By Yashraj Sharma India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during an election campaign rally in Meerut, India, March 31, 2024 [Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters] New Delhi, India – Speaking to a saffron-clothed crowd of supporters in his home state of Gujarat earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned to an increasingly favoured electoral theme – how opposition parties are collaborating with Muslims to plot a takeover of the nation. “[The opposition alliance] is asking Muslims to do ‘vote jihad’. This is new because we have so far heard about ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad’,” said Modi, referring to a string of Islamophobic conspiracy theories, before emphasising to his audience why they needed to be fearful. “I hope you all know what the meaning of jihad is and against whom it is waged,” As India’s giant national election nears its mid-point, with the third of seven phases of voting scheduled for May 7, Modi’s rhetoric against Muslims is growing shriller. That’s worrying analysts and even Muslims who backed the prime minister until recently but now fear that the rhetoric risks serving as oxygen for increased physical violence against Indian Muslims. His latest remarks came after a local leader of the opposition Samajwadi Party, Maria Alam, addressed a gathering in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, asking Muslims to carry out a “jihad” of “votes”, as “that is the only jihad” that they could carry out to remove Modi from power. After Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacked her for the use of “jihad” in her speech, she clarified to the press that by “jihad”, Arabic for struggle, she was encouraging Muslim voter participation. Modi, in his speech, however, suggested that a call for “vote jihad” was “dangerous for the country’s democracy”. Critics and opposition leaders, however, allege that the PM’s words, targeted against India’s 200 million Muslims, are what are troubling for India, especially in the middle of a tense election, in which 960 million voters have registered to cast their votes. ‘Infiltrators’, ‘invaders’, ‘looters’ In a campaign speech last week, Modi equated the Muslim community with “infiltrators” and described them as “those who have more children”, pandering to a popular Hindu majoritarian trope that Muslims produce more children, with the aim of eventually outnumbering Hindus in India. In reality, Muslims constitute less than 15 percent of the national population, and government data shows their fertility rate is going down faster than that of Hindus and other major religious groups. Those comments set off a political row, inviting sharp criticism from the opposition and sections of civil society. Nearly 20,000 citizens wrote to the Election Commission of India to act against the accusations of hate speech by Modi. Yet, two days later, on 23 April, Modi doubled down on his comments claiming a conspiracy hatched by the Congress — the country’s principal opposition party — and Muslims to steal Hindu wealth. “I presented the truth before the nation that the Congress has hatched a deep conspiracy to snatch your property and distribute it among their special favourites,” he said, in reference to Muslims. Then, on April 30, the BJP published an animated campaign video on Instagram, showing stereotypical portrayals of violent and greedy Muslim male raiders attacking medieval India and plundering her wealth, before Modi arrives to rescue the nation. The video again peddled the PM’s assertions that that the Congress, if elected, will distribute Hindu wealth and property among Muslims. While former Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said, 18 years ago, that disadvantaged Indian communities, including Muslims, should have first access to national resources, the Congress campaign manifesto does not make any reference to taking wealth away from one community to give it to any other group. Other conspiracy theories that Modi has referenced publicly in recent days include the notions of ‘love jihad’ – that Muslim men are marrying women from other faiths in order to convert them to Islam – and ‘land jihad’ – that Muslims are hoarding land to gain control of the terrain of India. None of this is surprising to Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Modi biographer, who said that religious polarisation has been second nature to Modi for decades. “Indian democracy has been badly brutalised by the BJP and Modi,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is perhaps the worst time to be a Muslim in India today, who all the time now feel they are prisoners of their identity.” While Instagram took down the April 30 video after multiple users reported it for hate speech, India’s election commission is yet to act on complaints against Modi, leading to criticism by opposition leaders. “Modi has disgraced the dignity of the PM post; his words can never be words coming out of an Indian prime minister’s mouth,” said Congress legislator Pramod Tiwari, the leader of the opposition in the upper house of the Indian parliament. “Democracy is at stake in these elections and the election commission of India is sleeping over it,” he said, speaking with Al Jazeera. “The Congress party calls for the disqualification of Modi’s candidature and he should be barred from campaigning.” Al Jazeera reached out to three BJP spokespersons for a response to the allegations against Modi, but they did not comment. ‘Trigger more hatred’ Meanwhile, critics say that Modi’s “hateful remarks” have left Muslims more vulnerable to violence. “These remarks are likely to make the Hindutva workers feel vindicated due to support by the country’s highest office. They would feel the patronage,” said Irfan Engineer, director of the Mumbai-based Centre for Study of Society and Secularism. Hindutva refers to the Hindu-majoritarian ideology of the BJP and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). “I hope these remarks do not trigger more hatred and violence – but that’s a hope against hope.” Engineer has monitored communal violence for decades and visited affected areas with fact-finding teams, he said, adding that “these kinds of speeches and rallies have sparked violence” in areas otherwise known for inter-religious harmony. Amnesty International said it too was worried about the consequences of Modi’s remarks. “Institutions created to monitor such speech during elections should be working to bring to account those responsible for such remarks, however, so far, we have only seen an unfortunate condoning of such incitement and hostility by the Election Commission of India,” said Aakar Patel, the chair of the board of Amnesty International in India, in a statement to Al Jazeera. “This widespread impunity signals the extension and intensification of the systematic discrimination suffered by Muslims in India.” Where Modi has previously portrayed himself as a victim of opposition attacks – alluding to his childhood in relative poverty as opposed to the privilege many opposition leaders grew up with, for instance – “this time, he has moved on from himself and