Besides the brigadier, a former lieutenant general, who held crucial positions like Director General of Military Operations, is serving a 14-year jail sentence.

New Delhi: The Pakistan Army Saturday hanged Brig. Raja Rizwan (retd) after he was convicted of spying for a foreign intelligence agency, social media posts indicated.

“We have received reports about the hanging. Currently, there is no confirmation,” a source in the Indian security establishment told ThePrint.

Pakistani journalists said they were awaiting official word from the ISPR. No Pakistani mainstream media has reported about the hanging.

ThePrint had reported in June that the Brigadier, along with Pakistan’s former Director General of Military Operations, Lieutenant General Javed Iqbal (Retd), were accused of spying for American Intelligence Agency CIA during the infamous Raymond Davis saga in 2011.

Court case led to information getting out

Brig. Rizwan was sentenced to death alongside Wasim Akram, a civilian doctor employed by an army organisation. Lt Gen. Iqbal, meanwhile, was sentenced to 14 years in jail.

ISPR chief Major General Asif Ghafoor had confirmed the arrests of the senior officers in a press conference on 22 February.

At the time, he had said that the two cases were not linked to each other, and there was no network of spies as such, a claim that sources in the Indian establishment said was completely untrue.

The case came to light in October 2018 after the Brigadier’s son Ali Rizwan filed a habeas corpus petition in the Islamabad High Court, saying his father had gone missing on 10 October near a shopping centre in the capital city.

Justice Aamer Farooq, who heard the petition, had sought a report from the authorities, and the Pakistani military was forced to admit that the officers were in their custody.

While Lt Gen. Iqbal retired in 2015, Brig. Rizwan, who was the Pakistani defence attaché in Germany, retired in 2014.

It is believed that both officers were recruited by the CIA earlier in their careers and were used by the Americans to get information on the country’s nuclear programme and the Army’s plans and support to jihadi groups.

Also read: This Pakistani General had seen everything by age of 4. He now wants you to read his doctrine

Tilak Devasher

Tilak Devasher
Member, National Security Advisory Board

The coronavirus pandemic has presented a challenge to the global community like none other for several generations. It will, however, ultimately wane like others before it. Two memories will nevertheless stand out among the host of memories that this disease would have left behind. One is from our northern neighbour from where the entire disruption started, and the other is from our western neighbour, where despite the crisis, it could not resist taking potshots at India.

On March 22, the spokesman for the Communist Party of China tweeted: “If ‘Made in China’ is contagious, then don’t use made in China face masks, don’t use made in China PPE, don’t use made in China ventilators. Only by doing so can you avoid the virus.” Such arrogance reeks of total disdain for the crisis that the world is going through as a result of China’s acts of omission and/or commission (The jury is still out on this).

It also highlights the fact that for too long has the world outsourced manufacturing to China and is now facing the consequences. Many countries, including the US, are dependent on China for basic medical equipment and drugs. Now, when the US needs these vital medicines and equipment, it finds itself at a fatal disadvantage. The New York Times quoted an article by Chinese state news agency Xinhua, saying that if China banned the export of drugs, ‘the United States would sink into the hell of a novel coronavirus epidemic’.

The lesson for the world, therefore, is to reduce the dependence on China, not only for critical drugs and equipment but also for manufacturing and supply chains. It will take time, it will be painful and expensive, but that would be far better than being held hostage to China at crunch times when lives are at stake. This should also be a wake-up call for not involving Chinese companies like Huawei for the impending 5G rollout that could impact the entire critical infrastructure of the country.

The boast of the CCP spokesman about medical equipment has been belied by media reports from Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, the Philippines, the Netherlands and Turkey. These reports indicate that China supplied faulty test kits that only had 30% accuracy, and at least in one case, reused masks.

