Category: Asia

LUCKNOW, INDIA — Millions of Indians began celebrating the annual Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, by symbolically lighting a record 2.51 million earthen oil lamps at dusk on Wednesday on the banks of the Saryu River in a northern Indian city they believe to be the birthplace of the deity Lord Ram.

Diwali is the most important festival of the year in India — for the Hindu majority in particular. It is marked by socializing and exchanging gifts with loved ones. Many light earthen oil lamps and candles, and fireworks are set off. In the evening, a special prayer is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who is believed to bring luck and prosperity.

A Guinness World Records team presented a certificate to Uttar Pradesh state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, acknowledging the unprecedented number of oil lamps, exceeding last year’s 2.2 million. Drone cameras closely monitored the event.

The celebrations took place within the northern city of Ayodhya where Prime Minister Narendra Modi nine months ago opened a controversial Hindu temple built on the ruins of a historic mosque following a Supreme Court decision, seen as a political win for the populist leader. The establishment of the temple dedicated to Lord Ram fulfilled a long-standing demand by millions of Hindus.

On Wednesday, thousands of volunteers lit lamps, called “Diyas,” along riverbanks, lanes, fronts and roofs of homes.

“More than 30,000 volunteers, primarily college students, worked meticulously to maintain the systematic pattern of burning lamps for the prescribed time,” said Dr. Pratibha Goyal, vice chancellor of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, who coordinated the massive effort.

The earthen lamps lit along 55 riverfront steps of the river Saryu created a captivating display throughout 1.5 kilometers (1 mile). As the lamps remained lit for over five minutes, government spokesperson Shishir Singh said Ayodhya achieved its seventh consecutive world record for the largest display.

Singh said that around 91,000 liters of mustard oil were used to light the lamps.

The event transformed Ayodhya into a city of lights amid devotional bhajan singing. A laser show depicting scenes from the epic Ramayana added to the immersive experience, and an eco-friendly fireworks show lit the skyline. Traditional decorations, including elaborate arches and grand gateways along the main highways, were in abundance, capturing the festive atmosphere as folk cultural performances drew pilgrims to the streets.

The festival also featured a massive praying ceremony performed by 1,100 priests along riverbanks.

Security was tightened across the city. Paramilitary commandos, bomb detectors, dog squads, face-recognition technology and monitoring drones were deployed throughout the city, police officer Rajkaran Nayyar said.

Major Hindu festivals such as Dussehra and Diwali are associated with tales of Lord Ram extolling the virtues of truth, sacrifice and ethical governance.

Diwali’s main festival celebrations will be held across the country on Thursday.
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Religious political parties in Bangladesh have become active in national politics since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. VOA’s Sarah Zaman reports from the capital, Dhaka, on their impact. Videographer: Rubel Hassan
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ISLAMABAD — Taliban judicial officials said Tuesday that four people, including a woman, were publicly flogged in eastern Afghanistan for allegedly committing offenses such as “illicit relations” and “running away from home.”

The United Nations has condemned such punishment being increasingly inflicted on Afghans under Taliban rule.

The Supreme Court of the de facto radical Afghan rulers announced the latest punishments Tuesday, saying they were done in Nangarhar province after a local court sentenced the four “criminals” to 39 lashes each.

The Taliban’s top court reported earlier this week that five Afghans, including a woman, were flogged in public 39 times each in Parwan and Faryab provinces for committing acts that are considered crimes in Afghanistan, including adultery and homosexuality. It stated that the individuals were also sentenced to jail terms ranging from six months to one year.

Since regaining power in 2021, Taliban leaders have imposed a criminal justice system in line with their strict interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia, leading to the public flogging of hundreds of Afghan men and women. This has drawn persistent outrage and calls from the U.N. to halt the practice for being in breach of international laws and human rights.

Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has stated in his latest report, released Tuesday, that the use of corporal punishment by the Taliban amounts to “torture and other ill-treatment.”

Bennett documented an “alarming increase” in such punishment since the beginning of 2024. He quoted the Taliban’s Supreme Court as reporting that 276 Afghans, including 46 women, were publicly punished between January and August.

