Pakistani School Focuses on Healing Generational Trauma

In a neighborhood that was once a hotbed of gang violence in Pakistan’s economic hub, Karachi, one school is focused on healing the wounds of trauma passed down through generations. With emphasis on mental health, the Kiran Foundation’s school is empowering children and mothers to end the cycle of aggression and abuse. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman has the story. Camera: Wajid Asad.

your ad here

Can Rahul Gandhi’s Cross Country March Revive India’s Beleaguered Opposition?

New Delhi — Traversing 6,600 kilometers through 15 states over the last two months, the leader of India’s opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, beat out a message that the ruling  Bharatiya Janata Party has failed to deliver economic and social justice for the country’s masses. 

Gandhi’s “Unite India Justice March” that ended in Mumbai on Saturday aimed to give his party a boost ahead of general elections that begin on April 19. At dozens of roadshows, he said government policies have benefited business tycoons, not the marginalized masses. He promised his party would address issues such as joblessness, especially among educated youth. 

Pledging to enact a “Right to Apprentice Act” if voted to power, Gandhi said that “we will ensure that every person getting a diploma graduating from college will get a one-year job as an apprentice” and earn the equivalent of $1,200 a year. He said the plan will change the “destiny of the youth.” He also pledged to fill vacancies for three million government jobs. 

But can such promises dent the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who according to most recent surveys will win a third term in office? 

“[Gandhi] is seen as a symbol for all those dissatisfied with the Narendra Modi regime,” according to political analyst Neerja Chowdhury.  “But his message, which is about the alleged corruption of the Modi regime, growing unemployment, rising prices and the hardships that people are facing, is not having the kind of traction at the ground level that one would have thought might have happened.” 

That poses a challenge to the Congress Party’s hopes of weakening the BJP’s hold on power in parliamentary elections beginning April 19.  Congress, the largest opposition party in India, won just 52 seats in 543-seat lower house five years ago. BJP and its allies won more than 350.

“Beyond a shadow of doubt, Rahul Gandhi is raising the right issues,” said political analyst Sandeep Shastri, pointing out that recent data shows that unemployment and inflation are key concerns in the country. “But will the right issues being raised convert into votes is a big question mark, because that is more a question of the voter perception of who is capable of solving the problem.”

At public meetings in recent weeks, Modi has pitched himself as a leader who can deliver results and has improved the lives of India’s poor during his ten years in power.   

“We have opened bank accounts for the poor, helped them build concrete houses, and given them water, electricity connections and free vaccines,” Modi told a meeting in the southern state of Telangana, where his party is trying to make inroads. “There is only one guarantee of change, that is Modi’s guarantee.” 

To counter the BJP, the Congress party forged an alliance with about two dozen regional parties last year to put up a united front to unseat Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.  

But hopes of mounting an effective challenge to the BJP have dimmed as the opposition coalition called INDIA, an acronym for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, shows signs of fraying.  

The alliance had aimed to put up a common candidate against the BJP to prevent splintering of votes in parliamentary constituencies which are often contested by multiple candidates. As a result, parties win elections even if they secure less than 50% of the votes cast. 

However talks on seat-sharing have made limited headway in some states like West Bengal, where a powerful regional leader, Mamata Banerjee, decided that her party will contest all seats. 

“It is a lost opportunity. Some of its big leaders have left the INDIA alliance, some other big leaders are not joining with the Congress and other parties to form a broad platform which was the whole idea,” says Chowdhury. 

Analysts attribute the fissures in the alliance to the crushing losses that the Congress Party suffered in state elections held in December. The party lost power in two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and was unsuccessful in unseating the BJP in a third. 

“It weakened the Congress Party’s role as the pivot of the alliance and subsequent to that, I think even state-based parties which were part of the alliance started redefining their individual strategies because they were more concerned with challenging the BJP in their individual states,” says Shastri. 

Opposition parties also accuse the BJP government of weakening their ranks by using the country’s main financial investigation agency to launch probes against some of their leaders — charges the government strongly denies.

The stakes in the upcoming polls are highest for Rahul Gandhi. While most regional parties have been holding ground in states that they govern, the Congress Party has suffered two humiliating losses in the last two national elections. 

Analysts say the opposition faces an uphill task in countering Modi — a  strong, charismatic leader, who remains hugely popular amid a rising tide of Hindu nationalism. 

“Gandhi has revived his image and tried to offer an alternative narrative, but so far many don’t see him as an alternative to Modi,” said Chowdhury. 

The cross-country march by Gandhi was his second  he trekked through 12 states over a year ago to connect with voters. It remains to be seen his efforts can resurrect the Congress Party that dominated India for seven decades, or whether it will continue to languish.

your ad here

Pakistani Planes Allegedly Hit Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan carried out cross-border aerial strikes against suspected militant hideouts in Afghanistan early Monday, killing several people, according to officials.

A Pakistani security official, speaking anonymously to VOA because he was not authorized to interact with the media, confirmed the pre-dawn strikes, saying they targeted commanders linked to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization operating out of the neighboring country.

The military action apparently came in retaliation to Saturday’s high-profile TTP raid against a Pakistani military base in the volatile North Waziristan border district that killed seven soldiers, including two officers.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government confirmed in a statement that Pakistani planes had bombed multiple locations in its southeastern Paktika and Khost provinces but said the attack resulted in the deaths of eight civilians, including women and children. It was not possible to ascertain the identities of the slain people from independent sources.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these attacks and calls this reckless action a violation of Afghanistan’s territory,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. He used the official title of his government, which has yet to be recognized internationally.

