KATMANDU, Nepal: Officials in Nepal say they are struggling to identify many of the 22 survivors of a deadly plane crash, with many badly burned, in critical condition and unable to speak.
Police spokesman Manoj Neupane says extensive burns, in both the living and the dead, have made identifications far more difficult. The flight from Bangladesh, carrying 67 passengers and four crew members, slammed into a field beside the Katmandu airport runway on Monday, bursting into flames. He says at least 11 of the survivors have been identified, but did not have an exact total. The crash left 49 people dead.
Neupane says 19 survivors are still being treated in Katmandu hospitals, and another has been flown to Singapore for more medical care. Two surviving passengers, both Nepalese, have been discharged.
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Nepal authorities struggle to identify plane crash survivors
Nepal authorities struggle to identify plane crash survivors
Pakistani court sentences cleric from banned party to 35 years for inciting violence
- Pakistani officials say an anti-terrorism court has sentenced a senior leader of a banned Islamist party to 35 years in prison for inciting violence
- Isa had faced criticism from hard-line religious groups after he granted bail to a man from the minority Ahmadi community
LAHORE, Pakistan: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced a senior leader of a banned Islamist party to 35 years in prison for inciting violence, more than a year after the cleric publicly called for the killing of the country’s then-chief justice, court officials and a defense lawyer said Tuesday.
Zaheerul Hassan Shah, a leader of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, was arrested last year after a video circulated on social media showing him offering 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheaded then-Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
Isa had faced criticism from hard-line religious groups last year after he granted bail to a man from the minority Ahmadi community in a blasphemy case.
The Ahmadi religion is an offshoot of Islam, but Pakistan’s parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Ahmadi homes and places of worship are often targeted by Sunni militants, who consider them heretical.
Defense lawyer Maqsood-ul-Haq and court officials said Shah was convicted on Monday by an anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore.
The latest development comes less than two months after Pakistan’s government banned the TLP party following deadly clashes between the party’s supporters and police during a pro-Gaza rally.
Since those clashes, the party’s leader, Saad Rizvi, has been missing.
Police say Rizvi fled to Pakistan-administered Kashmir during the unrest, which began in early October after Rizvi was leading a march on Islamabad from Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
Zaheerul Hassan Shah, a leader of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, was arrested last year after a video circulated on social media showing him offering 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheaded then-Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
Isa had faced criticism from hard-line religious groups last year after he granted bail to a man from the minority Ahmadi community in a blasphemy case.
The Ahmadi religion is an offshoot of Islam, but Pakistan’s parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Ahmadi homes and places of worship are often targeted by Sunni militants, who consider them heretical.
Defense lawyer Maqsood-ul-Haq and court officials said Shah was convicted on Monday by an anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore.
The latest development comes less than two months after Pakistan’s government banned the TLP party following deadly clashes between the party’s supporters and police during a pro-Gaza rally.
Since those clashes, the party’s leader, Saad Rizvi, has been missing.
Police say Rizvi fled to Pakistan-administered Kashmir during the unrest, which began in early October after Rizvi was leading a march on Islamabad from Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
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