Indian counterterrorism police seize $52 million narcotics haul from Iran

Five Iranians were arrested by Indian counterterrorism forces after being found in possession of narcotics worth $51.9 million. (@GujaratPolice)
Five Iranians were arrested by Indian counterterrorism forces after being found in possession of narcotics worth $51.9 million. (@GujaratPolice)
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Updated 07 March 2023

Indian counterterrorism police seize $52 million narcotics haul from Iran

Indian counterterrorism police seize $52 million narcotics haul from Iran
  • Haul of 61 kg was transported by boat from Iranian port of Chabahar
  • Group of 5 Iranian smugglers arrested by police in overnight operation

NEW DELHI: A group of five Iranian nationals were arrested by Indian counterterrorism forces after being found in possession of narcotics worth $51.9 million, the chief of police in Gujarat said on Tuesday following an overnight operation at sea.

The 61 kg haul of drugs was being transported by boat from the port of Chabahar in Iran’s southeast by Iranian smugglers and a gang based in northern India, Gujarat Director General of Police Vikas Sahay said in a special press conference.

Acting on intelligence, personnel from the state’s counterterrorism unit and coast guards intercepted the Iranian vessel off the coastal town of Okha, near India’s maritime border, on Monday night.

“The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Gujarat Police and Indian Coast Guard have apprehended a suspicious boat along with five Iran nationals 180 nautical miles from Okha. Sixty-one kilograms of a narcotic substance worth approximately RS425 crores ($51.9 million) was seized from the boat,” Sahay said.

It was the latest in a series of drug busts off the coast of Gujarat involving Iranian smugglers.

In mid-September 2021, in the country’s biggest narcotics bust, the Indian Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized almost 3,000 kg of heroin, which reached the country from the Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran concealed in semi-processed talc stones.

Days later, seven Iranians in possession of more than 30 kg of narcotics were detained in another bust.

“Drugs go to Iran from Afghanistan. Traffickers use the India route to send the consignments to other parts of the world also,” defence analyst Ranjit Singh told Arab News.

But in recent years, India has deployed massive coastal surveillance systems, allowing security forces to quickly intercept suspicious vessels.

“The Coast Guard has been equipped with new surveillance infrastructure. Coastal radars were set up. Fishermen were given new identity devices. This has helped the Coast Guard in keeping a close watch on any unidentified boat roaming in Indian coastal areas,” Singh said.

“Terrorists and drug traffickers will find it very difficult to survive in such heavily secured waters.”


Ex-boxing champ Amir Khan thought he could die during London robbery

Former world boxing champion Amir Khan has said he feared his children would grow up fatherless after he was robbed at gunpoint.
Former world boxing champion Amir Khan has said he feared his children would grow up fatherless after he was robbed at gunpoint.
Updated 15 sec ago

Ex-boxing champ Amir Khan thought he could die during London robbery

Former world boxing champion Amir Khan has said he feared his children would grow up fatherless after he was robbed at gunpoint.
  • Olympic silver medalist was robbed at gunpoint for watch during Ramadan last year
  • He feared his children would grow up ‘without their dad,’ has since moved his family to Dubai

LONDON: Former world boxing champion Amir Khan has said he feared his children would grow up fatherless after he was robbed at gunpoint in London last year.

Khan, 36, had been dining at the Sahara Grill restaurant with his wife Faryal Makhdoom, 31, and their friend Omar Khalid to break their Ramadan fast on April 18, before Khan and Makhdoom were confronted outside by a gunman.

Dante Campbell, 20, stole a Franck Muller watch worth up to £70,000 ($85,000), having pointed a gun at Khan and instructed him to “take off the watch.”

The watch — a bespoke present made of rose gold and encrusted with diamonds — has not been recovered.

Khan, originally from Bolton in the north of England, told The Sun: “In that moment, you think the worst … that the kids could be growing up without their dad, that Faryal would be raising them on her own.

“Your life flashes before your eyes. I leant my head to the right because I thought, if he is going to shoot me, he can shoot the side of my head. I don’t want to see the bullet coming.”

Khan, an Olympic silver medalist in 2004 who retired from professional boxing last year having won 34 of his 40 professional fights, said: “It was the first time I’ve ever seen a gun in my life. I could see down the barrel. I remember looking back seeing where my wife was. She ran back on the road and screamed ‘help!’”

Makhdoom told The Sun that she thought she and her husband “were going to die on the spot.”

Asked if he should have used his boxing abilities to fight off Campbell, Khan said: “I’ve got a family. It’s only a watch. My life means more to me. When you have kids, you have a priority to make sure they are looked after. I am the breadwinner for the family.

“If I was with the kids, I don’t know what I would’ve done. Maybe I would have panicked and tried to run.”

Khan added that the incident had forced him to relocate his family to Dubai, and that when back in the UK, he spent £600 per day on security.

“I love England,” he said. “I won a medal for the country, but I stay in Dubai now because it’s the only place I feel safe.”

Campbell and his getaway driver, 25-year-old Ahmed Bana — both from north London — admitted conspiracy to commit robbery and possession of an imitation firearm at their trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court. They are due to be sentenced at a later date.

