An intense cyclone smashed into the low-lying coast of Bangladesh on Sunday, with nearly a million people fleeing inland for concrete storm shelters away from howling gales and crashing waves.
“The severe Cyclone Remal has started crossing the Bangladesh coast,” Bangladesh Meteorological Department Director Azizur Rahman told AFP, adding the raging storm could continue hammering the coast until at least the early hours of Monday morning.
“We have so far recorded maximum wind speeds of 90 kilometres per hour, but the wind speed may pick up more pace.” Forecasters predicted gusts of up to 130km/h, with heavy rain and winds also lashing neighbouring India.
Authorities have raised the danger signal to its highest level.
Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades, but the number of superstorms hitting its densely populated coast has increased sharply, from one a year to as many as three, due to the impact of climate change.
“The cyclone could unleash a storm surge of up to four metres above normal astronomical tide, which can be dangerous,” Bangladeshi senior weather official Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told AFP.
Most of Bangladesh’s coastal areas are a metre or two above sea level and high storm surges can devastate villages.
“We are terrified,” said 35-year-old fisherman Yusuf Fakir at Kuakata, a town on the very southern tip of Bangladesh along the predicted route of the storm, speaking just before its arrival. While he had sent his wife and children to a relative’s home inland, he stayed put to guard their belongings.
At least 800,000 Bangladeshis fled their coastal villages, while more than 50,000 people in India also moved inland from the vast Sundarbans mangrove forest, where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet the sea, government ministers and disaster officials said.
“We want to ensure that a single life is not lost,” said Bankim Chandra Hazra, a senior minister in India’s West Bengal state.
As people fled, Bangladeshi police said that a heavily laden ferry carrying more than 50 passengers — double its capacity — was swamped and sank near Mongla, a port in the expected path of the storm.
“At least 13 people were injured and were taken to a hospital,” local police chief Mushfiqur Rahman Tushar told AFP, adding that other boats plucked the passengers to safety.
A young man drowned in rough seas at Kuakata on Sunday afternoon, district government administrator Nur Kutubul Alam told AFP.
Bangladesh’s disaster management secretary Kamrul Hasan said people had been ordered to move from “unsafe and vulnerable” homes. “At least 800,000 people have been shifted to cyclone shelters,” Hasan said.
The authorities have mobilised tens of thousands of volunteers to alert people to the danger but local officials said many people stayed home as they feared their property would be stolen if they left.
He said around 4,000 cyclone shelters have been readied along the country’s lengthy coast on the Bay of Bengal.
In addition to the villagers and fishermen, many of the multi-storey centres have space to shelter cattle, buffaloes, goats and pets.
On the low-lying island of Bhashan Char, home to 36,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, 57 cyclone centres were opened, deputy refugee commissioner Mohammad Rafiqul Haque told AFP.
The country’s three seaports and the airport in the second-largest city Chittagong were closed, officials said.
India’s Kolkata airport closed Sunday, while the Indian navy readied two ships with aid and medical supplies for “immediate deployment”.
While scientists say climate change is fuelling more storms, better forecasting and more effective evacuation planning have dramatically reduced the death toll. In the Great Bhola Cyclone in November 1970, an estimated half a million people died — mostly drowned by the storm surge.
In May last year, Cyclone Mocha became the most powerful storm to hit Bangladesh since Cyclone Sidr in November 2007. Sidr killed more than 3,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Last October, at least two people were killed and nearly 300,000 fled their homes for storm shelters when Cyclone Hamoon hit the country’s southeastern coast.
Jofra Archer claimed two wickets on his long-awaited return to international cricket to help England beat Pakistan by 23 runs at Edgbaston to move 1-0 up in the four-match T20 series.
England captain Jos Buttler smashed 84 off 51 balls to set the hosts a target of 184.
The tourists were bowled out with four balls to spare as Archer did his case for selection in next month’s T20 World Cup in the United States and West Indies no harm.
The fast bowler has been beset by elbow injuries since his starring role in helping England win the 50-over World Cup in 2019.
On his first international appearance for 14 months, and first on home soil since 2020, Archer bounced back from an expensive first over, which went for 15 runs, to finish with two for 28.
