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The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Buddha clean-up and hidden heroes: photos of the day
A worker cleans the feet of a reclining Buddha statue at the Maha Vihara Mojopahit temple, before the Vesak festival, which commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha Photograph: Juni Kriswanto/AFP/Getty Images A supporter of political party Markazi Muslim League shares sweets with people after Pakistan shot down Indian fighter jets in retaliation for Indian missile strikes Photograph: Shahzaib Akber/EPA The Table of History, commemorating 80 hidden heroes, which has been unveiled by Ancestry to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day on the Southbank Photograph: Jeff Spicer/PA Adam Abdulahi Ali feeds stray dogs and cats on the streets of Wabari, in a culture where animals are often neglected or seen as unclean Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters Naelyn Pike of the San Carlos Apache tribe participates in a candlelight vigil during a protest to stop the sale of Oak Flat, land considered sacred by the Apache, to the Resolution Copper mining company in Arizona Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Reuters Egyptian goslings waddle along the bank of the Main River Photograph: Michael Probst/AP Usher performs during his Past Present Future tour at the O2 Arena Photograph:The National Gallery's preview of the redisplayed C C Land: The Wonder of Art and reopening of the Sainsbury Wing after its two-year transformation, as part of the Gallery's 200th birthday celebrations Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock Cardinals attend a mass for the election of the pope before the start of the conclave, at St Peter's Basilica Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images An injured Palestinian child is brought to al-Awda hospital after an Israeli attack on the Abu Humaysa school in the Bureij refugee camp, where several people, including children, were killed Photograph: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu/Getty Images Ukrainian servicemen meet relatives after they were released from Russian captivity at an undisclosed location. Two hundred and five members of the Ukranian military have been returned in the prisoner swap Photograph: EPA Students take part in a mock security drill at a local government school, amid rising tensions with Pakistan Photograph: Imtiyaz Khan/Anadolu/Getty Images
The Print
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Amid India-Pakistan tensions, LeT terrorist leaders resurface to incite followers over Indus waters
The inflammatory speech was delivered at the Masjid Qadsia in Lahore, not far from the 200-acre complex the Lashkar operates from at Muridke, some 30 kilometres from the city. 'The Muslims ought not be strangers to wars, struggle, religious killing, fighting and battlefields, swords and arrows, blood and martyrdom,' Hafiz Abdul Rauf told his audience at a Lahore mosque. 'Allah's companions are not scared of death, they seek it out.' New Delhi: As the prospect of war hangs over the India-Pakistan border, the internationally proscribed terrorist , who heads the Lashkar-e-Taiba's 'humanitarian' operations has called on his followers to prepare themselves to participate. Following the Lashkar leader's speech, large numbers of cadres of the Muslim Milli League—the terrorist group's political front—drove through Lahore, broadcasting recordings of old speeches by its chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. 'If you choke off our waters,' Saeed had once said, in response to earlier threats by India to halt the Indus Waters Treaty, 'we will choke off your breath, and blood will flow in these rivers.' India now holds the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, following the 22 April terrorist attack in Pahalgam, though the flow of water is not believed to have been physically obstructed. The abrogation of the treaty could theoretically allow building large storage dams on the Chenab, restricting downstream flows to Pakistan. Also Read: Behind ISI chief's appointment as NSA, a bid by Pakistan to revive backchannel talks after Pahalgam A disturbing resurgence The rare—but not unprecedented—rally provides evidence that Lashkar, though banned in Pakistan and by the United Nations, continues to mobilise, recruit and fundraise in the country. Rauf has been regularly leading prayers at the Masjid Qadsia, near Chowburji Chowk in Lahore, and photographs show him supervising construction of new Lashkar buildings in Rawalpindi. India has said that Lashkar personnel, directed from across the Line of Control by terror commander Sajid Saifullah Jatt and the organisation's overall military chief Muzammil Butt, have carried out several massacres in recent months, including the killing of tourists in Pahalgam, and the previous killing of ten Hindu pilgrims near Reasi. Rauf's social media pages describe him as the chairman of Dawat and Islah, or proselytisation and religious reform, at the Markazi Muslim League, a political front organisation the Lashkar founded in 2016-2017. He is also the author of a book on the role of mosques in community mobilisation, published by the Lashkar-linked Dar-ul-Andalus Press. The creation of the Markazi Muslim League, scholar C. Christine Fair has written, was an effort to create 'a political partner, which will reliably do the army's bidding'. Although the military has long exercised significant influence over Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party and former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, it sees smaller partners as a counterweight to jihadist movements in the country, which are challenging the army. 'The Muslims do not need tens of millions of soldiers to win victories,' Rauf said in another speech posted online on 29 April. 'The Quran tells of many occasions when the Allah made small groups of the righteous prevail over far larger armies. The enemy's weapons are tanks and artillery, but ours is our Imaan, or faith.' A paper ban Following the Indian Air Force strikes on Balakote in 2019, Pakistan's government had placed the Masjid in Lahore under state administration, and prevented Saeed from delivering sermons there as part of a crackdown on anti-India jihadist groups. The action was driven by fear of sanctions by the Financial Action Task Force, the multinational organisation that monitors the compliance of governments with processes to cut off funding for terrorism. Last summer, however, signs of a renewed Lashkar resurgence were evident. In April 2024, the organisation held a public commemoration for terrorist Abdul Wahab, also known by the alias 'Abu Saifullah', and Sanam Jafar, who was killed days earlier by Indian forces near the town of Sopore in northern Kashmir. Al-Quds—an encrypted online forum that disseminates Lashkar propaganda—said that Wahab was the fifth resident of Barmang killed fighting in Kashmir. The men were described as 'great warriors who were martyred fighting the tyrannical Indian Army'. Two years ago, even as FATF inspectors prepared to visit Pakistan to conduct on-site inspections needed to help the country evade terrorism-related sanctions, Rauf had sent cadres out across flood hit areas in the country. Along with Lashkar financier Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan and the head of the Lashkar's department for traders, Rauf was proscribed by the United States Treasury Department in 2010. He has never been arrested or prosecuted in Pakistan, however. The issue of the Indus waters has long been a key platform for the Lashkar, which draws much of its rank-and-file from the families of landless peasants in arid southern Punjab. Five weeks before 26/11, Lashkar chief Saeed had delivered a speech, claiming fields across Punjab were turning to dust because of Indian 'water terrorism'. According to Saeed, India was planning to use its dams on the Chenab to flood and choke Pakistan's lands by turn, and thus, Pakistan had to seize Kashmir to secure its existence. 'Potable water will be hard to find within a few years,' he had claimed, 'and there will be no option except war'. For Pakistan, he had prophesied, a moment of decision lay ahead: the 'crusaders of the east and west have united in a cohesive onslaught against Muslims'. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: 25 years ago, Lashkar-e-Taiba killed 35 Sikhs in Kashmir. This is how they got away with it
