In a weekend interview on live television, Oxford-educated Khan said an increase in rapes indicated the ‘consequences in any society where vulgarity is on the rise’.

“The incidents of rape of women… (have) actually very rapidly increased in society,” he said.

He advised women to cover up to prevent temptation.

“This entire concept of purdah is to avoid temptation, not everyone has the willpower to avoid it,” he said, using a term that can refer to modest dress or the segregation of the sexes.

Hundreds have signed a statement circulating online Wednesday (7) calling Khan’s comments ‘factually incorrect, insensitive and dangerous’.

“Fault rests solely with the rapist and the system that enables the rapist, including a culture fostered by statements such as those made by (Khan),” the statement said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent rights watchdog, said Tuesday (6) it was ‘appalled’ by the comments.

“Not only does this betray a baffling ignorance of where, why and how rape occurs, but it also lays the blame on rape survivors, who, as the government must know, can range from young children to victims of honour crimes,” it said.

Pakistan is a deeply conservative country where victims of sexual abuse are often viewed with suspicion and criminal complaints are rarely seriously investigated.

Much of the country lives under an ‘honour’ code where women who bring ‘shame’ on the family can be subjected to violence or murder.

It regularly ranks among the worst places in the world for gender equality.

Nationwide protests erupted last year when a police chief admonished a gang-rape victim for driving at night without a male companion.

The Franco-Pakistani mother was assaulted in front of her children on the side of a motorway after her car ran out of fuel.

Last year, Khan was also criticised after another television appearance where he failed to challenge a Muslim cleric’s insistence that coronavirus had been unleashed because of the wrongdoings of women.

The latest controversy comes as the organisers behind International Women’s Day marches battle what they have called a coordinated disinformation campaign against them, including doctored images and videos circulated online.

It has led to blasphemy accusations — a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan where allegations have previously led mobs to attack people.

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Naravane is visiting Dhaka at the invitation of his Bangladeshi counterpart, Gen Aziz Ahmed. The visit comes less than two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the neighbouring country.

The Chief of Army Staff paid tributes to the fallen heroes of the 1971 Liberation War by laying a wreath at the altar of Shikha Anirban in Dhaka Cantonment.

“Gen Narawane on 1st day of his 5-day visit to #Bangladesh paid tributes to the martyrs of the Liberation War at the #ShikhaAnirban today,” Additional Directorate General of Public Information, IHQ of MoD (Army), tweeted.   He was welcomed with a guard of honour at Senakunj.

“#COAS will be meeting the three Service Chiefs of Bangladesh’s #ArmedForces,” it tweeted. The Indian Army chief will share his experience during the seminar on United Nations Peace Support Operations. He will also witness the culmination exercise, hardware display and closing ceremony of the joint military Exercise Shantir Ogroshena, a multilateral UN-mandated counter-terrorism exercise from April 4 to 12, the Indian Embassy here said in a statement ahead of the visit.

Besides the armies of Bangladesh and India, the exercise is being participated by Bhutan and Sri Lanka along with observers from the US, the UK, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The visit will further strengthen the close and fraternal ties existing between the Armed Forces of the two countries, it said. The Army chief will also interact with Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen on April 11.

“This visit from April 8 to 12 will further deepen the bilateral relationships between the two armies and act as a catalyst for closer coordination and cooperation between the two countries on a host of strategic issues,” Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said in New Delhi.

The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In reflection of close ties, India is also hosting a number of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1971 war that led to the liberation of Bangladesh.

Around 93,000 Pakistani troops had surrendered before the joint forces of the Indian Army and the “Mukti Bahini” on December 16, 1971 that paved the way for the birth of Bangladesh.  The Army chief is also scheduled to visit the Mujibur Rahman memorial museum in Dhanmondi where he will pay tributes to the founding father of that country.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been trying to send back Rohingyas, a Muslim minority from Myanmar who have found refuge in India after fleeing persecution and waves of violence over the years.

Two refugees petitioned the Supreme Court for the release of Rohingya men and women detained in the northern Jammu region last month, and block the government from deporting them.

But Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde said the deportations could go ahead as long as officials followed due process. “It is not possible to grant the interim relief prayed for,” the judge said in his order.

“Regarding the contention raised on behalf of the petitioners about the present state of affairs in Myanmar, we have to state that we cannot comment upon something happening in another country,” he added.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Myanmar since the army seized power in a coup on Feb. 1.

The ruling has triggered panic among refugees in India, a Rohingya community leader in New Delhi said, declining to be named out of fear of reprisals.

“This is a terrifying order made by the highest court in India,” he said. “Given the horrifying situation in Myanmar, I had really hoped the judge would rule in our favour.”

The Modi government says the Rohingya are in the country illegally and a security threat. At least a dozen Rohingya have been deported since 2017, according to community leaders.

(Reuters)

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Farhan Towhid, 19, and Tanvir Towhid, 21, shot their parents, sister and grandmother before killing themselves, reported The Washington Post.

A family friend called police to request a wellness check after Towhid posted a 11-page letter starting with ‘hey everyone. I killed myself and my family’ posted on Instagram.

When the police forced their way into the house in Allen, they found six people dead: Towhid brothers, their father, Towhidul Islam, 54, mother, Iren Islam, 56, grandmother Altafun Nessa, 77, and their twin sister, Farbin Towhid, 19.

According to the police, it is likely the brothers killed their family members on Saturday (3) night.

The mass killing of the family, which moved to the US from Bangladesh about 15 years ago, left friends and neighbors in shock.

The family first settled in New York before moving to Allen, a northern suburb of Dallas. Towhidul worked in information technology while his wife, Iren, took care of the house and their children.

According to reports, the grandmother was visiting from Bangladesh and was scheduled to return home last week, but her flight got postponed because of the pandemic.

Farbin Towhid had recently accepted a full scholarship to attend New York University.

According to Towhid’s note on Instagram, he and his brother Tanvir had struggled with mental illness for years.

Farhan wrote that he had suffered from depression since the ninth grade and had repeatedly harmed himself. His family had tried to help him, but he said that his mental health issues had recently worsened.

He had been studying computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, he wrote, but was expelled from his dorm in the winter after telling a roommate that he planned to kill his family.

He moved home, where Tanvir, whom he described as ‘depressed and socially anxious’, was staying.

Eventually, the pair decided to kill their family and then themselves, he wrote.

The pair bought guns, he wrote, adding that ‘gun control in the US is a joke’ because the pair lied when asked if they were suffering from mental illness.

“We just can’t believe it happened to this family,” family friend Sied Chowdhury, 60, told The Washington Post. “They are a very loving family. We didn’t see anything wrong with the family, any problems.”

Some members of the Bangladeshi community arrived at the scene early on Monday morning and did not leave until the family’s bodies were removed from the home around 6 pm, the report added.

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It is seeking the money to ramp up monthly production to more than 100 million doses by the end of May, the government said in a statement on Wednesday, noting output was currently around 65-70 million doses a month.

The company is making vaccine doses for dozens of mainly poorer countries, though it has supplied Britain, Canada and Saudi Arabia due to AstraZeneca production issues elsewhere.

About 90% of the 86 million doses India has administered since mid-January have come from the institute, with the rest accounted for by a domestic vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech, which is also struggling to boost output.

Some Indian states have complained of a vaccine shortage even though immunisations are currently limited to front-line workers and people aged over 45, or 400 million of India’s 1.35 billion people.

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Last year’s delayed tournament was shifted to the United Arab Emirates but the 14th edition returns to India, where the coronavirus situation has worsened significantly in recent weeks.

The Indian cricket board (BCCI), however, is bullish about the chances of pulling it off.

“We did it successfully in Dubai last year. We are confident we are going to do it again this time,” BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly told Reuters.

Champions Mumbai Indians, captained by Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore get the eight-team tournament going at M A Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.

Both teams have already been hit by Covid-19 cases in their camps, however, raising questions over the effectiveness of the health protections afforded to the cricketers by the bubble.