Mujahid denied again that the Taliban allowed Afghan soil to be used by militant groups against Pakistan or any other country.

“Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for the lack of control, incompetence, and problems in its own territory. Such incidents can have very bad consequences, which will be out of Pakistan’s control,” the spokesman warned without elaborating.

Security sources told VOA that the air strikes had sparked skirmishes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces across several posts along the nearly 2,600-kilometer border between the two countries.

The Taliban Defense Ministry later confirmed in a statement that its border security forces targeted Pakistani outposts with “heavy weapons” in retaliation to the aerial incursions into Afghan territory.

Separately, a TTP statement claimed the strikes hit Pakistani refugee camps in the Afghan border area rather than its members. The claim could not be verified immediately.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani military said Monday that its troops had conducted a pre-dawn intelligence-led security operation in North Waziristan, killing eight TTP members. The slain militants included a key commander who played a role in plotting Saturday’s attack on the army base, the statement said.

Islamabad says that TTP has intensified cross-border attacks from Afghan sanctuaries since the establishment of the Taliban government in Kabul in 2021. The violence has reportedly killed about 2,000 Pakistanis, including police and military personnel, and strained relations between the two countries.

In April 2022, Pakistani fighter planes also carried out raids against TTP hideouts in Afghanistan.

Pakistan and the United Nations dispute Taliban claims they are not harboring foreign militant groups on Afghan soil.

“In the region and beyond, there are well-founded concerns over the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan,” Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told a March 6 U.N. Security Council meeting.

“It is not only Daesh that constitutes a threat but also TTP, a major concern for Pakistan, which has seen an increase in terrorist activity,” Otunbayeva said.

Daesh is an acronym for the Islamic State, and this militant group is an Afghanistan-based regional IS affiliate that conducts terrorist attacks on both sides of the long border between the two countries.

your ad here

India’s Bengaluru Running Out of Water as Summer Looms

Bangaluru, India — Bhavani Mani Muthuvel and her family of nine have around five 20-liter (5-gallon) buckets worth of water for the week for cooking, cleaning and household chores.

“From taking showers to using toilets and washing clothes, we are taking turns to do everything,” she said. It’s the only water they can afford.

A resident of Ambedkar Nagar, a low-income settlement in the shadows of the lavish headquarters of multiple global software companies in Bengaluru’s Whitefield neighborhood, Muthuvel is normally reliant on piped water, sourced from groundwater. But it’s drying up. She said it’s the worst water crisis she has experienced in her 40 years in the neighborhood.

Bengaluru in southern India is witnessing an unusually hot February and March, and in the last few years, it has received little rainfall in part due to human-caused climate change. Water levels are running desperately low, particularly in poorer areas, resulting in sky-high costs for water and a quickly dwindling supply.

City and state government authorities are trying to get the situation under control with emergency measures such as nationalizing water tankers and putting a cap on water costs. But water experts and many residents fear the worst is still to come in April and May when the summer sun is at its strongest.

The crisis was a long time coming, said Shashank Palur, a Bengaluru-based hydrologist with the think tank Water, Environment, Land and Livelihood Labs. “Bengaluru is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the infrastructure for fresh water supply is not able to keep up with a growing population,” he said.

Groundwater, relied on by over a third of the city’s 13 million residents, is fast running out. City authorities say 6,900 of the 13,900 borewells drilled in the city have run dry despite some being drilled to depths of 1,500 feet (about 457 meters). Those reliant on groundwater, like Muthuvel, now have to depend on water tankers that pump from nearby villages.

Palur said El Nino, a natural phenomenon that affects weather patterns worldwide, along with the city receiving less rainfall in recent years mean “recharge of groundwater levels did not happen as expected.” A new piped water supply from the Cauvery River about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the city has also not been completed, adding to the crisis, he said.

Another concern is that paved surfaces cover nearly 90% of the city, preventing rainwater from seeping down and being stored in the ground, said T.V. Ramachandra, research scientist at the Center for Ecological Sciences at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science. The city lost nearly 70% of its green cover in the last 50 years, he said.

Ramachandra compared the city’s water shortage to the “day zero” water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, 2018, when that city came dangerously close to turning off most taps because of a drought.

The Indian government estimated in 2018 that over 40% of Bengaluru residents won’t have access to drinking water by the end of the decade. Only those that receive piped water from rivers outside Bengaluru are still getting a regular supply.

“Right now, everyone is drilling borewells in buffer zones of lakes. That is not the solution,” Ramachandra said.

He said the city should instead focus on replenishing the over 200 lakes spread across the city, stop new construction on lake areas, encourage rainwater harvesting and increase green cover across the city.

“Only if we do this will we solve the city’s water problem,” he said.

Palur added that identifying other sources and using them smartly, for example by  

reusing treated wastewater in the city “so that the demand for fresh water reduces,” could also help.

Until then, some residents are taking serious measures. S. Prasad, who lives with his wife and two children in a housing society made up of 230 apartments, said they have begun water rationing.

