Why Delhi Police Did Nothing to Stop Attacks on Muslims

NEW DELHI: Forty-six people have been killed, more than 250 injured and four mosques set on fire in the sectarian violence in Delhi that coincided with President trump’s visit to india.

The violence, which lasted over three days and nights and was mostly directed at Muslims in northeastern areas of Delhi, was not surprising. Over the past six years, Prime Minister narendra modi, his colleagues in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, their armies of social media trolls and a vast majority of India’s television networks have consistently been building an atmosphere of hatred, suspicion and violence toward India’s Muslim minority.

The pogrom in Delhi follows in the wake of the discriminatory citizenship law that Mr. Modi’s government passed in December. Indians, especially Muslims, have been protesting the law. Before the killings in Delhi, 19 people were killed when protests broke out in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, which is administered by the B.J.P.

In recent elections in Delhi, Mr. Modi’s party ran a dangerously sectarian campaign. Its leaders equated the protests against the citizenship law with treason and called for the murder of protesters. The B.J.P. lost the Delhi elections and the protests continued. On Feb. 23, Kapil Mishra, a leader of the B.J.P., incited mobs in northeast Delhi to remove a group of Muslim women who were holding a sit-in and blocking a road to protest the citizenship law. Violence erupted soon after.

A week later, the detailed accounts of violence raise fundamental questions about the role played by the Delhi police in abetting the Hindu mobs and targeting Muslims. When Mr. Mishra gave the speech that lit the fire, Ved Prakash, the deputy commissioner of police for northeast Delhi, stood beside him and did not intervene. The next day, as the mobs swung into action, Mr. Prakash and other police officers were shaking hands with a Hindu mob, which shouted slogans celebrating the Delhi police and its support.

Top police officers casually expressed their support of the Hindu mobs and their fear of Muslims. “Jai Shree Ram,” the old devotional chant praising the Hindu deity Ram, has been adopted as a war cry by the Hindu nationalist mobs in the past three decades. There were reports of the Delhi police personnel charging at Muslim neighborhoods while shouting, “Jai Shree Ram!”

A particularly gruesome video, which has been fact-checked and verified, shows Delhi policemen standing around five badly injured Muslim men lying on the road, forcing them to sing the national anthem. They can be heard hurling abuses. One of the men has died of his injuries.

Similar behavior by the Delhi police was visible before last week’s violence. On January 30, a gunman opened fire on protesters at Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi. Photographs and videos from the site show an armed man facing the protesters, leisurely taking his aim as lackadaisical Delhi policemen stand and watch in the background.

This partisan behavior of the Delhi police is not simply a question of the police reflecting the biases of the population they are recruited from. It is an active compliance with the kind of conduct they believe will be rewarded by Mr. Modi’s government and the ruling party. This belief has been reinforced by what has transpired in earlier bouts of large-scale religious violence in India, in particular in the western state of Gujarat in 2002 and in the pogrom in Delhi in 1984 when more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed by Hindu mobs.

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In February 2002, soon after Narendra modi took over as chief minister of Gujarat, a train carrying Hindu religious volunteers was allegedly set on fire in the town of Godhra by a group of Muslims. Fifty-nine people died. Mr. Modi ensured the bodies of the dead were paraded through Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat. Hindu mobs fueled by incendiary rhetoric from leaders of organizations affiliated with Mr. Modi’s party attacked homes and businesses owned by Muslims. Over a thousand people were killed, over 700 of them Muslims.

The Gujarat police faced the same allegations of abetting the rioters or doing nothing to stop the violence against Muslims. A few police officers stood out for ensuring that the violence did not overwhelm the areas under their charge. All of them were transferred shortly afterward by Mr. Modi and his confidant and then Gujarat home minister Amit Shah. In the following years, those upright police officers were harassed by the government.

Every officer serving in the Delhi police today would be well aware of the fate of the police officers in Gujarat. Like the officers in Gujarat, they report directly to the Modi government since Delhi’s status as the national capital ensures policing responsibilities lie in the hands of the federal government. Mr. Modi’s old confidant Mr. Shah is now the federal home minister.

These officers also had the benefit of an experience much closer at hand. In the first week of November 1984, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, over 3,000 Sikhs were massacred by Hindu mobs in Delhi. The role of the police came under widespread scrutiny and a government-appointed commission concluded: “There is enough material on record to show that at many places, the police had taken away their arms or other articles with which they could have defended themselves against the attacks by mobs. … After they were persuaded to go inside their houses on assurances that they would be well-protected, attacks on them had started.”

A subsequent commission indicted 72 police officers and recommended that action against them be taken by an agency other than the Delhi police. The recommendation was never acted upon.

