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Priti Patel signs deal to send 'foreign criminals and immigration offenders' back to Pakistan

• Home Secretary Priti Patel has signed a deal with Pakistan on returning criminals
• Ms Patel hailed the reciprocal agreement for helping to stop abuse of the system
• Government has struck similar pacts with Albania, India, Serbia and Nigeria 

Priti Patel today hailed a deal to send 'foreign criminals and immigration offenders' back to Pakistan from the UK.

The Home Secretary formally signed the reciprocal agreement with counterpart Yousaf Naseem Khokhar.

Both countries have committed to accepting the return of citizens who violate laws in the others' territory. 

It is the fifth such pact struck by the UK government over the past 15 months, following understandings with Albania, India, Serbia and Nigeria.

Ms Patel said she was acting because the public have had 'enough of people abusing our laws'.

'I make no apology for removing dangerous foreign criminals and immigration offenders who have no right to remain in the UK,' she said.

'The British public have quite rightly had enough of people abusing our laws and gaming the system so we can't remove them.

'This agreement, which I am proud to have signed with our Pakistani friends, shows the New Plan for Immigration in action and the Government delivering.

'Our new Borders Act will go further and help end the cycle of last-minute claims and appeals that can delay removals.'

Official data show Pakistan has the seventh largest number of foreign criminals in English and Welsh prisons, totalling nearly 3 per cent of the foreign offender population.

Between January 2019 and December 2021, the UK deported 10,741 foreign offenders.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11120505/Priti-Patel-signs-deal-return-foreign-criminals-immigration-offenders-Pakistan.html

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Mob storms Pakistan police station and lynches man accused of blasphemy

Killing is latest in string of mob attacks against people accused of blasphemy in Muslim-majority country

 

The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned the incident and ordered an investigation. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

 

Haroon Janjua in Islamabad

@JanjuaHaroon

Sun 12 Feb 2023 08.38 GMT

 

A mob in eastern Pakistan stormed a police station on Saturday, snatched a Muslim man accused of blasphemy from custody and lynched him, in the country’s latest religion-linked killing.

Muhammad Waris, in his mid-30s, was in police custody in Nankana Sahib, in Punjab province, for desecrating pages of the Qur’an.

 

“The angry mob stormed the police station using a wooden ladder, dragged him out and beat him to death,” Waqas Khalid, a police spokesperson, told the Guardian. “After lynching, they were still not satisfied and tried to burn his body,” he added.

 

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There have been a number of cases in Muslim-majority Pakistan of angry mob killings of people accused of blasphemy, the most high-profile among them the lynching of a Sri Lankan citizen in 2021.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, where even false allegations can stir violence. Under Pakistani law, charges of blasphemy carry the death penalty.

Video of the incident posted on social media showed hundreds of young people surrounding a police station. There was footage of people dragging a man by his legs in the street, stripping him naked and beating him with metal rods and sticks.

The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned the incident and ordered an investigation. “Why didn’t the police stop the violent mob? The rule of law should be ensured,” he said.

International and Pakistani rights groups say blasphemy accusations are mostly used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal vendettas.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a non-governmental rights group, raised concerns. “HRCP is deeply shocked by the brutal lynching of a man by a charged mob in Nankana Sahib, after allegations of blasphemy. This is yet another failure of the state to prevent mob ‘justice’. Lip service and weak measures against law enforcers give the state the appearance of a helpless observer, not a protector of the citizens lives and property.”

Last week, HRCP released a report titled A Breach of Faith: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2021-22, showing alarm over rising blasphemy issues.

“The threshold of evidence regarding blasphemy accusations must be raised in the country. It must be ensured that the laws in question are not weaponised by people to settle personal vendettas, as is so often the case,” the group said.

The report said at least 585 cases of blasphemy were registered by the police across Pakistan, most of them in Punjab province.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/12/mob-storms-pakistan-police-station-and-lynches-man-accused-of-blasphemy

 

[Premi5]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64620064.amp

US military unsure how shot-down objects were aloft

• By Gareth Evans
• in Washington

12 February 2023

Updated 6 minutes ago

IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES

 

Image caption, 

A US fighter jet shot down the object over the shores of Michigan on Sunday (file image)

US military officials say they are unsure how three unidentified flying objects shot out of the skies of North America had been able to stay aloft. 

President Joe Biden ordered another object - the fourth in total this month - to be downed on Sunday.

As it was traveling at 20,000ft (6,100m), it could have interfered with commercial air traffic, the US said.

A military commander said it could be a "gaseous type of balloon" or "some type of a propulsion system".

He added he could not rule out that the objects were extra-terrestrials.

The latest object - shot down near the Canadian border - has been described by defence officials as an unmanned "octagonal structure" with strings attached to it.

It was downed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT).

The incident raises further questions about the spate of high-altitude objects that have been shot down over North America this month. 

US Northern Command Commander General Glen VanHerck said that there was no indication of any threat.

"I'm not going to categorize them as balloons. We're calling them objects for a reason," he said. 

"What we are seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section," he added.

Speculation as to what the objects may be has intensified in recent days.

"I will let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out," Gen VanHerck said when asked if it was possible the objects are aliens or extra-terrestrials.

"I haven't ruled out anything at this point."

A suspected Chinese spy balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February after hovering for days over the US. Officials said it originated in China and had been used to monitor sensitive sites.

China denied the object was used for spying and said it was a weather monitoring device that had blown astray. The incident - and the angry exchanges in its aftermath - ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.

[dallysingh101]

9 hours ago, Premi5 said:

A military commander said it could be a "gaseous type of balloon" or "some type of a propulsion system".

He added he could not rule out that the objects were extra-terrestrials.

Crazy........

[Premi5]

23 hours ago, Premi5 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64620064.amp

US military unsure how shot-down objects were aloft

• By Gareth Evans
• in Washington

12 February 2023

Updated 6 minutes ago

IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES

 

Image caption, 

A US fighter jet shot down the object over the shores of Michigan on Sunday (file image)

US military officials say they are unsure how three unidentified flying objects shot out of the skies of North America had been able to stay aloft. 

President Joe Biden ordered another object - the fourth in total this month - to be downed on Sunday.

As it was traveling at 20,000ft (6,100m), it could have interfered with commercial air traffic, the US said.

A military commander said it could be a "gaseous type of balloon" or "some type of a propulsion system".

He added he could not rule out that the objects were extra-terrestrials.

The latest object - shot down near the Canadian border - has been described by defence officials as an unmanned "octagonal structure" with strings attached to it.

It was downed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT).

The incident raises further questions about the spate of high-altitude objects that have been shot down over North America this month. 

US Northern Command