instilled a victimhood in the entire Hindu community”, said Engineer. “This is the ultimate point of the Hindu nationalist movement, where all Hindus are victims – and, therefore, you need a strong state with no place for democratic institutions, freedom of speech, or [freedom of] religion.” Supporters of Prime Minister Modi walk in a road show as one of them holds a cutout photo of the Indian leader ahead of national elections in Mumbai, India, Monday, April 29, 2024 [Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo] ‘Subsumed by the individual’ Research suggests that at least in some parts of India, Muslim support for the BJP, though tiny, is slowly growing. It went up from under 5 percent in 2012 to more than 9 percent in 2022, in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and most politically significant state. Yet, Mukhopadhyay, Modi’s biographer, said even those Indian Muslims who have supported Modi are today vulnerable. “Modi will still come and attack Muslims,” he said. That turned true for Usman Ghani, a young political leader from the northwestern state of Rajasthan. Ghani joined the student wing of the BJP during college and rose to become his district’s minority-wing president. A few months ago, he welcomed Modi during the state election campaign. However, when he went for poll outreach, he said the voters made him respond to PM Modi’s remarks against the community, which he called “nonsense”. He was expelled from the party and then was detained by the local police in the BJP-ruled state. “Modi is a bigger cult than anyone has ever been [in the Hindutva movement],” Mukhopadhyay said. “Is this an election or an individual glorification drive?” “The Hindutva movement has been subsumed by the individual. And it is a great paradox because, for the Sangh [RSS] family, no individual is above the organisation.” A New Delhi-based political commentator, who requested anonymity fearing repercussions to their work, said Modi’s focus on anti-Muslim fears could be a reaction to lower-than-usual voter turnouts in the first two phases of the national election. “Nobody is buying Modi’s economic development pitch any more, so he is, of course, polarising the voters.” Yet, despite record-high unemployment, widening income and wealth inequality, and backsliding on democratic indices, polls position Modi as the favourite to return to power for a third time. “If the 2014 mandate was for so-called development and the 2019 was for nationalism, now, in 2024, Modi will feel more confident that he won votes for polarisation,” Engineer said. “Anti-Muslim hate is now central to the BJP’s campaign.” © 2024 Al Jazeera Media Network

Al Jazeera By Zena Al Tahhan 18 Oct 2023 Palestinians take part in a protest in support of the people in Gaza in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on October 18, 2023 [Raneen Sawafta/Reuters] Ramallah, occupied West Bank – A young Palestinian girl was shot and killed by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces on Tuesday during protests in the northern West Bank city of Jenin in response to the deadly explosion at a hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip. The family of 12-year-old Razan Nasrallah confirmed to Al Jazeera that she was killed at about 10pm on Tuesday night. “A bullet entered the right side of her chest. It pierced her lungs and hit her heart,” her uncle, 64-year-old Ziad Nasrallah told Al Jazeera. “We consider her a martyr who was killed defending Gaza. We mourn her with pride,” he continued. A funeral procession was held for her on Wednesday morning in Jenin. Another Palestinian youth, Mohammad Sawafta – a first-year university student – was also seriously injured by PA fire in the northwestern West Bank city of Tubas. The football training academy where he used to coach shared his photo on Facebook on Wednesday. Also, another Palestinian man, Ahmad Moeen al-Rimawi, 31, was killed in confrontations with Israeli forces in the village of Nabi Saleh east of Ramallah on Tuesday night, while at least 30 others were injured across the occupied West Bank. Thousands of people across the West Bank and Jerusalem had come out to attend protests on Tuesday night following the bombing of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that killed at least 500 people. Images and videos aired by journalists at the scene showed countless bodies strewn across the ground and people carrying the limbs of their slain loves ones in cloth bags, on the 12th day of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Back in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers and settlers have also killed at least 64 Palestinians over the past 12 days in military raids and arrests in Palestinian neighbourhoods, towns and villages. That escalating violence has sparked protests in Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, Hebron and Bethlehem against both the Palestinian Authority (PA) in city centres and Israeli forces at checkpoints, military bases and settlements. PA security forces have cracked down on protesters with live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades, with at least a dozen people injured, causing further outrage on Tuesday night. In Ramallah, where the PA is based, protesters hurled rocks, chairs and other items at PA armoured vehicles attempting to disperse them. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Jenin, a 37-year-old man who attended Tuesday’s protest and who asked not to be named, said “it was a wave of anger against the people who are just standing by and taking a position of neutrality”. “About 80,000 PA officers are silent, while dozens of people are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army and by settlers and the army in the West Bank,” he continued. “Security forces tried to disperse the protests, which led to confrontations with the demonstrators. The security forces fired live ammunition, which led to the martyrdom of a girl, and dozens of others injured,” the man added. In Nablus, a 45-year-old protester, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the people “demand the PA security forces protect the people in the face of this unprecedented Israeli attack whether from the army or settlers”. “If they are not able to – or do not want to – then the least they could do is to leave people to defend themselves. Let people protest and come out to express their anger without blocking them,” he said. The most common chant in protests has been: “Put the sword before the sword, we are the men of Mohammed Deif,” in reference to the commander of Hamas military wing, the Qassam Brigades, but protests on Tuesday also included a call for PA President Mahmoud Abbas to step down. The increasing confrontations and tensions with the PA, which many on the ground describe as subcontractors for the Israeli occupation, are casting a shadow of fear and uncertainty over stability in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday night, the armed wing of Abbas’s Fatah party, which operates independently, released a statement calling for Abbas to step down as the head of its Martyrs and Prisoners Commission. “We give him