Attack
Gunmen kill 4 in attack targeting lawmaker in NW Pakistan
Gunmen shot dead four people including two police in northwestern Pakistan in an attack targeting a provincial lawmaker from former Prime Minister Imran Khan's political party, police said.
Lawmaker Malik Liaqat Khan — no relation to Imran Khan — of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was wounded in the attack late Saturday along with three others and was hospitalized in the provincial capital of Peshawar, police said.
Read: Pakistan says army general, 5 others die in helicopter crash
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The assault took place in the Maidan area of the Lower Dir district of conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which is governed by Khan’s party.
Police officer Zar Badshah said among those killed were the nephew and brother of the PTI lawmaker, who was returning home after attending a funeral late Saturday.
The area has been a stronghold of late religious leader Sufi Mohammad, who preached a strict version of Islam in the 1990s and later led his followers in fighting in Afghanistan against the U.S. and allied forces. It remained under the influence of the Pakistani Taliban until 2009.
Lee Zeldin, GOP nominee for NY governor, attacked at rally
A man has been charged with attempted assault after brandishing a sharp object and attacking U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin as the Republican candidate for New York governor delivered a speech in western New York.
The incident happened Thursday as Zeldin, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul this November, was addressing a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in the town of Perinton, outside Rochester.
The attacker climbed onto a low stage where the congressman spoke to a crowd of dozens, flanked by bales of hay and American flags.
Zeldin said at a news conference in the Syracuse area Friday that he saw the man in his periphery on stage.
“The first thing I saw was that he was wearing a hat that said he was a veteran,” he said. “And my guard couldn’t possibly be more dropped. But at the same exact time, I noticed that he had a weapon in his hand.”
He said the man was saying, “You’re done,” to him.
“And obviously in that point, regardless of whatever’s on your hat, this was not a normal situation and there needed to be action taken,” he said.
Videos taken by people in the audience showed the man walk up to Zeldin and try to grab him, bringing a pointed object shaped like a cat’s head toward Zeldin’s neck as he reached for the congressman. Photos of the object suggested it was a keychain meant to be worn on the knuckles for self defense.
People at the gathering held down the attacker and he was arrested. Among those subduing the man was Zeldin’s running mate, former New York Police Department Deputy Inspector Alison Esposito.
Read: GOP candidate for NY governor Lee Zeldin attacked
David Jakubonis, 43, was charged with attempted assault in the second degree, arraigned and then released, a Monroe County sheriff’s spokesperson said. It’s not clear whether Jakubonis has an attorney who can speak for him. A message seeking comment was left at a number listed for Jakubonis.
Jakubonis is an Army veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2009 as a medical laboratory technician.
The congressman said his “first thought was to grab onto his wrist and just to hold it because there were so many people that I would expect there to be help. And that’s what happened.”
He said he was grateful for everyone who jumped in to help.
Zeldin finished his remarks after Jakubonis was subdued, saying Friday it was important “not to be intimidated.”
Jacob Murphy, a spokesperson for Zeldin’s congressional office, said that Zeldin had a minor scrape from the incident. He said Zeldin had not received any specific threats recently.
He also said Zeldin had private security for the Perinton event but would start having increased security.
In a statement, Hochul condemned the attack and said she was “relieved to hear that Congressman Zeldin was not injured and that the suspect is in custody.”
New York Republican State Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy called on Hochul to issue a security detail for Zeldin to protect him on the campaign trail.
Hochul’s press secretary Avi Small referred questions about providing Zeldin with a security detail to New York state police.
Zeldin, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who has represented eastern Long Island in Congress since 2015, is a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.
He has focused his campaign on calling for a crackdown on crime but faces an uphill battle against Hochul. He’ll need to persuade independent voters — which outnumber Republicans in the state — as well as Democrats in order to win the general election.
Zeldin and fellow Republicans pointed to Jakubonis’ release by a Perinton Town Court judge as an example of the need to reform New York’s bail laws, something he’s called on Hochul to toughen.
“It is terrible public policy that in the state of New York, you can try to stab a sitting member of Congress, or anyone else for that matter, and be back out on the street not even 6 hours later,” Zeldin’s campaign spokeswoman Katie Vincentz said in a statement.
A 2019 bail reform law in New York eliminated pretrial incarceration for people accused of most nonviolent offenses. The law gives judges the option to set bail in nearly all cases involving violent felonies, but has exceptions for certain attempted felonies like attempted assault.
