Tens of thousands attend funeral of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah 5 months after his killing
Beirut, Feb 23 (AP): Tens of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut early Sunday to attend the funeral of Hezbollah's former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Nasrallah died after Israel's air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the fighter group's main operations room in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital. His death was a major blow for the Iran-backed group that the late leader transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.
He was one of the group's founders and led it for more than 30 years, enjoying wide influence among Iran-backed groups in the region. The late Hezbollah chief was widely respected in the so-called Iran-led axis of resistance that included Iraqi, Yemeni and Palestinian factions.
Sahar al-Attar, a mourner who travelled from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for the funeral said she still “cannot believe what happened”.
“We would have come even under bullets” to attend Nasrallah's burial, she said. “It is an indescribable feeling.”
Nasrallah shares the funeral with his cousin and successor, Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb a few days later.
The late Hezbollah leader will be laid to rest later Sunday in Beirut while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown in southern Lebanon. Both had temporarily been buried in secret locations. Hezbollah earlier this month announced plans for their official funerals.
As the coffins were paraded before the huge crowd, men on a platform tossed flowers, while some threw clothing articles in the hope they come in contact with the coffin, believing it would bless them.
Officials from around the region, including Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived at the Lebanese capital's main sports stadium. Lebanese parliament speaker and representatives of the president and prime minister were also in attendance at the funeral believed to be Lebanon's largest in two decades.
Qalibaf and Araghchi arrived on separate flights from Tehran Sunday morning in an apparent lifting of a ban on flights from Iran that Lebanese authorities imposed after the Israeli army claimed the Islamic Republic was smuggling cash to Hezbollah on commercial flights.
Senior Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush told reporters Saturday that about 800 figures from 65 countries will be attending the funeral in addition to thousands of individuals and activists from around the world.
“Come from every home, village and city so that we tell the enemy that this resistance will stay and is ready in the field,” Daamoush said, referring to Israel.
Hezbollah has been calling on its supporters to attend the funeral in large numbers in what appears to be a move to show that the group remains powerful after suffering major blows during a 14-month war with Israel that left many of its senior political and military officials dead.
In the crowded stands, thousands of Hezbollah supporters waved the group's yellow flag and chanted: “Death to America, death to Israel.”
Sarah Taqi, an attendee, said the large number of mourners shows that Hezbollah is still strong.
“There is pain, but we have to be strong,” Taqi said.
Hours before and during the funeral, the Israeli military launched a series of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had “conducted a precise intelligence-based strike on a military site containing rocket launchers and weapons in Lebanese territory.” Lebanon's state news agency reported that one of the strikes wounded a Syrian woman.
“The Israeli Air Force planes that are flying now in the skies over Beirut above the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, adding that it is to “send a clear message: whoever threatens to annihilate Israel and strike Israel - that will be his end.”
Israeli jets also flew at low altitude over Beirut as Nasrallah's coffin was paraded into the stadium while his speech following the 2006 war with Israel played. The crowd chanted: “Death to Israel” in response.
Hezbollah was served another blow with the fall of the Assad family's five-decade rule in Syria in early December, a strong ally of the Lebanese group and a main route for the flow of weapons and money from Iran.
As part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that ended the war with Israel on November 27, Hezbollah is not supposed to have an armed presence along the border with Israel. Hezbollah's rivals have been calling on the group to lay down its weapons all over Lebanon and become a political faction.
Hezbollah has prepared for the funeral by setting up the stadium to host tens of thousands of people while giant screens were placed along the airport road outside the stadium for people who won't get a space inside to watch the funeral.
Tight security measures have been taken, including the closure of major roads in the area of the funeral.
Lebanese army and police forces were placed on alert and the army has banned the use of drones in Beirut and its suburbs during the day. Flights to and from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport were set to halt for four hours starting at noon.
Hezbollah has given a title to the funeral: “We are committed to the covenant.”
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Deaf and mute woman breaks 16-year silence, exposes serial sexual abuse, blackmail in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): A deaf and mute woman's complaint about a sexual assault that took place 16 years ago in Mumbai has unmasked a serial predator, revealing a disturbing pattern of abuse and blackmail he perpetrated on several women from the community.
The accused was arrested on December 13 after the survivor broke her silence recently following the suicide attempt by one of the women he allegedly sexually harassed.
Disturbed by the suicide attempt, she confided in her friends during a video call about the assault that occurred in 2009.
According to the police, the survivor, a resident of the western suburbs, communicated in sign language during a video call with her friends and colleagues, who were part of a WhatsApp group, that the accused had drugged and raped her when she was a minor.
She also took her husband into confidence, and with support from Thane Deaf Association president Vaibhav Ghaisis, activist Mohammed Farhan Khan, sign language interpreter Madhu Keni, and a retired officer from the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities Divyangjan, the survivor approached the police.
The survivor, her husband and a few of her friends went to the Kurar police station, where her statement was recorded in camera, with Keni as interpreter, and the accused, Mahesh Pawar, was arrested a few hours later from Virar, a suburb in Palghar district.
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Recalling the trauma she endured 16 years ago, the survivor said that a female friend had invited her to explore the city in July 2009 and took her to Pawar's home in Vakola, Santacruz, an official said.
The accused allegedly offered her samosas and some beverage to celebrate the female friend's birthday. The survivor said she was forced to have the drink, which Pawar had allegedly spiked, and after a while, her friend left her alone with him.
The accused allegedly overpowered and raped her, and later blackmailed her with the recorded video of the assault.
The trauma of assault stayed with her over the years, and the attempted suicide of another woman from the community, allegedly assaulted by Pawar, propelled her to come forward.
A probe has revealed that the accused had similarly drugged and assaulted speech and hearing impaired women and threatened them into silence by blackmailing them with obscene videos, a senior police officer said.
The accused allegedly shot obscene videos of several women, using which he blackmailed them and extorted money, gold and mobile phones, he said.
He allegedly forced women into participating in nude video calls with him and recorded these to threaten them, the official said.
"As per initial investigation so far, we have evidence of his abuse of seven women, but the number can increase to more than 24," the official told PTI.
While Pawar has been remanded in judicial custody, no other woman has come forward with a complaint against him as yet, he said.
Talking to PTI, Keni said all women who have survived abuse and harassment by Pawar want to lodge a complaint against him.
She claimed that the accused had extorted money from one of the women he abused, but did not return the sum even when she needed it for a medical emergency.
