Palestinian Terrorism Carnage

"Following my urgent request, the UN Security Council will finally convene on Wednesday for the first time since the October 7 massacre to hold an official discussion on the hostages."

"The Security Council must condemn the terrorist organization Hamas and demand the immediate release of the [Israeli] abductees."

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon

 

"These murderers executed six of our hostages, they shot them in the back of the head."

"And now, after this, we're asked to show seriousness? We're asked to make concessions [in a ceasefire agreement geared to the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas]."

"No one is more committed to freeing the hostages than me."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Murdered Israeli hostages Carmel Gat and Alexander Lobanov were shown in a Hamas video published on their Telegram channel on Wednesday evening. (Photo: Screenshot)

After shooting six young Israeli men and women whom Hamas terrorist operatives captured on October 7 from the grounds that hosted the Nova Music Festival, killing them at point blank range by shooting them in the back of their heads, Hamas followed up by the threat it would release videos of the "last messages" of all six of the murdered hostages. Recordings produced shortly before their deaths. This is the psychopathic savagery of Palestinian terrorism, follow up sadistic violence with equally sadistic psychological torture. 

The more anguish and grief caused to Jews by Palestinians the more glee and satisfaction in their cause of destroying the Jewish state and its Jewish inhabitants. Each of the six hostages -- Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Almog Sarusi, 27, Alexander Lobanov,32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, were shown introducing themselves to a camera in a video shown on Telegram, while a line on the screen in Hebrew, English and Arabic reads: "Hours and we will show their last messages".

Palestinians are masters of malevolence, using their creative sadistic streak to indulge in the pleasure of striking terror in the hearts of their targets while creating narratives and scenarios of stark lethal horrors to cause the greatest pain conceivable, in the order of mutilating girls and women while raping them before murdering them. And in the instance of the six murdered Israelis, torturing them for over 300 days of abysmal confinement, starvation, abuse, then forcing them to enact a death-facing tableau before they're murdered.

All of which represents the psychological warfare they excel at while nursing their imagined state of 'victimhood' at the hands of the Jewish state. The Hamas 'armed wing' put the government of Israel on notice that they are operating under new instructions in the hostage situation; that the hostage-keepers, should they become aware that Israeli forces are approaching their location in Gaza, are to take lethal action to prevent Israeli troops from managing to rescue any of the hostages. The message to Israel is that only Hamas can control the live release of the hostages.

 

A combination picture shows hostages Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi, who were kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, and whose bodies have been found underground in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip.   Bring Them Home Now via Reuters

These new instructions, revealed a spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades which claims control of the hostages, dictate the instructions, while stating it is not they who are responsible for the deaths of the hostages, but Israel itself which has demonstrated the effrontery of rescues such as that in June when Israeli forces freed four hostages through a raid that in turn saw the death of dozens of Palestinians. Hamas leaders clearly feel they have the upper hand, earned with their abduction of Israelis of all ages. Knowing how dear their lives are to Israel, in contrast to the Hamas condition of expendibility of Palestinian lives for their 'cause'.

Israel's commitment to its goal of destroying the Hamas capability of mounting attacks on Israel and Israelis is non-negotiable; a recent strike dispatched a Hamas operative who had appeared in a widely viewed video from the October 7 attack, the terrorist shown drinking cola in front of two children wounded in a grenade strike that killed their father. He was identified by the IDF as Ahmed Fozi Wadia, commander of a commando battalion, member of a paragliding unit.

He had flown into the community of Netiv HaAsara on a paraglider prior to launching the attack on Israeli civilians in the targeted farming community. IAF aircraft struck a compound in Gaza City where Hamas operatives were engaged, and where eight met their deaths, Wadia included. 

Ahmed Fozi Wadia was seen drinking cola while standing over wounded children during the October 7 attack. Photo by Israel Defence Forces via X

Exploiting Public Office for Entertainment

"No one expects their children to die before them but to have two out of three of  your children to be murdered on the same night is just incomprehensible."

"[The officers' crimes was a] betrayal of catastrophic proportions. Jaffer and Lewis callously committed, to my mind, a sacrilegious act."

"It made me think of the lynchings in the Deep South of the USA where you would see smiling faces around a hanging dead body."

"These police officers felt so safe, so untouchable that they felt they would take photographs with our murdered daughters."

Mina Smallman, Church of England Archdeacon, mother of two murdered women

The bodies of Bibaa Henry (left) and Nicole Smallman were found intertwined in undergrowth   Photo courtesy of Henry, Smallman families

To serve and protect, basically the universal code of police forces everywhere in democratic societies. On occasion the public trust is betrayed by the outrageous and often criminal behaviours of a small number of people who take that oath lightly, as officers of the law. Two British police officers did just that in a heartlessly outrageous manner when they decided to exploit their proximity to a macabre murder scene, by taking photographs for the distinct purpose of sharing them.

The choice of who to share them with was almost as shocking as their invasion of privacy of two murdered women; in effect a degrading, shameful performance. Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33, admitted in a court of law to using their phones to take images of the murdered women's bodies. Upon which they superimposed their faces, sharing the images through WhatsApp. Those with whom they shared these offences-against-the-dead were junior officers being mentored by the two older, experienced officers.

