Texas battles its second largest wildfire on record
Wildfires have been raging across the US state of Texas, as firefighters struggled to control one of the largest blazes in state history, which has destroyed property and prompted evacuations. The Smokehouse Creek fire in Texas’s Panhandle, a flat northern area known for its prairies and smattering of small towns, was listed as only 3 percent contained by the Texas A&M Forest Service. An 83-year-old grandmother was confirmed dead, but with flames still menacing a wide area, authorities have yet to conduct a thorough search for victims or tally the numerous homes and other structures damaged or destroyed. The fire has expanded to more than 1,300 square miles (3,370sq km) and jumped into parts of neighbouring Oklahoma. The largest fire recorded in state history was the 2006 East Amarillo Complex fire, which burned about 1,400sq miles (3,630sq km) and resulted in 13 deaths. Walls of flames were pushed by powerful winds while huge plumes of smoke billowed hundreds of feet in the air across the sparsely populated region. The smoke delayed aerial surveillance of the damage in some areas. Authorities have not said what ignited the fires, but strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures fed the blazes. Near Borger, a community of about 13,000 people, emergency officials at one point late on Tuesday answered questions from panicked residents on Facebook and told them to get ready to leave if they had not already. The weather forecast provided some hope for firefighters – cooler temperatures, less wind and possibly rain on Thursday. Sustained winds of up to 45mph (72kmph), with gusts of up to 70mph (113kmph), caused the fires that were spreading east to turn south, threatening new areas, forecasters said. But winds calmed down after a cold front came through Tuesday evening, said Peter Vanden Bosch, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Amarillo. Breezy conditions were expected again on Friday, and fire-friendly weather could return by the weekend, Vanden Bosch said on Wednesday. Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday declared a state of disaster for 60 counties, while blazes near the northern city of Amarillo temporarily caused the shutdown of a nuclear weapons plant. Adblock test (Why?)
Blame Joe Biden for President Trump come November
It is over. I wrote a column a few months ago expressing the sincere hope that Joe Biden would lose the upcoming presidential election. Now, I can confidently predict that this craven, self-anointed “Zionist” will join the roster of presidential has-beens; an unremarkable one-term commander-in-chief who will be remembered chiefly for abetting a genocide instead of stopping it. That will be Biden’s permanent and disgraceful epitaph. Biden’s sorry fate was confirmed earlier this week after more than 100,000 enlightened Americans voted “uncommitted” in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary. Their act of tangible resistance delivered a blunt rebuke not only of Biden but the whole, decrepit Democratic Party establishment that has enabled, supported, and encouraged a diseased apartheid regime to commit genocide against imprisoned Palestinians in Gaza and beyond. Biden and company will be unable to resuscitate his fast-eroding prospects among enlightened Americans who are motivated by one, defining moral imperative: to repudiate through their suffrage the complicit perpetrators of the deliberate, wholesale destruction of Palestine and its desperate people. It is too late. The deep damage cannot be undone. Gaza is gone. Reduced by methodical and cruel design to a wasteland at the foul hands of a ruthless, occupying army. More than 30,000 innocents, mostly infants and children, have been killed. Blown to scattered bits. Their small, dismembered bodies left hanging like grotesque ornaments on a bloodied wall in Rafah. Families erased. Children orphaned. Parents grieving over the remains of their beloved dead wrapped tight in white shrouds and buried by hand in shallow pits. Thousands more have been maimed or injured – in mind, body, and spirit. Starvation, thirst, and disease run rampant in the makeshift camps where millions of homeless Palestinians have sought – in vain – refuge from Israel’s “killing rage”. All of it, every inhumane measure of it, is a man-made catastrophe engineered by irredeemable sociopaths in tailored suits, like President Biden. So, enlightened Americans in Michigan – many of them Arab and Muslim Americans – did what I knew they would do. No longer content to be ghosted by an administration addicted to empty, performative acts of “solidarity”, they organised. They mobilised. They staffed phone banks. They went door to door. They persuaded other enlightened Americans to join them in their resolve to be heard and counted. Together, they told Biden that his complicity and cowardice will not stand. They translated their anger and disgust into a potent political force while an old, dithering president licked an ice cream cone and donned his aviator sunglasses for an agreeable late-night talk show comic. This was not a “warning” or a “protest”. It was a statement. A verdict. A judgement. Worse, for Biden, it was a commitment. The “uncommitted” are committed to defeating Biden and depriving him of what he values most: power, position, and prestige. Michigan’s “uncommitted” voters will exercise their franchise in November. Biden will have his comeuppance because, without Michigan’s crucial 16 electoral votes, his already precarious bid for re-election will be doomed. In 2020, Biden prevailed in Michigan by a little more than 100,000 votes. Recent polls show the state tipping into Trump’s favour. The math is simple. Subtract the 100,000 “uncommitted” voters and Michigan is lost and likely with it, the presidency. The calculated leaks and rhetorical chicanery aimed at convincing enlightened Americans of Biden’s “frustration” with a recalcitrant Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the president’s “determined efforts” at