Terrorism Watch

Last updated 8 hours ago By Alex Duval Smith BBC News, Bamako, Mali The conflict in Mali has seen many people flee their homes in northern cities like Timbuktu to seek refuge in the capital, Bamako, in the south. But accommodating these refugees has had its difficulties. Before the military coup a year ago my neighbourhood was popular with retired ministers, diplomats and expats. L'Hippodrome was known for its quiet, leafy streets and being handy for the French school. Many residents had quite a payroll of staff - guards, gardeners, cleaners and cooks. My Malian neighbour, Oumou, a single professional woman in her 50s, lived alone in a four-bedroom villa inherited from her parents. Oumou has two brothers living in France. A feminist and staunch defender of Mali's status as a secular republic, she prefers Bamako, because there are still battles to be fought here - for freedom of speech and for women's rights. Oumou is like me. She smokes, drinks beer and

Last updated 13-Apr-2013 2:37 AM IST A New York state teacher is facing disciplinary action for assigning students to argue Jews were to blame for the problems of Nazi Germany. The Albany High School teacher asked students to assume they were convincing a Nazi official of their loyalty. A third of the students refused to complete the English class assignment. The school system's superintendent says she believed that the teacher bore no ill intent but that the assignment should have been worded differently. Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard said school administrators were discussing what action to take, at a press conference at the United Jewish Federation. "This assignment for some of our students at Albany High School was completely unacceptable. It displayed a level of insensitivity that we absolutely will not tolerate in our school community," she told reporters. "I'm deeply apologetic to all of our students, all of our families and the entire communit

Agence France-Presse | Updated: April 13, 2013 20:18 IST Rome: Four Italian journalists who were being held hostage in Syria have been freed, Prime Minister Mario Monti said in a statement on Saturday. The four -- three freelancers and a reporter working for the Italian public broadcaster RAI -- had been abducted sometime between April 5 and 6 while out filming in northern Syria. Monti's statement did not provide any details of how the four were released, only thanking those involved for professionalism that "has enabled a positive outcome of this affair, which was made all the more complicated by the extreme danger of the situation." Local media reports said the four were currently in Turkey. In February, an Italian citizen and two Russians kidnapped on December 12 in the west of Syria were freed as part of an exchange for militants. Abductions for religious, political or purely financial reasons are becoming increasingly frequent in war-torn Syria. Syria&

Associated Press | Updated: April 13, 2013 10:12 IST Colombo: A publisher says armed men have stormed his newspaper press in Sri Lanka's former war zone and set fire to the machines and newspapers ready for distribution in a second attack on the paper in two weeks. E. Saravanapavan says three men with guns entered the press of his Uthayan newspaper in northern Jaffna town threatened and chased away the workers and delivery men. Later they shot at the control board and set fire to the machines, newspapers and the newsprint. Saravanapavan says the military or a paramilitary supporting the government could be behind the attack. Military spokesman Brig. Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the allegation is baseless, adding the army will cooperate with a police investigation. Source http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/sri-lankan-tamil-newspaper-office-burnt-down-353608

Agence France-Presse | Updated: April 13, 2013 17:03 IST Peshawar: A bomb exploded on a bus in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounded seven others, officials said. "At least nine passengers have been killed and seven injured. Bomb disposal officials told me that it was a timed device," Fazal Wahid, a senior police official told AFP. Shafi Ullah Khan, another police official confirmed the attack. Source http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/bomb-blast-on-bus-kills-nine-in-northwest-pakistan-officials-353731

13th april BAQUBA, Iraq: Bombs against Sunni Muslim worshippers in Baghdad and north of the capital killed 12 people yesterday, officials said, the latest in an uptick in violence ahead of provincial elections next week. In the deadliest single blast, a roadside bomb struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, in the town of Kanaan in restive Diyala province, a police colonel and a doctor said. Overall, 12 people were killed and 30 others wounded, the sources said. Two more bombings, in Baghdad and another town in Diyala, one near a Sunni mosque and the other as Sunni worshippers were returning from mid-day prayers, wounded seven. Iraq is to hold provincial elections on April 20, its first polls since 2010. Source http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/middle-east/232833-12-worshippers-killed-in-iraq-bombings.html