Many of the police personnel and officers who were attacking protesters last week in Delhi along with the Hindu mobs would have either served under or been trained under the very same officers who escaped any punishment for their role in the 1984 pogrom.

And the message from Mr. Modi’s government is consistent and clear and goes beyond the police: Justice S. Muralidhar, a Delhi High Court judge who sharply criticized the police and ordered the Delhi police to investigate the role of the Hindu nationalist politicians, was swiftly transferred to a court in a different state.

While the decision to transfer him was already in place, the timing was of the Modi government’s choosing. A lawyer explained that it is unprecedented that a judge is posted elsewhere while he or she is in the middle of hearing such an important subject.

The message is not lost on anyone. A majoritarian government backed by a huge mandate is not going to let judicial or bureaucratic precedents stand in the way of carrying out its agenda.

The police personnel who are accountable for the violence will face no legal action. They may have not stood by the Constitution, but they did stand by the B.J.P. When Hindu mobs next target a Muslim in any part of the country administered by Mr. Modi’s party, we can be sure that no police will stand in their way.

By Hartosh Singh Bal

Mr. Bal is the political editor of The Caravan magazine in New Delhi.

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modi’s india Is Racing to a Point of No Return

Delhi: indian culture may be ancient, but its unity is rare and recent. A growing hostility to Muslims threatens to upend the world’s largest democracy.

The sectarian carnage that ravaged Delhi for three days last week did not erupt in a void. It flared out of a relentless campaign to draw blood.

The indian capital looked besieged long before a stone was hurled or a house torched. Since last December, Delhi has been the center of a national uprising to reclaim the country from Prime Minister narendra modi’s Hindu-first politics. The demonstrations emerged as a response to the government’s amendment of existing legislation to grant expedited citizenship to religious minorities from three neighboring countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan—where Islam is the state religion. The exclusion of Muslims from the law’s purview introduced by stealth a religious test of citizenship in a constitutionally secular republic, even though the law does not on its own threaten the citizenship of Indians.

But what really lit the fuse under accumulating fears and resentments were the pledges by amit shah—india’s home minister and modi’s closest confidant—to compile a National Register of Citizens (NRC) that could compel all inhabitants of the country to furnish documentary evidence of their nationality. If and when the NRC is activated, those unable to be entered into it can—so long as they are Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, or Zoroastrians who arrived in the country before 2015—evade the detention camps currently under construction by invoking the amended citizenship law to apply for formal citizenship. Only Muslims, the sole major Indian religious community omitted from the citizenship law, would be faced with the ordeal of internment and statelessness for failing to produce the paperwork necessary for inclusion in the NRC.

In the countrywide protests provoked by modi and Shah, a small sit-in by burqa-clad women in a Muslim neighborhood of Delhi ornamented with Indian flags and portraits of mahatma gandhi and bhimrao ambedkar, the chief drafter of india’s constitution, became the nucleus of the most sustained interfaith challenge to their authority. But the government did not dismantle the protest site, because its presence was seen to be as working to the government’s advantage. Campaigning for local elections last month in Delhi, modi’s bharatiya janata party (bjp) attempted to mobilize voters by casting dissenters as traitors. One fevered December evening in the run-up to the vote, the Delhi police, which reports directly to Shah, stormed the library of Jamia Millia Islamia—a university co-founded by Zakir Husain, a Muslim freedom fighter who rose to become the third president of independent India—and beat up student protesters sheltering there. Another afternoon, a minister in modi’s government whipped up a rally with a grisly chant that culminated in “shoot the traitors.”

The BJP lost the election. But Delhi was about to be reduced to a powder keg. The match was tossed by a recently defeated BJP politician who vowed, in the presence of a police officer, to clear out peaceful Muslim protesters massed in northeast Delhi the evening before U.S. President Donald Trump landed in India for a whirlwind 36-hour state visit. Nobody knows who flung the first stone. But blood began spilling that night. And over the next three days, outlying areas of India’s capital collapsed under the worst Muslim-Hindu violence in decades as mobs rampaged through mixed neighborhoods, torching houses, vandalizing places of worship, lobbing Molotov cocktails into homes, and slaughtering people for belonging to the wrong religion.

The number of dead currently stands at 48. But the savagery was by no means symmetrical. Muslims, in a city where they constitute a tiny minority, outnumber Hindu fatalities by three to one. There were courageous exceptions, but there is footage showing uniformed agents of the state openly abetting Hindus against Muslims. In one neighborhood, an elderly Muslim woman choked to death when her house was set on fire. In another, a Muslim man was burned alive in front of his family. The Hindu dead—one stabbed to death hundreds of times and dumped in a drain—are now paraded as exhibits in a propaganda campaign by the prime minister’s ideological fellow travelers that seeks to paint the slaughter as a jihad hatched by seditious Muslims and their secular conspirators.

