NAYPYITAW, 30 September 2021, (TON): Chinland Defence Force (CDF) fighters said “they found the bodies of three civilians on Monday who were shot dead by junta troops in the conflict-hit town of Kanpetlet, which like most areas of Chin State has been cut off from the internet. 

The CDF’s deputy brigade commander said that the bodies belonged to a 30-year-old man from Kyawt Taw village named Kwi Awm and two men from Kan Laung village named Lei Hong, who was 60, and Lei Aung, who was 30.

He said “they were shot and killed at an airport construction site three miles from Kanpetlet.”

Lei Hong and Lei Aung’s bodies were burned and thrown into a drainage ditch while Kwi Awm was found with a bullet wound in his head.

He said that the two from Kan Laung village lived on their farms. They were coming back to the village on motorcycles for personal reasons. I think they were shot on the way. The two men had fled their village amid recent fighting and had been staying in a camp for displaced people.

The deputy brigade commander said “the one from Kyawt Taw village was shot on his way to pick up the ones coming back from the camp.”

The bodies were found on Monday after the departure of junta soldiers who had been staying at the airport construction site since last week.

NAYPYITAW, 30 September 2021, (TON):  Lawyers for State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi say they are facing difficulties finding defence witnesses to testify on her behalf regarding incitement charges filed by the junta.

Suu Kyi is accused by the military council of violating Section 505b of the penal code, a charge related to committing a legal offence against the state, the head of her legal team Khin Maung Zaw told media.

“No one will serve as her witness in the case because they will then be targeted [by the junta]. We will not use many witnesses,” he said. “These matters will only be based on legal facts.”

Khin Maung Zaw refrained from citing which legal references would be used in Suu Kyi’s defence.

A specially designated court in Naypyitaw headed by Zabuthiri Township judge Maung Maung Lwin issued an official indictment against Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and Naypyitaw mayor Dr. Myo Aung on September 21 regarding the Section 505b charge.

All three ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders were represented by the same team of five lawyers, and they pleaded not guilty.

DHAKA, 30 September 2021, (TON): Unidentified criminals shot Rohingya rights activist and leader Mohibullah dead at his office in Kutupalong camp under Cox's Bazar's Ukhia upazila last night.

Rohingyas in camps of Kutupalong are tensed with police and local administration issuing an alert across the district to avert further violence.

Residents of the camps questioned how the criminals entered, shot Mohibullah and then fled despite the presence of law enforcement personnel inside the camp.

Police said “Mohibullah came to his Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN) camp-1 east office after offering Esha prayers around 8:30pm. Three armed men then entered and fired five bullets.

Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) (crime) of Chattogram Range Police Jakir Hossain Khan told media "three bullets hit his [Mohibullah's] chest, leaving him critically injured. The criminals fled the scene immediately afterwards.

The DIG said "he was taken to Kutupalong MSF Hospital where doctors declared him dead.”

Mohibullah was the chairman of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace & Human Rights (ARSPH) and played a vital role in the Rohingya repatriation process, according to police.

DHAKA, 30 September 2021, (TON): The minister urged member states to cease investments in non-productive armament purposes and re-direct the world’s finite resources to address climate change, SDGs, and peace and stability.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said “the world must unequivocally reject the use of nuclear weapons while supporting the peaceful use of nuclear technology for the benefit of humankind.”

In his address to the commemorative High-level event organized on the sidelines of the 76th UNGA, the foreign minister expressed Bangladesh’s firm stance and unwavering constitutional commitment to general and complete disarmament. 

Dr Momen said that the clarion call of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1974 to free the world from the scourge of nuclear war, forms the cornerstone of Bangladesh’s commitment and adherence to nuclear disarmament.

Recognizing the dangerous consequences of use of these weapons, he urged member states to cease senseless investments in non-productive armament purposes and to re-direct the world’s finite resources to address issues like climate change, SDGs, and peace and stability.

DHAKA, 29 September 2021, (TON): Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque will attend a World Health Organization (WHO) bureau meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

He left Dhaka in the early hours of Tuesday from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on an Emirates flight.

Additional Secretary of the Health Services Department Kazi Jebunnesa Begum, Private Secretary to the Minister of Health Kamrul Hasan, Deputy Secretary Md Sadequl Islam and Health and Family Planning Officer of Tejgaon Health Complex in Dhaka Dr Md Mofizul Islam Bulbul will accompany the minister.

After the WHO bureau meeting, the minister will hold separate meetings with WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and member of the Global Fund Management Team and Coordinator of Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Gerda Verburg on issues related to coronavirus treatment, medicines, population and nutrition.

ABUJA, 29 September 2021, (TON): Authorities said “more than 40 people have been killed since Sunday in two village attacks by gunmen in northwestern Nigeria, where a military base was also attacked by suspected jihadists.

Kaduna State security chief Samuel Aruwan said in a statement "unidentified men attacked the village of Madamai in Kaura district ... 34 residents were killed in the attack. Seven were injured."

The official added "soldiers were dispatched to the scene of the attack, where they came under fire, before forcing the attackers to retreat after intense gunfire.”