until Thursday evening to hand over the tasks he has seized,” it said, warning that “if he does not do so, he will become a legitimate target for strikes by our Palestinian armed groups and people,” adding it would “lift the organisational and national cover off of him.” The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a coalition of armed resistance groups, also called for “forming an emergency committee to pledge allegiance to Commander Marwan Barghouti, who lies in prison, as the supreme commander of the Palestinian revolutionary forces”. Barghouti is a leading figure of the Palestinian resistance, who has often been tipped as a potential successor to Abbas within Fatah. Protests continued on Wednesday afternoon, with PA forces again cracking down on demonstrators in Nablus. Later, an atmosphere of quiet tension set in on the West Bank on Wednesday morning, as schools, restaurants and stores shut their doors in observance of a general strike called for by officials and activists in response to the deaths at al-Ahli Arab Hospital. “The massacre was indescribable. The majority of victims are children and women whose features have been wiped. Among the victims were people without heads, and torn up body parts,” spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, Ashraf al-Qidra, said in a press conference following the attack. He said that the situation “has surpassed the capabilities of medical and emergency teams,” adding that doctors are being forced to “carry out operations on the floor and corridors of the hospital”, often without anaesthesia. The humanitarian situation in the tiny coastal enclave, home to more than two million Palestinians, had already reached breaking point prior to the attack on the hospital, with officials warning that there were only “24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left”. Residents of the besieged strip are also facing grave shortages of basic supplies including baby formula and flour, with most supermarkets running out of stock. Israel has been imposing a land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza Strip for the past 17 years, in what has long been described as the “world’s largest open-air prison”. During this period, Israel has launched multiple large-scale assaults on the Strip, killing thousands of Palestinians. Additional reporting by Shadi Jaraar’ah in Nablus. © 2023 Al Jazeera Media Network

Capture of el-Fula deepens humanitarian crisis, as charity MSF slams ‘deeply inadequate’ response to war June 20, 2024: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have taken control of el-Fula, the capital of West Kordofan state, sources told Al Jazeera. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) fought the RSF for several hours before withdrawing from the city, with the paramilitary group seizing government and military headquarters, the sources said on Thursday. Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said the capture of el-Fula was “significant”, being one of only two army bases in strategically located West Kordofan, with a power station. Centrally positioned, el-Fula affords access to regional and national borders. “So there are concerns the RSF would be able to have, not just more control of territory around the country, but also the power station there,” she said. The army, meanwhile, had retreated to Babanusa, its one remaining base in the region. “If the RSF takes control of Babanusa as well, then that gives them more control of territory in the entire country, which they say is their goal,” said Morgan. The assault on el-Fula, she said, was “not surprising”, given that the paramilitary group had repeatedly said they were targeting positions of the Sudanese army, not just in the Darfur region, but also elsewhere around the country. The takeover of the army stronghold, which has led to more civilians fleeing their homes, came as medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, slammed the humanitarian response to one of the world’s “worst crises” in decades as “deeply inadequate”. “There are extreme levels of suffering across the country, and the needs are growing by the day,” Christos Christou, international president of MSF, said on Thursday in a post on social media platform X. With repeated outbreaks of fighting between the SAF and the RSF around Babanusa in recent weeks, it was uncertain whether aid agencies would be able to reach the displaced, said Al Jazeera’s Morgan. “Aid agencies have been saying that they’ve been having difficulties reaching West Kordofan region along with other parts of the country,” she said. “It’s likely that with the fighting in el-Fula and with civilians being displaced, the needs of those needing humanitarian assistance will rise.” War has raged for more than a year between the regular military under army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo. The conflict, which began in April 2023, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced more than 10 million people, making it the world’s worst internal displacement crisis, according to the United Nations. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid, despite warnings that millions are on the brink of starvation. Rights groups and the United States have also accused the paramilitaries of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. © 2024 Al Jazeera Media Network

Witnesses and relatives of victims say the bloodletting in the small town in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region went on unabated for almost 24 hours. With communications gradually being restored to parts of Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, survivors and residents in the town of Mai Kadra have been able to share harrowing accounts of the slaughter of civilians more than a month ago, the worst confirmed atrocity in a weeks-long conflict between government forces and the now-fugitive regional government. On November 12, nearly two weeks after the start of the fighting in the northern region, an Amnesty International investigation cited witnesses as saying that forces linked to the embattled Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had gone on a rampage in the small town three days earlier. Armed with weapons including machetes and knives, the attackers hacked and stabbed residents to death, the witnesses told Amnesty, which said it could confirm “the massacre of a very large number of civilians” after examining and verifying gruesome photographs and videos from the scene. Days later, a preliminary investigation by a government-appointed rights watchdog stated that there may be as many as 600 victims, saying the killings were committed by a local youth group with the support of other Tigrayan civilians, police, and militia. Home to up to 45,000 people of Tigrayan, Amhara, and other ethnic origins, Mai Kadra had been under the control of the TPLF until its forces retreated from the town a day after the massacre as Ethiopian government troops made advances in western Tigray. Despite the Ethiopian government’s capture of the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle on November 28, fighting between the TPLF and Ethiopian