Human Rights

Srinagar, Feb 23 (PTI) Nearly 150 people, mainly from the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir including its chief Abdul Hamid Fayaz, were detained during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday as tension gripped the Valley ahead of a hearing by the Supreme Court on Article 35A of the Constitution.

Though police termed the detentions as routine saying that leaders and potential stone pelters have been picked up in the past, officials privy to the developments said this is the first major crackdown on the Jamaat-e-Islamia.

GENEVA; 23 Feb 2019; AA: The UN human rights arm Friday raised concerns about the recent executions of 15 people in Egypt earlier this month.

Egyptian authorities should take all necessary measures to ensure the process and investigate allegations of torture, said Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office "We urge the Egyptian authorities to halt all executions," he said.

Nine people were executed Feb. 20, linked to the killing of Egypt’s General Prosecutor Hisham Barakat.

23 Feb 2019; AFP: A top Catholic cardinal admitted Saturday that Church files on priests who sexually abused children were destroyed or never even drawn up, a move which allowed paedophiles to prey on others.

"Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created," German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in a speech to a landmark Vatican summit on tackling paedophilia in the clergy.

Malappuram (Ker), Feb 22 (PTI) Two college students were arrested here on sedition charges for allegedly putting up "anti-national" posters seeking independence for Kashmir and Manipur, police said Friday.

The duo-Mohammed Rinshad (20) and Mohammed Farris (19), pursuing graduation at the Government College Malappuram, were arrested following the complaint of the principal, they said.

Srinagar, Feb 22 2018: Two Kasmiri separatists were killed by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district on Friday, J&K police said.

Indian security forces claim to have launched a cordon and search operation in Warpora area of Sopore, in north Kashmir, acting on specific information about the presence of Kasmiri separatists

As reported by PTI, police claimed that two Kasmiri separatists were killed in the gun battle.

The identity of the killed separatists is yet to be ascertained.

Pune, Feb 22 (PTI) In yet another incident of assault on Kashmiris after the Pulwama terror attack, a 24-year-old journalist from Jammu and Kashmir was beaten up here.

The local police, who earlier dubbed it as an incident of road rage, registered a case against the two suspected assailants Friday evening and arrested one of them.

New Delhi, Feb 22 (PTI) The Centre late Friday night asked all states to ensure security of people belonging to Jammu and Kashmir amid reports that some of them were attacked in different parts of the country in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.

This was conveyed by the Home Ministry in an advisory to all states following a directive of the Supreme Court, which took up a petition in this regard.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Jean-Pierre Lacroix, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said Friday that the opportunity to bring peace back to the Central African Republic (CAR) is great.

"We have a great opportunity to bring peace back to the Central African Republic and to the Central African Republic people," he said when meeting with the press.

22 Feb 2019; AFP: The father of an Alabama woman who joined the Islamic State group in Syria sued Thursday to bring her home after the Trump administration took the extraordinary step of declaring that she was not a US citizen.

Hoda Muthana, 24, says that she regrets joining the extremists and is willing to face prosecution in the United States over her incendiary propaganda on behalf of the ruthless but dwindling group.

22 Feb 2019; AFP: US biotechnology manufacturer Thermo Fisher on Thursday announced it would stop selling to China equipment used to create a DNA database of the country's Uighur minority.

Since 2016, there have been regular reports of Chinese authorities taking blood samples in the Xinjiang region.