SRINAGAR, 30 January 2021, (TON): The Indian Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has allowed National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) to illegally acquired 52.6 hectare forestland for construction new roads leading to the Zojila tunnel in India occupied Jammu and Kashmir State. Sources confirmed strategic military construction in progress in the area.

Strategically important Zojila tunnel and the new constructions in the area is direct threat to Pakistan as well as China. Otherwise, it is illegal to carry out such infrastructure in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir where implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions is pending.  One of the features of the new work is that tunnel will connect Srinagar-Kargil-Leh that is vital for the military convoys’ movement and ensure uninterrupted supplies throughout the year.

As per the details, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir has confirmed acquisition of 52.6 hectares forestland and it is joint venture in which major project has been awarded to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) which last year floated bid of Indian Rs 4,509.5 crore. He added that case for acquisition of 208 hectares is in progress.  Extensive blasting in the area has been reported and it is being claimed that many other projects are in progress in the area under the garb of construction of tunnel.

KUPWARA, 30 January 2021, (TON): Another dead body of a Kashmiri youth was recovered from the forest area of Cherkoot in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Saturday.

The brutally killed Kashmiri youth was identified as Javaid Ahamd Mir, son of Dilawar Mir, resident of Izgund Khumriyal. As per the family members of the youth he was kidnapped by Indian agencies on 19 January and was missing since then and later his dead body was found in the forest area of Cherkoot.

.The masses in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been made hostage of their conscience and it has become a routine affair that any youth who challenges the authority of Indian occupying forces is forcibly taken away and is either killed or remains missing for ever.  

TEHRAN, 30 January 2021, (TON): Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made it clear to all stakeholders Saturday that the nuclear accord it signed is a multilateral international agreement ratified by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and will remain unchangeable. Saeed Khatibzadeh said, “The nuclear accord is a multilateral international agreement ratified by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is non-negotiable and parties to it are clear and unchangeable.”  

Washington withdrew from the pact in 2018 under President Donald Trump and re-imposed economic sanctions on Tehran but it did not prevent Iran from its pursuit for peaceful acquisition of nuclear energy which West blames that Tehran violated the agreement with regard to enrichment. President Joe Biden’s new administration has announced that it intend rejoin the deal but only after Tehran ensures full compliance with its terms. But Iran has rejected US precondition to halt acceleration of the nuclear programme so that Washington lifts sanctions on Tehran.

MOSCOW, 30 January 2021, (TON(: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with the US upto 5 February 2026 that aims at measures for the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms.

In 2010, Russia and the US signed the New START, which stipulates limits to the numbers of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems by both. The agreement superseded 24 May 2002’s Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation.

According to New START both, the United States and Russia can maintain 700 deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers but deployed and no-deployed should not exceed 800 while the limit for deployed warheads on ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers has been fixed to be 1550.

KINSHASA, 30 Januray,2021 (TON): Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba, DO Congo’s Prime Minister resigned on Friday.

The presidency said, it is a move that enabled the President Felix Tshisekedi to appoint his own premier supported by a new parliamentary majority.

 Presidency spokesman Giscard Kusema told the media, that Illunga “said he had drawn the consequences of the developing political situation

Ilunga, a close ally to former president Joseph Kabila whose supporters have been in a power struggle with Tshisekedi, was constitutionally required to resign after being censured by the National Assembly on Wednesday.

During a parliamentary plenary session held in Kinshasa, the lawmakers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday had dismissed the PM.

The dismissal came after the majority of the lawmakers passed a vote of no-confidence to the Premier alleging his inability in the management of the country.

The National Assembly approved a motion of censure against Ilunga Ilunkamba and his government by 367 votes to seven.

Considering it illegitimate under the constitution and internal regulations of parliament, the Prime Minister boycotted the session.

Pro-Kabila party Mps also boycotted the session who also stressed that the parliament session had no mandate capacity to organize the vote according to the constitution.

President Félix Tshisekedi and his two new allies still do not agree on the appointments of several heads of major institutions, following the end of the alliance between him and former president Joseph Kabila. The post of Prime Minister and leadership of the National Assembly’s office are in contention.

The President now anticipates forming a majority in the parliament by winning over the members of Kabila’s coalition.

RIYADH, 29 January, 2021 (TON): Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha met with Gerry Grimstone, the British minister for investment, to discuss ways to boost business between the two countries.

During the meeting, investment opportunities in both the countries were explored by the two men, Al-Swaha and Grimstone who holds the ministerial title jointly with the UK departments for international trade and for business, energy, and industrial strategy.

Leading technology companies of U.K. would invest in Saudi Arabia, Al-Swaha reviewed the potential of the digital infrastructure in the Kingdom.

The relations of U.K. and Saudi Arab are taking a new way, as foreign investments in the region are being planned by the officials and soon to be implemented.

DHAKA, 29 January, 2021 (TON): The Army Chief of Bangladesh, General Azizi Ahmed is leaving Dhaka on Friday to visit to the U.S. at the invitation of his U.S. Army counterpart.

Reports stated that the matters to be discussed expected to be the regional security and mutual defense cooperation at the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, South and Southeast Asia during the visit, the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate or ISPR said in a statement on Thursday.

Defense structures and training facilities of the U.S. Army will also be the part of the discussions.

A courtesy call would be made to the US army chief to discuss ways to strengthen ties between the two armies.

Gen Aziz will exchange views with the military adviser at the UN peacekeeping mission and under-secretaries general as well.