Two men accused of being “spotters” inside the restaurant for Campbell and Bana to target Khan — Ismail Mohamed, 24, and Nurul Amin, 25 — both from north London, were acquitted of conspiracy to commit robbery.


UK threatens Afghan pilot with deportation to Rwanda

An Afghan pilot walks near a military helicopter in Kunar province. (File/AFP)
An Afghan pilot walks near a military helicopter in Kunar province. (File/AFP)
Updated 26 March 2023

UK threatens Afghan pilot with deportation to Rwanda

An Afghan pilot walks near a military helicopter in Kunar province. (File/AFP)
  • Refugee served alongside coalition forces, flying 30-plus missions against Taliban
  • Ex-head of British forces in Afghanistan: Former comrades ‘suffered and died’ after being left behind

LONDON: The UK is threatening an Afghan war veteran who served alongside coalition forces against the Taliban with deportation to Rwanda.

The unnamed former lieutenant in the Afghan Air Force arrived in the UK on a small boat that crossed the English Channel because, he said, there were no safe routes for him to use.

He added that he is one of many former service personnel from Afghanistan now facing deportation, and that he and his comrades have been “forgotten” by their allies.

The pilot, who flew over 30 combat missions against the Taliban, is currently being housed in a UK Home Office-administered hotel for asylum-seekers, where he was told via email that his asylum application may be negatively affected because he traveled from Afghanistan via Italy, Switzerland and France, all of which are designated safe countries.

“(You) may also be removable to Rwanda under the terms of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership between Rwanda and UK,” the email added.

He told The Independent: “What safe and legal way was there after the fall of Afghanistan? You (the UK) entered Afghanistan on the first day as a friendly and brotherly country, and now this bad day has come upon us.”

The UK government, he said, should “keep the promise of friendship and cooperation that you made, and fulfil it.

“The American and British forces have forgotten us. We worked with them and we helped them like they were our brothers. We are not (Taliban), we are not ISIS (Daesh), so why are they leaving us like this?

“Every day they threaten to send us to Rwanda or our original country. I don’t know what we should do.”

Rodney Liberato, who works at the US State Department and supervised the pilot while in Afghanistan, has written to the UK government on his behalf, telling The Independent that the lieutenant is a “fine young man, a superb son, brother, husband, father, friend and a patriot for his nation” who “risked his life to support his nation’s development and coalition forces in Afghanistan.”

Another pilot from the same squadron, currently in hiding in Iran, told The Independent: “The British were part of the coalition forces and we had several mutual missions with them. Our training program was also supported by the coalition. 

“I wish to come to the UK because I deserve to be there and to save my life. We, as the Afghanistan fighter pilots, played a big role in the war against the Taliban and other terrorist groups.”

Afghans currently make up the largest national cohort crossing the English Channel illegally in small boats, with over 9,000 making the journey in 2022.

There are two legal schemes for Afghans to apply to come to the UK. The largest — the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme, for those who helped British forces — has relocated 11,000 people.

An additional 4,300 eligible people, though, remain trapped in Afghanistan. A recent investigation showed that some had been put in danger after UK officials requested paperwork from them only obtainable from the Afghan government, currently under Taliban control. 

The other legal scheme, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, has resettled just 22 people since 2021.

In response to the number of Channel crossings, the government recently approved legislation that would allow for the deportation and permanent banning from ever entering the UK of people making the trip.

Col. Rich Kemp, former head of UK forces in Afghanistan, told The Independent that many people who had worked with the coalition had been abandoned.

“It must be very difficult for them, and we should — I believe — be doing everything we can to help them out. If we can do it, whatever we can do,” he said.

“There was a success (in evacuating people) to an extent, but obviously there are many people who haven’t (been helped) and have suffered and died as a consequence.

“Once you decide to withdraw everything from the country, you don’t have much leverage in helping people to get out.”

Clare Moseley, founder of charity Care4Calais, which is supporting the Afghan pilot’s asylum claim, told The Independent: “Our client worked with UK forces, but rather than being provided with a safe route to escape the Taliban, he had to make a dangerous crossing across the Channel.

“Now our government plans to ban people like him from claiming asylum altogether, and subject them to indefinite detention and forced deportation to places where we can’t guarantee their safety.

“We should be giving safe passage to these brave refugees. This would stop small boat crossings, put people-smugglers out of business overnight, and, more importantly, save lives.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We remain committed to providing protection for vulnerable and at-risk people fleeing Afghanistan, and so far have brought around 24,500 people impacted by the situation back to the UK.

“We continue to work with like-minded partners and countries neighbouring Afghanistan on resettlement issues, and to support safe passage for eligible Afghans.”


Bloody artwork protesting Prince Harry’s Afghan kills to be projected on London landmark

Copies of “Spare” by Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, are displayed at Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street in London.
Copies of “Spare” by Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, are displayed at Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street in London.
Updated 26 March 2023

Bloody artwork protesting Prince Harry’s Afghan kills to be projected on London landmark

Copies of “Spare” by Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, are displayed at Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street in London.
  • Sculpture by Russian artist comes in response to royal’s claim he killed 25 Taliban fighters
  • Afghans in Calais donated blood for piece that will be projected onto St. Paul’s Cathedral

LONDON: A sculpture of the coat of arms of the British royal family, created with the blood of four Afghans, is to be “projected” onto the walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London by Russian artist Andrei Molodkin to protest Prince Harry’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

The prince’s recent memoir “Spare” caused significant controversy after he said in it that he had killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving as an attack helicopter pilot.

