WORLD ON WEDNESDAY
A 5 min read about all the Matters that Matter
Hey Buddy, Glad to see you again! Welcome to Wednesday, 27th December 2023’s Matters that Matter.
1. Plane held in France over trafficking concerns lands in India
Their faces covered, some using their mobile phones as face shields, and almost all unwilling to speak about their experience, 276 passengers emerged from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Tuesday morning, nearly five hours after their plane landed. They were let off after questioning by a team of CBI and Immigration officials.
The passengers, who had boarded a Legend Airlines charter plane in the UAE last week, reached Mumbai after the plane was detained for four days at Vatry airport in the Marne region of France for suspected human trafficking.
It is suspected that the passengers had been gathered by multiple agents in India and taken to UAE following which a charter flight was arranged by their contact there to take them to Nicaragua. Nicaragua is one of the springboards for illegal journeys to the US.
The flight, operated by Romania-based Legend Airlines, had been en route from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua when it was detained at a regional airport on Thursday following a tip-off that its passengers may be victims of trafficking.
Passengers on the flight were confined at Vatry airport, about 150km east of Paris, while authorities turned the terminal into a makeshift courtroom to carry out emergency hearings.
Among the 303 original passengers who stayed behind in France, 25, including five minors, requested asylum in the country and two others were initially detained as part of the trafficking probe before being released, local authorities said.
The plane’s departure on Monday came after a French court ruled that authorities did not have legal authority to further detain several passengers.
French authorities have said they did not find evidence of human trafficking but are continuing to investigate potential breaches of immigration laws.
The Indian Embassy thanked French officials for the “quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home” in a post on X.
When Legend Airlines’ lawyer in France was asked why the aircraft didn't proceed to Nicaragua after the French authorities cleared the passengers except for the 25 who sought asylum, she said "Most probably because the Nicaraguan authorities didn't allow the passengers to enter their territory. The United Arab Emirates refused to take the passengers back despite the fact that they left from there. And the only country that expressed the willingness to help and to act quickly, to allow these people to go somewhere else and not to remain for a long time under these absolutely inappropriate conditions, was India. "
2. Three deaths in Army custody spark anger
Three officers, including the Brigadier in-charge in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, have been “attached” with a local unit pending an inquiry into the deaths of three civilians detained by the Army reported on December 22. “Attachment” means being removed from the post to ensure an impartial investigation. The J&K Police have already registered a murder case against unidentified persons over the deaths.
A 29-second video that went viral on social media showed persons, believed to be Army personnel, stripping three men and sprinkling chili powder on them. The J&K Police registered a first information report at the Surankote police station on Sunday after the three were found dead with multiple injuries.
Meanwhile, a search operation to nab those responsible for firing on the Army vehicles is still on.
Context
Eight men from the tribal Gujjar Bakkarwal community were detained by the Army following an attack on two vehicles carrying troops around 3.45 p.m. on December 21 in the Poonch-Rajouri area, which resulted in the deaths of four soldiers.
The two Army vehicles were moving to an operation site at Thanamandi in Rajouri when the terrorists fired on it. This was immediately retaliated upon by our own troops. The incident occurred during an ongoing anti-militancy operation in Dera ki Gali, Thanamandi, Rajouri. The operation has been on since Wednesday night (December 20).
Meanwhile, the four soldiers were cremated with honors at their native places. The mortal remains of Naik Birendra Singh and rifleman Gautam Kumar, residents of Chamoli and Kotdwar in Uttarakhand, arrived at the Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun on Monday. The last rites of Naik Karan Kumar from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and rifleman Chandan Kumar from Nawada in Bihar were also conducted.
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3. The Red Sea turbulence hits India
Days after the two merchant ships with Indian crew members came under drone attack, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday warned that India would hunt down the perpetrators, even from the "depths of the sea", and take strict action against them.
MV Chem Pluto, a chemical/ oil tanker with a crew of 21 Indians and a Vietnamese, was on its way to New Mangalore from Al Jubail (Saudi Arabia) when it came under attack on December 23, 200 nautical miles southwest of Veraval, Gujarat, leading to an explosion and fire. No casualty was reported. The Liberian-flagged ship reached Mumbai on Monday.
A day after the attack, a Gabon-flagged commercial oil tanker, MV Sai Baba, on its way to India with 25 crew members, all of them Indians, also came under drone attack in the southern Red Sea, along with another Norwegian-flagged ship but no causality took place.
Given the recent attacks, the Navy announced the deployment of guided missile destroyers INS Mormugao, INS Kochi and INS Kolkata "in various areas to maintain a deterrent presence".
Underlining the need to continuously develop the Navy's capabilities, Singh said: "With the Himalayas in the north and the hostile behavior of Pakistan in the west, most of India's goods trade comes through sea, which makes it an island country from the 'trade' perspective."
Context
The conflict in West Asia has spilled over into one of the world's busiest trade routes. Since mid-November, Houthi rebels, who control large parts of Yemen, have been firing drones and missiles on ships in the Red Sea. The rebels, reportedly backed by Iran, claim that the attacks are in solidarity with Hamas. But the turmoil has escalated in the last week with Houthi projectiles hitting ships with no clear links with Israel.
Last week, the US launched a multi-national naval force, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to guard against attacks by the rebels. The Danish shipping giant Maersk Line Ltd plans to resume its Red Sea operations. However several countries are absent from this US-led force. Egypt, which stands to be one of the heaviest losers from the decline in Suez Canal commerce, hasn't condemned the Houthis. Saudi Arabia, which has been negotiating peace with the Yemeni group in recent months, too, hasn't come out in support of the US-led force. It's clear that peace in the straits will depend on the resolution of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
- References and Excerpts from The Indian Express
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