His visit is expected to play an important role in increasing the number of Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers, conducting peacekeeping missions properly and ensuring the country’s participation at the policymaking level of the missions, the ISPR said.

The army chief will return from the on February 12, 2021.

In the last year, the diplomatic relations between the two countries were seen burgeoning when the U.S. stepped up its efforts to entice Bangladesh into buying more of its military hardware, as it hopes to win over an "emerging" ally in South Asia, where China had been expanding its economic influence. Bangladesh has also been putting efforts to modernize its military by 2030.

LONDON, 29 January, 2021 (TON): On Thursday, the non-governmental organization, Amnesty International has accused the Nigerian government of trying to cover up the killing of a dozen citizens during peaceful protests in Lagos last October.

Youth-led demonstrations in Nigeria began against police abuse, quickly spiraling into broader calls for reform.

The protests ended weeks later when the security forces shot at the demonstrators in Lagos, that killed at least 12 people, according to the rights groups.

The army at the judicial panel refused using live rounds however, the government promised to disband the police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) that had been the main target of protests over brutality.

“Nigerian authorities have failed to bring to justice those suspected to be responsible for the brutal crackdown by security forces on peaceful #EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate and Alausa in Lagos in October 2020 and have brazenly attempted to cover up the violence,” Amnesty said.

“Since the assault by security forces, which killed at least 12 people, Nigerian authorities have targeted supporters of the protests against police brutality by the disbanded SARS,” Amnesty’s country director Osai Ojigho said in the statement, released to mark 100 days since the shootings.

She said the bank accounts of some of the movement’s supporters have had frozen.

The organization based in London has challenged the government of Nigeria to suspend the officials accused, pending investigations, and to ensure the victims’ access to justice.

The Lagos State government set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the bloodshed and wider allegations of abuses by SARS featuring testimony by the army that presented videos to back its claims in November 2020.

The government has promised a string of reforms in response to the protests, and disbanded SARS, replacing it with Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) forces.

The median age in Nigeria is 18, serves as a flashpoint while faces deep economic and social grievances and mostly the police violence over the demonstrations in the region.

NEW DELHI, 29 January, 2021 (TON): Through Thursday a stalemate could be seen between the police and protestors at UP Gate on Delhi’s Ghazipur border after the UP government ordered the farmers camping there to be evacuated.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union’s (BKU) Tikait faction leading the sit-in announced it would move to Supreme Court on Friday against the attempt to expel the demonstrators.

BKU’s leader Rakesh Tikait, who looked over at the UP Gate when the tensions arose said, “The Supreme Court has not raised any objections to peaceful protest. No violence has taken place here (at UP Gate). I will challenge the order in the Supreme Court on Friday.”

The power supplies to the camps on the highway was cut by the local administration, water tanks service discontinued, and mobile toilets were removed too.

Other protests alongside this folded up, e.g. agitation at Atoha in Palwal on the Delhi-Agra Highway, as the as the tide continued to turn after the Republic Day violence in Delhi during the farmers’ tractor rally.

“The Red Fort incident changed everything overnight,” admitted Shiv Kumar Kakka, who was leading the Atoha protest as he decided to wrap up the agitation, a day after more than 2,000 protesters were booked for a clash in Faridabad during a Republic Day tractor rally.

Kakka said the protest had also lost the support of locals. The previous night, in UP’s Baghpat, police evicted protesters camping on the Delhi-Saharanpur highway. An FIR was also filed against the farmers under IPC sections 283, 341 (wrongful restraint) 188 (disobedience of order promulgated by public servant), 269 (spreading infection) and sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act. At Singhu border, Delhi Police installed new barricades near the passage to the protest site, leaving visitors with no option but to take long detours passing through residential areas.

Police also began stopping private vehicles a few kilometers before from the protest site, allowing only government vehicles to go forward.

The crowd at the protest site too had conspicuously thinned. Farmers said they will stay put and only those who had come to participate in the tractor parade had returned.

Many are of the view that the farmers at the Delhi gates are fighting for the rights of all the Indian citizens as the new farm laws would go over the top, and would disable the right to legal recourse of all the citizens, not just the farmers.

ANKARA, 29 January, 2021 (TON): Turkey extended the deployment of forces in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia, and the Arabian Sea, the country’s gazette stated on Thursday.

The Turkish Parliament approved the motion on Tuesday, and extends the deployment for one more year as of February 10, the media reported.

In 2008, Turkey took the decision of sending its forces to the region and extended the deployment 13 times.

"By deploying the naval elements of the Turkish armed forces, effective protection of Turkish flagged vessels and commercial vessels linked to Turkey sailing in the region and active participation in joint struggle operations against piracy, armed robbery acts, and terrorism at sea was ensured," the motion said.

The naval troop deployment makes certain the national policy of continuation of cooperation with the relevant countries in the field and the reinforcing of the role and visibility that the Turkish armed forces play in the system of the UN on a regional and global scale, it added.

The Gulf of Aden is a strategic point of global importance near the Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is a vital route for oil and natural gas shipments passing from the Gulf to the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea and Somalia are adjacent to the strategic trade route.

The Turks aim to control the ports of Bab al-Mandeb, including the ports of Djibouti and Berbera in the Republic of Somaliland and the port of Mogadishu, making it easier for them to control imports and exports from the Horn of Africa. This is seen as a threat to the interests of Gulf countries, which have sought in recent years to develop relations with countries of the region.