But what happened in Delhi was the preamble to a full-blown pogrom of Muslims. And more than human lives were lost in it: Trust built up over decades between communities also went up in smoke. The detritus will be cleared and the houses rebuilt, but many who until recently had lived cheek by jowl will for generations regard each other with hostility and suspicion. For ordinary people, this is the upshot of the schismatic politics purveyed by India’s current rulers.

Although modi has personally eschewed explicitly divisive rhetoric since being lofted into the prime minister’s office, surrogates in his party adopting poisonous speeches as the route to instant political glory are only following in the footsteps of their leader. Back in 2007, when he was still persona non grata in much of the world for presiding over the slaughter of nearly a thousand Muslims in 2002 as the chief minister of Gujarat, modi roused a crowd of wealthy Hindu voters by ridiculing liberal protests against the extrajudicial execution of a Muslim prisoner on his watch. “If AK-57 [sic] rifles are found at the residence of a person,” he told the crowd, “you tell me what I should do: should I not kill them?” The audience yelled back in unison: “Kill them! Kill them!”

As he plotted his ascent to national power, Modi’s reputation was deodorized by India’s biggest tycoons, who, in return for expedited clearances for their projects, anointed him the savior of the country. modi’s reign as prime minister is a reprise, on a larger scale, of his rule as chief minister of Gujarat. Instead of development, there is only the mirage of development. The so-called smart cities he conjured up in his speeches are nowhere to be seen, and the man who hypnotized young voters in 2014 with the promise to create 10 million jobs now oversees the worst unemployment crisis in 45 years. Independent institutions—from the media to the courts—have been subverted. India now has a surfeit of jobless young men permanently on edge, a state machinery that is imploding under the authoritarian weight of the prime minister, and a craven judiciary that refuses to rein him in.

Yet if modi remains the most popular leader in India, it is because he has stoked and weaponized Hindu rage. Survey the past, for a moment, from the perspective of newly politically conscious Hindus. Their land is repeatedly invaded for centuries. Their liturgical heritage is methodically razed. And their sacred geography is ultimately amputated to accommodate the demands of Muslim nationalism in the form of Pakistan—a state where Hindus, like all other minorities, have been accorded the status of second-tier citizens in law and are often forcibly converted to Islam. These grievances cannot be brushed aside, or censored, or dismissed with scholarly putdowns that deny the historical memory and experience of a people. History demands resolution. Yet that resolution cannot come from fights on the streets, and a wound that clamors for the blood of fellow citizens to heal itself deserves to be cauterized, not nursed. India cannot survive if it degenerates into a platform for the periodic airing of homicidal Hindu self-pity.

India, of course, has endured other episodes of communal bloodletting in its history. For much of the 1980s, a government led by the nominally secular Indian National Congress party brutalized Sikhs in Punjab. Today, Punjab is ruled by a Congress government headed by a Sikh chief minister. India has a tremendous gift for recovery. But this quality is often mistaken for a limitless capacity to absorb horrors. Muslims are not Sikhs, who make up just 2 percent of the Indian population: There are 200 million Muslims in India. #FP

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12 Bangladeshi Injured in Rally against indian extremist hindu prime minister modi

DHAKA, Bangladesh: At least 12 people were injured in Bangladesh at a protest against the upcoming visit of indian extremist hindu prime minister narendra modi, according to eye witnesses and local police.

The casualties included four policemen from a clash with protesters on Wednesday night in the southern island of Hatiya.

Hundreds of protesters on the remote island blocked a busy road and chanted slogans against the modi government which is widely viewed as anti-Muslim, due to recent riots in the indian capital New Delhi that killed at least 47 people.

“Police came to the spot and asked people to vacate. But protesters carried on the demonstrations against the massacre of Muslim in the indian capital, Delhi,” Iftikhar Hossain a local told Anadolu Agency.

“At one stage police baton-charged the protesters, who retaliated with brick bats and stones,” he added.

modi is due in Bangladesh on March 17 to mark the 100th birth anniversary of the country’s Present PM's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Local police confirmed four of their officers were injured and hospitalized.

“We requested them to leave the busy road, but they did not listen. Instead, they hurled brick bats at us,” Abul Khayer, the local police chief, told Anadolu Agency over the phone.

He added that police have started investigating the incident.

The Bangladeshi government has come under criticism for sending an invitation to modi, with opposition parties condemning the recent killings in Delhi during communal riots.

