Pakistani journalist Syed Talat Hussain missing after Israeli attack on Gaza aid convoy
The fate of four Pakistanis was uncertain after a Gaza-bound aid flotilla they were travelling on was attacked by the Israeli Navy, an incident that has claimed the lives of 10 foreigners.
Notable people onboard
Dror Feiler — Swedish-Israeli artist.
Edda Manga – Swedish historian (wife of Mattias Gardell)
Hedy Epstein, an American peace activist and Holocaust survivor.
Henning Mankell — Swedish author.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire – Northern Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Mattias Gardell – Swedish historian
Mehmet Kaplan – Swedish member of parliament
Raed Salah – Leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
Syed Talat Hussain Naqvi – Pakistani journalist and executive director AAJ TV
‘The government of Pakistan is seriously concerned over the well-being and whereabouts of the Pakistani citizens and media personnel including Syed Talat Hussain and Raza Mahmood Agha who were on board the flotilla bound for Gaza,’ a foreign office spokesman said.
Hussain is an anchor and Agha a producer with the Aaj TV news channel.
‘The killing of members of this humanitarian mission, which also included women, is brutal, inhuman and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and norms’, Online news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.
‘The foreign ministry is in constant touch with its missions in the region to ascertain the well-being of our nationals,’ the spokesman said.
Other reports said 20 were killed, their nationalities yet unknown. Some 50 people are reported injured.
The flotilla of boats, containing 10,000 tonnes of aid had been warned before setting sail for Gaza that it would be denied entry.
Passengers of the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ immediately put on life jackets and were on high alert, according to the international group. A reporter from Al-Jazeera television on board said they decided to continue their efforts to reach the Gaza coast but changed course to gain time and try to reach the enclave during the day.
The flotilla, carrying 700 activists and 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, set off from Cyprus Sunday afternoon on the last leg of what organisers hoped would be a successful attempt to break Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip.
President, PM condemn Israeli aggression
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani have strongly condemned the Israeli attack on a flotilla of six ships bound for Gaza Strip with aid.
At least 20 foreign activists were killed early Monday, the Israeli military confirmed, after the navy stormed a flotilla of six ships bound for the Gaza Strip with aid.
Both the President and the Prime Minister have directed Foreign Office and other concerned departments to get information about Pakistani Senior journalist, Talat Hussain and Producer Raza Mehmood Agha.
President and Prime Minister have emphasized that they would be updated about information to be received about Pakistanis who were on board in ships bound for Gaza.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Islamabad/31-May-2010/President-PM-condemn-Israeli-aggression
Gaza Freedom flotilla carried world-renowned names and veteran activists
Author Henning Mankell and Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire among more than 600 passengers
Maev Kennedy, Harriet Sherwood and Severin Carrell
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 May 2010 21.46 BST
Article history
The largest flotilla launched to challenge the Gaza blockade also carried the most passengers, well over 600 people, believed to include 27 from the UK. Internationally renowned names were on board, among them activists, authors, film-makers, politicians and journalists from Europe, the Middle East, the US and Canada.
Among the most famous is Henning Mankell, author of the best-selling Wallander series of crime novels. Mankell had been scheduled to speak to the Hay festival on Saturday night by live link from the boat, but the connection failed.
One of the best-known international activists is Huwaida Arraf, born in the US to an Israeli Arab father and Palestinian mother, co- founder in 2001 of the International Solidarity Movement, which campaigns against Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza. He was on the Challenger.
Also on board was the Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, co-founder of Northern Ireland’s Peace People and a veteran of the Gaza flotillas, who was briefly jailed last year when Israel intercepted and towed a flotilla.
The Scottish journalist and documentary film-maker Hassan Ghani, 24 and from Glasgow, was on board the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish vessel attacked by Israeli forces. He was seen broadcasting for PressTV as the commandos took control of the ship. In footage shown on YouTube, Ghani said: “This is the MC Marmara, Hassan Ghani reporting for PressTV. We’ve had several injuries here; one is critical. He has been injured in the head and we think he may die if he doesn’t receive medical treatment urgently. Another person being passed in front of me right now has been seriously injured. We are being hit by tear gas, stun grenades. We’ve navy ships on either side. We’re being attacked from every single side. This is international waters and not Israeli waters, not in the 68-mile exclusion zone. We’re being attacked in international waters completely illegally.”
His father, Haq Ghani, a businessman who runs an Islamic information service called Noah’s Ark, told the BBC he had asked the foreign office for news about his son but had been told anything.
Sandra Law, the mother of Alex Harrison, a 31-year-old British woman on board the Challenger 1, said the Foreign Office had “totally refused” to provide information or assistance to her family. “They were obstructive to say the least,” said Law, from Croydon. “We rang them last night to say the flotilla was being threatened by the Israeli navy. They totally refused to help us. I’m extremely worried about Alex. We have no idea what has happened to her. But she’s an experienced human rights defender and very level-headed.”