Finally, China cannot escape the consequences of its disastrous action that allowed the deadly virus to spread globally. While there continues to be a debate on how the virus started in Wuhan, there is no doubt about its spread. Despite knowing about human transmission, China allowed at least 7 million people, including from Wuhan, to travel to all parts of the world. This is criminal and China will have to be held accountable. No amount of bribing the WHO and disinformation would help it escape responsibility.

Our western neighbour Pakistan is in a league by itself. Starting from the first case on February 26, the number of confirmed cases have jumped to over 2,400. At a time when the world was battling the pandemic, the Pakistan representative, during the SAARC video conference, raised the issue of communication restrictions and medical supplies in J&K. Its foreign minister and foreign office have repeated this on several occasions. Pakistan even wrote to the then Security Council president, China, requesting ‘urgent and appropriate consideration of developments in J&K that posed a threat to international peace and security’. The fact that China refused to take notice of the ‘urgent’ request was very disconcerting for Pakistan.

Pakistan needs to look at its own house instead. The cases in so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan have reached almost 200. Ominously, as per media reports, there seems to be a move by the Pakistan army to shift positively tested patients from Punjab to quarantine centres in the region.

Four elements of Pakistan’s response are noteworthy. First, if the virus spreads, its healthcare system may collapse, given the paucity of beds in intensive care wards, ventilators, N95 masks and appalling conditions in quarantine camps like Taftan. A doctor was quoted in the media complaining, ‘We don’t even have anti-rabies vaccines. How can we deal with thousands of people who will come here for coronavirus treatment?’ All this has happened due to poor investment in healthcare by successive governments.

Second, there is a great deal of confusion about who is in charge. While Imran Khan has rejected a lockdown, saying it would ruin the economy, the provinces have gone ahead and done so in varying degrees, especially the PPP-led government in Sindh. Punjab, KPK and Balochistan have followed suit. The army has signalled that it would be working with provincial governments to enforce a lockdown. So who is calling the shots?Third, Imran Khan has been found wanting on all counts. Even in this hour of crisis, he has not been able to show leadership to unify the country and continues to have a belligerent attitude towards the opposition. Thus, after addressing a video conference of parliamentary leaders, he chose to go offline instead of listening to their views. He was not interested in their views on dealing with the crisis.

Fourth, Pakistan seems to believe that it is the last bastion of Islam. Despite other Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran banning all religious gatherings, the federal government has said congregational prayers would be offered in ‘limited numbers’ in mosques. Pakistan is literally standing at the edge of an unknown precipice. It needs to look internally rather than harping about J&K.

Views are personal

Pakistan authorities on Friday ordered Omar Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil convicted of 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief Daniel Pearl to be detained for a period three months despite Sindh High Court’s ruling to overturn their convictions a day before.

Omar was given the death sentence by Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court in 2002 while others were given a jail term of 25 years. The reason cited behind their was that the men may indulge in anti-national activities. Two other involved in the kidnapping, Amjad Hussain Farooqi was shot dead by Pakistan police in 2004 and Mohammad Hasheem Qadir was acquited in 2014.

Who is Omar Saeed Sheikh?

A two-member bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha had earlier found Omar Saeed Sheikh guilty of kidnapping but not of murder and overturned his death sentence to a seven-year jail term saying that he had already spent 18 years in prison.

Omar had also made headlines in 2008 after he called none other than Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari from Hyderabad jail in Pakistan pretending to be Indian foreign minister. Disguised Omar had threatened retaliation in response to an attack by Pakistan based terrorists on India’s financial capital – Mumbai.

The US denounced the decision of overturning the death sentence of British-born top al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh terming the verdict an “affront” to the victims of terrorism everywhere. However, the re-arrest is questionable given that Pakistan is under close scrutiny by anti-terror financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for its inability to prosecute terrorists.

Daniel Pearl was kidnapped from Karachi and was killed in captivity after terrorists brutally decapitated his head and shared the video worldwide prompting outrage from all corners.