“Since last week we’ve closed the water supply to houses for eight hours every day, starting at 10 a.m. Residents have to either store water in containers or do everything they need to in the allotted time. We are also planning on installing water meters soon,” he said.

Prasad said their housing society, like many others in Bengaluru, is willing to pay high costs for water, but even then, it’s hard to find suppliers.

“This water shortage is not only impacting our work but also our daily life,” Prasad said. “If it becomes even more dire, we’ll have no choice but to leave Bengaluru temporarily.”

your ad here

21 Dead, 38 Injured in Bus Collision in Afghanistan

kabul, afghanistan — Twenty-one people were killed and 38 injured on Sunday in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province when a bus collided with an oil tanker and a motorbike, provincial officials said. 

 

Deadly traffic accidents are common in the country, due in part to poor roads, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation. 

 

“On Sunday morning, 21 people were killed and 38 people were injured due to a collision between a tanker, a motorcycle and a passenger bus,” the provincial information department said in a post on X. 

 

The accident took place on the Herat-Kandahar highway in Grishk district of Helmand province, it added. 

 

The collision caused the vehicles to ignite, Helmand governor spokesman Mohammad Qasim Riyaz told AFP. 

 

Images shared by the information department on social media showed charred, twisted metal scattered across the highway and the crushed cabin of the tanker. 

 

Cleanup crews were on site removing the debris, according to officials. 

 

Of the injured, 11 were seriously hurt and 27 had minor injuries. 

 

The passenger bus was traveling from Herat city to the capital, Kabul, when it first collided with a motorbike carrying two people, killing both riders, Helmand traffic management officials said, according to the information department. 

 

The bus driver lost control and crashed into an oil tanker travelling in the opposite direction from the southern city of Kandahar to Herat, sparking a fire. 

 

The accident killed three people on the tanker and 16 bus passengers. 

 

Another serious accident involving an oil tanker took place in December 2022, when the vehicle overturned and caught fire in Afghanistan’s high-altitude Salang pass, killing 31 people and leaving dozens more with burn injuries. 

your ad here

Karakalpak Activist Faces Threat of Deportation From Kazakhstan

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — Uzbek law enforcement officials this month confirmed to VOA that an Uzbek extradition request was behind the February 15 arrest in Kazakhstan of Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratov, known as Aqylbek Muratbai on X and other social media.

Karakalpaks are indigenous Turkic people of Karakalpakstan, since 1993 a sovereign republic within Uzbekistan with its own parliament, national symbols and language. This status has been a source of friction with the Uzbek government because it often stirs discussions of secession.

Muratov, arrested in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, had been under Uzbek scrutiny since 2015. He is suspected of engaging in separatism and “destructive activism,” according to officials in Tashkent.

Karakalpakstan’s Internal Affairs Ministry indicted him late last year, accusing him of preparing and distributing materials that “threaten public safety and order.” Uzbek authorities say he has used social media to foment mass unrest in Karakalpakstan, but he denies the charges.

Uzbek officials told VOA that Muratov had been warned through the Uzbek Consulate in Almaty and by his father, but that he persisted in what Tashkent views as anti-government propaganda. Writing on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter, in October, Muratov described these messages as threats and vowed to “not stop my activities to disseminate information about repressions against ethnic Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan.”

Muratov is the sixth Karakalpak to be taken into custody in neighboring Kazakhstan at Uzbekistan’s request since protests in July 2022 against proposed constitutional amendments intended to strip the republic of its autonomous status and right to secede. At least 21 people were killed during the unrest in Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital.

None of the five previously arrested in Kazakhstan has been extradited, but they have not received refugee status, which would offer more international protection, including the opportunity to resettle in another country. Muratov, who lived in Kazakhstan for 13 years, is seeking that status.

As a result of the unrest, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev withdrew the proposed amendments that triggered mass discontent and pledged not to change Karakalpakstan’s status.

Sixty-four people were convicted for their roles in the violence. One defendant, former police officer Polat Shamshetov, died in prison in February 2023, shortly after receiving a six-year prison term. The longest sentence, 16 years, was given to the lawyer and blogger Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, whose case Muratov often highlighted.

Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan on edge

Muratov’s detention, days after a new Kazakh government was sworn in, has drawn attention to Kazakhstan and put Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan on edge.

Muratov’s sister, Fariza Narbekova, told VOA that he has been charged by Uzbek authorities for publishing video of Karakalpak activists’ speeches at an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in October and for urging Karakalpaks on his Telegram channel to switch off lights at home on November 13 for 16 minutes to mark the first anniversary of Tajimuratov’s 16-year imprisonment.

Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a February 26 statement that the charges “have no merit and should be dropped, and Kazakhstan should release him from custody immediately.”

“Kazakhstan is bound by international human rights law not to return Muratbai to Uzbekistan, where he faces serious risk of politically motivated persecution,” she said.

Human Rights Watch said human rights organizations had “documented numerous cases of torture and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention, of individuals accused of anti-state crimes in Uzbekistan in recent years.”

This is “a clear-cut case of retaliation” by Uzbek authorities against Muratov for exposing human rights violations in Karakalpakstan following the July 2022 protests, Rittmann said.

Karakalpaks feel discriminated against in their own homeland because migrants from other parts of Uzbekistan are given jobs and farmland there, Galym Ageleuov, an Almaty-based Kazakh rights activist, told VOA. 

