Indian opposition accuses BJP of turning country into ‘surveillance state’

India’s Congress Party held a press conference and demonstrations in New Delhi on Wednesday to demand the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah. (AP)
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Updated 22 July 2021
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Indian opposition accuses BJP of turning country into ‘surveillance state’

  • They are experts at creating ‘fiction,’ says ruling party spokesman

NEW DELHI: India’s main opposition Congress Party continued countrywide protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, accusing him of turning India into a “surveillance state” following reports that dozens of opposition leaders, journalists, civil society activists and judges were the potential targets of snooping by Israeli-made spyware Pegasus.

The leaked list, which was shared by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based nonprofit, and rights group Amnesty International, showed that at least 1,000 phone numbers of high-profile Indians were hacked through the spyware. These include two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three important opposition leaders, one sitting judge and scores of businesspersons and activists.
Senior leader of the Congress Party Rahul Gandhi and two aides were among those who were targeted by the Israeli-made spyware.
On Wednesday, the party held a press conference to demand the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah and accountability for the snooping.
“You (Narendra Modi) are trying to turn a democratic state into a surveillance state,” Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamta Banerjee told a large gathering in Kolkata. “Three things make democracy — media, judiciary and the Election Commission — and Pegasus has captured all three.”

SPEEDREAD

• The leaked list showed that at least 1,000 phone numbers of high-profile Indians were hacked through the spyware.

• These include two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three important opposition leaders, one sitting judge and scores of businesspersons and activists.

Gandhi’s mobile was hacked during the 2019 general elections when he was the main challenger to Modi, according to a Congress Party spokesman.
“Is spying on India’s security forces, judiciary, Cabinet ministers, opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, journalists and other activities through a foreign entity’s spyware not treason and an inexcusable dismantling of national security?” Congress Party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Indian news portal The Wire, one of the 16 media consortiums investigating the leak, revealed on Tuesday that senior Karnataka politicians and their personal assistants were selected as potential targets for surveillance in 2018-19 when the opposition coalition government was pulled down and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) installed its own government by engineering defections in the opposition camps.
“It’s not merely spying on individuals to defame or control them. It is a sinister conspiracy to destroy democracy and establish dictatorship,” Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Party leader in the upper house of parliament, told reporters on Tuesday.
The Modi government has called the report false and baseless.
Sudesh Verma, a spokesman for Modi’s ruling BJP party, told Arab News on Wednesday that Indian opposition parties were experts at creating “fiction.”
“If the mobile phones of anyone have been hacked, they should take legal recourse to find the truth,” Verma said. “The government does not need such spyware to snoop on its citizens.”
Pegasus spyware uses a sophisticated method of attack called zero-click attacks, by which it can infect smartphones without users’ knowledge and access virtually all their data.


Japan ‘seriously concerned’ after Iran stops cooperating with IAEA

Updated 7 sec ago
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Japan ‘seriously concerned’ after Iran stops cooperating with IAEA

  • ‘The engagement of the IAEA is essential for resolving Iran’s nuclear issue,’ the Japanese Foreign Ministry says

TOKYO: Japan has expressed “serious concern” over Iran’s decision to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Japan attaches great importance to the activities of the IAEA in verifying Iran’s nuclear program and expresses serious concern over this announcement,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

“The engagement of the IAEA is essential for resolving Iran’s nuclear issue.”

Iranian authorities announced on Wednesday that they would no longer cooperate with the agency. Japan had been urging Iran to continue to cooperate with the IAEA and said all necessary diplomatic efforts to achieve this will go on, in cooperation with the international community and relevant organizations.

“Japan has consistently emphasized the importance of resolving Iran’s nuclear issue through dialogue, based on the position that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons must never be allowed, for the sake of maintaining the international nuclear non-proliferation regime,” the Foreign Ministry added.


Ex-Labour chief could form pro-Palestine party in UK

Updated 20 min ago
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Ex-Labour chief could form pro-Palestine party in UK

  • Corbyn in talks with Independent Alliance MPs elected in 2024 for opposing Gaza war
  • Jeremy Corbyn: That grouping will come together. There will be an alternative

LONDON: Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has suggested he could launch a political movement to provide a left-wing “alternative” to the governing party before the next general election.

Corbyn was suspended from Labour in 2020 by the UK’s current Prime Minister Keir Starmer due to a row over antisemitism. 

He has since sat as an independent MP, and has hinted at a desire to form a new group centered around socialist policies with a pro-Palestine stance.

Corbyn told ITV’s “Peston” political show that he is holding discussions with members of the Independent Alliance, who were elected last year by running on pro-Palestine platforms against Labour MPs.

The alliance includes Leicester South MP Shockat Adam; Birmingham Perry Barr MP Ayoub Khan; Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain; and Dewsbury and Batley MP Iqbal Mohamed.

“That grouping will come together. There will be an alternative,” Corbyn said, adding that its foreign policy platform would be “based on peace rather than war,” and that it would seek to alleviate poverty and inequality.


Denmark vows to push EU membership for Ukraine

Updated 56 min 51 sec ago
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Denmark vows to push EU membership for Ukraine

  • "We must strengthen Ukraine. And we must weaken Russia," Frederiksen said
  • Zelensky is meeting Frederiksen in the city of Aarhus, as well as European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa

AARHUS, Denmark: Denmark promised on Thursday to push for Ukraine to join the EU, as the Nordic country welcomed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to mark the start of its six-month EU presidency.

Ukraine launched its bid to become an EU member in the aftermath of Russia's 2022 invasion, but it has stalled because of opposition from Hungary.

"We must strengthen Ukraine. And we must weaken Russia," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement, promising to mix increased military support to Kyiv with sanctions on Moscow.