Judges must also consider someone’s ability to pay bail, and weigh imposing other conditions like travel restrictions, electronic monitoring or limits on weapons possessions.
Amid calls from Republicans and some Democrats to toughen the law, Hochul this year signed a measure to allow someone to be held on bail for hate crimes and additional gun offenses, and give judges more discretion in deciding bail if a person is facing multiple charges. Judges who set bail must also weigh factors like an individual’s history of using guns, whether they are accused of causing “serious harm” and if they violated an order of protection.
Perinton Town Court senior clerk Betsy Wager said under the state law, “The judge had no choice but to release him on his own recognizance.”
Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on whether she’s considering more changes to the state’s bail laws.
Ukrainian governor: Russia raising ‘true hell’ in the east
Russian forces are raising “true hell” in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, despite assessments they were taking an operational pause, a regional governor said Saturday, while another Ukrainian official urged people in Russian-occupied southern areas to evacuate quickly “by all possible means” before a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Deadly Russian shelling was reported in Ukraine’s east and south.
The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhyi Haidai, said Russia launched more than 20 artillery, mortar and rocket strikes on the region overnight and its forces were pressing toward the border with the Donetsk region.
“We are trying to contain the Russians’ armed formations along the entire front line,” Haidai wrote on Telegram.
Last week, Russia captured the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, the city of Lysychansk. Analysts predicted Moscow’s troops likely would take some time to rearm and regroup.
But “so far there has been no operational pause announced by the enemy. He is still attacking and shelling our lands with the same intensity as before,” Haidai said. He later said the Russian bombardment of Luhansk was suspended because Ukrainian forces had destroyed ammunition depots and barracks used by the Russians.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, appealed to residents of Russian-held territories in the south to evacuate quickly so the occupying forces could not use them as human shields during a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“You need to search for a way to leave, because our armed forces are coming to de-occupy,” she said. “There will be a massive fight.”
Speaking at a news conference late Friday, Vereshchuk said a civilian evacuation effort was underway for parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. She declined to give details, citing safety.
It was not clear how civilians were expected to safely leave Russian-controlled areas while missile strikes and artillery shelling continue in surrounding areas, whether they would be allowed to depart or even hear the government’s appeal.
The war’s death toll continued to rise.
Five people were killed and eight more wounded in Russian shelling Friday of Siversk and Semyhirya in the Donetsk region, its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote Saturday on Telegram.
Read: 100 days of Russia-Ukraine conflict – no quick end in sight
In the city of Sloviansk, named as a likely next target of Russia’s offensive, rescuers pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubble of a building destroyed Saturday by shelling. Kyrylenko said multiple people were under the debris.
Russian missiles also killed two people and wounded three others Saturday in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, according to regional authorities.
“They deliberately targeted residential areas,” Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. Kryvyi Rih’s mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, asserted on Facebook that cluster munitions had been used and urged residents not to approach unfamiliar objects in the streets. More explosions were reported Saturday evening.
Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited Friday to meet with Vilkul and the brigadier general who commands troops in the region. Zelenskyy’s office said he was briefed on the “construction of defensive structures,” the support of the troops, the supply of food and medicine to the city and the help given people who had fled to Kryvyi Rih after being driven out of their homes elsewhere in Ukraine.
In northeast Ukraine, a Russian rocket strike on Saturday hit the center of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring six people, including a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.
“An Iskander ballistic missile was probably used,” the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said. “One of the missiles hit a two-story building, which led to its destruction. Neighboring houses were damaged.”
The city has been targeted throughout the war, including several times in the past week. As survivor Valentina Mirgorodksaya dabbed at a cut on her cheek, first responders warily inspected the building shattered in Saturday’s strike.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported on Telegram that six Russian missiles were fired at his city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, but caused no casualties.
“On this day alone, Russia hit Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Krivyi Rih, villages in the Zaporizhzhia region,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “It hit residential areas, absolutely consciously and on purpose. ... For days on end, the brutal strikes of Russian artillery … don’t stop. Such terrorist action can be stopped only with weapons — modern and powerful ones.”
Read: Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle
Russian defense officials claimed Saturday that their forces destroyed a hangar housing U.S. howitzers in the Donetsk region, near the town of Chasiv Yar. There was no immediate response from Ukraine.
In other developments on Saturday:
— Zelenskyy dismissed several ambassadors, including Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who has been an outspoken advocate of Kyiv’s cause but also ruffled feathers in Berlin. He was persistently critical of Germany’s perceived slowness to provide heavy weapons. He also faced criticism for an interview in which he defended Stepan Bandera, a controversial World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Melnyk was only speaking for himself. Zelenskyy said the dismissals of the ambassadors were part of a routine rotation. Melnyk had served in the post since 2015.
