Month: January 2024

Beijing — A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck along the China-Kyrgyzstan border on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey reported, warning of potentially widespread damage. 

Local TV channels in the Indian capital New Delhi reported strong tremors in the city, about 1,400 kilometers away. 

The quake was registered just after 2:00 am [1800 GMT Monday] at a depth of 27 kilometers in China’s Xinjiang region, 140 kilometers west of the city of Aksu. 

Shortly after, three more earthquakes were recorded in the area, at magnitudes 5.5 and 5.1 and 5.0. 

The USGS said casualties were possible, though none had been immediately reported in the mountainous, rural area where the earthquake struck. 

“Significant damage is likely and the disaster is potentially widespread,” its report said. 

Tuesday’s quake came the day after a landslide buried dozens of people and killed at least eight in the southwest of China. 

A December quake in the northwest of the country killed 148 people and displaced thousands in Gansu province. 

That quake was China’s deadliest since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed in southwestern Yunnan province. 

In the December earthquake, subzero temperatures made the aid operation launched in response even more challenging, with survivors huddled around outdoor fires to keep warm.                 
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Islamabad — Envoys of Pakistan and Iran will return to their posts by the end of this week, Pakistan and Iran announced Monday.   

The latest sign of de-escalation comes almost a week after Iran struck alleged terror targets inside Pakistan and Islamabad responded with counterstrikes against purported terror hideouts across the border. The strikes killed at least 11 civilians, 9 in Iran and 2 in Pakistan.  

Amid unprecedented tensions Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Tehran last Wednesday and told the Iranian envoy, who was on a trip to his home country, to not return. Islamabad also suspended all high-level visits between the two countries.   

Monday’s press release, issued jointly by the foreign ministries of both the countries, said Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian will visit Pakistan on January 29 at his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani’s invitation.  

In a phone call Friday, the top diplomats of both countries agreed to defuse tensions and reestablish full diplomatic ties.  

Analysts VOA spoke to say that while smoothing over ruffled ties is necessary and welcome, Iran’s unprovoked attack on Pakistan may have opened a Pandora’s box in the region.  

Messaging tool  

Iran has said it was targeting Sunni separatist group Jaish al-Adl’s hideouts on Pakistani soil.   

Anti-state insurgents targeting Pakistan and Iran have been active along the 900-kilometer border between the two countries for years. They frequently mount deadly attacks against security forces.    

The terrorist threat in the region has also expanded with hardline Sunni terrorist group Islamic State or IS targeting Shiite Muslims in both countries. The group claimed responsibility for twin blasts at an event near the tomb of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qassem Soleimani on January 3. The blasts in southeastern Iranian city of Kerman killed more than 100 people.   

While Pakistan acknowledges the IS presence in the country, the group has a bigger, highly organized structure in Afghanistan.   

Washington-based security affairs expert Kamran Bokhari told VOA Iran’s strikes were not necessarily a response to rising terrorism but meant to send a message to Washington in the context of the bloody Israel-Hamas war that has killed thousands in Gaza.  

Since the war started last October, Washington has targeted Iranian proxies in the Middle East and the Red Sea while Tehran has struck U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria several times.         

“They [militant hideouts in Pakistan] provided an excuse for Iran to do something different, which is basically to telegraph to the United States that look, we know that you are talking about a direct confrontation with us…. But, if you do that, then we have the capability to further expand this war,” said Bokhari who serves as a senior director of Eurasian security and prosperity at the Newlines Institute.  

Bokhari believes Tehran picked Pakistan, as it’s a U.S. ally but mired in economic, political and security crises, and therefore, less likely to engage in a massive confrontation.   

Pakistan’s counterstrike marked the first time Iran faced a direct attack since the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988.     

While the Biden administration condemned the Iranian action, Bokhari thinks those in Washington who favor a direct confrontation with Tehran may say, “We’ve never struck on Iranian soil. Now that the Pakistanis have done it, it sets a precedent.”  

Islamabad-based security affairs expert Syed Muhammad Ali told VOA that while Pakistan and Iran managed to de-escalate quickly, any other country contemplating to attack Iran should not expect the same outcome.  

“Even if it gives some ideas to some other countries, I think, they will have to factor in Iranian possible response options based on their own bilateral history and geostrategic convergences or divergences,” Ali said.   

Pressure tool  

While Tehran and Islamabad work to normalize ties, some are concerned sectarian groups may be exploited as a pressure tool.   

Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence as Saudi-funded Sunni and Iran-funded Shiite armed groups came head-to-head in the 90s. Targeted killings on sectarian basis still occur.    