However, this is where the plot gets murkier. A report by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found Omar Saeed Sheikh guilty of kidnapping only. Daniel Pearl was investigating the role of the main suspect Richard C Reid in the failed attack on a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001, who was also called as shoe bomber because the accused had placed explosives in his sneakers.

Pearl was lured by Omar who introduced himself as Chaudhary Basheer and promised Pearl of providing access to an Islamic cleric who had ties to Reid. Omar was at the time was associated with Jaish-e-Mohammad a terror outfit.

Pearl is also believed to have discovered a charity link connecting Osama Bin Laden to Pakistan’s intelligence agency which had left the ISI red-faced. Omar is believed to have surrendered on February 5 to an old ISI contact Ijaz Ahmed who is currently the Federal Interior Minister and was later handed to police in February 12 2002.

However, that has not stopped his lawyer from claiming that the alleged delay was because the authorities held Omar in secret and forced his confession after torturing him.

Also, a former CIA captive confessed to the murder of Daniel Pearl which was confirmed by the FBI’s forensic team according to the report by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. However, another CIA officer doubted the finding saying that the captive appeared to be boastful and mentally unstable raising doubts about his confession.

At his initial trial, Omar had said that he did not want to defend his actions and that whatever he did he had his reasons and that he did want his country to be a pawn in America’s hands. Omar after being handed the death penalty had said to reporters, “We will see who dies first, me or the authorities who have arranged the death sentence for me.”

Omar Saeed Sheikh’s Indian Connection

Omar Sheikh was arrested following a shootout in India in 1994 for the kidnapping of one American and four Britons. Omar had introduced himself as Rohit Sharma and invited them to visit his uncle’s property in Kashmir.

Instead of taking them to Kashmir, the American captive was taken to Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh while the British captives were held at Saharanpur in the same state. The captives were rescued and Omar was arrested after Uttar Pradesh police accidentally stumbled across the house which held the American captive while pursuing a case of robbery.

He was placed under arrest in Tihar jail until 1999 when an Indian commercial flight IC-814 en route to New Delhi from Kathmandu was hijacked and taken instead to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

There are also unconfirmed reports that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI bore the legal cost of Omar’s trial. The hijack forced Indian authorities to release Omar, Masood Azhar the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad and two others in a swap deal for 154 passengers of the hijacked commercial airliner.

Omar’s name had also popped up on American radar after FBI discovered a financial link between Omar and Al-Qaeda’s terrorist Mohamad Atta who was the key conspirator of 9/11 terror attacks. FBI found that Omar had wired $1,00,000 to Atta on the instruction of then ISI chief Mahmud Ahmed who had to later resign.

However, unlike many Pakistani militants, Omar was born to a middle-class business family in east England and spoke impeccable English. He went to Forest School in Snaresbrook and was a member of the British arm-wrestling squad and on his way to Geneva the next year.

According to one of Omar’s classmates, Omar was always near the top of his year but far from a model pupil. The classmate recalls Omar Saeed Sheikh as someone who always wanted to show his strength so much so that he once punched the daylight out of his teacher when he was just eight years old. He also had knocked a guy out who was four years older than him and split open his lips.

Later in 1987, Omar and his parents moved to Pakistan and studied at Aitchison College in Lahore but was expelled for fighting. On his return, his classmate said that Omar had become much more political and religious in his views. His friend recalls a particular instance when the two were playing chess. Omar is believed to have told his friend that playing chess was equivalent to a battle.

However, the turning point came after Omar Saeed Sheikh went to study at prestigious London School of Economics where he came in contact with radical Islamists and dropped out only in his first year. In 1989 Omar discussed the worsening situations in the Balkan region and felt that he needed to do something for Muslims who were being persecuted.

He soon packed his bag and headed for Bosnia where he came in contact with Islamists from Pakistan who later sent him for training in Afghanistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. He began working after his release with Masood Azhar and his terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad backed by ISI and resumed fighting in Kashmir.

