Category: Asia News

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Asia News

Imran meets families of slain miners

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. (File Photo: IANS)

Speaking to the families, the premier said that he had visited the community in the past and was well aware of the issues being faced by them….reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Quetta where he met the families of the 11 coal miners who were killed by armed men in Balochistan’s Machh area on January 3, the media reported on Sunday.

In a video released by Khan’s office on Saturday, the Prime Minister can be seen interacting with the families, as well as other members of the Hazara minority community , Dawn news reported.

Speaking to the families, the premier said that he had visited the community in the past and was well aware of the issues being faced by them.

“I know that people were afraid of going to your imambargahs when the ‘war on terror’ was at its peak in Pakistan. I came to meet you then as well.”



Khan said that when he was first informed of the killings, he sent Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid to meet with the bereaved to assure them of backing by the federal government.

“We have a whole programme prepared and a security forces cell is being made which will look at providing you (Hazaras) with protection and pursuing those responsible (for the attack),” Dawn news quoted the Prime Minister as further saying.

The premier’s visit came hours after the miners were buried at the city’s Hazara Town cemetery following the end of a week-long protest by the Hazara community against the killings.

On January 11, the 11 coal miners were kidnapped and killed by unidentified armed men in Machh, an area under serious security threat.

According to the police, the attackers abducted the miners and took them to the nearby hills where they were fired at and seriously injured.

The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

Last week, Members of the Hazara minority community have refused to end their sit-in in Quetta against the killing of 11 coal miners in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, while demanding justice over the carnage.



The sit-in started on Monday at the provincial capital’s Western Bypass and continued after talks between the protesters and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid failed, reports The Express Tribune.

On Monday night, Rashid met a delegation of the Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) political organisation, who are leading the sit-in.

But the protesters refused to end their sit-in until Prime Minister Imran Khan visited them.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Rashid said that he had asked the MWM to form a five-to-seven-member committee to meet the Prime Minister in Islamabad. The Minister also announced a 2.5 million PKR compensation to the victims’ families.

Also read:Pakistan’s Covid cases cross 500,000

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-Top News India News Nepal

Nepal wants its land back

Ahead of crucial Nepal-India Foreign Minister level talks that are likely to focus on seeking long-term solution of the boundary dispute, Nepal’s  Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said they will retrieve the Nepali territories of Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh which have long been “occupied” by India.

Addressing the National Assembly, he said that one of the prime items on the agenda of Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali on his India visit is the boundary dispute.

Gyawali is visiting India on January 14 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar to participate in the sixth Nepal-India Joint Commission meeting at the Foreign Minister level.

S Jaishankar

As per the Sugauli Treaty, Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh are located east of the Mahakali River and belong to Nepal, Oli said. “We will hold diplomatic talks with India and our Foreign Minister is also going to India,” he said.

“Today, we are facing difficulties to get back our land because Nepali rulers never made efforts to reclaim Nepali territories after Indian military forces started to station there following the India-China war in 1962. After the India-China war, an Indian army battalion is stationed in Kalapani that Nepal has been claiming as its territory,” he said.

According to Oli, a notable initiative was made to solve problems in the relations with India by holding comprehensive dialogue.

“Some had said the relations with India would be strained when a new map was issued by incorporating Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani as Nepali land but it did not happen.

“Now, the discussion with India is held on the basis of friendship. Nepali land will be retrieved at any cost,” he stressed while addressing the seventh session of the parliament.

He also said that ties with China are developing in a positive way. Oli said that road connection with China is improving, a new tunnel to connect Nepal and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China is underway and “we are fairly doing well to improve ties with both neighbours, India and China”.

Oli, who rose on a nationalist plank in 2016 after India imposed a blockade, got over 63 per cent vote in the 2017 elections.

After not getting enough support from his Nepal Communist Party, he dissolved the House of Representatives on December 20 and recommended snap polls be held on April 30 and May 10. But his decision to dissolve the house and hold fresh polls has been challenged in the Supreme Court and the hearing is going on.

Oli’s decision to dissolve the house has sharply divided opinions inside Nepal and his own party, Nepal Communist Party is on the verge of split. A case is pending at the Elections Commission.

Rival factions, led by former Prime Ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda and Madhav Kumar Nepal, have challenged Oli’s decision to dissolve the house and have been exercising as a separate political party since December 21 by forming their own central committee and party standing committee.

The dispute over Kalapani, which lies on the easternmost corner of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district, between Nepal and India was revived in November 2019 when India published a revised political map showing the newly created Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Both India and Nepal lay claim to Kalapani. The map showed Kalapani as part of Pithoragarh district. Nepal protested immediately and drew attention to the lingering issue.

