Tag: InternationalNews

{Hundreds arrested after “Fight for $15” rallies take place in cities and at some airports across the United States.}

Hundreds of people, including a number of officials, have been arrested across the United States for taking part in protests calling for a higher national minimum wage and more labour union rights, organisers say.

Demonstrations affiliated with “Fight for $15” – a US-based international movement seeking a minimum wage of $15-per hour for low-paid workers – took place on Tuesday in hundreds of US cities, including the commercial hubs of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

It was the largest Fight for $15 day of demonstration since the movement was launched in 2012. Protests were planned in 340 US cities and at 20 airports across the country.

Although more than half of all US states have higher minimum wages than the national level of $7.25 per hour, none have $15 – which senior government officials have introduced a bill in support of.

On Tuesday, workers from the aviation, restaurant, and healthcare industries, as well as university and college faculty, were among the thousands of protesters.

The city of Chicago saw some of the largest demonstrations, which took place outside a McDonald’s restaurant, a major hospital, and the O’Hare international airport.

A member of the Fight for $15’s Chicago chapter, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera 60 people were arrested after hundreds of protesters blocked a major intersection near McDonald’s.

At O’Hare airport, more than 2,000 workers – including security guards, baggage handlers, janitors and cabin cleaners – protested inside and outside of the terminal, but flights were not disrupted, he said.

In New York City, police cracked down on a large protest organised by 32BJ – the country’s biggest service industry union that backs the Fight for $15 movement – arresting dozens of demonstrators, including four elected officials who protested in solidarity.

Mark Levine, a city council member who was one of the detained officials, said in a statement made prior to his arrest: “Fast food employees and taxi drivers deserve far better wages and opportunities than they currently have.”

“Civil disobedience demonstrations such as this have a storied and successful past in the history of labour’s advancement in America,” he was quoted as saying in an email sent to Al Jazeera.

“That is why I am proud to stand today and risk arrest with hundreds of dedicated 32BJ members, because we have an obligation to set the highest standards for all workers. The Fight for 15 is a cause worth fighting for. It’s a cause worth getting arrested for,” Levine said.

Jason Surbey, a spokesman for the US Department of Labor, told Al Jazeera that President Barack Obama’s administration has pushed for a higher federal minimum wage and encouraged states to raise workers’ salaries.

He also said the government “pushed for paid sick-leave policies for low-wage workers, and more than doubled the salary threshold under which workers are automatically eligible for overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours per week”.

“The department has also been engaged in a robust enforcement effort targeting wage violations, which are common in low-wage industries, to ensure workers receive the wages to which they are legally entitled,” Surbey added.

But many fear president-elect Donald Trump – who said during his election campaign that workers’ wages were already “too high” and putting US companies at a “competitive disadvantage” in the global trade arena – could reverse Obama’s wage initiatives.

{Passengers included Brazilian football team Chapocoense, who were headed to a regional tournament final in Medellin.}

A plane with 81 people on board, including players from a Brazilian football team heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final, has crashed on its way to Medellin’s airport.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the Jose Maria Cordova International Airport said at least six survivors had been rescued at the site, which could only be accessed by land due to harsh weather conditions.

The Chapocoense football team was among 72 passengers and 9 crew on board the aircraft.

Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota, said the flight crashed in a mountainous region.

“There have been heavy rains day in and day out in the last week or so. That could have played a big role in the crash, but that is still unconfirmed,” he said.

Medillin’s Mayor Federico Gutierrez said he was on his way to the region where the chartered aircraft was believed to have crashed shortly before midnight local time.

“It’s a tragedy of huge proportions,” he told Blu Radio.

It was not clear what caused the crash of the aircraft, a British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, but, as reported by Rampietti, Colombia had been hit by heavy rains and thunderstorms in recent hours.

Data from the FlightRadar24.com website showed the plane circling before eventually disappearing south of Rio Negro.

Medellin’s airport confirmed that the aircraft, which made a stop in Bolivia, was transporting the first division Chapecoense team from southern Brazil.

The team was scheduled to play Wednesday in the first of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin.

A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed players preparing for the flight earlier on Monday in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport.

After the incident, the team published an update on Facebook in which it said players, staff, journalists and guests were among those travelling with the club on the plane.