army units is believed to be continuing in parts of rural Tigray. Swaths of the region remain inaccessible to journalists and aid workers, making it hard to verify claims from all sides and leaving observers fearing that additional war crimes may yet be uncovered. The federal government imposed a communications blackout when it began its military operation on November 4, but Mai Kadra has had its phone services restored for a little more than a week now. Al Jazeera has been able to communicate with a total of six survivors, witnesses, and relatives of victims who were in Mai Kadra on November 9 and said the bloodletting went on unabated for nearly 24 hours. ‘I thought it was the end’ Solomon Chaklu said he had come to Mai Kadra from the town of Dansha to inspect a vehicle he had intended to buy. “Police and TPLF youth militias went all over town searching for non-Tigrayans to kill,” Solomon told Al Jazeera on the phone. “At around 3 pm, police and the youths with machetes came to the home we were hiding in,” he said. “They dragged me outside, where I saw maybe 20 or 30 bodies of people who lay dying or were dead. I thought it was the end for me.” The Ethiopian government maintains that a TPLF-backed Tigrayan youth militia dubbed the “Samri” singled out men like Solomon and Ferede, who are of ethnic Amhara descent. There have been long-standing tensions between Tigrayans and Amhara and militia members from the Amhara region neighboring Tigray have taken part in fighting against the TPLF’s forces alongside the Ethiopian army. Solomon said he, his friend Ferede Leu and a third man were asked to produce ID cards that would identify their ethnic group. The third man was left alone after he pleaded for his life in Tigrinya, the language of the assailants, according to Solomon. “They tried to kill me,” he said. “I was surrounded by four men and one of them struck me in the head and back with his machete. I remember the others laughing as they watched him.” When he regained consciousness, Solomon was informed that his friend, Ferede, had been hacked to death. He himself was bleeding profusely and the next day was taken to hospital in the city of Gonder some 260km (162 miles) away. Discharged after two weeks, he is currently recovering from multiple machete blows and a broken leg in his home in Dansha. “Men turned into bloodthirsty beasts that day,” he said. ‘We can still hear the horrific sounds’ Ethiopian state media reported that the massacre was the result of surviving TPLF units taking out their frustration on the town’s residents after having been routed in battles with the Ethiopian army. Hadas Mezgebu, whose husband of 17 years was murdered in front of the family’s home in Mai Kadra, said she believed the attackers “had planned this for days”. “They had asked to see people’s identity cards. When the killings started, they knew which homes to go to. They knew my husband was Amhara.” On the day of the killings, Tilahun Getnet says he hid in the home of his half-brother, Tebekaw Zewdu, who had lived in Mai Kadra for nearly 30 years. “We heard the Samri gang wasn’t targeting women and children, so we lay hidden just above the ceiling of my brother’s home for hours,” Tilahun said on the phone. “Twice they searched the home and left after only finding my brother’s wife and children.” But the machete-wielding killers came back for a third search of the home and grew frustrated when they could not locate Tebekaw, 37. They began threatening his wife and son. “When she refused to reveal where her husband was hidden, they seized their 11-year-old son and threatened to slaughter him if she didn’t reveal his husband’s whereabouts. That’s when my brother came out from hiding. They hacked him to death there, in front of his wife and son who screamed for mercy.” Tilahun said his half-brother’s family has since moved out of Mai Kadra. “We can still hear the horrific sounds of that day when we dream at night.” Reports of Tigrayans targeted Thousands of people are thought to have been killed since fighting began in Tigray on November 4, with the United Nations saying that an estimated one million people have been displaced across the region, in addition to the nearly 50,000 who have fled to neighboring Sudan. In the Sudanese refugee camps, a number of Tigrayan refugees have told journalists they escaped after Tigrayan civilians in Mai Kadra had been killed by Ethiopian federal forces and members of an Amhara militia. Some said they had seen hundreds of bodies and described scenes of ethnically motivated attacks, including killings with knives and beatings. Amid the divergent accounts, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael has dismissed accusations of his forces’ involvement in any mass killings as “baseless”, while Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the federal forces have not killed a single civilian during their operation against the TPLF. When probed by Al Jazeera, TPLF official Fesseha Tessema said the group is aware of killings involving Tigrayan victims. “The heinous crime committed against Tigrayans in Mai Kadra is just one among similar crimes that should be investigated by an international body,” he said. Earlier this week, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said there is “an urgent need” for independent monitoring of the developments in Tigray, warning that the “exceedingly worrying and volatile” situation “is spiraling out of control, with appalling impact on civilians”. Amnesty, meanwhile, concurs there may be victims of additional atrocities among people of both ethnicities during the fighting, but its lead Ethiopia researcher said the organization has no doubt as to who was behind the killings of November 9. “We have had follow-up interviews with victims, who say the killers were provided support by armed local [TPLF] militia,” Fisseha Tekle, Amnesty’s lead Ethiopia researcher, told Al Jazeera. “Youth groups were armed with axes, machetes, and knives and told to go home to home in search of Amhara men.” While Ethiopian officials say the conflict is dwindling down and reject what they describe as outside “interference”, the United Nations continues to press the government to grant it access to people in war-torn areas to provide much-needed humanitarian aid. Access the full story and video here. Al Jazeera © 2020

