SALISBURY, England: British investigators will update an emergency response committee of senior ministers on Wednesday about the mystery illness that struck down a former Russian double agent and his daughter.
Sergei Skripal, once a colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on Sunday afternoon.
Police said they had been exposed to an unknown substance. More than two days later, both are critically ill in intensive care.
Counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation and Britain’s military research laboratory at Porton Down is trying to identify the substance which caused Skripal, 66, and his daughter to fall ill.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd will chair the emergency response meeting.
Britain has cautioned Russia that if the Kremlin was behind any poisoning then there will be grave consequences and British ministers have drawn parallels with the 2006 murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko who was killed with radioactive polonium-210 in London.
A previous British inquiry said President Vladimir Putin probably approved the murder Litvinenko who died after drinking green tea laced with the rare and very potent radioactive isotope at London’s Millennium Hotel.
Russia, which denied any involvement in the death of Litvinenko, has dismissed claims that it may have had a hand in the poisoning of Skripal.
Moscow says anti-Russian hysteria is being whipped up without any evidence to show its involvement in the Skripal case. Russia holds a presidential election on March 18, which polls show Vladimir Putin should comfortably win.
Skripal, who passed the identity of dozens of spies to the MI6 foreign intelligence agency, was given refuge in Britain after being exchanged in 2010 for Russian spies caught in the West as part of a Cold War-style spy swap at Vienna airport.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested Skripal in 2004 on suspicion of betraying dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006 after a secret trial.
Britain’s top ministers to meet on mysterious illness of Russian double agent
Britain’s top ministers to meet on mysterious illness of Russian double agent
Pakistan army chief tells Kabul to choose Islamabad or Taliban militants
- Pakistan blames Afghanistan for facilitating cross-border attacks in its territory, allegations Kabul denies
- Ties have been strained since October, when border clashes left dozens dead on both sides
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has told Afghanistan to choose between Islamabad and the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants, state media reported on Sunday as ties between both neighbors remain strained.
Pakistan’s army and civilian government have both blamed the Afghan Taliban recently for facilitating cross-border attacks in Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies. Afghanistan said it does not allow its territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan and cannot be held responsible for Islamabad’s security challenges.
Both countries were involved in border clashes in October in which dozens of soldiers were killed and wounded on both sides. Officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan have held peace talks in Qatar, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia over the past few months but failed to reach an agreement.
“Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has said Afghanistan will have to choose between Fitna Al-Khawarij and Pakistan,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
Munir was addressing the National Ulema and Mashaikh Conference in Islamabad earlier this month, state media said.
“Fitna Al-Khawarij” is a term the Pakistan military frequently uses for the TTP.
Munir pointed out that 70 percent of the TTP’s formations that enter Pakistan from Afghanistan comprise Afghan citizens.
“He said innocent citizens, including children, are being targeted through terrorism with the backing of the Afghan Taliban,” Radio Pakistan reported.
While Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire, tensions persist between the two countries as militant attacks persist in Pakistan.
Pakistan summoned Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission on Friday and demanded “decisive action” against TTP militants after four Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on a military camp in northwest Pakistan.
The foreign office said the Afghan government had been informed that Pakistan “reserves the right to defend its sovereignty and protect its citizens” and would take all necessary measures to respond to attacks originating from Afghan territory.
Afghanistan has warned Pakistan in the past against attacking its territory, saying it reserves the right to respond to such provocations.
