Established 1961 7 International Thursday, December 24, 2020 New beginning: Afghan police team welcoming back Taleban fighters Election activist dies after rush-hour Kabul ambush

PANJWAI, Afghanistan: After more me. I feel absolutely safe.” of “weakening the leadership” of the than a decade fighting for the Taleban Haji Lala’s return early this year was Taleban. During his time as Panjwai and being hounded by Afghan and US made possible because of the protection police chief, Hakimi launched insurgent- forces, Haji Lala thought there was little of the former police chief of Panjwai dis- clearing operations in almost every vil- chance of ever returning home. Once a trict, Sultan Mohammad Hakimi. Despite lage in the district, making it one of the commander and senior district official the bloodshed he has witnessed through- most secure areas in Kandahar. But with for the insurgent group, he says he was out his career, Hakimi has made it a per- violence surging in Afghanistan, the captured by Pakistan’s security services sonal mission to give ex-Taleban fighters, progress is fragile-with the Taleban last who took him across the border and commanders and officials the chance to month retaking part of Panjwai in a detained him for two and a half years. reintegrate into village life. “We invited major offensive. Haji Lala said he was interrogated by the former fighters to return, assuring The Taleban ruled Afghanistan from the agents-long-term backers of the them that nobody would harass them,” 1996 to 2001 with an iron fist, imposing a Taleban-for information about a spy said Hakimi. “Those whose farms were harsh version of the Islamic sharia law. working against the group. When he was destroyed, we rebuilt them; those who Ousted by a US-led invasion after the released, the 58-year-old vowed to put had no water, we dug wells for them.” September 11 attacks, the jihadists were his militant years behind him and look for able to regroup, launching a deadly a way to go back home. ‘Our brothers’ insurgency that continues to this day. It was with the unlikely support of a Even in retirement, Hakimi has contin- In February, the Taleban signed a deal police chief and the encouragement of a ued an effort first launched by former with Washington that paved the way for PANJWAI: In this photo, former police chief of the Panjwai district, Sultan Mohammad fellow former Taleban militant that he Kandahar police chief General Abdul the withdrawal of all foreign forces by Hakimi, poses with a gun during an interview in Panjwai. — AFP was given the opportunity to return Raziq, a fierce opponent of the insur- May 2021 and the start of peace negoti- home to the southern province of gents who was assassinated in 2018. ations between the insurgents and the Kandahar. “I thought maybe... they Raziq’s brother Tadin Khan Achakzai Afghan government in Qatar. International Crisis Group. “They were ern suburb of the capital as he headed to would hand me over to the US troops,” has since joined the effort after taking never able to convince the higher-up work in his car. Rasheed’s murder follows said Lala, describing his initial trepida- over as police chief of the province. “We New beginnings commanders to bring a lot of their fighters a similar pattern of recent weeks, where tion at trusting a police officer. Before will continue to help them in the future, Hundreds of Taleban fighters have along with them,” Watkins said. prominent Afghans have been ambushed being captured, US forces he had battled they are our brothers too,” said defected from the group, but it still has Meanwile, a prominent Afghan activist during the often-chaotic morning traffic. against had raided his house nearly 15 Achakzai. tens of thousands of members and claims who led an independent election monitor- Rasheed was head of the Free and Fair times. “After I returned, friends and vil- “If we have the right to live, so does to have influence over more than half of ing organization died Wednesday after Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) lagers visited me for nearly 10 days, as if the Taleban-but to live in peace... not to Afghanistan. Several previous efforts to being ambushed by gunmen in Kabul, an which, according to its website, has there was a wedding party,” he told AFP. carry out suicide attacks and kill peo- help reintegrate Taleban fighters had aide and police said, the latest targeted worked since 2004 to promote democra- “I have a good reputation now in the vil- ple.” For Hakimi, it is a way of contribut- failed as they were “sporadic”, said killing in the restive capital. Mohammad cy, good governance and human lage and the police are also not troubling ing to a reconciliation process and also Andrew Watkins of conflict think tank Yousuf Rasheed was attacked in a south- resource management. — AFP

