..
Dubai-based expatriate jailed for three years for cheating woman into marriage
..
Iranian man had married woman, lying to her about his real name
Published: January 03, 2021 11:30
Ali Al Shouk, Senior Reporter
Image Credit: Agency
Dubai: An Iranian man has been sentenced to three years in jail for impersonating another person by using a forged identity document, to marry a woman in Dubai.
The Dubai Court of First Instance heard that the 52-year-old defendant had married the Iranian woman in 2007 after lying to her about his real name because he didn’t have any identity document. According to the Dubai Court of First Instance, the couple had family disputes and divorced in 2018.
The fraud came to light when the 38-year-old Iranian housewife asked the defendant to have an ID and a passport done for their son. The defendant then told his wife that he had impersonated another person right from the beginning of their relationship because he did not have any identity document in his name.
“He introduced himself to me in 2007 with a different name. We went to Dubai Sharia Court for marriage and he presented a health card, bearing his picture and name. After the divorce, I kept asking him to have a passport issued for our son, but he kept delaying it,” said the Iranian housewife on record.
When he finally told the woman what his real name was, she went to the police station to report the incident. Dubai Police arrested the defendant who admitted that the marriage witnesses, including his brother-in-law, knew his real name. “He said that he had used the health card as he did not have any other document. He said his son is now 12 years old and that his former wife’s family knows his real name,” an Emirati policeman said on record.
Dubai Public Prosecution has charged the defendant with forging an official document, using it and presenting false personal information to government officials.
The court has also ordered to deport the defendant after serving his jail term.
At least 11 coal miners shot dead in Balochistan's Mach area after being kidnapped
Syed Ali Shah | AP | Reuters
Updated 03 Jan 2021
kidnapped them and took them to a nearby area before shooting and critically injuring them.
Reuters/File
At least 11 coal miners were killed in the Mach area of Balochistan on Sunday after armed militants kidnapped them and took them to a nearby area before opening fire at close range.
Police authorities said the miners were on the way to work when armed militants kidnapped them and took them to the nearby mountains. Moazzam Ali Jatoi, an official with the Levies Force, said six of the miners were dead on the spot, and five who were critically wounded died on the way to a hospital.
Jatoi said an initial investigation revealed the attackers identified the miners as being from the Shia Hazara community and the gunmen took them away for execution, leaving others unharmed.
Reuters reported that the militant Islamic State (IS) group later claimed responsibility for the attack, through its Amaq news agency via its Telegram communications channel. Dawn hasn't been able to independently verify the claim.
Hazaras have been frequently targeted by Taliban and IS militants and other militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The attacks in Afghanistan have been claimed by an affiliate of the IS.
According to Quetta Deputy Commissioner Murad Kaas, no case has been registered so far.
A heavy contingent of police, Frontier Corps, and district administration officials reached the site after the incident.
Following the attack, members of the Hazara community in Quetta blocked the Western Bypass and set fire to tyres to protest against the killings.
Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the miners' killing, terming it "yet another cowardly inhumane act of terrorism".
"Have asked the FC to use all resources to apprehend these killers & bring them to justice. The families of the victims will not be left abandoned by the govt," he said in a tweet.
Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed while condemning the killings asked the Balochistan inspector general of police to submit a report on the incident.
"Terrorists will not succeed in their nefarious objectives. Elements involved in the incident are not deserving of any laxity," he said.
Information Minister Shibli Faraz said the shootings in Mach were "condemnable and saddening". Foreign enemies are making constant efforts to destablise Pakistan, he added.
Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said: "Indian funded terrorists in Balochistan getting [are] more desperate as development comes to province".
"Socio[economic] empowerment & Insaf for the Baloch are how we will defeat the terrorists," she tweeted.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani too "strongly condemned the tragic incident".
PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari termed the incident as "the worst form of terrorism".
In a statement, Bilawal called on the government to take action and provide protection to miners working in the coalfields.
The PPP chairperson also asked the federal and provincial governments to provide "compensation to the families of the miners and ensure that such incidents do not occur again".
'Wave of terrorism'
Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said that security forces had surrounded the area and started an investigation. "[We] will bring the terrorists to justice," he vowed.
Speaking to media later in the day, Shahwani said the incumbent government had improved the law and order situation and restored peace in the province, with the result that terrorism incidents had declined by 75 per cent in 2020 as compared to 2018.
