More Bangladeshis choose to leave Lebanon as Israel violates ceasefire

Special More Bangladeshis choose to leave Lebanon as Israel violates ceasefire
A Bangladeshi national carries luggage on a trolley upon his arrival from Lebanon, at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on October 21, 2024. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 07 December 2024
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More Bangladeshis choose to leave Lebanon as Israel violates ceasefire

More Bangladeshis choose to leave Lebanon as Israel violates ceasefire
  • Almost 1,000 Bangladeshis have returned to their country on special flights
  • Bangladeshis in Lebanon are the largest group of migrants from Asia

DHAKA: Bangladeshis living and working in Lebanon continue to return home, saying they fear Israeli attacks that have not stopped despite last week’s ceasefire agreement between the two countries.

There are about 100,000 Bangladeshis in Lebanon — the largest group of migrants from Asia. Thousands have been displaced since the beginning of Israel’s invasion of the country’s south in October and strikes on other cities.

Last month, a Bangladeshi man was killed by an Israeli strike while he stopped at a coffee shop on his way to work in Beirut.

Almost 1,000 Bangladeshis have since returned to their country on special repatriation flights financed by the Bangladeshi government and the International Organization for Migration. The latest flight reached Dhaka on Thursday night.

“The number of intended returnees is increasing,” Mohammad Anwar Hossain, first secretary of the Bangladeshi embassy in Beirut, told Arab News.

“Despite the ceasefire agreement, a tense situation still persists in Lebanon. We have observed Israeli surveillance drones over Beirut.”

Although a US-brokered ceasefire has been in place since last week, it has been repeatedly breached by Israel. A source from the UN’s peacekeeping force told CNN on Monday that Israeli forces had violated the agreement “approximately 100 times.”

Shahnaz Begum, who was among 105 Bangladeshis evacuated on Thursday, decided to leave her domestic helper job behind despite being her family’s sole breadwinner.

“Israel started bombing maybe one or two days after the announcement of the ceasefire,” she said.

“For over two months, we’ve been counting the days until we can return home. I can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep. Every moment felt like it could be the last.”

Israeli air and ground raids, many of which have targeted civilian and medical infrastructure, have killed more than 4,000 people since October, according to Lebanese Health Ministry estimates. More than 16,000 have been injured.

Liton Rahman, who for the past seven years worked as a driver in Jezzine, southern Lebanon, was hopeful that the ceasefire would allow him to stay longer in Lebanon. But the wait was “in vain,” he said.

“I had been considering staying for a few more months if the ceasefire had truly been effective. But, unfortunately, Israel continues its attacks on various parts of southern Lebanon ... I am forced to return home. Otherwise, I might end up being counted as collateral damage.”


Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports

Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports
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Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports

Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports
Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the Axios report

COPENHAGEN: Denmark sent private messages to US President-elect Donald Trump’s team expressing willingness to discuss boosting security in Greenland or increasing the US military presence there without claiming the island, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two sources.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has described US control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, as an “absolute necessity.” He did not dismiss the potential use of military or economic means, including tariffs against Denmark.
Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the Axios report.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week that she had asked for a meeting with Trump, but did not expect it to happen before his inauguration. Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede too said he was ready to speak with Trump but urged respect for the island’s independence aspirations.
Denmark has previously said that Greenland is not for sale.

Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers

Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers
Updated 4 min 16 sec ago
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Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers

Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers
  • “Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media
  • The SBU security service gave some details of the men’s interrogation, saying both described themselves as experienced soldiers