Zelensky is meeting Frederiksen in the city of Aarhus, as well as European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.

Frederiksen has stressed the importance of European security, which she links to a strict migration policy, and the country has promised to push the agenda and champion Ukraine during its EU presidency.

The Aarhus meeting comes as the United States announced it would stop supplying some weapons to Ukraine, after President Donald Trump effectively nixed the country's attempts to join the NATO military alliance.

Russian strikes have intensified in the absence of progress on resolving the conflict, and the US moves have severely hampered Kyiv, which has relied on Western military support since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

"Ukraine is essential to Europe's security. Our contribution to Ukraine is also a protection of our freedom," Frederiksen said.

"Ukraine belongs in the European Union. It is in both Denmark's and Europe's interest. Therefore, the Danish EU presidency will do everything we can to help Ukraine on their way towards EU membership."

Denmark's Europe minister Marie Bjerre told reporters earlier on Thursday that Ukraine's EU membership bid was "very important for us".

"We are still trying to lift the resistance from Hungary," she said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Ukraine's membership of the EU would "ruin" the 27-nation bloc.

Using its veto power, Hungary has effectively frozen the accession process.

Ukraine has insisted it still hopes Budapest can be brought around, claiming intensive work is being done "behind the scenes".

The Danish government said discussions at the Aarhus meeting would include increased military support, cooperation with the Ukrainian defence industry and new sanctions against Russia.

The Nordic nation has also made repeated calls for Europe to boost defence spending.

Denmark wants to move forward on a European plan presented in March to increase the defence capabilities of EU countries using simplified procedures and loans to finance investments in the European defence industry.

The Scandinavian country has already begun increasing its own defence spending, which now exceeds three percent of GDP.


Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director

Updated 56 min 32 sec ago
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Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director

  • Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, renowned cardiac surgeon, was killed in targeted Israeli airstrike
  • Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and health workers in Gaza since October 2023

JAKARTA/DUBAI: Israel’s assassination of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, has sparked shock in Jakarta, with parliamentarians calling for new international accountability mechanisms to hold Israel legally responsible for its crimes in Gaza.

A renowned cardiac surgeon and one of Palestine’s most senior doctors, Dr. Al-Sultan graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Hyderabad, Pakistan, in 2001.

He was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on their temporary residence in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

His surviving daughter, Lubna, told the media that the missile “targeted his room exactly, right where he was.” Her testimony confirmed statements from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee — which funded the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia — that the attack was a targeted assassination.

“The attack on Dr. Marwan was utterly savage and barbaric,” Dr. Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees, told Arab News.

“It was a shock to hear the news. I couldn’t believe it. He was the only heart specialist left in the north. This is a huge loss.”

The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the biggest health facilities in Gaza, was one of the first targeted by Israel when it started its deadly war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.

Dr. Al-Sultan had never left his post, remaining with patients through multiple Israeli offensives on the hospital and personally overseeing repairs to restore essential services, MER-C said in a statement recalling how in December 2024, he evacuated the facility while under Israeli siege.

The moment was recorded on a mobile phone, showing Dr. Al-Sultan leaving only after he had ensured the safety of every patient.

The Indonesia Hospital opened in late 2015. Coordinated by MER-C, its construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Indonesian people, with dozens of engineers and builders volunteering to design and build the facility and to prepare its operations.

The killing of Dr. Al-Sultan has spurred outcry in Indonesia, with the government issuing an official condemnation and lawmakers from the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation calling on parliamentarians around the world to “push for international accountability mechanisms” to ensure that “crimes against humanity be immediately brought to international forums, including global parliamentary bodies, so that Israel can be held legally and morally accountable for its actions in Gaza.”

Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,000 others, since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent.

The study says the death toll may be even higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to health care, caused by the Israeli military’s destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid.

Data from the UN and international health organizations shows that Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and medics in Gaza since October 2023.

Dr. Al-Sultan is the 70th health care worker to be killed in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch.

“He was a prominent medical figure, both as a heart specialist and director of the Indonesia Hospital,” Dr. Hadiki Habib, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee, told Arab News.

“We had feared that this could happen, but he had said that he would remain in Gaza and, if he were to be martyred, it would be in his homeland.”


Russian strikes kill eight in Ukraine

Updated 03 July 2025
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Russian strikes kill eight in Ukraine

  • Among the sites hit were a military enlistment office in the eastern city of Poltava and port infrastructure in the southern city of Odesa
  • The Ukrainian army reported there were “dead and wounded” at a recruitment office in Poltava

KYIV: Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said.

Among the sites hit were a military enlistment office in the eastern city of Poltava and port infrastructure in the southern city of Odesa.

Moscow has stepped up its drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks, with peace talks stalling and Kyiv’s key ally Washington signalling it could cut military support.

The warring sides last met for direct talks more than a month ago and no further meeting has been organized.

The Ukrainian army reported there were “dead and wounded” at a recruitment office in Poltava.

Emergency services posted images of buildings on fire and rescue workers at the scene of the strike.

“Two people were killed,” the emergency services said. The region’s police added 47 people were wounded.

In Odesa, two people were killed when “an Iskander missile” struck the seaport, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.

He added that six people had been wounded in the strike.

In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, strikes killed four people, the regional prosecutor’s office said.

“At least nine apartment buildings, three garages, a shop facade and a power line were damaged in the settlements,” it added.

In Russia’s Lipetsk region, debris from a Ukrainian drone killed a woman and wounded two other people, its governor said Thursday.

The debris fell on a building in Lipetsk, which lies about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Moscow, killing a woman in her seventies, Igor Artamonov wrote on Telegram.