Muhammad Rizwan was removed in the first over by Moeen Ali and Reece Topley took three wickets for 41.
Buttler was the star of the England batting with three sixes and eight fours. He was ably supported by 37 from Will Jacks and Jonny Bairstow’s 21 but England failed to build on the platform given to them by their skipper.
Five wickets fell for just 25 runs as Pakistan battled back with Shaheen Shah Afridi the pick of the bowlers, taking 3-36.
England lead the four-match series 1-0 after the first match was washed out on Wednesday.
This article is about the commission chaired by the Hamoodur Rahman. For other uses, see Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report.
Pakistan in Asia: Pakistan's historical map before or prior to 1971. 1. West Pakistan 2. East Pakistan
The Hamoodur Rahman Commission (otherwise known as War Enquiry Commission), was a judicial inquiry commission that assessed Pakistan's political–military involvement in East-Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 The commission was set up on 26 December 1971[1] by the government of Pakistan and chaired under Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman.
Constituted "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the atrocities and 1971 war", including the "circumstances in which the Commander of the Eastern Military Command, surrendered the Eastern contingent forces under his command laid down their arms.
The commission's final report was very lengthy and provided an analysis based on extensive interviews and testimonies. Its primary conclusion was very critical of the role of Pakistan's military interference, the misconduct of politicians as well as the intelligence failures of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which permitted the infiltration of Indian agents all along the borders of East Pakistan.
Originally, there were 12 copies of the report. These were all destroyed; except the one that was handed over to Government who disallowed its publication at the time. In 2000, parts of the commission report were leaked to Indian and Pakistani newspapers.
The full report was thought to be declassified by the government in 2000, along with other reports concerning the year 1971. However, it was reported that the supplementary report based on testimonies of prisoners of war (POWs) was published, and the key portion of the report concerning the political and military issues remained classified and marked as "Top secret.
Arsenal kept their Premier League title dreams alive by ending an Old Trafford hoodoo to grind out a 1-0 win at Manchester United on Sunday to move back top of the table.
Leandro Trossard scored the only goal in 20 minutes as Arsenal won for just the second time in 17 games away at United to go a point clear at the summit.
Manchester City still have the destiny of the title in their own hands as the defending champions have two matches left to Arsenal’s one.
However, the Gunners kept the pressure on Pep Guardiola’s men ahead of their tricky trip to Tottenham on Tuesday.
Defeat further dented United’s chances of competing in Europe next season.
Erik ten Hag’s men showed more spirit than in a dismal 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday, but have now won just one of their last eight Premier League games.
United remain eighth in the table, three points adrift of both Newcastle, who they face on Wednesday, and Chelsea.
Arsenal have been in scintillating form in 2024 to remain in the race for their first league title in 20 years.
Mikel Arteta’s men have won 15 and drawn one of their 17 league games since the turn of the year.
But Arsenal were far from their flowing best as the expected onslaught of an injury-ravaged United never materialised under unusually stifling heat in England’s north-west.
The manner of defeat at Palace had increased the scrutiny on United boss Ten Hag.
He made three changes to the team swept aside at Selhurst Park as Scott McTominay, Sofyan Amrabat and Amad Diallo came in.
The Dutchman’s options were again hamstrung by a lengthy list of absentees with captain Bruno Fernandes among those sidelined and a bench littered with youngsters.
But his decision to retain Casemiro as a makeshift centre-back after his woeful showing against Palace will become another stick to beat the beleaguered coach with.
The Brazil captain was dropped from their squad for the Copa America in midweek due to his terrible form.
After United had managed to keep the free-scoring visitors at bay for the opening 20 minutes, Casemiro was culpable for the opening goal.
The 32-year-old was laboured in pushing up from a United goal-kick to play Kai Havertz onside and Trossard then stole in on the blind side of Casemiro to tap in the German’s cross.
United’s new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe was in attendance at Old Trafford rather than at Wembley to see the club’s women pick up their first-ever major trophy in the FA Cup final.
The work that lies ahead of Ratcliffe has been laid bare in recent weeks, but the home side did manage to keep the majority of the 74,000 crowd onside by taking the game to Arsenal after the break.
Arsenal, though, were rarely seriously troubled as they held out for a sixth clean sheet in their last seven away league games.