KYIV: Ukraine said Saturday that investigators were questioning two wounded North Korean soldiers after they were captured in Russia’s Kursk region, saying they provided “indisputable evidence” that North Koreans were fighting for Moscow.
It is not the first time that Kyiv has claimed the capture of North Korean soldiers during its Kursk incursion but it has not reported being able to question any before.
In December it said it took several captive but they died from serious wounds.
“Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived and were brought to Kyiv, and are talking to SBU investigators,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
The SBU security service gave some details of the men’s interrogation, saying both described themselves as experienced soldiers and one said he had been sent to Russia for training, not to fight.
But Ukraine has not provided any evidence that the men are North Korean.
In video released by the SBU, two men with Asian features are shown in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw. A doctor at the detention center says the second man also has a broken leg.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock incursion in August last year.
Zelensky had said in late December that Ukraine had captured several seriously wounded North Korean soldiers who later died.
He said Saturday that it was difficult to capture North Koreans fighting because “Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything to prevent evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against Ukraine.”
He said he would provide media access to the prisoners of war because “the world needs to know what is happening.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X that the “first North Korean prisoners of war are now in Kyiv,” calling them “regular DPRK troops, not mercenaries.”
“We need maximum pressure against regimes in Moscow and Pyongyang,” he wrote.
The men do not speak Russian or Ukrainian and communication is through Korean interpreters, the SBU said, adding that this was “in cooperation” with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
The SBU video does not show the men speaking Korean. AFP reporters in Seoul have contacted the NIS for comment.
The SBU said the men’s capture provided “indisputable evidence of the DPRK’s participation in Russia’s war against our country.”
It showed a Russian army ID card issued to a 26-year-old man from Russia’s Tyva region bordering Mongolia.
The SBU said that one POW carried this military ID card “issued in the name of another person” while the other had no documents at all.
Some reports have said Russia is hiding North Korean fighters by giving them fake IDs.
The SBU said the man with the Tyvan ID had told them he was given it in Russia in autumn 2024 when some North Korean combat units had “one-week interoperability training” with Russian units.
The man said he believed he was “going for training, not to fight a war against Ukraine,” the SBU said.
The man said he was a rifleman born in 2005 and had been in the North Korean army since 2021.
The other man wrote answers because of an injured jaw, saying he was born in 1999, joined the army in 2016 and was a scout sniper, the SBU said.
The SBU said the men were captured separately — one on Thursday — by special forces and paratroopers.
They are being provided with medical care and “held in appropriate conditions that meet the requirements of international law,” the SBU said.
Russia’s army said Saturday that it had gained territory in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region northwest of the logistics hub of Kurakhove, which it claimed to have captured Monday.
The defense ministry said troops had “liberated” Shevchenko, a rural settlement about 10 kilometers (six miles) northwest of Kurakhove.
Shevchenko, a large village, is located west of the reservoir near Kurakhove and “is necessary to take under control, to protect the town from shelling,” the RIA Novosti state news agency reported.
“Now Russian troops can move further toward the western border of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” it said.
Russia claims to have annexed the Donetsk region, which it refers to as the Donetsk People’s Republic, though it does not control the whole region.
Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of Kurakhove, which had around 18,000 inhabitants before Russia launched its 2022 offensive.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Saturday that troops had stopped Russia’s offensive actions in the area, including around Kurakhove.
Russia is also moving close to taking the vital frontline city of Pokrovsk north of Kurakhove.
Donetsk’s regional governor Vadym Filashkin said Saturday that one person had been killed and another wounded in Pokrovsk over the last day.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian drone attacked a car in a village near the front line, killing a 47-year-old woman on the spot, its governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.


Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030

Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030
Updated 11 January 2025
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Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030

Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030
  • Indian Ministry of Education-sponsored program will take place at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Jan. 20-25
  • Key speaker will be Prof. Joseph Albert Kechichian from King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies

NEW DELHI: One of India’s most prestigious educational institutions will host a special course this month about Saudi Arabia’s transformation programs and Vision 2030, as relations between the countries deepen.

The five-day course is organized by Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in cooperation with the Ministry of Education under the Indian government’s Global Initiative of Academic Networks program to encourage exchanges with the world’s top faculty members and scientists.

Scheduled to start on Jan. 20, the course will be led by Prof. Joseph Albert Kechichian, senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, who specializes in West Asian politics and foreign policy, especially of the Gulf region.

About 70 participants, including scholars, professionals and young researchers are expected to attend the sessions, said Prof. Sameena Hameed form the JNU’s Centre for West Asian Studies, who coordinates the course.

“It’s a Ministry of Education program, it’s a highly prestigious ... Saudi Arabia is one of our key partners in the Gulf region, where India has key energy trade investment and remittance interest,” she told Arab News.

“We have about 2 million Indians working there. India and Saudi Arabia are looking at each other with keen interest: How to harness this partnership for mutual development, for trade investment and other educational engagements.”

Saudi-Indian ties have steadily gained prominence over the past three decades, and reached a new level of engagement in 2019, following Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to New Delhi and the establishment of the Strategic Partnership Council.

This foundation set the stage for further collaboration, which gained momentum when Saudi Arabia presided over the Group of 20 largest economies in 2020, followed by India’s presidency of the bloc in 2023. The evolving relationship has not only deepened strategic ties but also fostered cooperation in trade, security, new technologies and regional stability.

The upcoming course at JNU aims to equip the participants with knowledge about key transformation programs underway in the Kingdom under its Vision 2030, and to understand its position at the local, regional and global levels.