Shahwani urged the workers' relatives who are protesting in the area to have faith in the government, saying the investigation into the incident was underway and the perpetrators would be brought to book.
"We won't allow the lights that have we restored to be turned into darkness at any cost," the spokesperson said, attributing today's incident to a "wave of terrorism" in which law enforcement personnel were also targeted in recent weeks. He promised that the government will ensure the welfare of the families of the deceased miners.
Restive province
There has been an uptick in violence in restive Balochistan, with several incidents of terrorism being reported last year.
On October 16, seven soldiers of Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan and seven security guards were martyred in an 'encounter' with a "large number of terrorists" while escorting a convoy of state-run Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) on the Makran Coastal Highway in Ormara.
The convoy was on its way to Karachi from Gwadar when it came under attack.
In April 2019, at least 14 people, including 11 personnel of Navy, Air Force and Coast Guards, were killed by gunmen after they were picked out with the help of their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) and offloaded from seven buses in the Buzi Pass area near Ormara.
The incident had taken place on the Makran Coastal Highway linking Karachi with the port city of Gwadar. The buses were going to Gwadar from Karachi.
An alliance of three banned militant organisations — the Balochistan Liberation Front, Balochistan Republican Army and Baloch Republican Guard — had claimed responsibility for the killings.
3 banned militant organizations, plus IS, and it's a restive province?
Balochistan Prov., PK
Niger Islamists celebrate New Years...
At least 100 die in Niger attacks blamed on jihadists
Attacks on two villages were launched just as first-round results were announced
in presidential election
Agence France-Presse in Niamey
Sun 3 Jan 2021 23.36 GMT
“Terrorists” have killed around 100 people in two villages in western Niger, the latest in a string of civilian massacres that have rocked the jihadist-plagued Tillaberi region, a local mayor has said.
The attacks on the villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumadareye occurred on Saturday just as first-round presidential election results were announced.
They were waged by “terrorists who came riding about 100 motorcycles”, said Almou Hassane, the mayor of the Tondikiwindi commune that administers both villages.
“There were up to 70 dead in Tchoma Bangou and 30 dead in Zaroumadareye,” he said, adding he had just returned from the scene of the attacks.
The two villages are 120km (75 miles) north of the capital, Niamey.
“There have also been 75 wounded, some of whom have been evacuated to Niamey and to Ouallam for treatment,” Hassane said.
The attackers split into two columns to carry out simultaneous attacks on the two villages, which lie seven kilometres (four miles) apart, the mayor said.
The prime minister, Brigi Rafini, led a delegation to the area on Sunday while President Mahamadou Issoufou would hold an extraordinary security council on Monday, his office said.
Local elected officials first reported the raids on Saturday but the death toll was unclear, with one source putting it at around 50.
Issoufou Issaka, a former government minister who comes from the region, said the jihadists carried out the double massacre after local people had lynched two of their number. He gave an estimated death toll of 83.
One senior regional official said the attack was carried out at midday, at the same moment the results of the first round of legislative and presidential election were announced.
Election officials announced that the ruling party candidate and former minister Mohamed Bazoum won the first round of Niger’s presidential vote, which was held the previous weekend. Bazoum has promised to step up the fight against the jihadists.
Bazoum said his thoughts were with the victims’ families, adding in a video message that the attacks showed that “terrorist groups constitute a serious threat to cohesion within our communities and a danger unlike any other”.
Issoufou earlier expressed his condolences in a statement in which he also condemned the “cowardly and barbaric attack”.
The two villages are in the vast and unstable Tillaberi region, which is located in the “tri-border” area, where the porous borders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso converge. The area has suffered jihadist assaults for years.
Four thousand people across the three nations died in 2019 from jihadist violence and ethnic bloodshed stirred by Islamists, according to the UN.
Seven Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush in Tillaberi on 21 December.
Travel by motorbike has been banned in Tillaberi since last January in a bid to prevent incursions by jihadists riding them.
A landlocked state located in the heart of the Sahel, Niger is also being hammered by jihadists from Nigeria, the cradle of a decade-old insurgency launched by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for an attack on 12 December that left 34 people dead in the village of Toumour, in south-eastern Niger near the border with Nigeria.
Last month 34 villagers were massacred in the south-eastern region of Diffa, also on the Nigerian border, the day before municipal and regional elections that had been repeatedly delayed because of poor security.
The second round of the presidential election is scheduled for 20 February.
Islamists will consider this a good start to the new year.