Meanwhile, a platform of 46 Islamic organizations in the country -- dubbed as the Islamic Law Implementation Council -- also called on Dhaka to withdraw the invitation to the indian prime minister.

The group also announced countrywide demonstrations after Friday prayer in demand to protest the "anti-Muslim violence" in New Delhi.

At least 47 people, majority of them Muslims, were killed -- with bodies fished out of drains in the week-long riots which started in late February. #AA

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PM Imran thanks Iran's supreme leader, Erdogan for condemning India's oppression of Muslims

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday thanked Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for speaking up against the "oppression and massacre" of Muslims in India and residents of Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Taking to Twitter, the premier regretted that only a "few voices" from the Muslim world were speaking out to condemn the actions of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Hindu supremacist" regime.

"Sadly, few voices from the Muslim World are speaking out & condemning this; & more voices are being raised in the West condemning the Hindu Supremacist Modi regime's massacre of Muslims in India & Kashmiris in IOJK," he wrote.

The prime minister's statement came in response to a tweet by Khamenei in which he urged India earlier in the day to “confront extremist Hindus” and “stop the massacre of Muslims”, adding to the international fallout over deadly violence targeting Muslims in New Delhi.

At least 44 people were killed and hundreds injured in the worst communal riots in the Indian capital in decades, triggered by clashes between supporters of a new citizenship law and those against it.

“The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India,” Khamenei said in a tweet in English, just days after New Delhi rebuked Iran's foreign minister for commenting on the same issue.

"The government of India should confront extremist Hindus & their parties & stop the massacre of Muslims in order to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam," he added. The tweet was accompanied by the hashtag #IndianMuslimslnDanger.

“Iran condemns the wave of organised violence against Indian Muslims,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had tweeted on Monday, in response to which New Delhi summoned the Islamic Republic's ambassador and lodged a protest.

“We do not expect such comments from a country like Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a statement later.

The Citizenship Amendment Act provides non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan a fast track to Indian citizenship.

Prime Minister modi's hindu nationalist government says this is required to help minorities from those mainly Muslim countries.

Critics argue the law discriminates against Muslims and violates the spirit of India's secular constitution. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests since December.

Earlier this week, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights filed an intervention application in the Indian Supreme Court against the citizenship law.

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Saudi empties Makkah Shareef's Grand Mosque for 'sterilization'

Saudi Arabia on Thursday emptied the Kaaba Shareef, Islam's Sacred site, for sterilization over fears of the new coronavirus, an unprecedented move after the kingdom suspended the year-round Umrah pilgrimage.

State television relayed stunning images of an empty white-tiled area surrounding the Kaaba Shareef - inside Makkah Shareef's Grand Mosque, which is usually packed with tens of thousands of pilgrims.

The move was a “temporary preventive measure” but the upper floors of the Grand Mosque were still open for prayers, a Saudi official told AFP. He called the measure “unprecedented”.

On Wednesday, the kingdom halted the Umrah pilgrimage for its own citizens and residents.

The move came after authorities last week suspended visas for the Umrah and barred citizens from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council from entering Makkah Shareef and Madina Shareef.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday declared three new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of reported infections to five.

The decision to suspend the Umrah comes ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramazan starting in late April, which is a favored period for pilgrimage.

It is unclear how the coronavirus will affect the Haj, due to start in late July.

Some 2.5 million faithful traveled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in 2019 to perform the Haj.

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'Incredible India' now being viewed as intolerant India, says Pak FM Qureshi

Pakisthani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday stated that 'Incredible India' is now being viewed as "intolerant India", and 'Shining India' as "burning India", adding that the country is now facing international scrutiny like never before.

The foreign minister expressed these views while speaking at a seminar, organised by the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies, in Islamabad.

During his address, Qureshi stated: "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies are taking a bloody and dangerous turn, as predicted by Prime Minister Imran Khan."

Referring to the country's contentious bill that sparked deadly riots in the Indian capital, he said: "India's Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens are aimed at disenfranchising the country's 200 million Muslims."

Referring to the 2002 riots in Gujarat, Qureshi said: "The pogrom of Gujarat is being replayed on the streets of New Delhi. This is a matter of deep concern to Pakistan and should be to the entire world. Hindutva and its capture of Indian state institutions poses the single, gravest threat to global and regional peace and security.

"Pakistan has not sought conflict with India, but we have not appeased either. We have not shied away from lending our full voice and support to the beleaguered people of occupied Kashmir. We have not shied away from exposing the real Indian intent and agenda to the world.

"Today, after decades of hiatus, the Kashmiri issue is fully alive and internationalised. The world's opinion is turning in favour of the Kashmiris, and against ruling Hindu supremacists.