The proposed constitutional amendments triggered an outpouring of discontent that had built up in Karakalpakstan for years, he said, citing local frustration that Tashkent brings workers from elsewhere to develop gas fields in the Aral Sea region instead of employing locals.

“What Kazakh authorities are doing to Karakalpak activists living in Kazakhstan by detaining them is an incompetent policy to suppress the diaspora and its activists who are standing up for rights, and it’s the continuation of Uzbek authorities’ suppression of human rights in Karakalpakstan,” said Ageleuov, who has researched the July 2022 events and monitored subsequent developments in Karakalpakstan.

“Person seeking asylum” status

In what is seen as a face-saving exercise, on February 23, Kazakh authorities granted Muratov “person seeking asylum” status for three months, preventing him from being handed over to Uzbekistan during that period, treatment similar to that of the five other Karakalpaks, who were released after a year in detention.

Muratov was instrumental in publicizing the detentions and court proceedings involving Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on social media.

“We fought for the rights of Karakalpakstan and Karakalpaks and activists, and ordinary Karakalpaks who were imprisoned after the July events rely on our help for their release,” cardiologist Raysa  Khudaybergenova, one of the five Karakalpaks detained in Kazakhstan, told VOA in an Almaty clinic where she works.

“They all want to get out of prison,” she said of the activists who remain in Uzbek prisons.

Like Muratov, Khudaybergenova is an Uzbek citizen and was not involved in political activism before the 2022 turmoil, focusing mostly on cultural, linguistic and health issues in Karakalpakstan.

Denis Zhivago, an Almaty-based human rights lawyer, told VOA that according to Kazakh law, “detention on extradition requests could last for a year, that’s why other Karakalpak activists spent a year in detention.”  Muratov’s lawyer, Inara Masanova, would not comment on the case because of its sensitivity.

“Akylbek is now likely to spend a year in detention, unfortunately,” Zhivago said.

“As in the previous five cases, I hope wisdom would triumph with Kazakh authorities and they will give the man a chance to avoid extradition and leave for a third country. There is a big chance that will happen, but we shouldn’t rule out any possibilities.”

In the past, Kazakhstan was notorious for handing over those without refugee status. It extradited about 30 Uzbek asylum seekers to Tashkent and at least one Uyghur to Beijing in the early 2010s. Last December, it extradited Russian security officer Mikhail Zhilin at Moscow’s request.

Zhivago said Uzbekistan keeps submitting extradition requests because it is “irritated” and wants to silence activists publicizing violations of rights in Karakalpakstan.

This has left Kazakhstan in a “complicated” situation because it is bound by agreements and friendly relations with Uzbekistan, he said.

“Our government, on the one hand, doesn’t want to spoil relations with Uzbekistan and, on the other hand, wants to provide Karakalpak activists with a chance of obtaining asylum,” Zhivago said. He noted Kazakhstan’s status as a signatory to the Geneva conventions against torture and on the status of refugees.

Navbahor Imamova reported for this article from Washington.

your ad here

Indian Navy Frees Cargo Ship From Somali Pirates After Shootout

Washington — The Indian navy has freed the hijacked MV Ruen cargo ship in Somalia’s Puntland region Saturday after a 24-hour standoff and shootout, and it has detained 35 pirates, according to Puntland Ports Minister Ahmed Yasin Salah. The crew is reported to be unharmed.

The pirates — who allegedly hijacked the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel on December 14 — exchanged heavy gunfire with the Indian navy Friday.

“The Indian navy successfully conducted the operation, which has been going on since last night. The navy captured 35 pirates and released the MV Ruen ship, and its crew are safe,” Salah said.

 

“We received the information regarding the gunfight Friday afternoon. Once we followed up with our reliable sources, we were told that the Indian navy engaged in a gunfight with the Somali pirates.”

 

In an interview with VOA Somali, Salah said the pirates on the Ruen had been sailing back and forth across the Somali coast for months, and that the Indians intercepted them Friday, as they approached another pirate-held ship the MV Abdullah.

 

It was not immediately clear if the Somali pirates were using the hijacked ship MV Ruen to take over the Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship, MV Abdullah.

 

The MV Abdullah was sailing from Mozambique’s capital Maputo to the United Arab Emirates with a cargo of 55,000 tons of coal when Somali pirates attacked and seized it on the evening of March 12, taking 23 of its crew members hostage.

 

Quoting an Indian navy spokesperson, Reuters reported Saturday that the Somali pirates opened fire on the Indian navy ship in international waters Friday.

According to the Reuters report, the navy had called on the pirates to surrender and release the vessel and any civilians they may be holding.

 

Until the Ruen was seized, there had been no successful hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.

 

At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking or suspicious approaches have been recorded by the Indian navy since December, Indian officials have said.

 

India deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea in January to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels.

 

Somalia had for years been blighted by piracy, with the peak being 2011, when the U.N. says more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast.

 

The incidents have declined drastically since then, largely because of the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.

 

A small number of Somalia’s maritime forces have been recently seen conducting patrols in the waters of the Indian Ocean close to Mogadishu, the country’s capital, as part of an ongoing measure by Mogadishu to rebuild its maritime security presence.

 

In tandem with that effort, Somalia’s executive and legislative branches approved last month a crucial 10-year defense and economic cooperation agreement with Turkey.

