Author: ITas

Dhaka — Rival political groups of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday thwarted a plan by her Awami League party to hold a rally in Bangladesh’s capital, seen as a potential first effort to make a comeback on the streets since she fled the country in August amid a mass uprising. 

The rally in Dhaka by Hasina’s party was to commemorate the death of a party activist on Nov. 10, 1987, which had sparked a mass protest against former military dictator H.M. Ershad. He was eventually ousted from office, ending his nine-year rule in 1990. 

The day is commemorated as “democracy day.” In 1991, Bangladesh switched to a parliamentary democracy from a presidential form of government, and since then Hasina and her rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, became the most powerful political figures in the country. 

On Sunday, activists of the party headed by Zia, Hasina’s main rival, and also members of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party took to the streets of Dhaka, filling up much of the area where the rally was scheduled to take place. 

Others, including hundreds of student protesters, also announced that they wouldn’t allow Hasina’s supporters to stand on the streets and hold the rally. The protesters said that they think Hasina’s party was trying to make a comeback by holding a rally on the streets on Sunday. The protesters from the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, a group that led the mass uprising in July-August, aggressively hunted for supporters of Hasina. 

Groups of people surrounded the Awami League party’s headquarters near the Noor Hossain Square in Dhaka where Hasina’s supporters were supposed to gather to hold the rally. 

Security was tight in the area, but witnesses and local media said that the protesters attacked several supporters of Hasina when they attempted to reach there and chanted slogans in favor of the fallen leader. 

The Awami League party said that many of their activists were detained by police as they came under attacks. 

Tensions ran high throughout Sunday with the anti-Hasina protesters saying that they wouldn’t allow the party to hold any public rally under any circumstances. 

The Awami League party posted a number of videos on Facebook on Sunday showing its supporters being manhandled. Its party headquarters had earlier been vandalized following Hasina’s fall on Aug. 5, and on Sunday it was empty and there were signs of destruction. Outside, control was in the hands of Hasina’s opponents. 

The political chaos in the South Asian nation went on as Zia’s party was seeking quick reforms and a new election from an interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus. The party believes it will be able to form the new government in the absence of Hasina’s party, while its other allies are also struggling. 

The Yunus-led government said it would seek extradition of Hasina and her close associates as they face charges of crimes against humanity involving deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising.
…

your ad here

Islamabad — The Taliban in Afghanistan sent its representatives to Azerbaijan on Sunday to attend a major United Nations climate change conference, marking the first such participation since they seized power three years ago.

State-run Afghan media reported that Muti-ul-Haq Khalis, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency, is leading the Taliban’s “technical” delegation, which is expected to have observer status instead of full participation.

The U.N. Climate Change Conference, commonly called COP29, is scheduled to start Monday in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, and will run until November 22.

The Taliban have been excluded from recent international climate change talks because no country has recognized them as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, nor have they been permitted to take the country’s seat at the U.N. General Assembly.

Poverty-stricken Afghanistan is ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis. It has recently encountered severe weather-related disasters like flash floods and prolonged droughts.

Flash flooding earlier this year killed more than 350 Afghans, damaging close to 8,000 homes and displacing more than 5,000 families besides destroying crops and agricultural land. U.N. agencies report that the recent extreme weather in Afghanistan exhibits all the signs of the escalating climate crisis.

Taliban authorities have sought to participate in U.N. climate summits, arguing that their political isolation should not prevent them from joining international climate talks and discussing the challenges facing their country.

Host Azerbaijan invited the Afghan environment agency officials to COP29 as observers, enabling them to “potentially participate in periphery discussions and potentially hold bilateral meetings,” the Reuters news agency quoted a diplomatic source familiar with the matter as saying.   

The Taliban’s restrictions on the freedoms of Afghan women have primarily deterred the world from formally engaging with their government. They have prohibited girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade and suspended female students from universities since regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, when the United States and NATO troops left the country.

The Islamist leaders have enacted laws requiring Afghan women to cover their bodies and faces in public. Additionally, these laws prohibit women from undertaking long road or air trips unless accompanied by a male guardian.

The Taliban say their governance is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia and reject international calls for reversing restrictions on women as an interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. 
…

your ad here

kabul, Afghanistan — An Afghan delegation will attend the upcoming United Nations climate change summit in Azerbaijan, the foreign ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse on Saturday, marking a first since the Taliban government came to power.  

