Month: September 2020

European Union has called on China to allow meaningful access to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region for independent observers, including for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In a statement at the 45th Human Rights Council on Friday (local time), German envoy Michael Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg, on behalf of the EU said, “We reiterate our call on China to allow meaningful access to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region for independent observers, including for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

“We also reiterate our call on China to uphold its national and international obligations, and to respect human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet,” he said.

The German Ambassador added that the EU urges China to ensure the rule of law, establish fair trial guarantees and investigate thoroughly reported cases of arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment, and torture, and harassment of human rights defenders and their families.

“On China, the EU continues to be gravely concerned about the existence of a large network of political re-education camps, widespread surveillance, and systemic restrictions on freedom of religion or belief against Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,” he said.

“Extensively researched reports alleging forced labour, and forced sterilisation and forced birth control in Xinjiang add to the gravity and magnitude of these concerns,” he added.

Over the situation in Hong Kong, the German envoy said, “We are concerned about growing restrictions on freedom of expression, on access to information, and about intimidation and surveillance of journalists. The EU considers the national security legislation for Hong Kong adopted by the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress on 30 June to be a matter of grave concern.” (ANI)

Fans of actor Deepika Padukone on Saturday showered her with support on Twitter as she appeared before a Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office in connection with an alleged Bollywood drug case.

Twitterati flooded the micro-blogging site with tweets supporting the ‘Piku’ actor, as #StandWithDeepika was trending on the platform the entire day.

The 34-year-old actor was on Saturday interrogated for nearly five-hours by the NCB team in connection with an alleged Bollywood drug case.

Padukone and KWAN talent management agency’s Karishma Prakash are being interrogated currently and they being are confronted with each other on their individual statements in the matter.

The ‘Bajirao Mastani’ actor had reached Mumbai from Goa earlier on Thursday ahead of the interrogation session.

Besides, Padukone, actor Sara Ali Khan had also reached the NCB office in Mumbai in connection with the case. (ANI)

Actor Bhumi Pednekar is reaching out to school students to involve them in climate conservation and has collaborated with a key global initiative, ‘Climate Action Project’, which reaches out to 10 million students across 107 countries.

Talking about the initiative, the ‘Dolly, Kitty Aur Who Chamakte Sitare’ actor said, “The changes we are observing are real and are an undeniable threat to our entire civilization. This current year we have witnessed the Australian bushfires burning 18 million hectares of land, one billion animals were killed and many endangered species in the country were driven to extinction.”

“We saw the Oil spill in Russia’s Arctic region, Uttarakhand forest fires burning 51 hectares of land, we faced the Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal and Odisha, strongest to hit the West Bengal in over a decade, with 86 deaths in the state and finally we witness the California wildfires, where 3,154,107 total acres burned,” she added, as quoted in the press release.

The ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ actor urged students to come forward and raise their voice on climate conservation globally. She says, “The effects are already visible and will be catastrophic unless we act now. We need everyone joining hands together to ensure that we leave behind barrels of hope and prosperity for the current generations and generations to come and education is the significant channel to achieve this goal. Let us join hands and make a difference.”

The ‘Climate Action’ project was launched in October 2020 and is supported by governments in 15 countries. The project is free, student-centred, and aims to lead to a change of behaviour through education. The project has collaborated with WWF and NASA and allows teachers to connect and interact with other teachers from every continent. (ANI)

New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday (local time) said that the country is determined to host the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games to prove that humanity has defeated the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Suga said, “Japan is determined to host the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games as a proof that humanity has defeated the pandemic. I will continue to spare no effort in order to welcome you to the games that are safe and secure.”

In March, the International Olympic Committee had announced that the summer Olympic Games in Tokyo would be postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Tokyo Olympics have postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The mega event will now be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, while the Paralympics will take place from August 24 to September 5, 2021. (ANI)

The Chinese government’s campaign against Uyghurs has spilled across its borders, impacting the lives of hundreds of Pakistanis. The silence of the Pakistan regime over the atrocities meted out by China has made the matter worse for the natives.

Sakandar Hayat is one such Pakistani who have suffered from China’s suppression of Muslims in the Xinjiang territory. His Uyghur wife was detained in Kashgar, in China’s Xinjiang region, and sent to prison in 2017 and his son was arrested from the Pakistan-China border in front of him, Los Angeles Times reported.

Hayat since then is grappling to reunite with his family.

Hayat and his teenage boy Arafat left northwestern China and crossed the border into Hayat’s native Pakistan in 2017. It was a journey to bring father and son closer together. But it would end up tearing their family apart.

The duo had been in Pakistan for three weeks when they received a phone call from Xinjiang that Hayat’s wife had been detained. They rushed to the Pakistan-China border where Chinese Police were waiting. Arafat was arrested for questioning.

