Wednesday. Islamic State, sometimes Sabha battle because the BJP es and luxury hotels, which the bombings on three churches and three hotels which authorities possible suicide attacks on The fighting erupted on known as Islamic State Kho- was anti-Dalit and because he killed at least 359 people and have blamed on a local Islamist group. “Well I can’t speak for oth- churches, hotels and politicians Monday in two districts of rasan (ISIS-K), after an old took a stand contrary to BJP’s wounded about 500, appear to ers. I don’t know what other sources of information the government was received from Indian intel- the eastern Afghan border name for the region that in- line on many issues. Address- have rekindled a feud between of Sri Lanka might have had. I can just tell you that we had no prior ligence on April 4 and a Security province of Nangarhar, when cludes Afghanistan, has made ing a press conference at the Prime Minister Ranil Wick- knowledge,” the ambassador told CNN. (AFP) Council meeting was chaired Islamic State fighters at- some inroads into other ar- party office after joining the remesinghe and President by President Sirisena on April tacked villages under Taliban eas, in the north in particular. Congress, Udit Raj said: “The Maithripala Sirisena. Rambukwella, lawmaker and imminent attack by Islamist 7, but the information was not control. It has also established a BJP carried out internal sur- Critics said government in- spokesman for former presi- militants hours before the sui- shared more widely. “Islamic State fighters reputation for unusual cru- veys by various agencies of all fighting could undermine the dent Mahinda Rajapaksa’s op- cide bombings at three church- “Somebody is controlling have captured six villages in elty, even by the standards the seven seats in Delhi, and authorities’ response to the se- position party. es and four hotels, three sources these top intelligence offi- Khogyani and Shirzad dis- of the Afghan conflict, and out of the seven Lok Sabha curity crisis and the threat of “You would normally expect with direct knowledge of the cials,” the minister said. “The tricts but the fighting has not has been behind some of the constituencies the only posi- Islamist extremism now facing the opposition to be playing matter said this week. Security Council is doing poli- stopped,” said Sohrab Qaderi, deadliest attacks in urban tive feedback came from my an island state that had been the blame game. But we don’t An Indian government tics. We need to investigate a member Nangarhar’s the centres. seat. (IANS) relatively peaceful since a civil need to, they are busy attacking source said similar messages into this.” Sirisena has said his provincial council. While Nangarhar, on war ended a decade ago. each other, we are in fact saying had been given to Sri Lankan office never received the In- About 500 families had the border with Pakistan, “How do you deal with this? please get together and sort it intelligence agents on April dian report. Two sources close fled from the fighting, he said. has been an Islamic State The president and the prime out, so the country can unitedly 4 and April 20. Islamic State to the president said Sirisena Casualty figures werestronghold, some villages in minister are part of the same face the challenge.” claimed responsibility for the had asked the country’s police not available. A spokesman Khogyani and Shirzad dis- 2 more deaths take government, and they are blam- Sri Lankan intelligence of- attacks on Tuesday. chief and defence secretary to for the Taliban, who control tricts have been controlled Telangana student ing each other,” said Keheliya ficials were tipped off about an The leader of parliament, resign following the attacks. more territory than at any by the Taliban. suicide toll to 10 Hyderabad: Two more intermediate students in More civilians killed by US and Afghan forces than by insurgents: UN Telangana on Wednesday committed suicide, taking AFP ing the first three months of propriate,” the report states. accountability” and that it the number to 10 since Kabul 2019, international and pro- UNAMA started compiling strives for precision in all its the results were declared government forces were re- civilian casualty data in 2009 operations. “We reserve the last week, even as protests Afghan civilians are for the sponsible for the deaths of 305 amid deteriorating security right of self-defence of our continued over the Telan- first time being killed in great- civilians, whereas insurgent conditions in Afghanistan. forces as well as the Afghan gana Board of Intermediate er numbers by US and pro- groups killed 227 people, the It is the first tally since re- Security Forces,” Butler said Education (TBIE) goof-ups. government forces than by the United Nations Assistance Mis- cords began that shows pro- in a statement. Depressed over failure Taliban and other insurgent sion in Afghanistan (UNAMA) government forces have killed “The best way to end the in examinations, Chakali groups, a UN report released said in a quarterly report. more civilians than insurgents suffering of non-combatants is Raju hanged himself in his Wednesday revealed. The majority of the deaths have, though insurgents were to end the fighting through an house in Chinna Shakar- The bloody milestone resulted from US air strikes or responsible for more than twice agreed-upon reduction in vio- ampet village of the Medak comes as the US steps up its air from search operations on the as many injuries as were pro- lence on all sides.” district. Another student campaign in Afghanistan while ground, primarily conducted by US soldiers stand guard outside the venue of a meeting in Ghazni, government forces. According to US Air Force Malothu Naveen of the Wa- pushing for a peace deal with US-backed Afghan forces, some Afghanistan, recently. (EPA-EFE) Colonel Dave Butler, Central Command, the US rangal Rural district ended the Taliban, who now control of which UNAMA said “appear spokesman for US Forces- dropped 7,362 bombs in Af- his life by jumping before a or influence more parts of the to act with impunity”. es and international military alties, to publish the results of Afghanistan, said the US mili- ghanistan in 2018, the highest train. (IANS) country than at any time since “UNAMA urges both the forces to conduct investigations their findings, and to provide tary holds itself “to the high- number since at least 2010, and they were ousted in 2001. Dur- Afghan national security forc- into allegations of civilian casu- compensation to victims as ap- est standards of accuracy and up from 4,361 in 2017.