ITMILD

new york — An Indian businessman who is one of the world’s richest people has been indicted in the United States on charges he duped investors by concealing that his company’s huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme.

Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. and another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government — enough to light millions of homes and businesses.

The indictment portrays Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal.

It accuses them of portraying the plan as rosy and aboveboard to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project while, back in India, they were paying or planning to pay about $265 million in bribes to government officials in exchange for billions of dollars’ worth of contracts and financing.

Adani and his co-defendants allegedly sought to “obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said.

In a parallel civil action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Adani and two co-defendants of violating anti-fraud provisions of U.S. securities laws. The regulator is seeking monetary penalties and other sanctions.

Both cases were filed in federal court in Brooklyn. Adani’s co-defendants include his nephew, Sagar Adani, the executive director of Adani Green Energy’s board, and Vneet Jaain, who was the company’s chief executive from 2020 to 2023 and remains managing director of its board.

Online court records did not list lawyers who could speak on the defendants’ behalf. An email message seeking comment was left with an arm of Adani’s company, the Adani Group.

Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said Gautam and Sagar Adani are accused of persuading investors to buy their company’s bonds by misrepresenting “not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance program but also that the company’s senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes.”

Adani is a power player in the world’s most populous nation. He built his fortune in the coal business in the 1990s. The Adani Group grew to involve many aspects of Indian life, from making defense equipment to building roads to selling cooking oil.

In recent years, Adani has made big moves into renewable energy, embracing a philosophy of sustainable growth reflected in its slogan: “Growth with Goodness.”

Last year, a U.S.-based financial research firm accused Adani and his company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The Adani Group called the claims “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.”

The firm in question is known as a short-seller, a Wall Street term for traders that essentially bet on the prices of certain stocks to fall, and it had made such investments in relation to the Adani Group.
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ISLAMABAD — Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said Wednesday that militants overnight launched a gun and suicide bomb attack against a military outpost, killing at least 12 troops and injuring several others.

The deadly assault took place in the militancy-hit Bannu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

The statement reported that Pakistani security forces in the ensuing gunfight killed six assailants and “effectively” blocked their attempt to enter the post, prompting a suicide bomber to ram an explosive-laden vehicle into the facility.

The explosion caused the collapse of a portion of “the perimeter wall and damaged the adjoining infrastructure,” resulting in fatalities, the military said.

“Sanitization operation is being conducted in the area, and the perpetrators of this heinous act will be brought to justice,” the statement added. It did not share further details.

Local security sources have confirmed that at least six troops also sustained injuries, with two of them in “critical” condition.

The military statement attributed the attack to “Khwarij,” a term the government uses for militants linked to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The outlawed group frequently targets army and police forces in the province’s districts near or on the Afghan border.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a militant organization affiliated with the TTP, claimed responsibility for the Tuesday night raid in Bannu.

Pakistan says that TTP, which the United Nations lists as a global terrorist organization, is orchestrating the deadly violence from sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

Islamabad has persistently urged the Islamist Taliban government in Kabul, which is not recognized by any country, to prevent TTP and other anti-Pakistan groups from using Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan deny the allegations, saying no foreign militant groups are present in the country.

 

Pakistani security forces are also battling ethnic separatists in the country’s largest but sparsely populated province, Balochistan in the southwest.

Resurgent militant violence, mainly affecting the two provinces, has claimed the lives of more than 1,100 Pakistanis, many of them security forces, so far this year, according to the Islamabad-based independent Center for Research and Security Studies.

The surge in attacks in natural resources-rich Balochistan prompted Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday to approve a new military offensive against separatists in the province, which borders Afghanistan and is home to China-funded major infrastructure development projects.

The official announcement did not say when the military offensive would be launched, nor did it share other details.    

 
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WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s top cleric has declared that virtual private networks, or VPNs, are unlawful, igniting a debate on privacy rights and access to information amid a government crackdown on the internet.

Allama Raghib Naeemi, head of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), issued a decree saying it makes no difference whether a VPN is registered or unregistered.

“If attempts are made to access indecent or immoral sites, character assassination is done, statements are being made against national security, or if various incidents of religious blasphemy are being spread through it, then [using] it would completely be un-Islamic,” he said.

A VPN protects online privacy by creating a secure connection and is used to access blocked content, protect data from hackers and support remote work or secure transactions.

Several internet service providers in Pakistan expressed concerns Tuesday over the possible imposition of blanket restrictions on VPNs, warning that the move would anger users and impact online businesses.

