Pakistani leader denounces India over Kashmir

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan speaks in a pre-recorded message which was played during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 25, 2020. (AP)
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Updated 25 September 2020
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Pakistani leader denounces India over Kashmir

  • Khan said Friday that Islamophobia prevails in India today and threatens the close to 200 million Muslims who live there
  • “They believe that India is exclusive to Hindus and others are not equal citizens,” Khan said

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has assailed India’s Hindu nationalist government and its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, calling India a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam.
Khan said Friday that Islamophobia prevails in India today and threatens the close to 200 million Muslims who live there.
“They believe that India is exclusive to Hindus and others are not equal citizens,” Khan said in a prerecorded speech to the UN General Assembly, which is being held virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Khan has frequently criticized the decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2019 to strip Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrap its separate constitution and remove inherited protections on land and jobs. India’s security clampdown has sparked protests, and UN-appointed independent experts have called on the Indian government to take urgent action.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India. Pakistan denies the charge and says it offers only diplomatic and moral support to the rebels.
The Kashmir region is split between India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over the territory.
Khan, as he did in his speech before the world body last year, also condemned the targeting of Muslims in many countries and provocations and incitement “in the name of free speech.”
Despite Khan’s outcry at the treatment of Muslims worldwide, Pakistan has not criticized China’s assault on its Muslim minority Uighur population. Pakistan’s silence, like that of other influential Muslim nations, is linked to its economic ties to China. Pakistan is heavily indebted to China and the two countries have a long history of cooperation both economically and militarily.


Four migrants die in US immigration custody over first 10 days of 2026

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Four migrants die in US immigration custody over first 10 days of 2026

  • Trump administration increases migrant detentions, aims for more deportations
  • DHS says death rate aligns with historic norms amid rising detentions

WASHINGTON: Four migrants died while in custody of US immigration authorities over ​the first 10 days of 2026, according to government press releases, a loss of life that followed record detention deaths last year under President Donald Trump.
The deaths included two migrants from Honduras, one from Cuba and another from Cambodia, and occurred from January 3-9, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration aims to ramp up deportations and has increased the number of migrants in detention. As of January 7, ICE statistics ‌showed that the ‌agency was detaining 69,000 people. The numbers were ‌expected ⁠to ​rise ‌following a massive ICE funding infusion passed by the US Congress last year. At least 30 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the highest level in two decades, agency figures showed.
Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network, called the high number of deaths “truly staggering” and urged the administration to shutter detention centers.
US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the rate of deaths ⁠had remained in step with historic norms as the detention population has climbed. “As bed space has ‌expanded, we have maintained  higher standard of care ‍than most prisons that hold ‍US citizens — including providing access to proper medical care,” McLaughlin said.
The Cuban detainee, ‍Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died on January 3 in Camp East Montana, a detention site opened by the Trump administration on the grounds of Fort Bliss in Texas. ICE said it was investigating the death of Lunas, adding that officials said he ​had become disruptive and placed him in isolation. Officials later found him in distress, and emergency medical technicians pronounced him dead, ⁠ICE said.
The two Honduran men — Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, 42, and Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz, 68 — died in area hospitals in Houston and Indio, California, on January 5 and 6, respectively, both following heart-related issues, ICE said.
Parady La, a Cambodian man, 46, died on January 9 following severe drug withdrawal symptoms at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, ICE said. The administration began using that space last year, it said. The Trump administration has greatly reduced the number of migrants released from detention on humanitarian grounds, a move critics say has driven some to accept deportation. In addition to the in-custody deaths, an ICE officer ‌fatally shot a Minnesota mother of three last week, an incident that sparked protests in Minneapolis and cities around the country.