“A delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku” for the COP29 summit, which opens on Monday in the Azerbaijani capital, said the spokesperson, Abdul Qahar Balkhi.  

It was not immediately clear in what capacity the delegation would participate at COP29, but sources indicated it would have observer status.   

Afghanistan is ranked as the country sixth most vulnerable to climate change and Taliban authorities have pushed for the government’s participation in COP summits, saying their political isolation shouldn’t bar them from international climate talks.   

No state has recognized the Taliban authorities since they swept to power in 2021, ousting the Western-backed administration.   

Officials from the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency have repeatedly said climate change should not be politicized and called for environment-related projects put on hold due to the Taliban takeover to be reinstated.  

Azerbaijan, a fossil fuel-rich former Soviet republic wedged between Russia and Iran, will host the COP29 from November 11-22.  

Baku reopened its embassy in Kabul in February this year, though it has not officially recognized the Taliban government.  
…

your ad here

NEW DELHI — The decadeslong ban of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in his native India is now in doubt — not because of a change of heart more than two years after the author’s near-fatal stabbing, but because of what amounts to some missing paperwork.

Earlier this week, a court in New Delhi closed proceedings on a petition filed five years ago that challenged the then-government’s decision to ban the import of the novel, which enraged Muslims worldwide because of its alleged blasphemy, just days after its 1988 publication. In a ruling issued Tuesday, according to the Press Trust of India news agency, a bench headed by Justice Rekha Palli said authorities had failed to produce the notification of the ban.

“We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists,” the judges concluded.

The petitioner, Sandipan Khan, had argued that he couldn’t buy the book because of a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, which forbade its import into India, adding that he was unable to locate the notification on any official website or through officials. Khan’s lawyer, Uddyam Mukherjee, said that the court’s ruling meant that as of now, nothing prohibits anybody from importing the novel into India.

“But whether this means it will be sold in bookstores — I don’t know, that depends on the publishers or sellers,” he told The Associated Press.

When reached by phone, several bookstores in the country’s capital were unaware of the news. An employee of Jain Book Agency in New Delhi said that they did not know whether this news meant that the novel would be available again in stores in India, adding that if that was the case, it could still take time and that they would need to hear from the publisher.

“What the ruling does is open up a potential path for the book to become available here,” Mukherjee said, but added that any aggrieved individual, group or the government can also appeal against it.

Rushdie’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, declined comment to the AP. Rushdie, now a citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, has yet to comment publicly. He has more than 1 million followers on his X account, on which he last posted in September.

Rushdie’s publisher in India, Penguin Random House India, issued a statement Friday called the ruling a “significant new development” and adding that it was “thinking through next steps.”

This week’s ruling adds a new twist to Rushdie’s complex relationship with India, where he was born in 1947, just before the country’s independence. He left as a child and was living in the United Kingdom at the time of his breakout novel, Midnight’s Children, which came out in 1981 and infuriated India’s prime minister at the time, Indira Gandhi, who was satirized in the book. After she sued over a reference to her having caused her husband’s death, Rushdie agreed to remove it, and the case was settled.

When India banned The Satanic Verses, Rushdie condemned the action and doubted whether his censors had even read the novel. In an open letter to then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, published in The New York Times in 1988, he alleged the book was “being used as a political football” and called the ban not only “anti-democratic, but opportunistic.” Over the years, Rushdie has made private trips to India and attended the Jaipur Literary Festival in 2007. But five years later, he canceled plans to attend the Jaipur gathering because of security concerns. The festival did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Besides the ban in his native country, The Satanic Verses elicited a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death from Iran’s Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini, forcing the author into hiding in 1989. He gradually resumed a normal life, especially after Iranian officials announced in 1998 that the government had no plans to enforce it. But his relative calm abruptly ended in 2022, when he was stabbed repeatedly onstage by a young assailant during a literary festival in western New York. Rushdie survived the attack, which left him blind in one eye, and wrote about it in the memoir Knife, a finalist this year for the National Book Award.

On Friday, Khan’s lawyer said that his client was an avid book reader driven to find answers after he found out the novel was banned. He filed numerous requests for information with various authorities — and tried for over a year to get a hold of the notification. Mukherjee said Khan was told by authorities that it was not traceable.

“When we realized there was no hope, we proceeded to go to court and challenge the notification,” Mukherjee added.

