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US offers USD 11 mn bounty on Malala shooter, 2 other Pak Taliban leaders

Agencies
March 9, 2018

Washington, Mar 9: The State's Rewards for Justice Program of the US State Department is offering rewards for information leading to the identification or location of three key leaders associated with the terrorist organisation Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliated factions.

It is offering a reward of up to USD 5 million for information on TTP leader Maulana Fazlullah, and up to USD three million each for information on Abdul Wali and Mangal Bagh.

According to the US State Department, Fazlullah who is responsible the October 9, 2012, shooting of Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts against Pakistani and US interests, including the failed attempt by Pakistani national Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in New York City's Times Square on May 1, 2010.

Under his leadership, the TTP has also claimed responsibility for the December 16, 2014, attack on a school in Peshawar in Pakistan in which gunmen killed 148 people, including 132 students and for the June 2012 beheading of 17 Pakistani soldiers.

In 2015, the US State Department designated Fazlullah as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist' under the Executive Order 13224, which freezes all of his assets based in the US or in possession or control of US persons.

Abdul Wali is the leader of Jamaat ul-Ahrar (JUA), a militant faction affiliated with TTP. Under Wali's leadership, JUA has staged multiple attacks in the region targeting civilians, religious minorities, military personnel and law enforcement.

He was responsible for the killing of two Pakistani employees in the US Consulate in Peshawar in March 2016.

Mangal Bagh is the leader of Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), a militant faction affiliated with TTP. Under his leadership, LeI operatives have attacked North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) convoys in recent years.

His group generates revenue from drug trafficking, smuggling, kidnapping and collection of "taxes" on transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In September 2007, the Pakistan Government announced a reward offer of about USD 60,000 for the capture of, or information for Bagh's arrest.

According to the US State Department, each of these individuals is believed to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of the US and its nationals.

"In addition to opposing the Pakistani military, one of TTP's stated goal is the expulsion of Coalition troops from Afghanistan. The group has demonstrated a close alliance with al-Qaeda, and, since 2008, it has also repeatedly publicly threatened to attack the US homeland," the US State Department added.

The Rewards for Justice Program is administered by the US Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service.

Since its inception in 1984, the programme has paid in excess of USD 145 million to more than 90 people who provided actionable information that helped to bring terrorists to justice or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Jul 28: Malaysia's ex-leader Najib Razak was found guilty Tuesday in his first trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal, two years after the fraud contributed to the downfall of his long-ruling government.

The former prime minister could now face decades in jail after being convicted on all charges in the case related to the looting of sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Billions of dollars were stolen from the investment vehicle and spent on everything from high-end real estate to pricey art, while investment bank Goldman Sachs also became embroiled in the scandal.

Anger at the looting played a large part in the shock loss of Najib's long-ruling coalition in elections in 2018, and he was arrested and hit with dozens of charges following his defeat.

The verdict was a test of Malaysia's rule of law. It comes about five months after Najib's scandal-plagued party returned to power as part of a coalition, development observers had feared could affect the outcome of the case.

About 16 months after it began, the Kuala Lumpur High Court delivered the verdict in Najib's first trial, which centred on the transfer of 42 million ringgit ($9.9 million) from a former 1MDB unit, SRC International, into his accounts.

Najib had vehemently denied wrongdoing.

But Judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali took apart all the arguments put forward by his defence, and found him guilty on the seven charges he faced.

"In conclusion, after considering all the evidence in this trial, I find the prosecution has successfully proven the case," the judge told the court.

The charges were one of abuse of power, three of criminal breach of trust and three of money-laundering.

The counts of abuse of power and criminal breach of trust are punishable by up to 20 years in jail each, while the money-laundering charges are punishable by up to 15 years each.

Sentencing was not handed down straight away. The 67-year-old will likely appeal and he may not be sent to jail immediately. If his conviction is upheld, he will also be barred from political office for several years.

Najib had insisted he was ignorant of the transactions.

The defence team portrayed Najib as a victim and instead sought to paint financier Low Taek Jho, a key figure in the scandal who has been charged in the US and Malaysia, as the mastermind.

Low, whose whereabouts are unknown, maintains his innocence.

Prosecutors insisted Najib was in control of the 1MDB unit, SRC International.

The return of Najib's party to power as part of a coalition in March followed the collapse of Mahathir Mohamad's reformist administration.

Since then, 1MDB-linked charges were unexpectedly dropped against the ex-leader's stepson Riza Aziz, a producer of Hollywood movie "The Wolf of Wall Street", in exchange for him agreeing to return assets to Malaysia.

Prosecutors also dropped dozens of charges against Najib ally Musa Aman, the former leader of Sabah state.

The amounts involved in Najib's first case are small compared to those in his second and most significant trial, which centres on allegations he illicitly obtained more than $500 million.

Malaysia had charged Goldman Sachs and some current and former staff, claiming large amounts were stolen when the bank arranged bond issues for 1MDB.

But the two sides agreed to a $3.9 billion settlement last week in exchange for charges being dropped.

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Agencies
February 4,2020

The Seattle City Council, one of the most powerful city councils in the U.S., on Monday unanimously passed a resolution condemning India’s recently-enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Reaffirming Seattle as a welcoming city and expressing solidarity with the city’s South Asian community regardless of religion and caste, the resolution “resolves that the Seattle City Council opposes the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India, and finds these policies to be discriminatory to Muslims, oppressed castes, women, indigenous, and LGBT people“.

Introduced by Indian American City Council member Kshama Sawant, the resolution urges the Parliament of India to uphold the Indian Constitution by repealing the CAA, and to stop the National Register of Citizens, and take steps towards helping refugees by ratifying various UN treaties on refugees.

“Seattle City’s decision to condemn CAA should be a message to all who wish to undermine pluralism and religious freedom. They cannot peddle in hate and bigotry, and expect to have international acceptability at the same time,” said Ahsan Khan, president of Indian American Muslim Council.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs, which organised the community in support of the resolution, welcomed its passage. “We are proud of the Seattle City Council for standing on the right side of history today. Seattle is leading the moral consensus in the global outcry against the CAA, she said.

Soundararajan said that thousands of organizers across the country have called, e-mailed, and visited Seattle City Council members to amplify this resolution, and it sets an example to cities across the United States.

“At a time when members of the Indian ruling party sided Trump, the Muslim ban, and his war on immigrants as justification for targeting hundreds of millions of Indian minorities, Americans have a unique responsibility to stand up and speak about this human rights crisis. We are glad that Seattle is leading the way on this,” she said.

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Agencies
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: The BJP's Amit Shah today said statements like "goli maaro" and "Indo-Pak match" should not have been made by BJP leaders ahead of the Delhi elections.

The BJP may have suffered in the elections because of hate statements made by party leaders, he said, reported news agency Press Trust of India.

The party, he said, had distanced itself from such remarks.

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