The team, from the small city of Chapeco, joined Brazil’s first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it to the Copa Sudamericana finals last week by defeating Argentina’s legendary San Lorenzo squad.

Al Jazeera senior sports presenter Andy Richardson described the team as “a rare model of organisational success” that was “lauded as an example of how to run a club”.

He added: “They were seen as a real success story of the last three or four years in Brazilian football.”

In a statement released on Tuesday, CONMEBOL, the South American Football Federation, announced it had suspended all activities until further notice.

{Protest camp leaders reject North Dakota governor’s order to cease direct action against proposed oil pipeline.}

North Dakota’s governor has ordered the expulsion of thousands of Native American and solidarity activists camped on government property near an oil pipeline project they are trying to stop, citing hazards posed by harsh winter weather as a blizzard bore down on the area.

The “emergency evacuation” order from Governor Jack Dalrymple came days after the US Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the site, said it would give the demonstrators until December 5 to vacate their encampment, about 45 miles (72 km) south of Bismarck, the state capital.

Over the weekend, the US Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement that it was “seeking a peaceful and orderly transition to a safer location”, but had “no plans for forcible removal” of protesters.

Dalrymple’s evacuation order came a week after local law enforcement sought to disperse the demonstrators, many of them members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, by spraying them with water in sub-freezing temperatures.

A spokeswoman for the tribe, whose reservation lies about half a mile (0.8km) from the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline, did not have an immediate comment.

But activists who have spent months protesting against plans to route the oil pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock reservation have vowed to continue their resistance to a project they say poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

The governor cited the protesters’ own wellbeing in ordering a mandatory evacuation, though he did not specify how he intended to enforce the measure, other than by directing state and local agencies to refuse emergency assistance and other services to those who remained at the site.

He said the order was effective immediately and would remain in force “until rescinded”.

“Winter conditions have the potential to endanger human life, especially when they are exposed to these conditions without proper shelter, dwellings or sanitation for prolonged periods of time,” the order said.

It added that the area, just north of the Cannonball River, was “not zoned for dwellings suitable for living in winter conditions.”

{{‘Forced removal is terrifying’}}

Many protest leaders rejected the order, arguing that a forced removal would put the activists in greater danger.

“We’re in the heart of winter now. To even think of a forced removal is terrifying,” said Dallas Goldtooth, an organiser with Indigenous Environmental Network, who estimated there were around 5,000 people in the camp.

“They don’t need to be worried about us in the winter,” said Kandi Mossett, also a member of the network. “We’re perfectly capable of being self-sufficient. So, using this as an excuse is insulting.”

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier added to the pressure on Monday by issuing a video statement urging protesters to avoid subjecting themselves to “life-threatening conditions” by remaining exposed to the elements with little shelter.

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm warning for most of western and central North Dakota, forecasting the possibility of heavy snow through Wednesday.

The $3.8bn, 1,172-mile (1,885km) pipeline project is complete, except for a segment that is supposed to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

The Obama administration in September postponed final approval of an Army Corps permit required to allow tunnelling beneath the lake, a move intended to give federal officials more time to consult with tribal leaders. The delay also led to escalating tensions over the project.

The companies say the pipeline would carry Bakken shale oil more cheaply and safely from North Dakota to Illinois en route to US Gulf Coast refineries than it could be shipped by railroad or tanker trucks.

More than 5.1 million people in the US identify as fully or partially Native American or Alaska Native, according to the US Census Bureau. Up to 2.5 million identify as fully indigenous Native American or Alaska Native.

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, a human rights organisation, said the US government had a lengthy history of “criminalis[ing] indigenous rights defenders’ struggle for respect”.

“We strongly appeal to the US government to immediately cease the use of violence against those protesting at the Dakota Access Pipeline, refrain from militarisation and other forcible actions against the Native American protesters,” the group said in a statement.

{The German airline slashes hundreds of flights after failing to block latest strike with temporary court injunction.}

Lufthansa will cancel more than 1,700 flights scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday owing to a fresh strike by pilots in a long-running dispute about pay as a union representing the German airline’s pilots resumes a campaign of strikes.

The Cockpit union has called out members scheduled to fly short-haul routes from Germany on Tuesday and is adding long-haul routes to the walkout on Wednesday.

Lufthansa says it’s scrapping 816 flights on Tuesday and another 890 on Wednesday, affecting around 82,000 and 98,000 passengers respectively.