 

Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said under the agreement, Turkey will build, train and equip the Somali navy and help to remove “any fears of terrorism, piracy, illegal fishing, toxic dumping and any external violations or threats” to Somalia’s sea coast. Somalia has Africa’s longest coastline.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters. 

your ad here

Somali Pirates in Shootout With Indian Navy Ship

Washington — Authorities in Somalia’s Puntland region said Saturday that Somali pirates who hijacked the cargo ship MV Ruen engaged in a shootout with an Indian navy warship in international waters.

Puntland Ports Minister Ahmed Yasin Salah said the pirates — who allegedly hijacked the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel on December 14 — exchanged gunfire with the Indian navy Friday.

“We received the information regarding the gunfight Friday afternoon,” Salah said. “Once we followed up with our reliable sources, we were told that the Indian navy engaged in a gunfight with the Somali pirates.”

In an interview with VOA Somali Service, Salah said that the pirates on the Ruen have been sailing back and forth across the Somali coast for months and that the Indians intercepted them Friday as they approached another pirate-held ship, the MV Abdullah.

It was not immediately clear if the Somali pirates were using the hijacked ship Ruen to take over the Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship Abdullah.

The Abdullah was sailing from Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, to the United Arab Emirates with a cargo of 55,000 tons of coal when Somali pirates attacked and seized it on the evening of March 12, taking 23 of its crew members hostage.

Quoting an Indian navy spokesperson, Reuters reported Saturday that the Somali pirates opened fire on the Indian navy ship in international waters on Friday.

According to the Reuters report, the navy had called on the pirates to surrender and release the vessel and any civilians they may be holding.

Salah said his administration could not provide details regarding casualties or if the Indian navy warship succeeded in forcing the pirates to surrender.

Until the Ruen was seized, there had been no successful hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.

At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking or suspicious approaches have been recorded by the Indian navy since December, Indian officials have said.

India deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea in January to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels.

Somalia had for years been blighted by piracy, with the peak being 2011, when more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast, the U.N. says.

The incidents have declined drastically since then, largely because of the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.

A small number of Somalia’s maritime forces have recently been seen conducting patrols in the waters of the Indian Ocean close to Mogadishu, the country’s capital, as part of an ongoing measure by Mogadishu to rebuild its maritime security presence.

In tandem with that effort, Somalia’s executive and legislative branches approved a crucial 10-year defense and economic cooperation agreement with Turkey last month.

Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said under the agreement, Turkey will build, train and equip the Somali navy and help to remove “any fears of terrorism, piracy, illegal fishing, toxic dumping and any external violations or threats” to Somalia’s sea coast.

Somalia has Africa’s longest coastline.

your ad here

India’s Mammoth Election Set to Begin April 19

New Delhi — Indian general elections, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term, will be held over six weeks starting April 19, India’s Election Commission said Saturday.

Billed as the world’s largest democratic exercise, nearly 1 billion voters will be eligible to choose the 543 elected members of the House of the People, the lower house of the Parlament; two other seats are appointed by the president. The election will be held in seven phases until June 1, and votes will be counted on June 4.

India’s elections are staggered over several weeks to allow security forces to move around the country.

The polls pit Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its regional allies against a political alliance called INDIA, which has been forged by the main opposition Congress and more than two dozen regional parties. Surveys in recent weeks have forecast an easy victory for the BJP, as Modi continues to remain India’s most popular leader in decades.

Since sweeping to power a decade ago, he has consolidated his hold on the country with a focus on economic growth and an appeal to muscular Hindu nationalism.

Modi unveiled a grand temple dedicated to Hindu god Rama in January on a site where a mosque was destroyed three decades ago. The opening of the temple helped galvanize his base among Hindu voters ahead of elections.

The country has been in election mode for several weeks, with Modi and opposition leaders going around the country to connect with voters. At a series of public meetings he has held in recent weeks, Modi has reiterated his resolve to make India a developed nation by 2047 and unveiled massive infrastructure projects.

The opposition has flagged such concerns as unemployment and inflation, and it says much of India’s economic growth has benefitted big businesses and not improved the lot of the masses.

The Congress Party, the main challenger to the BJP, has been trounced in the last two elections but hopes to mount a more credible challenge to Modi by joining hands with regional parties.

The alliance formed to counter Modi is struggling to hold together.

One of its main allies has deserted it and joined hands with the BJP, while some parties have chosen to contest the polls on their own rather than nominate common candidates to fight the BJP.

“These elections are very consequential for India,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai. “If the opposition fares poorly and the BJP has a huge majority, then democracy as such will not be the same. Accountability and pressure on the ruling party will go away.”

The BJP is upbeat about its electoral prospects and has set a target of winning 370 seats on its own and upwards of 400 with its allies.

The polls are being held months after it won massive victories in the country’s Hindi-speaking heartland that plays a crucial role in shaping national poll results. It wrested control of two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, from the main opposition Congress Party while retaining power in another, Madhya Pradesh.

A day before the election announcement, Modi said in an open letter to Indians that “our partnership is at the threshold of completing a decade” and “I am confident we will continue to take our nation to great heights together.”

At a press conference to announce the election schedule, the Election Commission, which organizes the polls, outlined the mammoth scale of the exercise.

