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Pakistani police serve arrest warrants on former PM Imran Khan

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(Last Updated On: March 6, 2023)

Pakistani police on Sunday served arrest warrants on former Prime Minister Imran Khan to ensure his appearance in court on charges of misusing his office to sell state gifts, authorities said, after Khan’s supporters tried to prevent police entry into his home, Reuters reported.

The election commission of Pakistan had in October found the 70-year-old cricket-hero-turned politician guilty of unlawfully selling gifts from foreign dignitaries.

The Federal Investigation Agency then filed charges against him in an anti-graft court, which last week issued the arrest warrants after Khan failed to appear in court despite repeated summons.

Khan has been demanding a snap election since his ouster from office in a parliamentary vote early last year, a demand that was rejected by his successor Shehbaz Sharif, who has said the vote would be held as scheduled later this year, read the report.

He led countrywide protest campaigns to press for an early vote last year and was shot at and wounded at one of the rallies.

Referring to his absence from court and the shooting incident, Khan said on Sunday: “They (the police) know there is a threat against my life,” adding that the courts did not provide adequate security.

Khan’s aide Fawad Chaudhry said he couldn’t be arrested because he had secured a protective bail from a high court.

Chaudhry said the government wanted to sow political chaos and avoid an early election by arresting the former premier, who was still popular among the country’s youth and urban voters.

Islamabad police said in a statement that when Khan wasn’t found at his residence in Lahore, they served the arrest warrants, Reuters reported.

Khan is required to appear in court on March 7. If he fails to do so, police will be required to arrest him and present him to court, according to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.

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Tajikistan detains 9 people over Russian concert shooting

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(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

Tajikistan’s State National Security Committee has detained nine people this week who it believes have links to the Russian concert hall shooting suspects as well as Daesh-Khorasan, Reuters reported on Friday.

All nine people were detained on Monday in the city of Vakhdat and have been brought to the capital, Dushanbe, Reuters reported citing a Tajik security source.

At least 140 people were killed and 182 others wounded in the attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow last Friday.

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US says it doesn’t support Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project going forward

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

The U.S. said on Tuesday it does not support a Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project from going forward and cautioned about the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran, Reuters reported.

The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, opens new tab, is a long-term project between Tehran and Islamabad, and has faced delays and funding challenges for several years. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Iran to neighboring Pakistan.

Iran and Pakistan had signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 and set a bilateral trade target at $5 billion.

Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said this week that his country was seeking a U.S. sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline from Iran, read the report.

“We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing.

“We do not support this pipeline going forward,” the spokesperson added, saying that Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and Central Asia, had said as much to a congressional panel last week.

A few weeks ago, Pakistan and Iran engaged, opens new tab in tit-for-tat strikes when they exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other’s territory, Reuters reported.

Washington’s relations, opens new tab with Iran have been thorny for a long time and the U.S. has issued multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities.

Officially allies in fighting extremism, Pakistan and the U.S. have had a complicated relationship, opens new tab over the years, bound by Washington’s dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops during its long war in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad played a double game.

Some Pakistani politicians have also accused Washington of meddling in Pakistan’s domestic politics, charges that Washington denies, read the report.

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Kyrgyzstan urges citizens not to fly to Russia unless necessary

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to put off unnecessary travel to Russia after a deadly mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow that was blamed on migrants from Central Asia, Reuters reported.

Last Friday’s attack by camouflague-clad gunmen has fanned anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia, especially towards labourers from the predominantly Muslim countries of Central Asia. Seven suspects originally from Tajikistan and one from Kyrgyzstan have been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.

Islamic State has said it was responsible for the attack and has released video footage of the massacre, in which at least 139 people were killed and 182 wounded. Russia, without providing evidence, has said it suspects a Ukrainian link in the attack, something Kyiv strongly denies.

Videos and photographs circulated online appear to show the suspected gunmen in detention being tortured. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter and many Russian politicians have praised the security officers involved in the detentions, read the report.

In an advisory issued this week, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry urged citizens to visit Russia only if necessary and, if they do, to make sure they have all the required documents on them at all times and comply with lawful orders of Russian police.

Authorities in neighbouring Uzbekistan issued similar advice to any Uzbek citizens currently in Russia or planning to go there, local media reported.

Hundreds of thousands of Central Asians work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so. Some passengers, for example, refuse to board taxis with Tajik drivers.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that many passengers trying to fly to Moscow on Monday from the capital of Turkmenistan, another Central Asian state, were not allowed to board. It said they were told by immigration and law enforcement officials that this was connected to “the recent terrorist attack in Moscow”.

Any fall in the availability of migrant labour could cause problems for the Russian economy, which relies heavily on Central Asian workers in sectors such as construction, retail and delivery services.

Russia is suffering an overall labour shortage because of the demands of its war in Ukraine, which led it to call up 300,000 reservists to join the army in 2022 and prompted hundreds of thousands of others to flee the country, Reuters reported.

Alexandra Prokopenko, an economist and analyst at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the inflow of migrants had “almost stopped” since the start of the war – partly because immigrants could face pressure to join the Russian army and partly because of competition from other countries to attract them.

“All these people from Central Asia can go and work in Gulf states, South Korea or Turkey – they can get jobs and there would be no problems with money transfers because of (Western) sanctions, there would be fewer problems in terms of safety and security, and probably local authorities would treat them better than in Russia,” she said.

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, suggested Friday’s attack was an attempt by those who wish Russia ill to stir up interreligious tensions.

“An attempt was made to pit two traditional religions (Christianity and Islam) against each other, an attempt was made to divide people according to religious principles and also pit one against the other. Of course, we cannot allow anything like this in Russia,” the RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

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