Associated Press | Updated: April 12, 2013 20:50 IST Nairobi, Kenya: A group of U.S. government workers called the Digital Outreach Team is countering extremist propaganda on sites like Twitter and Facebook. The team posts tweets, updates on Facebook and video to YouTube in Arabic, Punjabi, Somali and Urdu. The 50-member team is comprised of Americans and foreign nationals who are native speakers of the four languages. The unit had more than 7,000 what they term "engagements" - postings, updates or uploads. The top official on the team, Alberto Fernandez, says the goal of the team is to contest space that had previously been ceded to extremists. Fernandez says that in years past groups like al-Qaida could monopolise online discussions, but that the U.S. Digital Outreach Team is now in the online space to rebut false claims. Story first published: April 12, 2013 20:48 IST Source http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/us-team-using-social-media-to-counter-militants-353496

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a Chinese hacking ring that they said broke into the servers of dozens of online videogaming companies and stole valuable source code over a four-year period. Kaspersky Lab warned on Thursday that an organisation it christened "Winnti" had infiltrated the servers of at least 35 game developers and publishers, mostly in East Asia including South Korea, but also in Germany, the United States, Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Peru, and Belarus. The cybersecurity firm said it found evidence that the hackers attempted to steal proprietary software code, possibly to develop pirated versions of online games, or to steal in-game currency that can be converted into real money. The campaign, which began in 2009 and is still active today, had an unusually wide reach because because it targeted so-called "massively multiplayer games," which can involve millions of users across different countries, according to Kaspersky. The victim

Twenty years ago in the drab pre-fab housing blocks outside the east German town of Jena, swaggering youths gave Sieg-Heil salutes and flaunted their far-right views, as the structures of the only state they'd ever known crumbled around them. Among them were three local teenagers, Beate Zschaepe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, whose racist hatred would fuse with a militancy not seen before in the neo-Nazi scene. The series of murders laid at their hands have profoundly shaken a country that believed it had learned the lessons of its past, and reopened an uncomfortable debate about whether Germany must do more to fight a far-right fringe it had thought to be small, mostly non-violent and contained. Already known to police for their hate crimes - such as hanging a doll bearing the sign "Jew" from a motorway bridge - the trio slipped underground in 1998 to found a cell known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU). The NSU would go on to wage a seven-year racis

Agence-France Presse | Updated: April 12, 2013 22:47 IST Baquba, Iraq: A bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, killing seven people, a police colonel and a doctor said, the latest in an uptick in violence in the run-up to elections next week. The bomber struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, south of Baquba, and also wounded another 25 people the sources said. Iraq is to hold provincial elections on April 20, its first polls since 2010. Attacks on candidates have left at least a dozen election hopefuls dead, according to an AFP tally. That, and the fact that only 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces will vote due to a government postponement has drawn the credibility of the elections into question. Violence killed 271 Iraqis last month, the highest monthly figure since August, according to an AFP tally. Story first published: April 12, 2013 22:43 IST Source http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/bomb-near-iraq-mosque-kills-seven-353529

Four suspected naxalites, two civilians and a police constable were killed and another civilian was grievously injured, in a police-naxalite encounter near Sindeshur jungle under Dhanora tahsil of Gadchiroli, bordering Chhattisgarh, some 250 kms from in Nagpur on Friday afternoon. According to reports reaching the divisional headquarters in Nagpur, the incident took place when the Danora dalam (squad) of CPI (Maoist) was holding a secret meeting in the jungle. A group of C-60 police jawans - the elite anti-naxalite squad of the state - reached the spot and challenged the naxalites. The Maoists opened fire on the security forces that left a police jawan dead on the spot. The slain policeman was identified as Govind Fadkade (41) from Jairampur village in Gadchiroli district. The police forces retaliated and gunned down four naxalites, including three women activists. The gun battle continued for half an hour. "As the policemen were in a sizeable numbers and armed with