"We have no doubt that the world community can clearly see the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government in India for what it is; an ideologically driven, hate-filled, majoritarian clique that is destroying the societal fabric, and deeply hurting minorities, especially Muslims.

"They must be held accountable for the crimes against humanity they are committing everyday," he said.

The foreign minister also stated that Pakistan remains committed to its core objective of lowering tensions and promoting peace and stability in the region, Radio Pakistan reported.

Pakistan will not become involved in any regional conflict and will continue to support negotiated settlements of all regional disputes, the report quoted him as saying.

"Dialogue is the only viable option to bring peace and stability to the region," he added. #Dawn

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Trump talks to Taliban leader for 35 minutes

KABUL: President Donald Trump spoke by phone to the leader of the Taliban, the militant group and the US leader said on Tuesday, days after Washington signed a historic deal with the militants.

Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said he had “a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban”, without naming him.

The 35-minute call came a day after the militants ended a partial truce and threw into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the militants that are due to begin on March 10, according to the US-Taliban agreement signed on Saturday.

A transcript of the phone call released by the Taliban quoted fighter-turned-negotiator Mullah Baradar urging Trump to “take determined actions in regard to the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan”.

Under the terms of the US-Taliban agreement, foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with Kabul.

Taliban attack Afghan army bases, throwing peace talks into doubt

But a dispute over a prisoner swap has raised questions about whether the negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban will go ahead.

The agreement includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives — something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start.

Baradar called on Trump to “not allow anyone to take actions that violate the terms of the agreement thus embroiling you even further in this prolonged war”, according to the Taliban transcript.

Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a joint US-Afghan declaration released in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators.

The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine “the feasibility of releasing” captives.

Since the deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming “victory” over the US.

Taliban attacks

The Taliban carried out dozens of attacks on Afghan army bases, officials said on Tuesday, hours after ending a partial truce and throwing into doubt peace talks between Kabul and the insurgents.

In the last 24 hours the Taliban conducted 33 attacks in 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

“As a result, six civilians were killed and 14 wounded. Eight enemy were also killed, 15 wounded,” he said on Twitter.

Two soldiers were killed in one of the attacks in southern Kandahar province, a government statement said.

An attack in Logar province near Kabul killed five security forces, the provincial governor’s spokesman Didar Lawang said.

The halt to the limited truce, which began on February 22, ends what was a welcome reprieve for ordinary Afghans who have borne the brunt of the deadly violence. But experts said the move was unsurprising as both sides seek to exploit whatever leverage they hold to force the other’s hand.

“Of course violence will go up, was bound to happen. No surprise Ghani balking on prisoner release: one of his few levers,” Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, tweeted. Kabul-based analyst Ahmad Saeedi said the uptick in attacks reflected the insurgents’ belief that “they have to keep the battlefield hot to be able to win on the negotiating table, as they did with the Americans”.

“After the US-Taliban deal, it is illogical to fight. It is time for peace,” said Naqibullah, a 40-year-old government emplo­yee in Kabul, who uses only one name. “The Taliban can’t take the whole nation hostage.”

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2020

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US launches Air-strike against Taliban to 'defend Afghan forces'

The US launched an airstrike against Taliban fighters to defend Afghan forces on Wednesday, an American military spokesman said, as violence spirals after a string of deadly attacks by the insurgents, throwing the country's nascent peace process into grave doubt.

News of the airstrike in southern Helmand province — the first in 11 days — came hours after US President Donald Trump told reporters he had had a "very good" chat with the Taliban political chief, who on Saturday signed a historic deal with Washington to withdraw foreign forces.

Since the signing in Doha however, the militants have ramped up violence against Afghan forces, ending a partial weeklong truce that provided a rare reprieve to war-weary residents.

US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Sonny Leggett tweeted that the airstrike took place against Taliban fighters who were "actively attacking" an Afghan forces checkpoint in Helmand province.

"This was a defensive strike to disrupt the attack," he tweeted.

"We call on the Taliban to stop needless attacks and uphold their commitments. As we have demonstrated, we will defend our partners when required."

He said insurgents had carried out 43 attacks on checkpoints in Helmand on Tuesday alone.

The insurgents killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a series of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP on Wednesday, casting a pall over peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban, due to begin on March 10.

"Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police," said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council.

A defence ministry official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed the army toll, while the provincial police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari confirmed the police fatalities.

The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governor's spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: "Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded".

The news of the attacks came after Trump told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that he had a "very good" relationship with Taliban political chief Mullah Baradar, with the pair speaking on the phone for 35 minutes, according to the insurgents.

"The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they'd like to cease violence also," he said.