Shahzad Arshad, chairman of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, said in a statement, “It is essential to recognize that blanket restrictions or sweeping narratives around tools like VPNs risk alienating segments of society, particularly those who rely on these tools for entirely legitimate purposes, such as IT exports, financial transactions, and academic research.”

Arshad, in reference to CII’s declaration, said technology is neutral and that how it is used determines whether it is aligned with ethics.

Amnesty Tech, part of Amnesty International, said last week on X that imposing restrictions on VPNs would amount to “violating the right to privacy under international law, restricting people’s access to information, and suppressing free expression.”

Qibla Ayaz, former chairman of CII, told VOA Deewa it seems as if a government agency has reached out to the religious body seeking its stance on the VPN issue.

“Similar requests were sent by the government in 2023,” he said. 

The CII is a constitutional body in Pakistan that advises the legislature on whether a certain law is repugnant to Islam, namely to the Quran and Sunna.

According to activists and experts, CII’s declarations on technology use are unwarranted and will only strengthen the government’s digital suppression of social media users.

Haroon Baloch, a Pakistani digital rights activist, believes the proposed restrictions on VPNs are aimed at suppressing political dissent.

“First, the government had compliance challenges with X. And when the platform did not agree with the government’s requests, then it banned X. And when X was available with the help of VPN, the government is planning to ban the VPN now,” Haroon told VOA.

Pakistan banned X in February and installed firewalls to restrict access to certain online content. But consumers are using VPNs to access restricted networks and content and to hide their identities and locations. 

Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir told a gathering at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute on November 16 that technology has played a pivotal role in the dissemination of information, but “the spread of misleading and incorrect information has become a significant challenge.”

In a speech to religious leaders in Islamabad earlier in August, Munir said, “Anarchy is spread through social media.”

A directive in October from the Interior Ministry asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block “illegal” VPNs that had not registered by the end of November.

The Interior Ministry charged in a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which oversees the internet and mobile industry and has broad powers over online content and the licensing of service providers, that terrorists are increasingly using VPNs to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions in Pakistan.

“Of late, an alarming fact has been identified, wherein VPNs are used by terrorists to obscure and conceal their communications,” the letter said, adding that pornography sites are frequently accessed using VPNs.

“These trends … warrant the prohibition of unauthorized virtual private networks in order to address critical threats,” the letter said.

The 2024 “Freedom on the Net” report published by Freedom House says the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has historically implemented policies that undermine internet freedom, removed content without a transparent process and instituted wholesale bans on platforms.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service.
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WASHINGTON — The last time Javeria Siddique spoke with her husband, the renowned Pakistani news anchor Arshad Sharif, he was “happy and excited,” she said.

Sharif was in Kenya after leaving his home country because of threats and legal issues. On that video call on October 21, 2022, he talked to all the family members, Siddique said, even the pets.

“His dogs were so excited to see him on video call as they thought he had returned home,” Siddique told VOA.

But the journalist never returned home. Two days after that call, Sharif was shot dead at a roadblock in Kenya.

His death shocked Pakistan and led to competing theories about what happened. Was it, as Kenyan authorities claim, a case of mistaken identity, or had powerful interests that Sharif took on in his journalism found a way to silence him?

For Siddique, she is balancing grief over her husband of 12 years with fighting for answers about what led to his death, and who may be responsible.

But it is a lonely fight.

“It is so quiet in my house right now that you can hear the ticking of the wall clock. It seems like everything is getting out of hand,” Siddique told VOA during a video call.

Siddique, one of Sharif’s two widows, wants the government to re-open the case into her husband’s killing. “A special judicial commission should be formed,” she said, “so that an investigation can be conducted into the murder of Arshad Sharif and other journalists who have been killed in Pakistan this year.”

Siddique’s push for justice is a challenge shared by other families of journalists killed in apparent retaliation for their work.

Pakistan has legislation to ensure journalist safety at provincial and federal levels, said Iqbal Khattak, Pakistan representative for Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF.

But, “both the laws appear to be failing in protecting journalists and combating impunity, leaving journalists vulnerable, without any use of the legal framework protections,” said Khattak.

Part of the reason, he added, is because the safety commissions and systems required have not been fully established.

“Without robust and functioning safety mechanisms, these laws will remain ineffective, and the lives of media professionals will continue to be at greater risks.”

Pakistan has proved to be one of the deadliest countries for journalists this year, with at least six killings, according to media watchdogs.

But the Pakistani media watchdog Freedom Network, of which Khattak is executive director, has documented attempted killings this year as well.

