The attacks since last year, which has left more than 30 people dead, has put Bangladesh under a global spotlight for failing to prevent such attacks.
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ANTI-TERROR CRACKDOWN
Over 2000 more held in Bangla
STRAP: Criminal suspects, militants among arrested on day-2
PTI
DHAKA
More than 5,300 criminal suspects, including 85 militants, have been arrested in Bangladesh as part of an intensified crackdown on Islamists to halt a wave of brutal attacks on minorities and secular writers, police said Sunday.
As many as 2,128 people have been arrested on the second day of a nationwide anti-terror crackdown, police said, adding 48 of them belonged to various militant outfits.
The other arrested militant suspects belonged to banned outfits like Jagrota Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) or Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).
Altogether 5,320 people have been arrested, including 85 militants, since Friday morning, when the drive kicked off, police said. Saturday, 3,192 people had been arrested.
“The rest of the arrested 5,320 persons were mostly fugitives who are wanted in different criminal cases including narcotics charges,” a police spokesman said.
Bangladesh launched the drive after a high-level meeting held by Inspector General AKM Shahidul Hoque on Thursday. The anti-militant drive involved the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh and the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.
Bangladesh has been witnessing a string of brutal attacks by Islamists. Islamic State and al-Qaeda in the Indian Peninsula have claimed some of the attacks but the government denies the presence of these groups in Bangladesh.
The government attributes the murders to homegrown militant outfits like JMB, saying key opposition BNP and its fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami were patronising the attacks under an orchestrated plot against the government.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday told a meeting of her ruling Awami League party that police would stamp out the violence and vowed to catch “each and every killer.”
The attacks since last year, which has left more than 30 people dead, has put Bangladesh under a global spotlight for failing to prevent such attacks.
On Friday, a 60-year-old Hindu ashram worker was hacked to death by IS jihadists, days after another priest was killed by the same terrorist group in the Muslim-majority nation.
In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.
In April, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death in Rajshahi city. The same month, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death and Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was murdered in his Dhaka flat by Islamists.
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China biggest 'abuser' of free trade: Trump PTI
PITTSBURGH
Branding China as the “biggest and best abuser” of free trade, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has alleged that the Communist trading giant was dumping its goods into the US, stealing intellectual property and imposing hefty taxes on American companies doing business in that country.
“China is the biggest and best abuser. Mexico is a smaller version of China,” Trump told his cheering supporters in this steel city of Pittsburgh, which is said to be a key swing state for November general elections as he hit out at several countries including Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Trump said he believes in free trade, but it needs to be fair. “I believe in free trade. But for free trade, you need to have smart people on our side. I want to make good deals. I do not want care what you call it,” he said.
“I do not want China to dump steel into our country. They are dumping. They are stealing our intellectual property,” Trump alleged and warned them of consequences if he is elected as the new president of America.
“If they do not behave, we will put tax on them. They (Chinese) tax us. But we do nothing about it. This is one-way street. ...We got ripped off,” he said. “If in November if you pull the right trigger, we are going to have so much fun together,” he said, urging people to come out in large number and vote in November presidential elections.
The 69-year-old real estate tycoon from New York claimed he would have a good relationship with China and would enter into a deal with them that would benefit the US and create jobs in the country.
“China, when I deal with them, it is going to be a great deal. They (Chinese) have no respect for Obama. They have even less respect for crooked Hillary,” Trump said.
Trump slammed Obama in his speech. Observing that he never thought Obama would be a great president but believed that he would unite the country. “He (Obama) is a great divider. The country has never been so divided ever,” he alleged, adding he would unite the country. “President Obama is incompetent,” he claimed.
“I will unite the country, the rich, the poor. I would unite the country through old schools of thoughts by creating jobs. I would not let other country take the jobs,” he said asserting that factories would resume manufacturing and create jobs if he is elected as the president in November.
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4 hurt as man triggers blast
at Shanghai airport
PTI
BEIJING
A man Sunday threw an “explosive wine bottle” triggering a blast at China's second biggest airport in the commercial hub of Shanghai which injured four persons, including a woman and a Filipino man, before severing his own throat, state media reported.
The blast at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the city's main international airport, occurred at around 2.20 pm near a check-in counter at Terminal 2, when what appears to be a “home-made” explosive blew up, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting Shanghai Airport Authority, which manages the airport.
The male suspect threw an “explosive wine bottle” and then went on to cut his own throat, Xinhua posted on its Twitter handle.
He is currently in ICU, it said, adding that four persons other than the suspect were injured and have been admitted to hospital.
The injured include a 53-year-old Philippine man, as well as a 67-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman, both of whom are Chinese. They sustained injuries to their heads, hands and legs, doctors said.
An initial investigation has found evidence suggesting that the man's injury could have been self-induced, hinting he might have set off the blast.
There was no disruption to flights in or out of the airport, according to authorities.
The area was cordoned off by authorities, who have launched an investigation into the blast.
Eyewitnesses said that passengers ran for safety after a loud bang rocked the hall. -----------------------------------------------------
Thousands to attend second yoga day at New York's Times Square
AGENCIES
NEW YORK
Thousands of yoga lovers are all set to inundate the iconic Times Square as spiritual leaders and several Indian community associations prepare to organise a host of events in schools, temples and top tourist spots to commemorate the second International Day of Yoga on June 21.