— Ukraine’s national police force said it was opening a criminal investigation into the Russian military’s alleged destruction of crops in the southern Kherson region. In a Telegram post, it accused Russian troops of not allowing residents to put out fires in fields and otherwise sabotaging the harvest.
— The British Defense Ministry said Russian forces in Ukraine were now being armed with “obsolete or inappropriate equipment,” including MT-LB armored vehicles taken out of long-term storage that do not provide the same protection as modern tanks.
“While MT-LBS have previously been in service in support roles on both sides, Russia long considered them unsuitable for most frontline infantry transport roles,” the British ministry said on Twitter.
— Ukraine’s sports minister, Vadym Gutzeit, said 100 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed either on the battlefield or from Russian shelling, while 22 were captured by Russian forces. In a Facebook post, Gutzeit said more than 3,000 athletes are now in uniform.
6th anniversary of Gulshan cafe attack: Japanese envoy pays tribute to victims
Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki paid tribute to the victims of the Holey Artisan Bakery attack Friday on the sixth anniversary of the deadliest night of terror in the country's history that saw 22 civilians, mostly foreigners, killed in Dhaka's Gulshan.
Ambassador Naoki laid wreaths at the site of the Holey Artisan Bakery Attack, the monument to the victims at the Italian Embassy and the monument to the police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2016.
The Japanese envoy expressed his condolences for the victims. He also stressed remembering their contribution to the development of Bangladesh.
Russian missiles kill at least 19 in Ukraine’s Odesa region
Russian missile attacks on residential areas killed at least 19 people in a Ukrainian town near Odesa early Friday, authorities reported. The airstrikes pierced the cautious relief expressed a day earlier after Russian forces withdrew from a Black Sea island where they could have staged an assault on the city with Ukraine’s biggest port.
Video of the pre-dawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Odesa. The Ukrainian president’s office said three X-22 missiles fired by Russian bombers struck an apartment building and two campsites.
“A terrorist country is killing our people. In response to defeats on the battlefield, they fight civilians,” Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Large numbers of civilians died in Russian strikes and shelling earlier in the war, including at a hospital, a theater used as a bomb shelter and a train station. Until this week, mass casualties involving residents appeared to become more infrequent as Moscow concentrated on capturing eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Asked about Friday’s strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow’s claim that it wasn’t targeting residential areas during the war, which is now in its fifth month. The Russian military is trying to strike munitions depots, weapon repair factories and troop training facilities, he said.
Ukraine’s Security Service said 19 people died, including two children. It said another 38, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalized with injuries. Most of the victims were in the apartment building, Ukrainian emergency officials said.
The airstrikes followed the pullout of Russian forces from Snake Island on Thursday, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa, home to Ukraine’s biggest port. The island sits along a busy shipping lane.
Read: Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle
Russia took control of it in the opening days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odesa. The Kremlin portrayed the departure of Russian troops from Snake Island as a “goodwill gesture” intended to facilitate shipments of grain and other agricultural products to Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world.
Ukraine’s military claimed a barrage of its artillery and missiles forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of withdrawing troops was not disclosed.
The island took on significance early in the war as a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion. Ukrainian troops there reportedly received a demand from a Russian warship to surrender or be bombed. The answer supposedly came back, “Go (expletive) yourself.”
Zelenskyy said that although the pullout did not guarantee the Black Sea region’s safety, it would “significantly limit” Russian activities there.
“Step by step, we will push (Russia) out of our sea, our land, our sky,” he said in his nightly address.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces kept up their push to encircle the last stronghold of resistance in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas region. Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the region for eight years.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were trying to encircle the city of Lysychansk and fighting for control over an oil refinery on the city’s edge.
“The shelling of the city is very intensive,” Haidai told The Associated Press. “The occupiers are destroying one house after another with heavy artillery and other weapons. Residents of Lysychansk are hiding in basements almost round the clock.”
Read: Russia may be in Ukraine to stay after 100 days of war
The offensive has failed so far to cut Ukrainian supply lines, although the main highway leading west was not being used because of constant Russian shelling, the governor said. “The evacuation is impossible,” he added.
But Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday that Russian and Luhansk separatist forces had taken control of the refinery as well as a mine and a gelatin factory in Lysychansk “over the last three days.”