“The rapid transformation the Kingdom has gone through under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is important and needs greater academic discussions and understanding,” said Md. Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies.

“Vision 2030 promises not only to transform the Kingdom but also set the benchmark for developing societies that are working towards sustainable development with care for people, peace, prosperity and environment. India, in particular, is interested in a peaceful and stable West Asia given its deep and historic relations with the region and its strategic interests in the stability of the region. With Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia is set to take a leap forward in its developmental goals, and India views it as significant in ensuring a stable West Asia.”


British Muslims plan MCB alternatives to represent communities

British Muslims plan MCB alternatives to represent communities
Updated 11 January 2025
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British Muslims plan MCB alternatives to represent communities

British Muslims plan MCB alternatives to represent communities
  • New bodies to provide civil, political support to Muslims in UK
  • Successive governments have refused to fully engage with established Muslim bodies

LONDON: A number of British imams are in the process of establishing new organizations to represent the UK’s Muslim communities, The Times reported on Saturday.

A series of governments have refused to engage with established Muslim bodies, including the Muslim Council of Britain, creating a “vacuum” between politicians and British Muslims, according to community leaders.

Other groups — such as the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, the British Board of Imams and Scholars, and Tell Mama, an organization monitoring Islamophobia — are deemed too small to effectively lobby for or represent the UK’s 3.8 million Muslims.

The MCB represents around 500 mosques, schools and charities in the UK on social issues, but does not issue religious declarations.

The Labour government under Tony Blair had ties with it, but saw those severed in 2009 under Gordon Brown after the MCB’s then-deputy leader signed a declaration that was viewed as a call for violence against the Royal Navy and Israel.

The current Labour government talks to various Muslim groups on an “ad hoc” basis, said Qari Asim, senior imam at the Makkah Mosque in Leeds.

A source told The Times that rather than “simply a new entity to replace the MCB,” a “series of new initiatives” would be established “focused on increasing connection between British Muslims and the British government and trying to better represent and engage British Muslims.”

Another source told the newspaper: “It is a group of people from broad civil society who happen to be Muslim, from lawyers to doctors to economists to accountants.

“It’s a huge community (but) there is a lack of serious engagement (from government) and a whole load of expertise and experience not being tapped into by policymakers and others.”

Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, professor in the sociology of Islam at Coventry University, told The Times that the government is “missing a trick” by not engaging with the MCB, warning that there is “a lot of suspicion within Muslim communities of new initiatives.”


UK must weigh repatriating Daesh members in Syria, terror adviser says

UK must weigh repatriating Daesh members in Syria, terror adviser says
Updated 11 January 2025
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UK must weigh repatriating Daesh members in Syria, terror adviser says

UK must weigh repatriating Daesh members in Syria, terror adviser says
  • Jonathan Hall KC: ‘It wouldn’t prevent them from potentially being prosecuted for what they’ve done’
  • Trump’s counterterrorism adviser has also urged Britain to take back citizens who joined Daesh

LONDON: The UK must consider repatriating British members of Daesh held in Syrian detention camps, the government’s independent terrorism adviser has said.

“Repatriation would not be moral absolution. If someone came back it wouldn’t prevent them from potentially being prosecuted for what they’ve done,” Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC.

The incoming Trump administration’s counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka has also urged the UK to follow the US lead and take back its citizens who joined Daesh.

“Any nation which wishes to be seen to be a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment,” Gorka said.

“That is doubly so for the UK which has a very special place in President (Donald) Trump’s heart, and we would all wish to see the ‘special relationship’ fully re-established.”

One high-profile Briton who traveled to Syria to support Daesh is Shamima Begum, who left London as a teenager in 2015.

Her citizenship was stripped in 2019. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said Begum “will not be coming back to the UK.”

Hall said: “It could be quite a pragmatic decision in the overall interests of national security to bring someone back.

“There is obviously some national security benefit of leaving people there because you don’t have to monitor them.

“On the other hand, there haven’t yet been any attacks in Europe by anyone who has been repatriated in this way and if they are left there ... and then they escape, they would be much more dangerous, actually, to the UK.”

The US and some European countries have repatriated their citizens from Syrian camps. Many have been put on trial and imprisoned.

Lammy said Begum’s case has been reviewed in court and the 25-year-old is “not a UK national.”

Many of the detainees are “dangerous, are radicals,” he told the “Good Morning Britain” show on Thursday.

Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has also said Begum should not be allowed to return to the UK.

“Citizenship means committing to a country and wanting its success. It’s not an international travel document for crime tourism,” Badenoch said.