Others among the 27 Britons believed to be on board were journalist Jamal Elshayyal, a 25-year-old producer for the al-Jazeera English service who managed a dramatic crackly broadcast cut short in mid sentence as one of the ships was boarded; Kevin Ovenden, a member of the Viva Palestina charity, who was on the Mavi Marmara; Denis Healey, who skippered one of the previous flotillas; Theresa McDermot from Edinburgh; and Sarah Colborne, director of campaigns at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
International Solidarity London also listed Fatima Mohammed, on board the Mavi Marmara, and Alexander Evangelou, Hasan Nowarah, and Gehad Sukker – a pizza shop manager from Altrincham in Cheshire who is originally from Gaza – among those from the UK. Peter Venner, from Ryde on the Isle of Wight, is also believed by his partner, Rachel Bridgeland, to be on board.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said they were unable to confirm, or even definitely establish, how many Britons had sailed with the convoy, and on which boats.
Caoimhe Butterly, an Irish pacifist activist who was shot and injured on the West Bank in 2002 after standing in the path of Israeli tanks, was on board.
Three German MPs, Annette Groth, a human rights policy spokeswoman, Inge Höger, a member of the defence and health committees, and Norman Paech, who is also a professor of public law in Hamburg, are believed to have been on board, as well as two members of the Palestinian Knesset, including Haneen Zoubi, an Israeli citizen.
The Free Gaza Movement website lists passengers from Holland, Belgium, the US, Ireland, the UK, Greece, Poland, Palestine and Germany. Most were on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, including Raed Salah, who was aquitted earlier this month of rioting in Jerusalem in 2007.
The oldest passenger is believed to be David Schermerhorn, 80, an American film producer whose work includes City of Ghosts. Eighty-five year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein decided at the last moment not to travel. Epstein, who now lives in the United States, but left her native Germany on a Kindertransport to London in 1939, before both her parents and other family members died in Auschwitz, instead spent today at the Free Gaza offices in Cyprus, trying to establish what has happened to other passengers.
Other passengers were Giorgos Klontzas, a Greek professional diver and sailor, and the Palestinian activist Lubna Masarwa.
Ewa Jasiewicz, a Polish activist and freelance journalist, who last year contributed a graphic account to the Guardian of her experiences in Gaza under Israeli shelling, was also on board.
Other media representatives included one of Pakistan’s best known reporters, Syed Talat Hussain, of Aaj television, travelling with another Pakistani journalist, Raza Mahmood Agha.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/31/gaza-freedom-flotilla-activists-passengers-israel
I hope Talat is safe. He is a very good TV anchor, much better than the rest.
Hope his sectarian background i.e. “Non-Sunni” doesnt make him a target of the extremists in the country now that his full name is known.
Pakistanis held by Israelis return today
By Masood Haider
Wednesday, 02 Jun, 2010
According to a message received here on Tuesday from New York, the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN has been informed that Talat Hussain, Raza Mehmood Agha and Nadeem Ahmed Khan are being sent to Jordan. —File Photo
WORLD
Israel to free Gaza flotilla detainees
Israel to free Gaza flotilla detainees
UNITED NATIONS: Three Pakistanis detained by Israeli commandos who stormed a Gaza aid flotilla on Monday have been sent to Jordan for onward travel to Pakistan, the UN Secretary-General’s office informed the Pakistan mission in New York on Tuesday.
A press statement by the Pakistan mission to the United Nations said that the three, Mr Talat Hussain, Mr Raza Mehmood Agha and Mr Nadeem Ahmed Khan, had been recovered and sent to Jordan. They were detained in Israel’s Beersheba prison.
The Pakistanis were on board a Gaza-bound relief ship which came under the deadly Israeli attack in international waters.
In New York, Pakistan’s acting Ambassador to the UN Amjad Hussain Sial had sought help from Secretary-General’s Chef de Cabinet Vijay Nambiar for recovering the three from Israelis.
Our Staff Reporter in Islamabad adds: “The three Pakistanis will fly to Islamabad from Amman on Wednesday,” a spokesman for the interior ministry said.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told journalists that Aaj TV channel’s executive news director Talat Hussain, Raza Mehmood and Nadeem Khan, chief of the local chapter of an NGO, Khubaib Foundation, had reached Jordan safely after remaining in Israeli detention for almost 48 hours.
“The process of identification and confirmation of passports has been completed,” the minister said.
According to Pakistan’s embassy in Washington, the US State Department had confirmed that the three men were held in the Ella detention facility in Beersheba.
Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan Hazem Hussain Abu Shanab visited the National Press Club in Islamabad to express solidarity with journalists.
He promised complete cooperation for safely bringing home the three Pakistanis.
The ambassador said the international community should take action against Israeli aggression.
“The Security Council of the UN should have taken more effective measures to stop aggression of Israel and ensure complete independence and freedom of the state of Palestine,” he said.
He termed Monday night’s emergency meeting of the UNSC ‘unsatisfactory’ as it put no pressure on Israel.
The ambassador said Palestine should be accepted as an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Activists Deported
Israel detained or deported hundreds of activists who were aboard the Turkish-backed aid ships it had seized en route to Gaza, Reuters adds.
