Pakistan: political violence increases ahead of elections

Today's news: India has deployed several warships to fight piracy; Four people were found guilty of rioting and disorder by a Hong Kong court over the 2019 protests; Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak's prison sentence reduced; Russian dissident rock group Bi-2 left Thailand to fly to Israel.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan's election committee today summoned national security officials to discuss the increase in violence ahead of the February 8 elections, particularly in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Islamist groups are active. and independentists. A series of attacks have occurred in recent days: only yesterday a parliamentary candidate was shot dead in a tribal district along the Afghan border while another political leader was killed in the electoral office of his party in Balochistan.

INDIA

India has deployed a dozen warships east of the Red Sea to provide security against piracy and has conducted investigations into more than 250 vessels as Western powers focus on Houthi attacks, Indian officials said. India has not joined the US-led Red Sea task force and has no warships there. But it currently has two front-line warships in the Gulf of Aden and at least 10 warships in the northern and western Arabian Sea.

HONG KONG

A local court has found four people guilty for having participated in demonstrations on July 1, 2019, when hundreds of people stormed the Hong Kong Legislative Council building in protest against a proposed extradition law that would have allowed to send individuals who were to be legally tried to mainland China. The verdict comes after eight other people had pleaded guilty to "rioting" for the events of those days.

JAPAN

A month after the earthquake that hit the Noto peninsula in central Japan, more than 14,000 people remain displaced, local authorities said. Due to disruptions in supply chains, it remains difficult to obtain fresh food. Apologizing, the Ishikawa governor acknowledged that moving evacuees to hotels and other accommodations from evacuation centers did not go as planned, saying there were miscommunications in sharing information.

MALAYSIA

The prison sentence of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, accused of corruption in the complicated case called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), was reduced from 12 to 6 years by a State Board (the Pardons Board) chaired by the King of Malaysia, who also decided to reduce the RM210 million (.4 million) fine to an unspecified amount. Najib, who is a member of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's ruling party, could therefore be released in August 2026.

RUSSIA – THAILAND – ISRAEL

The rock group of Russian and Belarusian dissidents Bi-2 have left Thailand where they were detained to fly to Israel, the musicians said on their Facebook page. The band had criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine: their arrest had raised fears that they would be deported to Russia after Thai authorities took them into custody, claiming they did not have the necessary permits to carry out their activities.

KAZAKHSTAN

Astana's trade minister, Arman Shakkaliev, announced that he managed to convince public opinion in the regions of eastern Kazakhstan, in a series of public meetings, to accept the unification of the time zone at the national level from March 1st. , without protests and demands for enormous economic compensation.

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