After his arrest in Pakistan, he told police interrogators about his deep connections to ISI and tried to convince the interrogators to join the militancy in Kashmir. He also claimed to know the militants who bombed Srinagar Assembly in Kashmir which killed 38 people and also those terrorists who were responsible for the attack on the Indian Parliament.

One of the details that leaked from the interrogation talked about Omar calling the kidnapping as a warning shot against Pakistan Government. The story proved accurate as within weeks terrorists carried out three suicide attacks killing 30 people.

However former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had doubted this claim in his book ‘In the line of fire’ wherein he stated that Omar was recruited by British Intelligence Agency MI6 to operate in Bosnia but at some point, Omar had become a rogue agent.

Here are today’s top news, analysis and opinion at 1 PM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

Coronavirus update: Imran Khan govt faces brickbats in Pak over Covid-19 response

The Pakistan government is facing mounting criticism within the country and abroad for its delayed reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the virus spreading quickly due to failures in screening and quarantining.

Pakistan currently has more than 2,400 confirmed cases and Covid-19 has caused 34 deaths across the country.

Read more.

‘It is a nightmare’: Why Tablighi Jamaat-linked infections have the Centre worried

For days, hundreds of teams of police, health and bureaucrats have been out in the field across the country to track down the thousands of Tablighi Jamaat workers who may have come in contact with Covid-19 patients. By last evening, the Union home ministry counted 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat workers and their contacts who had been located and quarantined.

Read more.

Covid-19 Update: Scientists bat for clinical trials in poor and middle-income countries

A team of scientists, physicians, funders and policymakers from over 70 organisations globally have called for an acceleration of research on Covid-19 in poor and middle-income countries where the disease can wreak havoc.

Read more.

‘Symbolism is important but…’: Chidambaram’s jibe at PM Modi’s video message

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “listen to” people and announce measures to arrest the economic slide cause by Covid-19 outbreak. Reacting to Prime Minister’s video message, he said that symbolism is important but serious thought to measures is needed.

Read more.

Covid-19 statewise tally: Maharashtra, Kerala on top; total nears 2,500

As India entered the tenth day of the 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Friday, the total number of cases in the country inched toward 2,500. The Covid-19 death toll in India climbed to 56 on Friday, the health ministry stated. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 2,301 including 2,088 active cases and 156 recoveries.

Read more.

A July without Roger Federer

A cancelled Wimbledon is bound to hurt Djokovic’s rhythm but not as much as it is bound to impact Federer’s ticking career-clock. If and when Wimbledon is held next year and if—and that’s the big if—Federer returns to play it, he will be almost 40, and playing for both lost and leftover time. But because it’s Federer at Wimbledon and that occurrence has often defied logic, his fans will still expect him to win it.

Read more.

Peacock displays impressive plumage, dances around in Mumbai. Watch

With humans staying inside due to lockdown, the animals are probably thinking ‘where did they all go?’ Maybe to investigate further, they are also happily wandering around. Just like these peacocks roaming around or dancing on empty Mumbai streets.

Shared by many, these images and videos show how the gorgeous birds are frolicking through the deserted streets. While some are sitting on top of cars, others simply are walking around.

Amit Shah had once said BJP workers have the power to make anything go viral, even fake news. The IT cell is proving just that during a global pandemic.

In the midst of the Narendra Modi government’s war-like preparations to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the BJP’s IT cell continues to engage in spreading hate and misinformation. It seems that the IT cell has vowed to become an enemy of its own party and the country. Its troll armies have taken to the Covid-19 pandemic as if a Lok Sabha election was going on and they have to make sure the BJP wins, by hook or by crook.

In 2018, then BJP president and now Union home minister Amit Shah had said that his party workers are capable of delivering any message to the public. The BJP’s WhatsApp group has over 32 lakh subscribers. He recounted how an IT cell worker had once pushed a fake news about Akhilesh Yadav slapping his father Mulayam Singh, which went viral.