On Sunday Pakistani officials claimed apprehending a “terrorist trained by a foreign country.” Authorities said he was getting support from a “neighboring country” and linked him to Zainabiyoun Brigade, an Iranian-backed militia.   

“Pakistan is, both, being cautious not naming Iran, but also talking about perpetrators that may be linked with Iran,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, a military affairs expert and senior fellow at King’s College London.  

Siddiqa said Pakistan and Iran have no choice but to continue to de-escalate tensions to avoid possible sectarian strife.    

Shrinking space for militants  

On Monday Pakistan armed forces’ media wing announced the military killed seven “terrorists” in an operation near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Baluchistan. The statement did not specify which outfit the slain militants were from.  

In Pakistan’s counterstrike across the Iranian border, Islamabad claimed killing Baloch insurgents.   

Ali told VOA he believes the space for anti-state actors that target Iran and Pakistan might shrink after last week’s events.   

However, he said military operations are only a part of Pakistan’s multi-layered counterinsurgency strategy — that also relies on other incentives to encourage separatists to lay down arms.
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Islamabad — The United Nations said Monday that the Taliban government in impoverished Afghanistan had recently forced hundreds of females out of their jobs for allegedly not adhering to Islamic law requirements imposed on women nationwide.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, documented the job dismissals in its latest report on human rights, covering the last quarter of 2023 in a country where millions of people need humanitarian aid.

“The de facto authorities continue to enforce and promulgate restrictions on women’s rights to work, education, and freedom of movement,” according to the report.

UNAMA noted that the Taliban’s Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had taken the enforcement role, impeding women from working or accessing services because they were unmarried or did not have a male guardian.

It said that a lack of compliance with the hijab or dress code, absence of a mahram, or male relative, and other restrictions imposed on women visiting public places, offices, and educational institutions had apparently led to at least 600 women losing jobs in two Afghan provinces during the reported period.

The provincial chapter of the ministry banned 400 women from working in a pine-nut processing plant in eastern Nangarhar province in October without providing any reasons, while men were allowed to continue working, the report stated.

It added that a Taliban-run power plant in northern Balkh province in November dismissed 200 women allegedly due to financial reasons, yet no male employees faced the same action. In one instance, the vice and virtue ministry officials “advised an unmarried female staff at a healthcare facility to get married or risk losing her job, stating that it was inappropriate for an unmarried woman to work,” the report said.

Last month, the ministry officials visited a bus terminal in southern Kandahar city to ensure that women were not traveling long distances without a male relative and instructed drivers not to allow female passengers to board buses if they are not accompanied by a chaperone, according to the UNAMA findings.

The report said that women without male relatives in the eastern Paktia Province have been denied healthcare access since early December, with authorities from the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice continuing to visit provincial health facilities to ensure compliance.

UNAMA stated that while there is no general ban on women’s employment in Afghanistan, the mahram requirement effectively limits their right to work if they do not have a male relative who can accompany them to workplaces.

The report recorded instances of arbitrary arrests and detentions, sentencing, and some releases of human rights defenders and journalists, including women, from October to December.

“The de facto authorities continue to infringe the right to freedom of expression by limiting the public’s opportunity to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas,” UNAMA said.

The report also documented growing suicide bombings and other attacks on members of the country’s predominantly Shiite ethnic Hazara community over the past three months. The violence, mostly claimed by Islamic State militants, killed nearly 50 Afghan Shiite Muslims and wounded many more.

The U.N. mission said its human rights workers continued to record extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture and ill-treatment of former Afghan government officials and security forces. The Taliban have persistently denied the charges, saying they are adhering to a general amnesty their leadership announced after seizing control of Afghanistan in August 2021.

The fundamentalist Taliban have since imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, banning Afghan girls from receiving an education beyond sixth grade and most female employees from public as well as private workplaces.

The international community has denounced the Taliban curbs on women and demanded they be removed immediately. No foreign country has recognized the de facto Afghan government, mainly over human rights concerns and the treatment of women.

The Taliban have not immediately commented on the U.N. findings issued Monday, but they have previously rejected such reports as propaganda against their government. They have also justified their policies, saying they are aligned with Afghan culture and Islamic law.
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New Delhi — Amid rituals conducted by Hindu priests, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened a grand temple built in the northern town of Ayodhya in honor of one of Hinduism’s most revered gods, Lord Rama.  

The ornate, pink sandstone temple has risen on the site of a 16th century, Mughal-era mosque that was destroyed by Hindu mobs three decades ago.