In the group’s first report focused on journalist safety, it documented at least 57 violations, including threats, assaults, and legal harassment between November 2023 and August 2024.

Sharif had experienced threats and legal harassment before he finally left Pakistan in August 2022.

The one-time anchor of Pakistan’s ARY News channel had become a vocal critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office in April 2022.

“Arshad acted on his own will,” said Siddique. “And when you do that, the system starts to feel threatened by such people.”

Siddique said that suspicious people would stand outside their home, and on one occasion someone tried to enter their property. The journalist also received anonymous threatening calls.

But, she said, Sharif refused to back down. “I saw him becoming even more fearless. I saw him crossing the so-called ‘red lines.’ He started questioning various things that we normally cannot question in Pakistan.”

Sharif also came under legal threats, with sedition charges leveled against him when he finally left, traveling first to Dubai and then to Kenya.

Two months later, he was killed. Two years later, Sharif’s case remains unresolved.

Cross-border probe

The government of Pakistan sent an investigation team to Kenya and requested collaboration with Kenyan authorities, saying “an assassination cannot be ruled out.”

In December 2022, the chief justice of Pakistan’s supreme court ordered a five-member bench to look into Arshad’s death. The following year, that chief justice retired; since his departure, there has been no movement in the case.

Siddique says the Pakistan court proceedings have been marred with delays and hurdles.

There have been delays in Kenya, too. After a court there ruled that the journalist’s death was unlawful and arbitrary, law enforcement was ordered to pay compensation. But an appeal led to a stay on the case until January, one of the Kenyan lawyers who represents Siddique told VOA.

RSF’s Iqbal Khattak believes Pakistan should be taking the lead.

“Sharif’s murder story begins from Pakistan,” Khattak said. “If we do not find who killed him and why was he killed, then the conspiracy theories surrounding his death will stay the course and people will believe them.”

For Siddique, the two years since her husband’s death have been hard. She faced threats and harassment that she believes are intended to deter her from demanding a transparent investigation.

“In last two years, I had to relocate twice,” she said. “I have seen my ID card, home address, all plastered on the internet.”

She is also trying to keep the legal cases moving forward.

Siddique has demanded that the Pakistani state form a special judicial commission to investigate her husband’s death as well as the killings of other journalists in Pakistan this year.

“Now, I speak up for everyone. Because they all have the option to be reunited with their loved ones. I don’t have that option,” said Siddique.
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WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s top cleric has declared that virtual private networks, or VPNs, are unlawful, igniting a debate on privacy rights and access to information amid a government crackdown on the internet.

Allama Raghib Naeemi, head of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), issued a decree saying it makes no difference whether a VPN is registered or unregistered.

“If attempts are made to access indecent or immoral sites, character assassination is done, statements are being made against national security, or if various incidents of religious blasphemy are being spread through it, then [using] it would completely be un-Islamic,” he said.

A VPN protects online privacy by creating a secure connection and is used to access blocked content, protect data from hackers and support remote work or secure transactions.

Several internet service providers in Pakistan expressed concerns Tuesday over the possible imposition of blanket restrictions on VPNs, warning that the move would anger users and impact online businesses.

Shahzad Arshad, chairman of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, said in a statement, “It is essential to recognize that blanket restrictions or sweeping narratives around tools like VPNs risk alienating segments of society, particularly those who rely on these tools for entirely legitimate purposes, such as IT exports, financial transactions, and academic research.”

Arshad, in reference to CII’s declaration, said technology is neutral and that how it is used determines whether it is aligned with ethics.

Amnesty Tech, part of Amnesty International, said last week on X that imposing restrictions on VPNs would amount to “violating the right to privacy under international law, restricting people’s access to information, and suppressing free expression.”

Qibla Ayaz, former chairman of CII, told VOA Deewa it seems as if a government agency has reached out to the religious body seeking its stance on the VPN issue.

“Similar requests were sent by the government in 2023,” he said. 

The CII is a constitutional body in Pakistan that advises the legislature on whether a certain law is repugnant to Islam, namely to the Quran and Sunna.

According to activists and experts, CII’s declarations on technology use are unwarranted and will only strengthen the government’s digital suppression of social media users.

Haroon Baloch, a Pakistani digital rights activist, believes the proposed restrictions on VPNs are aimed at suppressing political dissent.

“First, the government had compliance challenges with X. And when the platform did not agree with the government’s requests, then it banned X. And when X was available with the help of VPN, the government is planning to ban the VPN now,” Haroon told VOA.