justice system, a district court in the central city of News in brief Japan court allows Shizuoka in 2014 granted his request for a retrial. The court said investigators could have planted evidence and ordered the former boxer freed, Cardona US education secretary retrial for ‘longest’ adding it was “unbearably unjust” to keep him detained pending the new trial. Prosecutors WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden death row prisoner appealed that ruling, and won at the Tokyo High on Tuesday nominated Miguel Cardona to be his Court, prompting Hakamada to move the case to education secretary, marking a new record for the the Supreme Court, which yesterday ruled in his potential number of Latinos in the cabinet. “In TOKYO: Japan’s highest court has upheld a ruling favor, backing the retrial. “The Supreme Court Miguel Cardona, America will have an experienced granting a retrial to a man described as the world’s made a decision today to uphold a retrial by over- and dedicated public school teacher leading the longest-serving death row inmate, a lawyer for the turning the decision by the Tokyo High Court to way,” Biden said in a statement. The incoming 84-year-old said yesterday. Iwao Hakamada has dismiss the request for retrial,” Hakamada’s lawyer president said Cardona’s appointment “will help us lived under a death sentence for more than half a Yoshiyuki Todate wrote on his blog. “The fact that a address systemic inequities” and “tackle the mental century, after being convicted of robbing and mur- path for the resumption of a retrial was not cut off health crisis in our education system,” as well as dering his boss, the man’s wife, and their two is very welcome. My hands are still shaking after ease student debt and give teachers a raise. Biden, teenaged children. hearing this. I’m really, really glad.” who takes office on January 20, has already tapped But he and his supporters argue that he con- Supporters say nearly 50 years of detention, Iwao Hakamada was convicted of murdering four Alejandro Mayorkas as head of the Department of fessed to the crime after an allegedly brutal police mostly in solitary confinement with the ever-present members of the same family, but claims he confessed Homeland Security and Xavier Becerra as health after a brutal police interrogation. — AFP interrogation that included beatings, and that evi- threat of execution looming over him, took a heavy secretary. — AFP dence in the case was planted. He tried to retract toll on Hakamada’s mental health. In an interview his confession, but was sentenced to death in 1968, with AFP in 2018, the former boxer said he felt he other than the United States to carry out capital with the verdict confirmed by the Supreme Court in was “fighting about every day”. punishment, which still enjoys broad public support, HK tycoon Lai granted bail 1980. However, in a rare about-face for Japan’s rigid Japan is the only major industrialized democracy although debate on the issue is rare. — AFP HONG KONG: A Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon detained under a new national nosed with the viral infection on December 21. The security law was granted bail yesterday under Sugathakumari, poet was on ventilator support, medical college strict conditions, including house arrest and a ban authorities said. on social media posts. Jimmy Lai, a vocal Beijing Malayalam poet Besides the severe bronchial pneumonia, an critic, is one of the highest-profile figures charged after-effect of COVID-19, the condition of her vital under a sweeping security law that China organs also deteriorated, doctors said. One of the imposed on the financial hub over the summer in and activist dies most celebrated Malayalam poets of the contempo- a bid to stamp out dissent. He is accused of col- rary era, Sugathakumari was known for her unique TRIVANDRUM: Sugathakumari, an eminent luding with foreign countries by calling on over- poems filled with compassion and philosophical seas governments to sanction Hong Kong and Malayalam poet, conservationist and women’s quest. In her poetic career spanning over six activist died yesterday, She was 86. Sugathakumari China in response to its ongoing crackdown on decades, she fought against the ruthless oppression pro-democracy activism in the city. — AFP had tested positive for COVID-19 and was under- of women and indiscriminate exploitation of nature, going treatment at the government hospital in through her work. Thiruvananthapuram. “The tragic end has come. As I bow my head in several agitations for the environmental cause and The octogenarian poet rarely made any public tribute to the departed soul, I recall many moments conservation of nature. She had spearheaded the Japan’s ‘Twitter killer’ drops appeal appearance in recent days due to old age related at her side, from felicitating her Saraswati Samman, fiercest environmental campaign witnessed by A Japanese man dubbed the “Twitter difficulties. Fondly called “Sugatha Teacher” by to addressing environmentalists alongside her...,” Kerala against a proposal to set up a hydel project TOKYO: killer” has withdrawn an appeal of his guilty hundreds of her admirers and followers, author and politician Shashi Tharoor wrote on in the Silent valley in Western Ghats. She was also verdict and death sentence over the murder of Sugathakumar had been admitted to the intensive Twitter in his tribute to Sugathakumari. A fearless in the forefront of the recent agitation against con- nine people, a court official said yesterday. care unit of the medical college after being diag- and tireless fighter in real life, Sugathakumari led struction of an airport at Aranmula. Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, “submitted the motion” on Monday to drop the appeal filed by his lawyers, a court spokesman said. Shiraishi lured Indian priest and nun people who posted online comments about sui- cidal thoughts to his home, where he killed and butchered his young victims. All but one of convicted of convent those murdered were women, and they ranged killing after 28 years in age from 15 to 26. —AFP