 

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, who were sentenced after a criminal trial at which the two pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

 

As a demonstration of just how cool they were facing death, in the most macabre way imaginable? As a source of amusing entertainment, by abusing the sad memory of two viciously slashed-to-death women for the jollification of their junior peers? Judge Mark Lucraft described their actions as "appalling and inexplicable". The memory of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry assaulted for "cheap thrills and bragging rights", commented the judge as he sentenced them to three years in prison.

 

Nicole Smallman, 27, and her sister Bibaa Henry, 46, had been stabbed to death by 19-year-old Danyal Hussein in Fryent Country Park, Wembley in June of last year. He is described as having been "Satan-obsessed". At his trial, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 35 years. The two women's mother who attended the sentencing hearing with other members of the family heard details of the messages the two officers sent alongside the photographs they posted on social media. 

"[You had dragged the bodies away and posed them in an embrace to] defile [them in death]." 

"You had found these two women. You were a stranger to them. You surprised them, you terrified them and you killed them." 

"You committed these vicious attacks. You did it to kill. You did it for money and a misguided pursuit of power." 

"The lives of your victims' loved ones have been] shattered."

Mrs. Justice Whipple, Blackheath courtroom

Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were celebrating the older sister's birthday  Met Police/PA Media

Women's Trust in Metropolitan London Police

"Quite rightly, as far as I can see, my team felt that this is now an unlawful gathering which poses a considerable risk to people's health."  

"I don't think anybody who was not in the operation can actually pass a detailed comment on the rightness and wrongness... This is fiendishly difficult policing." 

Police Commissioner Cressida Dick

 

"[I am] deeply concerned [by the scenes on Clapham Common and that Dame Cressida had] committed to reviewing how this was handled."  

"I plan to chair a meeting of the government's crime and justice task force on Monday to] look at what further action we need to take to protect women and ensure our streets are safe."  

"The death of Sarah Everard must unite us in determination to drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to protect and defend them."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Many who gathered at Clapham Common held signs protesting violence against women   Reuters

Thousands of women made certain they appeared at a Saturday night vigil for Sarah Everard, 33, a marketing executive who was abducted as she walked home alone after parting with a friend, and never reached home. A police officer has been found responsible for her death. A shocking revelation that has infuriated and mobilized British women to protest their lack of safety in public, where many women fear to be out alone on the streets at night.

Organizers had cancelled the vigil after police had persuaded them that under the circumstances with lockdown in effect, its legality and its safety were under question. Despite the cancellation women decided to attend and to take part in the vigil. "We're still in a pandemic, unlawful gatherings are unlawful gatherings, officers have to take action if people are putting themselves massively at risk", stated Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.

This, in the wake of a violent police intervention at the vigil. And it was a step much too far for the women in attendance at the vigil and later for women throughout Britain who were not in attendance but were infuriated by the clumsy use of aggressive police tactics against the women at the vigil. Where some women were manhandled, violently sent to the ground, manacled and placed under arrest by London's finest.

The public, infuriated, are calling for the dismissal of Commissioner Dick, and she has responded by defending her force for their forceful action under circumstances where she claims the public's safety and security were at risk. By the presence in mourning of thousands of women, grieving over the murder of a young woman, vulnerable and alone in the dark on a London Street, where an officer of the London Police committed an odiously grievous crime.

One woman, with flaming red hair, wearing a mask, was badly manhandled, thrown to the ground surrounded by police, stifling her right to protest in a free and open society against the murder by one of their own of one of her own. Arms behind her back, handcuffed the way a violent criminal would be for expressing her sorrow and fury at the helplessness of women preyed upon not only by violent men-at-large by by the very security force whose job it is to protect them.

 

Police arrest a protester at the Sarah Everard ‘Reclaim These Streets’ vigil at Clapham Common in London on March 13, 2021. Photo by Mario Mitsis/WENN

When the photographs of this woman being physically assaulted by the very men who were pledged to protect society from the forces of criminality were posted, the public reacted with deserved disbelief and anger. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins, questioned on the the images responded, "I found it very upsetting, of course." And assistant police commissioner Helen Ball had an explanation: 

"We absolutely did not want to be in a position where enforcement action was necessary. But we were placed in this position because of the overriding need to protect people's safety. Hundreds of people were packed tightly together, posing a very real risk of easily transmitting [sic] COVID-19."

"A small minority of people began chanting at officers, pushing and throwing items."

A protester lies immobilized at the Sarah Everard ‘Reclaim These Streets’ vigil in London on March 13, 2021. Photo by Mario Mitsis/WENN

"[I attended the vigil to support women who] cannot walk down the streets themselves because of the fear of men."

"[The police actions were] disgraceful."

"Before then, it was just peaceful protest. I was arrested by police for standing there. I wasn't doing anything."

"They threw me to the floor. They have pictures of me on the floor being arrested."

"And I'm 5-foot-2 and I weigh nothing."

Patsy Stevenson, dangerous red-haired woman threatening a platoon of London Police

At the vigil one individual smashed the rear view window of a police van, while many others shouted "arrest your own" and "shame on you". Politicians from across the political spectrum found reason as they viewed the scenes of police action circulated online, to criticize the handling of the situation by the Metropolitan Police. Four people, according to police were arrested for "public order offences and for breaches of the Health Protection Regulations".

 

There were "many missed opportunities throughout the day for police to work with organizers to create a completely safe vigil so that people could go and have a moment of sorrow and a moment of resistance", remarked the opposition Labour Party's point person on domestic violence, Jess Phillips. A national outpouring of grief and anger resulted from the brutal killing of Sarah Everard, a young life lost, no less than at the hands of a police officer.  