On May 8, India inaugurated the Darchula-Lipulekh pass link road, cutting across the disputed Kalapani area which is used by Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. Nepal hit back by summoning the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, to convey a formal protest.

Also Read-US Covid cases top 22mn

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Afghanistan Asia News

3 killed in Kabul blast

The blast, according to the official, took place at 8.30 a.m. in Police District 8…reports Asian Lite News

At least three people were killed and another person was injured in a blast in Kabul on Sunday, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said.

The blast, according to the official, took place at 8.30 a.m. in Police District 8, Xinhua news agency reported.

Arian said that the victims included Zia Wadan, spokesman for the Public Protection Force.

Without providing details, the official blamed the Taliban outfit for the attack.

The militant group is yet to respond to the allegation.

Since last month, at least 23 people have been killed and 70 others injured in security incidents in Kabul.

Kabul witnessed 15 security incidents late December 2020, including suicide attacks, car bomb attacks, magnetic IED blasts and targeted killings.

Four blasts occurred in Kabul on December 26.

Most of the magnetic IED blasts targeted security vehicles and were near police headquarters buildings in various areas of the city.

Also read:Conflicts scatter 18,000 Afghan families

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Asia News

Pakistan’s Covid cases cross 500,000

Sindh province has been the worst-hit with 225,509 cases followed by Punjab province where 144,909 people have been tested positive, the NCOC said in a statement…reports Asian Lite News

A total of 2,899 people have tested positive of Covid-19 in Pakistan over the last 24 hours, taking the overall infection tally to 502,416, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Sunday.

Sindh province has been the worst-hit with 225,509 cases followed by Punjab province where 144,909 people have been tested positive, the NCOC said in a statement.

Forty-six people died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 10,644, the official statement said, adding that 2,804 patients are being treated in hospitals across Pakistan, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statement said 456,969 people have recovered so far.

A total of 7,088,014 tests have been conducted at various state-owned and private laboratories across the country, and 623 hospitals are working with Covid-19 facilities.

Several cases of a new variant of the coronavirus initially found in Britain have been reported in the country, and the relevant authorities are tracing their contacts, after quarantining them.

Also read:Pak court orders arrest of JeM chief Azhar

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-Top News Asia News

Conflicts scatter 18,000 Afghan families

In a statement on Saturday, the State Ministry for Disaster Management said if the current level of violence prevail, aid agencies will not be able to reach vulnerable families in insecure regions…reports Asian Lite News

Afghan government figures have revealed that at least 18,000 families have been displaced due to conflicts in six provinces over the last month.

In a statement on Saturday, the State Ministry for Disaster Management said if the current level of violence prevail, aid agencies will not be able to reach vulnerable families in insecure regions, reports TOLO News.

The provinces are Baghlan, Kunduz, Farah, Herat, Ghor and Uruzgan.

Nearly 45,000 families were displaced during the last year, according to the Ministry.

“If the situation worsens and violence continues, there will be serious challenges in way of relief and rescue efforts,” Ministry spokesman Ahmad Tamim Azimi was quoted as saying.

According to the Ministry, there is the possibility that another 25,000 families will be displaced due to conflicts.

Officials added that 100 displaced people are living in a shelter at a school in the city of Kunduz.

Also read:Pak welcomes resumption of Afghan talks

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-Top News Asia News

Body parts retrieved after Indonesian plane crash

“We received three bags containing the debris of the plane and five bags of human body parts,”said Operation Director of the National Search and Rescue Agency Rasman M.S…..reports Asian Lite News

Five bags of human body parts and three bags of debris were collected by search and rescue officials on Sunday from the waters off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta where a Sriwijaya Air plane crashed the previous day shortly after take-off

“We received three bags containing the debris of the plane and five bags of human body parts,” Operation Director of the National Search and Rescue Agency Rasman M.S. said.

All the eight bags were carried by the navy’s KRI Kurau ship, according to the director.

This has brought the total body parts discovered by the rescuers to seven, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Boeing 737-500 aircraft, flying from the capital Jakarta to Pontianak city in West Kalimantan province on Saturday afternoon, crashed into the Java Sea off the Seribu District in north of Jakarta, reports Xinhua news agency.



It was carrying 50 passengers, including 10 children and 12 crew members.

The body parts will be handed to the police’s DVI (disaster victims identification) unit for identification and the debris would be sent to the National Transport Safety Committee for analysis, according to the agency.

A total of 362 rescuers with 38 ships, some of them equipped with multi-beam echo-sounders and remotely operated vehicles (ROV) to detect objects underwater, were currently searching for the victims and the wreckage of the budget airline plane.

