Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Police issues tough warning against owners of stray dogs

{The Rwanda National Police (RNP) has called upon owners of dogs to take appropriate measures to prevent them from roaming in communities where they are likely to cause insecurity.}

The call follows an incident on April 23 in Simbi Sector of Huye District where a dog belonging to one Venuste Nyandwi attached and injured three children aged between three and eight years.

The children were saved by residents, who managed to kill the dog.

The victims were rushed to Simbi health center where they are receiving medical attention.

“It’s quite unfortunate that there are people who have ignored repeated call to restrain their pets,” said Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Andre Hakizimana, the police spokesperson for the Southern region.

“We call upon owners of dog to confine and control them,” he added.

“There are clear laws under which a dog should be handled…If you own a dog, you are required to keep it indoor or leash it when walking with it,” he added.

“Under no circumstances should a dog be left to roam in communities unattended to; it must be under full control of its owner or chained and held by an accountable and mature person.”

“We have devised stringent measures against such stray dogs as the law specifies; we are working with local veterinary doctors and local authorities to come up with a remedy against stray and mad dogs, including killing them where necessary,” he noted.

The ministerial order No. 009/11.30 of 18/11/2010 on animal husbandry especially in its articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, underlines the requirements and procedures to own a dog, penalties to owners of abandoned dogs and action taken against stray dogs, including killing them.

Source:Police

April 24, 2017
Facebook plays vital role in reducing government corruption, researchers find

{A Virginia Tech College of Science economics researcher says the popular social media website Facebook — and its open sharing of information — is a vital and often a significant tool against government corruption in countries where press freedom is curbed or banned.}

In new research recently published in the journal Information Economics and Policy, Sudipta Sarangi of the Virginia Tech Department of Economics said his cross-country analysis using data from more than 150 countries shows the more Facebook penetrates public usage, the higher the likelihood of government corruption meeting protest. In short, Sarangi said social media serves as peer of the press.

“This study underscores the importance of freedom on the internet that is under threat in many countries of the world,” Sarangi said, adding that social media is negatively correlated with corruption regardless of the status of the freedom of the press. In other words, Facebook likewise helps reduce and/or lessen corruption in governments where press freedom is low.

“By showing that social media can negatively impact corruption, we provide yet another reason in favor of the freedom on the net,” he said.

The study took into account a number of control variables including other economic, democratic, and cultural factors, said Sarangi. It also comes on the heels of a volatile American election in which Facebook and other social media platforms were seen as culprits in the spread of “fake news,” especially tied to politics.

Sarangi began the study in 2012 while at Louisiana State University, with co-author Chandan Kumar Jha, now an assistant professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. At the time, Sarangi said social media was being used to organize anti-corruption protests in his and Jha’s home country of India. It also followed the 2011 rise of Arab Spring across the Middle East where large protests toppled governments.

“Our initial results were encouraging in that we found a significant, negative correlation between Facebook penetration and corruption across a small sample of countries,” Sarangi said.

Several qualitative studies have touched on the use of social media to oust corruption before, and many other studies have focused on internet or e-government and its impact on corruption. Sarangi said, however, that few quantitative studies have looked specifically looked at social media and its impact on corruption because country-specific social media usage data is hard to acquire.

Sarangi and Jha’s study is the first of its kind to establish a link between social media and corruption across more than 150 countries, showing the complimentary role of social media along with the press in open countries, and its greater impact in countries that are oppressive. The study features a falsification test which checked whether the results would be true for a pre-Facebook era in the same countries.

Findings showed that this was not the case. Also considered were government-sanctioned social media platforms.

“Establishing causality is a difficult thing in the corruption literature, simply because corrupt governments might also control social media,” Sarangi said.

Sarangi added that much of the anti-corruption content posted on Facebook is user-created and shared individually, its audience growing with each share or repost. In other words, Sarangi and Jha report that social media as an information and communication technology tool allows multi-way communication as opposed to traditional media such as TV and print media that allow for only one-way communication. The back and forth of communication is harder to control by government censors.

“Indeed, the role of social media and the internet in providing unbiased and independent news in several countries such as China, Russia, and Malaysia has widely been recognized by scholars,” added Sarangi.

“Social media provides cheap and quick means of sharing information and reaching a larger audience to organize public protests against the corrupt activities of government officials and politicians. It is therefore not a surprise that despotic governments favor controlling social media.”

