NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said on Tuesday that it had lodged a strong protest with China over a new map that lays claim to India's territory, the latest irritant in testy ties between the Asian giants.
The protest by New Delhi followed reports in the Indian media that Beijing had released an official "standard map" showing the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin plateau as its official territory.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas to be a part of southern Tibet and had in April released a map renaming 11 places in the state as being within "Zangnan", or southern Tibet in Chinese.
Aksai Chin is a disputed plateau in the western Himalayas claimed by India but controlled by China.
"We have today lodged a strong protest through diplomatic channels with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 'standard map' of China that lays claim to India;s territory," the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson said.
"We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar dismissed China's territorial claims.
"Making absurd claims on India's territory does not make it China's territory," Jaishankar told news channel NDTV.
New Delhi's protest comes days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg last week and highlighted concerns about the stand-off on their disputed Himalayan frontier.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have plummeted after soldiers from both sides clashed in the Himalayas in June 2020, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops.
While the situation on the nearly 3,000-km (1,860-mile)frontier has been calm since, the face-off continues in a few pockets with tens of thousands of soldiers amassed on both sides of the frontier in the western Himalayas.
Islamabad (AFP) – Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan remained in prison on Tuesday despite his graft conviction being suspended, his lawyers said, claiming that a "manipulation of justice" was keeping him behind bars.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the Islamabad High Court overturned a lower court's decision to jail him for three years, a judgment that kept him from contesting upcoming elections.
His lawyers said he was granted bail and they were initially hopeful he would be released from Attock Jail, a century-old prison around 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of Islamabad, where the 70-year-old has been held for three weeks.
However, they said on Tuesday afternoon Khan remained in detention because of a previous arrest, made in secret, over a case alleging he had leaked classified state documents.
One of his lawyers told reporters outside the prison, which was surrounded by patrolling police units, that Khan was "on judicial remand" and would appear before a special court in Islamabad on Wednesday.
"He was arrested prior to today's court ruling. The exact date of his arrest remains unclear," another lawyer, Gohar Khan, told AFP by phone.
Another, Muhammad Shoaib Shaheen, said "his legal team was intentionally left uninformed and kept in the dark".
"This constitutes a manipulation of justice," he said.
'Countless devotees'
Khan's three-year sentence was handed down this month by a judge who found him guilty of failing to properly declare gifts he received while in office.
That was only one of more than 200 legal cases that have embroiled Pakistan's most popular politician since he was ousted by a parliamentary vote last year.
Khan, a former cricket star, has also been previously denied bail in at least nine other cases, including three in anti-terrorism courts and six in the district courts in Islamabad.
Rights monitors say authorities use vexing and repetitive legal proceedings as a tactic to quash dissent in Pakistan.
Pro-PTI lawyers chanted "Release Imran Khan!" and "Khan your devotees are countless!" outside court as initial news of his sentence suspension broke.
The party later said nine activists had been arrested outside Attock Jail.
Khan behind bars
The charismatic Khan claims his ousting and subsequent legal cases have been orchestrated by the powerful military establishment to deny him a second term.
Khan was also briefly jailed on graft charges in May, sparking days of civil unrest, but since then his PTI party has been targeted by a major crackdown that has vastly diminished his street power and seen most of his senior leadership jump ship or be locked away.
Islamabad said it was targeted by "anti-state" violence during the backlash over that arrest.
But rights groups say authorities used overly broad anti-terror laws to suppress PTI, while the domestic media reported pressure to censor or smear Khan on the airwaves.
While Khan was imprisoned this month, Pakistan's parliament was dissolved at the request of his successor Shehbaz Sharif to pave the way for a caretaker government that will usher in elections.
No date for the polls has been announced.
Khan surged to power in 2018 on a wave of popular support, an anti-corruption manifesto and the backing of the powerful military establishment.
When he was ousted in April 2022, analysts said it was because he lost the support of the same generals who handed him the keys to power.
He was replaced by a shaky coalition of the dynastic parties that have historically ruled Pakistan.
