Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Sources: Nigerian airstrike kills 37 mourners in Niger
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Official: ISIS burned up to 40 people alive in Iraq
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Long march: Shikarpur families wait for govt to hear them
KARACHI:
The last time Arfa saw her uncle was when he was on his way to work. He had some documents in his hands and had just stopped at the Karbala Maula Imambargah to offer his prayers.
She never saw him again. Her uncle, Syed Ghulam Mustafa, was one of the 62 men who died in a powerful blast that ripped through the imambargah’s prayer hall on January 30.
Arfa and her family had joined other families of the victims of the blast in a protest at Numaish Chowrangi on Wednesday. A total of 2,000 men, women and children along with the Wurasa Shuhada Committee of Shikarpur had marched from Shikarpur to hold a sit-in in the city. They demanded that an army operation should be carried out in Shikarpur to weed out the militants. They added that if their demands were not met, they will march up to the house of the chief minister (CM) of Sindh.
The committee, which is headed by Allama Maqsood Dhomki met with a Pakistan Peoples Party delegation from CM House and presented them with a list of 25 demands.
Sindh Information and Local Bodies Minister Sharjeel Memon termed the negotiations successful till the filing of this report. The committee, however, has not made an announcement as yet about whether they plan to continue with the sit-in or not.
Sources claim that their top demand was for a military operation like Zarb-e-Azb in Shikarpur.
They demanded the arrest and execution of those responsible for the blast along with a search operation of madrassas in the area. The protesters also demanded government jobs for the victims’ families, a ban on religious outfits, medical facilities for the injured, proper security at imambargahs and Shia institutions along with installation of CCTV cameras.
“A search operation must be carried out in madarssas in Shikarpur,” said Shamshad, who lost two nephews, a cousin and a neighbour, in the blast. “The army needs to step in now.”
While talking to The Express Tribune, Arfa said that when the blast happened, their house shook and thick black smoke made it difficult to see anything. She remembers running outside with the rest of the women in her house to see if their men were alive.
“We have spent our childhood here,” she said. “Shikarpur used to be so lively. Now it’s just grim.”
The protesters were being led by the committee but are also being supported by the Majlis-e-Wahadat-e-Muslimeen (MWM).
According to MWM’s Amin Shaheedi, these protests were being organised to wake the government up from its sleep and do something for the people. “Why can’t CM Qaim Ali Shah ban all groups involved in sectarian violence?” he asked. “Why is the Punjab government supporting them? Why has no operation been carried out against them in Balochistan?”
Men and women sat with solemn faces, listening to the cleric’s speeches and shouting slogans with them.
The protesters arrived in Karachi on Tuesday night after leaving Shikarpur on Sunday afternoon. During their journey, they made stops in Sukkur, Bhit Shah and Hyderabad.
After visiting the Wadi-e-Hussain graveyard, they settled at Numaish Chowrangi, where camps for food, telephone and medicine were also set up. Protesters said that 95 vehicles had escorted them
to Karachi.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2015.
Police officer pleads not guilty
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Bin Laden told of al Qaeda suspect’s plot in ‘chilling’ letter: US
NEW YORK: A US prosecutor told jurors at the terrorism trial of accused al Qaeda operative Abid Naseer that his plan to bomb a shopping center in England in 2009 was described in a “chilling” letter recovered during the military raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
In an opening statement at trial in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, prosecutor Celia Cohen said the letter from al Qaeda’s head of Western operations updated bin Laden on plans by Naseer and others to carry out attacks in New York, Copenhagen and Manchester, England.
“You will see that chilling reminder in the letter to Osama bin Laden that al Qaeda’s goal was to attack infidels in their home territories,” Cohen said.
Jurors were not told that the letter came from the May 2011 raid in Abbotabad, Pakistan that killed bin Laden. But before the trial, Cohen said it was recovered in that operation.
Naseer, who was extradited from Britain in 2013, is representing himself at trial. With Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney for Brooklyn who is President Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general looking on, Naseer proclaimed his innocence.
“The evidence will not show the defendant was a member of al Qaeda,” Naseer said.
Naseer, 28, faces up to life in prison if convicted of providing and conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.
The trial would be the first in the United States to feature evidence from the raid on bin Laden’s hideout. The raid ended a nearly 10-year hunt following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States using hijacked jetliners.
Prosecutors say Naseer was leader of an al Qaeda cell plotting an attack on Manchester and that another cell conspired to bomb the New York City subway system, while a third planned to attack a Copenhagen newspaper that had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Two men, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the New York plot. A third, Adis Medunjanin, was convicted at trial and sentenced in 2012 to life in prison. Zazi was the first witness called Tuesday.
Cohen said Naseer like Zazi coordinated his plans through a Pakistan-based al Qaeda facilitator, “Sohaib,” using email addresses intended to disguise his identity and describing the attack as a “wedding” or “marriage.”
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Five reasons why you should eat with your hands
Numerous Pakistanis eat with their hands. However, as we adopt more traditions of the western world, it is common to see people using spoons and forks to eat all the time. A lot of people, though, do not know that eating with the hands has a number of surprising health benefits. As compiled by theprimalist.com, Daily Mail and usnews.com, discover the reasons why you should ditch cutlery today.
Helps prevent type 2 diabetes
A new study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition found that people with type 2 diabetes were more likely to be fast eaters that used cutlery to eat, as compared to people without the condition. Eating with forks and spoons correlates with faster eating, which has been linked to blood-sugar imbalances in the body — contributing to the development of type 2 diabetes. If you suspect that you may be eating too quickly, ditch utensils and focus on your eating style — consciously slow it down and see how you feel. You may be surprised by how soon you get full with less food if you eat with your hands.
Improved digestion
We have some bacteria, known as normal flora, found on the palm and fingers of the hand. It is not harmful to humans, it in fact protects us from many damaging microbes in the environment. When you eat with your hands, the flora in the fingers is swallowed. It is beneficial for health and for various body parts such as the mouth, throat, and intestine, and it promotes healthy digestion in the gut. Handling food with your fingers releases digestive juices and enzymes. Also, millions of nerve endings in your fingers relay the message that you’re about to eat, including the temperature of the food, level of spiciness and texture of food, thereby prepping the stomach for digestion.
Useful tool in preventing binge eating
Binge eating is becoming a concern with more adults, but it can also occur in childhood. Binge eating seems to be related to the vicious cycle of restrictive dieting followed by a loss of control around food, and it contributes to further health problems. A study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology showed that families who ate by hand were more in touch with eating concepts, such as eating only when hungry and paying attention to fullness cues. The study found that parents were able to help their 8 to 12-year-old overweight children cut down on binge eating episodes by training them to eat by hand.
It can help decrease overeating at restaurants
People worldwide spend about 40% of their food budget on dining out. These meals tend to be higher in overall calories, raising concern that this practice is increasing our national waistline. While many health professionals advise people to try and cook more at home, one study showed that watchful eating at restaurants might help. The researchers found that middle-aged women who ate out and used their hands to pick on appetizers and dry food entrées at least three times a week were heedful while eating. This approach helped them reduce acid influx issues while still enjoying restaurant meals minus the feeling of heaviness.
Sure-fire way to stay lean.
Researchers studied over 1,600 middle-aged women in New Zealand found that those women who ate in response to hunger were more likely to be at a healthy weight than women who paid no mind to hunger cues when they ate. Many people multi-task while eating lunch, but two studies published in the journal Appetite found that when people ate by hand while simultaneously reading a newspaper or watching TV, they were less hungry at snack-time, and opted for a smaller snack. Researchers concluded that eating by hand promotes a sense of fullness and satiety as compared to eating with utensils.
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