A mosque in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where 80 civilians were taking shelter, has been shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders. More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey,” the ministry wrote on its Twitter account.
It did not specify when the shelling took place.
Contacted by AFP, the Turkish foreign ministry in Istanbul said it had “no information”.
However, the Ukrainian embassy in Ankara told AFP it had alerted Turkey’s foreign ministry to the attack, without specifying when or whether it had received any response.
On Monday, the Turkish consulate in the southern port of Odessa had issued a tweet urging Turkish citizens to take shelter in the mosque “with a view to be being evacuated” to Turkey.
The consulate could not be reached by AFP on Saturday.
On Friday, the Ukrainian embassy in Turkey had forwarded to journalists a Facebook post by Mariupol’s deputy mayor, Petro Andryushchenko, who said: “Right now, 86 Turkish citizens are being covered in the mosque territory. Thirty-four of them are kids.”
Friends and relatives of Turks living in Mariupol said they were anxious.
“My brother, Sahin Beytemur, has been living in Mariupol for eight years … We haven’t heard from him since last Saturday,” the 38-year-old shopkeeper’s sister told AFP.
Others took to social media to try to locate the whereabouts of their loved ones.
“We have not heard from my aunt and cousin who have been living there for 11 days. We have no idea whether they are alive or not. Communication is completely lost we don’t know what to do,” wrote one Twitter user, @brsyrdm11.
Turkey is a close ally of Ukraine but has refused to cut ties with Moscow and even tried to mediate between the two sides, hosting a first meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers on Thursday in Antalya.
‘Humanitarian catastrophe’
Mariupol has been under siege and bombardment for more than a week and is encircled by Russian troops.
The situation in the strategic port city was “desperate”, where civilians have been desperately trying to flee, but were without water or heating, and running out of food, a top Doctors Without Borders executive said on Friday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Friday: “Besieged Mariupol is now the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet. 1,582 dead civilians in 12 days.”
Besieged Mariupol is now the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet. 1582 dead civilians in 12 days, even buried in mass graves like this one. Unable to defeat the Ukrainian Army, Putin bombs the unarmed, blocks humanitarian aid. We need planes to stop Russian war crimes! pic.twitter.com/CSFPSlzrTa
Three people, including a child, were killed when a children’s hospital in the city was attacked on Wednesday, sparking international outrage.
Against this backdrop, a new attempt is being made to open up a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to evacuate the city towards Zaporizhzhia, around 200 kilometres to the north east, said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
For days, Ukrainians have claimed that the Russian military has been pounding the evacuation route, preventing people from leaving.
As on previous days, humanitarian corridors were also to be opened again around Kyiv.
“I very much hope that the day will go well, that the planned routes will be open and that Russia will meet its obligations regarding the observance of the ceasefire,” Vereshchuk said in a video uploaded to the website of the Ukrainian presidency.
As the Russian army continues to advance and besiege Kyiv, strikes hit the town of Vasylkiv on Saturday morning, about 40 kilometres south of the capital.
Eight Russian rockets hit the local airport around 7:00 am local time, which was “completely destroyed”, said the mayor Natalia Balassinovitch, on her Facebook account.
An oil depot was also hit and caught fire, she said.
Ukrainian president says Russia sending new troops after heavy losses
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was sending new forces to Ukraine after suffering what he said were its biggest losses in decades.
Zelensky also said he had spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron about pressuring Russia to release the mayor of the city of Melitopol, who Ukraine says was kidnapped on Friday by Russian forces.
In a televised address, Zelensky urged Russia to uphold an agreed ceasefire to allow evacuations to proceed from the besieged port city of Mariupol, after blaming Moscow for the failure of previous attempts.
The City A Division Police Station in Bahawalnagar is the place where a man has been accused of sexually abusing his 50-year-old deaf-mute mother-in-law.
The assault is said to have been carried out by the suspect while the victim was visiting her daughter. The woman was allegedly molested at night by the suspect, who allegedly took advantage of her medical condition.
The horrifying crime happened while the mother-in-law—who is deaf and hard of hearing—was visiting her daughter.
The victim’s daughter, who happens to be the suspect’s wife, reported the event to the police when it happened. The matter has been reported to the authorities, who have initiated an inquiry.
A comprehensive 16-page written ruling on the government’s intra-court appeal concerning the nullification of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) statute has been made public by the Supreme Court.