The court also said that Khan has the right under law to procure this book. So how does he plan to get it now?

“He doesn’t have a clear answer to this yet — if it becomes available in India, he will buy a copy of it,” Mukherjee said. “But he can also potentially buy it from international booksellers online, as it’s no longer illegal to import the book into the country.” 
…

your ad here

QUETTA, Pakistan — The death toll from a powerful bombing at a Quetta rail station in restive southwestern Pakistan on Saturday rose to at least 20, officials said. The attack also left more than 40 others wounded, some critically.

The bomb exploded when nearly 100 passengers were waiting for a train to travel to the garrison city of Rawalpindi from Quetta, the capital of the restive Balochistan province, said Mohammad Baloch, a senior police officer.

A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed the attack in a statement, saying a suicide bomber targeted troops present at the railway station. The outlawed BLA has long waged an insurgency seeking independence from Islamabad.

Shahid Rind, a government spokesperson said the bombing seemed to have been a suicide attack, but an investigation was still ongoing to confirm the BLA’s claim.

TV footage showed the steel structure of the platform’s roof blown apart and a tea stall destroyed as luggage littered the place.

Ayesha Faiz, a Quetta police official, said some of the critically wounded passengers died at a hospital, raising the deaths.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the bombing in a statement, saying those who orchestrated the attack “will pay a very heavy price for it,” adding that security forces were determined to eliminate “the menace of terrorism.”

The oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but also least populated province. It is also a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government. Along with separatist groups, Islamic militants also operate in the province.

BLA often targets security forces and foreigners, especially Chinese nationals who are in Pakistan as part of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which is building major infrastructure projects.

Last month, BLA claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside the Karachi airport, killing two. Since then, Beijing has asked Pakistan to ensure the safety of its citizens working on multiple projects in Balochistan and other parts of the country.
…

your ad here

NEW DELHI — As India looks ahead to President-elect Donald Trump taking charge in Washington, there is optimism the strategic relationship built by the two countries in recent years will strengthen. India also hopes to benefit if Trump takes a less confrontational approach to Russia, say analysts.

New Delhi also is bracing for turbulence in trade ties, though, which could be affected by Trump’s “America first” agenda.

In his congratulatory message posted on social media platform X, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Trump “my friend” and said, “I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the India-U.S. Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership.”

Modi shared photos of the two leaders hugging and Trump’s visit to India during his first term in 2020 — a time when Trump shared warm relations with Modi.

Analysts in New Delhi expect that India will remain a key partner for Washington.

“Compared to most other countries, particularly some of the USA’s closest partners, perhaps India is better placed because of its centrality in the Indo-Pacific and the role it plays in counterbalancing China,” said Harsh Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“Given that Trump had invested in this partnership in his earlier term, there is hope it will continue the same trajectory,” he said.

The Quad group — a partnership among the United States, Japan, Australia and India, which had been dormant earlier — was revived under the previous Trump administration with an eye on China.

However, a sense of uncertainty lingers in the corridors of power in New Delhi. “The relationship may face hiccups, which we cannot anticipate at the moment given Trump’s leadership style and unpredictability,” said Pant.

India also hopes that confrontation between the U.S. and Russia will lessen under the Trump administration. During the campaign, Trump had said he would end the Russia-Ukraine war without elaborating. In the past he has spoken of having a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If U.S. hostility to Russia lessens under Trump, we believe that it would reduce the extreme and overwhelming Russian dependence on China, which is good from India’s perspective,” according to Sreeram Chaulia, dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University.

Despite a recent thaw in ties with China, India remains wary of Beijing.

Others point out that maintaining India’s time-tested ties with Russia could become easier under a Trump presidency. India refused to join Western sanctions against Russia or condemn the war in Ukraine, positions that became an irritant in Washington.

“Trump appears to have a less strident approach to Russia, and that will help India by making it simpler to balance relations between Washington and Russia,” said Anand Kumar, associate fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.

“Tariff king”

While security ties will likely stay on track, there are worries over whether trade relations will take a hit under Trump, who has said he will follow an “America first” agenda and impose tariffs on countries that have trade surpluses with Washington.

The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner — two-way trade last year totaled almost $120 billion, with a surplus of $30 billion in India’s favor.