In his radio programme Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recounted several incidents over the years, marvelling every time how they would go viral on social Media. Both Modi and Amit Shah are very familiar with the idea, and the importance, of something going viral. So why is their IT cell not using its abilities to share with the masses correct and useful information on the ongoing health crisis instead of doing what it does best?

Also read: Nearly 18,000 Twitter accounts spread ‘fake news’ for BJP, 147 do it for Congress: Study

What IT cell is doing now

The BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya is leading his pack from the front. Most of his tweets are ridiculous and hilarious. It appears that he wakes up every day with a mission to spread fake news. The resources of most websites involved in busting fake news are spent on misinformation that Malviya and his IT cell team spread when they could have been used to impart useful health-related information to deal with the ongoing pandemic that has locked more than a billion people inside their homes. Malviya’s Twitter timeline shows he isn’t much concerned about the coronavirus.

ut what happened? By March, the coronavirus had spread to many parts of India. The number of cases started to double every five-six days. But for the BJP’s IT cell, which had until then been busy publicising US President Donald Trump’s rally and India becoming a ‘Vishwa Guru’, the pandemic was still a conspiracy by other countries. Until the Modi government announced a complete lockdown, the IT cell continued to mislead the public. It is quite possible that due to this propaganda, people also became casual and many stopped taking the situation seriously.

But it did not stop here. When Prime Minister Modi demanded a 14-hour Janata curfew and asked people to bang pots and pans, the IT cell spread the misinformation that the sound will dispel the threat of coronavirus. On Friday, when the PM asked the people to light diyas and candles “for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday”, the IT cell immediately started propagating the ‘scientific’ aspect of lighting diyas.

Also read: Between locked down cities and distant homes, migrants lost their way in own country

The exodus of labourers

Even the poor, working-class labourers weren’t spared. After PM Modi announced the national lockdown with only four hours’ notice, thousands of labourers began walking home from different cities, hungry and without public transportation, to their villages hundreds of kilometres away. The Modi government has repeatedly asserted that the workers were given wrong information “that the lockdown would continue for more than three months” due to which this exodus happened. But who gave them this wrong information? Apart from the IT cell, no one is connected to the public on such a massive scale.

The rumour about the Delhi government planning to disconnect power connection in houses of migrant labourers if they stayed in the city further panicked them.

Also read: Coronavirus was a test of secular nationalism. Then Tablighi Jamaat became the scapegoat

Hitting the mother lode

And then came the Tablighi Jamaat. It was as if the BJP IT cell had struck gold. From the moment some coronavirus cases began to emerge among Muslims linked to Tablighi Jamaat, which had held a religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-march, the IT cell went into overdrive to shame the community and put the blame entirely on them — as if each Muslim in India was responsible for the foolishness of a group. The IT cell had been relentlessly targeting Muslims, even accusing them of “deliberately” spreading the coronavirus. There is no consideration for administrative lapse or behaviours common to all religions; it’s all hate.

Indians are fighting against coronavirus and the BJP IT cell is fighting against Indians on top of everything else it does, such as engaging in vendetta politics and spreading the daily dose of hate against India’s minorities. What can be achieved with this attitude? It is obvious that the well-equipped IT cell with deep pockets hates any semblance of peace in the country. The IT cell must be disbanded after every election because that is the only time when the BJP may claim any need of this machinery.

Not to say it isn’t so during polls, but beyond elections, everything the IT cell does makes it a permanent threat to Indians’ peace and security.

Views are personal.

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 4

Controversial Hindu Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was arrested by the rural police for making communal and objectionable remarks against the Tablighi Jamaat community on a social platform here on late Friday evening.

The case was registered following an anonymous complaint received in the complaint box for allegedly hurting the sentiments of people and thereby creating law and order problem.

SSP, Amritsar rural, Vikram Jeet Duggal, said he made some objectionable remarks on his Facebook account. The matter was investigated by Jandiala SHO Rashpal Singh and a case under Sections 115, 153-A, 295-A and 505 (2) of the IPC was registered against him. Subsequently, he was nabbed from his residence.