“Our god Ram has come. Centuries of sacrifice and patience has paid off,” Modi told a massive crowd after the black stone idol of Lord Ram was unveiled. He said that January 22 “brings the dawn of a new era.”

The inauguration of the flower-bedecked Ram Mandir that sprawls over three hectares fulfils a pledge by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which led a decades-long movement to build the temple on the site of the mosque, which Hindus believe was built on the ruins of a temple that marked the birthplace of Lord Ram. 

But for many Muslims, the temple is a reminder of the destruction of the mosque.

In December 1992, a huge mob of Hindu right-wing activists used hammers, axes and bare hands to demolish the mosque, sparking nationwide religious riots that killed nearly 2,000 people. It was the worst communal violence witnessed in India since its independence. 

The religious event was showcased as one of historic and national importance in the Hindu majority country. 

Among the more than 7,000 people who witnessed the ceremony, telecast on a giant screen outside the temple in the small town, were top politicians, billionaire tycoons and Bollywood stars. Air force helicopters showered flowers on the temple. The federal government declared a half day holiday.  

In Ayodhya devotees beat drums and danced as loudspeakers played devotional songs. In cities, towns and villages, where excitement had been building for weeks, many lit earthen lamps as they heeded calls by Modi to celebrate the day like the biggest Hindu festival, Diwali. Saffron flags depicting Lord Ram fluttered outside many homes and shops. Millions watched the telecast of the ceremony in their homes. 

However, some leading Hindu religious seers declined to attend, saying that it was against Hinduism to perform rituals in the temple since part of its construction has still to be completed.  

Most opposition parties also stayed away, accusing the Prime Minister of using the temple’s inauguration for political gain. Congress Party leader, Rahul Gandhi, called it a “completely political Narendra Modi function.” 

Ahead of the temple’s consecration, Modi embarked on an 11-day Hindu purification ritual that included fasting and visiting temples across the country. He presided over the religious ceremony. 

Critics have accused Modi of blurring lines between religion and the state in the country with a secular constitution. 

“The temple is being promoted by Modi as a highpoint in India’s civilizational history,” according to political analyst Rasheed Kidwai. “The BJP makes no pretensions that the religious concerns of the majority Hindu community are on top of their political agenda.”

In the 1990’s, the campaign to build the temple stirred up Hindu nationalism and catapulted the BJP, which until then was a marginal political party, into a dominant political force. 

The mood was upbeat among many Hindus as the $217 million temple opened. Many said that seeing the 1.3 meter tall black stone sculpture of Lord Ram being unveiled in the temple was an emotional moment. “I am really happy. It is a matter of faith for me,” said Nitin Kumar in New Delhi. 

The ornate temple, which stretches across a 28-hectare complex, has risen on a religious site that marked one of the most bitter disputes between Hindus and Muslims, who make up India’s largest minority.  

“Very systematically, Babri Masjid has been taken away from Indian Muslims. Had the Masjid not been demolished in 1992, we wouldn’t have to see things how they are today,” Asaduddin Owaisi, head of the Muslim party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, and a member of parliament said Saturday.  

Following a decades-long court battle over the site’s ownership between Hindu and Muslim groups, the Supreme Court granted the site to Hindus in 2019 even as it called the mosque’s destruction “an egregious violation of the rule of law.” A year later, Modi laid the foundation stone of the temple. 

The BJP and right-wing Hindu groups are portraying the rise of the temple as a moment of Hindu awakening following centuries of domination by Muslim and colonial powers, say analysts.  

“After decades of fight and struggle, this is being presented as a victory, a victory ceremony with Modi as the head of it,” according to author and political analyst, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who called the temple a symbol of the “politics of revenge and triumph.”

The spotlight on the grand new temple, ahead of national elections that are expected to begin in April, is likely to give momentum to the party’s campaign. Modi rose to power in 2014 on the pledge of development, but he has also pushed what some commentators call a “Hindu first” agenda during his two terms in office. 

“The fact that Modi has been in power for ten years could have led to some dip in support. That deficit could be bridged or topped-up with the inauguration of the temple, especially in North India, where the party has a strong support base,” according to political analyst, Sandeep Shastri. 

Critics have raised questions whether the prime minister’s high-profile participation in a religious ceremony undermined the multicultural ethos on which India was founded.  

“The BJP calls this a moment of national rejuvenation. But this rejuvenation is going to be singular in character, not reflecting the pluralistic nature of Indian society and the Indian state’s commitment to it when we became independent,” according to Mukhopadhyay.   
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