But on Wednesday, US military spokesman Leggett warned that the "Afghans and US have complied with our agreements; however, Talibs appear intent on squandering this (opportunity) and ignoring the will of the people for peace".

'Common interest'

Trump has touted the Doha deal as a way to end the bloody, 18-year US military presence in Afghanistan — right in time for his November re-election bid.

Under the terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with the national government in Kabul.

The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives — something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start.

Trump has said the Taliban and Washington both "have a very common interest" in ending the war.

Since Saturday's deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming "victory" over the US and on Monday they announced they would resume attacks on Afghan national forces.

Ghani's government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open "initial contacts" with the insurgents, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul's representatives except to discuss the release of their captives.

Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a separate joint US-Afghan declaration made in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators.

The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners, while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine "the feasibility of releasing" captives. #Dawn

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Turkey & Russia Reach Agreement for Cease-Fire in Syria's Idlib

Desk Report: After weeks of tension, Turkey and Russia agreed on Thursday to continue their cooperation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, declaring a cease-fire while expressing an intention to provide a new status quo for the war-torn province.

Turkey and Russia have reached the agreement during a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The cease-fire was expected to begin at midnight Friday, leading to a new status quo in Idlib.

Speaking in a joint press conference, Erdoğan said the Syrian regime and its aggressiveness are the main reasons behind civilian suffering in Idlib.

“Considering all the recent developments, a new status quo is inevitable in Idlib,” he added.

“We have deployed additional military units to Syria to ensure regional stability. Our priority is to enable de-escalation in Idlib. The cease-fire in Idlib will begin tonight a minute after midnight,” he also said.

Putin said: “We have always solved our problems by working together. Today was no different.”

Underlining attacks in Idlib must stop, Putin added: “We agreed to continue the will and conditions of Astana deal. We have prepared a document as a result of today’s meeting, hoping that it will put an end to civilian suffering in Idlib.”

The meeting comes amid growing tension in northern Syria’s Idlib province, where the Russia-backed Bashar Assad regime's offense has targeted civilians and Turkish soldiers, raising the prospect of a direct clash between Russian and Turkish forces.

The nearly three-hour-long summit between the two presidents was followed by an inter-delegation meeting for more than two and a half hours.

In Russia, Erdoğan is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, among other high-profile government representatives.

Both leaders underlined the need to reach an agreement at the start of the Kremlin talks.

In his opening remarks at the Kremlin, Putin had thanked Erdoğan for accepting his invitation for talks on the recent escalation.

"Thank you for coming. There is always something to talk about, but now the situation in a well-known area – Idlib – has escalated so much that it requires our direct, personal conversation," he said, offering his condolences over the fallen soldiers.

"The loss of life is always a great tragedy. Unfortunately, as I told you on the phone, no one, including the Syrian military, knew about their (Turkish soldiers) whereabouts," he added.

Putin went on to say that the Syrian regime forces have suffered great losses in Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in Syria.

"We need to talk about the situation that has developed to date so that nothing like this happens again, and so that it does not destroy the Russian-Turkish relations, which I, and as I know, you too, treat very carefully," he said.

Erdoğan said the decisions taken at the meeting will ease tensions in the region and in Turkey.

Erdoğan had said on Wednesday that he expected his talks with Putin to lead to a rapid cease-fire in northwest Syria.

The two leaders were set to discuss the recent developments in Syria, including cease-fire violations in the Idlib de-escalation zone.

The Syrian regime and its allies, Russia and Iran, have consistently broken the terms of the 2018 cease-fire and a new one that began on Jan. 12, launching frequent attacks inside Idlib province.

Especially since April 2018, the attacks on the last opposition stronghold dramatically intensified and caused new waves of refugee flows that move toward the Turkish border, putting the country, which already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, into a difficult position.

As a result, Turkey, which has the second-largest army in the transatlantic NATO alliance, has funneled troops and equipment into the region in recent weeks to stop the Syrian regime advance and avoid the wave of refugees.

However, the incident that acted as a tipping point in regional tension was the killing of more than 34 Turkish soldiers in regime attacks last month. In response, Ankara launched Operation Spring Shield against regime targets in Idlib.

Currently, Turkish soldiers are stationed in the region to protect the local population and counterterrorism groups. Still, despite the military escalation, Ankara also has been putting forth efforts to keep diplomatic channels active with Russia in hope of a finding political solution, urging the country to uphold the peace agreements and ensure an immediate cease-fire.

In the last few years, Erdoğan and Putin have worked closely to try to resolve the nine-year conflict, proving that the unique dialogue between the two leaders may overcome the differences in the end. They managed to coordinate their interests by avoiding direct confrontation between their forces in Syria, even though Moscow has been backing the Bashar Assad regime while Ankara has supported opposition groups. Both Russia and Turkey appear eager to avoid a showdown despite conflicting interests in Idlib province, making it difficult to negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise.