Additionally, interaction in social media platforms typically is shared among friends and family, thus adding a personal connection and therefore more perceived credibility to shared information. Sarangi said individuals may feel compelled to act on such information to show solidarity with family or friends.

As of February 2017, Facebook was estimated to have 2 billion users worldwide, according to CNN. Among the countries studied by Sarangi and Jha: Denmark, the least corrupt, and Somalia, the most.

“As social media evolves to be an increasingly important part of our daily lives, it is important for continued research to help us understand how these tools are impacting our lives,” said Brandi Watkins, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, part of the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Watkins was not involved in this study, but researches the use of social media.

“Related to this study, it is important to look at how platforms like Facebook can be used to improve societal issues, especially in the area of corruption,” added Watkins. “This study highlights the need for information, whether from traditional media or social media, in reducing corruption.”

Source:Science Daily

April 24, 2017
6 character traits of a woman who’s gold

{Some women are described to be gold; women like these make the best wife, and are everything a real man wants in a woman.}

She’s a special and rare breed, and she has the following qualities:

{{1. She’s loyal }}

A woman who’s like gold is a loyal woman; she sticks to her man and is his biggest supporter. When she’s in a relationship, she gives her all to make it work and is all committed to making it a success.

{{2. She’s trustworthy }}

A woman who’s gold is trustworthy; she doesn’t give you a reason to doubt her. When she says she’s at a place, you know that she’s there. Her everyday life shows you that she’s to be trusted.

{{3. She’s understanding }}

A woman who’s gold is an understanding woman; she isn’t just bent on her will. She is empathetic and tries to always build an understanding relationship with her man. She forgives, she forgets and when she’s wrong, she apologises.

{{4. She’s appreciative }}

A woman who’s gold is an appreciative woman; she appreciates everything her man does for her, no matter how little it is.

{{5. She’s easy to be with }}

A woman who is worth like gold has an inner beauty that makes her stand out. She has an impeccable character that makes her easy to be with.

{{6. She has a heart of gold }}

And of course, she has a heart of gold. She loves genuinely, is kind, compassionate, forgives easily, lets go of the past and starts a new day free of the worries of yesterday.

Does such women exist? I believe so, but then gold isn’t something you can just pick on the street; it’s highly sought after and isn’t seen everywhere.

Source:Science Daily

April 24, 2017
Can we see a singularity, the most extreme object in the universe?

{A team of scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India, have found new ways to detect a bare or naked singularity, the most extreme object in the universe.}

When the fuel of a very massive star is spent, it collapses due to its own gravitational pull and eventually becomes a very small region of arbitrarily high matter density, that is a`Singularity’, where the usual laws of physics may breakdown. If this singularity is hidden within an event horizon, which is an invisible closed surface from which nothing, not even light, can escape, then we call this object a black hole. In such a case, we cannot see the singularity and we do not need to bother about its effects. But what if the event horizon does not form? In fact, Einstein’s theory of general relativity does predict such a possibility when massive stars collapse at the end of their life-cycles. In this case, we are left with the tantalizing option of observing a naked singularity.

An important question then is, how to observationally distinguish a naked singularity from a black hole. Einstein’s theory predicts an interesting effect: the fabric of spacetime in the vicinity of any rotating object gets `twisted’ due to this rotation. This effect causes a gyroscope spin and makes orbits of particles around these astrophysical objects precess. The TIFR team has recently argued that the rate at which a gyroscope precesses (the precession frequency), when placed around a rotating black hole or a naked singularity, could be used to identify this rotating object. Here is a simple way to describe their results. If an astronaut records a gyroscope’s precession frequency at two fixed points close to the rotating object, then two possibilities can be seen: (1) the precession frequency of the gyroscope changes by an arbitrarily large amount, that is, there is a wild change in the behaviour of the gyroscope; and (2) the precession frequency changes by a small amount, in a regular well-behaved manner. For the case (1), the rotating object is a black hole, while for the case (2), it is a naked singularity.

The TIFR team, namely, Dr. Chandrachur Chakraborty, Mr. Prashant Kocherlakota, Prof. Sudip Bhattacharyya and Prof. Pankaj Joshi, in collaboration with a Polish team comprising Dr. Mandar Patil and Prof. Andrzej Krolak, has infact shown that the precession frequency of a gyroscope orbiting a black hole or a naked singularity is sensitive to the presence of an event horizon. A gyroscope circling and approaching the event horizon of a black hole from any direction behaves increasingly ‘wildly,’ that is, it precesses increasingly faster, without a bound. But, in the case of a naked singularity, the precession frequency becomes arbitrarily large only in the equatorial plane, but being regular in all other planes.

