Imran Khan, Hafiz Saeed's son among others in terror hit-list ahead of Pakistan elections

Agencies

July 10, 2018

Jul 10: The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) of Pakistan has said that some top politicians of the country, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, can be attacked by terrorists during the campaign for Pakistan general elections, scheduled for July 25.

The authority informed about the threat to the leaders to a Senate panel. Among those facing the threat are PTI chief Imran Khan, Awami National Party president Afsandyar Wali, Qaumi Watan Party’s Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal leader Akram Durrani and ANP leader Ameer Haider Hoti, reported Pakistani media.

Apart from these, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed’s son, Talha Saeed, who is contesting the elections on Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek party ticket, is also likely to be targeted by terrorists. The agency further said that some senior leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were also in the hitlist of the terrorists.

NACTA has apprised the Interior Ministry, provincial home departments, and other agencies about the imminent threat to the top politicians of Pakistan, said a report in The Nation.

Pakistan-based Dawn News reported that the panel chief, Rehman Malik, had asked the Interior Ministry to ensure fool-proof security to all those facing the threat. He also called for providing security to the heads of all major political parties.

He further raised the issue of incidents of violence reported during the high-stake election campaign in the country. Malik cited the incident of a group of people pelting stones on the convoy of PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while he was on his way to address a poll rally in Lyari area of Karachi.

Reports had said that Bilawal’s convoy was attacked by a group of at least 100 people. They also raised slogans like “Go Bilawal Go”. Due to heavy stone pelting, windshield of a truck, which was part of the convoy, was broken while two workers of the PPP also suffered injuries.

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Trump’s associates told to avoid racist language making them ‘look like Nazis’

News Network

November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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