By The Associated Press First responders and opposition war monitors say Syrian government forces have shelled tent settlements housing families displaced by the country’s conflict in the rebel-held northwest, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo) IDLIB, Syria -- Syrian government forces shelled tent settlements housing families displaced by the country’s conflict in the rebel-held northwest early Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, opposition war monitors and first responders said. The shelling was the latest violation of a truce reached between Russia and Turkey in March 2020 that ended a Russian-backed government offensive on Idlib province. Idlib is the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria. The truce has been repeatedly violated over the past two years killing and wounding scores of people. Three top United Nations officials dealing with the Syrian crisis — Muhannad Hadi, Ayman Gharaibeh and Sudipto Mukerjee — said in a joint statement Sunday that they are “deeply concerned by today’s escalation of hostilities” in Idlib. The statement noted that a 4-month-old baby was reportedly among those killed by the strikes. In addition to those killed and wounded, it said, some 400 people had been displaced. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that government forces fired about 30 rockets toward rebel-held areas Sunday morning. Those areas included the Maram camp and other camps just northwest of the provincial capital of Idlib, where nine were killed and 77 wounded. Another man was killed and several wounded in the southern countryside of Idlib while picking olives, the observatory reported. One of the men killed in Sunday's strikes was a refugee who had been deported by Turkish authorities two months ago, the observatory said. A Human Rights Watch report released last month found that Turkey had forcibly returned hundreds of Syrian refugees over a six-month period. Rebel factions responded by targeting government positions with artillery and missiles in the area of Saraqib, east of Idlib, and the al-Ghab plain, the observatory reported. The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, reported that nine people were killed, including two children and a woman, and about 70 injured in shelling targeting at least six camps west of the capital. It said the dead included four children and one woman. The pro-government Sham FM radio station said Syrian government forces shelled positions of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the most powerful militant group in Idlib. It said Syrian and Russian warplanes also attacked the areas. Syria’s conflict broke out in March 2011 and has since killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million and left large parts of Syria destroyed. Copyright © 2022ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved. Link to article: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/killed-syrias-shelling-tent-settlement-92746973

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sikh temple in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul that killed at least one worshipper and wounded seven others. IS made the claim in a statement posted on its Amaq website late Saturday. It said the assault on "the Sikh and Hindu temple” was in response to alleged insults made against the Prophet Muhammad, the central figure of the Islamic religion, by an Indian government official. It did not name the official. Gunmen attacked the Sikh house of worship, known as a gurdwara, Saturday morning and a firefight between the attackers and Taliban fighters seeking to protect the building ensued, Afghan officials said. A vehicle filled with explosives was detonated outside of the temple but that resulted in no casualties. Before that, the gunmen threw a hand grenade which caused a fire near the temple's gate, the officials said The IS said Abu Mohammed al-Tajiki, a member of the group, stormed the temple after killing the guard and then targeted the people inside with machine-gun fire and hand grenades. IS fighters outside the temple detonated four explosive devices and a car bomb targeting patrols of Taliban militia who tried to protect the temple. The battle ended after three hours, the Amaq report said. The Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh civil rights organization based in the United States, said the gurdwara was significantly damaged by the attack. “The recurring tragic violence targeting the Afghan Sikh community is devastating, but also entirely predictable and preventable,” said Anisha Singh, the group's executive director, in a statement late Saturday. “The international community, and in particular the United States, continues to fall short of urgently-needed efforts to protect and safely resettle all Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.” Videos posted on social media showed plumes of black smoke rising from the temple in Kabul’s Bagh-e Bala neighborhood and gunfire could be heard. Kabul police said the gunfight with the militants ended after the last attacker was killed several hours after the assault began. They said one Sikh was killed and seven others were wounded in the attack and a Taliban security force was killed during the rescue operation. It was unclear how many IS militants were involved or how many were killed in the gunbattle with the Taliban. Earlier this month, Indian officials held talks with the Taliban in Kabul for the first time since the group took control of the country last year on the distribution of humanitarian aid. The Indian delegation was led by J.P. Singh, a secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. It wasn't immediately clear whether J.P. Singh was the “Hindu” the IS referred to in its statement or what comments he might have made that provoked the IS attack. It was also unclear why the extremist organization would target a Sikh temple in retaliation for comments made by an Indian official. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, tweeted late Saturday: “Shocked by the cowardly terrorist attack against the Karte Parwan Gurudwara in Kabul. Modi added, “I condemn this barbaric attack, and pray for the safety and well-being of the devotees” An Islamic State group affiliate, known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province or IS-K, has been operating in Afghanistan since 2014. It is seen as the greatest security challenge facing the country’s Taliban rulers, who seized power in Kabul and elsewhere in the country last August. They have launched a sweeping crackdown against the IS in eastern Afghanistan. In March 2020, a lone IS gunman rampaged through a different Sikh temple in Kabul, killing 25 worshippers, including a child, and wounding eight others. As many as 80 worshippers were trapped inside the gurdwara as the gunman lobbed grenades and fired an automatic rifle into the crowd. The Sikh Coalition has advocated for the resettlement of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus since the 2020 attack. During his presidential campaign, President Joe Biden supported resettlement for these families. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate also advocated for resettlement. Despite these shows of support, however, little has been done to help Afghan Sikhs and Hindus to leave the country or assist those temporarily evacuated to nations including India. There were less than 700 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan at the time of the 2020 attack. Since then, dozens of families have left but many cannot financially afford to move and have remained in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul, Jalalabad and Ghazni. ——— Associated Press reporter Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. Link to source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/claims-attack-sikh-temple-afghan-capital-kabul-85490858 Copyright © 2022ABC News Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.