“The number of voters in India, 978 million, is more than the combined voters in some continents like Europe and Australia and countries like the United States,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said.

He said that more than 1 million voting booths will be set up throughout the country and that efforts will be made to ensure that voters in remote places can cast ballots.

“We will take democracy to every corner of the country,” Kumar said. “Our teams will walk the extra mile to reach every voter, whether they are in jungles, on snowy mountains. We will go on horseback, elephants, mules or helicopters. We will reach everywhere.”

In the country with the youngest population in the world, 18 million people will vote for the first time.

With improving voter turnout, officials said one of the goals of the commission is to organize voter awareness programs in areas that have had a low turnout in the past. The 2019 elections registered a record turnout of 67%.

As election disinformation emerges as a concern worldwide, the commission will also set up control rooms to spot fake content on social media.

your ad here

Uzbek Activist Faces Threat of Deportation From Kazakhstan

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — Uzbek law enforcement officials this month confirmed to VOA that an Uzbek extradition request was behind the February 15 arrest in Kazakhstan of Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratov, known as Aqylbek Muratbai on X and other social media.

Karakalpaks are indigenous Turkic people of Karakalpakstan, since 1993 a sovereign republic within Uzbekistan with its own parliament, national symbols and language. This status has been a source of friction with the Uzbek government because it often stirs discussions of secession.

Muratov, arrested in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, had been under Uzbek scrutiny since 2015. He is suspected of engaging in separatism and “destructive activism,” according to officials in Tashkent.

Karakalpakstan’s Internal Affairs Ministry indicted him late last year, accusing him of preparing and distributing materials that “threaten public safety and order.” Uzbek authorities say he has used social media to foment mass unrest in Karakalpakstan, but he denies the charges.

Uzbek officials told VOA that Muratov had been warned through the Uzbek Consulate in Almaty and by his father, but that he persisted in what Tashkent views as anti-government propaganda. Writing on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter, in October, Muratov described these messages as threats and vowed to “not stop my activities to disseminate information about repressions against ethnic Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan.”

Muratov is the sixth Karakalpak to be taken into custody in neighboring Kazakhstan at Uzbekistan’s request since protests in July 2022 against proposed constitutional amendments intended to strip the republic of its autonomous status and right to secede. At least 21 people were killed during the unrest in Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital.

None of the five previously arrested in Kazakhstan has been extradited, but they have not received refugee status, which would offer more international protection, including the opportunity to resettle in another country. Muratov, who lived in Kazakhstan for 13 years, is seeking that status.

As a result of the unrest, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev withdrew the proposed amendments that triggered mass discontent and pledged not to change Karakalpakstan’s status.

Sixty-four people were convicted for their roles in the violence. One defendant, former police officer Polat Shamshetov, died in prison in February 2023, shortly after receiving a six-year prison term. The longest sentence, 16 years, was given to the lawyer and blogger Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, whose case Muratov often highlighted.

Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan on edge

Muratov’s detention, days after a new Kazakh government was sworn in, has drawn attention to Kazakhstan and put Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan on edge.

Muratov’s sister, Fariza Narbekova, told VOA that he has been charged by Uzbek authorities for publishing video of Karakalpak activists’ speeches at an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in October and for urging Karakalpaks on his Telegram channel to switch off lights at home on November 13 for 16 minutes to mark the first anniversary of Tajimuratov’s 16-year imprisonment.

Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a February 26 statement that the charges “have no merit and should be dropped, and Kazakhstan should release him from custody immediately.”

“Kazakhstan is bound by international human rights law not to return Muratbai to Uzbekistan, where he faces serious risk of politically motivated persecution,” she said.

Human Rights Watch said human rights organizations had “documented numerous cases of torture and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention, of individuals accused of anti-state crimes in Uzbekistan in recent years.”

This is “a clear-cut case of retaliation” by Uzbek authorities against Muratov for exposing human rights violations in Karakalpakstan following the July 2022 protests, Rittmann said.

Karakalpaks feel discriminated against in their own homeland because migrants from other parts of Uzbekistan are given jobs and farmland there, Galym Ageleuov, an Almaty-based Kazakh rights activist, told VOA. 

The proposed constitutional amendments triggered an outpouring of discontent that had built up in Karakalpakstan for years, he said, citing local frustration that Tashkent brings workers from elsewhere to develop gas fields in the Aral Sea region instead of employing locals.

“What Kazakh authorities are doing to Karakalpak activists living in Kazakhstan by detaining them is an incompetent policy to suppress the diaspora and its activists who are standing up for rights, and it’s the continuation of Uzbek authorities’ suppression of human rights in Karakalpakstan,” said Ageleuov, who has researched the July 2022 events and monitored subsequent developments in Karakalpakstan.

“Person seeking asylum” status

In what is seen as a face-saving exercise, on February 23, Kazakh authorities granted Muratov “person seeking asylum” status for three months, preventing him from being handed over to Uzbekistan during that period, treatment similar to that of the five other Karakalpaks, who were released after a year in detention.

Muratov was instrumental in publicizing the detentions and court proceedings involving Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on social media.

“We fought for the rights of Karakalpakstan and Karakalpaks and activists, and ordinary Karakalpaks who were imprisoned after the July events rely on our help for their release,” cardiologist Raysa  Khudaybergenova, one of the five Karakalpaks detained in Kazakhstan, told VOA in an Almaty clinic where she works.