The TIFR team has also found that the precession of orbits of matter falling into a rotating black hole or a naked singularity can be used to distinguish these exotic objects. This is because the orbital plane precession frequency increases as the matter approaches a rotating black hole, but this frequency can decrease and even become zero for a rotating naked singularity. This finding could be used to distinguish a naked singularity from a black hole in reality, because the precession frequencies could be measured in X-ray wavelengths, as the infalling matter radiates X-rays.

Source:Science Daily

April 24, 2017
Kwibuka 23: UNHCR pays tribute to victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi

{On this solemn day, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) held a ceremony in commemoration of the 1994 Genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi and in remembrance of eleven UNHCR employees who were killed during the atrocities. UNHCR staff stood side-by-side with the Rwandans and in particular the families of the staff members who perished and bowed their heads in a moment of silence to honor the memory of all who lost their lives and others who suffered and continue to grieve.}

“We remember, to honour the memory of all of those who lost their lives during one of history’s darkest times. We remember, to offer comfort to those families who survived. And we remember, to commit ourselves to create and live in a peaceful environment free from discrimination,” said Mr. Saber Azam, UNHCR Representative in Rwanda, in his remarks during the ceremony which was presided by the head of the UNHCR Staff Association.

Thepohile Rutagengwa, Francois Rutayigirwa, Anicet Senjenje, Marcel Twagirayezu, Gaspard Gashagaza, Francois Gasana, Jean Baptiste Gisa, Odette Mukashefu, Albert Mwigishwa, Jean Nyakagaragu and Sixbert Rugema were treasured UNHCR colleagues whose lives were unfairly and tragically cut short. Mr. Azam said that the humanitarian community will always remember them. “We will honour them every day in everything we do. And today we pay special respect to them.”

The importance of the theme of this year’s genocide commemoration period, building on progress in fighting genocide ideology, was also highlighted during the ceremony.

“We will strive to remove all barriers to equality as part of our effort to ensure that what took place in Rwanda 23 years ago never happens again,”said Mr Azam.

April 23, 2017
Nun Mukarushya laid to rest

{Nun Mukarushya Jean Marie Vianney who stood against divisionism and one of pioneers spearheading the development evangelization in Rwanda has been laid to rest. She passed on at age 98.}

Mukarushya was member of the congregation on nuns in Rwanda called Abenebikira.

She breathed her last on 14th April 2017.

During her funeral yesterday, Mukarushya was praised for sowing good seeds among members of Abenebikira congregation along with striving for peace and encouraging people to stand against discrimination.

Sister Renatha who spoke on behalf of the congregation of Abenebikira recalled good deeds of late Mukarushya who instilled the spirit of loving one another.

“We had enough conversations before she died. She stood against discrimination calling people to be united and work together. Mukarushya wished all people should be kind and urged Benebikira congregation to never be characterized by racial discrimination. She encouraged them to be honest because they are God’s servants,” she said.

As sister Renatha explained, late Mukarushya had left a testament for people not to mourn his death sunk but rather celebrate her life.

One of her relatives described Mukarushya as kindhearted person, humble who always socialized and strived for togetherness.

Sister Mukarushya is a relative of Jean Sayinzoga, the former Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission chairman who passed away last Sunday and buried on Thursday.

Nun Jean Marie Vianney Mukarushya was born in 1919 in Kansi parish of Butare diocese and received basic sacraments in Save.

She joined nuns congregation of Abenebikira on 8th December 1938 and ordained nun in Save on 22nd April 1940. She took definitive oath on 25th September 1949.

She is the daughter of Regina Nyiranjinjiri and Yohani Petero Kitatira descendant of king Rwabugiri.

The funeral of sister Mukarushya was attended by First Lady Jeannette Kagame, Gen Fred Ibingira, Gen Karenzi Karake, Pastor Ezra Mpyisi, Dr Emile Rwamasirabo, relatives of Senate president Bernard Makuza and various clerics including Bishop Philipe Rukamba, Smaragde Mbonyintege, and Nzakamwita and retired Bishop Habiyambere Alexis.

April 22, 2017
Russian hacker Roman Seleznev sentenced to 27 years

{Roman Seleznev, son of a Russian politician, handed the longest sentence ever imposed in the US for a cybercrime case.}

A federal judge has handed down the longest sentence ever imposed in the US for a cybercrime case to the son of a member of the Russian Parliament convicted of hacking into more than 500 US businesses and stealing millions of credit card numbers, which he then sold on special websites.