Players will be well compensated for their stint in India as, even without ticket sales, the IPL was still worth $6.19 billion last year, according to financial consultancy firm Duff & Phelps. That was down from $6.78 billion in 2019.

The BCCI would have been left with a $542 million hole in its coffers if it had cancelled its flagship event last year but ended up with record TV and digital viewership.

With curfews currently in force in many Indian states, the IPL can be expected to surpass last year’s viewership numbers with cricket fans in the world’s second most populous nation set to be glued to TV sets and electronic devices.

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In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that counter-terrorism investigations into the suspicious activities of 37 people in Singapore have been carried out after most of them posted on social media, inciting violence or stoking community unrest in the aftermath of the terror attacks in France.

Of the 37 people, 14 are Singaporeans and 23 foreigners, mostly Bangladeshis, it said.  “The 14 Singaporeans comprise 10 males and four females, and are aged between 19 and 62 years old. Most of them had, in response to the recent terror attacks in France, made social media postings which incited violence or stoked communal unrest,” the ministry said.
As for the 23 foreigners, 16 of them, including 15 Bangladeshis and one Malaysian have been repatriated, it said.   Seven foreigners are still under investigation, it added.

One Bangladeshi man under investigation – identified as 26-year-old Ahmed Faysal – has been arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) following investigations into “terrorism-related activities”, the ministry said.  He even bought foldable knives, which he claimed he would use for attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh, it said, adding that he was also willing to travel to Kashmir to fight against “perceived enemies of Islam”.

Preliminary investigations by the Internal Security Department (ISD) showed that Faysal was radicalised and harboured the intention to “undertake armed violence in support of his religion”, the Channel News Asia reported, citing the statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Faysal had been working as a construction worker in Singapore since early 2017, and became radicalised in 2018 after “imbibing online propaganda on ISIS”, the statement said. He was arrested on November 2.

“He was attracted to ISIS’ goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in Syria and wanted to travel there to fight alongside ISIS against the Syrian government. He believed that he would be a martyr if he died while doing so,” it said.

In mid-2019, Faysal shifted his allegiance to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), another militant group fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria.

“He donated funds to a Syria-based organisation on the understanding that his donations would benefit the HTS’ cause in Syria,” the ministry said. “Faysal also actively shared propaganda promoting armed violence on social media accounts created under fictitious names.”

Apart from ISIS and the HTS, Faysal also expressed support for other terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, the statement said.

To prepare himself for an armed attack, Faysal watched firearms-related videos online.  While Faysal is part of the 37, the ministry said he is not linked to the incidents in France.  “While a handful of these individuals had commented on the same discussion threads on social media, the majority of the cases are not connected to each other,” said the ministry. There is no indication that any of them were planning attacks or protests in Singapore, it added.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) have also enhanced their security measures and patrols. Attacks such as those in Saudi Arabia and Austria also signal a threat against French or Western interests, the ministry said. A “palpable anti-France climate” has developed in several countries, with large protests, calls for boycotts and an increase in terrorist rhetoric online.

“In view of the deteriorating security situation, the Singapore Home Team has been on heightened security alert since early September and had also stepped up its security measures to pre-empt copycat attacks in Singapore,” the ministry said.

Speaking at the 16th Religious Rehabilitation Group Seminar held at Khadijah Mosque on Tuesday, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said the “shape and nature” of the terrorism threat has changed since last year.

While the Islamic State has lost much of its physical territory in several countries and had key leaders killed, they are now a covert network, he noted. “Its propaganda on social media continues to radicalise and inspire attacks around the world, including here in Southeast Asia,” the minister was quoted as saying by the channel.

Counter-terrorism efforts in the region have reduced the number of attacks, but the terrorists are adapting, he said. Attacks in France and Austria also highlight that the threat of terrorism remains, he added.

The ISD has “ramped up” counter-terrorism investigations into suspicious activity, individuals who are suspected of being radicalised as well as individuals whose conduct could “threaten Singapore’s communal harmony”, said the ministry.

The Singaporeans and foreigners who have been investigated had “attracted security attention for suspected radical inclinations, or for making comments which incite violence, or stoked communal unrest”, it added.