“They all want to get out of prison,” she said of the activists who remain in Uzbek prisons.

Like Muratov, Khudaybergenova is an Uzbek citizen and was not involved in political activism before the 2022 turmoil, focusing mostly on cultural, linguistic and health issues in Karakalpakstan.

Denis Zhivago, an Almaty-based human rights lawyer, told VOA that according to Kazakh law, “detention on extradition requests could last for a year, that’s why other Karakalpak activists spent a year in detention.”  Muratov’s lawyer, Inara Masanova, would not comment on the case because of its sensitivity.

“Akylbek is now likely to spend a year in detention, unfortunately,” Zhivago said.

“As in the previous five cases, I hope wisdom would triumph with Kazakh authorities and they will give the man a chance to avoid extradition and leave for a third country. There is a big chance that will happen, but we shouldn’t rule out any possibilities.”

In the past, Kazakhstan was notorious for handing over those without refugee status. It extradited about 30 Uzbek asylum seekers to Tashkent and at least one Uyghur to Beijing in the early 2010s. Last December, it extradited Russian security officer Mikhail Zhilin at Moscow’s request.

Zhivago said Uzbekistan keeps submitting extradition requests because it is “irritated” and wants to silence activists publicizing violations of rights in Karakalpakstan.

This has left Kazakhstan in a “complicated” situation because it is bound by agreements and friendly relations with Uzbekistan, he said.

“Our government, on the one hand, doesn’t want to spoil relations with Uzbekistan and, on the other hand, wants to provide Karakalpak activists with a chance of obtaining asylum,” Zhivago said. He noted Kazakhstan’s status as a signatory to the Geneva conventions against torture and on the status of refugees.

Navbahor Imamova reported for this article from Washington.

your ad here

Pakistan Urged to Release Journalist, Unblock Access to Social Media

Islamabad — Free speech advocates are urging Pakistan authorities Friday to unconditionally release an independent journalist and remove a month-long blockade of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Journalist Asad Ali Toor, who has nearly 300,000 followers on X and more than 160,000 subscribers to his YouTube political affairs channel, was arrested on February 26 by the Federal Investigation Agency, or FIA. 

He was accused of running a “malicious” and “anti-state” drive through his social media platforms against Pakistani government officials and state institutions.

Toor was frequently broadcasting commentaries critical of the chief justice of Pakistan and the country’s powerful military establishment before being arrested. 

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, demanded Friday that authorities immediately and unconditionally release Toor, return his devices, and stop harassing him in retaliation for his journalistic work.

“The ongoing detention and investigation of journalist Asad Ali Toor, as well as authorities’ seizure of his devices and pressure to disclose his sources, constitute an egregious violation of press freedom in Pakistan,” the CPJ statement quoted its Asia program coordinator Beh Lih Yi as saying.

She urged Pakistani authorities to stop using the country’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and other “draconian laws” to persecute journalists and silence critical reporting and commentary.

In a remand application filed in court on March 3, the FIA stated that Toor was “non-cooperative to disclose his sources of information,” even though local laws protect journalists’ right to privacy and non-disclosure of their sources.

Matiullah Jan, a well-known Pakistani journalist with 1 million X followers and more than 270,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, criticized Toor’s arrest, saying he is being denied the due process of law. 

Jan told VOA that instead of doing justice, the due process of law has been used to punish a journalist. 

“Arresting a journalist who is already cooperating in the inquiry, putting handcuffs on him and pushing him around to produce him in court, not allowing his family members to meet him. This is all abuse of the process of law against a journalist for reporting (critical) things,” Jan said. 

Toor is the second Pakistani journalist to have been arrested over the past month. In late February, authorities in the country’s most populous province of Punjab took a nationally known journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, into custody on alleged corruption charges. 

The jailed Khan denied any wrongdoing and told the judge during a recent court hearing that he was being punished for criticizing alleged state-sponsored rigging in the February 8 national elections. 

Pakistan’s elections were marred by allegations of widespread voter fraud to enable pro-military parties to win the elections, charges officials rejected.

X remains inaccessible 

Meanwhile, access to social media platform X remained restricted in Pakistan Friday, nearly a month after services were suspended amid the election rigging charges. 

Users in Pakistan, including government officials and ministers, bypass the ban through virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow users to hide their identities and locations online. 

Human rights defenders and even Pakistani lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties have criticized the restriction, saying it has placed Pakistan in a group of countries that have imposed long-term or permanent bans on international social media platforms.

A group of nearly 60 local and foreign civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and prominent individual activists, in a collective statement Wednesday, criticized internet service disruptions in Pakistan, saying they “infringe upon the fundamental rights” of access to information and freedom of expression.

The statement said, “The arbitrary blocking of platforms, including the prolonged and unannounced disruption of “X” since 17 February 2024, is a sobering illustration of growing digital censorship in the country.” 

It called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s newly elected coalition government to immediately issue a clarification outlining the reasons and legal basis for blocking X and other affected platforms.

Government officials have denied any disruption in internet services, saying they have “not seen any directive” to ban X. Independent monitor groups and Pakistani users have rejected the official claims.

“Metrics show that X has now been restricted in #Pakistan for three weeks; the popular microblogging platform has been largely unavailable since 17 February following a series of social media shutdowns targeting political opposition and an election day telecoms blackout,” NetBlocks, a global cybersecurity monitor, said on X on March 9. 

