DHAKA: Bangladesh’s chief justice and central bank governor have resigned, officials said on Saturday, as student protests that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee have widened to target more officials appointed during her time in office.
Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan resigned, the law ministry’s adviser Asif Nazrul said in a Facebook video post, after students warned him of “dire consequences” if he did not. Reuters could not immediately contact Hassan.
Nazrul, an adviser in the new caretaker government, urged protesters to remain peaceful. “Don’t damage any public property,” he said in the post.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder has also resigned but his resignation has not been accepted given the importance of the position, finance ministry adviser Salehuddin Ahmed told reporters. Reuters could not contact Talukder.
Days earlier, four deputy governors were forced to resign after about 300 to 400 bank officials protested against what they said was corruption by top officials.
The vice chancellor of Dhaka University, A.S.M. Maksud Kamal, has also resigned, the university said. Reuters was unable to contact Kamal.
The university has been the epicenter of deadly protests that escalated in July against quotas in government jobs before morphing into an oust-Hasina campaign.
Hasina has been sheltering in New Delhi since Monday following the uprising that killed about 300 people, many of them students, ending her uninterrupted rule of 15 years in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.
Since her departure, the country has also seen the appointment of a new police chief as part of a shake-up of the security top brass that also included a new head of the technical intelligence monitoring agency and changes among senior army officials.
Bangladesh chief justice, head of central bank resign amid protests
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Bangladesh chief justice, head of central bank resign amid protests
- Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan resigned after students warned him of “dire consequences,” says law ministry adviser
- Bangladesh uprising last month claimed around 300 lives, many of them students, forcing Sheikh Hasina to flee country
Pakistan and Indonesia conclude week-long, joint military exercise to counter militancy
- Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations
- These military exercises help foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Indonesia have concluded a week-long, joint military exercise, Elang Strike-II, to counter militancy, the Pakistani military said on Monday.
This was the second exercise between the two countries in the counter-terrorism domain, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
It began on September 8 and continued for a week at the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) in Pabbi town of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
“The exercise was aimed at mutually beneficial sharing of experience and training methodology between the two armies which have strong brotherly relations,” the ISPR said in a statement.
Senior officials of Pakistan Army and Col. Budi Wirman, defense attaché of Indonesia, attended the closing ceremony.
Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations. These drills help foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts to counter threats to regional and global peace.
The South Asian country, which has fought back militancy for decades, also hosts cadets from these brotherly nations each year to undergo specialized military training.
Pakistani man to appear in US court on assassination plot charges
- Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot
- Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the US, prosecutors said
NEW YORK: A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran is set to appear in US court on Monday on charges of scheming to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot.
Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States, prosecutors said.
The defendant named Donald Trump as a potential target but had not conceived the scheme as a plan to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Court papers do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. As president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani.
There are no suggestions that Merchant was tied to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, or a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
Merchant faces one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire.
He is expected to enter a plea before US Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT). Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 15.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court papers ran contrary to Tehran’s policy of “legally prosecuting the murder of General Soleimani.”
Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector
- Last month, Gunvor Group signed an agreement to acquire 50 percent shares of Pakistan’s Total Parco oil marketing company
- PM Shehbaz Sharif informs Gunvor Group chairman of reforms undertaken to increase foreign investment in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Global commodities trader Gunvor Group has expressed its “keen” interest in investing in Pakistan’s petroleum sector, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said on Monday.
The statement came after Sharif’s meeting with Gunvor Group Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist and Total Energies Vice President Oceania & Southeast Asia Mehmet Celepoglu
During the meeting, the prime minister highlighted the rapid reforms that were underway to increase investment and business activities in Pakistan, according to PM Sharif’s office.
“Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist expressed the Gunvor Group’s keen interest in investment in the petroleum sector of Pakistan,” it said in a statement.
The prime minister was informed that the Gunvor Group had signed an agreement in August to acquire 50 percent shares of Total Parco Pakistan Limited, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total Energies.
A joint venture between Total Energies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited in Pakistan, Total PARCO Pakistan Limited has a retail network of more than 800 service stations and is involved in fuel logistics and lubricants.
“The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to provide all possible facilities to the Gunvor Group,” Sharif’s office said.
Since avoiding a default last year, Islamabad has been making attempts to boost foreign investment and trade to drive economic growth in the South Asian country.
In recent months, Pakistan has reached multiple investment deals with a number of countries, mainly the Gulf states, in infrastructure, energy, maritime, ports and other sectors.
Pakistan reports sixth case of mpox virus in Islamabad
- Patient admitted to the isolation ward of Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences
- Mpox is mild but people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complication
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities on Monday confirmed a sixth case of mpox virus in the federal capital of Islamabad, saying the patient was admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital.
The Border Health Staff (BHS) detected mpox symptoms in a 44-year-old man during screening at the Islamabad International Airport, according to the federal health minister.
Since confirming its first mpox case last month, Pakistan has implemented stringent screening protocols at all airports and border crossings for the screening of travelers.
“The sixth case of mpox has been reported in Pakistan,” a health ministry spokesperson said in a statement. “The travel history of the 44-year-old man is from Gulf countries.”
Patients who contract mpox get flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Mpox is usually mild but can kill. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complications from the infection.
On Sept. 8, health authorities declared Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province mpox-free after all four patients previously infected with the virus recovered.
Dr. Mukhtar Bharath, the prime minister’s coordinator for health, said the health ministry was working closely with provincial authorities to monitor new cases and around 630,000 passengers had so far been screened at airports.
“Effective measures are being taken to protect people from mpox,” Dr. Bharath said.
The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over the spread of a new mutated strain of mpox named clade I, which first emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has since spread to several countries, leading to increased monitoring and preventive measures worldwide.
Sindh minister orders security for polio worker who says she was raped on duty
- The polio worker testified before a local court on Friday that she was raped while she was on duty
- But the woman later retracted her statement amid threats by her husband for being an ‘adulteress’
KARACHI: Provincial Health Minister Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho on Monday took notice of alleged rape of a polio worker in the Jacobabad district of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province and instructed police to provide her round-the-clock security.
The incident occurred in Allah Baksh Jakhrani village of Jacobabad. The polio worker testified before a local court on Friday that she was raped while on duty, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported. A day later, the polio worker retracted her statement and said she was robbed, reportedly amid threats by her husband for being a ‘Kari,’ an adulteress, who deserves death.
The Sindh health minister has instructed police to provide security around the polio worker’s current residence and requested Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to provide the woman with monetary compensation to help her take care of her children.
“Our female polio workers are the backbone of the polio program and protecting them has always been the utmost priority of the program,” Dr. Pechuho said. “I am taking every necessary action to ensure that she gets the justice she deserves.”
On Sept. 9, Pakistan launched a week-long, nationwide polio campaign amid a spike in militant attacks. The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under the age of five and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Two days later, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying officers assigned to protect health workers conducting polio immunization in the northwestern South Waziristan district, in the same province, wounding six officers and three civilians. The militant Daesh group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases of polio, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate polio in the country. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped.