arranging a ceasefire are a choreographed pantomime. Biden is no more interested in a ceasefire than Netanyahu and his rabid, evangelical cabinet which has made it plain that their goal is to obliterate Palestine and plot a second, decisive Nakba. Just as lunatic is the suggestion that a “miffed” Biden is poised to withhold America’s purse and lethal munitions to “pressure” Israel into bending to its phantom will to “protect” Palestinian civilians and enact his “grand” geostrategic plans to establish a “two-state solution”. All of it, every disingenuous ounce of it, is a familiar lie. Biden has not been and never will be a “peacemaker”. He is a 100 percent-proof warmonger practised at backing US invasions of sovereign country after sovereign country and damn the disastrous human consequences. Enlightened Americans won’t be fooled again. Still, Biden and his surrogates believe that money will be their salvation from the genocidal quagmire of their making. After ordering his quislings – my apologies, diplomats – at the United Nations to veto another ceasefire resolution, Biden attended a lucrative fundraiser in Los Angeles co-hosted by the billionaire honorary vice chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, Haim Saban. Prior to the up to $250,000-a-plate fete-a-tete, Biden’s gushing super fan described the president’s steadfast support of Israel as “pristine”. “There’s never been a president as supportive in facts, not only in words, of Israel,” Saban said. “And most specifically, in these dire times for Israel, he’s been pristine.” Saban is right. Biden has long been a “pristine” backer of an apartheid state that the International Court of Justice at the Hague accepted the “plausibility” of having committed genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention. In instructive contrast to Biden’s rich benefactors, the organisers of Michigan’s “uncommitted” campaign reportedly earned their astonishing success on a paltry budget of $200,000. Their principled, people-driven initiative will, no doubt, be a template for enlightened Americans in other toss-up states to follow honourable and necessary suit. The disgust and anger that fuelled Michigan’s “uncommitted” voters to turn out in such extraordinary numbers may soon be replicated throughout the daunting electoral college map that Biden confronts. That is the fatal reality. It’s the genocide, stupid. When he is obliged, by tradition, to leave behind a congratulatory note on the Oval Office desk wishing President Donald Trump every success, one person will be to blame: Joe Biden. The faux “progressive” and “liberal” cognoscenti will wail at the impending demise of America’s sham “democracy”. In their quest for an easy scapegoat, they are bound, of course, to point an accusatory finger at the “short-sighted protest vote” that
Dozens killed, injured by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid
Desperate residents under Israeli attack while trying to get flour for families as famine stalks the strip. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed or wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis. The citizens had congregated at al-Rashid Street, where aid trucks carrying flour were believed to be on the way. Al Jazeera verified footage showing the bodies of dozens of killed and wounded Palestinians being carried onto trucks as no ambulances could reach the area. “We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” said one witness. One Palestinian man told the Quds News Network the military attack was a “crime”. “I have been waiting since yesterday. At about 4.30 this morning, trucks started to come through. Once we approached the aid trucks, the Israeli tanks and warplanes started firing at us, as if it was a trap. “To the Arab states I say, if you want to have us killed, why are you sending relief aid? If this continues, we do not want any aid delivered at all. Every convoy coming means another massacre.” The mass shooting was the latest instance of systematic attacks on hungry people waiting for scraps of food. Over the past few days, Palestinians gathered in large groups waiting for aid trucks on Salah al-Din Street near Gaza City have been shot at by Israeli forces, said Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah in the enclave’s south. Recently, a truck that was supposed to deliver aid to people in Gaza tragically turned into the truck carrying those injured and killed, he added. With aid agencies unable to deliver supplies to northern Gaza since January 23, many are taking a long trek towards the south by foot. Famine On Wednesday, Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told the United Nations Security Council more than 500,000, or one in four people, were at risk of famine, with one child in every six below the age of two considered acutely malnourished. Nearly every family in #Gaza needs food assistance to survive. Yesterday, WFP’s Deputy Chief @CarlSkau warned the Security Council of imminent famine in northern Gaza unless conditions change. 🔗Read his full remarks: https://t.co/VnP20iPqEl pic.twitter.com/ZhFUyNIQv7 — World Food Programme (@WFP) February 28, 2024 “The risk of famine is being fuelled by the inability to bring critical food supplies into Gaza in sufficient quantities, and the almost impossible operating conditions faced by our staff on the ground,” he said. He described dangerous conditions for WFP trucks trying to get food to the north earlier this month. “There were delays at checkpoints; they faced gunfire and other violence; food was looted along the way; and at their destination, they were overwhelmed by desperately hungry people,” said Skau. Aid agencies claim that Israel has been delaying deliveries. Israel denies that charge. It submitted a report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the measures taken to avert suffering in the besieged enclave. Rights groups say Israel acted in breach of the ICJ order issued in January. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Sunday on social media that calls to allow food distribution in Gaza amid the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas have been denied or “have fallen on deaf ears”. Warning against “looming famine”, the UN official said the situation is becoming a “man-made disaster”. Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas-led attack on October 7. More than 30,000 people are reported to have been killed to date, mostly women and children. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 146