 

She was seen last at 9:30 p.m. March 3, wending her way home from a south London home of a friend. Her killer, Wayne Couzens, 48, left her body in woods in Kent, where it was later found. He was charged with kidnap and murder. With the force since 2018 he was tasked with patrolling diplomatic premises of embassies. He had held posts at Downing Street and the Palace of Westminster.

 

Protestors marched from Scotland Yard to Parliament Square in London on Sunday, the day after police forcibly arrested several participants of a vigil honoring Sarah Everard. The 33-year-old London resident's alleged kidnapping and murder have prompted a national reckoning over street harassment and violence against women. Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Saudi Bloggers Invite the Vengeance of the Powerful MbS ... Asylum Abroad? There is no Escape

Omar Abdulaziz  Washington Post/Getty Images

"[The Canadian authorities -- RCMP] received some information regarding my situation that I might be a potential target."

"MbS and his group or – I don’t know – his team, they want to harm me. They want to do something, but I don’t know whether it’s assassination, kidnapping, I don’t know – but something not OK for sure."

"They [RCMP] asked me, ‘What do you think about it?’ I said, ‘I’m happy'."

"I feel that I’m doing something. You know, if you’re not doing anything that bothers MbS, that means you’re not working very well."

"I don’t want to tell you that I’m scared. I’m not, honestly. But you have to take some precautions to be ready."

"[Saudis at one time commented freely about Saudi Arabia on Twitter]; That all changed with the rise of MbS. Saudi Twitter gradually morphed into a propaganda platform, with the government deploying trolls and pressuring influencers to amplify its messages. More than 30 influencers told me that the Saudi government blackmailed them with material obtained by hacking their phones. They were given two options: Tweet propaganda or have your private content, including pictures, released on Twitter." 

Omar Abdulaziz, Saudi blogger, activist, self-exiled in Canada

 

"[The Official Opposition in Parliament want to see the governing Liberals create a] robust plan to counter foreign influence operations on Canadian soil."

"The government's response to Canadians facing intimidation and harassment by foreign agents is wholly inadequate." 

Michael Chong, Conservative foreign affairs critic

 

"It is completely unacceptable and we will never tolerate foreign actors threatening Canada's national security or the safety of our citizens and residents."

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair

 

"Now that the U.S. has clearly signalled that it will not fundamentally change the relationship with Saudi Arabia, it becomes much more difficult and costly for American allies in the west to change their relationship with Saudi Arabia."

Thomas Juneau, professor, faculty of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa

 

YouTuber Omar Abdulaziz, now a Montrealer, has been under pressure by agents of Saudi Arabia trying to persuade him to return to the Kingdom. Once he returns, he well knows, he will be subject to additional pressure to surrender his opposition to the ruling House of Saud, and to become part of the Kingdom's stable of electronic propagandists under the imprimatur of Crowns Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Alternately, he could very well and more likely suffer the fate that awaited Raif Badawi, another blogger and activist who has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for the past eight years.

 

Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi's wife has been actively engaged for the period her husband has been incarcerated, in approaching governments and human rights groups for their support in applying pressure to Saudi Arabia to release her husband. When Raif Badawi was originally taken into custody in 2012, charged with insulting Islam and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, he was also sentenced to receive 1000 lashes as additional punishment. He was subjected to an initial 50 lashes which almost killed the frail young man.

 

An international outcry persuaded the Saudis to settle for the 50 lashes for the time being. Raif Badawi's ten-year sentence is set to soon expire. But his wife Ensaf Haidar has become an irritating thorn in Mohammed bin Salman's side, and signs have emerged that she is set to be 'investigated' by the Saudi legal system for besmirching the reputation of the Kingdom. Underlying that threat is another, that a new charge is being leveled at Mr. Badawi which would most certainly extend his prison stay into the future.

Ensaf Haidar, wife of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, holds a poster with his photo at a rally for his freedom on Jan. 13, 2015, in Montreal. Photo by Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press/File

Like Russia and Iran, Saudi Arabia has long been known to seek out its nationals abroad who have taken to criticizing the Kingdom, to threaten or silence them. The murder and dismemberment of Saudi Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul represents the most high-profile of the Saudi intelligence group's effort to silence a critic; a hit that went sideways with a resulting gasp of horror at the extreme lengths chosen to silence a critic through a grotesquely ill-conceived 'disappearance'.

 

Since the 2017 palace coup when King Salman's son Mohammed persuaded his father to anoint him successor to the Saudi throne rather than his uncle, when Mohammed bin Salman then had many members of the royal family placed under house arrest, thus removing any challenges to his claim to the throne in a reorganized succession, the Kingdom has seen various types of turmoil, internal and external. MbS has proceeded slowly to loosen Saudi laws restricting the human rights of Saudi women. While at the same time arresting women who publicly agitate for their human rights.

 

Mohammed bin Salman, Getty Images

He also formed a coalition with other Sunni Arab states to become involved in an Iranian proxy civil war in Yemen, arming and training Houthi rebels for the greater goal of consolidating the influence and power of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a wider arc of Shi'ite influence encircling the majority Arab Sunni states. The mass arrest of senior Saudis, repression of dissidents and the disappearance of those close to dissidents sheltering abroad have all marked the Kingdom's MbS launch into notoriety.

"We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi." 

