White House invites Modi to visit U.S.

Islamabad, Apr 26: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been trumped by the country's powerful military yet again, this time over his government's inadequate steps and its poor response in curbing the coronavirus outbreak in the country, even as cases soared over 12,500.

In his address to the nation on March 22, Khan explained the reasons for not imposing a countrywide lockdown, asserting that millions would lose their jobs and affect families, who are below the poverty line, struggling to find enough food to eat. However, less than 24 hours later, Pakistan Army spokesperson Major General Babar Iftikhar announced the implementation of lockdown in the country having a population of over 200 million, contradicting the statements made by Imran Khan.

As lockdown was imposed, the military has deployed troops across Pakistan and is orchestrating the COVID-19 response through the National Core Committee, a body set up to coordinate policy between the national and provincial governments.

"The government left a big gap in its handling of the coronavirus. The army has tried to fill that gap, there was no choice," an unnamed retired general was quoted by Financial Times as saying.

The virus crisis in Pakistan has once again made things crystal clear about who is calling the shots -- the military, widely believed to bring Imran Khan to power in 2018.

The armymen have taken over the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to prove their competency in contrast to Imran Khan, who was mocked after urging youth to come forward and join Corona Relief Tigers Force, a volunteer body to wage "jihad" against the virus.

According to analysts, the military's seizure of the coronavirus response marks yet another policy failure for Imran Khan in the eyes of the generals, as per the Financial Times report.

The 67-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has repeatedly failed to gain international traction over the Kashmir issue and has struggled to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in getting his country removed from 'grey list' for terror funding.

In times of emergency, one has to take clear decisions and take them through. You can't dither. The whole world is advising strong lockdown. If the prime minister does not show that he is decisive, somebody else will," said Nafisa Shah, a Member of Parliament from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Even after the lockdown was imposed, Imran Khan continued to question the need for its implementation, raising eyebrows over the country's response in tackling the virus, as cases continue to rise. This comes even as such drastic measures are in place in many countries across the world, including neighbouring India.

According to The Dawn, the country has 12,657 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which includes 2,755 recoveries and 265 deaths. Punjab has the highest number of cases -- 5,326 --, followed by 4,232 in Sindh.

However, experts suggest that the actual numbers could be more given the low testing rates and inadequate supply of testing kits.

Doctors and nurses across the country have staged protests over the lack of personal protective equipment, as increasing numbers of health workers contract COVID-19.

"Because of the lack of resources, there is chaos among the doctors and healthcare workers. They know people are dying, they know the severity of the illness and they have to work without PPE," Shoaib Hasan Tarar, a doctor working in Rawalpindi, was quoted as saying.

As the coronavirus crisis continues to ravage Pakistan, the country's overwhelming health infrastructure has put a toll on its already floundering economy. The IMF said that the GDP will shrink 1.5 per cent in 2020. The cash-strapped nation is set to be the first major emerging economy to apply to a G-20 initiative to request debt repayment relief, according to Financial Times.

In early March, Pakistan saw a surge in coronavirus cases, when infected pilgrims and workers crossed the border from Qom, a religious city in Iran, which is a hotspot.

Pakistan's limited resources were exposed when quarantined pilgrims agitated against unhealthy conditions at Taftan camp on Pakistan-Iran border, where five people were living in a tent with no access to toilets.

While the lockdown is in place, authorities have been confronted by hardline clerics who have defied social distancing terms and downplayed the threat of the virus. During Friday prayers every week, worshippers violate the restrictions by gathering at various mosques.

Last week, Islamabad inked an agreement allowing mosques to stay open for Ramzan. It stipulated that people should follow 20 rules, including maintaining a six feet distance from each other.

"There is little consistency in terms of how the lockdown is being approached. Coronavirus has shown the disconnect between the national government, regional governments and the military. Imran Khan has been left behind as the cheerleader for keeping Pakistan's morale high. I think people are starting to ask, 'How long is he going to last?'", said Sajjan Gohel, South Asia expert and guest teacher at the London School of Economics.

Saint Martin's Island, Feb 12: At least 15 women and children drowned and more than 50 others were missing after a boat overloaded with Rohingya refugees sank off southern Bangladesh as it tried to reach Malaysia Tuesday, officials said.

Some 138 people -- mainly women and children -- were packed on a trawler barely 13 metres (40 feet) long, trying to cross the Bay of Bengal, a coast guard spokesman told news agency.