The talks in Moscow mark the 10th encounter in just over a year between Putin and Erdoğan, who call each other “dear friend” and have polished a fine art of bargaining.

The relationship has been strained in recent days, with the two sides trading accusations of violating the Sochi deal, which created a buffer zone and allowed for the deployment of 12 Turkish observation posts.

Last October, they reached an agreement to deploy their forces across Syria's northeastern border to fill the void left by President Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces. Prior to that, they had negotiated a series of accords that saw opposition fighters from various areas in Syria move into Idlib and in 2018 carved out a de-escalation zone in Idlib.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops into Idlib to repel the Syrian regime army while Russia, which has helped Assad reclaim most of the country’s territory, has signaled it wouldn't sit idle to see Turkey rout his troops.

The Turkish defense ministry said in the last 24 hours it had destroyed four tanks, five rocket launchers and a dozen military vehicles in artillery and airstrikes.

The Syrian regime's attempt to take Idlib has forced close to a million civilians to flee their homes and prompted Erdoğan to open Turkey's border with Greece to refugees and migrants.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees and says it cannot handle more. Erdoğan warned Europe on Wednesday that it must support Turkey's "political and humanitarian solutions in Syria" if it wants to avoid a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis.

Ankara wants Assad's forces to cease their assault on the province and pull back behind lines agreed under a 2018 deal with Russia brokered in Sochi.

Turkey has long backed some opposition groups fighting against Assad, but its priority now is to stop another influx of refugees.

The Kremlin, which launched an air war in support of Assad in 2015, sees it as a key success of Putin's foreign policy – with newfound clout and military bases in Syria that establish Moscow as a major player in the Middle East.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Sudan's military council defends coup, vows quick, democratic transition

Lieutenant General Omar Zain Abedeen, the head of the new Sudanese military council's political committee, addresses a press conference on April 12, 2019 in the capital Khartoum. (AFP Photo)

Staff Report: The Sudanese army claims it has no ambition to hold the reins of power for long after ousting President Omar al-Bashir, saying it responded to calls from the people against his rule.

Col. Gen. Omar Zein Abedeen, the chairman of the transitional council that took over on Thursday after al-Bashir was arrested, told a press conference on Friday that the military wants to "guide the country forward" and act as a "tool for change."

"We came for you. We have no ambitions at all to hold the reins of power. We have not come up with future solutions or an ideology, they will be devised by the people," Zein Abedeen said.

The military council's purpose was to facilitate a public conversation between political parties and citizens to find a solution to Sudan's crisis, according to Zein Abedeen. "We are the guardians of the people's change ... We are here to arrive at solutions acceptable and agreeable to the people." The former ruling National Congress Party of al-Bashir will be allowed to compete in planned elections, Zein Abedeen added.

The council's main role was to maintain public order, peace, security and stability during this process, he said. 'There will be civil government to be agreed on by political entities and we will not interfere in it.'

He said al-Bashir is in custody but declined to provide more details. He said al-Bashir's top government members, including the vice president and associates, are also under arrest but didn't elaborate.

The ruling military council also vowed to work on lifting longstanding U.S. sanctions on Khartoum over alleged terrorism ties.

Ousted President al-Bashir will not be handed over to International Criminal Court (ICC), where he faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his deadly campaign against insurgents in Darfur, Zein Abedeen said, but added that military authorities will try him at home, before the nation.

He said that handing over al-Bashir would be "an ugly mark on Sudan ... even rebels carrying weapons, we won't extradite them."

However, Sudanese pro-democracy protesters who spent four months on the streets rallying against al-Bashir pressed on with their campaign for a civilian government Friday, defying the military leaders who overthrew him the day before.

Thousands kept up their sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum overnight and into the morning, despite a curfew imposed by the army after it arrested al-Bashir.

The soldiers posted outside army headquarters made no move to disperse the protesters who camped out there for a sixth straight night on Thursday, demonstrators said.

Protesters were seen chatting with soldiers. They said their quarrel was with the commanders who had led the coup, not the rank and file.

"There was no difference between last night and previous days and nights for us," said one protester who gave his name as Abu Obeida.

"This is now our square. We have taken it and won't leave until victory is achieved.

"We broke the curfew. We will continue doing it until we have a civilian transitional government."

Most shops and offices were closed on Friday which is the day of prayer and rest in Sudan.

Vast crowds were expected to throng the streets of Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman after the main weekly Muslim prayers at noon raising fears of confrontation.