During his previous term, Trump called India a “tariff king,” criticized high duties that New Delhi imposed on American products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and terminated India’s designation as a developing nation that had allowed businesses to export hundreds of products duty-free to the United States. India retaliated by raising duties on some American products.

Such tensions could be exacerbated because Trump is likely to push New Delhi to lower import duties for American companies. “This will be a slippery slope for India; he could demand market concessions,” said Chaulia.

Indian officials, however, have sounded an optimistic note.

“There was already a reordering of the supply chains taking place. It is very likely that in view of the [U.S.] election results, this would accelerate. Some of it will be disruptive, but we in India see it as an opportunity,” Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar Subrahmanyan told business leaders in Australia on Thursday.

He was referring to the trend of companies such as Apple setting up manufacturing bases in India as they looked to diversify production from China.

But analysts say Trump could take a diametrically different approach.

“He has this philosophy of onshoring, that is bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. rather than friendshoring which Biden used to talk about — that is encouraging businesses to move to friendly countries. So, the overall idea that U.S. businesses that are leaving China would think of India as an alternative — that model Trump may not encourage,” said Chaulia.

Defense and technology

There also are questions about how the defense and technology cooperation between India and the U.S. that gained momentum under the Biden administration will move forward. India has pushed for co-production of defense technology rather than relying solely on direct purchases of military equipment; sustaining that under Trump may pose a challenge, according to analysts.

“The U.S. has operated under the assumption that boosting India’s capabilities is in America’s self-interest, especially in balancing China. But Trump is likely to demand some Indian ‘pro’ for American ‘quid,’” analyst C. Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express newspaper on Thursday.

“India may find itself on a steep learning curve as it figures out there may be no ‘free lunch’ under Trump’s second term,” Mohan wrote.

Still, as India prepares to navigate a Trump presidency, there is an overall sense of confidence.

“I don’t think India is as worried as some other world capitals. New Delhi understands that if Trump’s obsession with China continues, that gives India greater space to maneuver,” said Pant.
…

your ad here

NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees flocked to rivers and bodies of water across India to pray to the sun god as part of the Chhath festival this week.

In Noida, on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi, families gathered at the Yamuna river, which is covered with white toxic foam as a result of pollutants discharged from nearby industries.

Women in brightly colored saris waded into the knee-deep water flecked with blobs of white foam. Some carried a coconut or other fruits as an offering to thank Lord Surya, the god of the sun, for sustaining life on earth as they sought divine blessings.

The Yamuna is considered one of India’s most sacred rivers, and Hindu devotees have continued to use it despite warnings about the toxic foam. A court in Delhi on Wednesday forbade worshipers from performing rituals on the bank of the heavily polluted river over health and safety concerns, local media reported, yet thousands gathered on Thursday and Friday at the river banks to immerse themselves in the river and drinks it water.

From the financial capital Mumbai to Hyderabad in the south and Guwahati in the east, thousands of men, women and children did the same.

The Chhath festival, celebrated after the Hindu festival of Diwali, originated in the country’s eastern states, with large celebrations in Bihar and Jharkand, and extends to Nepal. Over the years, it has grown more popular across India, often introduced as migrants from eastern states mark the festival away from home.

The rituals, which stretch over four days, include a holy dip in the river and a period of fasting and abstaining from drinking water. On the last two days, devotees stand in the waters to pray to the sun as it rises and sets, with some families camping out overnight along the banks. 
…

your ad here

Islamabad — Afghanistan’s Taliban government has held talks with India on improving bilateral ties and seeking increased humanitarian assistance for the impoverished country, officials reported Thursday. 

Jitender Pal Singh, the Indian foreign ministry’s point-person for Afghanistan, led his delegation’s meetings with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and a rare interaction with Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob, among others, during the November 4-5 visit to Kabul.

“Yes, this was the first meeting with” Yaqoob, Indian media quoted Randhir Jaiswal, the foreign ministry spokesperson, as telling a weekly news conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

Jaiswal stated that “humanitarian assistance from India was the centerpiece of the meetings of JP Singh with Afghan officials.” He added that the Indian delegation also met with representatives of the United Nations agencies in Kabul.

The spokesperson discussed the visit a day after Yaqoob’s office publicly shared details of his meeting with the visiting Indian delegation. It read that “both sides declared their common desire to enlarge the bilateral relations … and expressed their interest in further reinforcing the interactions between Afghanistan and India.”