“While the vast majority reported in the 80 official announcements were for crimes such as theft and adultery, individuals were also punished for ‘crimes’ such as sodomy, homosexuality, running away from home, and aiding a woman’s escape from home — underscoring the specific risks faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other gender-diverse persons and cisgender women,” the U.N. envoy reported.

Bennet said that the Taliban publicly flogged 63 people, including 15 women, in a single day in June, saying each person was lashed 15 to 39 times.

He questioned the enforcement of the criminal justice system by the Taliban, saying that the situation is worsened by the absence of legal protections, including access to lawyers and denying other due process rights. “There are credible reports of courts in several provinces denying defendants, including children, access to their lawyers,” Bennett said.

The report also detailed an alarming rise in cases of sexual violence against Afghan women in Taliban custody.

The Taliban defend their policies, including restrictions on Afghan women’s access to employment and work, saying their governance is in line with the Sharia. They reject international criticism of the Taliban government as an interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.

No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of the war-torn, impoverished South Asian nation, citing human rights concerns and the treatment of Afghan women.
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ISLAMABAD — Officials in Pakistan’s violence-stricken Balochistan province said Tuesday that gunmen attacked workers at the site of a dam, killing five and wounding two others.

The deadly shooting occurred in the Panjgur district of the sparsely populated Pakistani province renowned for its abundant natural resources. Residents reported that the assailants fled the scene on motorcycles immediately after the attack.

A provincial government spokesperson, Shahid Rind, confirmed casualties, saying district authorities launched an investigation into the attack. The two injured men and bodies have been transferred to a local hospital, he said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the violence in Balochistan, where several separatist groups are active and routinely target Pakistani security forces as well as government installations.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Tuesday’s attack. “Those who attacked the personnel working on the dam are enemies of the development in Pakistan and Balochistan,” Sharif’s office in Islamabad quoted him as saying.

Earlier this month, heavily armed assailants stormed a coal mine in the impoverished province’s Duki district and killed 21 coal workers.

The Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, has been blamed for or claimed most of the recent attacks. The insurgent group, listed as a global terrorist organization by the United States, claims to be fighting for the province’s independence.

The BLA also took credit for a suicide car bombing in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in early October that officials said resulted in the deaths of two Chinese engineers and several local security personnel.

Separately, gunmen killed a police officer Tuesday in an attack targeting a health office in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where polio vaccination teams had gathered as part of an ongoing national immunization campaign.

The deadly shooting in the Orakzai district prompted authorities to suspend the anti-polio drive in the area. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but provincial authorities suspected Islamist insurgents could be behind it.

Militants active in the area have previously targeted polio teams and their police escorts, suspecting them of spying for the government.

The attack on polio workers comes as the number of active paralytic poliovirus cases in Pakistan surged drastically to 41 this year, up from only six in 2023.

Meanwhile, Russia’s embassy in Islamabad said on its social media platform X that it was “verifying reports about the alleged abduction of a Russian citizen” in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A report in The Moscow Times has identified the missing man as a tourist cyclist and a resident of the city of St. Petersburg. Pakistani officials have not commented on the reported abduction being claimed by militants loyal to the banned Pakistani Taliban outfit.

Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, both sit on the border with Afghanistan, have experienced almost daily militant attacks. The violence has killed more than 1,000 Pakistani civilians and security forces this year alone, according to the Islamabad-based independent Center for Research and Security Studies.
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NEW DELHI — A huge explosion of fireworks injured more than 150 people at a religious festival in a temple in southern India, a report said Tuesday.

The explosion occurred Monday night when a fireworks storage facility near Veerarkavu temple caught fire, the Press Trust of India reported, citing the police. It happened in Kasargod, which is nearly 580 kilometers (360 miles) northwest of Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala state capital,

The injured were treated at various hospitals in Kasargod, Kannur, and Mangaluru districts. Eight of them had serious injuries.

There is a huge demand in India for firecrackers, which are used in religious festivals and weddings. Fatal accidents occur nearly every year as people work in makeshift factories without proper safety measures.

An explosion at a fireworks factory in southern India July last year killed eight people. In 2018, a massive fire at a firecracker factory in New Delhi killed 17 workers. A year earlier, a blast killed 23 people while they were making firecrackers in a village in Madhya Pradesh state in central India.
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Ahead of the busiest annual travel season in India, more than 400 hoax bomb threats have triggered domestic and international travel chaos during the past two weeks, with Indian airlines grounding and diverting planes and incurring huge financial losses.