Jorhat, April 9: The Assam government has decided to learn from Maoist-hit states to tackle the menace making inroads in Tinsukia district. Deputy commissioner S.S. Meenakshi Sundaram told The Telegraph today that Tinsukia officials would be sent to states like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Odisha to get first-hand knowledge of the development plans being implemented in the rural areas of these states. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held in Tinsukia town under the chairmanship of power and industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi yesterday. It was also decided that chief minister Tarun Gogoi would be urged to send police teams to the Maoist-affected states for an orientation course on strategies adopted there to tackle “Left-wing extremism”. The meeting was a preparatory one before the first sitting of the 13-member high-powered committee constituted by Dispur recently under the chairmanship of Bordoloi for Tinsukia after the district was accorded special category sta

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: Taliban militants attacked an army outpost near the eastern border with Pakistan on Friday, killing 13 soldiers, the defense ministry said. The attack occurred in a volatile province that serves as a major gateway for insurgents coming from Pakistan. Hostilities have surged as weather improves, allowing easier passage through the mountainous area. The fighting began at dawn and lasted about five hours in the Nari district of Kunar province, defense ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. He said 13 Afghan soldiers were killed. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack and said the insurgents captured the base, seizing ammunition and weapons. He put the death toll at 15 Afghan soldiers, claiming the militants suffered no casualties among their fighters. Taliban and other insurgents enjoy refuge in Pakistan's lawless northwestern area and use Kunar as one of their main infiltration routes into Afghanistan. This year

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration on Friday designated 18 people under a US law requiring a list of alleged human rights abusers in Russia, in a move that could cause more friction in the US relationship with Moscow. The list includes 16 people directly related to the case of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who died in his jail cell in 2009, as well as two others, a senior state department official said on condition of anonymity. Those named on the list will be subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the United States under a law passed by Congress last year. One US lawmaker said the list was "timid" with "significant omissions," while a senior Russian lawmaker said he thought President Barack Obama had done the minimum possible under the law so as not to worsen ties with Moscow. US-Russia relations are strained by what critics say is a crackdown on dissent in Russia under President Vladimir Putin, and disputes over security issues such as the wa

NEW DELHI: The new set of WikiLeaks cables have revealed how in the 70s the US government had pushed the case for Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) to set up the operations of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) in India. The US government followed the Union Carbide's case with the Indian government seeking exceptional terms to help the company set up a factory in Bhopal, the Kissinger cables reveal. A series of cables show that UCIL managers in India were in touch with US diplomatic officials, seeking their intervention to secure terms for UCC's investment in India. Both US officials and UCIL had lobbied hard to ease norms for the company under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Fera) that limited equity participation of foreign firms. This dates back to 1973, when the a cable shows the then head of UCIL had approached US ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan asking the visiting US deputy secretary of state to lobby with the Indian finance minister on behalf of the company. Oth

LONDON: British military scientists have found forensic evidence that chemical weapons have been used in the conflict in Syria, UK's Times newspaper reported on Saturday. A soil sample thought to have been taken from an area close to Damascus and smuggled back to Britain has provided proof that "some kind of chemical weapon" had been fired, it quoted defence sources as saying. The tests were carried out at the ministry of defence's chemical and biological research establishment at Porton Down, it added in the front-page story. Diplomats at the United Nations said on Thursday that western nations have "hard evidence" that chemical weapons have been used at least once in the Syrian war, without giving details. The British team were unable to discern whether the weapons had been fired by President Bashar al-Assad's regime or by the rebels fighting him, nor could they say if there had been widespread use, Times said. It cited an unnamed source as