Alejandro Garnacho was United’s one live wire but smashed into the side-netting with his best chance to equalise.
Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice were denied by brilliant Andre Onana saves to prevent Arsenal the second goal they craved to avoid a tense finale.
The visitors’ desperation to see the game out was evident as Martinelli took the ball to the corner with 10 minutes of the 90 still to play.
But Arsenal did just enough to ask the question of City, who host West Ham on the final day of the season after they visit north London in midweek.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday rubbished the notion that a proposed extension in the retirement age was to favour “one particular institution”, adding that the move would be implemented across the board if approved.
The rebuttal comes in the wake of media reports claiming that the government was mulling changes to the Constitution to fix the tenure of the chief justice. Currently, judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, retire after attaining the age of superannuation, i.e. 65 years, as stipulated in Article 179 of the Constitution.
While giving his opinion recently on the reports of the constitutional amendment, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar had said he “will not vehemently turn down the proposals related to the tenure of the chief justice”.
Addressing the issue during a press conference in Islamabad today along since Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and the law minister, Attaullah said the extension in the retirement age was “a proposal to apply to all institutions [and not] as per speculation in the media since the past few weeks that it is being associated with one particular institution”.
The information minister said that life expectancy had increased worldwide and various countries had increased the retirement age. He explained that pensions were a huge burden and expense on the government.
He said the proposed extension would apply across the board in all institutions and departments whenever it was approved. “Currently proposals have been requested on the issue and it is being deliberated,” he added.
Aurangzeb also said that pension payments were a huge burden on the economy which needed to be restructured and proposed that the retirement age should be increased to 65 years.
The law minister also said that the pension reforms would be across the board and there was no clarity as of yet on how much the retirement age should be increased by.
However, he said a principled decision was made to curb the pension burden on the government to allow “breathing space”. Azam added that the move would apply to all institutions, civil servants, armed forces, judicial organs and executive organs.
He said a committee was set up by the prime minister to discuss the measure.
The PTI has said it will oppose any amendment to the Constitution that would modify the tenure of judges, calling such changes “person-specific” to benefit the incumbent chief justice.
This was not the first time that reports about changes in the duration of superior courts judges started making rounds. There have been attempts in the past to amend the Constitution for this purpose.
On October 1, 2019, when PTI was in power, its two lawmakers — Fakhar Imam and Amjad Khan Niazi — moved a private bill in the National Assembly to raise the retirement age of apex court judges to 68 years.
At that time, Asif Saeed Khosa was the chief justice.
However, the swirling speculation died down when Khosa retired after attaining the age of superannuation in December and was succeeded by Gulzar Ahmed as the country’s top adjudicator.
Any change to the tenure of Supreme Court judges will require a constitutional amendment, for which the votes of two-thirds of the members are needed in both the Senate and the NA.
It means that in the 336-member NA, the votes of 224 members would be needed to pass the amendment. The current coalition has two-thirds majority in the lower house, as per the information available on the National Assembly website.
The two-thirds strength in the 96-member Senate comes to 64.
After the April 2 elections, the ruling coalition controls 59 seats in the house.
Islamabad High Court Justice Babar Sattar has issued contempt notices to the director generals (DG) of the Federal Investigation Agency and Intelligence Bureau, and members and chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for filing “collusive applications” seeking his recusal from a case pertaining to audio leaks.
The development came as the court heard a case in connection with the petitions filed last year by ex-premier Imran Khan’s spouse Bushra Bibi and Najam Saqib, son of former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar, against alleged audio leaks.
Last week, Pemra had requested Justice Sattar to recuse himself from hearing the case, contending that another bench that had already dealt with an identical matter may proceed on the petitions in hand. Similar petitions had also been filed by the FIA, the PTA and the IB.
In the hearing on April 29, Justice Sattar had imposed fines worth Rs500,000 each on the FIA, PTA and Pemra while dismissing their pleas seeking his recusal. He had also hinted at initiating contempt proceedings against the bodies.
A day ago, he dismissed a plea filed by the IB in which it sought to withdraw its petition seeking the judge’s recusal.