Ukraine’s presidential office said a series of Russian strikes in the past 24 hours also killed civilians in eastern Ukraine - four in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another four in Donetsk province.
In other developments, Zelenskyy asked Ukrainian lawmakers to fast track the legislation needed for the country to join the European Union. His government applied for EU membership after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. EU leaders made Ukraine a candidate for membership last week, acting with unusual speed and unity.
The process could take years or even decades, but Zelenskyy said in a speech to lawmakers that Ukraine can’t wait.
“We needed 115 days to receive the status of a EU candidate. Our path to a full-fledged membership mustn’t take decades,” he said. “You may be aware that some of your decisions will not be met with applause, but such decisions are necessary for Ukraine to advance on its path forward, and you must make them.”
In Moscow on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin briefed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the conflict in Ukraine. A Kremlin statement said Putin blamed Zelenskyy’s administration and Ukraine’s Western supporters for allegedly trying “to escalate the crisis and disrupt efforts to resolve it politically and diplomatically.”
Putin has denied that Russian forces targeted a shopping mall where Ukrainian authorities said a missile strike Monday killed at least 19 people and injured another 62. He claimed Thursday that the target in Kremenchuk, a city in central Ukraine, was a nearby weapons depot and that the Russian military does not take aim at places occupied by civilians.
6th anniversary of Gulshan cafe attack: Bangladesh's night of infamy
Today is the 6th anniversary of the Holey Artisan Bakery attack, the deadliest night of terror in the country's history that saw 22 civilians killed, the majority of them foreigners residing in or visiting the capital's diplomatic quarter around Gulshan-Baridhara.
Commemorations among relatives and those close to the victims will span the globe from Japan at one end to Italy at the other. Indeed, these are the two countries that suffered the most casualties.
Five heavily-armed young men who did not fit the profile of your typical "jihadist" executed the audacious attack that drew inspiration from ISIS.
However, investigators never uncovered any evidence of direct operational training or support from ISIS headquarters.
The unlikely militants, all in their late teens or early 20s, were not madrasa students from the hinterland. They were city boys who grew up among Bangladesh's elite, having attended top private schools and universities in Bangladesh and abroad. Their pathways to radicalisation were not foreseen, are still not very well-understood, but would seem to have been abrupt and even rapid.
On the evening of July 1, a little after 9pm, they made their move and laid siege to the upmarket cafe popular with expatriates – a calculated choice that paid off with maximum foreign casualties. Initially, they took everyone inside the cafe hostage before executing them based on nationality or religion. Some Bangladeshis were allowed to leave – one bravely refused to leave without his two foreign friends and died with them.
The victims included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladesh-born American and two Bangladeshis.
Besides, two police officers called to the scene were also killed by grenades during the first wave of the attack – this demonstrated how well-armed they were, and law enforcers subsequently backed off to wait for specialist commandos to come in and do the job, causing a nightlong standoff.
Thirteen people, including three foreigners, were rescued while 20 bodies of the hostages were recovered from the restaurant after a successful operation led by the 1st Para-commando Battalion, an elite force in the Bangladesh Army, the following morning (July 2).
Five militants and one restaurant staff were killed and one suspected militant was arrested during the drive.
Including the militants and two policemen, the total death toll was 29 from what is definitively described as "Bangladesh's 9/11," after the 2001 attack that brought down the World Trade Centre's Twin Towers in New York, the most infamous terrorist attack of all time.
A case was filed with Gulshan Police Station in connection with what still stands as the deadliest terror attack ever in the country.
Later, the case was transferred to the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Twenty-one people were identified behind the attack. Among them, 13 people were killed in gunfights at different times.
Police pressed charges against eight people in the case on July 23, 2018. The tribunal framed charges against them on November 26. On December 3, in the same year, the trial began with the deposition of witnesses.
On November 17, 2019, the tribunal set November 27 for delivering its verdict.
On November 27, seven men were sentenced to death for their roles in the Holey Artisan attack.
3 cops hurt in bid to free arrestee in Khulna
Three cops were injured after a group of miscreants allegedly attacked a police team and vandalised their vehicle in a bid to free an arrestee in Khulna.
The miscreants attacked the police team around 11.30pm on Monday in the Purba Baniakhamar area of the city during a raid, said Hasan Al Mamun, officer-in-charge of Sadar police station.
The injured cops have been identified as inspector (investigation) Shahriar Hasan, sub-inspector Rakibul Islam Rakib and constable Mahabub Islam from Khan Jahan Ali police station.