LONDON: Nearly 600 Europeans have gone to Syria since early 2011, representing 7-11% of the foreign fighters there in total. A day after G8 confirmed that Syria had become the hotbed for foreign terrorists, the international centre for the study of radicalization has pinpointed the exact numbers. The centre, which is part of King's College, London has found more than 450 martyrdom notices that have been posted in jihadist online forums around Syria. Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in early 2011, the centre estimates that about 5,500-odd foreign fighters have gone to Syria to fight with opposition forces. From Europe, Britain may have exported 134 fighters, Netherlands 107, France 92, Belgium 85, Denmark 78, Germany 40, Ireland 26, Finland 13, Spain 6 and Sweden 5. European countries like Albania, Austria, Bulgaria and Kosovo have exported one fighter each to Syria. Professor Peter Neumann at King's in collaboration with Aaron Y Zelin at the Washington Instit

The potential proliferation of both conventional and unconventional weapons in Libya after six months of civil war is a 'key concern' for the United States, a senior American official has said. The conflict that ended Moammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule and sent the former dictator into hiding also threw open the gates to his regime's extensive armories. The country's new leaders, who are struggling to establish a government, have failed to secure many of the weapons caches. Witnesses have watched looters, former rebel fighters or anyone with a truck carry them away. In another diplomatic development, a member of the Libyan council said late Wednesday that the leaders of Britain and France will visit Tripoli on Thursday. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and French President Nicolas Sarkozy would be the first heads of government to arrive in Tripoli since Gaddafi fled. Their offices would not comment. Earlier Wednesday, US Assistant Secretary of State Jeffery

Punjabi film 'Sadda Haq', which revolves around militancy era in Punjab and has been banned by the state government "to maintain communal harmony", is being promoted and distributed in Canada by Canadian Sikh Coalition — a pro-Khalistani organisation. This, when makers of the film have claimed that it is a balanced movie, which does not further any particular ideology or movement. The Canadian Sikh Coalition, however, is batting for the film not only on its official website but also on its Facebook page where it projects itself as a "political organisation". On March 1, its official website uploaded a post, which began with: "The Canadian Sikh Coalition is proud to announce that it has formed a partnership with the team behind the film 'Sada (sic) Haq' and will be the official distributor for the film in Canada. The film is a revealing and truthful account of the period of militancy in Punjab that spanned the 1980s and 1990s. It brings forwa

TOP STORIES Unidentified miscreants today hurled three crude bombs apparently targeting a parked car being used by Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh during a visit to southwestern Khulna district, injuring three people including his driver. "The High Commissioner (Pankaj Saran) is completely unhurt and there is nothing to be worried about... he will return to Dhaka in line with his visit schedule," an Indian high commission spokesman said. A police official in Khulna said unidentified miscreants hurled the bombs in front of a number of parked cars while the Indian envoy was in a meeting with the local chamber leaders. Assistant police commissioner Abul Kalam Azad said the explosions slightly wounded three people, including his driver, but the cars were undamaged and a massive manhunt was launched to track down those who exploded the bombs. "We suspect that activists of Jamaat-e-Islami exploded the bombs ahead of their planned general strike in the (Khulna)

Congress' most serious gun-control effort in years cleared its first hurdle Thursday as the Senate pushed past conservatives' attempted blockade under the teary gaze of families of victims of December's Connecticut school shootings. The bipartisan 68-31 vote rebuffed an effort to keep debate from even starting, giving an early victory - and perhaps political momentum - to President Barack Obama and his gun control allies. Four months after 20 first-graders and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown were killed, relatives watching the vote from a gallery overlooking the Senate floor dabbed at tears and clasped hands, some seeming to pray. Even so, few supporters of the legislation are confident of victory. Several weeks of emotional, unpredictable Senate debate lie ahead, and a mix of gun-rights amendments, opposition from the National Rifle Association and skepticism from House Republican leaders leave big questions about what will emerge from Congres

New Zealand troops began their withdrawal from Afghanistan today, with the lowering of the flag for the last time at their base in Bamiyan to mark the end of a 10-year involvement in the war. The government announced the early withdrawal last year, with the New Zealand contingent originally scheduled to remain until September 2014. Ten New Zealand soldiers have died in Afghanistan over the past decade eight in Bamiyan and two in Kabul. New Zealand Governor-General and former defence chief Jerry Mateparae, who attended the closing ceremony, said earlier in the week before travelling to Afghanistan that it was the right time for troops to pull out. "This has always been the case with us I think. We have gone in, done our job and then left. I think our job in Bamiyan is at about the right state," he said. Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman said in Bamiyan that the 145 New Zealand troops working on provincial reconstruction had a significant impact on the region. &quo