"It sank because of overloading. The boat was meant to carry maximum 50 people. The boat was also loaded with some cargo," another coast guard spokesman, Hamidul Islam, added.

Nearly one million Rohingya live in squalid camps near Bangladesh's border with Myanmar, many fleeing the neighbouring country after a 2017 brutal military crackdown.

With few opportunities for jobs and education in the camps, thousands have tried to reach other countries like Malaysia and Thailand by attempting the hazardous 2,000-kilometre journey.

In the latest incident, 71 people have been rescued including 46 women. Among the dead, 11 were women and the rest children.

Anwara Begum said two of her sons, aged six and seven, drowned in the tragedy.

"We were four of us in the boat... Another child (son, aged 10) is very sick," the 40-year-old told news agency.

Fishermen tipped off the coast guard after they saw survivors swimming and crying for help in the sea.

The boat's keel hit undersea coral in shallow water off Saint Martin's Island, Bangladesh's southernmost territory, before it sank, survivors said.

"We swam in the sea before boats came and rescued us," said survivor Mohammad Hossain, 20.

Coast guard commander Sohel Rana said three survivors, including a Bangladeshi, were detained over human trafficking allegations.

An estimated 25,000 Rohingya left Bangladesh and Myanmar on boats in 2015 trying to get to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Hundreds drowned when overloaded boats sank.

Begum said her family paid a Bangladeshi trafficker $450 per head to be taken to Malaysia.

"We're first taken to a hill where we stayed for five days. Then they used three small trawlers to take us to a large trawler, which sank," she said.

Shakirul Islam, a migration expert whose group works with Rohingya to raise awareness against trafficking, said desperation in the camps was making refugees want to leave.

"It was a tragedy waiting to happen," he said.

"They just want to get out, and fall victim to traffickers who are very active in the camps."

Islam said in the past two months dozens of Rohingya reported approaches from traffickers to his OKUP migration rights group.

"Human smuggling and trafficking in the Bay of Bengal is particularly difficult to address as it requires concerted effort from multiple states," the Bangladesh head of UN agency the International Organization for Migration, Giorgi Gigauri, told news agency.

"The gaps in coordination are easily exploited by criminal networks."

Since last year, Bangladeshi authorities have picked up over 500 Rohingya from rickety fishing trawlers or coastal villages as they waited to board boats.

Trafficking often increases during the November-March period when the sea is safest for the small trawlers used by traffickers.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal to send back some Rohingya to their homeland, but none have agreed to return because of safety fears.

The charity Save the Children called on Myanmar to "take all necessary steps to ensure the Rohingya community can return to their homes in a safe and dignified manner".

"The tragic drowning of women and children... should be a wake-up call for us all," the group's Athena Rayburn said in a statement.

Beijing, Feb 18: A hospital director at the epicentre of China's virus epidemic died on Tuesday, state media said, the latest medical worker to fall victim to the new coronavirus spreading across the country.

The COVID-19 virus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan late last year, has infected more than 72,000 people and killed nearly 1,900.

Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, died Tuesday morning after "all-out rescue efforts failed," state broadcaster CCTV reported.

China said last week that six medical workers had died from the virus, while 1,716 have been infected.

Liu's death was initially reported by Chinese media and bloggers shortly after midnight on Tuesday -- but the stories were later deleted and replaced with reports that doctors were still trying to save him.

After initial reports of his death were denied, the hospital told AFP on Tuesday morning that doctors were giving him life-saving treatment.

Liu's death has echoes of that of Wuhan ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who had been punished by authorities for sounding the alarm about the virus in late December.

Li's death prompted a national outpouring of grief as well as anger against the authorities, who were accused of mishandling the crisis.

People took to social media to mourn Liu on Tuesday, with many users on the Twitter-like Weibo platform drawing critical comparisons between Liu's death and Li's.

In both cases their deaths were initially reported in state media posts -- later deleted -- and their deaths denied, before being finally confirmed again.

"Has everyone forgotten what happened to Li Wenliang? They forcefully attempted resuscitation after he died," one Weibo commenter wrote.

Another commenter said, Liu "already died last night, (but) some people are addicted to torturing corpses".

A hashtag about Liu's death had 29 million views by Tuesday afternoon.

Doctors in Wuhan face shortages of masks and protective bodysuits, with some even wearing makeshift hazmat suits and continuing to work despite showing respiratory symptoms, health workers have told AFP.

Hubei province and its capital Wuhan have been the hardest hit by the virus, accounting for nearly 1,800 of the deaths from the virus so far.