Authorities shut down mobile internet services across Pakistan on election day, citing terrorism threats to the voting process. The move, however, triggered domestic and international backlash and fueled vote-rigging allegations.

your ad here

Pakistan Seeks Fresh Lending as IMF Begins Reviewing Current Loan Program

ISLAMABAD — An International Monetary Fund delegation began a review of Pakistan’s current loan program Thursday as the cash-strapped country looks for additional funding to tackle its economic challenges.  

The four-day review will decide whether to release the final payment under a $3 billion IMF bailout package, which Islamabad secured last year to avert a sovereign debt default.  

An official Pakistani statement issued after the opening session said that Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Nathan Porter, the IMF mission chief in Pakistan, led their respective teams at the meeting.  

Aurangzeb was quoted as expressing his government’s commitment to work with the IMF “on the reform agenda for economic growth and stability” in Pakistan. 

The statement said without elaborating, “Discussions were held on the overall macro-economic indicators, government’s efforts on fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, energy sector viability, and SOE (state-owned enterprise) governance.”  

Pakistan has already received about $1.9 billion from the IMF under the 9-month stand-by arrangement (SBA), which will expire in April.  

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s newly elected coalition government said ahead of the talks that Islamabad was on track to receive the last SBA installment of about $1.1 billion. 

Pakistan’s Finance Ministry reported Wednesday that it “has met all structural benchmarks, qualitative performance criteria, and indicative targets for successfully completing the IMF review.”  

The ministry added that the appraisal was expected to produce a “staff-level agreement,” and the remaining payment would be disbursed after the IMF executive board approved it. 

A spokesperson for the Washington-headquartered global lender said in the run-up to Thursday’s talks that the focus of its mission would be on completing Pakistan’s “current SBA-supported program, which ends in April 2024.” 

Aurangzeb told reporters earlier this week that his government would use the opportunity during the review meetings to make a case for “a longer and larger” loan program under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility, or EFF. However, he did not state the size of the additional funding required by his country.  

The EFF provides financial assistance to countries facing serious medium-term balance of payments problems because of structural weaknesses that require time to address. 

Aurangzeb said that his government “would be very keen” to start discussions on the EFF with the IMF. The minister added that he would be traveling to Washington next month for further discussions on the subject at the IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings. 

Pakistan held national elections last month, returning Sharif to power for a second time amid widespread allegations of voter fraud and military interference. Analysts said that the controversy-marred election outcome had dampened hopes for much-needed political stability to address economic challenges facing the nuclear-armed South Asian nation. 

Despite securing more than 20 IMF loan programs, a lack of critical reforms dwindling foreign exchange reserves, a balance of payment crisis, rising inflation, record local currency depreciation, and persistent political turmoil over the past several years continue to cripple Pakistan’s debt-ridden economy.

your ad here

India, China Spar Over Modi Visit to Himalayan State

New Delhi — India has dismissed China’s objections to a recent visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims is its territory.

The spat is the latest flare-up in a four-year-long military standoff between the two countries’ that shows no signs of easing.

A day after Beijing lodged a diplomatic protest over Modi’s visit, India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said that Chinese objections do not “change the reality that Arunachal Pradesh was and will always be an integral part of India.”

Modi visited the Himalayan state on Saturday to inaugurate a two-lane tunnel built at an elevation of 4,000 meters. It will provide a year-round transportation link to the remote region and facilitate movement of soldiers and military equipment to the border state, where both countries have amassed troops. He also announced several other infrastructure projects that include development of roads and power generation.

New Delhi is also racing to complete several other infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges in the Himalayas as tensions with China persist along their 3,500-kilometer-long border.  

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Monday that Beijing “strongly deplores and firmly opposes” the Indian leader’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers to as Zangnan, and that “India has no right to arbitrarily develop the area of Zangnan in China.”

He said that “India’s relevant moves will only complicate the boundary question and disrupt the situation in the border areas between the two countries.”

India dismissed the Chinese protests. “Indian leaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other states of India. Objecting to such visits or India’s developmental projects does not stand to reason,” Jaiswal said.

China has objected to visits by Indian leaders to Arunachal Pradesh in the past, but tensions over the region have intensified in the past year. Last August, India lodged a protest with Beijing over reports that China released a new map showing the state as part of its territory. Last April, Beijing renamed 11 places in the state, including rivers and mountain peaks. 

Relations between the Asian giants plummeted to their lowest point in six decades after their troops clashed on the western side of their border in Ladakh in 2020, killing 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. 

Since then, each side has deployed tens of thousands of troops along their border, backed by fighter jets, artillery and tanks.

“This tension that we have seen for the last four years has not served either of us well,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a media conclave organized by the Indian Express newspaper on Monday.

“So, the sooner we resolve it, I genuinely believe it is good for both of us. I am still very much committed to finding a fair, reasonable outcome.”

Analysts say efforts by the two sides to de-escalate have largely failed. Although soldiers have pulled back from five friction points, the deployment along the border is still huge.

“Ties between India and China continue to be cold and despite 21 rounds of talks between their military commanders since the 2020 clash to discuss withdrawal of troops, there are no signs of a wider pullback,” according to Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.    

your ad here