Author: Priya Saha

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading US journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has left his family in “complete shock”, lawyers said. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, was acquitted by a panel of three judges. “By a majority of two to one, they have acquitted all the accused persons and ordered their release,” a provincial advocate general, Salman Talibuddin, told Reuters. Pearl, 38, was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi after the September 11, 2001, attacks on…

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (AFP) – The choice was straightforward for Hamidullah Asadi, a member of Afghanistan’s minority Hazara community – wait for the next deadly attack or join a growing militia in the mountains. After spending months recovering from grave injuries inflicted by an Islamic State (Isis) suicide bomber, he was ready to fight. “We were forced to take up arms,” said Asadi, now a spokesman for the Resistance for Justice Movement – a band of Hazara fighters based in the country’s rugged, snow-capped central highlands. “Our expectations of those who were supposed to defend us were not met.” Afghan security…

Different ethnic minority rights organisations on Wednesday staged a demonstration in the capital with a seven-point demand including bringing an end to eviction of ethnic minority people from their land in the name of protecting reserve forest, eco-park or national project. They demanded that ownership-recognition should be given to the minority people of Madhupur forest and fix their own land immediately through holding a tripartite survey among three parties — administration and forest department, National Human Rights Commission and ethnic minority community. To press home the demand, around 22 organisations, led by Bangladesh Adibashi Forum, formed a human chain with…

Leaders of a protest movement sought Wednesday to distance themselves from a day of violence when thousands of farmers stormed India’s historic Red Fort, the most dramatic moment in two months of demonstrations that have grown into a major challenge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Farmers demanding the repeal of new agricultural laws briefly took over of the 17th-century fort, and images broadcast live on television shocked the nation. In a particularly bold rebuke to Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, the protesters hoisted a Sikh religious flag. At least one protester died, and several demonstrators were injured, as were more than…

Right-wing Hindu activists have attacked a prayer gathering inside a Catholic media center in central India after accusing the center of conducting illegal religious conversions. More than 100 activists barged into Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra in Indore city in Madhya Pradesh state on Jan. 26, shouting slogans hailing Hindu god Ram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Victory to Mother India). The mob accused the center of holding mass religious conversions and sought action against its officials under a newly enacted state law to check religious conversion. However, Catholic authorities denied the allegations and described it as an organized attack to terrorize Christians who had peacefully gathered there for…

It is 72 years since India promulgated its secular-democratic constitution. The nation observed the anniversary on Jan. 26, just as in previous years, with a military parade in New Delhi. But an uneasy disquiet continues across the country. Over the years, the parade added cultural tableaux from its provinces. Uttar Pradesh state’s cultural tableau this year displayed the model of the Ram temple being built in Ayodhya town at a spot where an ancient mosque stood until 1992 when Hindu radicals demolished it. The temple has political connotations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has vowed to turn…

A great rally was held yesterday. Ethnic Garo and Koch have lived in the Madhupur forest (​Tangail) for   centuries. In 1962, the government announced that the forest was publicly owned. Now the Forest Department wants to evict tribal communities. Tangail (AsiaNews) – More than a thousand ethnic Garo and Koch, most of them Christians, held a rally at the Madhupur bus stop in Tangail yesterday to protest against their expulsion by the Forest Department from land they claim as their own. Thousands of ethnic Garo and Koch live in the Madhupur forest, ​Tangail, in the Diocese of Mymensingh. They have…

The fundamental law to regulate guardianship in Bangladesh is the Guardians and Wards Act (G&W Act) which was enacted in 1890 with the purpose of consolidating and amending all laws relating to a minor for whose person or property or both there is a guardian in the country. This Act extends to the whole of Bangladesh and is applicable for all people irrespective of their religion and status. However, there are few other laws in place which regulate the matter of guardianship for specific group of people. For example, if the parties to any proceeding are Muslims, all questions regarding…

Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) from racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. are twice as likely to be ineligible for disease-modifying therapies than white patients, because their mutations are not known to be suited to approved treatments, a study reports. The resulting lack of treatment access exacerbates these groups’ already severe disease course and earlier mortality, its researchers wrote. The study, “Cystic Fibrosis Patients of Minority Race and Ethnicity Less Likely Eligible for CFTR Modulators Based on CFTR Genotype,” was published in the journal Pediatric Pulmonology. CF is caused by various mutations in the CFTR gene that result…

China, Denmark, General news, Hong Kong, International relations Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod (S) plans to visit China when the corona situation is better. (Stock Photo) Emil Helms / Ritzau Scanpix Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod (S) recently had a conversation with China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi. It is the first time in over two years that Foreign ministers from each country have had a conversation and among other things, one topic was human rights and the cooperation between the EU and China. Jeppe Kofod said in a press release that the two Ministers agreed to further develop the cooperation under…

ON Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to safeguard religious sites around the world, in line with the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution was proposed by Saudi Arabia, co-sponsored by Pakistan and other nations from the developing world, and supported by the US and EU. However, it did not take long before delegates from India and Pakistan began arguing over the status of minority rights in each other’s territory. Unfortunately, a number of countries are found wanting when it comes to protecting and preserving the right to life and dignity of…

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