Also read: Highways to calm Padma bridge traffic in Khulna
Inspector Shahriar said they arrested a man named Khairul, 30, from Pother Bazar Check Post with 500 gm gunpowder around 4.30pm on Monday.
"Around 9pm, we arrested two more people, named Ismail Hossain and Ibrahim Hossain, following a raid in the Bara Masjid Mor area after Khayrul named them during interrogation," he said.
Also read: Hi-Tech Park to turn Khulna industrial area into tech-based zone: Palak
On their way back, Khairul’s father Mohammad with some people attacked the police vehicle. "They tried to free Khairul but failed," said inspector Shahriar Hasan.
Steps will be taken against the attackers, said OC Hasan.
12 hurt as autorickshaw drivers clash with police in Savar
At least 12 people including a policeman were injured in a clash between police and auto-rickshaw drivers in the Palli Bidyut area of Savar as they demonstrated to protest "police extortion".
The injured were admitted to nearby medical centers for treatment.
However, the identities of the injured are yet to be known.
Hundreds of drivers blocked Savar's Nabinagar-Chandra highway around 12pm, creating a huge traffic jam in the area.
When law enforcers tried to remove the blockade, they clashed with police, leaving 11 drivers injured. One police personnel was also hurt in the incident.
The protestors also threw brickbats at the policemen while they were working on removing the blockade.
Read: 20 injured as locals clash with police in N'ganj
At one stage, police charged batons at the demonstrators and managed to remove them from the highway, said Atiqur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Savar Highway Police Station.
However, he termed the issue of extortion and harassment on the highway as false and baseless.
Legal action will be taken in this regard, said Kamruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Ashulia Police Station.
Earlier on Saturday, the workers started a three-day protest against the extortion and harassment of autorickshaw and van drivers on the highway by law enforcers in the name of a fine.
Man in burqa stages fatal attack at in-laws; 3 killed inc. wife
Three people were killed and another three injured as a man wearing a burqa attacked their house in Sreebardi upzaila of Sherpur on Thursday, police said.
The deceased were identified as Monira Begum, 40, her mother Shefali Begaum, 60, and Mahmud, 65, residents of Khoshalpur Putal village.
The incident occurred at around 7 pm in a house at Khoshalpur Putal village under Kakilakura union of the upazila.
READ: 3 killed in Keraniganj road crash
Hasan Nahid Chowdhury, Sherpur superintendent of police (SP) said that Mintu Mia, wearing a burqa, attacked his father-in-law's house over a dispute with his wife Monira Begum.
“Mintu slit three people’s throats and hacked another three before he fled the spot,” he said.
Locals rushed the injured to Bakshiganj upazila hospital in Jamalpur where three were declared dead. As their conditions deteriorated, the remaining three were sent to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment.
Police couldn’t yet arrest the accused but legal actions were underway, SP Nahid added.
Venezuelan opposition leader attacked during national tour
The leader of the U.S.-backed opposition in Venezuela was physically attacked Saturday during a visit to a rural community, according to members of his parallel government, who accused a group of ruling party associates of carrying out the assault.
A photo accompanying the opposition statement shows Juan Guaidó being held back as people gather around him and someone rips his shirt off. The parallel government said the group, which was associated with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, known as PSUV, “hit and insulted” Guaidó, who is on a tour around the South American country seeking to unite and organize his party ahead of a planned primary election.
In an Instagram video Saturday night, Guaidó characterized the attack as an “ambush” at a plant nursery in San Carlos, a community about 168 miles (270 kilometers) southwest of Caracas, the capital. But he added that it won't deter him from continuing to be “on the street.”
“Those who attacked today, these members or leaders of the regime’s party," should accept responsibility for the incident, he said.
READ: Bangladesh to work for resolving dispute between Guyana and Venezuela: FM
PSUV leaders, who traditionally issue statements on social media or state television, did not immediately respond.
Last week, Guaidó's supporters were met by a barrage of flying plastic chairs and fisticuffs from allies of President Nicolás Maduro in the western city of Maracaibo.
The U.S. and other nations recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. They withdrew recognition of Maduro after accusing him of rigging his 2018 re-election as president.
At the time, Guaidó drew enormous crowds of backers into the streets, but much of the momentum has evaporated. His popularity has dropped from about 60% three years ago to under 15% in February.
Brian Nichols, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, on Saturday condemned what he described as an “unprovoked attack” on Guaidó.
“This egregious attack risked lives; those responsible for the assault should be brought to justice,” he said.