Former MP and his brother shot dead live on TV

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Written by alib

Category: Asia

Published: 16 April 2023

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NEW DELHI - Former MP Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead by three men posing as journalists in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj in India on Saturday.

Mr Ahmed was a member of the Indian Parliament and the UP Legislative Assembly and had over 100 criminal cases registered against him.

Both him and his brother were being taken for a mandatory medical checkup at a hospital in local police custody when they were shot point-blank using semi-automatic pistols by the gunmen around 10.30pm on Saturday.

The shocking incident was captured live on camera as the two brothers were answering questions being posed by reporters.

Local reports suggest about 20 bullets were fired at the brothers as they collapsed with a journalist and a police constable also injured from the shooting.

Cameras show a hand carrying a pistol pushing aside Mr Ahmed’s white turban from behind with the nozzle and firing at his left temple.

In some videos of the incident shared widely on social media, slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” can be heard over the visuals as police subdued two of the perpetrators.

The Independent has not verified the authenticity of the videos.

Local police said that the assailants have been identified as Lovelesh Tewari, Sunny Singh and Arun Maurya.

They arrived in Prayagraj two days ago and planned the attack on learning that the brothers were in police custody, according to NDTV.

A senior official told The Indian Express that the interrogation of the two murdered brothers was almost completed and as per routine legal procedure, both were taken to the hospital under police security for a check-up before sending them back into judicial custody.

Atiq Ahmed was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment in the abduction case of now-dead Umesh Pal, a witness in the 2005 murder case of a local member of the legislative assembly.

Based on a complaint made by Mr Pal’s wife, a case was filed against Mr Ahmed, his brother Ashraf, Asad Ahmed [Atiq’s son] and his aide Ghulam Hassan and others on 25 February.

Meanwhile, UP police said the three assailants behind Mr Ahmed and his brother’s killing are being interrogated for more details. Local reports said that the three gunmen told police that they wanted to kill the brothers “to become famous”.

State chief minister Yogi Adityanath – a leading figure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – set up a three-member judicial commission to probe the incident.

Curfews and restrictions on people’s movement have been imposed in the city. There is heavy police deployment in several sensitive towns to maintain law and order, according to local reports.

Officials have also suspended the cops deployed to escort the brothers safely to the medical college, according to The Wire.

The killings come just two days after the politician’s son Asad Ahmed and his aide Ghulam Hassan were killed in a police encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF).

The two were shot dead by the STF during an encounter when they reportedly refused to surrender and opened fire in an attempt to flee.

Asad had earlier approached the Supreme Court stating that he feared he would be killed in a fake encounter but India’s top court had turned down his plea.

Two of Mr Ahmed’s alleged aides, who were also accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, were also recently killed in separate police encounters.

Several Indian TV channels televised the disturbing footage of Mr Ahmed and his brother’s killing on Saturday fully without any breaks or blurs.

“By doing false encounters, the BJP government is trying to divert attention from the real issues. The BJP does not believe in the court at all,” the state’s opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav from the Samajwadi Party tweeted on Thursday.

Mr Ahmed’s lawyer told NDTV that the police security arrangement when the brothers were being taken to the hospital for a mandatory medical check-up was “very minimal”.

Opposition party leaders, including Mr Yadav, have criticised the “failing law and order situation in UP” citing the recent killings that happened under police watch.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi called the murders “a perfect example of Yogi’s big failure of law & order”

“In a society where murderers are celebrated, what’s the use of a criminal justice system?” he tweeted.

Filipinos nailed to crosses despite church objection

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Written by northsouth

Category: Asia

Published: 07 April 2023

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SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines — Eight Filipinos were nailed to crosses to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a gory Good Friday tradition that draws thousands of devotees and tourists to the Philippines despite being rejected by the Catholic church.

The real-life crucifixions in the farming village of San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga province north of Manila resumed after a three-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic. About a dozen villagers registered but only eight men participated, including 62-year-old sign painter Ruben Enaje, who was nailed to a wooden cross for the 34th time in San Pedro Cutud.

In a news conference shortly after his brief crucifixion, Enaje said he prayed for the eradication of the COVID-19 virus and the end of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has contributed to gas and food prices soaring worldwide.

“It’s just these two countries involved in that war, Russia and Ukraine, but all of us are being affected,” said Enaje, who appeared to be well and showed his two bandaged hands to journalists.

The father of four said he wanted to end his extraordinary penitence because of his age but would decide with finality before Lent next year. While the pain from the nailing was not as intense as anticipated, he said he always felt edgy before each crucifixion.

“To be honest, I always feel nervous because I could end up dead on the cross,” he told The Associated Press before Friday’s nailing.

