Human Rights

Srinagar, Jan 11 (PTI) Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who quit the service recently, Friday shared his future plans, saying he would not join any mainstream political parties "as of now", or separatist Hurriyat Conference, but would be happy to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The 2010-batch officer said he was deeply inspired by the style of politics of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, but the "situation" in Jammu and Kashmir would not allow him to pursue politics their style.

Bengaluru, Jan 11 (PTI) A court here has closed a sedition case against the Amnesty India, pertaining to a petition filed by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) against the human rights body on August 15, 2016.

The complaint relates to an event the Amnesty India had held as part of a campaign to seek justice for alleged human rights violations in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The First Information Report (FIR) in the case mentioned a number of offences, including sedition, unlawful assembly, rioting and promoting enmity.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Some U.S. military ground equipment has been withdrawn from Syria in recent days, U.S. media reported on Thursday.

"Some cargo has already moved," CNN quoted an administration official with direct knowledge of the operation as saying.

The official did not reveal detailed information as to what the cargo was or whether it had been moved out by aircraft or ground vehicles.

The recent cargo withdrawal is reportedly intended to show the progress of the Syria withdrawal plan to U.S. President Donald Trump by the Pentagon.

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) The high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met for over two hours on Thursday to decide fate of CBI Director Alok Verma, reinstated by a Supreme Court order after he was sent on forced leave by the government.

The meeting was also attended by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Justice A K Sikri, who was nominated by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to represent him.

It was not immediately clear what transpired in the meeting, called for the second consecutive day.

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) Alok Verma was shunted out as the CBI chief after a marathon meeting of high-powered selection committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, officials said.

Verma, a 1979-batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer, has been removed from the high-profile post on the charges of corruption and dereliction of duty making him the first chief in the history of the agency to face such action, they said.

He is likely to be moved to the National Human Rights Commission, they said.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Amnesty International has renewed a call for an international investigation into the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — a slaying that has implicated some members of the Saudi crown prince’s entourage.

The group made the call outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Thursday while marking the 100th day since his Oct. 2 killing by Saudi agents there.

About 100 meters (yards) away from the consulate, the activists symbolically put up a street sign bearing the name of the journalist who wrote critically about the crown prince.

10 Jan 2019; AP: A U.S. supplier of t-shirts and other team apparel to college bookstores cut its ties Wednesday with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.

In recent years, authorities in the far west Chinese region of Xinjiang have detained an estimated 1 million Uighurs and Kazakhs in heavily-secured facilities where detainees say they are ordered to renounce their language and religion while pledging loyalty to the China’s ruling Communist Party.

Srinagar, Jan 9 (PTI) IAS officer Shah Faesal, who has been in the limelight since becoming the first Kashmiri to top the exam in 2009, resigned Wednesday, protesting the "unabated" killings in Kashmir and the marginalisation of Indian Muslims.

Guwahati, Jan 9 (PTI) Protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill intensified in different parts of Assam Wednesday with agitators burning effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and gheraoing the state secretariat here.

Protestors burnt effigies of the prime minister and chief minister at Digboi, Goalpara, Lakhimpur and Barpeta against the passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — China is allowing more than 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to abandon their Chinese citizenship and leave the country, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said, in a sign that Beijing may be starting to feel a mounting backlash against its sweeping crackdown on Muslims in the far west region of Xinjiang.