Some flights were escorted to safety by fighter jets as the unprecedented wave of bogus threats caused disruption to scores of flights and India’s air travel industry. The threats created panic among air passengers, authorities said.

Heightened security measures were enforced at most airports shortly after the first spate of threats surfaced in the second week of October. Investigating agencies quickly began probes to trace and determine the sources.

India’s junior civil aviation minister, Murlidhar Mohol, told local media that most of the hoax bomb threats originated from outside the country.

“Up to 80% of the threats this month came from abroad. Police in different states are investigating some threats that originated in India,” Mohol said on October 23.

On October 17, police in Mumbai arrested a 17-year-old boy for allegedly posting bomb threats to four flights on X, formerly Twitter. Police also questioned another minor as a suspect in the cases of the threats to airlines, it was reported.

On Saturday, a 25-year-old man was arrested in New Delhi for emailing hoax bomb threats to some Indian airlines and to Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Fresh threats, however, continued to arrive largely via emails and through anonymous social media accounts on platforms like X and Meta, authorities said.

On Sunday, fresh hoax bomb threats targeted at least 50 flights of Indian airlines.

On Monday, threats affected more than 60 flights across multiple Indian airlines.

Although Indian airlines like Air India, IndiGo, Spicejet and Vistara have been mostly targeted by the hoax threats, American Airlines and Air New Zealand have also received threats since the second week of October.

Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu deemed the burst of economic harassment and threats a “serious concern” even if the threats of violence seemed to be hoaxes.

“The safety and security of the people are the foremost aspect. … Those responsible for the threats would be identified and duly prosecuted,” Naidu said on October 21.

The Indian government was planning to introduce stricter legislative measures to tackle the growing trend of bomb threats, including a law to categorize such threat-making as a criminal offense with the accused facing prosecution and the offenders being placed on no-fly lists, Naidu said.

On Saturday, India sent a warning to social media platforms, including X, calling the spread of the threats “dangerously unrestrained.”

In a statement, Indian authorities warned the social media platforms of “consequential action as provided under any law” if they do not comply with the “prompt removal of misinformation.”

“The instances of malicious acts, in the form of hoax bomb threats to such airlines, lead to a potential threat to the public order and security of the state,” the statement said. “Such hoax bomb threats, while affecting a large number of citizens, also destabilizes the economic security of the country.”

Hoax bomb threats are not a new trend in India. In recent years, some airports and airlines have received similar bogus threats. But their frequency in the past two weeks has been unprecedented, leading to significant responses from authorities and investigators.

The police have managed to trace only three persons in India who are accused of sending around a dozen such threats over the past two weeks. Investigators are yet to determine who sent more than 96% of this month’s threats. The investigators reported that by tracking IP addresses some of the threats appeared to have originated from Germany and the United Kingdom.

Airlines, passengers suffer

India’s aviation industry has been massively impacted by the bomb threats. Following international protocols, the airlines had to act on every threat. Dozens of international flights originating from India were diverted and some made emergency landings in third countries such as Canada, Germany or Turkey.

Sanjay Lazar, an aviation professional and former Air India crew member, told VOA that protocol requires each bomb threat to be treated with the “utmost seriousness.” He says the threats lead to financial losses and substantial inconveniences for airline companies and passengers.

“An aircraft on the ground is evacuated and taken to a remote bay, then the bomb squad checks it, security sanitizes it, and it takes three to four hours for an entire process to be completed. This costs money, both in man hours wasted and additional man hours and costs spent in the checks and more importantly, in the reduced utilization of the aircraft,” said Lazar, the CEO of Avialaz Consultants, an aviation consultancy firm.

“It also brings about wastage of pilots and crew duty time limits, which entails fresh crew in case of long delays. It also costs airlines by way of passenger meals and, in some cases, hotel accommodation.”

Air India said that on October 15, its flight from New Delhi to Chicago with 211 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing in Iqaluit, a remote northern city in Canada, following a threat. A Canadian Air Force aircraft later transported the passengers to Chicago.

On October 20, Afghanistan refused permission for an emergency landing to a Frankfurt-bound Vistara flight after it received a bomb threat. The flight had to return to India.