"While the United States remains invested in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, President [Joe] Biden has made clear that partnership must reflect U.S. values." 

"To that end, we have made absolutely clear that extraterritorial threats and assaults by Saudi Arabia against activists, dissidents and journalists must end. They will not be tolerated by the United States."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Another Saudi blogger living in Montreal where he had sought asylum began to block fellow activists on social media. Other Saudi dissidents in Canada posted that Ahmed Alharby had informed them of a visit he made to the Saudi embassy in Ottawa where he had undergone interrogation. A new Twitter account appeared in mid-February under Alharby, featuring the image of Mohammed bin Salman, making ti clear that Alharby had returned to Saudi Arabia and was no longer a critic, but a stalwart fan of MbS. 

Saudi women have to wear the abaya in public by law   Getty Images

Saudi Saad Aljabri, formerly a high-ranking intelligence officer, linked closely to the deposed uncle of Mohammed bin Salman, has been harassed at his home in exile in Toronto, with Saudi agents trying to persuade him to return to his country of birth. Two of his adult children living in Saudi Arabia have been 'disappeared' in an apparent effort to persuade their father to return to Saudi Arabia. Aljabri has launched a lawsuit against Mohammed bin Salman in the United States charging him with dispatching a hit squad to dispose of him, but the squad was denied entry to Canada by suspicious Canada Border agents.

Reporters Without Borders has filed legal documents in Germany for an investigation to be launched into alleged crimes against humanity in the repression of journalists by Mohammed bin Salman. Clearly, he has failed to positively impress governments and various agencies around the world. "The official opening of a criminal investigation in Germany into the crimes against humanity in Saudi Arabia would be a world first", observed German executive director of Reporters Without Borders, Christian Mihr.

A cyclist passes as activists demonstrate outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy against the recent Saudi court ruling that upheld a previous verdict of ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for Saudi blogger Raif Badawi on June 11, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images

    

Revealed Through Gross Ineptitude

"We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

"We base this assessment on the Crown Prince's control of decision-making in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman's protective detail in the operation and the Crown Prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi."

U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence report 

Khashoggi said MBS should get rid of his complex against the Muslim Brotherhood [Handout]

 

Henry II was said to have planned the death of his adversary, the Archbishop of Canterbury by simply mouthing the words: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?". And that would be all that was needed for a plot to be cooked up to motivate assailants in service to the king to perform the deed. Similarly Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince may have used a sentiment to the very same effect: "Would someone kindly rid me of this troubling pest?" and the deed would be assured to be carried out. Despite the distance of a thousand years between those events, they otherwise have much in common.

Supreme rulers have a penchant for things going their way. The means used to achieve the required result are of little moment to them; what is important is that their wishes be carried out. They have no need to know the petty details; only the conclusion that the deed transpired successfully. In this particular instance of incredibly awkward decision-making and planning carried out with an utter lack of finesse by crude assailants it was inevitable there would be a lashback.

The murderous crew was careless and uncaring of consequences. The simple expedient of hauling the man back to Saudi Arabia for permanent imprisonment for irritating the royal power behind the throne would have been simple enough to carry to conclusion; the decision to murder the man, dismember the body and secrete it away somewhere represented a bleak, black slapstick farce of intelligence planning gone amok, which had its inevitable consequences.

Turkey's Erdogan, eager to ingratiate himself with the United States' investigation as a demonstration of just how powerfully cognizant he is about civilized behaviour -- despite that he sees nothing whatever unsettling to human rights by marginalizing, persecuting, and bombing minority indigenous Kurds who prefer that their status reflect that of resident/citizens of their ancient homeland, Kurdistan, not Turkey -- professed to be shocked and indignant over the bloody scene. And in matters of injuring and killing innocent civilians as a byproduct of conflict, the U.S. has no clean slate authorizing its investigation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Byzantine affairs.

 

Jamal Khashoggi. Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty

 

 

Jamal Khashoggi had a chequered past, consorting with terrorists, agitating against Jews and Israel, the perennial scapegoats of the Middle East, himself an enthusiastic member of the Muslim Brotherhood acknowledged as a terrorist organization by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His slurs against the House of Saud's irritation factor cannot have been carried out without the knowledge that he was making himself a marked man. He lived in the U.S. in self-exile. To name him as a highly respected journalist is to elevate a sow's ear to a silk purse. His death is no great loss to a troubled world.

 

President Joe Biden wanted to break the revelatory news gently to his great good friend, 85-year-old King Salman, who knows realpolitik inside and out. The point of the release of the investigation pointing a finger of responsibility at this favoured son-and-heir-to-the-Saudi-throne simultaneously with a personal video conference was a patronizing exercise in a more powerful country gently handling a collegial country a political grenade; to be carefully handled lest an explosion result harming relations between the two countries. 

But like Turkey's Erdogan, America's Biden was intent on demonstrating how civilized the United States is, and how affronted civil society was in the wake of the details revealed in the ghastly 2018

assassination of the "Washington Post journalist". An odious act of state malfeasance, somewhat similar to Iran's hit squads hunting down enemies of the Grand Ayatollah, or Russian hitmen poisoning unsuspecting Russian dissidents abroad, occasionally succeeding in dispatching victims to lethal poisoning -- sometimes failing.