EXPLAINER The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza is nearing 30,000 while children are suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. Here’s how things stand on Thursday, February 29, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis Israeli air strikes killed at least 25 people in the Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza overnight, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Two hospitals in northern Gaza have no fuel to run generators as they treat children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Ahmed al-Kahlout, told Al Jazeera Arabic that seven children died on Wednesday at the hospital due to malnutrition. The Ministry of Health in Gaza has also reported that two children have died of dehydration and malnutrition at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza is nearing 30,000, with 76 people killed between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, bringing the death toll to 29,954, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Regional tensions and diplomacy British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” in the UK, as politicians face abuse for airing their views on Israel’s war on Gaza, leaving some fearing for their safety. Meanwhile, in the European Parliament, a Swedish member has spent most of her allotted speaking time at an EU parliamentary session in silence to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza. Canada’s international development minister Ahmed Hussen has said that the country is exploring options for delivering humanitarian aid, and “airdrops of aid into Gaza, in partnership with like-minded countries like Jordan”, were possible. New Zealand on Thursday listed Palestinian group Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist entity and imposed travel bans on “extremist” Israeli settlers whom it said had committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. In the Middle East, Israel’s military has released video footage purporting to show recent attacks by jet fighters on targets in southern Lebanon’s Kafra and Siddikine areas. In Syria, air defences intercepted Israeli strikes in the vicinity of the capital, Damascus, state media said on Wednesday. Syrian state media gave no further details about the attacks or the intended targets. Violence in the occupied West Bank Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian man during their storming of the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported. Israeli forces have conducted raids elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, including in the following locations: The town of Arraba and the village of Jalbun in Jenin governorate, the town of Qaffin, north of Tulkarem city, the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya city, the city of Hebron and the town of Bani Naim, east of Hebron. Adblock test (Why?)
Can AI mediate conflict better than humans?
Doha, Qatar – Diplomats whizzing around the globe. Hush-hush meetings, often never made public. For centuries, the art of conflict mediation has relied on nuanced human skills: from elements as simple as how to make eye contact and listen carefully to detecting shifts in emotions and subtle signals from opponents. Now, a growing set of entrepreneurs and experts are pitching a dramatic new set of tools into the world of dispute resolution – relying increasingly on artificial intelligence (AI). “Groundbreaking technological advancements are revolutionising the frontier of peace and mediation,” said Sama al-Hamdani, programme director of Hala System, a private company using AI and data analysis to gather unencrypted intelligence in conflict zones, among other war-related tasks. “We are witnessing an era where AI transforms mediators into powerhouses of efficiency and insight,” al-Hamdani said. The researcher is one of thousands of speakers participating in the Web Summit in Doha, Qatar, where digital conflict mediation is on the agenda. The four-day summit started on February 26 and concludes on Thursday, February 29. Already, say experts, digital solutions have proven effective in complex diplomacy. At the peak of the COVID-19 restrictions, mediators were not able to travel for in-person meetings with their interlocutors. The solution? Use remote communication software Skype to facilitate negotiations, as then-United States envoy Zalmay Khalilzad did for the Qatar-brokered talks between the US and the Taliban in 2020. For generations, power brokers would gather behind doors to make decisions affecting people far and wide. Digital technologies can now allow the process to be relatively more inclusive. This is what Stephanie Williams, special representative of the United Nations’ chief in Libya, did in 2021 when she used a hybrid model integrating personal and digital interactions as she led mediation efforts to establish a roadmap towards elections. That strategy helped her speak to people living in areas deemed too dangerous to travel to. The UN estimates that Williams managed to reach one million Libyans. However, practitioners are now growing interested in the use of technology beyond online consultations. Geographic information systems (GIS) store information in maps to monitor ceasefire agreements. Virtual reality (VR), meanwhile, creates immersive environments that can provide diplomats with a deeper understanding of what is happening in faraway crises they are mediating. In 2021, the UN invited a group of diplomats to try out VR to understand the work of its verification mission in Colombia on the country’s