“Do not separate us,” Hayat begged the police. “Question him in front of me. I will be silent and he will speak the truth.”

“You will have your son back in a week,” the police told him that day in 2017.

Hayat would have no contact with Arafat for the next two years.

“It is very hard to leave your heart, your children, to live in a place worse than a prison,” Hayat said. After his wife and Arafat, who was then 19, were detained, Hayat was denied a visa to China for two years. The couple’s two daughters, who were 7 and 12 at the time, were sent to an orphanage in Kashgar without his consent.

He pleaded with Chinese and Pakistani officials for information regarding his family with no response until 2019, when Chinese officials said his son was receiving “education,” a euphemism for the camps where Beijing says minorities are receiving “vocational training” to combat “extremism, separatism and terrorism.”

Hayat is one of hundreds of Pakistanis who have suffered from China’s suppression of Muslims in the Xinjiang territory that is home to about 10 million ethnic Uyghurs, The Times reported.

The Times has interviewed Pakistanis married to Uyghurs to understand how Chinese government policies and Pakistan’s silence destroy the lives of innocent families.

Mohammed, a Uyghur from southern Xinjiang who had been doing business between China and Pakistan, was detained for seven months. He gave horrific details about how these detainees go through physical and mental torture in the camps.

He was arrested when he crossed the border in June 2018, he said, then held in a camp with his hands chained together in a room of 35 people.

He explained that they woke up at 4 am for lectures about the Chinese Communist Party’s care for Uyghurs, he said.

“The party is feeding you,” he remembered being told. “Uyghurs are nothing without this party. If there was no Communist Party, Uyghurs would have died of hunger.”

He and others were then forced to sing songs praising the party and Xi Jinping (Chinese President).

They were fed hot water and a piece of bread, and given five hours of Chinese-language lessons. No one was allowed to speak Uyghur, Mohammed said.

The camp guards would make detainees watch as they burned prayer mats, beads and religious books that they had confiscated from Uyghur homes.

“You people are not Turks. Uyghurs are Chinese. You are one of us, Chinese,” they would tell the detainees.

“If you talk slowly they will beat you. If you become loud they will beat you more. I asked them, how should I talk? How should I answer? Don’t beat me, I will answer everything clearly,” Mohammed said. But the beatings persisted.

Mohammed was finally released on condition that he bring his wife and children in Pakistan back to Xinjiang and act as an informer for Chinese authorities. His other family members in Xinjiang would be collateral.

“But I will not go back to China,” he told The Times in an interview in Rawalpindi. “China is a dungeon, our homes are torture cells, and death or execution is waiting for me and my family there,” he added.

The Times said that the silence of Pakistan, which has been outspoken on the oppression of Muslims across the world but has refrained from criticising China — a major economic benefactor and potential provider of COVID-19 vaccines — reflects how many nations are increasingly wary of jeopardising their ties to Beijing.

Classified documents known as the China Cables, accessed last year by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, threw light on how the Chinese government uses technology to control Uyghurs worldwide.

China put a million or more Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities into detention camps and prisons in Xinjiang over the last three years under Jinping’s directives to “show absolutely no mercy” in the struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism”, revealed the leaked documents released in US media.

However, China regularly denies such mistreatment and says the camps provide vocational training.

Uyghur activists and human rights groups have countered that many of those held are people with advanced degrees and business owners who are influential in their communities and have no need for any special education.

People in the internment camps have described being subjected to forced political indoctrination, torture, beatings, and denial of food and medicine, and say they have been prohibited from practising their religion or speaking their language.

Now, as Beijing denies these accounts, it also refuses to allow independent inspections into the regions, at the same time, which further fuels reports related to China’s atrocities on the minority Muslims. (ANI)

India’s COVID-19 case tally crossed the 58-lakh mark with a spike of 86,052 new cases and 1,141 deaths, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As per the Ministry, the total case tally in the country stands at 58,18,571 including 9,70,116 active cases, 47,56,165 cured/discharged/migrated cases and 92,290 deaths.

Maharashtra reported 17,794 new COVID-19 cases, 19,592 recoveries and 416 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking total positive cases to 13,00,757 till date, including 2,72,775 active cases, 9,92,806 discharges and 34,761 deaths, said State Health Department.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the cumulative total samples tested up to September 24 is 6,89,28,440. The number of samples tested on September 24 is 14,92,409.

As many as 281 police personnel tested positive for COVID-19 and 4 died in the last 24 hours, taking total cases to 22,269 in the force including 18,711 recoveries, 3,319 active cases and 239 deaths, said Maharashtra Police.

Mizoram reported 183 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases in the state to 1,786, including 1,288 discharged cases. Active cases stand at 498, according to the Department of Information and Public Relations, Government of Mizoram.