KORAPUT: The BSF and the Odisha police personnel busted an arms manufacturing unit of Maoists in a dense forest of Narayanpatna in Koraput district on Friday. However, no one was present at the time of the raid, said police. According to BSF sources, the Red rebels had set up the unit in the dense forests of Hurlikota near Naktipadar village, about 100 km from here, under Narayanpatna police limits. "We had intelligence inputs regarding existence of the unit and an operation was launched to unearth it. A team of BSF personnel from our Podapadar camp spotted the unit around 10.30 am," said deputy commandant (BSF) Satya Ranjan Panda. The security personnel also recovered Maoist belongings from the spot. A lathe machine, a drilling machine, a mixer, an iron wielding machine, a battery testing meter, steel containers, two empty cases of claymore mines, at least four gun barrels, two pairs of ultra uniforms, Maoist literature and as many as 50 types of spare parts used in

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has begun probe into an alleged Maoist plan to manufacture grenades that, it claims, became known after the seizure of "cylindrical shaped components" from two suspected rebels arrested in West Bengal. Arjun Gunja and 61-year-old Mohan Vishwakarma, suspected to be members of the Central Technical Committee and the Technical Research and Arms Manufacturing Unit of CPI (Maoist), are said to be close to the top Maoist leadership. Vishwakarma, the NIA has alleged, was entrusted to procure arms and distribute them among the rebels. Their interrogation led security forces to over 80 components of hand grenades stored in a workshop and a transport firm in Kolkata, the NIA has claimed in its FIR. The firm was to transport these parts to the rebels in the forests of Jharkhand and Chattishgarh where they would be assembled. West Bengal Police also allegedly busted hideouts on the outskirts of Kolkata that were being used by Maoists to assemb

Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), Apr 13: A Maoist, who was on bail, went "missing" from the premises of Hazaribagh District and Session Court here, police said yesterday. Sohan Bhuiyan, who came to the court yesterday with his son following summons, went missing during the period when his son went to fetch water, Superintendent of Police Manoj Kaushik said here. While his son lodged a complaint with the police alleging his father had been kidnapped from the court premises, the SP said it was a case of missing and ruled out abduction by any rebel group. Bhuiyan was the "sub-zonal commander" with the erstwhil Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and accused of being involved in the killing of 19 members of the Gram Suraksha Samiti on April 19, 2001 at Beltu in Hazaribagh district. Along with the People's War, the MCC later formed the CPI (Maoist), which is now a banned outfit. Bhuiyan was arrested in 2005 and remained in jail since then before getting bail five weeks a

The head of the resurgent Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said on Tuesday feminism was a "very dangerous" phenomenon offering an illusion of freedom to women who should focus on their families and children. Some three quarters of Russians consider themselves Russian Orthodox and Kirill has fostered increasingly close ties with President Vladimir Putin who has portrayed the church as the guardian of Russia's national values. "I find very dangerous this phenomenon, which is called feminism, because feminist organisations proclaim a pseudo-freedom of women that should in the first place be manifested outside marriage and outside the family," Kirill was quoted by Interfax news agency as telling a meeting with an Orthodox women's group. "Man turns his sight outward, he should work, make money. While a woman is always focused inwards towards her children, her home. If this exceptionally important role of a woman is de

Fifteen militants and one soldier were killed on Thursday when the Pakistani military mounted another operation in a week of fighting designed to seize control of a remote but strategic valley in the northwest, the army said. The military has faced fierce resistance from the Taliban and its allies in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber region since troops set out to dislodge insurgents from strategically important heights above the valley six days ago. Pakistani military officials say insurgents use the valley as a base camp that enables them to carry out raids in other semi-autonomous tribal areas near the Afghan border. "Fresh clashes started early Thursday when the security forces launched another operation to secure control of the valley," said a military official in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, adding that 15 militants and a soldier had been killed. On Tuesday, the military said 23 Pakistani soldiers and 110 militants had been ki