Some 700 activists were processed in and around Israel’s port of Ashdod where the six ships of the blockade-running convoy had been escorted. Among the activists were many Turks, but they included Israelis and Palestinians as well as Americans and Europeans.
The Israeli interior ministry said 682 activists were ordered deported and 45 of them left the country on Tuesday, while others were jailed as they challenged the orders, or were in hospital being treated for injuries.
Israel gave the following breakdown of countries and number of their activists ordered expelled, excluding those killed or seriously wounded in Monday’s raid: Australia 3; Azerbaijan 2; Italy 6; Indonesia 12; Ireland 9; Algeria 28; United States 11; Bulgaria 2; Bosnia 1; Bahrain 4; Belgium 5; Germany 11; South Africa 1; Holland 2; United Kingdom 31; Greece 38; Jordan 30; Kuwait 15; Lebanon 3; Mauritania 3; Malaysia 11; Egypt 3; Macedonia 3; Morocco 7; Norway 3; New Zealand 1; Syria 3; Serbia 1; Oman 1; Pakistan 3; Czech Republic 4; France 9; Kosovo 1; Canada 1; Sweden 11; Turkey 380; and Yemen 4.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/pakistanis-held-by-israelis-return-today-260
Pakistan used all possible means to locate whereabouts of Talat Hussain: Kaira
ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP)- Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on Tuesday has strongly condemned the act of violence committed by Israeli forces and termed it against the norms and principles of international law and human rights. He said it is not a new thing by Israel as it commits terrorism adding Israel killed several innocent women and children of Palestine. Talking in a programme telecast by a private TV channel, he said Pakistan had used all possible means to get information about the well being of the Pakistani journalist Talat Hussain and its team present on the Freedom Flotilla.
He said Pakistan had strongly protested this tragic incident with international community.
He said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had talked to American Ambassador to use her influence and diplomatic sources to get the latest information about the status of Pakistanis as Pakistan do not have direct diplomatic links with Israel.
The Minister said there was no moral and legal justification of this attack and it was violation of international borders because the Freedom Flotilla carrying relief goods was attacked in the open sea.
Kaira described the incident as distressing that has not only harmed the sentiments of Pakistan as well as the international community.
He also expressed solidarity with the family of Talat Hussain and praised the family for facing this incident bravely.
He said special arrangements have been made to bring back Pakistani journalist Talat Hussain, “who is expected to cross over to Jordan within next 12 hours”.
“The plane and tickets are being arranged for an early departure of Talat Hussain to Jordan”, he added.
http://ftp.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104822&Itemid=1
ThankGod Talat is safe now,Here is his complete biography
http://www.jinnahsequaid.com/talat-hussain/
i didn’t know that talat is non sunni.whatever he is a good journalist.
Dear Sir,
AOA
Subject: Please establish the Scientific Research Laboratories for development of Pakistan.
With your reference, I wish that you send my views to relevant Government Departments in your own words for the importance of science.
I am going to highlight the importance of science education. Pakistan is an underdeveloped state. Pakistan need of Engineers, Doctors, skilled workers, Mechanical workers and as well as RESEARCH LABORATORIES. But unfortunately students are not guided when they are in 10th or 8th classes I mean which field they have to choose for their best careers. If science students pass matriculation exams then they have to face a bundle of hindrances for getting admissions in well reputed colleges. Due to this Fault of admission system a numerous number of students cannot get admission that resulted they have move to COMMERCE from science field.
Dear Sir, it is the fault of admission system of Pakistani colleges and universities. But no proper scientific Research laboratories established since 1947 to date. The state that established all type of research laboratories in its own country has become developed country. Because these laboratories promote SCIENTESTS, ANALYSTS, ENGINEERS, PILOTS, TECHNICIANS and as well as skilled workers. So, there is a great need of laboratories in PAKISTAN. Because when we will promote engineers, doctors, pilots and skilled workers then we will be able to develop PAKISTAN.
Dear Sir, the western community has changed our education system. Now our FSC and BSC students are being studied Commerce instead of Science subjects. If we do only M.com, MBA or any other Business Administration program, then we will not produce any new thing and we will have to follow the other states till the DAY OF JUDGEMENT. Dear Sir, we should impose the Science studies in all over the Pakistan and the Government should give lot incentives for both Teachers and Students.
The government should analyze the following suggestions:
Government should establish standard Scientific Research Laboratories at each college and university.
The Government should arrange scholarships for BSC and MSC Students.
FSC students are allowed to join nearest laboratory for experiments.
Modern laboratory tools must be provided by the Government.
The government should give full free hand to all members for innovating new and new things in laboratories.
After innovation of new ones the government should develop it according to their instructions.
The Government should provide funds to all research laboratories.
Dear Sir, I prove that if Government of Pakistan arranges SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH LABORATORIES and give handsome scholarships to the BSC and MSC students. Then Pakistan cannot only be developed but also its economy rate can be increased.
I am speech less; if we do not provide such incentives then Pakistan will have to suffer a great loss.
Yours truly,
Muhammad Amin Hashmi.
Student (MBA)
0302-4587749
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hey great post mate lots of good info