Authorities in western Mexico say they have found the body of anti-mining activist Higinio Trinidad de la Cruz Higinio Trinidad de la Cruz. [Credit: X/@EmilioAlvarezI] The Associated Press November 26, 2023 MEXICO CITY -- Authorities in western Mexico said Sunday they have found the body of anti-mining activist Higinio Trinidad de la Cruz. Prosecutors said De la Cruz’s body was found on a rural road in the state of Jalisco near the border with the neighboring state of Colima. They said de la Cruz appeared to have been shot to death. The community group Tiskini said in a statement that de la Cruz had been abducted on Saturday. The group said he was an environmental and community activist in the Jalisco town of Ayotitlan. De la Cruz had opposed both illegal logging and iron ore mining that have altered the environment of the rural community. Jalisco state prosecutors said they were investigating the crime, but Tiskini called on federal prosecutors to take on the case. The group also demanded protection for the inhabitants of Ayotitlan, saying it is “a community under siege by drug cartels that are plundering its lands and natural resources through illegal mining and logging.” It is common in Mexico for cartels to participate in or profit from such activities. Crimes against activists in Mexico are depressingly common. Last week, an activist who documented murders in one of Mexico’s deadliest cities was himself killed. Adolfo Enríquez was killed in the city of Leon, in north-central Guanajuato state. The city has the third-highest number of homicides in Mexico, trailing only the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. For years, Enríquez has posted a simple, moving tally of each murder in Leon, writing just hours before his death that “murder number 55 in Leon so far in November just occurred in the Margaritas neighborhood.” He himself became murder victim number 56 late Tuesday, local police and state prosecutors confirmed, without providing details on the attack. Six volunteer search activists who looked for disappeared relatives have been killed in Mexico since 2021. According to a 2022 report by the nongovernmental group Global Witness, Mexico was the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land defense activists in 2021, with 54 killed that year. © 2023 ABC News

By Hatem Maher A 20-year-old female student was stabbed to death on Tuesday. Salma Bahgat was killed in Zagazig on 9 August 2022 after rejecting a male student's advances (Screengrab) Middle East Eye CAIRO, Egypt -- The latest murder of a young woman in Egypt who had allegedly rejected the advances of a fellow student has sparked outrage and renewed calls for Egyptian lawmakers to take action. Islam Mohamed, a 22-year-old student at Al-Shorouk Academy in the Greater Cairo area, was detained early Wednesday on suspicion of killing his 20-year-old classmate, Salma Bahgat. He is accused of "repeatedly stabbing her with a knife" on Tuesday as she was leaving a building in Zagazig, northeast of Cairo, according to a statement from Egyptian prosecutors. Prosecutors, citing accounts from witnesses and relatives, said Bahgat had had twice declined marriage proposals from Mohamed, who in turn made death threats against her. Bahgat's parents told authorities that Mohamed's proposals were rejected because of his "misbehavior and drug abuse," according to prosecutors. In a statement released Tuesday evening, Al-Shorouk Academy mourned the death of Bahgat, who was studying media, saying: "She was an example of a diligent and distinguished student, on the moral and scientific levels, throughout her four years at the academy." Bahgat's killing marked the second such campus femicide to occur in Egypt within the past two months, prompting outcry on social media. "Another woman killed for saying 'No,'" one Twitter user wrote. "I cant believe in this amount of time another incident like Nayera happened again," another user said. In June, 21-year-old Nayera Ashraf was stabbed to death in front of her university in Mansoura, north of Cairo, by a fellow student whose marriage proposal she had turned down. The gruesome incident, which was videotaped by bystanders, sent shockwaves across the North African nation. Ashraf's killer, 21-year-old Mohamed Adel, gained sympathy during his trial from some commentators on social media who called the murder a "crime of passion," because they said he was left heartbroken. "Misogyny is deep-rooted in Egyptian culture. A kid is raised watching his father beat his mother, for instance," Said Sadek, a professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, told ABC News on Thursday. "The media that frown upon any actress who wears revealing dresses and religious scholars who demand that women cover up from head to toe are also to blame for fueling such sentiments," he added. "We turn the victim into a criminal and the harassers into heroes." Adel was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death last month. The court also took the unusual step of calling for changes to Egyptian law to allow executions to be broadcast live as a deterrent to others. Capital punishment in Egypt is rarely broadcast or carried out in public. In Egypt, murder is punishable by death. More people were sentenced to death there last year than in any other country. In terms of the number of executions carried out, Egypt had the third highest, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Nevertheless, critics argue that Egyptian law must be strengthened against gender-based violence, threats or blackmailing, which have been on the rise in recent years. Sadek cited one example of a man who spent just a few weeks in prison after sexually harassing and beating up a woman in a Cairo shopping mall in 2015. Two years later, he attacked her with a knife, leaving a deep cut in her face, Sadek said. According to a 2015 survey conducted by the United Nations Population Fund and the Egyptian government, about 7.8 million women in Egypt suffer from all forms of violence every year, "whether perpetrated by a spouse/fiancé or individuals in her close circles or from strangers in public places." Sexual violence is also rampant, with over 99.3% of Egyptian girls and women experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime, according to a U.N. report released in 2013. Last year, the Parliament of Egypt approved tougher penalties for sexual harassment, making the crime punishable by a minimum of five years in prison. But women rights groups insist more should be done, calling on Egyptian Parliament to fast-track a draft unified law for combating violence against women. The proposed legislation has been in the works for several months. In the wake of Bahgat's killing, almost two dozen groups, including the Giza-based Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance, issued a statement Wednesday calling on Egyptian authorities "to take all the measures to protect women and girls, who have the right to live safely in their homeland." "Violence has become a culture nurtured by a societal complicity that justifies it, condemns the victim and sympathizes with the perpetrator," they said. "We encourage women and girls to urgently report any threats they receive to authorities." © 2022ABC News Internet Ventures. Link to Article: https://abcnews.go.com/International/campus-femicides-egypt-revive-calls-strengthen-laws-gender/story?id=88236869