Both sides reported that the discussions in Kabul also focused on how the Afghan business community could access the India-operated Chabahar port in Iran, which borders landlocked Afghanistan, to increase bilateral trade.

On Thursday, Muttaqi’s office released details of his talks with Singh, saying the Taliban chief diplomat emphasized the need to improve bilateral political and economic relations and sought better visa facilitation for Afghan businessmen to help boost trade ties with India.

The Taliban statement quoted Singh as describing New Delhi’s relations with Kabul as historic and “important for his country.” He promised to enhance Indian visa facilities for Afghans, it added. 

The de facto Afghan leaders swept back to power in August 2021, when the United States and NATO troops left the country after almost two decades of war with the then-insurgent Taliban.

The Taliban takeover prompted New Delhi and Western countries to close their embassies in Kabul and mostly moved their diplomatic missions to Qatar.

No country has formally recognized the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan, but several neighboring and regional countries, including China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, and Qatar, have retained their embassies. India recently reopened its diplomatic mission in Kabul, manned by low-level diplomats.

The International community has refused to recognize the Taliban regime over human rights violations, particularly its restrictions on Afghan women’s access to work and education.

India’s engagement with the de facto authorities in Afghanistan is expected to raise apprehensions in neighboring Pakistan, as noted by analysts.

Kabul’s ties with Islamabad lately have been strained over allegations that the Taliban harbor and support fugitive anti-Pakistan militants responsible for deadly “terrorist” attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces.

The Pakistani military reported a fresh militant attack Thursday in a district on the Afghan border, saying the ensuing clashes killed four soldiers and five assailants.

Taliban officials have denied Islamabad’s allegations, stating that no foreign militants are present in Afghanistan, and no one is allowed to use their territory to threaten neighboring countries.

Pakistan officially recognized the first Taliban government in Kabul in the 1990s. It allegedly harbored and supported Taliban leaders, who directed years of insurgent attacks against U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan after being dislodged from power in late 2001.  
…

your ad here

Washington — Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include a response from the Bangladesh Embassy sent after publication.

The Bangladesh government has revoked the press credentials of dozens of journalists in a move that critics call an “alarming” form of censorship.

The interim Information Ministry in the past week scrapped the accreditation of over 50 journalists.

Over 20 senior journalists had their credentials revoked on October 30, and another 30 suffered the same fate on Sunday, local media reported.

Some of those affected include Zafar Wazed, former director-general of the Press Institute of Bangladesh; former press minister Shaban Mahmud; and journalists at outlets including ATN News, Ekattor TV, and The Dhaka Times, according to the Dhaka Tribune.

Some media watchdogs said journalists who were supportive of the ousted Awami League political party appear to have been mainly affected.

The Awami League government fell in August after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country after 15 years of power. Since then, an interim government has been formed under Nobel-laureate Muhammad Yusuf to prepare the country for new elections.

In response to a query for comment, the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, after publication, directed VOA to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The ministry did not immediately respond to VOA’s email sent Wednesday.  

The revoking of press credentials should be protested because of its “chilling” effect on other journalists in the country and around the world, Celia Mercier of Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF, told VOA in an email.

“Such decisions threaten the growth of opposition media,” she said. “This will encourage self-censorship, and critical space in media will shrink.”

Media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the action, saying on social media, “The interim authorities must safeguard press freedom during this critical period of the country’s political transition.”

Hasina’s fall was prompted by student-led mass protests over proposed changes in university admissions policies and a deadly response by security forces. During the unrest, five journalists were killed, and others were beaten and fired at.

Reporters at the time told VOA they were being threatened for their coverage.

The country currently ranks 165 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best environment. RSF, which compiles the index, described the country as a “hostile” environment for journalists, where editors often avoid challenging the government.

During the last months of Hasina’s rule, “draconian” laws for journalists emerged in the country, according to RSF.

Her government introduced the Cyber Security Act in January, which allows authorities to imprison journalists for up to 14 years for publishing content that goes against the prime minister and the party in power.
…

your ad here

ISLAMABAD — The United Nations reported Wednesday that the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan has increased by an estimated 19% in the second full year since the country’s de facto Taliban authorities banned the crop, but cultivation remains far below pre-ban levels.

The resurgence comes after a dramatic 95% decline in 2023 when the ban nearly wiped out poppy cultivation throughout much of the impoverished South Asian nation, which has long been the world’s leading supplier of the raw material for heroin, according to the report from the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, or UNODC.