Roman Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Friday and ordered to pay nearly $170m in restitution to the businesses and banks that were the victims of his scheme.

Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a Russian Parliament member.

Prior to his sentencing, Roman Seleznev asked US district judge Richard Jones for leniency. He apologised to his victims and said he was remorseful for his crimes, and he urged the judge to consider his medical problems, the result of being wounded in a bombing in Morocco in 2011, in deciding his prison term.

“I plead, pray and beg your honour for mercy,” he said.

But Jones told Seleznev that the bombing “was an invitation to right your wrongs and recognise you were given a second chance in life.” But instead, Jones said Seleznev “amassed a fortune” at the expense of hundreds of small business.

“You were driven by one goal: greed,” Jones said.

After sentencing, Seleznev’s lawyer Igor Litvak read a hand-written statement from his client that said the long sentence was a political prosecution at a time of strained US-Russian relations.

“This decision made by the United States government clearly demonstrates to the entire world that I’m a political prisoner,” Seleznev wrote.

“I was kidnapped by the US. Now they want to send a message to the world using me as a pawn. This message that the US is sending today is not the right way to show Vladimir Putin of Russia, or any government in this world how justice works in a democracy.”

Seleznev said he is a citizen of the Russian Federation and he said he wanted to send a message to that government: “Please help me. I beg you.”

US lawyer Annette Hayes said Seleznev’s statement was “troubling”. He told the judge that he accepted responsibility and then sent his lawyer out claiming the case was political, she said.

“He was treated with due process all along the way just as any US citizen would have been,” she said.

{{‘Unprecedented prosecution’}}

Seleznev was first indicted in 2011 on 29 felony charges and captured in 2014. US Secret Service agents, with the help of local police, arrested Seleznev in the Maldives as he and his girlfriend arrived at an airport on their way back to Russia.

The agents flew him to Guam, where he made his first court appearance, and then to Seattle, where he was placed in federal custody.

Russian authorities have condemned the arrest of Seleznev as an illegal kidnapping.

The indictment grew to 40 counts in October 2014, and his trial was held last August. A jury found him guilty on 38 charges, including nine counts of hacking and 10 counts of wire fraud.

“This is truly an unprecedented prosecution,” Norman Barbosa, deputy US attorney, told the judge before sentencing.

For 15 years, Seleznev broke into the payment systems of hundreds of businesses. He had more than 2.9 million unique credit card numbers in his possession when he was arrested. His thefts resulted in about $170m in business losses.

“That is a staggering amount,” Barbosa said. “It exceeds any loss amount this court has ever seen.”

Seleznev was “living like a mob boss” and spent money on fast cars, expensive boats and luxury trips around the world, he said.

Prosecutors asked for a 30-year sentence to send a message to hackers around the world.

“Never before has a criminal engaged in computer fraud of this magnitude been identified, captured and convicted by an American jury,” prosecutors told the judge in a presentence memo.

{{Seleznev’s life story}}

Litvak had urged the judge to consider Seleznev’s life story in his decision.

Seleznev’s parents divorced when he was two years old; his alcoholic mother died when he was 17; he suffered a severe head injury in a bombing in Morocco in 2011; and his wife divorced him while he was in a coma, Litvak told the judge.

Seleznev continues to suffer after-effects from the bombing, including seizures, Litvak said.

To prove his commitment to helping fight cybercrime, Seleznev recently arranged to give the US government four of his laptops and six flash drives, and he has met with officials to discuss hacker activities, Litvak said.

Prosecutors said his offer to help fight hackers came too late.

{{
Botnet takedown}}

In another case involving an alleged Russian hacker, the US issued an indictment to Peter Levashov, who goes by several aliases. Levashov is accused of controlling one of the world’s top generators of spam and online extortion, officials said on Friday.

Levashov, 36, from Saint Petersburg, was arrested at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport on April 7 by Spanish authorities acting on a US warrant. The US is now seeking his extradition.

A US federal grand jury returned the eight-count indictment in the northeastern state of Connecticut on Thursday. The charges include fraud, identity theft and conspiracy.

Prosecutors accuse the purported hacker of controlling the Kelihos network of tens of thousands of infected computers, stealing personal data and renting the network out to others to send spam emails by the millions and extort ransoms.