In two separate incidents, around the middle of the month, authorities in the U.K. and Singapore had to send fighter jets to escort two Air India flights that had received bomb threats, authorities said.

The investigators said that the motive behind the threats had yet to be determined.

Lazar, the aviation expert, said the threats may be driven by a ‘’malicious intent’’ to invoke chaos and fear among persons traveling to and from India, and cause economic damage.

“The miscreants may want to create huge losses for airlines and inconveniences for the general public. Their actions would also show India in a poor light,” he said.

Lazar described the threats as “cyber terrorism,” and that the government needs to enforce laws “to the fullest” to punish the perpetrators.

“India should ensure that, like the U.S., hoax bomb threats are treated as a federal offense, are investigated the way FBI does and causes mandatory jail time for those involved,” he said.
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Islamabad — Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan simultaneously launched fresh vaccination campaigns against polio Monday amid a resurgence in cases in the only two countries globally where the virus continues to be endemic and paralyze children. 

The World Health Organization reported 64 polio infections this year: 41 from Pakistan and 23 from Afghanistan, up from six each in both countries in 2023.

Pakistani officials said the weeklong house-to-house nationwide campaign that was rolled out Monday enlists 400,000 polio workers, who aim to vaccinate over 45 million children under five against the paralytic disease.

“This is Pakistan’s third nationwide campaign this year, launched in response to the alarming increase in polio cases across 71 districts,” said Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s point-person for polio eradication.

More than half the infections in 2024 are located in southwestern Balochistan province, which sits on the Afghan border and is “facing an intense transmission” of the poliovirus. The southern province of Sindh has recorded 12 cases this year, while other regions in Pakistan, a country of more than 240 million, have reported the remaining cases, according to Pakistan’s polio eradication program.

Anwarul Haq, the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication, urged parents to cooperate with health teams in protecting their children against the crippling disease, stressing that there is no cure for polio. “With the threat at an all-time high, we must act as one nation to keep our children safe through vaccination,” he stated.   

Local and WHO officials attribute the resurgence of poliovirus in Pakistan to vaccine boycotts in rural areas stemming from the false propaganda that these initiatives are a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.

Additionally, anti-state militants in violence-hit districts bordering Afghanistan occasionally attack vaccinators and their police escorts, suspecting them of spying for the government. The violence has resulted in the deaths of dozens of polio workers and police personnel, including at least two vaccinators and seven police members killed this year.

Afghanistan 

Meanwhile, health officials in Taliban-led Afghanistan announced Monday the opening of a three-day polio-vaccination campaign, saying it aims to reach 6.2 million children under five in 16 of the country’s 34 provinces. The target areas are primarily located close to the border with Pakistan.

The latest round of this year’s anti-polio campaign in Afghanistan began after nearly a two-month delay because Taliban authorities abruptly halted house-to-house vaccine deliveries in the southern province of Kandahar without publicly stating any reason. Instead, de facto Afghan authorities stressed the need to conduct vaccinations for children from site to site and mosque to mosque.

In a report released last month, an independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative believed that the Taliban’s action had stemmed from their “administration’s concerns about covert surveillance activities.” The report quoted Taliban officials as explaining that their leadership is living in Kandahar and has concerns about their security.

Kandahar, regarded as the unofficial capital of Afghanistan under Taliban rule, is where the militant group’s reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, resides and governs the country through his decrees based on his strict interpretation of Islam.

The Taliban chief has banned most Afghan women from public and private sector workplaces and barred girls from receiving an education beyond the sixth grade.

WHO officials say eradicating polio in Afghanistan requires comprehensive integration of large migrant populations into the vaccination program. They say it is also crucial to reach out to groups that refuse vaccination and establish a female public health workforce dedicated to the polio initiative to tackle multiple challenges facing polio-eradication efforts in the impoverished country.
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Tbilisi, Georgia — The Georgian opposition has announced a major rally for Monday, urging followers to take to the streets to contest what they call a fraudulent election that handed victory to the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Speaking alongside opposition leaders at the presidential palace, President Salome Zourabichvili called the vote “totally falsified.”