"In retaliation" for this attack, as well as another in which one person was killed in the village of Jankasa, "eight people were killed, six were wounded, and several houses destroyed in the village of Kacecere" by "unidentified men", according to a new statement signed by Mr. Aruwan and issued early evening.

KABUL, 29 September 2021, (TON): Afghan diplomats in Islamabad have confirmed that the embassy has received a letter signed by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi about the appointments of diplomats in Afghan embassy Islamabad and Peshawar consulate.

Taliban have not yet officially commented on the letter drafted by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate of Human Resources.

The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid when approached said “he would check the reports.”

Pakistan has not recognised the Taliban government but Prime Minister Imran Khan and other Pakistani leaders press the world community to engage the Taliban’s administration in Kabul.

According to Mutaqqi’s letter, Hafiz Mohibullah has been appointed as the first secretary at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and Shir Zameen Kunari as the counsel general in Peshawar.

Afghan envoy withdraws from UNGA debate: Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations has pulled out of delivering an address to world leaders at the General Assembly on Monday.

Ghulam Isaczai, who represented president Ashraf Ghani’s government that was overthrown last month, was due to defy the Taliban with a speech but his name was removed from the list of speakers.

ISLAMABAD, 29 September 2021, (TON): The prosecution proved the case against convict Salma Tanveer while the other side failed to establish that the accused was of unsound mind when she had committed the offence.

Accused Salma, on September 3, 2013 had published and distributed writing in her area denying Khatame Nabuwat and claiming herself to be a prophet.

An FIR was lodged against the accused after the area residents took notice of the incident. Later, Salma was arrested by police.

Nishtar Colony police submitted a challan of the case declaring the accused guilty during the course of investigation. During the one-and-a-half year of trial, the first application of the accused was submitted mentioning that Salma was of unsound mind.

Later, a medical board was constituted which declared her unfit for the trial.

The trial remained pending for around two years. Finally, the jail authorities after medically examining the accused wrote to the court that the accused was fit to face the trial.

Once again the trial was conducted wherein the accused side maintained that the accused was of unsound mind when the offence was committed.

On the other hand, complainant’s counsel Supreme Court Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry argued how was it possible that an application, describing unsoundness of the accused, was submitted after one-and-half-year of initiation of the trial.

The lawyer questioned how an unsound woman was running a school and teaching the classes.

He asked “how is it possible that an unsound woman had visited foreign countries several times?”

During the trial, the accused had also given the right of property dealing to her husband after adopting due process.

The counsel asked “how is it possible that an unsound woman engaged her counsels with her own approval and the applications in her case have been submitted even in the country’s top court.”

The accused’s lawyer reiterated that she was of unsound mind at the time of incident. He said under section 84 of PPC, nothing was an offence which was done by a person of unsound mind.

The complainant’s counsel argued that prosecution had proved its case on the basis of oral and documentary evidence whereas the accused had failed to prove that at the time of writing and distributing blasphemic material, she was incapable of knowing the nature of her act by reason of unsoundness of mind.

The accused, getting recorded her statement under section 342 of CrPC claimed that she believed in Khatame-Nabuwat but before Hajj in year 2013, she had lost her mental balance.

After hearing both the sides, the additional district and sessions judge awarded death penalty to Salma and imposed a fine of Rs.50,000.

TEHRAN, 29 September 2021, (TON): Iran rejected a US call to grant UN inspectors access to a nuclear site, saying Washington was not qualified to demand inspections without condemning a sabotage attack on the facility, Iranian state media reported.

“Countries that did not condemn terrorist acts against Iran’s nuclear site are not qualified to comment on inspections there,” Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said during a visit to Moscow, according to Iranian state news agency.

The United States said that Iran must stop denying the UN nuclear watchdog access to a workshop making centrifuge parts as agreed two weeks ago or face diplomatic retaliation at the agency’s Board of Governors meeting.

The workshop at the TESA Karaj complex makes components for centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, and was hit by apparent sabotage in June in which one of four International Atomic Energy Agency cameras there was destroyed.

AMMAN, 29 September 2021, (TON): Jordan will fully reopen its main border crossing with Syria from Wednesday, government and industry officials said, as a high-level Syrian team arrived in Amman to discuss how to ease the flow of goods hit by the pandemic and a decade of conflict.

Although the Jaber crossing has been open since 2018 after the Syrian government drove rebels from southern Syria, trade has yet to recover to the $1 billion pre-war level.

Officials told media “the pandemic led to measures to try to curb transmission of the coronavirus and those restrictions will be lifted from Wednesday.

They said “a visiting trade delegation from Syria, led by economy, trade, agriculture, water and electricity ministers, would also discuss lifting tariff barriers.”

“We hope the moves will restore previous trade dealings before the conflict and revive lucrative transit trade,” Jamal al Rifae, deputy head of Jordan’s chamber of commerce, told media.

Interior Minister Mazen Faraya said restrictions on Syrian transit cargo to Gulf markets and Iraq through Jordan will also be lifted, which Damascus has been pushing for.

Transit cargo from the Gulf will also be allowed from Jordan to Syria along with unrestricted passenger traffic, Faraya told Jordan’s Al-Mamlaka public broadcaster.