“When I’m laid down on the cross, my body begins to feel cold,” he said. “When my hands are tied, I just close my eyes and tell myself, ‘I can do this. I can do this.’”

Surviving nearly unscathed when he fell from a three-story building in 1985 prompted Enaje to undergo the ordeal as thanksgiving for what he considered a miracle. He extended the ritual after loved ones recovered from serious illnesses, one after another, turning him into a village celebrity as the “Christ” in the Lenten reenactment of the Way of the Cross.

Ahead of their crucifixion on a dusty hill, Enaje and the other devotees, wearing thorny crowns of twigs, carried heavy wooden crosses on their backs for more than a kilometer (more than half a mile) in the scorching heat. Village actors dressed as Roman centurions later hammered 4-inch (10-centimeter) stainless steel nails through his palms and feet, then set him aloft on a cross under the sun for about 10 minutes.

Other penitents walked barefoot through village streets and beat their bare backs with sharp bamboo sticks and pieces of wood. Some participants in the past opened cuts in the penitents’ backs using broken glass to ensure the ritual was sufficiently bloody.

The gruesome spectacle reflects the Philippines’ unique brand of Catholicism, which merges church traditions with folk superstitions.

Many of the mostly impoverished penitents undergo the ritual to atone for sins, pray for the sick or for a better life, and give thanks for miracles.

Church leaders in the Philippines have frowned on the crucifixions and self-flagellations, saying Filipinos can show their deep faith and religious devotion without hurting themselves and by doing charity work instead, such as donating blood.

Robert Reyes, a prominent Catholic priest and human rights activist in the country, said the bloody rites reflect the church’s failure to fully educate many Filipinos on Christian tenets, leaving them on their own to explore personal ways of seeking divine help for all sorts of maladies.

Folk Catholicism has become deeply entrenched in the local religious culture, Reyes said, citing a chaotic procession of a black statue of Jesus Christ called the Black Nazarene each January, which authorities say draw more than a million devotees each year in one of Asia’s largest religious festivals. Many bring towels to be wiped on the wooden statue, believing it has powers to cure ailments and ensure good health and a better life.

“The question is, where were we church people when they started doing this?” Reyes asked, saying the clergy should immerse itself in communities more and converse regularly with villagers. “If we judge them, we’ll just alienate them.”

The decadeslong crucifixion tradition, meanwhile, has put impoverished San Pedro Cutud — one of the more than 500 villages in rice-growing Pampanga province — on the map.

Organizers said more than 15,000 foreign and Filipino tourists and devotees gathered for the cross nailings in Cutud and two other nearby villages. There was a festive air as villagers peddled bottled water, hats, food and religious items, and police and marshals kept order.

“They like this because there is really nothing like this on earth,” said Johnson Gareth, a British tour organizer, who brought 15 tourists from eight countries, including the United States, Canada and Germany, to witness the crucifixions. “It’s less gruesome than people think. They think it’s going to be very macabre or very disgusting but it’s not. It’s done in a very respectful way.”

In the past, Gareth said tourists were “genuinely inspired and I think they left with a newfound respect for people’s beliefs.”

Bangladesh investigates huge fire at world's largest refugee camp

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Written by northsouth

Category: Asia

Published: 06 March 2023

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COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh - A massive fire at a crammed camp for Rohingya Muslims in southern Bangladesh left thousands of the refugees homeless Sunday, a fire official and the United Nations said.

Bangladesh authorities are investigating the cause of a massive fire in a Rohingya refugee camp which has left 12,000 people without shelter.

No casualties have been reported, but the fire on Sunday razed 2,000 shelters after spreading quickly through gas cylinders in kitchens, officials said.

Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage. One man has been detained, local media reported.

The camp in the south-east is believed to be the world's largest refugee camp.

Most of its residents, Rohingya refugees, had fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

On Monday, hundreds had returned to the Cox's Bazar area to see what they could salvage from the ruins.

The blaze had started at about 14:45 local time Sunday (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an official said.

"Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless," Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh's refugee commissioner, told AFP news agency.

The blaze was brought under control within three hours but at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for the refugees were also destroyed, he added.

Photos are now emerging that show the extent of the devastation.

Many of those who lived there can be seen picking through the charred area, where only metal struts and singed corrugated roofing remains.

Thick black clouds were seen rising above Camp 11, one of many in the border district where more than a million Rohingya refugees live.

It will be difficult to relocate the estimated 12,000 people affected by the fire - given the already overcrowded conditions in the "mega camp", said Hardin Lang from Refugees International.

Delivering basic services to those people in other parts of the camp would also be a challenge because many services - health clinics, schools - have been destroyed.