The US Justice Department shut down the botnet on April 10.

Levashov has not been tied to alleged Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election.

But his operation allegedly depended on sending spam emails that allowed hackers to penetrate the computers of the Democratic Party to steal data.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 22, 2017
Anti-immigration AfD heads for showdown in Cologne

{Tensions run high as thousands descend on Cologne to protest against conference of far-right, anti-immigration party.}

More than 50,000 demonstrators are expected to descend on Cologne on Saturday to protest the far-right populist, anti-immigration politics of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), as the party holds one of the most important conferences in its four-year history.

The AfD is hoping to enter parliament for the first time in Germany’s general election on 24 September.

About 4,000 police officers have been deployed to avert clashes on the city’s streets between anti-AfD protesters and party supporters. Scuffles broke out early on Saturday between police and anti-AfD demonstrators.

Around 600 AfD delegates are expected to attend the conference. The central city hotel, where the conference is being held, has made arrangements to allow staff members to stay overnight in the hotel to minimise problems with gaining entry to the venue.

Hannelore Kraft, state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, where the conference is taking place, and Green party leader Cem Ozdemir are due to speak at an anti-AfD rally on Saturday.

The two-day conference comes just days after AfD leader Frauke Petry ruled herself out of spearheading the party’s campaign for the September election.

Her dramatic move brought to a head a long-running internal party power struggle, which pitted Petry against the party’s right-wingers.

The AfD delegates attending the conference are likely to sign off on the party’s election manifesto but will have to set aside months of tensions and turmoil to agree on a team to lead the campaign.

Petry has also placed a controversial motion before congress calling on the party to adopt a realpolitik approach, with the aim of transforming the AfD into a mainstream party open to coalition.

Founded in 2013 on a eurosceptic platform, the AfD has railed against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in more than one million refugees to Germany since 2015.

In May 2016 AfD backed an election manifesto that says Islam is not compatible with the German constitution and the party also supported a call to ban minarets on mosques and the full-face veil.

AfD made huge gains in a state election in September, receiving about 21 percent of votes in the eastern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern region, beating Merkel’s party to take second place.

Rising anti-refugee rhetoric has been matched by rising violence against refugees in Germany.

The interior minister said in February that Germany recorded more than 3,500 attacks in total against refugees, migrants and their shelters in 2016, amounting to nearly 10 acts of violence a day: a sharp rise on previous years.

OPINION: The end of German populist exceptionalism

But AfD’s populairity has declined as the number of new refugee arrivals has dwindled, mainly due to border closures on the Balkan overland route and an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow.

All of Germany’s mainstream parties have ruled out working with the AfD should it clear the five-percent hurdle to representation in the election.

Opinion polls show the AfD at between seven and 11 percent, a steep drop from the 15 percent support it drew only late last year.

Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan, reporting from Cologne, said it was questionnable whether the AfD would make it into parliament in the upcoming elections.

“In recent months they’ve had internal divisions, which have hamstrung them a little bit,” said Brennan. “And the other thing is that, as they have grown, opposition against them has also grown.”

Brennan said that, while the party as a whole has generally tried to avoid controversy, many individual AfD members have publicly taken positions that many find offensive.

“The feeling among many critics is that individuals within the party are essentially neo-Nazis, and clearly in Germany that’s a very sensitive issue,” Brennan said.

Some scuffles had already occurred on Saturday between protesters and police – most of whom are in full riot gear – as tensions were high in the city, which is regarded as widely liberal.

“People are very angry that the AfD are here, they are determined to try to stop delegates reaching the hotel. It’s going to be a very tense day,” Brannan said.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 22, 2017
Dutch ‘abortion boat’ arrives off the coast of Mexico

{Women on Waves says it is offering free, legal, medical abortions till nine weeks of pregnancy in international waters.}

A Dutch sailing boat offering abortions has arrived in international waters off Mexico’s west coast, according to the organisation which operates it.

The vessel, which operates often in defiance of some countries’ laws, took up position on Friday off Guerrero state on Mexico’s southern Pacific coast.

Women on Waves, a non-profit group, said in an online statement that it was offering “free legal medical abortions till nine weeks of pregnancy” to women who needed them. It said its ship “has all required permits” and would receive women until Sunday.

It noted that Mexico permits abortions in cases of sexual violence. Abortion is limited in other cases to different degrees across the 31 Mexican states.