He was produced before the duty magistrate on Friday evening and sent to Hoshiarpur jail. Ranjit Singh, personal assistant to Suri, however, termed it as a false and fabricated case. He said the said Facebook account did not belong to Suri. “How can the police register an FIR on the basis of a suggestion box complaint and without proper investigation?” he asked, adding that the police did not even bother to record the statement of Suri. He said it was a fabricated case to harass him and his family members.

We all are facing something that seems unreal, yet it is right there in our faces, real and terrifying. And like magic, it is fooling us. What I miss the most is my newspapers. I used to get seven and spent much of the morning reading them. Unalloyed pleasure

Rahul Singh

Rahul Singh

MY apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez for using — or rather misusing — the title of his iconic novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, for this column. He was the originator of what came to be called “magic realism”, a style of writing that was followed by many others, including Salman Rushdie. With the coronavirus rapidly sweeping across most of the world, we are now living in that same realm of magic realism. We are facing something which seems unreal, yet it is right there in our faces, terribly real and terrifying. It is terrifying mainly because we do not know nearly enough about it. And like magic, it is fooling us. Our lives are being upturned in a way that has perhaps not happened since the Second World War.

At 8 pm, on March 19, our Prime Minister brought the ongoing threat of the mysterious virus into virtually every Indian’s home. In a half-hour riveting broadcast, he graphically outlined the gravity of the situation and what he proposed to do about it. For a start, he declared a self-imposed Janata Curfew the following Sunday, March 22, from 7 am to 9 pm: a virtual, but voluntary, shutdown of all outdoor activity nationwide, except for the running of essential public services. This was followed two days later with another broadcast, making the curfew much more severe, and almost mandatory. Three weeks confined to one’s home seems surreal. As I write this, it is almost two weeks since the lockdown. How have I coped?

Though my base is Mumbai, a little over a fortnight ago I was in Delhi, attending a couple of urgent meetings of a school society I am associated with. The day after the PM’s first broadcast, the two clubs that I frequent, the Delhi Gymkhana Club and Delhi Golf Club, announced the closure of all their eating outlets and sports facilities. In effect, they were shutting their doors until further notice. In Mumbai and other major Indian cities as well, the same closures have taken place. Restaurants were told not to take any customers but were allowed to sell takeaways. That, too, ended the following day, since the staff were unable to get to work as there was almost no public transport.

On the Janata Curfew day, I managed to book a flight that would take me back to Mumbai. My flight was due to leave at 9.40 pm, after the curfew was over. So, I should have no problem getting to Delhi airport, and subsequently from Mumbai airport to home. At least that is what I thought. I had another thing coming! No taxis were operating in Delhi, not even Ola and Uber. Luckily, a friend agreed to take me to the airport. On the way, the Delhi streets were eerily empty. The airport, too, was almost deserted, all its shops and eating places closed. At Mumbai airport, the pre-paid taxi counter was shut. However, I managed to get an Uber, though the wait was almost three hours. Again, we drove through streets entirely deserted. Police checks stopped us four times, wanting to quarantine me if I had entered India from another country.

So, how have I been occupying myself while confined to my apartment? I miss my newspapers the most. I used to get seven of them and spent much of the morning reading them. Unalloyed pleasure. I now have to read two or three online. But it is not the same thing. I am old-fashioned. I love the smell and feel of newsprint. I have also been spending much more time watching TV, particularly news channels. Sadly, my favourite sports channels have nothing “live”, hence they are of little interest.

The news channels have been doing a great job. From my home — the cameraman said he had been sanitised — I appeared on a TV discussion on the electronic media’s coverage of the crisis. What I found deeply disturbing was how so many of the panelists felt that scenes of the tens of thousands of migrant workers trying to get home on foot should not have been shown. Why? Because they caused “panic”, and showing those scenes was not in “public interest”. I vehemently disagreed. This was a real tragedy. Their stories must be told, even if it shows our society in poor light. Journalists should be responsible at perilous times like this, needless to say. But suppression of news is not the democratic way out.

