Supporters clash with cops at PTI rally as leaders demand Imran’s release

Dawn,

PTI leaders rallied on the outskirts of Islamabad on Sunday, demanding the “immediate release” of their founder, Imran Khan, while criticising the government for marginalising the party as police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The party was staging the rally today to gain support for Imran’s release, who has been imprisoned since last August. Imran was expected to be released from prison after a district and sessions court accepted appeals against his conviction in the Iddat case.

However, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested him in a new Toshakhana case shortly afterward.

His sentences in the previous two Toshakhana cases were already suspended while he was acquitted by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the cipher case.

The rally began with party leader Hammad Azhar addressing the crowd, stating that supporters had gathered today to establish the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution in the country.

He added that no obstacle would deter them today.

“We will, God willing, secure Imran Khan’s release.”

Speaking during the rally, PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan demanded Imran’s “immediate release” and lamented how the party’s leaders were being “sidelined” by the government.

“I never thought there would be a day that Imran Khan, who formed our party to save Pakistan, would be put in jail,” Ali Muhammad said.

He added that today, neither PTI stalwarts Murad Saeed nor Shehryar Khan Afridi were present at the rally, nor was Qasim Khan Suri.

“Why can Murad Saeed not come out of hiding? Is it a crime to love Pakistan, or speak the truth? We will continue speaking the truth, as will our children”, he asserted.

“Today, Pakistan’s biggest party is in Pakistan, but our workers cannot go to parliament. What is their crime?”

PTI maverick Sher Afzal Khan Marwat said: “We have one message for the Pakhtuns, that we will go to Punjab within a week, and Ali Ami Gandapur will tell you the date.

“These people, who erected the containers, whose police charged you with batons, I want them to listen [that] we are coming to Lahore,” Marwat said.

Meanwhile, during her speech, PTI member Aliya Hamza Malik questioned whether Pakistanis wanted true freedom and their rights or wished to continue witnessing enforced disappearances in the country.

“Do you want a Pakistan for future generations, or one where your homes are attacked? Come out and demand Imran Khan’s release, you will all come and support me, as I know you are standing with the leader in Adiala.

“He will see how he’s struck fear into the government. We need to come out for our leader’s release now.”

Eye on peace, NSA to visit Moscow this wk

hindustantimes,

New Delhi : After Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni publicly expressed that India and China can play a key role in resolving the Ukraine conflict, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval will travel to Moscow on September 10-11 for the BRICS NSAs’ conference with an eye on brokering peace, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have conveyed some ideas discussed with President Putin during his July visit to Russia when he met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on his August visit to Kyiv. Modi in his remarks during a meeting with Putin on July 9 made it clear that peace cannot be found in battlefields and that loss of lives of children and innocent people in the Ukraine war was terrible. Doval accompanied the PM during the Russia and Ukraine visits.

While some Modi and India baiters have claimed that the PM went to Ukraine on August 23 to balance foreign relations with western powers, the fact is that Zelensky had invited him to Ukraine during the 2021 Climate Change conference in Glasgow. Modi could not visit Kyiv earlier as the war broke out.

Chinese NSA Wang Yi will also be present at the conference, with the Ukraine war top of the agenda. Doval and Wang Yi are also special representatives for talks on the India-China boundary resolution.

“India and the world want the war to end and in that context Modi is talking to all parties. He has no desire to be a mediator between Russia and Ukraine but supports all initiatives to stop the war so that children and women are not targeted by missiles, rockets and bullets,” said a senior official.

Telephonic conversations with US President Joe Biden and with Putin after Modi’s visit to Ukraine should be seen in the context of war resolution and not as a balancing act, said the official cited above.

It is understood that Modi discussed some “special ideas” with Zelensky in Kyiv and was totally unfazed by the vocal reaction of the Ukrainian President to the Indian media.

Doval will meet his BRICS counterparts, including those from China and Brazil, to discuss how the grouping can support the no-war initiative and put an end to people’s suffering. Already both President Putin and PM Meloni have urged India and China to play a role in conflict resolution, with Modi having close ties with leaders of Russia as well as Ukraine.

India buys crude oil from Russia in order to keep domestic inflation in check and Moscow continues to be a major defence supplier to New Delhi. Ukraine also has significant military and bilateral cooperation with India.

Officials said Doval will also participate in a meeting of Brics-Plus high-level security officials. The meetings are being organised by Russia, current chair of Brics, ahead of the grouping’s summit in Kazan in October. Doval is also expected to hold several bilateral meetings, including with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, people familiar with the matter said.

Meloni was the latest world leader to comment on the war, telling reporters after a meeting with Zelensky on Saturday that China and India “can and must play a role” in resolving the conflict.

Iran transfers ballistic missiles to Russia, sources say

CNN,

Iran recently transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to use in the war against Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the intelligence, completing a delivery that US and Western officials had warned was in the works for almost a year.

It is not clear when exactly the missiles were delivered, but their transfer comes as Russia has intensified its missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and as Ukraine braces for large-scale Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure this winter. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told allies at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany on Friday that Ukraine urgently needed more air defense systems.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Iran had delivered the missiles.

National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett told CNN in a statement that “any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support” for the Kremlin in its invasion of Ukraine.

“We have been warning of the deepening security partnership between Russia and Iran since the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are alarmed by these reports. We and our partners have made clear both at the G7 and at the NATO summits this summer that together we are prepared to deliver significant consequences,” Savett said.

The provision of ballistic missiles marks a significant escalation of Iran’s support for Russia. Iran has already provided Russia with hundreds of drones that Russian forces have used in their war against Ukraine, and Russia has been building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help, CNN has reported.

At least 14 killed, 176 injured by super typhoon Yagi

Vietnam News,

HÀ NỘI — Super typhoon Yagi that swept through northern mountainous localities over the weekend killed at least 14 people and injured 176 others, according to the information updated at 10am on Sunday by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Among the dead, four were from Quảng Ninh Province, three from Hà Nội, one from Hải Phòng City, one from Hải Dương Province, one from Military Region 3 and four from the same family in Hòa Bình Province who died during landslides on Sunday early morning.

Most of the injured victims were from Quảng Ninh Province.

Twenty-five small cement and timber ships sank at their anchorage in Quảng Ninh Province.

Thirteen fishermen went missing including seven people on Tiến Thành 05 ship and six people on Hồng Gai sea tugboat which broke anchor and drifted without contact, according to the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

Five localities which suffered the most damage from the typhoon – Quảng Ninh, Hải Phòng, Thái Bình, Hải Dương, and Hà Nội – reported extensive power outages.

Chairing a meeting to overcome the super typhoon’s consequences on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính said Typhoon Yagi and its circulation were assessed to leave a wide range of influence on 26 localities from the northern region to Thanh Hóa Province.

Yagi made landfall in Việt Nam and caused serious devastation for over one day. Torrential rain and floods are still forecast in the northern mountainous region.