Cockpit’s latest walkout follows four consecutive days of strikes from Wednesday to Saturday last week. It is part of a pay dispute that has festered for more than two years.

Nearly 2,800 flights were cancelled in last week’s walkout, the 14th strike in a pay dispute that since early 2014 has cost the carrier hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lufthansa sought an injunction on Monday from a Munich labour court halting Tuesday’s walkout but the court refused to grant it.

The airline also failed to convince two Frankfurt courts to halt last week’s strikes.

Lufthansa said it was “examining further possible legal steps”.

Philippines president blasts calls for his trial at the international criminal court over bloody crackdown on drugs.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte denounced what he called “bulls***” Western threats to seek his indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his role in a bloody crackdown on drug dealers.

In a speech on Monday, Duterte, who has been accused of ordering extrajudicial killings in his anti-narcotics campaign since taking office in June, scolded the US government for what he called hypocritical threats to try him in the Hague-based tribunal, to which Washington is not a signatory.

Duterte’s “war on drugs” has been linked to more than 2,500 deaths over the last five months.

The United States chose not to sign the ICC’s Rome Statute to protect former President George W Bush, Duterte said, without elaborating.

“America itself is threatening to jail me in the International Criminal Court,” Duterte said. “It is not a signatory of that body. Why? Because at that time, they were afraid Bush would face it.”

US state department spokesman, John Kirby said in a news briefing on Monday he was not aware of any such threat.

An ICC prosecutor last month said the international court may have jurisdiction to prosecute the perpetrators of Philippines killings.

“You scare me that you will jail me? International Criminal Court? Bulls***,” Duterte said during a speech.

For months, Duterte has been ridiculing concerns that extrajudicial killings could be taking place in his drugs war, and the US, EU and UN have been the preferred targets of his comments.

Duterte, a former mayor and prosecutor, said lawyers in Europe were “rotten”, “stupid”, and had a “brain like a pea”.

This month, Duterte said he might follow Russia’s move to withdraw from the ICC, describing it as “useless”.

He said the West has failed to comprehend the gravity of the Philippines’ methamphetamine problem, adding he is ready to “rot in jail” to achieve his goals.

There is nothing wrong with threatening to kill bad elements, he reiterated on Monday.

“I will never allow my country to be thrown to the dogs,” Duterte said. “I said, when I was a mayor, ‘If you destroy my city with drugs, I will kill you.’”

{Iraqi politician Khamis Khanjar says his Turkey-trained Nineveh Guards Force should spearhead Mosul attack on ISIL.}

Iraq is at risk of partition and the worst sectarian bloodletting since the 2003 US-led invasion, if Shia paramilitary units get involved in the fight against ISIL for Mosul, a senior Iraqi politician warned.

Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation forces, or Hashid al-Shaabi in Arabic, are supported by the Shia-led Baghdad government and want to play a bigger role in the offensive to regain ISIL’s last major stronghold in Iraq.

But Khamis Khanjar, a Sunni politician and businessman who financed the 3,000 strong Turkish-trained force known as the Nineveh Guards Force, said it should lead the offensive, alongside the Iraqi army, and take control of the city after ISIL is driven out.

“Everyone is looking for salvation from Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIL] … but after Daesh is defeated a new dangerous phase will begin, if the United States and the government do not address Sunni grievances. This could threaten the future of the Iraqi state,” Khanjar said, in an interview with Reuters news agency in Amman, Jordan.

“The fear for the future of the country, the threat, is more than any other time.”

Mosul is already ringed to the north, south, and east by Iraqi government and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraq’s US-trained Counter Terrorism Service breached ISIL’s defences in east Mosul at the end of October.

Khanjar, who has close ties with regional powers Turkey, the Gulf states and Jordan and aspirations to lead the Sunni community, said the consequences of Hashid al-Shaabi entering the city would be catastrophic.

International human rights groups and the UN Human Rights Commissioner have accused the Shia militia of abuses against Sunni civilians in towns and villages retaken from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“The fear is the repeat of the same massacres and ugly violations committed by the Hashid al-Shaabi,” Khanjar said.

Hashid al-Shaabi leaders deny their groups mistreat civilians.

Khanjar said the Nineveh Guards Force, which is mainly drawn from the Mosul area, was ready to fight.