The Taliban outlawed the cultivation of narcotics nationwide in April 2022, months after sweeping back to power in Afghanistan, which led to a massive decline in opium poppy production.

The U.N. survey, published Wednesday, noted the ban remains largely effective.

“In 2024, the area under cultivation was estimated at 12,800 hectares, or 19% more than in 2023. Despite the increase, opium poppy cultivation is still far below the prior ban levels,” the survey stated. It noted that an estimated 232,000 hectares were cultivated in the country in 2022.

The U.N. report said that the increase in Afghan poppy cultivation came with a geographic shift this year. “While southwest Afghanistan has traditionally been the country’s opium hub, 59% of opium cultivation this year has taken place in provinces in the northeast.”

The survey indicated that dry opium prices have slightly stabilized in the first half of 2024, at around $730 per kilogram, saying that the price is several times higher than the long-standing pre-ban average of $100.

The U.N. report said that cultivation in northeastern Afghan provinces bordering Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan surged 381% this year to 7,563 hectares, four times the area cultivated in the southwest, the second-biggest producer. Most of the northeast’s production was concentrated in Badakhshan, a mountainous Afghan province sharing an international border with China, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.

The survey warned that high prices and dwindling opium stocks in the country may tempt Afghan farmers to ignore the Taliban’s ban and potentially lead to a resurgence in poppy farming in areas outside traditional cultivation centers, including neighboring countries.

The U.N. stressed that Afghan farmers in the impoverished, war-torn South Asian nation urgently need sustainable economic opportunities to enhance their resilience and discourage them from relying on poppy cultivation.

“With opium cultivation remaining at a low level in Afghanistan, we have the opportunity and responsibility to support Afghan farmers to develop sustainable sources of income, free from illicit markets,” said Ghada Waly, UNODC executive director.

“The women and men of Afghanistan continue to face dire financial and humanitarian challenges, and alternative livelihoods are urgently needed,” Waly added.

Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. mission in Kabul, hailed the survey findings.

“This is important further evidence that opium cultivation has indeed been reduced, and this will be welcomed by Afghanistan’s neighbors, the region, and the world,” Otunbayeva stated.

She also cautioned, however, that rural Afghan communities have lost a vital income source and urgently require international assistance to ensure a sustainable shift away from opium production. “If we want this transition to be sustainable … they desperately need international support.”

Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021, following the withdrawal of the United States-led NATO forces after nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war, no country has formally recognized them as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

The fundamentalist de facto Afghan leaders have imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law of Sharia, banning female education beyond the sixth grade and prohibiting most Afghan women from working in public and private sectors.

Restrictions on Afghan women and other human rights concerns have discouraged the international community from engaging with the Taliban in economic and development cooperation, although humanitarian assistance continues in a country where millions of people are in urgent need. 
…

your ad here

NEW DELHI — A toxic smog shrouded the Indian capital on Tuesday, driving air quality in some areas into the “severe” range ahead of winter, when cold air traps pollutants and brings a spike in respiratory illnesses.

The mix of smoke, emissions, and dust is an annual problem for authorities in New Delhi, with vehicles, construction dust, and smoke from farm fires in the adjoining northern states of Punjab and Haryana among the major contributors.

“The outlook for the subsequent six days: the air quality is likely to be in the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ category,” said the earth sciences ministry.

The city’s overall score on an air quality index kept by India’s top pollution authorities was “very poor” at 384, the ministry added, and was likely to stay there until Thursday.

An index range of 401 to 500 falls into the “severe” category, implying it affects healthy people, but is more serious for those already fighting disease.

Ministry data showed farm fires have increasingly swelled the pollution over the last three days, for a share of more than 23% on Monday, from about 15% on Saturday.

About a third of the city’s 39 monitoring stations showed a “severe” score of more than 400 on Tuesday, said the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), well short of an air quality score of zero to 50 that it rates as “good.”

Swiss group IQAir also rated Delhi the world’s second most polluted city on Tuesday, after Lahore in neighboring Pakistan, where authorities also took emergency measures in the wake of Sunday’s unprecedented pollution levels.

The government in the eastern province of Punjab, home to Lahore, has blamed deteriorating air quality on pollution wafting in from India, an issue it has vowed to take up with its neighbor through the foreign ministry.
…

your ad here

ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Pakistan said Tuesday that a local security guard at a factory in the southern port city of Karachi shot and injured two Chinese nationals, the third attack this year in the country targeting workers from China.