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The nation established seven tribunals nationwide in March to deal with thousands of trafficking cases – some of which have been pending for years – and improve its low conviction rate.

In the first verdict delivered by the tribunal in Dhaka, a woman was found guilty last week of kidnapping her neighbour’s baby and selling the girl to a trafficking syndicate. Sathi Akter, 27, was jailed for 10 years and fined 20,000 taka ($230).

“By establishing these anti-trafficking tribunals, we have let people know of our intention, that this is one of our priority issues … we have expedited the cases,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.

“We want to quickly dispose them and set an example to the world,” he added. “The trial of the first case and judgement shows our eagerness to deal with these problems quickly.”

At least 4,000 cases are pending investigation or prosecution under a 2012 law that criminalised trafficking, government data shows. The conviction rate under the law stands at 1.7%, found the annual U.S. flagship report on trafficking.

This is due to the absence of specialist anti-trafficking courts until this year, and a lack of guidance on evidence collection for police in cross-border cases, activists said.

The Dhaka tribunal’s public prosecutor, who represented the trafficked child’s mother Golapy Akter, said the case was heard in six working days – marking a relatively quick turnaround.

Sazzadul Haque said Akter’s determination to secure justice rather than accept an out-of-court settlement and the testimony of several witnesses were key factors behind the conviction.

“It’s true that there are trafficking cases which are difficult to win,” Haque said. “In this case, both of those aspects were on our side.”

Bangladesh has ramped up anti-trafficking efforts in recent years amid concerns about its large migrant workforce overseas and under growing pressure on the issue from the United States.

In what police called the “strongest operation” against human traffickers in recent times, at least 50 people were arrested in Dhaka in June after 24 Bangladeshi migrants had been abducted and killed in Libya the previous month.

The nation is one of the world’s top exporters of labour and depends on money sent home from about 700,000 people who go abroad to work each year. Yet high recruitment fees charged by unofficial brokers fuels abuses and trafficking, activists say.

Anti-trafficking activists hailed the tribunal’s quick handling of the case and its verdict, but said more work needed to be done to clear the country’s backlog of trafficking cases.

“Coordination between the police and the prosecution team is the key to efficient trials,” said Mohammad Tariqul Islam, country director for anti-trafficking charity Justice and Care.

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West Indies toured England for a test series in July and are currently in New Zealand to play three Twenty20 Internationals and two test matches.

CWI Chief Executive Johnny Grave said in a statement that “… with the health and safety of our touring party at the forefront of our minds, we have decided to conduct a pre-tour recce by sending two highly experienced professionals to assess the BCB’s bio-secure plans and protocols.”

West Indies were originally scheduled to play three tests, three one-day internationals and a couple of Twenty20 matches on the tour.

However, Bangladesh board chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said last week the CWI had requested one fewer test to reduce the amount of time their players would have to spend in the biosecure bubble.

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The cricketer is the latest target of Islamists in Bangladesh, who have also held large anti-France rallies in recent weeks following president Emmanuel Macron’s defence of the right to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

The 33-year-old sparked a social media storm in the Muslim-majority nation after attending a ceremony in Kolkata dedicated to a Hindu goddess on November 12.

A man who threatened Shakib on social media for “hurting religious sentiment” was arrested by police on Tuesday.

“The threat is concerning,” Bangladesh Cricket Board’s chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka.

“We took immediate measures and also informed the relevant security agencies. They are also taking necessary steps,” Chowdhury added, without giving further details.

He did not say if Shakib would receive round-the-clock protection.

An armed bodyguard was seen beside Shakib during a training session in Dhaka on Wednesday ahead of a domestic Twenty20 tournament next week.

The player on Monday publicly apologised for being at the event in Kolkata. Islamic preachers in Bangladesh say people should not attend the ceremonies of other faiths.

Shakib is the International Cricket Council’s top-ranked all-rounder in one-day internationals.

In 2015, he became the first cricketer to hold the ICC’s top all-rounder ranking in the game’s three formats — Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals.

Conservative Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.

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