Till just the other day, the virus was just a statistic: how many thousands had tested positive in such and such country, how many had succumbed, and so on. And then, it came home to me in a far more real way, with a sudden jolt, when I learnt that a dear friend, Mohan Shah, had died from the deadly infection in a New York hospital. As he was not feeling well, he had gone to a clinic for treatment. He caught the virus there and died a few days later. He was only a little older than me.

Mohan was one of the early pioneers of Indian garment exports to the US, which would become a huge business. Many others followed behind him, and India became a leader in the manufacture and export of garments, giving employment to millions. After garments, he saw another opportunity — linking the island city of Mumbai to its suburbs and its hinterland, via the sea, thereby decongesting the over-burdened roads and trains. But it was the usual Indian story. Politicians wanted bribes and bureaucrats stood in the way. Mohan gave up in frustration and the ambitious project never got off the ground.

— The writer is a veteran journalist

The Pakistan government is facing mounting criticism within the country and abroad for its delayed reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the virus spreading quickly due to failures in screening and quarantining.

Pakistan currently has more than 2,400 confirmed cases and Covid-19 has caused 34 deaths across the country.

Most of the initial cases were Shia pilgrims returning from Iran, one of the countries worst affected by the pandemic, and the virus spread rapidly after hundreds of people were kept in camps along the border with Balochistan without any screening. The camps also had no medical facilities, and this exacerbated the situation.

Follow latest updates on coronavirus here

The Pakistan government also failed to take effective action to shut down mosques, with thousands joining Friday prayers on March 20 and March 27. Commentators within the country have criticised the government’s lack of action, pointing out that Saudi Arabia had suspended the Umrah pilgrimage and shut even the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Early in March, some 250,000 men from Pakistan and abroad gathered at Raiwind near Lahore for a five-day meeting of the Tablighi Jamaat, after the country had already reported confirmed Covid-19 cases and there were public demands for the gathering to be called off.

The Tablighi Jamaat members were asked to disperse on March 12, a day after the meeting began, but the gathering has since been identified as the source of infections as far afield as Palestine and Kyrgyzstan. Some 550 Jamaat members, including nationals of Indonesia, Nigeria, Afghanistan and China, have been quarantined in Sindh after a Chinese citizen tested positive after attending the meeting in Raiwind, according to media reports.

Reports suggest the Pakistan government has failed to act on such gatherings or to shut mosques because of fears of a backlash from powerful Islamic organisations. In the face of the government’s dilly-dallying approach to the pandemic, the military has taken on a greater role in controlling the spread of the Coronavirus.

Pakistan’s planning minister Asad Umar, addressing a news conference on April 1, said the current lockdown in the country will continue till April 14.

Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, planning minister Asad Umar and President Arif Ali went into self-quarantine after a recent visit to China, which was apparently aimed at obtaining financial and other support for Pakistan due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

Click here for complete coronavirus coverage

While in isolation at his home, Qureshi was critical of those blaming China for the spread of the Coronavirus. “The world is blaming China [for the outbreak] whereas it is an international issue…Pakistan had expressed confidence in not repatriating students from China,” he was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

A medical team sent by China to Pakistan has been sitting idle because of a lack of interpreters, according to media reports. The team of eight medical experts arrived in Islamabad last week and visited several health centres and quarantine facilities for Covid-19 patients.

“But when the Chinese medical experts started conversing, some local medical staff appeared lost, unable to understand what was being said in Chinese,” The Express Tribune reported.

Opposition PML-N lawmaker Abdul Qayyum criticised the government’s handling of the visit by the Chinese medical team, saying it should have arranged for interpreters so that their knowledge could be transferred to Pakistani doctors. “People do not know in which direction are we heading and they are asking where is the government,” he said.

