August 18, 2023

While the Jaranwala attack escalated rapidly under the watch of the police, spreading across multiple Christian settlements in the city, the script of allegations, recording of evidence and reaction of the mob appears to be from a standard blasphemy playbook On August 16, 2023, dozens of Christian families had to flee violent Muslim mobs that were after the blood of two young Christian brothers. Some locals had alleged that several desecrated pages of the Holy Quran had been found near a house at Cinema Chowk in Jaranwala, Punjab. On Wednesday morning, thousands of angry men from the Faisalabad tehsil went to the Christian Colony, one of the three settlements in the area, to lynch blasphemy accused who allegedly desecrated Islamic scripture – and burnt the first church of the day. The mob then attacked churches and houses in the Christian Colony. Loudspeakers of mosques were used to incite people, and the bloodthirsty mob demanded the arrest and handover of the accused over to them to avenge alleged blasphemy. Within hours, the Salvation Army church, one of the oldest Christian-owned properties of the district, was targeted. Countless Bibles were burnt in the city, and at least eight churches were ransacked by the afternoon. The local Christian activists claim the number of churches vandalised is higher. They accused the courts and governments of acquitting blasphemers and demanded the main accused be handed over to them Social media videos, local cable and digital news outlets also spread the vile message of hate. On Facebook, terms such as Jaranwala behurmati (desecration) and Jaranwala QuranPak ki behurmati are still trending. Speaking to a local digital outlet in Jaranwala 92 News, Muslim residents of the area demanded a public execution of the accused on camera while narrating the bizarre story of alleged blasphemy as facts, in which a woman found pages of the Islamic scripture spread out in two streets of the Christian Colony after Fajr prayers. The video has 10,000 shares. As per the raging Muslims, the accused even placed their photos on the scripture to establish their identity. Jaranwala Incident: No Space For Such Intolerance, Extreme Behaviour, Says Army Chief Based on accounts narrated by participants of the mob to television channels and on social media, they caught the “evidence” early in the morning and handed it over to a cleric, Younas Chisti of the “ahl-e-sunna” group. The aggrieved majority repeatedly shouted that “Christians” keep committing blasphemy – in Nankana Sahib in February 2023 – thus, they deserve public executions. They accused the courts and governments of acquitting blasphemers and demanded the main accused be handed over to the mob that would set a precedent by hanging the violators. This was a repeated call made by angry men who had collected on the streets and Mehtab mosque in Jaranwala – and has been recorded in videos widely circulated on social media. Even before facts could be established, the assistant commissioner of the tehsil, who happens to be of the Christian faith, has been transferred. The police have registered an FIR for an offense under sections 295-B and 295-C of the blasphemy laws. The sense of relief over the lack of fatalities is relative, as hundreds have been impacted While the Jaranwala attack escalated rapidly under the police watch, spreading across multiple Christian settlements in the city, the script of the allegations, recording of evidence and reaction of the mob appears to be from a standard blasphemy playbook. Even the video interview of the aggrieved majoritarian lot reminds one of the perpetrators who lynched Priyantha Kumara while chanting slogans weaponised by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). In the videos from Jaranwala, Labbaik slogans and chants about Khatm-e-Nabuwat (finality of the prophethood) could be heard by minors and young men. But we do not need to go back to Sialkot in 2021 to trace religiously motivated violence in Pakistan. In February this year, a brutal lynching by a blasphemy mob took place in Warburton, Nankana Sahib, when the police failed to protect the accused. The same month, an Ahmadi man was killed for his faith. In April, the police rescued a Chinese national before the mob got to him near Dassu Dam, Kohistan. In May, a political worker of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was lynched in Mardan. In August, a teacher was killed for alleged blasphemy in Turbat. Main Suspects In Jaranwala Incident Apprehended: Mohsin Naqvi In Jaranwala, thankfully, “koi jani nuqsaan nahi hua,” (there were no casualties) said a Christian man working for a NGO that no lives were lost. The sense of relief over the lack of fatalities is relative, as hundreds have been impacted in the August 16 incident – just like they were in Gojra, Joseph Colony, Shahdarra, Sheikhupura, and Youhanabad. The damage to Christian lives remains irreversible. Since yesterday, local clerics of the TLP stood with police, where