Cops issue objectionable notices to 40 churches seeking conversion details, withdraw after opposition

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has held talks with Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha where he has traveled as part of a regional tour for consultations amid the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The meeting on Thursday night (November 23) came as a breakthrough four-day truce in the war will start on Friday morning and an exchange of captives and prisoners will follow hours later.  

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails will be released on Friday, adding a list of names has been approved, without saying how many.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani discussed the plan with Amir-Abdollahian and thanked Iran for its “pivotal role and valuable efforts in helping to achieve a humanitarian cessation of the war against Gaza”, Fars news agency reported.

“We have reached a good stage,” the Qatari minister said, adding the first priority is the ceasefire, and then “our effort is to extend the temporary ceasefire and stop the war and killing of Palestinians completely and prevent a return to war”.

Amir-Abdollahian welcomed the ceasefire, saying if the Israeli regime continues the war, “the situation in the region will become more tense and the reactions will be more widespread”.

He said Israel is not able to continue the war without the support of the United States.

Amir-Abdollahian said what had happened against the United States in the region in the last six weeks was the reaction of the resistance groups to US support for the genocide in Palestine and had nothing to do with Iran.

US forces in Iraq and Syria have seen an uptick in attacks since Israel launched its invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip, leaving scores of American troops injured, including over two dozen soldiers diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.

Amir-Abdollahian said Hamas is a liberation movement which has emerged from within the civil society of the Palestinian nation.

Hamas, he said, cannot be eliminated and its enemies should not think they can achieve through political means what they failed during more than a month and a half of war.

US authorities have thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns the government in New Delhi was involved, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

There was no immediate response from India's Foreign Ministry on the report.

The FT report says that the US protest was issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington in June.

The FT report said that the target of the plot was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen who is general counsel for Sikhs for Justice. 

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against 'listed individual terrorist' Pannun of the SFJ over his latest viral video threatening the passengers flying in Air India and the airlines with a global blockade and closure of its operations from November 19. The anti-terror agency made the announcement on Monday.

The report comes two months after Canada said there were "credible" allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of a Sikh separatist leader in a Vancouver suburb. India has rejected Canada's accusations. 

New Delhi, Nov 29: The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday said that it has filed a charge sheet against two accused -- Mohamed Shariq, who prepared the pressure cooker IED and Syed Shariq who provided material for the explosive -- in connection with the pressure cooker blast that took place in Karnataka's Mangaluru in November last year.

A NIA official here said that the agency filed the charge sheet against the two before a court on Wednesday.

The official said that Shariq and Syed, along with an online handler, had planned the explosion as part of a conspiracy to establish a Caliphate.

"In pursuance of the conspiracy, Mohamed Shariq had prepared the pressure cooker IED and Syed Yasin had provided material support for the explosive," the official said.

Mohamed Shariq was carrying the pressure cooker IED in an auto-rickshaw when it exploded on November 19 last year. The official said that he had planned to plant the IED at Kadri Manjunatha Temple in Mangaluru, with the aim to spread terror among the Hindu community but the low intensify bomb accidentally exploded on the way.

The case was filed by the NIA on November 23 last year under several sections of the IPC and the Explosive Substances Act.

Shariq was arrested by the NIA in July 2023, along with his co-accused Syed Shariq.

The official pointing out the role of Shariq in other cases said that he had first come on the radar of the security forces in November 2020 when he was arrested by the state police for pro-terror graffiti in Mangaluru city.

"He and his associates had put up the graffiti in support of the global terror outfit, the IS," the official said.

"Subsequently, Shariq was also named in the Shivamogga IS Conspiracy Case of 2022, in which so far 10 accused have been arrested," the official stated.

Of the 10 arrested, nine, including Shariq and Syed Yasin, were charge sheeted on June 30 this year for radicalising and recruiting gullible Muslim youth, raising funds, and conducting a trial blast to further the anti-India activities of the IS.