Familicide: The High Cost of Protecting a Lie

Menhaz Zaman, 24, Quadruple Murderer

"Words such as brutal, cruel, cold and callous do not begin to convey the enormity of his violence. It is difficult to imagine a more horrific way to take a human life than by slitting the victim's throat. Mr. Zaman did so not just once, but four separate times over a span of hours." 

"No right-thinking member of society would see any remote correlation between the imminent disclosure of the secret of Mr. Zaman's non-attendance at school and the vicious taking of the lives of the four people closest to him."

"That Mr. Zaman saw such a connection and acted on it in the cold and calculated manner that he did is deeply disturbing."

"The betrayal of trust involved in these crimes is enormous."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Newmarket Ontario Court of Justice, November 2, 2020

Back in July of last year, an online gamer told CTV News Toronto that Zaman “messaged many of his friends, including myself, about the details of the murder, during the act.”

A young man living in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto, and part of the Greater Toronto region, lied for years to his family who were under the impression that he was attending York University in north Toronto toward a degree in engineering. He was not attending university, but chose to attend Seneca College for an electronics engineering program for several years, which he failed in. He then spent his daytime  hours in a mall nearby his family home, and played video games at home, all the while describing to his family his university courses and how well he was managing his classes. 

His purpose was simply stalling for time, with no end-game in sight, as long as his family continued to believe he was following the course set for him, to get a good education in his chosen field of endeavour, to become a responsible young adult and to forge a life for himself. All the while he was leading his family to believe he was doing just that, while he was not. With each lie told, a deeper pit was dug. He seemed aimless, content to while away the hours, keeping the truth from his trusting family. Whom he was determined to keep the reality of the situation from.

And it seems he finally found the route to ensure they would never discover his ploys and his chosen field of endeavour; hanging out, playing online games, finding community with other gamers. It was some of those other gamers whom he contacted, informing them that he was in the process of solving his dilemma. As he planned and undertook to complete the plan to rescue himself from the network of lies he had woven. A gaming friend in Minnesota, another in Tunisia, were texted informing them of what Zaman was doing and just to ensure they fully understood, photographs of the bloody bodies of  his family accompanied the texts.

Those far-flung friends frantically called the Toronto police hoping to alert authorities. The IP address from the communications was identified at a home in Markham. York Regional Police, whose jurisdiction it was, were called into action by the Toronto Police Service, and they sent officers to the home where they discovered the bodies of 70-year-old Firoza Begum, 59-year-old Monirus Zaman, 50-year-old Momtaz Begum, and 21-year-old Malesa Zaman.

On the afternoon of the day prior to Zaman's 'graduation from university', he began to carry out his plan to avoid having to tell his family that he had lied to them for years. He killed his mother by slitting her throat, and an hour later he did the same to his grandmother. It would be hours before his sister and father arrived home, so he played video games and napped while he waited. When his sister got home around 11 p.m. she too was killed by having her throat slit. His father was next, attacked as soon as he returned home an hour later.

 

Police took Zaman into custody, and he pleaded guilty. The Crown attorney and the defence both requested Zaman receive 25 years of parole ineligibility for the first-degree murder counts to be served concurrently, along with an additional 15 years of ineligibility for the second-degree murder count to be served on top. Menhaz Zaman pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one-count of second degree murder for killing his parents, sister and grandmother in their home in Markham on July 27, 2019. All of those murder counts carry automatic life sentences. 

At his sentencing hearing, Zaman apologized to anyone he had "impacted negatively" as a result of the murders. That apology needless to say discounted his immediate family members for they were indeed negatively impacted and no apology would ever reach their ears, and nor would they find comfort in such words from an accomplished liar. For his "deeply disturbing" crimes, Menhaz Zaman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years, a particularly benevolent penalty for an unspeakable crime.

The victims were his 21-year-old sister Malesa Zaman, his 59-year-old father Moniruz Zaman, his 50-year-old mother Momotaz Begum, and his 70-year-old grandmother Firoza Begum. Facebook

 

"Mr. Zaman executed four unsuspecting family members in their own home. It defies understanding that while his mother and grandmother lay upstairs in their own blood, Mr. Zaman played video games and napped to pass the time, apparently untroubled as he lay in wait to slay his sister and father in the same manner."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Ontario Court of Justice

The InCredible Vanishing Act

"Our only road comes in the winter-time."
"If they don't make us that road after the ferry stops, we're stuck here until we can pass over the ice on snowmobiles."
"We're an isolated community, eh. We only have the air and the ferry."
"[The entire community is on edge]. Some people are scared, I mean, I am."
"Everyone is keeping their children inside. No one is out walking around at all. It's eerily quiet."
Judy Sinclair, resident, York Landing

"You have to know the land to get around here. If you don't, it will eat you up."
"It's heavily, heavily wooded area. Terrain is swamp and heavy woods. We're thinking of scenarios of how they made the trek here."
"They'd be noticed and pointed out immediately."
"We have our local First Nations Safety Officers that do searches for drugs and alcohol and just question persons entering the community about what their intentions are here."
"No possibility [attempting to travel from Gillam by the Nelson River, to York Landing], they'd be sucked into the current; they are very strong. You can't sit on a floater and drift down the river. There are hydro dams."
"No updates as to any sightings since yesterday. There's really a huge effort here to locate them."
"RCMP have notified us to remain vigilant and to report any information or tips you may have directly to the authorities."
Leroy Constant, chief, York Factory First Nation

Police continue to comb the wilderness near Gillam, Man., last week. The RCMP regrouped in the small community on Tuesday, searching for B.C. murder suspects Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. (Gilbert Rowan/CBC)

The RCMP thoroughly investigated the possibility that the two fugitives, Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, of Port Albini in British Columbia wanted as suspects in three murders in northern British Columbia might be in York Landing, an inaccessible, remote community about 90 kilometres from Gillam, Manitoba, where police have been hunting for the two for the past week.
The exhaustive search yielded no clues whatever to their whereabouts, leading the RCMP to pack up and return to Gillam.