As many as 6,477 new COVID-19 and 3,481 recoveries were reported in Kerala today. The number of active cases now stand at 48,982 while 1,11,331 patients have recovered so far, said Kerala Government.

Forty-eight deaths and 7,073 fresh COVID19 cases have been reported in Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in the state increased to 6,61,458 including 67,683 active cases, 5,88,169 recoveries and 5,606 deaths, said Andhra Pradesh Government.

Puducherry’s COVID-19 case tally stands at 25,489 including 19,781 recoveries, 5,214 active cases and 494 deaths, according to the Puducherry Government.

Manipur reported 254 new COVID-19 cases and 233 recoveries today, taking total cases to 9,791 including 7,602 recoveries and 63 deaths, said State Health Department.

Tamil Nadu reported 5,679 new COVID-19 cases, 5,626 recoveries and 72 deaths today, taking total cases to 5,69,370 including 5,13,836 recoveries, 9,148 deaths and 46,386 active cases, said State Health Department.

As many as 2,010 new COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths have been reported in Rajasthan today. The total number of cases rose to 1,24,730 including 19,030 active cases and 1,412 deaths, said Health Department, Rajasthan.

Chandigarh reported 244 new positive cases today. The total number of cases is now 11,212 including 2,390 active cases, 8,677 recoveries and 145 deaths, said the UT government.

Delhi reported 3,827 new COVID-19 cases (out of 59,134 tests), 4,061 recoveries and 24 deaths today, taking total positive cases to 2,64,450 including 2,28,436 recoveries, 30,867 active cases and 5,147 deaths. 11,797 RTPCR/CBNAAT/True Nat tests were conducted today, said Delhi Health Department.

As many as 928 fresh COVID19 cases have been reported in Uttarakhand today, taking the total number of cases in the state to 45,332 including 33,642 recoveries, 10,934 active cases, and 555 deaths, said State Government. (ANI)

India on Friday gave a befitting reply to Pakistan at the 45th Session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations saying that the world doesn’t need lessons on human rights from a country which has been known as “nursery and epicenter of terrorism”.

Addressing the 45th Session of the Human Rights Council at the UN, Senthil Kumar, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, hit out at Islamabad and said Pakistan “uses every opportunity to make unfounded and fallacious remarks against my country, which reflect their negative and paranoic state of mind”.

“Before preaching to others, Pakistan must remember that terrorism is the worst form of human rights abuse and a crime against humanity. The world doesn’t need lessons on human rights from a country which has been known as ‘nursery and epicenter of Terrorism’,” he said.

Kumar further went on to point out the enforced disappearances, state violence and forced mass displacements, harassment, extrajudicial killings, army operations, torture, kill-and-dumps, torture camps, detention centers, military camps “are regular features” in Balochistan adding that “Nobody knows the fate of missing 47,000 Baloch and 35,000 Pashtuns till date. Sectarian violence has claimed more than 500 Hazaras in Balochistan and more than 100,000 Hazaras have fled Pakistan.”

“The Baloch have never felt safe inside Balochistan and now they do not feel safe even outside Pakistan. The case of the disappearance of Rashid Hussain in December 2018, and the killing of journalist Sajid Hussain Baloch after he went missing in March 2020, only serves to demonstrate that the Baloch human rights defenders are being targeted and eliminated even after they quit Pakistan,” he added.

The First Secretary further pointed out that it was a matter “of great concern” that the population of religious minorities in Pakistan which was 23% in 1947 has reduced to an insignificant number.

“The reasons are not hard to find. Systemic discrimination and persecution through killings, violence, forced conversions, forced displacement have nearly annihilated religious minorities in Pakistan. In the Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has effected demographic change by reducing and driving the real Kashmiris out,” he added. (ANI)

A Baloch political activist has told the United Nations that Balochistan is suffering a severe humanitarian crisis, having been in the throes of a ruthless genocidal conflict for the past two decades.

While making an intervention during the 45th Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Qambar Malik Baloch said, “The Pakistani army’s sponsored death squads are roaming with impunity. A large number of Baloch youth has been the victim of forcible disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Thousands of them have fled to different countries in recent years”.

A senior member of London-Based Baloch Human Rights Council, Qambar said, “The military establishment of Pakistan and its clandestine agencies are kidnappings, torturing, and murdering activists and human rights defenders to counter the Baloch people’s demand to exercise their right to self-determination. The recent killing of a student Hayat Baloch in Turbat testifies to that. He was brutally murdered by the Frontier Corps while his parents were forced to watch his unfortunate fate.”

He added, Considering the gravity of the situation, we request this council to put a resolution in the Council to send a fact-finding mission to Balochistan to investigate the gross violations of human rights and subsequently, make the state military officials accountable for their crimes against humanity in Balochistan.” (ANI)