Earlier in the day, Indonesian military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said naval ship KRI Rigela equipped with a remote-operated vehicle, which arrived at the search location at 3 a.m., detected the signal possibly from the aircraft.

“Based on the results of monitoring, and according to the coordinates given from the last contact, it is strongly suspected that there was a signal from the plane,” he said.

President Joko Widodo on Sunday expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, saying at a press conference: “I am on behalf of the government and all the Indonesian people to express my deep condolences over this tragedy.”

The last plane crash in Indonesia took place in October 2018 when a Lion Air flight plunged into the sea about 12 minutes after take-off from Jakarta.

A total of 189 people died in that crash.

It was one of two crashes that led regulators to pull the Boeing 737 Max from service all across the world.

In December 2014, an AirAsia plane crashed into sea en route from Indonesia’s second biggest city Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard.

Also read:Indonesian jetliner with 62 passengers crashes into sea

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-Top News Asia News India News

Seafarers Stuck In China Set To Sail Back

The 23 crew of the ship MV Jag Anand have lifted anchor, and cleared to sail and reach Chiba port, Japan by January 14…reports Asian Lite News.

In glad tidings, 23 Indian crew members aboard the ship ‘MV Jag Anand’ stuck off China for over six months, were allowed to set sail for a port in Japan on Saturday evening, the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) said here.

NUSI General Secretary Abdulgani Y. Serang said that these crew members, along with their counterparts on another ship, ‘MV Anastasia’, were stranded off the China anchorage since six months.

“The 23 crew of the ship MV Jag Anand have lifted anchor, and cleared to sail and reach Chiba port, Japan by January 14. The crew change will take place there and after completing the Covid-19 formalities, they will start on their return journey to India,” Serang said.

The NUSI is hopeful that the crew of ‘MV Anastasia’ also shall be accorded similar clearances soon as their anxious families in India await their return.

After having been at sea for more than 18 months, and in the clutches of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the seafarers on both ships literally found themselves on a ‘floating prison’ as they were unwittingly caught in a political tussle between China and Australia even though many were ill and needed urgent medical attention.

In Mumbai, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had strongly taken up their cause with the Centre after which the Indian government followed up the issue at the diplomatic levels, culminating in the latest development and their return to the country soon.

Several of the crew members are from Mumbai, Thane and Palghar regions of Maharashtra and their families and other seafarers made a series of appeals to the Centre right up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding his intervention to secure their safe passage home.

JSPL AID

Naveen Jindal, the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), has offered his help towards bringing back the 39 Indian sailors stranded in Chinese waters. Jindal has offered to buy coal for the ships in a bid to aid their return.

Two carriers, the ‘Anastasia’ (IMO 9625970) and the ‘Jag Anand’, owned by India’s Great Eastern Shipping Company, which were transporting Australian coal to China, arrived in Chinese waters when trade tensions were underay between China and Australia. Eventually, China banned the import of Australian coal.

The Indian seafarers are stranded in Chinese waters for months now.



The matter came to light after reportedly one seafarer recently committed suicide as he was denied permission to return home to look after his ailing wife and two sons, who were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Taking to Twitter, Jindal wrote on Friday: “This is a humanitarian crisis: 39 Indian sailors stranded at Chinese ports for months; were carrying coal from Australia to China. We are ready to buy the coal on these ships if it can help bring our sailors back home.”

The tensions between China and India arising in the past one year have also added to the problem. Vessels flying flags of other countries have been permitted to upload similar bulk cargo while these two with Indian flags have not been given the same permission.

Also read:Modi: India all set with two ‘Made in India’ vaccines

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-Top News Asia News USA

Sabrina Singh named White House Deputy Press Secy

Singh was earlier a senior spokesperson on the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign and National Press Secretary for Cory Booker’s presidential campaign…reports Asian Lite News

Indian American Sabrina Singh, a long time aide to US Vice President elect Kamala Harris, has been named White House Deputy Press Secretary in the incoming administration, according to a statement released Friday by the Biden-Harris transition team.

Singh was earlier a senior spokesperson on the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign and National Press Secretary for Cory Booker’s presidential campaign.

In roles prior to that, she served as Deputy Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee, Spokesperson for American Bridge’s Trump War Room and Regional Communications Director on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

She has also worked at SKDKnickerbocker, served as Communications Director for Rep. Jan Schakowsky and worked at various Democratic committees.

In the weeks after the US election results were announced, several Indian Americans have been appointed to important posts by Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

They include Neera Tanden, who will be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General, both of whom will have to be confirmed in their positions by the Senate, and Vedant Patel, to be his assistant press secretary, Vinay Reddy to be the director of speechwriting and Gautam Raghavan to be the deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel.