The verdict, which was written by Pakistan’s Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, reinstates the NAB changes and overturns the prior decision made by a two-member court.
The ruling explores the background of the NAB law, noting that it was passed by former army chief General Pervez Musharraf only 34 days after he had taken over via force. The court emphasised that Musharraf exploited the law to further his personal political goals and disregarded the democratic constitution.
The ruling mentions that Musharraf dismissed judges of the Supreme Court who disagreed with his unlawful acts.
Additionally, Justice Athar Minallah sent a message expressing his agreement with Chief Justice Isa’s decision. He emphasised that the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act did not accept the government’s appeal and that only appeals from parties who have been wronged are accepted.
He pronounced the previous ruling, which had annulled the NAB modifications, to be void and emphasised that judges and military personnel should not be free from NAB legislation.
The Supreme Court emphasised that there are clear functions for the legislative and judiciary under the Constitution, and they must take great care to avoid interfering with one another’s purview. It served as a reminder to both branches to carry out their constitutionally mandated tasks in service of the people. The judiciary—including the chief justice—is not the “gatekeeper” of parliament, the court emphasised once more.
As per the preamble draughted during the Musharraf administration, the court noted that the principal aim of the NAB law was to suppress corruption. Nonetheless, the court observed that it had been employed for political retaliation and manipulation, given that lawmakers who backed Musharraf were frequently found not guilty.
“The main purpose of the NAB law was political revenge from politicians or political engineering,” the decision noted.
It also mentioned the three noteworthy changes made to the NAB law:
June 22, 2022, saw the enactment of the first amendment.
On August 22, 2022, the second amendment was proposed. “On May 29, 2023, the third amendment was ratified, following six hearings in which the court heard arguments opposing the NAB revisions.
Although the court did not go over the third amendment in any depth, it emphasised that laws should be preserved rather than being quickly overturned. It also made it clear that the interpretation that favours the legislation’s legality will prevail when two interpretations of the same statute exist.
The ruling stated that “the PTI founder’s petition and the old judgement of the Supreme Court were not according to the Constitution,” and it also stated that the court was not persuaded that the amendments were illegal in this particular case.
The PTI founder’s appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, which said it was not filed in a sincere effort. It further emphasised the fact that Imran Khan himself had proposed a large number of these changes.
needsIt was noted that the Practice and Procedure Act had been passed five months before the decision to change the NAB statute. Following that, the Supreme Court denied a request to establish a five-member bench to hear the petition challenging the modifications. A five-member bench needs to be assembled for the NAB amendments case, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah noted. The Supreme Court stated that the two-member bench would not have been able to hear or rule on the case against the NAB changes if Justice Shah had recused himself from the bench.
The Practice and Procedure Act hearings were postponed for 100 days and then resumed on September 18, 2023, according to the statement.
The court effectively reinstated the government’s earlier actions on the NAB statute when it stated in its closing remarks that the bill had been utilised for political objectives and that its amendments should remain.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was visited in Islamabad by a four-person Google delegation led by Mr. Scott Beaumont, President of the APAC area.
Pakistan’s digital economy is about to undergo a revolutionary change, according to the prime minister, who greeted the team. Speaking on the government’s intentions to reach the goal of US$ 25 billion in exports over the next five years, the prime minister revealed that funding will be used for youth training, IT infrastructure upgrades, and regulatory environment enhancements. Pakistan’s economy is being fully digitalised, he remarked. In his attempts, he stressed the need of working together with a tech behemoth like Google.
The Prime Minister praised Google for pioneering projects that have dramatically enhanced the lives of thousands of Pakistanis in recent years, as well as for its involvement in propelling the country’s digital economy closer to reality. Noting with satisfaction that Google has helped Pakistani young land about a million jobs in 2023 alone, the Prime Minister emphasised that this is a testament to both Google’s dedication to upskilling and empowering Pakistan’s youth and Pakistan’s potential in the digital marketplace.
Informing the Prime Minister of its future involvement intentions, Mr. Scott stated that Google has made the decision to support the government’s youth skill-training initiatives and to expand its investment footprint in Pakistan. He went on to say that for a values-driven digital firm like Google, the growing economy and the sizeable youth population are crucial for optimising the economic benefits of technology. He restated that Pakistan’s IT industry will undergo a revolution when five lac Chromebooks are produced there by 2026.