officers pacified the mob. Even though, in addition to actually carrying out the attacks on Ahmadi worship sites this year alone, the party members have been announcing the planned attacks in advance. And to this day, the party violently mourns Aasia Bibi’s acquittal by the Supreme Court. Tahir Ashrafi, who campaigned for the exclusion of Ahmadis from the minorities commission and whose brother is the staunch anti-Ahmadi zealot in the country, tweeted his condemnation. Senator Mushtaq of Jamat-e-Islami took time out from his hate campaign against transgender rights and demanded action against bigotry in Sweden to issue his condemnation. Shehbaz Sharif tweeted first about Sweden and then Jaranwala. Selective condemnations of violence in the name of Islam, not just by the Islamists and clergy but also by the ruling elite, are as always, for the optics alone. Meanwhile, the government have called in Rangers and thousands of law enforcers to safeguard the city. In a country where angry mobs have become a reality, there is no network of intelligence or law enforcement to preempt and intervene in time to counter attempts – like in Jaranwala or Nankana Sahib. With the rate at which minarets

A decade after hundreds of Egyptians were killed in a single day when security forces dispersed a sit-in protest in Cairo, a new report released by a human rights group to coincide with the anniversary of the massacre has claimed that authorities debated but ultimately rejected potentially less lethal options to break up the demonstration. Egypt witnessed one of its bloodiest days on August 14, 2013, when security forces used automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers to crush a sit-in demonstration in Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawya Square, where thousands of Egyptians had gathered for weeks to protest the military’s removal of democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsy. Official accounts put the death toll at around 600 people, including several members of the security forces. Human rights groups believe the true toll was even higher. Protesters accused the state of carrying out a mass slaughter; authorities claimed heavily armed demonstrators had attacked police. In the wake of the bloodshed, a national committee was established to investigate the protests, including the dispersal of protesters and its deadly outcomes. The panel published a 57-page executive summary of their findings in 2014, of which only seven pages addressed the Rabaa dispersal. The full report was handed to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former general who ousted Morsy before becoming president himself. Since then, Sisi’s government has not released the file. In a report published Monday, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a prominent human rights group, said it had obtained the full text of the investigation, which it says runs to more than 700 pages, and released what it said are key details omitted in the summary published nine years ago. EIPR said in its report that it had obtained the text “from a reliable source on condition of anonymity.” An Egyptian woman tries to stop a military bulldozer from hurting a wounded youth during clashes that broke out as Egyptian security forces moved in to disperse supporters of Egypt’s deposed president Mohamed Morsi in a huge protest camp near Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo on August 14, 2013. The operation began shortly after dawn when security forces surrounded the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in east Cairo and a similar one at Al-Nahda square, in the centre of the capital, launching a long-threatened crackdown that left dozens dead. The fate of the young man is not certain, but at the time of taking these photos he was seriously injured having been shot by birdshot. Among the details is that the security forces considered multiple options on how to clear the sit-in, before ultimately opting for the use of deadly force, according to EIPR. While the 2014 summary included one line saying the government had “alternatives before it,” it did not specify what those alternatives were or elaborate on debate among security forces about what to do. The significance of the full text of the investigation, said Hossam Bahgat, executive director of EIPR, is that it includes “transcripts of witness testimonies” that show how officials decided to disperse the protest. “This is the first time that we have official evidence… that the ministry considered two options in detail, and the reason for why they were dismissed or abandoned before the operation,” Bahgat told CNN. EIPR’s report cites testimony it says was given to the investigative committee by Maj. Gen. Medhat Al-Minshawi, who headed the dispersal operation and later became Assistant Minister of Interior for Central Security Forces. Al-Minshawi told the committee that authorities had discussed less lethal options to clear the sit-in, including cutting off