Indian court asks govt to act on mob violence

Pak group issues warning

NEW DELHI, July 17, (Agencies): India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government to enact a new law and stem what it called “horrendous acts” of lynching, after some 22 people were killed by mobs this year.

Since February the country has seen a spate of mob lynchings, often in isolated areas where outsiders have been accused of child kidnapping and other crimes following fake rumours spread via WhatsApp.

The latest incident saw a Google engineer killed in a mob attack last week in the southern state of Karnataka and five people were lynched in neighbouring Maharashtra on July 1.

Separately, fatal attacks have also been carried out on Muslims by so-called “cow protection” groups who roam highways inspecting livestock trucks. Cows are considered sacred by the majority Hindu community.

The Supreme Court Tuesday condemned the lynchings and asked states to take “preventive, punitive and remedial” measures to curb the trend.

“Horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be allowed to become a new norm. It has to be curbed with an iron hand,” observed a bench headed by India’s chief justice Dipak Misra.

The parliament must make a law to deal with lynchings and punish offenders, it said.

“No citizen can take law into his hands or become a law onto himself,” the court ruled.

Lynchings based on misjudgement or malicious information are not a new phenomenon in India. But the spread of smartphones and internet access in the country’s poorest and most isolated areas has exacerbated the problem.

Indian authorities have recently launched awareness campaigns and imposed internet blackouts but the measures have had limited success so far.

The government has also taken WhatsApp to task for the “irresponsible and explosive messages” being shared among its 200 million Indian users — the company’s largest market.

Misra

Modi urged to OK women’s bill:

India’s opposition leader on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “walk his talk” by passing a long-pending bill that aims to give women a stronger voice in parliament.

Rahul Gandhi offered his party’s “unconditional support” to push through the Women’s Reservation Bill, which provides for one-third of the seats in national and state assemblies to be reserved for female candidates.

“Our PM says he’s a crusader for women’s empowerment? Time for him to rise above party politics, walk-his-talk & have the Women’s Reservation Bill passed by parliament. The Congress offers him its unconditional support,” Gandhi tweeted.

The bill was passed by the upper house in 2010, but has since been sidelined after vehement resistance from some male lawmakers.

Women hold only 12 percent of seats in both the lower and upper houses of parliament in the world’s largest democracy, compared to the global average of 23 percent, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Pak group issues warning:

Pakistan’s independent Human Rights Commission warned Monday of “blatant, aggressive and unabashed” attempts to manipulate the results of elections set for later this month, with prominent activist I.A. Rehman calling it “the dirtiest election” in the country’s troubled relationship with democratic rule.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its statement raised several warning flags including allegations that members of disgraced prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party were “being pressured to switch political loyalties,” while some of Sharif’s candidates were being asked to step down.

In jail since his return to Pakistan last week, Sharif is serving a 10-year sentence on corruption charges. On Monday he appealed the conviction as did his daughter, Maryam, and his son-in-law, who received seven and one-year sentences respectively also on charges of corruption over the family’s purchase of luxury apartments in London. If the judge grants the appeal, Sharif could be released on bail.

B’desh drug war toll hits 200:

The death toll from Bangladesh’s contentious Philippines-style war on drugs since May has hit 200, a local rights group said Tuesday, with some 25,000 others imprisoned.

Bangladesh launched the crackdown to smash the surging trade in “yaba”, a cheap methamphetamine and caffeine pill, which authorities say has spread to almost every village and town.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said the “war” will last until the narcotics trade is brought under control, saying those killed are all involved in at least 10 drugs crimes.

But rights groups say that many of the victims are shot by police in cold blood and that the onslaught was in part being used as a cover to settle scores.

In June the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said he was “gravely concerned” that “such a large number of people” had died.

‘Peace talks remarks mischaracterised’:

The NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan on Tuesday rejected reports its commander General John Nicholson had said the United States was ready to join direct negotiations with the Taleban, saying his comments were “mischaracterised”.

In a statement, it referred to reports on Monday in which Nicholson reiterated comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the possibility of talks with the Taleban involving the United States.

“The United States is not a substitute for the Afghan people or the Afghan government,” Nicholson said in a statement.

“My reaffirmation of Secretary Pompeo’s statement in which he said peace talks would include a discussion of international forces and that the United States is ready to work with the Taleban, the Afghan government and the Afghan people towards lasting peace was mischaracterised,” he said.

The Taleban have rejected talks with the government of President Ashraf Ghani, which they see as illegitimate and instead insisted they would only talk with the United States.