But, as an opposition politician, he waged an unprecedented campaign against the influential generals, who have staged at least three successful coups leading to decades of martial law.
Islamabad, Pakistan– Former Prime Minister Imran Khan received some rare good news on the legal front when the Islamabad High Court suspended his three-year prison sentence in a corruption case and ordered his release on bail.
But his joy was short-lived on Tuesday as a special court in Islamabad ordered him to remain in custody in a connection with the “cypher case” and instructed authorities to present him before the court on Wednesday.
The cypher case is related to a diplomatic document that allegedly went missing when it was in the former leader’s possession.
Khan, 70, was convicted on August 5 by a trial court for not declaring the assets he made from selling gifts he received from foreign governments and leaders during his premiership from 2018 to 2022.
Last year, a no-confidence vote in parliament removed him from office. Since then, Khan has repeatedly alleged that the cypher, or diplomatic cable, contains proof there was a United States-led conspiracy with Pakistan’s powerful military to oust him.
The US has repeatedly denied any such involvement, as has Pakistan’s military.
Video Duration 06 minutes 56 seconds06:56
Pakistan court suspends ex-PM Imran Khan’s conviction in state gifts case
After his sentencing early this month, Pakistan’s Election Commission declared Khan ineligible to contest elections for at least five years. Despite Tuesday’s decision by a two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court, the disqualification still stands, according to some legal experts.
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“It is important to remember that only the sentence has been suspended, not the actual conviction,” lawyer Mirza Moiz Baig told Al Jazeera following the court’s order.
“Given that the Pakistani Constitution bars a convict from contesting elections, Khan continues to remain disqualified from electoral politics,” Baig said, adding that he also remains ineligible to lead his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
‘No evidence’
The Federal Investigation Agency registered a case against Khan and his close aides for allegedly sharing information on the “cypher” cable and violating the recently established Official Secrets Act.
The purported document was published by The Intercept, which has said the source of the secret cable was a military official and not Khan’s PTI party.
Khan has said the document is no longer in his possession and he has no knowledge of its whereabouts.
Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, spokesman for the PTI, applauded the Islamabad High Court’s decision to suspend Khan’s sentence and said the party’s top priority is to bring its leader back home.
But after the special court order to keep the former prime minister in detention, Bukhari expressed his displeasure.
“It is absurd that the Official Secrets Act is being forced without any legal standing whatsoever. Are laws & draconian amendments in this country to target just one person/party? Or is there any use of law for the people?” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Intazar Hussain Panjutha, a member of the PTI’s legal team representing Khan, also questioned Khan’s continued imprisonment and said “no plausible” reason could justify it.
“There is no evidence against him. This sentence should have been suspended right at the start of our appeal, and there was no need for wasting so much time as it was not the final decision,” he told Al Jazeera.
The lawyer was also critical of the order by the special court to keep Khan in detention.
“This is an illegal order and, most importantly, a very suspicious one as there is no date mentioned anywhere and it cannot be determined when this was passed. It must be in black and white and clearly reflect when this passed. We will challenge this as it is against the law,” Panjutha said.
The legality of the Official Secrets Act, under which the cypher case is being heard, was called into question this month when President Arif Alvi, himself a member of the PTI, declared he had never signed the amended laws.
The amendments, which give authorities more power to prosecute people for acts committed against the state and military, were presented to Alvi by the outgoing parliament. But the president on August 20 said he had never signed off on them.
According to Pakistan’s Constitution, if the president does not sign a draft bill or return it with his observations or objections within 10 days after it passes both houses of parliament, it becomes law.
Constitutional expert Reza Ali disputed the position taken by PTI officials and said the president’s statement on social media is not enough to keep the changes from going into effect and the party must go to court to appeal.
“Unless the notification issued by the government is challenged in a court of law, despite its defective nature, it remains in the field. The statement by the PTI is inaccurate,” Ali, a Lahore-based lawyer, said.
“Since the court did not set aside the amendments, it remains valid. Posting messages on Twitter does not invalidate it, and if the PTI believes so strongly, a petition should be filed in the court.”