The detailed court verdict of the April 29 hearing, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was issued today and said: “Let a notice also be issued to FIA DG and IB DG to satisfy the court as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for filing collusive applications to embarrass the proceedings of the court and to interfere with and abuse the process of the court and divert the course of justice within the meaning of Article 204 of the Constitution.
“Let notices also be issued to PTA chairman and members who have authorised filing of recusal application on behalf of PTA to satisfy the court as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for filing collusive applications to embarrass the proceedings of the court and to interfere with and abuse the process of the court and divert the course of justice within the meaning of Article 204 of the Constitution.”
The order said there was a “growing abhorrent practice” of using recusal requests accompanied by efforts to “scandalise the court and intimidate the judge into disqualifying himself/herself from hearing a matter, in which a party to the proceedings suspects that the outcome might not be to its liking”.
It added that in such a situation, the recusal request was “used as a device to delay adjudication of the matter and force reconstitution of the bench hearing the matter”, along with being “used to abuse, interfere with and obstruct the process of the court”.
The order further continued: “This court finds that the applications suffer from mala fide in law and are part of an intimidatory design to seek the recusal of the presiding judge from hearing the instant matter without any legitimate cause.
“The court is also of the view that the applications filed by FIA, IB, PTA and Pemra are part of a collusive scheme to embarrass the proceedings of this court and to bring pressure to bear upon the presiding judge to disqualify himself from hearing the instant matters. A perusal of the orders passed in the instant matters and the arguments made on behalf of the federal government as well as the agencies of the federal government, manifest dogged resistance to engaging with the subject-matter and addressing the questions of the court in a candid and truthful manner.”
It added that the IHC had “continued to afford opportunities” to the respondents to address the issues of illegal surveillance of citizens, phone tapping, unlawful recording of phone calls and unlawful release of recorded conversations violating the privacy of citizens “with some seriousness”.
However, it said that the facts brought before the court reflected “incompetence on part of the federal government and its agencies and instrumentalities and a lack of desire to protect the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution”.
Justice Sattar that the basis given for seeking his recusal — his role in the letter by six IHC judges alleging judicial interference by the intelligence apparatus — was “misconceived”.
He explained that the letter’s content “provides no basis” to any of the respondents to seek his recusal from hearing a case involving the federal government or any entity falling within its control, including investigation and intelligence agencies.
Thus, Justice Sattar said the recusal applications were “mala fide and frivolous, and, prima facie, part of a collusive scheme to intimidate the presiding judge into disqualifying himself from hearing the instant matters” and thus stood dismissed.
He also ordered the FIA and IB to file reports explaining the legal framework within which they exercised authority and identifying the relevant officials who were authorised to make representations on their behalf along with an affidavit filed by their DGs stating “who in fact authorised the filing of the instant applications” since the additional attorney general and institution representatives had failed to satisfy the court that the pleas were duly authorised.
The judge set the next hearing for May 29.
In May last year, Najam had filed a petition against an inquiry of a parliamentary committee on his alleged audio in which he purportedly sought a bribe.
Justice Sattar had asked the intelligence agencies and PTA to trace the source of the audio leak while Pemra was told not to broadcast the unauthorised and leaked conversation of citizens.
In September, Bushra Bibi had challenged an FIA inquiry based on her alleged conversation with Zulfi Bukhari, a former aide to then-PM Imran, for selling Toshakhana gifts. Subsequently, the IHC had clubbed Bushra Bibi’s and Saqib’s petitions.
Responding to the IHC, the defence ministry had denied any involvement in the recording and leaking of telephone conversations between government officials and other prominent personalities.
The Prime Minister’s Office had also submitted its report on the case, saying that it “does not interfere” with the domain of intelligence agencies, “keeps an arm’s length relationship” and expects them “to work under the Constitution and law of the land in the public interest”.
In a subsequent hearing, the PTA had informed the IHC that it did not have the capacity or capability to identify the person who leaked audio recordings on social media.
In December, Bushra Bibi had filed a separate petition against a leaked audio conversation between her and her lawyer Latif Khosa, who had confirmed the authenticity of the audio. The IHC then sought reports from the Inter-Services Intelligence director general, FIA, Pemra and others on the matter while ordering the PTA to conduct an inquiry.
In the next hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan had informed the IHC that the government had not permitted any intelligence agency to tap audio conversations.
