India
A horrible incident in India today as troops killed 13 civilians in what the government described as a “botched” operation. The killings took place in the northeastern state of Nagaland, where the army has been battling separatist rebels for years. According to local reports, soldiers killed six people when they opened fire on a truck carrying miners, believing them to be rebels. After the incident, hundreds of angry people turned up at the local army base to protest, burning vehicles and clashing with troops. A further seven civilians were shot dead at that protest and one soldier killed. Home Minister Amit Shah said he was “anguished” by what happened.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Israel-Palestine
A Palestinian prisoner in Israel, Kayed Fasfous, has been freed two weeks after a deal was reached to end his mammoth 131-day hunger strike. Fasfous was protesting an Israeli policy known as “administrative detention,” under which prisoners can be held indefinitely without charge. Israel says the practise is necessary to protect secret information, while rights groups and Palestinians say it is a denial of due process, which allows Palestinians to be held with no evidence. Around 500 of the 4,600 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons are in administrative detention.
More from the Palestine Chronicle here.
Gambia
As mentioned in our last newsletter, Gambians went to the polls in a presidential election. The results are now in, and incumbent Adama Barrow has emerged victorious by a comfortable margin. The public is demanding that Barrow set about securing justice for the victims of Yahya Jammeh, a brutal dictator who ruled the country by fear for 22 years. Jammeh now lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea.
More from AP here.