DUBAI: Abu Dhabi-based Arabic newspaper Al-Ittihad has started publishing its weekly Urdu edition to raise awareness about COVID-19 among people of the Subcontinent who understand the language and are currently residing in the United Arab Emirates.
The edition was first brought out on April 26 to serve the Urdu speaking readers among the blue collar workers in the Gulf state.
“Urdu was selected since we wanted to target an important UAE audience,” Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ittihad newspaper, Hamad Al Kaabi, told Arab News on Friday. “Our message is for the residents who speak Urdu, and we want to enhance awareness about the disease among them.”
Al-Ittihad brought out about 100,000 copies of its weekly edition and distributed them among workers class free of cost. The paper published information on COVID-19 and guided readers how to protect themselves from the disease. It also carried articles on different measures taken by the UAE government to contain the spread of the virus.
“We will continue to print the weekly even after the pandemic is over since the publication seeks to serve an important social segment that must get authentic information on burning issues,” Al Kaabi said.
He added that the eight-pager was also promoted digitally for greater outreach.
Al-Ittihad is one of the oldest newspapers in the UAE and was first published 50 years ago. It also prints The National, an English-language daily, which was launched in 2016.
Hassan Sajwani, a prominent Emirati who tweets on politics and counterterrorism, applauded the launch of the Urdu weekly, saying in one of his Twitter posts that it was “imperative to address and engage this large and important segment of UAE population. Well done.”
The UAE is home to over 200 nationalities. Emirates constitute roughly 20 percent of the total population, making UAE home to one of the world’s highest percentage of immigrants.
Indians and Pakistanis form the largest expatriate groups in the country, constituting 28 percent and 12 percent of the total population, respectively.
UAE newspaper launches Urdu edition to raise COVID-19 awareness
https://arab.news/pjkvc
UAE newspaper launches Urdu edition to raise COVID-19 awareness
- Al-Ittihad is one of the oldest newspapers in town and it also publishes an English daily
- The new publication seeks to target blue collar workers from Pakistan and India who read and understand Urdu
Over 2,200 Daesh detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria: Iraqi official
- Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists
BAGHDAD: Iraq has so far received 2,225 Daesh group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.
They are among up to 7,000 Daesh detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”
Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF’s role in confronting Daesh had come to an end.
Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister’s office, told AFP on Saturday that “Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition,” which Washington has led since 2014 to fight Daesh.
He said they are being held in “strict, regular detention centers.”
A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the “continued transfer of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition,” using another name for Daesh.
On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.
- Iraq calls for repatriation -
Daesh seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.
Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offenses.
Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.
On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military’s operation.
In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said “the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist Daesh organization before the competent Iraqi courts.”
Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.
Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.
Maan noted that “the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed.”