INDONESIA has guaranteed no Australian aid money is being used to help fund radicalism in schools in the world's most populous Muslim country. A number of Islamic schools in Indonesia have in the past been linked to terrorist organisations, including the Ngruki college in central Java which boasts a number of the 2002 Bali bombers as alumni. The school, or pesantren, in Solo has long been linked to Islamic fundamentalism. It was founded by radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and was attended by Bali bombers Mukhlas and Amrozi. But the Indonesian Religious Affairs Ministry's secretary-general, Bahrul Hayat, on Thursday downplayed connections between terrorism and the teaching of a radical Islam in some schools. His comments came as he accompanied Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr on a tour of a madrasah (a community-based religious school) in south Jakarta which is being funded by AusAid. "I can guarantee that because all the madrasa

Firefighters lured to home slightly injured, police say Police shot dead a gunman who held four firefighters hostage for hours in a suburban Atlanta home, and all the hostages were slightly injured but should be OK, authorities said. The gunman, who was not identified, had demanded that his power and cable be restored, said Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter. According to public records, the home is in foreclosure. "It's an unfortunate circumstance. We did not want this to end this way," Ritter said. "But with the decisions this guy was making, this was his demise." Five firefighters had responded Wednesday afternoon to what seemed like a routine medical call. The gunman then released one firefighter to move a fire truck. Police used an explosion to distract the gunman and rush into the home. One officer was wounded in the hand or arm but should be fine, Ritter said. The firefighters mainly suffered cuts and bruises in the explosio

The British county of Kent appointed a new youth commissioner — who turns out was acting like a bit of a youth on Twitter. The scandal is a top tabloid fodder across the nation Here is hilariously modern Britain in one hit. A few days ago, Kent appointed a new police and youf commissioner, who was a … youf. Seventeen-year-old Paris Brown was presented to the meeja as the new face of inclusive Britain, part of the process by which ordinary folk would now be running the cops in the name of the people. Brown presented as a self-possessed and focused young person, perhaps even one of those tiresome prefect/youth parliament types. Until her Twitter feed was revealed that is, and it turned out she was, well, see for yourself … The new youth crime advocate was a “foulmouthed, racist homophobe”  screamed the Daily Mail , which knows about these things. That was a bit of a beat-up. With the exception of one anti-Roma people tweet: “ OH MY GOD WILL YOU PIKEYS STOP NICKING THE

Francis' first Good Friday 2:49  Way of the Cross processions re-enact crucifixion  Pope Francis praised the "friendship of so many Muslim brothers" during the Good Friday procession that re-enacts Jesus Christ's crucifixion and this year was dedicated to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. The nighttime Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum is one of the most dramatic rituals of Holy Week, when Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ. With torches lighting the way, the faithful carried the cross to different stations where meditations and prayers were read out recalling the final hours of Christ's life. This year, the meditations read out were composed by young Lebanese faithful. Many of the prayers referred to the plight of Mideast Christians and called for an end to "violent fundamentalism," terrorism and the "wars and violence which in our days devastate various countries in the Midd

Famous German entrepreneur gave up investment plan because of red tape German Ambassador Albrecht Conze sees 'fundamentalism' in Hifazat-e Islam's 13-point charter of demand tat the the little-known group made in a rally on Saturday, reports bdnews24.com. He says, 'this is not the tradition of secular Bangladesh'. "This is a people's republic. This is not a religious republic like Iran," he said on Monday speaking at a Bangladesh-German Chamber of Commerce and Industries' (BGCCI) 'business lunch'. The luncheon meeting was organised to announce its partnership with the Messe Dusseldorf GmbH, one of the largest trade fair orgainsers in the world. The Chittagong-based Hifazat has threatened to lay siege to Dhaka on May 5 if the government did not meet the demands that include banning women appearing in public with men, a halt to setting up of statues in educational institutions and roundabouts countrywide, and