peace process. Ambassadors said they were given an extraordinary glimpse of the context, fear and feelings that people in the country were going through. “It’s more direct, more emotional, it’s less letters and papers,” said one of the diplomats. “It could increase your awareness and that can make diplomacy more effective,” said another one. AI technology also enables the speedy analysis of large volumes of data, crunching months of work into minutes for a machine to read public sentiments and flag emerging threats to peace processes. Machine learning can discern patterns or correlations and help create scenarios about what stakeholders could do and when. A UN initiative developed a pilot project in Uganda that used AI tools – such as speech recognition technology – to analyse large amounts of information from radio broadcasts so that researchers could get a sense of public sentiments on issues ranging from climate change to refugees fleeing from South Sudan. But it’s not all rosy. AI is developed by engineers who, as like every human being, have their own biases. The technology is fed with data from the internet, which can reinforce or amplify existing social prejudices and promote discrimination, experts warn. Meanwhile, authenticating information and collating complex evidence is paramount at a time when faking images or news has become extremely easy. “In any conflict resolution, you need a shared basis of evidence so that both parties are coming into that mediation saying, ‘this is what we all know is true’,” said Mansoor Ahmed-Rengers, founder of OpenOrigins, an app that helps detect whether a picture is human or AI-generated. “If there’s no basis for a shared belief or a shared understanding of a situation, there’s no mediation that can happen,” said Ahmed-Rengers, who is also attending the Web Summit. Technology can help. Information, online legal resolutions or voting records must be authenticated and stored in a secure place to not be corrupted. A bank’s ultra-secure vault deep underground is of no use in the Web 3.0 era. Today, the goal is to store digital material in as many places as possible, say analysts. This is what blockchain technologies do. They keep the material in an immutable and decentralised system. Digital technologies are becoming more common in peacemaking, and they allow mediators to see conflicts from new angles, said Richard Gowan, UN’s director for the International Crisis Group. “But I also think that we should remember that the heart of any political process remains wheeling and dealing between individuals who have deeply held prejudices, fears and ideologies,” said Gowan. “Unless we develop the technology from the Men in Black films that wipes out people’s memories, the human dimension of peace will remain crucial.” Adblock test (Why?)
Reliance, Disney announce $8.5bn merger to create Indian media powerhouse
India’s entertainment market is already one of the world’s biggest, with the merger expected to further shake up the multibillion-dollar industry. India’s Reliance Industries and Walt Disney of the United States have announced the merger of their India TV and streaming media assets, creating an $8.5bn entertainment powerhouse far ahead of rivals in the world’s most populous nation. Reliance, led by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, will inject $1.4bn in the merged entity, with the company and its affiliates holding a more than 63 percent stake. Disney will hold about 37 percent, the companies said in a joint statement late on Wednesday. For Disney, the merger follows a long struggle to arrest a user exodus from its bleeding India streaming business and the financial strain caused by billions of dollars in Indian cricket rights payments, in another example of how foreign businesses can struggle to grow in India. The merger values the India business of the US entertainment giant at just about a quarter of the $15bn valuation when Disney acquired it as part of its Fox deal in 2019, sources have told the Reuters news agency. The companies said the transaction values the merged venture at about $8.5bn on a post-money basis. They did not explain how they arrived at such a valuation. “This is a landmark agreement that heralds a new era in the Indian entertainment industry,” said Ambani, whose wife Nita Ambani will serve as the chairperson and former top Disney executive Uday Shankar will be the vice chair. Together, the Reliance-Disney merged entity will have 120 TV channels and two streaming platforms, helping Ambani eclipse rivals in the country’s $28bn media and entertainment sector. “The JV will be one of the leading TV and digital streaming platforms for entertainment and sports content in India, bringing together iconic media assets across entertainment,” the companies said in a joint statement. The agreement will also help Reliance and Disney stave off competition from traditional rivals such as India’s Zee Entertainment and Japan’s Sony, as well as streaming competition from Amazon and Netflix. The announcement comes less than a month after Sony and Zee called off a $10bn merger that would have been a formidable force against Reliance and Disney. The deal also comes as Disney is facing pressure globally to streamline its businesses. Bob Iger returned as Disney’s chief executive in November 2022, less than a year after he retired, and has since restructured the company to make the business more cost-effective. Still, Disney is up against activist billionaire investor Nelson Peltz who is pushing the home of Mickey Mouse to cut costs, create a profitable streaming business globally, improve the performance of its movie studio, and clean up its succession planning. Iger in November said the company would like to stay in India, but it was considering its options. “Reliance has a deep understanding of the Indian market and consumer,” Iger said in the statement on Wednesday, adding the deal will allow “us to better serve consumers with a broad portfolio of digital services and entertainment and sports.” Adblock test (Why?)