The preliminary results, with 99% of precincts reporting, showed the ruling Georgian Dream leading with 53.9%. The Coalition for Changes had 11.3%, Unity-National Movement secured 9.83%, Strong Georgia gathered 10.1%, and Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party garnered 7.7%. Other minor parties took the remaining vote.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who is a member of Georgian Dream, on Sunday described his party’s victory as “impressive and obvious,” and said “any attempts to talk about election manipulation … are doomed to failure.”

Georgian Dream, now headed for a fourth term in office, will take 89 seats in parliament, one less than it secured in 2020, the commission said, with four pro-Western opposition parties receiving 61 seats in total.

However, the opposition claims the election was rigged. Western countries have expressed concerns, describing the results as a setback for Georgia’s democracy and a worrying shift toward Moscow.

“There is overwhelming evidence provided by international observers and local NGOs indicating that this election was neither free nor fair,” Elene Khoshtaria of the Coalition for Change, told VOA.

“Secondly, there is a stark contradiction between the international exit polls and the official election results. And thirdly, there is a clear rejection by the people, which will be evident at tomorrow’s demonstration, that we will not accept Russian-style, manipulated election results,” Khoshtaria added.

Tina Bokuchava, leader of the Unity-National Movement, told VOA, “We are not going to accept the results of these falsified elections.

“We believe the [voting] verification machines were used for duplicate voting, among other methods. Additionally, the environment leading up to the election was marred by intimidation, vote-buying, confiscation of IDs, and pressure tactics,” Bokuchava said. “These actions either prevented many people from voting altogether or forced them to vote under such intense pressure that it doesn’t truly reflect the free will of the people as it should be expressed at the ballot box.”

In a significant move, three of the four main opposition parties have declared they will not take their seats in parliament, refusing to legitimize what they describe as a stolen election.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, executive secretary of Georgian Dream, responded to the opposition’s decision to forgo parliamentary mandates, saying, “If they say they won’t enter parliament, then let them stay out. We will continue working for our homeland and prevent any sabotage of our country by agents.”

President Zourabichvili, standing beside leaders of the major opposition parties, except Gakharia’s For Georgia, said, “I do not recognize these elections. Acknowledging these results is akin to accepting Russia’s control over Georgia.”

“No one can take away Georgia’s European future,” she said.

The OSCE election watchdog, ODIHR, noted “numerous irregularities” and highlighted an election environment affected by the controversial “foreign agent” law adopted in June, which impacted freedoms.

“Contestants could generally campaign freely,” the OSCE said in its preliminary findings report, while also noting “reports of pressure on voters, particularly on public sector employees, remained widespread in the campaign.”

The ODIHR report further stated that the election “unfolded amid entrenched polarization in an environment marred by concerns over recently adopted legislation, its impact on fundamental freedoms and civil society.”

International response

The European Union voiced its concerns, with EU High Representative Josep Borrell urging Georgian authorities to investigate electoral irregularities.

“We urge the Georgian authorities to conduct a transparent investigation into all allegations of electoral irregularities,” Borrell said.

European Council President Charles Michel said the EU is planning to put Georgia on the agenda during its next meeting.

“These alleged irregularities must be seriously clarified and addressed. We reiterate the EU’s call to the Georgian leadership to demonstrate its firm commitment to the country’s EU path,” Michel added.

Georgia received candidate status of the EU last December.

Foreign Ministers of Germany, Norway, Latvia, Poland, France and Sweden also expressed concern over reported intimidation and manipulation, calling for steps to restore trust in the electoral process and uphold democratic principles.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement praised Georgia’s “vibrant democracy.” However, regarding Saturday’s vote, “international and local observers noted a pre-election environment marked by the ruling party’s misuse of public resources, vote buying, and voter intimidation, all of which contributed to an uneven playing field and undermined public and international trust in the possibility of a fair outcome,” he said.

“While international and local observers agreed that Election Day was generally well administered, we note reports of irregularities and sporadic violence. International observers have not declared the result to be free and fair. We condemn all contraventions of international norms and join calls from international and local observers for a full investigation of all reports of election-related violations,” Blinken said.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded to Zourabichvili’s statement on her Telegram channel, saying, “As long as countries and nations think independently and do not unquestioningly follow the orders of their Washington curators, they have a future.”

The election took place amid an atmosphere many described as tense and filled with fear.

