Court delays former PM Sharif indictment

2 children killed in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2, (Agencies): A Pakistani antigraft tribunal on Monday postponed the indictment of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for a week after his children, who are co-defendants in the case, failed to appear in court.

The Sharifs are facing the trial following orders by the country’s Supreme Court after an investigation into documents leaked from a Panama law firm indicated that Sharif and some of his family members had undisclosed assets abroad.

The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from office in July, forcing him to step down — also over undisclosed assets. Sharif has denied any wrongdoing. Sharif and some of his party leaders have been pointing toward ‘hidden hands’ behind his dismissal and spate of corruption cases.

In Monday’s development, Judge Mohammad Bashir of the Accountability Court set Oct 9 for the indictments against Sharif, his two sons, daughter and son in-law.

According to Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, an attorney and lawmaker from Sharif’s party, his children are currently in London with their ailing mother who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer in Britain.

Sharif himself did appear in court on Monday amid stepped-up security. It was his second appearance before the same tribunal; last week, scores of his supporters, reporters and lawyers swarmed the small court room when he showed up, making it impossible for the judge to conduct proceeding smoothly. At that point, the frustrated judge ordered Sharif to leave and had his lawyers represent him the rest of the hearing.

The case against the former prime minister has become the center of much domestic media attention in Pakistan.

For Monday’s hearing, paramilitary rangers took over security around the court complex, barring media, lawyers, Sharif supporters — and even government ministers from entering. Much to his anger, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was also stopped at the gate.

“I will take action over this,” Iqbal told reporters at that point. “Pakistan ... is a constitutional state and there can’t be a state with in state” here, he added, a clear criticism of the military’s overwhelming power in this country.

Sharif

2 children killed in Kashmir:

Two children were killed on Monday in an exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops in disputed Kashmir, Indian authorities said.

Twelve more civilians, including two women and two teenage girls, were wounded on the Indian side of the heavily-militarised Line of Control (LoC) that divides the restive Himalayan region.

A police statement said firing from Pakistan had killed a 10-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl.

Indian army spokesman Colonel N. N. Joshi said soldiers were retaliating after “unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars” from the Pakistan side in the southern Poonch sector of the LoC.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947, and both claim the territory in full. The nuclear-armed neighbours regularly exchange mortar fire across the border despite signing a ceasefire in 2003.

Tensions reached dangerous levels in September last year, with both sides blaming one another for cross-border raids.

There have since been repeated outbreaks of firing across the frontier, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including to civilians.

Pakistan said over the weekend that two civilians had been killed in firing across the LoC.

Last month it said a five-year-old girl had been killed when she was hit by a bullet fired from the Indian side.

New Delhi says Pakistan initiates cross-border firing to help anti-India rebels cross into Indian-administered Kashmir to launch attacks on its forces.

Islamabad denies the allegation and says it only provides diplomatic support to the Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-determination.

Regional security situation discussed:

Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday discussed regional security situation during Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s meeting with Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani in Afghan capital city Kabul.

According to a statement by Afghan President Office, “Both sides discussed various important issues including security in the region, bilateral relationships, peace and stability, anti-terror efforts, business and transit relationships, and mid-term and long-term relationships between Afghanistan and Pakistan.” During the meeting, the army chief expressed Pakistan’s willingness to cooperate with Afghanistan in counterterrorism efforts, reiterating Pakistan’s support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

During the meeting, Ghani emphasized the need for task teams and monitoring mechanisms to be established to create a cooperation framework and ensure implementation of promises and deadlines.

“Peace and stability are for the benefit of both Pakistan and Afghanistan and could lift the people in both countries out of poverty,” said Ghani.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan COAS arrived in Kabul on a daylong visit for talks with top Afghan leadership.

The Army Chief’s trip is the first high level contact between Afghanistan and Pakistan after US President Donald Trump announced new strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia.

Low-caste man killed in India:

A man from India’s lowest caste has been killed by a group of highercaste men for attending a traditional Hindu dance performance, police said Monday.

Jayesh Solanki, 21, and his cousin Prakash were allegedly attacked late Sunday when they went to watch garba — a folk dance performed during the nine-day Hindu festival of Navratri.

The alleged attack in the western state of Gujarat is the latest incident of violence against Dalits, who lie at the bottom of India’s deeply entrenched social hierarchy system.

“We have arrested eight persons for allegedly beating to death one Jayesh Solanki in Borsad town of the district,” local police superintendent Anand Saurabh Singh told AFP.

Police said they had received a complaint from the victim’s cousin Prakash, who said one of the men demanded to know why they were watching the dance performance.

The accused “hurled caste-based abuses” before going away and returning with seven others who began beating the pair, police quoted Prakash as saying.

The group first slapped Prakash and when Jayesh tried to stop the fight, he was shoved aside.