NEW DELHI: An Indian court on Tuesday convicted Mexico to start vaccinations today a priest and a nun for the axe murder of another con- vent sister 30 years ago because they feared their illic- MEXICO CITY: Mexico will begin Covid-19 it relationship would be made public. immunizations today, a day after the country Highlighting the latest in a series of sex scandals receives its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vac- to hit the Roman Catholic church in the southern cines, Undersecretary of Health Hugo Lopez- In this file photo, Myanmar migrants and Thai workers gather fresh shrimps at a seafood market in the Thai coastal state of Kerala, prosecutors said they would seek a Gatell said. “Tomorrow (Wednesday) the first province of Samut Sakhon. — AFP tough sentence for Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister consignment of the Pfizer vaccine against Sephy in a hearing yesterday. The murder only came SARS-CoV-2 arrives,” he said Tuesday on to light after federal investigators were called in Twitter. “There will be a press opportunity and lawless, and where huge quantities of the world’s because of doubts over local police claims that Sister then the vaccine will be safeguarded until its use heroin, speed and crystal meth are produced. Myanmar ethnic group Abhaya, a member of the Pious X Convent in on Thursday, December 24, the day vaccinations “This is the lesson to give to the people, so they Kottayam, had committed suicide. The 18-year-old start,” Lopez-Gatell said. Earlier, Foreign sentences child don’t commit the same crime in the future,” said nun’s body was found in a well in the convent in 1992. Minister Marcelo Ebrard said 1.4 million doses party spokesman Sai Than Aung. “The girl’s parents Prosecutors told the Central Bureau of Investigation will arrive from Belgium of the 34.4 million that murderer to death demanded we give him the death sentence-just like court that the nun was killed after finding Sister the company has agreed to deliver. —AFP he did to their daughter.” Yangon-based lawyer and Sephy with Kottoor and another priest in a “compro- YANGON: A minority ethnic group that unofficial- women’s rights activist Hla Hla Yee said the crime mising position” in a convent kitchen. Fearing they ly controls a swathe of eastern Myanmar has sen- was abhorrent, but said the death penalty was a would be given away, the two defendants killed Sydney eases virus curbs for Christmas tenced a man to death for the kidnap, rape and severe punishment. Abhaya with an axe and threw her body into the well. “There’s scope with the death penalty that it can The court found Kottoor and Sephy guilty of mur- murder of a six-year-old girl. An official from the SYDNEY: Sydney yesterday eased lockdown be handed to an innocent person and injustice can der. Charges against another priest, Jose Poothrikkayil, Shan State Progress Party said Wednesday the restrictions for Christmas after Australia’s death penalty was “the only option” for the 30- be carried out,” she said. Non-governmental organi- were dismissed in 2018 for lack of evidence. The largest city reported a second day of new coro- year-old, who assaulted the girl before throwing her zations say child rape is common in Myanmar, and Catholic church in Kerala has faced a number of scan- navirus cases in the single digits. Amid a record body off a cliff. Hla Hla Yee called for a ramp-up in child protection dals in recent years, including allegations of rape, testing and tracing effort, just eight new cases Shan State is home to several armed ethnic and sex education programs-particularly targeting abuse of nuns and priests fathering children. The were recorded in the past 24 hours, prompting groups who are allowed unofficial autonomy in an online pornography. “People here don’t have sex church has been accused of trying to influence cases. authorities to announce all residents could have uneasy agreement with Myanmar’s military. The education knowledge, so they target the kids around Three inquiries into Sister Abhaya’s death that said at least some visitors over to celebrate the fes- region is part of the golden triangle-including them,” she said. Marginalized ethnic groups control murder could not be proved or the killers could not be tive period. — AFP Thailand and Laos-that is frequently described as an estimated third of Myanmar’s territory. — AFP identified were rejected by courts. —AFP