Isha Foundation founder and spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri, diplomats and UN officials will attend the yoga day celebrations organised by India's Permanent Mission to the UN on June 20 and 21.
The Indian mission is organising a special event 'Conversation with Yoga Masters - Yoga for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)' at the world body's headquarters on June 20.
The yoga teacher will be the lead speaker at the event, which will be attended by senior UN officials as well as Ambassadors and dignitaries from other countries.
On June 21, the Indian mission and the UN Department of Public Information will host the celebration of the 2016 International Day of Yoga in the world body's headquarters.
President of the UN General Assembly Morgens Lykketoft will be the chief guest and Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information Cristina Gallach will address the event.
The celebration will be led by Sadhguru and would include a musical incantation on yoga and special yogic meals.
The Indian Consulate, in association with the local Indian community and associations, is organising a series of yoga related events in and around the city that started over the weekend in the run up to the main event.
The organisations will be hosting special yoga sessions in schools, temples as well as at the JFK International Airport and Newark Airport.
A special yoga day celebration will also be commemorated at the Kresge Auditorium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.
Several thousand people are also expected to attend the annual day-long yoga celebrations at Times Square that coincide with the summer solstice, the yearly moment when the sun is at its highest position in the sky for the longest period of time.
"Yoga unites us with the universal flow and connects us with our own personal rhythms. The discipline of yoga enhances our ability to respond to subtle cues that promote wellness. Peace becomes the natural environment of our relationships and our world," said Douglass Stewart, cofounder of the Solstice in Times Square: Mind Over Madness Yoga.
The first international yoga day was commemorated at the UN with aplomb last year.
In December 2014, the UN General Assembly had adopted a resolution with a record number of 177 co-sponsoring member states to establish the International Day of Yoga to be commentated every year on June 21.
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Prince Charles visits
Sharif in London
Britain's Prince Charles visited Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at his London residence on Saturday and enquired about his health post the latter's heart surgery, Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz tweeted.
According to Maryam Nawaz, Prince Charles also brought honey from the gardens of Clarence House for the premier saying "it will help him recover fast as Pakistan needs him."
Prince Charles also conveyed best wishes from British Queen Elizabeth for the Pakistan Prime Minister's speedy recovery.
Sharif thanked Prince Charles for the honey and told him that Prophet Mohammad said honey has healing properties, Maryam tweeted.
Sharif on June 7 was discharged from a London hospital after successfully undergoing open heart surgery. It was the 66-year-old's second major cardiac medical procedure in five years.
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Lankan troops to stay in Tamil war zonePTI
COLIMBO
Sri Lankan troops will stay in the Tamil-dominated former war zone of North and look after the minority community, a senior army officer has said, virtually rejecting Northern Province Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran's demand of withdrawal of military.
“We are here to look after you, we will attend to all your needs,” military chief in the north Mahes Senanayake said.
He said that his job as the security forces commander in the north is to prevent a recurrence of conflict by looking after the Tamil community, he told reporters in Jaffna Saturday.
Senanayake said that there will never ever be a separatist war in Sri Lanka's north.
His comments came as Wigneswaran last week demanded the withdrawal of the military from the north.
“Even after seven years of ending the war, the military is remaining here. We want the police to do
the job and not the military,” Wigneswaran said.
The government stationed a large number of troops in the north and east since the LTTE began their separatist campaign for a separate Tamil state in the mid 1980s.
Despite international calls for down-sizing the military presence, the government has been reluctant for large scale withdrawal of troops citing national security concerns.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) battled Sri Lankan forces for a separate Tamil homeland. A brutal military crackdown ended the 37-year conflict in 2009. Rights groups claim government forces killed nearly 40,000 civilians in the final months of the brutal ethnic conflict.
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"America has moved ahead of India in its enmity with Pakistan. It carried out drone attack in Balochistan to kill Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour to test Pakistan whether it would give any reaction. In fact, the US' target is Pakistan's nuclear programme and it wants to damage it with the help of Israel and India."
Hafiz Saeed,
Founder, Lashkar-e-Taiba
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US, India, Israel forming
nexus against Pak: Saeed
PTI
LAHORE
The US has 'moved ahead' of India in its 'enmity with Pakistan' and wants to damage its nuclear programme, Pathankot attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed said.
"America has moved ahead of India in its enmity with Pakistan. It carried out drone attack in Balochistan to kill Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour to test Pakistan whether it would give any reaction," the Lashkar chief said.
"In fact, the US' target is Pakistan's nuclear programme and it (the US) wants to damage it with the help of Israel and India," Saeed said while addressing the activists of Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation (FIF), a subsidiary of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, at its headquarters in Lahore's Chauburji Saturday.
His comments came a day after Pakistan lodged its protest to a visiting high-level US delegation over the May 21 drone strike in Balochistan, which killed Mansour.
The delegation - which included senior Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US National Security Council Peter Lavoy and Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson - was told that the strike "vitiated bilateral ties."
Saeed, who is carrying a $10 million bounty on his head in connection for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attack, further said, "It is our duty to tell the people of this country about the dangerous nexus of the US, Israel and India against Pakistan."
He asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to stop looking at the US for elimination of terrorism in the country.
Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, also alleged that India is installing missile system at its airports to target Pakistan's nuclear programme.