“They are present in the thousands,” said Khanjar, who met the forces and their commanders recently, adding their presence would assuage widespread fears of revenge attacks.

He said the failure of the Baghdad government to support the force, and lack of US support, was a mistake that fueled suspicions that Sunni concerns were not being addressed in the Mosul campaign.

Some of Iraq’s top Sunni leaders will meet in Amman this week to chart a political strategy to present to key Kurdish and Shia political parties, he said.

Sunni Muslims, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein, accuse Shia leaders of marginalising them through sectarian policies, allegations Baghdad’s Shia-led government denies.

Khanjar said he supported a federation in which Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country, without a formal break up.

“All the laws make the complexion of the state a religious Shia one, where Sunnis are more marginalised so we have no solution but to go to autonomous regions to protect us – or else partition,” Khanjar said.

{Government takes two key neighbourhoods as bombing raids on rebel areas intensify in and around the major city.}

The Syrian army has said it had captured two districts of the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo city in two days, as government air raids continued to target opposition-held parts of the country.

The army said it and its allies had taken full control of the Jabal Badro and Baadeen districts on Sunday, a day after capturing Hanano, a neighbouring residential district.

The fighting has now moved to neighbouring districts, including Haidariya and Sakhur.

Aleppo, which was Syria’s biggest city before the start of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, is divided between the government-held west and rebel-held east, where UN officials say at least 250,000 people remain under siege.

The capture of Jabal Badro came as opposition activists reported tens of civilian casualties from a presumed government or Russian bombing raid on a village outside Aleppo.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network reported 15 civilians were killed and tens mroe wounded in a Russian air raid on the rebel-held village of Anjara on Sunday.

READ MORE: Inside east Aleppo’s last hospital – ‘No space to walk’

The opposition usually identifies planes by their silhouettes and home base.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of informants in Syria to monitor the war, said the attack was accompanied by raids on other opposition-held villages in the Aleppo countryside.

Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border on Sunday, said a Syrian government strategy of using “brute force seems to be working.”

He added that the fall of Jabal Badro and Hanano could have a “domino effect” on other parts of the besieged city.

As the government offensive continued in opposition neighbourhoods of the city, around 400 people have fled to areas under government control, the monitoring group said on Sunday.

An additional 30 families fled to Sheikh Maqsoud, which is under Kurdish control, it added.

Syrian state media also reported that hundreds of families had vacated areas under rebel control.

Al Jazeera’s bin Javaid said civilians continued to pour out of the besieged part of the city.

“Thousands have fled the Hanano neighbourhood and other areas near the frontlines towards the central parts,” he said. “But the air strikes in the last 13 days have relentlessly targetted anything that moves, be it ambulances or rescue workers. Hospitals have been destroyed and people have very little food and medicine.”

{{‘Too many are dying’}}

Capturing all of Aleppo would be a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after five and a half years of fighting.

The Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel reported from Aleppo on Sunday morning, showing workers and soldiers clearing debris against a backdrop of bombed-out buildings on both sides of the street.

Al-Manar is a media outlet affiliated with Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group aligned with the Syrian government.

The UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF) warned on Sunday that nearly 500,000 children were now living under siege in Syria, cut off from food and medical aid, mostly in areas under government control.

That figure has doubled in less than a year, UNICEF said, and many are now spending their days underground, as hospitals, schools and homes remain vulnerable to aerial bombardment.

“Children are being killed and injured, too afraid to go to school or even play, surviving with little food and hardly any medicine,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said.

“This is no way to live — and too many are dying.”

{Two arrested after late-night shooting in French Quarter where thousands had gathered for an American football game.}

One person was killed and nine others wounded in a shooting in the historic French Quarter of the southern US city of New Orleans, police said.

Gunfire broke out on Bourbon Street, a popular party area in the city’s historic street, around 0130 (0630 GMT), striking eight men and two women, the Times Picayune newspaper reported.

Around 30 officers were rushed to the scene following the shooting.

“The victims in this incident range in age from 20 to 37 years old,” New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) said in a statement.

“Eight of the victims are males, including the deceased victim, while two victims are females.

“NOPD officers made two arrests at the scene, both males, for illegal carrying of weapons charges. One of the arrested individuals was identified as a victim in the incident, who is being treated for his injuries. The second arrest was an unrelated individual found to be in illegal possession of a handgun at the scene.”