In a media conference given in the Mexican coastal town of Ixtapa, Women on Waves president Rebecca Gomperts said access to safe abortions was a matter of “social justice” in Latin America, especially after the Zika crisis which increases the risk of birth deformities.

On board the Dutch boat, women are given abortion pills and remain under observation for a few hours before returning to shore on small vessels. The female crew does not perform surgical abortions.

The abortion pill, also known as a medical abortion, combines two medicines – mifepristone and misoprostol – that induce a miscarriage.

Recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a safe and effective way to terminate pregnancy, every year around 26 million women worldwide use this drug combination, the WHO says.

{{Botched abortions}}

According to the WHO, around 47,000 women die from botched abortions each year, accounting for almost 13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide.

Women who do not live in Mexico City, where abortion has been legal since 2007, along with women who cannot afford to travel to the capital risk their lives by having illegal and often unsafe abortions, rights groups say.

“It’s absurd that according to geography, where women live in Mexico determines … if they can access a legal and safe abortion,” said Regina Tames, head of Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), a Mexican women’s rights group.

Tames said women in predominantly Catholic Mexico who want to end their pregnancies struggle to access a legal abortion because doctors are often unwilling to carry out the procedure or they have not been trained.

“Access to abortion in cases of rape is really quite limited,” Tames told Reuters news agency.

The Women on Waves group has previously sent its ship to waters off Guatemala, Ireland,Morocco, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

The boat’s last voyage in February to Guatemala sparked controversy after it was detained by Guatemala’s army and expelled without carrying out a single pregnancy termination.

In October 2012 the Moroccan navy blocked the ship from entering the port of Smir.

Women on Waves said it had been invited to Morocco by a youth group called Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms to inform women about how to induce “safe legal medical abortions,” offer the necessary medication and start a discussion on legalising the practice in Morocco.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 22, 2017
Mob attack over blasphemy claim in Pakistan’s Chitral

{Policemen injured in third such incident this month following a student’s killing by a mob and shooting of faith healer.}

A mob attacked a man accused of blasphemy during Friday prayers in a northern Pakistani town and injured six police officers after they intervened to rescue him.

It was the third blasphemy-related incident in the country this month after a student was beaten to death by a lynch mob and a faith healer was shot dead.

Security officials in Chitral fired tear gas and live rounds on the mob, injuring eight protesters, after they attacked the local police headquarters and demanded that alleged blasphemer Rashid Ahmed be made available for mob justice.

“We told them that Ahmed will be examined medically and if he was found mentally fit then he will be tried under the blasphemy law, but the mob was not satisfied,” Akbar Ali Shah, the local police chief, said.

Shah said he had asked for army assistance to help control the crowds, but a Reuters news agency correspondent at the scene said soldiers had yet to arrive.

Witnesses said Ahmed entered the local mosque asking to make an important announcement, then declared himself a messiah and said he would lead his followers to paradise.

An angry congregation then turned violent and attacked Ahmed, who Shah said appeared to be suffering from mental illness. He suffered a beating, but police said his injuries were not life-threatening.

{{Women’s confession}}

In a separate development on Friday, police in the capital Islamabad said three female friends in a rare incident had confessed to killing a man for alleged blasphemy, just days after he returned from living in hiding abroad for 13 years.

Police Inspector Nadeem Ashraf, who is investigating the case, told the Associated Press news agency that the women were arrested this week for killing Fazal Abbas, who fled Pakistan in 2004 following accusations of blasphemy.

Ashraf said the women went to the man’s home and shot him to death on Wednesday.

Ashraf identified the women by their names and quoted them as saying that they would have killed Abbas earlier had he not fled the country.

Ashraf said Abbas was being sought by Pakistani police in connection with a blasphemy case dating back to 2004.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan. Insulting Prophet Muhammad carries a judicial death sentence and, increasingly, the threat of extrajudicial murder by vigilantes.

Nearly 70 people have been killed in connection with blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to a tally maintained by Al Jazeera.

Pakistan’s government has been vocal on the issue of blasphemy, with Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, issuing an order last month for the removal of blasphemous content online and saying anyone who posted it should face “strict punishment under the law”.

Police are investigating more than 20 students and some faculty members in connection with the killing of Mashal Khan, a student who was beaten to death on April 13 in an attack that shocked the country.

Since then, parliament has discussed adding safeguards to the blasphemy laws, a move seen as groundbreaking in Pakistan where political leaders have been assassinated for even discussing changes.

Source:Al Jazeera

April 22, 2017