France's largest Muslim school threatened with closure amid scrutiny of funding, courses. A parents' association accused the local prefect of acting as "judge and jury." A student writes on a blackboard during a class at Averroes high school in Lille, northern France on Sept. 28, 2023. [Sameer Al-doumy/AFP via Getty Images] Anna Rabemanantsoa December 14, 2023 PARIS -- Opened 20 years ago and voted best high school in France in 2013, with baccalaureate success rates between 97% and 100% each year, the Averroès school group in Lille, which is also the largest private Muslim secondary school in France, is threatened with closure. An advisory commission chaired by Georges-François Leclerc, prefect of the Hauts-de-France region, voted on Nov. 27 for the termination of the financing contract linking the high school branch of Averroès to the state since 2008, leaving 473 high-school and 352 middle-school students, as well as 110 employees, uncertain about their future. Several prominent voices have denounced the commission, with president of the school's parents' association, Mohamed Daoudi, arguing it was "grotesque," as the prefect was both "judge and jury." In a surprise turn of events over the weekend, the prefect validated the decision, making the termination of the school's state contract official without prior formal notice to the school. The end of the contract would be the first time a private school loses its agreement with the state. The case gained more visibility in recent days, but the issues raised by the authorities aren't new. "Qatar Papers," a book by French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, raised concerns to the Hauts-de-France regional council in 2019. Xavier Bertrand, who presided at the time, said on X on Monday that the decision "is a major step in the Republican offensive against the proponents of political Islam." The book claimed $3.2 million, or about 3 millions euros, in funding had been given to the school by the nongovernmental organization Qatar Charity. It also detailed relationships the association administering the school has, especially with Muslims of France, a religious association with alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and also to Qatar. In the years since, Bertrand has suspended the annual regional subsidy due to the school. A decision the school has challenged and won before the court. In its June 2023 report, France's supreme audit institution qualified Qatar Charity as the association's "main foreign financier" from 2011 to 2015. The funding amounted to about $1 million that was "intended to finance the development of the association's activity in general, as well as the purchase and fitting out of additional premises, carried out in 2016." Since then, there have been no traces of further foreign donations, the report said. The financial authority pointed to "a brutal and continuous deterioration" which has put the institution in "a very critical financial situation." Averroès needs about 2 million euros each year to continue functioning, including about 1.7 million euros from the state. between 50% and 60% of Averroès middle and high school students are scholarship holders, all from low income families. A 12-page document from the prefect and dated Oct. 27 supported the proposed termination of the contract, highlighting "funding sources which raise questions," in reference to the Qatar Charity grant, whose "real amount" remains "nebulous" to him. He also pointed to a book, which students studied in an optional Muslim ethics course, as being "in complete contradiction with republican values." The institution has denied claims about its funding and courses. The book in question, which "was never made available to students" and is "not even with us," has "comments [which] pose a problem," but "we never mention the comments," Averroès headmaster Eric Dufour told ABC News, as they are "contrary to our values." "Nobody, neither the students, nor the parents, nor the educational team recognize themselves in everything that is said about the high school," Dufour said. He said he was confident "our case and our arguments are solid" and will prevail in appeal. That sentiment was echoed by the members of the school's parents' association and the alumni association. Mohamed Daoudi and his vice president, Lailla Mouzoun, told ABC News the parents are fully behind the school, but they are worried about what this decision will entail for their children come September 2024. Recently, the situation has taken a toll on everyone and led the school to request a psychological cell with support staff, including psychiatrists, for its students and staff. Far from alone, the school has gained the support of more than 31,000 people thanks to an online petition. It's backed by local and national figures, including the nonprofit Human Rights League. For Jean-René Lecerf, a former senator and ex-president of the departmental council of the north, "the legal case [against the school] seems extremely, extremely weak" and "contentious annulment" is unescapable. He said he fears however that both schools will shut down waiting for resolution, as "contentious annulment takes time." Sciences Po school director in Lille, Pierre Mathiot, said he labeled the decision "unfair and disproportionate." Socialist deputy Roger Vicot said he fears the closure of the school would feed "the feeling of rejection and exclusion of the Muslim community." For La France Insoumise deputy Paul Vannier, the school is the subject of a "clearly discriminatory treatment," being one of only two Muslim high schools in the country. The office of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin declined to comment, but a source close to the minister told ABC News he supports the action of the prefect, whom he's known for years. The Education Minister's office did not respond to a request for comment. © 2023 ABC News

UNESCO and UNDP Launch New Project to Strengthen Peacebuilding Efforts in Kyrgyzstan. Gian Cescon / UNESCO UNESCO and UNDP have joined forces with the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic, civil society organizations, community media, youth groups, women-led organizations, and human rights organizations to launch a new project titled "Strengthening National Capacities for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding: Meaningful Civil Society Engagement for Trust-Building and Social Cohesion." The project will run from January 2023 to December 2025 and will focus on building trust and social cohesion in Alamedin and Sokuluk districts of Chui province, as well as the cities of Osh, Uzgen, Jalal-Abad, Batken, and Razzakov. The project aims to: Enhance horizontal and vertical trust through improved government mechanisms, dialogical decision-making, and holistic action for inter-group dialogue, inclusivity, and accountability. Build long-term and sustainable institutional capacity of Peacebuilding Coordination Councils (PCCs) to effectively address current social cohesion challenges. Encourage collective action, pooling funding sources, and joint programming of partners to implement comprehensive social cohesion strategies.