Thousands of outsiders have poured into the French Quarter this weekend as New Orleans hosts the Bayou Classic, an annual American football game between two rival Louisiana state universities.

“Very tragic, unacceptable set of circumstances,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at the scene.

“Totally unacceptable. The violence continues to spin out of control.”

{Sadness on Havana’s streets for late leader while in US state of Florida celebrations continue in Miami’s Little Havana.}

Cuban students waving flags broke into a mass chant of “I am Fidel” to salute Fidel Castro as nine days of mourning began for the Cold War icon, who dominated the island’s political life for generations.

Alcohol sales were suspended, flags flew at half-staff and shows and concerts were cancelled after his younger brother and successor, President Raul Castro, told the country on Friday that Fidel had died at 10:29pm, without giving a cause of death.

Giant rallies are planned in Havana’s Revolution Square and in the eastern city of Santiago to honour Castro, who died aged 90, six decades after the brothers set out from Mexico to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista.

Newspapers on the island of 11 million people were printed in black ink to mourn Fidel, instead of the usual red of the official Communist Party daily Granma, and the blue of Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), the paper of the Communist youth.

There was no heightened military or police presence to mark the passing of the epochal revolutionary leader, and at Havana University, Castro’s alma mater, hundreds of students gathered to wave huge Cuban flags and shout “Viva Fidel and Viva Raul”.

Laydis Valdes, a 43-year-old, pulls a gas canister in El Cerro, a residential district of Havana. Her building does not have a gas connection. Like many in Cuba, she has to walk a few blocks and show her rations book to pick up her month’s supply.

“I’m distraught. The news hit me really hard,” she told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

“Fidel fought and struggled for us so much. He’s like a father figure to us. I found out about his death when I turned on the TV yesterday morning. We were so shocked. My husband and I started to cry.

“We informed the neighbours and then went outside. There was already a small crowd on the streets. there were lots of tears and lots of emotion. My husband started to feel sick. I had to take him to the hospital.”

Life in Havana went on largely as normal, only quieter and more subdued.

Street vendors sold food and handcrafts from stalls to passers-by, while 1950s Chevrolets full of dents and held together by makeshift repairs cruised by, crammed with passengers.

Nevertheless, Saturday was a day for reflection.

Castro’s remains were cremated, and his ashes will be taken around Cuba until a state funeral on December 4.

Diplomatic officials said foreign dignitaries will arrive by Tuesday for a memorial service to be held in Revolution Square that evening.

Ninety-year-old Chile Rosas is of a mixed race. He will not be going to any of the official events to mourn El Caballo.

“Fidel was a great orator, and he knew how to play with the psychology of crowds,” he said.

“I never went to the Plaza de la Revolucion when he spoke. I’m not particularly sad about his passing. We all have it coming.

“At the end of the day, what’s going to change,” he added while gesturing to the overflowing bins and the long queue where his neighbours wait under the Caribbean sun.

“Tomorrow, there will still be potholes in the streets and queues for bread.”

There will be no top level games of baseball – Castro’s passion after politics – for the nine-day period of mourning, the sport’s national federation declared.

Cuban state television, student associations and the women’s federation had organised smaller rallies to mourn Fidel Castro and pledge their support to the revolution.

In Florida, on the other hand, Fidel Castro’s death has prompted an emotional and long-awaited celebration among the city’s Cuban-American community.

Peaceful demonstrators waved flags and honked car horns, many cheering with joy and others weeping for family members who did not live to see this day.

Shortly after Castro’s death was announced on Saturday, thousands poured into the streets of Miami’s Little Havana, banging pots with spoons, waving Cuban flags and setting off fireworks.

They see Fidel Castro’s death as a sign that a generation that has ruled Cuba for nearly 60 years is passing from the world stage.

But others caution that much work remains to enact change in Cuba.

Sensing the historic moment, younger revelers streamed the event on Facebook Live, posted pictures on Instagram, and broadcast the celebrations on FaceTime and Skype to friends and relatives on the island.

Little Havana and Hialeah – areas where many Cuban exiles settled – saw people dance, hug, and exchange comments like “it took so long,” and “now it’s Raul’s turn”.