Zia ul Haq Langar, the home minister of the Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, confirmed the shooting incident, saying it took place in an industrial area. He said an investigation was underway. 

Police officials reported that a “heated argument” and subsequent “scuffle” with the Chinese workers prompted the guard to open fire on them. The foreigners were taken to a local hospital, where one of them was said to be in “critical condition.” 

The shooting comes amid Islamabad’s rare tensions with close ally Beijing that stem from growing security threats to Chinese workers and engineers working on infrastructure development projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI. 

At a seminar in Pakistan’s capital last week, the Chinese ambassador criticized the repeated attacks on Chinese citizens in the country, labeling them as “unacceptable” and a barrier to their investments in the South Asian nation. 

It is extremely rare for Beijing to publicly admonish Islamabad over the security threats to its workers. 

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry, in an unprecedented response, described the Chinese envoy’s remarks as “perplexing” and inconsistent with “the diplomatic traditions” that exist between the two nations.

Last month, a suicide car bomber in Karachi killed two Chinese engineers and wounded another, along with several local security personnel. The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In March this year, a suicide car bombing in northwestern Pakistan killed five Chinese workers and their local driver traveling to a major hydropower project in the area. 

The attacks have increased the number of Chinese workers killed in the country to 21 since the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) nearly a decade ago, which is a major infrastructure project stemming from President Xi Jinping’s global BRI plans.

Beijing has repeatedly urged Islamabad to improve security for its nationals working in Pakistan. 

CPEC has resulted in roads and highways, primarily coal-fired power plants in Pakistan, and the strategic deepwater Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea in the southwestern province of Balochistan. 
…

your ad here

Canadian officials pressed charges against three people Monday, following the violence that erupted Sunday at a Hindu temple near Toronto where Sikh activists staged a Pro-Khalistan demonstration, according to a Reuters report. 

Local police say a 43-year-old man was charged with causing a disturbance and assaulting a peace officer and a 23-year-old man was charged with assault with a weapon. Meanwhile, a 31-year-old man was charged with mischief. 

In addition, police say they have been made aware of the video of an off-duty police officer who was seen participating in the protest. Police say they are investigating that case and the officer has been suspended. 

The prime ministers of India and Canada have denounced the violence that erupted Sunday at several locations in suburban Toronto, including the Hindu temple. 

“I strongly condemn the deliberate attack on a Hindu temple in Canada,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the “acts of violence” were unacceptable.

Video of the disturbance at the temple appeared to show an altercation between Hindus and Sikhs that included footage of people hitting each other with flagpoles outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir in the city of Brampton, according to Reuters. It was not clear, however, how the violence was initiated. 

“The Hindu community in Canada is feeling that they are not being provided a safe place for the worship,” Arunesh Giri, president of the Canadian Hindu Foundation told Agence France-Presse. 

A spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry called on Canada to “ensure that all places of worship are protected” from attacks like the ones on Sunday. “We also expect that those indulging in violence will be prosecuted,” the ministry said.

Sikh activists told Reuters that pro-Khalistan activists at the Hindu temple demonstration were protesting the presence of Indian diplomats. The activists said another rally was held at a Sikh temple. 

Khalistan is the Sikh homeland that some activists want created out of India’s Punjab state. Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India. Footage of the disruptions posted on social media shows some people carrying the yellow flags of the pro-Khalistan movement. 

The violence comes amid frayed diplomatic ties between India and Canada. Canada recently expelled six Indian diplomats over the 2023 killing in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader. India’s tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of its diplomats from Canada was to expel six Canadian diplomats from India. 

Canada has accused India of targeting Sikh activists in Canada. India has said that allegation is “absurd and baseless.”  

Some information provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

 
…

your ad here

Islamabad — Pakistan’s ruling coalition lawmakers approved a series of bills Monday that extend the terms of the heads of the armed forces, including the military, from three years to five years, despite noisy opposition protests.

The legislative action ensures that Army Chief General Asim Munir, who has been in office for two years, will continue to lead the country’s powerful military at least until November 2027.

The parliamentary proceedings, telecast live, witnessed disruptive protests from lawmakers of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, with some of them tearing up copies of the bills and throwing them at the house speaker.

