DUBAI: British ministers have announced a statutory judge-led inquiry into allegations that crack soldiers from the UK’s Special Air Service were involved in up to 54 killings of civilians in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013.
The probe into claims of summary executions carried out by members of the SAS special forces unit comes after years of reports about British troops allegedly killing civilians in cold blood.
In a statement to the British House of Commons, Minister for Defense People Andrew Murrison said the Ministry of Defense would concede to longstanding demands for an “independent statutory inquiry” after years of dismissing the idea, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
The investigation will cover the period from mid-2010 to mid-2013.
Murrison added that Lord Justice Haddon-Cave would head the inquiry and that work would start “in earnest in 2023.”
Haddon-Cave will stand down from his job as senior presiding judge for England and Wales to focus on the task, according to The Guardian.
The announcement follows allegations that Afghans were killed in suspicious circumstances by one SAS unit in Helmand province, and that their deaths amounted to war crimes.
British Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey said: “This special inquiry is welcome and must succeed. It is essential to protect the reputation of our British special forces, guarantee the integrity of military investigations, and secure justice for any of those affected.”
According to a high court case brought by law firm Leigh Day on behalf Afghan national, Saifullah, the man’s father, two brothers, and a cousin were killed during an SAS raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan in February 2011.
Court evidence indicated that Afghan men detained on SAS night raids were often separated from their families and shot dead after they were said to have unexpectedly produced a hand grenade or an AK-47 rifle.
Saifullah’s legal team sought a judicial review, arguing that the MoD did not properly investigate allegations of unlawful activity and that Britain had breached its human rights obligations by not properly examining them.
Internal correspondence revealed that an SAS sergeant-major described the episode as “the latest massacre” in an email sent the following morning, after the report on a mission that led to the deaths of Saifullah’s family members was filed.
Concerns about SAS activity in Afghanistan have been circling around the MoD for years, but criminal investigations were closed three years ago without any prosecutions being brought.
In 2014, military police launched Operation Northmoor, an investigation into allegations of more than 600 offenses by British forces in Afghanistan, including the alleged killing of civilians by the SAS. It was wound down in 2017 and closed in 2019, and the MoD said no evidence of criminality was found.
In court proceedings in July relating to Saifullah’s case, Edward Craven, a lawyer representing the claimants, said the case “concerns alleged state wrongdoings of the most serious kind” and that there was “a pattern of extrajudicial killings, allegations of a cover-up, and allegations of a failure to properly investigate them.”
The court heard that a military police officer wrote that “political pressure” was applied in 2016 to narrow the focus of a military police investigation into allegations of summary killings by SAS soldiers to limit their inquiries to “tactical-level command responsibility.”
Lawyers said the inquiry’s task would not be to determine individuals’ criminal or civil liability, but instead to focus on whether Afghans were killed unlawfully and if there was a credible pattern of unlawful killings by the SAS. It may recommend that further criminal or civil investigations are necessary.
Investigation launched into claims SAS troops killed 54 civilians in Afghanistan
https://arab.news/b57zc
Investigation launched into claims SAS troops killed 54 civilians in Afghanistan
- UK Ministry of Defense caves in to demands for ‘independent statutory inquiry’
- Afghan man claims in court father, 2 brothers, cousin killed during SAS raid in February 2011
In West Bengal, community iftars offer space for inclusivity, solidarity
- Know Your Neighbor initiative for Muslims, Hindus and Christians started in Kolkata in 2017
- This year’s iftars promote women, social workers and grassroots activists from various groups
NEW DELHI: During Ramadan, a special iftar initiative in India’s West Bengal brings together different groups from the state’s diverse society to build mutual trust and strengthen neighborly bonds.
Islam has been present in Bengal since the 13th century. Muslims, who make up nearly a third of the state’s population of 100 million people, have for centuries made significant contributions to Bengali socio-linguistic identity and culture.a
But for the past decade their heritage in the state has been undermined, accompanied by tensions and riots ignited by the rise of majoritarian Hindu right-wing narratives across India.
To address the situation, a group of Bengali Muslims and Hindus started the Know Your Neighbor initiative in 2017. During the fasting month, among the events they organize is “Dosti ki Iftar,” or “Iftar of Friendship,” which brings together representatives of the region’s various religious and social groups.
This year, for the first time, one such iftar was held specifically for women, with the aim of creating a safe and open space to exchange views, address stereotypes and foster female-led unity.
“Women from many sections of the society are more marginalized than others ... Among us are Hindus, Muslims, Christians as well,” Tody Mazumdar, sociology student and Know Your Neighbor member, told Arab News.
“We want to oppose the current narrative, or the current propaganda, that is being spread so rapidly about Bengal having only one identity. We want to give a clear message that we are a diverse cultural and religious group known as Bengalis, and we all stay together, and we all eat together.”
The event, hosting a few dozen women from different religious and caste groups, was co-organized by students at Deeniyat Muallima College in Santragachi in the metropolitan area of Kolkata.
Among them was Shruti Ghosh, a dancer and theatre artist, for whom being a part of the iftar was a way of building resilience against divisive politics and policies.
“Iftar, of course, is a part of Ramadan ... but it’s also about sharing food. And food is very important in terms of cultural preservation, in terms of expressing your identity, asserting your identity. Moreover, food is something we enjoy. We sit with food, talk, exchange ideas, and share memories. So much happens over food,” she said.
“That is very important for me ... to come together, particularly in these trying times, where we have so much violence and intolerance being unleashed, and hatred being generated in society.”
This week, another iftar will be hosted in a historical setting at the Basri Shah Masjid, the oldest mosque of Kolkata, and next week another will gather grassroots activists working in different sectors of civil society.
Sabir Ahamed, the founder of Know Your Neighbor, hopes it will help make the social groups they represent engage more and better.
“We are bringing the experience of iftar to them to bridge the gap between different communities,” he said. “We are planning more iftars at different locations to promote harmony and coexistence.”
They are also sending a message.
“It’s like a neighbor-to-neighbor call, and we can stay together and talk with each other freely, without any judgment or without any social boundaries. Ramadan means sharing and caring, so we spread our love towards everyone. We can sit together as Indians, as humans,” Siddiqa Tabassum, director of Deeniyat Muallima College, told Arab News.
“It’s a little step, but small steps can do miracles.”