Himachal Pradesh: Six Congress MLAs who cross-voted in Rajya Sabha polls, disqualified by assembly speaker
The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma.
Congress MLA BK Hariprasad defends his ‘Pakistan enemy country for the BJP, not for us’ statement
“PM Modi went to Pak to attend Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter’s marriage without an invitation, breaking all protocols; we have not done any such thing. Whatever I have said, I stand by that,” Congress MLA BK Hariprasad said.
US Supreme Court to hear Trump’s immunity claim in 2020 election case
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear former President Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution, further delaying his criminal trial on charges of conspiring to overturn his election loss in 2020. The justices on Wednesday put on hold the criminal case being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith and will review a lower court’s rejection of Trump’s claim he cannot be prosecuted for actions aimed at reversing his loss because he was president at the time. The court will hear arguments in late April, with a decision likely no later than the end of June. That timetable is much faster than usual, but even if the justices deny Trump’s immunity bid, it is not clear whether a trial can be scheduled and concluded before this year’s presidential election. Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 election. The former president’s lawyers have sought to put off a trial until after the vote. If Trump regains the presidency, he could seek to use his powers to force an end to the prosecution or potentially pardon himself for any federal crimes. The Supreme Court, in an unsigned statement, said it will consider a single question: “Whether and if so, to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.” The question is an untested one in US jurisprudence because until Trump, a former US president had never been charged with a crime. The case once again thrusts the nation’s top judicial body, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump, into the election fray. Trump, in a post on his social media platform, hailed the court’s decision. “Without Presidential Immunity, a President will not be able to properly function, or make decisions, in the best interest of the United States of America,” Trump wrote. “Presidents will always be concerned, and even paralyzed, by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation after they leave office. This could actually lead to the extortion and blackmail of a President.” There was no immediate comment from the special counsel’s office. Smith was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022. In August 2023, Smith brought four federal criminal counts against Trump in the election subversion case. A March 4 trial date was postponed as Trump pressed his immunity claim, with no new date yet set. Smith’s charges accused Trump of conspiring to defraud the US, obstructing the congressional certification of Biden’s electoral victory and conspiring to do so, and conspiring against the right of Americans to vote. The charges also claim Trump and his allies made false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and devised a plan to use false electors to thwart congressional certification of Biden’s victory. Trump also sought to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence not to allow the certification to go forward. Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol in a bid to prevent the certification. Trump last October sought to have the charges dismissed based on his claim of immunity. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected that claim in December. During January arguments in his appeal at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, one of Trump’s lawyers told the judges that even if a president sold pardons or military secrets or ordered a Navy commando unit to assassinate a political rival, he could not be criminally charged unless he is first impeached and convicted in Congress. The panel on February 6 ruled 3-0 against Trump’s immunity claim, rejecting his bid for “unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power – the recognition and implementation of election results”. They added, “We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter”. Trump has three other pending criminal cases, with a trial in New York state court concerning hush money paid to an adult film actress set to begin on March 25. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of them, seeking to portray them as politically motivated. The Supreme Court also is due to issue a ruling on whether to overturn a judicial decision that barred Trump from Colorado’s Republican primary ballot based on a constitutional provision regarding insurrection. Supreme Court justices during arguments on February 8 signalled scepticism towards a ruling by Colorado’s top court that barred Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot, based on the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, after finding he engaged in an insurrection related to the Capitol attack. The Colorado and immunity cases put the Supreme Court in the election spotlight in the most direct way since its 2000 ruling that effectively handed the presidency to Republican George W Bush over Democrat Al Gore. In a separate case to be argued on April 16, the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a man involved in the Capitol attack can be charged with obstructing an official proceeding – the congressional certification of the 2020 election results. That case has potential implications for Trump because Smith brought two obstruction-related charges. Adblock test (Why?)
Sandeshkhali: TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh arrested in ‘land grab, sexual assault’ cases
A large number of women in Sandeshkhali had accused Shajahan Sheikh and his close aides of “land-grab and sexual assault” under coercion.