The United Nations report says the Ugandan army supported the rebels while some 3,000-4,000 Rwandan soldiers fought alongside them in the eastern DRC. Militiamen from the Patriotic Front for Peace/People's Army, one of the largest armed groups fighting M23 in North Kivu, at their headquarters in Mbwavinwa, Lubero territory, in eastern DRC [File: Alexis Huguet/AFP] The Ugandan army has provided support to the M23 rebel group operating in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), says a United Nations report as clashes escalate in the mineral-rich region. The UN Security Council’s group of experts on Monday also said some 3,000-4,000 Rwandan soldiers fought alongside M23 rebels in eastern DRC and that Kigali had “de facto control” of the group’s operations. The DRC has been riven by conflict for decades. Uganda and Rwanda invaded in 1996 and 1998 for what they said was defence against local militia groups. Uganda is still conducting joint operations with the DRC troops against a rebel Ugandan group. Meanwhile, M23 fighters began waging a fresh rebellion in the eastern DRC in late 2021. Ugandan troops were part of a regional force deployed in November 2022 to monitor a ceasefire with the M23. Congolese authorities called for the force to withdraw last year, saying it was ineffective. “Since the resurgence of the M23 crisis, Uganda has not prevented the presence of M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) troops on its territory or passage through it,” said the UN report, which was sent to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee in April and to members of the Security Council in June. The UN group also said it had obtained evidence confirming active support for M23 by officials from the military and military intelligence, with M23 leaders travelling to Uganda for meetings. The deputy spokesman for Uganda’s armed forces, Deo Akiiki, told Reuters news agency such reports falsely accuse the East African country’s army when its relationship with the DRC forces is at its best. “It would be mad for us to destabilise the same area we are sacrificing it all to have it stable,” Akiiki said. DRC-Rwanda tensions The UN has long accused Rwanda of backing the M23, which has repeatedly seized large parts of eastern DRC. Rwanda denies the allegations and has never acknowledged its troops are operating there. The UN experts in their report said Rwandan army’s “de facto control and direction over M23 operations also renders Rwanda liable for the actions of M23”. Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, the DRC’s minister of state for foreign affairs, also told Al Jazeera on Monday that the situation in the country’s east had deteriorated over the past few weeks and accused the Rwandan army of continuing to enter their territory. “The situation that we’re looking at is one where we’re facing an influx of soldiers from our neighbouring country Rwanda, that has sent over 4,000 troops, that have fuelled a massive displacement crisis in eastern DRC,” she said. “The question we should be asking ourselves is why Rwanda is not being sanctioned for violation of our territory,” Wagner added. In response to the UN report, Rwanda said the DRC was financing and fighting alongside a Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), that has attacked the Tutsis in both countries. “The DRC has all the power to de-escalate the situation if they want to, but until then Rwanda will continue to defend itself,” Rwanda government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said. The renewed fighting in eastern DRC came two days after a United States-brokered truce plan fell through. The truce was aimed to ease hostilities, allow for the voluntary return of displaced people, and provide humanitarian access to vulnerable people. © 2024 Al Jazeera Media Network

Manucher Kholiknazarov (c) 29 May 2024- For two years, Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov, lawyer and human rights defender in Tajikistan, has been arbitrarily detained and serving a 16-year prison sentence in reprisal for his human rights work. Six human rights organisations, including OMCT and FIDH in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, call for his immediate release. Yesterday marks the sad anniversary of the arrest of lawyer and human rights defender Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov in Tajikistan. First arrested on 28 May 2022, he has now spent two years behind bars, serving a 16-year-long prison sentence in retaliation for his human rights work. The organisations issuing this statement – International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the Tajikistan Civil Society Coalition against Torture and Impunity, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR, Poland), Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), as well as International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders – are increasingly worried about Manuchehr’s state of health and call again on the Tajikistani authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him. “Manuchehr was arrested and imprisoned for no other reason than his tireless work to help the most vulnerable victims of human rights violations. We will not give up fighting against his unjust sentence until he is released and allowed to return home to his family” – Brigitte Dufour, Director of IPHR On 9 December 2022 Tajikistan’s Supreme Court found Manuchehr guilty under articles 187, part 2 (participation in a criminal organisation) and 307 (3), part 2 (participating in the activities of a banned organisation due to its extremist activities) of the Criminal Code, sentencing him to 16 years’ imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony. Manuchehr is the Director of the Lawyers Association of Pamir (LAP), one of the few civil society organisations in Tajikistan’s Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) that works to promote and protect human rights. On 25-28 November 2021, mass protests erupted in Khorog, GBAO, over the extrajudicial killing of a young man, Gulbiddin Ziyobekov. After the protests settled, Manuchehr joined the “Commission 44”, consisting of representatives of local civil society and law enforcement agencies, to investigate the events. Given his professional experience, Manuchehr was included in the Joint Investigation Team headed by the Prosecutor General’s Office and helped secure lawyers for victims of indiscriminate violence during the November 2021 protests. However, May 2022 saw a renewed crackdown on protests in Khorog and Rushan District of GBAO. On 28 May 2022, Manuchehr was arrested along with a dozen members of Commission 44 for alleged “participation in a criminal association” and “publicly calling for violent change of the constitutional order”. Their trial began on 20 September 2022, and was held behind closed doors at a detention facility of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) in Dushanbe. Following his conviction, Manuchehr was transferred to a prison facility in the capital. Manuchehr’s health has deteriorated significantly in detention. In particular, he suffers from back problems. The authorities should ensure that he has access to adequate medical assistance for these health problems and that his treatment complies fully with international standards as long as he remains behind bars. In addition to human rights NGOs, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other international human rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns about Manuchehr’s imprisonment and called for his release. The Tajikistani authorities should heed to these calls, promptly release him and allow him to reunite with his family. For more information on how to take action in support of Manuchehr, go here © OMCT World Organisation Against Torture 2024