There had been a sighting by a band safety officer, a member of the Bear Clan Patrol watch group, of two men at the town garbage dump who fled into the nearby forest when they realized they had been spotted. That news, relayed to the RCMP in Gillam, spurred them to respond. And since the only way they could travel to York Landing was by air or sea, it took an hour by ferry for the first contingent of RCMP officers with their search gear to arrive. After which an intensive house-to-house search of the residences of the 500 Cree inhabitants commenced.



It was a mysterious enough conundrum where the two might have got to in Gillam, the last stop on the sole road leading to it and the only road leading out. The two had torched the vehicle they had stolen, on their arrival at Gillam, and then just disappeared. Both Gillam and York Landing are isolated communities, where everyone knows everyone else. Strangers would immediately be noticed, their presence eliciting curiosity at best, and in the instance of the two fugitives an immediate alert of the police.

Presumably the two fugitive teens have retained the firearm they used to shoot dead Australian tourist Lucas Fowler, 24 and his 25-year-old American girlfriend, Chynna Deese, as well as the killing of University of British Columbia biology lecturer Leonard Dyck, for whose death they have been charged with second-degree murder. They are not seasoned, outdoorsmen and hunters, with limitless experience in wilderness camping and making use of resources available for those who can recognize them, to avoid starvation.

They would be  undergoing privation and danger of types they would likely never before have encountered as urban youth. If this is a hide-and-seek game they are playing at for excitement that their online gaming practise has prepared them for, they're succeeding admirably in evading capture by experienced hunters of psychopaths, well equipped and presumably more than capable of hunting down their lawful prey. The police are heavily armed, they have all-terrain quads, pickup trucks.



There is a Canadian Air Force Hercules at their disposal with thermal detecting devices to aid in the search. The RCMP search teams have re-assembled in Gillam, their search in York Landing concluded with no results gained whatever, no hints gleaned that might lead to the apprehension of two murderers. They are determinedly resuming their intensive search in Gillam and surrounding area, particularly the vast northern forest surrounding the community.

"I guess we're back to Square One."
"I just ultimately want everyone to still stay safe and vigilant to make sure that they still keep an eye out. You don't know if they're in the area or not." 
Dwayne Forman, mayor, Gillam

The RCMP are ending a checkstop of vehicles on the road leading to Gillam. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC)

Eluding Capture in Manitoba

"Up here, all the towns and communities, they look like ghost towns. Like, everyone's inside. There's a high level of stress, anxiety and fearfulness because they're being kept in their houses."
"Quite a few people have even left the area altogether, kind of waiting for this to blow over."
"Some of the people, you can tell by their voice that they're almost at the point of breaking down crying. You could say it's traumatic."
Wade Taylor, Bear Clan Patrol Volunteer

Winnipeg-based aboriginal patrol volunteers received a request to fly to Gillam, to meet with and reassure residents of the town, in an attempt to instill confidence that their security and safety is being taken seriously. The Patrol volunteers who responded numbered eight, spending their time meeting and reassuring people at their doorsteps, on the streets, at public events the communities organized. People are not accustomed to being told their safety depends on their remaining indoors.

It is not only the town of Gillam where the two teen-age Port Albini, B.C. fugitives, Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and 19-year-old Kam McLeod, are being sought by the RCMP, for second-degree murder of University of British Columbia biology lecturer Leonard Dyck, and as suspects in the murder of a young couple, Australian tourist Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend, Chynna Deese, as they travelled in northern British Columbia, but surrounding First Nations communities as well.

Police officers complete door-to-door searches overnight Sunday in York Landing, Man. (Gilbert Rowan/CBC)

Police are using tracking dogs and drones, and going door to door to every residence in Gillam, Manitoba. Abandoned buildings, sheds, are all being investigated. The search has an aerial component with a helicopter joined by the arrival of a Canadian Air Forces Hercules aircraft equipped with high-tech thermal detection gear. Mounties are checking homes, abandoned buildings, garages, anywhere it is thought that fugitives from justice could find shelter. 

The two fugitives have managed to evade capture over a week, following the grisly discover of the bodies of the young travellers beside their vehicle adjacent the Alaska Highway, and soon afterward, some distance away, the body of the biologist, his vehicle torched. Police have appealed to the public for tips and they received 200, all of which have been followed. Some tips were posted to social media, not to police: "If the tips are valid, it can create a substantial delay on the response by police and be detrimental to the overall investigation", pointed out the RCMP.

The forest nearby Gillam has been searched, and nothing found. It was thought that if the two sought haven there they would be facing onerous circumstances of boggy forest floors, omnivorous insects, bear predation, but there are hunting cabins as well they could have accessed, and plentiful water and berries in season. Manitoba Hydro supplied police with information about their regional facilities, one a 600-room Keewatinohk Converter Station Camp close by Gillam, used during the construction of the Bipole 3 transmission line, and now vacant.