Others include Atul Gawande and Celine Gounder to the Covid-19 task force, Mala Adiga to be the policy director for Jill Biden, who will become the First Lady, and Maju Varghese to be the executive director of their inauguration – the swearing-in ceremony and the festivities around it.

Also read:US charges 3 Sri Lankans in 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks

Also read:Indian Americans fill Biden national security team

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-Top News Asia News Sri Lanka USA

US charges 3 Sri Lankans in 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks

The Department said that they were charged after a nearly two-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which assisted Sri Lankan authorities….reports Asian Lite News

A US federal prosecutor has charged three Sri Lankans at a Los Angeles court in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks on the island nation that killed 268 people, including five Americans.

The Justice Department said on Friday that the three men, who are members of the ISIS in Sri Lanka, have been charged with “conspiring to provide, providing, and attempting to provide material support” to a foreign terrorist organisation.

ISIS in Sri Lanka is the arm of the dreaded Islamic State terrorist group.

The three are in Sri Lankan custody and were identified by the Justice Department as Mohamed Naufar, the “Second Emir” of the ISIS in Sri Lanka; Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan, whoallegedly helped make explosives for the attacks,; and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed, who allegedly killed a police officer and shot a suspected informant.

The charges were filed on December 11, 2020, in the federal court in Los Angeles but announced only now by the Justice Department in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Department said that they were charged after a nearly two-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which assisted Sri Lankan authorities.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said: “These charges reflect that the US justice system remains a powerful tool to bring to bear against those who harm our citizens abroad. We will continue to pursue justice for the victims of these heinous attacks and for all American victims of terrorism.”

Commerce Department official Chelsea Decaminada, who was in Sri Lanka on an assignment, was killed in the attacks that targeted Christian places of worship and hotels where foreigners stay.

Another victim was Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa, a fifth-grade student from a Washington school.

“The domestic charges announced today for an attack on foreign soil represent the FBI’s commitment to deliver justice to travelling American victims and to protect U. interests here and abroad,” said Kristi K. Johnson, the FBI’s Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that they were in retaliation against the West for defeating his terrorist organisation in Baghuz, Syria, in March 2019.

IS was almost completely wiped out of territories it had held in Syria and al-Baghdadi was killed in a US airstrike in October 2019.

Demers said that the charges against the three related to recruiting others to IS, purchasing and materials for and making explosives, training those who participated in the attacks, and murdering “in the name of this deadly foreign terrorist organisation.”

Also read:Iran warns to expel IAEA inspectors over US sanctions

Also read:Kim Jong-un urges US to end hostile policy

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-Top News Asia News USA

Kim Jong-un urges US to end hostile policy

Kim said that halting hostilities by Washington will be the key to future relations between North Korea and the US….reports Asian Lite News

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has urged the US to end its hostile policy towards Pyongyang. In the report, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim made the remarks at the ongoing eighth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, reports Xinhua news agency.

Kim said that halting hostilities by Washington will be the key to future relations between North Korea and the US.

However, Washington’s policy against Pyongyang won’t change regardless of who rules the White House, the KCNA report quoted Kim as saying.

This is the first response by North Korea to the new American government as President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.

North Korea’s external political activities going forward should be focused on suppressing and subduing the US, the basic obstacle and the biggest enemy against Pyongyang’s revolutionary development, said the KCNA report.

On his new policy on South Korea, Kim said bilateral relations could return to three years ago when a peace mood was created “at any time”, but this only depends on Seoul’s attitude.

Relations with Seoul went cold starting June 2020 after Pyongyang demolished an inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong in retaliation for South Korea’s failure to stop activists from sending anti-North Korean leaflets into the North.

The Congress, which opened on Tuesday, continued on Friday and the participants discussed the first agenda item “Review of the work of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea”, the KCNA reported.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to further improve social system and foreign relations at the party congress.

In the report, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Kim suggested practical ways to give full play to the advantages of the country’s social system during third-day session of the eighth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency.

In his report reviewing the work of the Party’s seventh Central Committee, Kim analysed and evaluated in depth the shortcomings exposed and lessons drawn from work in the past five years, setting forth “directions and ways for opening up a fresh golden age” by carrying out reforms in such fields as “education, public health, literature and arts”, KCNA said.

During the session, Kim and the congress attendees also doubled down on the Party’s general stance to comprehensively expand and forge external relations, including ties with South Korea, KCNA added.

During the previous Congress held in 2016 for the first time in more than 30 years, the North announced its five-year development plan that ended last year and declared the “byongjin” policy of simultaneously seeking nuclear weapons and economic advance.

Also read:S. Korea extends UK flight ban