Sudan's last elected prime minister, opposition Umma party leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was overthrown by Bashir in a military coup in 1989, was expected to address supporters after prayers at one of Omdurman's most revered mosques.

Since returning to Khartoum from self-imposed exile, Mahdi has allied his party with the grass-roots who were the driving force behind the mass protests that preceded Thursday's coup.

The Sudan Professionals Association -- a well-organized umbrella group of doctors, teachers and engineers -- has called for a huge turnout at Friday's turnout as has the wider opposition Alliance for Freedom and Democracy.

The whereabouts of Sudan's president of 30 years remained unknown, and though the military leaders had said he was in a "safe place," the murkiness stirred rumors that he had fled the country or had been spirited out by the army and some part of the security apparatus, which had until Thursday served as the main pillars of al-Bashir's power.

Organizers of the demonstration said they would keep up their campaign and that they disagree with the army's plans to rule the country for the next two years. It was not immediately clear if the army would move against the protesters.

The mood on Friday among the crowd in Khartoum appeared festive, with protesters playing music and chanting, "Down again" — a reference to Defense Minister Awad Mohammed Ibn Ouf who announced al-Bashir's ouster on Thursday on Sudanese state TV.

Ibn Ouf, on a U.S. sanctions list for genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur, was sworn in as head of the new military transitional council that has taken over.

The rest of the council is yet to be announced as the Sudanese official news agency reported that Ibn Ouf has postponed this step, pending "further consultations." Meanwhile, the state SUNA news agency said that Ibn Ouf would hold a meeting with political factions and leaders of the protest movement later in the day, apparently to negotiate a political settlement.

After the dramatic events of Thursday, when tens of thousands poured out ono Khartoum streets to celebrate al-Bashir's ouster, human rights groups urged Sudan's new military authorities to hand al-Bashir over to the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his deadly campaign against insurgents in Darfur.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department called on the Sudanese military to "follow the will of the people" and "commit to the speedy handover to civilian rule."

The European Union urged the army to carry out a "swift" handover to civilian rule.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called for a transition that would meet the "democratic aspirations" of the Sudanese people and appealed for "calm and utmost restraint by all", his spokesman said.

That came after the African Union decried al-Bashir's military ouster, saying it was "not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people."

On Friday, the commander of Sudan's feared Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary force, said it would not "accept any solutions rejected by the Sudanese people" and for "opening the door for dialogue" with the protest movement. The force draws its origins from the Janjaweed militias that were implicated in the Darfur genocide. Mohammed Hamadati, the commander, said talks are needed so Sudan would "avoid slipping into chaos."

In his televised announcement Thursday, Ibn Ouf said also that the military had suspended the constitution, dissolved the government, declared a three-month state of emergency and closed the country's borders and airspace. A nighttime curfew was also part of the measures.

State television later broadcast footage of him taking the oath to become head of the council, alongside his new deputy, army chief of staff Lieutenant General Kamal Abdelmarouf.

Sudan analyst and researcher Eric Reeves described the military's ouster of the longtime president as a "palace coup with al-Bashir as scapegoat."

"The three-month state of emergency is a clear indication that they intend to crush the uprising in this time," he said of the Sudanese military.

Al-Bashir Bashir, who swept to power in a 1989 coup, was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes.

Ibn Ouf apologized for "the mismanagement, the corruption and the injustice" that had led to mounting social inequality. He also apologized for the regime's resort to strong-arm tactics to attempt to crush the protests which had led to the "loss of people's lives."

But his apology fell on deaf ears among the protesters, who had repeatedly defied bullets and tear gas to keep up their sit-in before the army stepped in.

Thursday's announcement meant "we have not achieved anything", said another protester who gave his name only as Adel.

"We will not stop our revolution. We are calling for the regime to step down, not only Bashir."

It was a far cry from the scenes of celebration that had initially greeted the army's announcement it would intervene on Thursday, when demonstrators cheered and hugged soldiers on the streets, some of whom joined the demonstrations.

The opposition Sudanese Congress Party called for the establishment of a joint military and civilian council to rule for a four-year transitional period.

It also urged the army to give executive powers to civilians.

The military council said it was declaring a ceasefire across the country, including in war-torn Darfur.

But the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW) fighting government forces in Darfur denounced what it called a "palace coup".

Sudan's feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said it was freeing all the country's political prisoners, state media reported.

But in the eastern cities of Kasala and Port Sudan, the releases failed to materialize, prompting protesters to storm NISS buildings, according to witnesses.

Protesters have otherwise largely heeded the calls of organizers to refrain from attacking government official or buildings as they press their campaign for sweeping reform.

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