In Split Lake, Man., RCMP officers and vehicles take the ferry to York Landing at 7 a.m. Monday to search for fugitives Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod.

Photography by Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail

And then came word that the fugitives could be in nearby York Landing. The RCMP dispatched its search teams to York Landing. A credible report by a member of the community patrol group that two unidentified men had been seen at the remote community's garbage dump, but had fled when they realized they were being watched, led the police to converge on the community for an intensive search there. Nothing was found in the community of about 500 people —  90 kilometres southwest of Gillam which is accessible only by air or a two-hour boat ride. 

So the intensive search has revered to Gillam. Questions abound: If the two were in the Gillam area how could they without any means of transportation make it to York Landing? RCMP suspect that someone in the area may inadvertently have given the two assistance without realizing that a manhunt is underway for them, which seems eminently unlikely since all the surrounding communities are well aware of the ongoing hunt for two killers. 

Heavily armed police officers are searching the community of York Landing, Man., for B.C. homicide suspects Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. (Angela Johnston/CBC)

On the other hand, a week ago Monday, constables with Tataskweyak Cree Nation, also known as Split Lake, stopped the suspects in their vehicle at a gas bar, as they drove through the community, before the vehicle was found burned near Gillam. Because Split Lake is a dry community, the constables checked for alcohol, and had no reason at the time to suspect who the men were.  

"They did see … maps and camping gear within that vehicle they were driving", it was reported. So they might have been well provisioned to secure themselves in the wilderness area surrounding the communities. Under ordinary circumstances, perhaps, not in a northern muskeg forest facing all manner of dangers inherent in a true northern wilderness area.

The wilderness around Gillam is thick forest and swampy muskeg where wolves, black bears and even polar bears can be found

Fugitives

"It really is [the end of the road]. The road ends here in Manitoba. This is the dead-end corner of the world. I see it as the perfect place to get caught."
"To leave, they [the fugitives] would have to backtrack along the road or walk through the forest. The only other routes of travel would be the Nelson River or the train tracks."
"Its doable. People lived here a hundred years ago, so you can do it. People have gone out in the forest and done fine, but it takes a certain kind of person to stick that out. You kind of gotta want to be there. Or need to be there."
"There's a lot of rivers they'd need to cross, a lot of swampy ground. It's wet, vegetative ground. Soft and hard walking. Depending on where you are, you could sink up to your waist."
"Right now, there's berries growing everywhere. I can't walk in my front yard without making jam. It's a bumper year on rabbits. I've never seen so many rabbits."
"Anything that floats will get out there [to Hudson Bay via the Nelson River] but the truth is, if they made it to the bay they would be facing a whole different element."
"They'd be dealing with tide-waters, very large waves and polar bears."
Jesse Taylor, 32, Gillam town employee, wilderness outdoorsman

RCMP search the area near Gillam, Man., for homicide suspects Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod on Friday. (RCMP/The Canadian Press )

So this is what 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmelgelsky may be coping with in their determination to evade capture as suspects in three grisly murders. Held to be responsible for the shooting deaths of Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and his 24-year-old American girlfriend, Chynna Deese whose bodies were discovered close by their van as they parked close by the Alaska Highway not far from Liard Hot Springs in British Columbia.

Photos of Bryer Schmegelsky submitted to CBC News by an online gamer at Steam, a video game distribution platform, where the two met. (Submitted)

The two have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia botany lecturer Leonard Dyck, 64, whose body was found on a turnout south of Dease Lake, B.C., on Highway 37, some 470 kilometres west of the first homicide scene. Their burned-out pickup stood about two kilometres from Mr. Dyck's lifeless body. They were then tracked to northern Saskatchewan and following that to northern Manitoba, a burned-out Toyota they had stolen attesting to their arrival there.

"There have been no confirmed sightings outside of the Gillam area, however we remain open to the possibility."
"Our plea today is that if anyone in and around those communities [of Gillam of and Fox Lake Cree Nation] may have inadvertently helped them get out of the community ... to just please come forward."
RCMP Cpl.Julie Courchaine

Officers comb the wilderness near Gillam, Man., on Thursday. (Gilbert Rowan/CBC)

The two were last reported having been seen in Gillam on the 22nd. Since then police have searched with dogs, drones, helicopters and patrols, hoping to unearth their presence. The military has been brought in for sighting by plane. Asking for help from the public in the hope that some clue might give investigators an idea where they might possibly look. Exiting Gillam would mean leaving the very same way they arrived. But they destroyed the stolen vehicle they arrived with. And there have been no local reports of vehicle theft since then.

At the end of the road there is the vast northern forest. With plentiful food and liquid available in its natural state, in an environment potentially hazardous to the well-being, much less survival of the uninitiated to outdoor survival. The town of Gillam has 1,200 residents, the Fox Lake reserve another 200. Everyone is familiar with everyone else; a strange face is noticed immediately, and noted. There have been no reports of the two fugitives appearing in public for the past week.

Without some kind of human intervention that might give the pair direction, support, advice and practical help of some kind, the mystery is where they might be in the forest with its boggy floor, the presence of bears, and blood-sucking bugs prevalent at this time of year, to drive animals and humans to distraction. If they are there, in the forest, they are not enjoying themselves.

"Everybody in this town knows everybody else and when somebody new comes into town, a new vehicle or a new face, people recognize that right away."
"As unnerving as this whole situation is, in my opinion, it's kind of the best scenario. Everybody knows everybody and there is only one road in and one road out. They'll find them, it's just a matter of time", assures Jesse Taylor, the informative outdoorsman.