New Delhi: At a time when doctors across the country are facing shortages of protective gear required when treating patients infected with Covid-19, a Rajasthan-based doctor has highlighted how a district collector was seen wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE), while medical staff standing next to him had none.

A picture tweeted by the doctor, Pankaj Meena Khoker, has gone viral. The picture was accompanied by a short message: “When an IAS officer wears a full PPE kit and doctors wear normal clothes and mask……I don’t think Modi’s promise is working here.”

The picture seems to be from Indore in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, as written on the wall behind the IAS officer in the picture.

In a nationwide survey conducted by the central government in late March, IAS officers from across districts too had highlighted the shortage of medical and protective equipment needed to battle the deadly pandemic.

Also read: What is PPE, and why it is essential in the fight against coronavirus

Should IAS officers’ safety be prioritised over doctors’?

The doctor’s tweet has generated a debate on whether IAS officers can be classified as an ‘essential service’ and need the protective gear, or should the protection of doctors be prioritised.

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Muktsar: Some Sikh policemen of the Muktsar police on Saturday set an example for others to follow by lending a helping hand in the burial of an elderly Muslim man, who passed away after an illness at his residence on the Ferozepur road here. Rajbachan Singh Sandhu, SSP, Muktsar, said, “Due to curfew restrictions, our employees helped the family in the burial. Jabar Din was suffering from an illness for the past few months. Our personnel were daily distributing langar to them and when they came to know about his death, they helped the family in his burial.” TNS

Help real estate sector, govt urged

Chandigarh: The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) has urged the state government to come up with a revival package for the real estate sector. CREDAI Punjab president Jagjit Singh Majha said real estate was the largest employer after agriculture, supporting 269 industries that could play a major role in reviving the economy. He said the government should waive interest on pending instalments so that real estate should be in a position to give regular salaries to workers. TNS

MLA gives diet packets to players

Chandigarh: Khanna MLA Gurkirat Singh Kotli on Saturday distributed free diet packets among sportspersons on their doorstep in his segment. “My volunteers have launched two helpline numbers. Callers need to give proof that they are sportspersons. Since morning, about 250 packets, comprising six eggs and chicken, have been distributed. The diet will give energy to sportspersons who are unable to practice because of the lockdown,” he said. TNS

Sanitation staff feted with garlands

Sangrur: Residents on Saturday applauded sanitation workers of the local Nagar Council for ensuring cleanliness across the city by showering flowers and offering garlands of currency notes to them amid the Covid pandemic. “The sanitation staff are our real heroes. They have been collecting waste and cleaning streets even in the hour of crisis when all citizens are compelled to stay indoors. I, along with local social workers, honoured them,” said Anil Kicha, chairman of the Sangrur Market Committee. TNS

BBMB earns Rs25 crore profit

Chandigarh: The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has recorded an all-time high transmission system availability of 99.82 per cent during the 2019-20 fiscal, a notch above 99.69 per cent that was achieved during 2018-19. The board has also achieved the highest-ever machine availability of 98.94 per cent during 2019-20 as compared to 97.95 per cent for 2018-19, according to a statement issued here. The BBMB has accrued an additional revenue of Rs25.32 crore during 2019-20. TNS

CAPF men to use ‘Aarogya Setu’ app

Chandigarh: All Central Armed Police Forces personnel have been ordered to download ‘Aarogya Setu’ application on their phones and report compliance to the Ministry of Home Affairs as a part of government’s efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. Launched a couple of days ago, the app will send automated updates on Covid and alert personnel if they come in contact with any infected person. TNS

2-day ‘public curfew’ in Abohar

Abohar: The city on Saturday wore a deserted look on the first day of 48-hour “public curfew” that was proposed voluntarily by the local Beopar Mandal. Only milk vendors were allowed to reach out to consumers from 7 am to 10 am. Curfew passes were issued to only three NGO volunteers to serve food to the poor in their areas. OC