PTI members argued that the government hastily approved key constitutional amendments without allowing for proper debate, calling the move detrimental to an already fragile democracy in Pakistan. They reiterated their complaints about the ongoing government crackdown on party workers and demanded Khan’s release, asserting that he is being jailed on false charges.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government dismissed PTI’s claims as politically motivated.

“Pakistan’s parliament has pushed through a bill extending the army chief’s tenure from 3 to 5 years, and with little debate,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Washington’s Wilson Center, said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“The most powerful post in Pakistan is poised to become even more powerful. When a legislature is reduced to a rubber stamp, democracy is never a winner,” Kugelman wrote.

Sharif took power after general elections in February, which Khan and his party allege were rigged by the military leadership to keep them out of power. Election officials and the army reject the allegations.

Khan, cricket star-turned-prime minister, was removed from office through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2022.

The 72-year-old deposed leader was jailed in August 2023 over controversial allegations of corruption and inciting violence against the military, among dozens of other charges.

Khan rejects all the lawsuits as fabrications by the military, accusing Munir’s predecessor, former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, of orchestrating the downfall of his government. The former prime minister has led a defiant campaign against the military while his party continues to protest in parliament and on the streets, demanding the return of their “stolen mandate.”

Last month, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to secure the release of Khan and all other political prisoners in Pakistan.

The American lawmakers expressed concern about what they denounced as the “ongoing widespread human rights violations” in the South Asian nation. Without naming Sharif’s coalition government, the letter stated that “Pakistan’s current system amounts to ‘military rule with civilian facade.’”

Islamabad hit back at the letter, saying it is based on “an incorrect understanding of the political situation in Pakistan.”

Pakistan’s military and its intelligence agencies are frequently accused of influencing the rise or fall of elected governments through election rigging and pro-army political parties.

Army generals have staged three coups against elected governments and ruled the South Asian nation for over three decades since it gained independence in 1947. Pakistani politicians, including Khan and several of his predecessors, have publicly stated that military generals influence policy-making even when they are not in power. 
…

your ad here

Two years after one of Pakistan’s best-known journalists was killed in Kenya, his widow is losing hope of getting justice. The case comes as media watchdogs highlight Pakistan’s record of failing to investigate attacks on media. Sarah Zaman narrates this story by Tabinda Naeem. Video: Iram Abbasi
…

your ad here

New Delhi — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condemned a “deliberate attack” on a Hindu temple in Canada blamed by some on Sikh activists, as already frosty bilateral ties plunged to a fresh low.

“I strongly condemn the deliberate attack on a Hindu temple in Canada,” Modi said in a statement on X. “Equally appalling are the cowardly attempts to intimidate our diplomats.”

Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India, and includes activists for “Khalistan”, a fringe separatist movement seeking an independent state for the religious minority carved out of Indian territory.

Relations between India and Canada nosedived after Ottawa accused the Indian government of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistan activist.

While India’s foreign ministry has repeatedly denied accusations by Canada, and New Delhi has accused Ottawa for decades of harboring fringe religious extremists, these were Modi’s first comments on the furious diplomatic row.

“Such acts of violence will never weaken India’s resolve. We expect the Canadian government to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law,” Modi added.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier said that the violence at the Hindu temple on Sunday in Brampton, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Toronto, was “unacceptable”.

Video circulating on social media appears to show individuals carrying yellow Khalistan flags clashing with a rival group, including people holding Indian flags. There were also isolated fist fights, videos show.

India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal had earlier said the attack on the temple was carried “perpetrated by extremists and separatists”, and asked Canada to “ensure that all places of worship are protected” from such attacks.

“We also expect that those indulging in violence will be prosecuted,” he added.

“We remain deeply concerned about the safety and security of Indian nationals in Canada.”

Beyond Nijjar’s killing, Canada has accused India of directing a broad campaign targeting Sikh activists on Canadian soil, which Ottawa says has included intimidation, threats and violence.

Trudeau charged the government of Prime Minister Modi with violating Canadian sovereignty.

India has rejected the allegations.

On Saturday, New Delhi denied that interior minister Amit Shah had plotted to target Sikh activists on Canadian soil, and said it had officially rebuked Ottawa over the “absurd and baseless” allegation.

New Delhi and Ottawa earlier this month each expelled the other’s ambassador and other senior diplomats.
…

your ad here