He added that the figure was “not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” and that he had thought of the fatalities as akin to taking “chess pieces.”

At the time, the claims prompted a backlash from many inside and outside Afghanistan, with the Taliban saying he should be put on trial.

Prince Harry later said the idea that he had boasted about killing Afghans was “a dangerous lie.”

Molodkin told Sky News that four Afghans currently based in the French city of Calais had voluntarily given their blood for the artwork, that five others living in the UK would donate more blood for it at a later stage, and that they, like him, were “very, very angry” about what the prince had written.

“They read they are just ‘chess figures’ ... for some prince hunting by helicopter,” Molodkin said. “It looked like a safari situation. How he told it, for him it’s like a computer game.”

Molodkin added that the aim was to “drench St. Paul’s Cathedral in the blood of Afghani people,” and that video footage of the prince would also be displayed.

Explaining how the art worked, he said: “Blood will go in the royal coat of arms, it will circulate in there. It will be projected ... on to the cathedral — so all the cathedral will be in the blood of Afghani people.”

Molodkin said he would also try to bring blood into the cathedral, adding: “It’s a cathedral — it’s for everyone. Everyone can come there and pray. Donating blood, it’s kind of a way of praying.” He has not sought the cathedral’s permission.

He said he has worked with human blood as a creative medium for 15 years, adding that it symbolizes power. “Then, the people who are abused by this power, I ask them to donate blood for this,” he said.

Molodkin’s solidarity with the Afghan people stems from his time in the Soviet Union, where he served as a soldier during his country’s occupation of Afghanistan.

“Even in the army, you’re scared to participate in the shooting of others … you’re very stressed,” he said of his experiences. “But (Harry) thinks it’s a video game.”

Molodkin lives in southern France after creating an art installation involving blood donated by Ukrainian soldiers depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I can’t go back to Russia,” he told Sky News.


Colombia police chief says used exorcism and prayer to fight crime

Colombia police chief says used exorcism and prayer to fight crime
Updated 26 March 2023

Colombia police chief says used exorcism and prayer to fight crime

Colombia police chief says used exorcism and prayer to fight crime
BOGOTA: Colombia’s chief of police said he and other officers have used exorcism and prayer to tackle crime and the country’s most powerful criminals, including drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
Sitting in his office surrounded by crucifixes, effigies of the Virgin Mary and other Catholic symbols, General Henry Sanabria told local media on Saturday that these religious practices have helped the police throughout the last 50 years of armed conflict in the South American country.
As examples, he recalled police operations in which Escobar (in 1993), FARC guerrilla leader Alfonso Cano (2011) and his military chief known as “Mono Jojoy” (2010) were killed.
“The existence of the devil is certain. I have seen him. I have felt him,” Sanabria said in an interview with Semana magazine, making the sign of the cross at every mention of the devil.
Sanabria claimed criminals used witchcraft, and said in one operation a police officer had been able to kill one of them by “praying while shooting.”
His statements have sparked fierce debates on social media in Colombia, a secular country with Catholic traditions.
President Gustavo Petro did not express concern.
“We know the beliefs of the general, but we try to make sure that these beliefs do not affect the rules, it is as simple as that,” he said. “I think he has respected them, as far as we know.”
Previous statements by the police chief have also caused controversy.
Sanabria has spoken against abortion, which is legal in Colombia until the 24th week of pregnancy, and the use of condoms, which he has called an “abortive method.”
Last October, he described Halloween as a “satanic” holiday and wrote a tweet about Women’s Day on March 8 that was accused of being sexist.
“A woman’s charm makes her husband happy and if she is reasonable, she makes it last. A discreet woman is a gift from the Lord,” he wrote.

Putin: Russia, China not creating military alliance

Putin: Russia, China not creating military alliance
Updated 26 March 2023

Putin: Russia, China not creating military alliance

Putin: Russia, China not creating military alliance
  • Putin also said Western powers were trying to form more global alliances

MOSCOW: Russia and China are not creating a military alliance and are hiding nothing in terms of their military cooperation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with state television broadcast on Sunday, news agencies reported.
Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping professed friendship and pledged closer ties at a summit in Moscow early this week, as Russia struggles to make gains in what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“We are not creating any military alliance with China,” Interfax quoted Putin as saying. “Yes, we have cooperation in the sphere of military-technical interaction. We are not hiding this.
“Everything is transparent, there is nothing secret.”
Putin also said Western powers were trying to form more global alliances, accusing the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of starting to build a new “axis,” bearing some resemblance to Germany, Italy and Japan’s World War Two alliance.
“That is why Western analysts...are talking about the West starting to build a new axis similar to the one created in the 1930s by the fascist regimes of Germany and Italy and militarist Japan,” Putin said.