In the interim, the hope must be that there be no further encounters with this deadly pair -- that anyone else might lose their lives. Two young men led by demons of destructive violence that only they know of, one entranced by the allure of violent fascism augmenting an already-disturbed psychotic personality, the other an unnervingly willing accomplice whose trail of bloodshed has left a nation stunned. Normal kids, their parents assure the public.

The Horrors of Hate-Inspired Degeneracy

Asifa Bano was eight years old. Courtesy family of Asifa Bano

"Action alert: Talib Hussain - who was arrested last week - has been tortured in Samba police station while on police remand, skull broken, rushed to hospital in Samba, he is a key witness in the Kathua gang rape-murder case."
"This is unacceptable in a democracy."
Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising

"These are false cases filed against me [charges of domestic violence and attempted murder] because I am fighting for justice for the eight-year-old who was brutally raped and murdered."
"There is no truth to all these claims. I will continue to fight.”
Talib Hussain, key witness, Kathua rape case

In India, official statistics indicate that incidents of rape are on the increase. This, in a country where rape is already endemic, violent and murderous. What is unclear is whether this is the result of more frequent reporting of what has always been a dreadful part of India's history, much of it associated with the class system, where higher-class Indians feel it is their right to rape and even murder lower-class Dalits, or whether these horrific events are simply being reported more frequently.

Irrespective of speculation, those who are involved in efforts to advocate for more serious punishment for rapists state unequivocally that most rapes do not get officially reported. There is shame for the family involved in making it public, there is the threat of violence against those reporting, to restrain the impulse to search for justice. A number of truly horrifying cases of rape and murder have been highlighted where children are involved.

Official India is not enamoured of the international publicity and shame that is engendered by reports of these crimes against women and children. In rural areas where bathroom facilities are non-existent and women and girls wait until dark before heading to fields adjacent villagers to relieve themselves, they become victims of rapists, leading India to vow to build public toilets where privacy can be assured in protection of women and girls, not just for hygienic purposes.

Last year an eight-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa Bano was tortured, raped and killed by a group of Hindu men whose crime took place over a four-day period in a Hindu shrine, after abducting the child, sedating her and inflicting torture and rape before murdering the little girl. Three men have been sentenced to life in prison for the crime by an Indian court. Another three stood convicted of destroying evidence, earning them a 5-year sentence and a fine.

Lawyers in Jammu tried to stop police from entering the court to file a charge sheet    Photo Sameer Yasir

This dreadful event took place n the state of Jammu and Kashmir. A number of local members of the country's ruling party came out in protest against the charges levelled against the suspects. "Facts came to light despite hindrances", stated former state chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti who supported the investigative and legal team's success in conviction. Hindus revere animal life and eschew eating meat; Muslims butcher animals for human food.

The absurdity is that Hindu nationalists infuriated over Muslim butchering of 'sacred' animals by Hindu reckoning, doesn't hinder them from murdering a child to demonstrate their rage over killing animals. The two cultures have many areas of divergence, the majority Hindus taking umbrage over the Muslims' view of what is permissible in their religion, having no tolerance for a religious culture unlike their own; in effect each is intolerant to the other.

The viciously gruesome abduction, rape and murder was part of a politically motivated plot against nomadic Muslims. The child had been abducted from a village in the district of Kathua in the Hindu-majority area of Jammu. A concerted search for the little girl proved fruitless. Her body was eventually discovered days later in a forest, the very place where she was accustomed to tending to her family's livestock.

A subsequent investigation into the little girl's death revealed that she had been sedated, gang-raped and ultimately strangled with her own scarf, her head bashed with a rock. The child's agony was carried out over a four-day period in a small Hindu shrine. One juvenile and seven men were arrested. A retired government clerk, said to be the planner of the unspeakable atrocity, Sanji Ram, was charged in the plot recognized as part of a larger plan to drive Muslim nomads from the area.

Meanwhile, the team of police officers who investigated the case, as well as a woman lawyer who appeared for the victim’s family, were obstructed in Jammu by lawyers chanting pro-Hindu slogans. Deepika Singh Rajawat — the lawyer who initially represented the victim's case in court — was also threatened, doxxed, and warned not to appear in court.  

Lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat (center) at India's Supreme Court in New Delhi in April 2018. Sajjad Hussain / AFP / Getty Images

Three men -- Ram, a police officer, and another man -- were convicted of the rape and murder. A fourth man was acquitted, while three other police officers were found to have been involved in helping in the destruction of the crime's evidence. The youth involved is set to be tried singly. "We wanted to see them hanged till death", Sudam Hussain, a family member said, of the family's feeling that they failed to receive "complete justice".

At the time of the discovery of the child's horribly mangled body, outrage was justifiably manifested on the one hand, and then the news was consumed by rallies in support of the suspects, where two local Bharitiya Janata Party (BJP) nationalists took part in the protests. At one point, lawyers attempted to physically block police officers from filing the charges, claiming the targeting of Hindus was involved.

Within the courtroom, absent Asifa's immediate family members, where the verdicts were being read, no media was permitted a presence. A heavy security appearance that included armoured vehicles and police teams was fully manifested outside the courthouse.

Students in Kashmir join a demonstration in April 2018 against the rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl.
  Sopa Images / Getty Images