water and electricity and “opening the sewage,” as well as besieging the square to prevent food supplies from reaching protesters, according to the report. But the authorities decided that these options would have taken longer to end the protests and would have “inconvenienced residents in the area,” Al-Minshawi said, according to the report. Al-Minshawi told local media in 2020 that the plan had been to peacefully disperse the demonstration until the protesters began attacking security forces, but made no mention of the debate within the security forces about other options that are detailed in the EIPR report. “The government was torn between dispersing the gathering at any cost in a short period of time, or dispersing it at a lower cost but over a longer period of time,” the investigation report said, according to EIPR. Egyptian security forces’ bulldozers moved in to disperse a protest camp held by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, on August 14, 2013 near Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said at least 250 people were killed and over 5,000 injured in a police crackdown. Egypt on edge after at least 278 killed in bloodiest day since revolution “The government has opted for the first option, as the leaders in the sit-in had gone beyond that which is fathomable or appropriate,” the report added. According to EIPR’s report, investigators at the time also said that the “Egyptian administration was also wrong in its policy of dispersing the gathering.” CNN has reached out to the interior ministry for comment about the EIPR report. The details in the EIPR report also contradict the 2014 summary, which said that the sit-in was “not peaceful neither before nor during the dispersal,” even if “it started as such.” “The larger number of Rabaa victims were innocent civilians who were most likely peaceful demonstrators,” the EIPR report said, quoting the investigation. “Those who took up arms and terrorized the citizens managed to escape from Rabaa Square.” According to EIPR, the report also says security forces used live ammunition in an “indiscriminate and inappropriate” manner, and that there was “no safe corridor” allowing the exit of those who wished to safely leave the square amid the dispersal. The executive summary released in 2014 said that when security forces arrived at the square on August 14 at 6 a.m. local time, protesters began firing live ammunition and throwing Molotov cocktails and stones, injuring members of its

A California couple became stranded in Maui after a scammer impersonating a Southwest Airlines representative cancelled their flights and utilised the credits to book a different trip. The family suffered a financial loss of $3,400 (Rs 282,620) as a result of this fraud. Megan and Kevin Morgan, who had travelled to the island to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary along with their 8-month-old baby, faced a difficult situation after the wildfires started raging on the island. They opted to cancel their planned celebratory dinner and depart for the Sacramento area just before the restaurant they had reservations at was completely destroyed by the horrific fire. The fire was expanding massively, engulfing trees and torching cars. Then the couple decides to check their options for an early exit from the island. After searching online for the Southwest Airlines contact number, they dialled the number they found. But unfortunately, the number they got was not of the airline but of a con artist. The scammer managed to acquire their confirmation numbers on the call and also requested their credit card details, which they refused to provide. However, they did disclose the specifics of their tickets. Unfortunately, the information they shared was enough to fall victim to the financial scam. “And then [the person who answered the phone] says, it’s going to be like $200 or something to change,” Megan said. “And I’m like, ‘No, no, no, there shouldn’t be change fees. This is Southwest.’ And he says, on the phone, ‘I’ve told you four times now, this is how much it costs if you want to change it.’” Megan said she didn’t give a credit card number and hung up immediately. Using the family’s names and confirmation numbers, the con artist proceeded to cancel their return flights. Subsequently, the scammer exploited the flight credit to arrange a flight for someone on the East Coast. “I’ve never heard of this scam,” Ms Morgan told the news outlet. The couple explained that they had no choice but to extend their stay on the island by an additional two days and incur a cost of $3,400 for a Hawaiian Airlines flight back home. Meanwhile, the Maui wildfires in Hawaii have killed at least 110, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century, with hundreds of people unaccounted for nearly a week after the disaster. Soucre:https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/hawaii-wildfires-she-requested-flight-change-lost-lakhs-without-giving-credit-card-details-4308425