Pakistan banned X in February and installed firewalls to restrict access to certain online content. But consumers are using VPNs to access restricted networks and content and to hide their identities and locations. 

Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir told a gathering at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute on November 16 that technology has played a pivotal role in the dissemination of information, but “the spread of misleading and incorrect information has become a significant challenge.”

In a speech to religious leaders in Islamabad earlier in August, Munir said, “Anarchy is spread through social media.”

A directive in October from the Interior Ministry asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block “illegal” VPNs that had not registered by the end of November.

The Interior Ministry charged in a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which oversees the internet and mobile industry and has broad powers over online content and the licensing of service providers, that terrorists are increasingly using VPNs to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions in Pakistan.

“Of late, an alarming fact has been identified, wherein VPNs are used by terrorists to obscure and conceal their communications,” the letter said, adding that pornography sites are frequently accessed using VPNs.

“These trends … warrant the prohibition of unauthorized virtual private networks in order to address critical threats,” the letter said.

The 2024 “Freedom on the Net” report published by Freedom House says the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has historically implemented policies that undermine internet freedom, removed content without a transparent process and instituted wholesale bans on platforms.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service.
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Islamabad — China said Tuesday it will send troops to Pakistan later this month for the countries first joint counterterrorism military exercise in five years to enhance security cooperation with its South Asian neighbor and close ally.

The announcement follows reports that Beijing is pushing Islamabad to permit its security personnel to safeguard thousands of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan from deadly terrorist attacks. It also comes amid a spike in terrorist attacks against Pakistani security forces attributed to or claimed by the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as TTP. 

On Tuesday, China’s Defense Ministry said that the Pakistan-hosted “Warrior-VIII exercise is set to begin in late November and will run until mid-December “with the aim … to enhance the capability for conducting joint counterterrorism operations,” according to Chinese state media. 

The ministry said the exercise will involve troops from the Western Theater Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army.

“The two sides will engage in multi-level and mixed training across various specialties and organize live troop drills in accordance with the actual combat process,” according to the state media report. 

China and Pakistan last conducted joint counterterrorism military drills in 2019. 

String of attacks 

 

Last month, a suicide car bombing just outside the airport in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi killed two Chinese engineers. The victims were returning to work after a holiday in Thailand on a project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a multibillion-dollar extension of President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative. 

In March, a suicide car bomb attack in northern Pakistan killed five Chinese workers and their local driver. 

The repeated targeting of its nationals reportedly angered China, prompting it to urge Pakistan to negotiate a joint security management system to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in the country.

The Pakistani government has dismissed the alleged Chinese diplomatic pressure, however, as “media speculation” and an attempt “to create confusion” regarding Islamabad’s relationship with Beijing. 

“Pakistan and China have a robust dialogue and cooperation on a range of issues, including counterterrorism and security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch told reporters last Thursday at her weekly news conference. 

“We will continue to work with our Chinese brothers for the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects, and institutions in Pakistan,” she stated.

Shaking ties 

Baloch added that attempts to undermine the mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries will not succeed, nor will the two countries “allow any efforts or stories to derail the Pakistan-China strategic partnership.” 

Speaking at a seminar in Islamabad just days after the Karachi car bomb attack, Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong publicly questioned the host government’s safety measures to deter threats to Chinese nationals. 

“It is unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months,” Jiang stated. He urged Islamabad to take “effective remedial measures to prevent the recurrence of such terror acts and ensure that perpetrators are identified, caught, and punished.”

Pakistan dismissed the Chinese envoy’s remarks as “perplexing” and contrary to established diplomatic traditions between the neighbors.

The Pakistani response was unprecedented, and Jiang’s public admonishment of Islamabad highlighted the strains arising from attacks on Chinese nationals that have resulted in the loss of at least 21 lives over the past five years. 

‘Afghan terror sanctuaries’ 

The joint drills between Pakistani and Chinese troops come amid a dramatic surge in deadly militant attacks on security forces and civilians in Pakistan, which authorities say are being orchestrated from “TTP sanctuaries” in neighboring Afghanistan. The country’s Islamist Taliban leaders reject the allegations.

Yue Xiaoyong, China’s special envoy for Afghan affairs, visited Islamabad this week, where Pakistani officials reportedly shared with him evidence regarding TTP’s presence in Afghanistan and the threat it poses to regional stability.

Neither Islamabad nor Beijing has commented on the media reports. A brief post-meeting Pakistani statement said the discussion centered on the Afghan situation, with both sides reaffirming “the vital role of neighboring countries for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.” 
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