“Cuba Libre” – Free Cuba – has been a rallying cry for exiles ever since the Castro brothers took over Cuba in 1959. The rum and Coke drink of the same name, however, predates the Castro era.

About two million Cubans live in the US, nearly 70 percent of them in Florida.

{Qamar Javed Bajwa replaces Raheel Sharif as powerful chief of army staff amid domestic and external security challenges.}

General Raheel Sharif is due to step down next week as Pakistan’s COAS, or chief of army staff, when his three-year term expires on November 29.

In his place, Lieutenant-General Qamar Javed Bajwa has been appointed in a relatively uneventful transition in accordance with the constitution.

The change of guard at the top has been unusually smooth considering that the military has played a prominent role in Pakistan’s politics since its independence in 1947, staging three coups.

Bajwa’s appointment comes at a time when relations between India and Pakistan are under stress amid prolonged cross-border shelling along their international border.

In Pakistan, under the constitution, the prime minister is the head of the country’s executive, but the army controls domestic-security issues, the spy agency [the Directorate-General for Inter-Services Intelligence, better known as ISI] and the nation’s defence and foreign policies.

Saturday’s announcement by Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan prime minister, is being described by some analysts as amounting to placing Pakistan’s civil-military relations finally on an even keel.

“General Bajwa, whom I have met a few times, is someone who will not interfere a lot in the civilian government’s matters,” Lieutenant-General (retd) Talat Masood, a defence analyst, told Al Jazeera.

“He will no doubt give his advice on certain things but will not dominate the political scene, which will prove to be very helpful in terms of [the military’s] relationship with the [civilian] government.”

Bajwa was chosen over at least three contenders: Lieutenant-General Zubair Hayat, the army’s chief of general staff, who was previously responsible for the security of the country’s nuclear programme; Lieutenant-General Ishfaq Nadeem, commander of the II Corps, Multan, who was viewed by many as the favourite for the job; and Lieutenant-General Javed Iqbal Ramday, commander of the Bahawalpur Corps.

Bajwa’s current designation is inspector general (training and evaluation) at the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan army, a position Raheel also held before he became the COAS.

Extensive experience

As a former general officer in command (GOC) of the X Corps, Rawalpindi, the army’s largest, which is responsible for the area along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, Bajwa is believed to have extensive experience in handling matters relating to the region and the northern areas.

With cross-border shelling along the LoC that began in September showing no sign of ebbing, Bajwa’s former military colleagues tell Al Jazeera, it is possible that he will try to arrange a ceasefire between the two sides.

Lieutenant-Colonel (retd) Muhammad Irfan, who served with Bajwa in 1984 in the Northern Light Infantry (NLI) unit, which has the primary ground-operations responsibility for the northern areas, says Bajwa will “fight back with full force if the attacks from the other side of the border do not stop”.

“India is the one attacking our soldiers, killing civilians too, at the LoC. It is the [Indians] who are taking the heat, not us. So if India does not agree to the conditions of a ceasefire, or a ceasefire at all, I think Bajwa is someone who will take rapid action against it,” he told Al Jazeera.

On the other hand, Bajwa also served, in 2007, with a UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a brigade commander alongside Bikram Singh, an Indian general who was a UN forces division commander there before going on to become his country’s army chief.

Speaking to the New Indian Express daily, Ranjeet Rai, an Indian defence expert, said: “[Bajwa] takes over when a mortar war is going on between India and Pakistan along the international border and along the LoC.

“Now, he has two options: He can either stop terrorism or control the mortar firing from Pakistan or will he continue the old army chief’s policies.

“He will definitely carry General Sharif’s legacy forward and the decisions [Sharif] has taken to fight terrorism in the country. He is indeed a firm opponent of extremism and terrorism.”

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper says Bajwa may prove even more forceful in the fight against domestic armed groups than Raheel Sharif, who is credited with launching Operation Zarb-e-Azb in an effort to wipe out the fighters and their bases in North Waziristan.

Cleary, in his new post Bajwa will have his plate full, from the border tension with India and the escalating violence in Afghanistan to the increasing networking among homegrown armed groups and the implications of a Donald Trump-led US administration.

“There will be some minor differences here and there” between what Bajwa has done so far and what he will do as the COAS, Masood, the defence analyst, told Al Jazeera.

“However, we all know he has a very brilliant record of service.”