Led by Russian-backed businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream has created a powerful electoral machine that relies on state resources and budget incentives to secure votes, observers say. The party’s core supporters include “budget voters,” public sector workers and social assistance recipients, especially in rural areas where employment options are limited. The party relies on these voters, many of whom fear the loss of a job or benefits if the party loses.

The campaign strategy of Georgian Dream was centered around the theme of stability versus conflict, portraying the opposition and their Western supporters as part of a “global war party.” This narrative played into the deep-seated fear of war among Georgians — a country that has endured conflicts with Russia multiple times, most recently in 2008.

The opposition, meanwhile, asserted that a vote for the ruling party, was a vote for Russia.

“The fear of war played a significant role,” Lasha Bakradze from Unity-National Movement told VOA. “Georgian Dream effectively instilled the language of hatred and fear. Unfortunately, we thought avoiding this narrative was the right approach, as it seemed absurd that anyone in Georgia would want war, but it turned out to be a miscalculation.”
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Polls closed in Uzbekistan’s parliamentary election Sunday that featured no real opposition to the Central Asian country’s strongman president, despite a recent overhaul of the electoral system and years of reform that have included economic liberalization and easing censorship.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev retains a tight grip on power in the country of 37 million. Since taking office in 2016, he has enjoyed broad support for a slew of political and economic reforms that relaxed the repressive policies of his predecessor, longtime dictatorial leader Ismail Karimov.

Over 71% of voters had cast their ballots by 5 p.m. (1200 GMT), election authorities said, well above the 33% needed for the vote to be valid. Preliminary results are expected on Monday and the final ones within 10 days.

Mirziyoyev has released some political prisoners, allowed the emergence of some independent news media and bloggers, and eased the tight controls on Islam that Karimov imposed to counter dissident views.

But reform appeared to stall last year, following a constitutional referendum in April that reset presidential term limits and could pave the way for Mirziyoyev to stay in office until 2037. Parliament rarely opposes laws drafted by Mirziyoyev’s Cabinet, while rights groups say thousands of people in Uzbekistan remain imprisoned on false charges.

Mirziyoyev’s government in 2022 claimed to have eliminated what rights groups said had amounted to systemic forced labor, but some concerns have remained.

Under changes introduced last year, Uzbekistan switched to a mixed election system, with half of its 150 lawmakers elected from party lists and the other half elected individually. The new rules also stipulate that 40% of those running for parliament must be women.

However, all candidates running in Sunday’s vote have been nominated by the country’s five registered parties. There are differences in focus among the parties, some of which stress issues such as the business climate or environmental protection, but none of them oppose Mirziyoyev.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials reported Saturday that a suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint in a volatile region near the border with Afghanistan, killing at least eight people and injuring several others.

The attack occurred in the town of Mir Ali in Pakistan’s militancy-hit North Waziristan district. At least two soldiers, four police officers and two civilians were said to be among the dead.

Multiple area security officials confirmed the casualties, reporting that the bomber detonated a motorbike rickshaw filled with explosives at the checkpoint.

The explosion also injured five security personnel, with local hospital sources describing the condition of some of them as “critical.”

Militants allied with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, reportedly claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing. It came a day after fierce clashes with militants in districts surrounding North Waziristan killed at least 16 Pakistani security force members and injured many others.

Pakistani officials have reported a dramatic surge in TTP-led gun attacks and suicide bombings in the country, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border province, where North Waziristan is located.

The violence has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Pakistanis, half of them security forces, in the first 10 months of this year, according to independent research reports.

Islamabad says TTP operates out of sanctuaries in Afghanistan and has intensified cross-border attacks since the Islamist Taliban regained power in the neighboring country.

The Taliban government in Kabul has persistently denied allegations that the TTP or any other transnational militant groups are present on Afghan soil.

TTP, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United Nations and the United States.

The group sheltered leaders of the Afghan Taliban in Pakistani border areas and joined them in staging years of insurgent attacks on U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan until those departed in August 2021.
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New Delhi, India — India’s enormous garment sector churns out billions of dollars’ worth of new clothes each year, but some local fashion lovers are switching to secondhand to assuage worries about the industry’s environmental impact.  

It is a tiny drop in a massive ocean, but hipster shoppers in the capital New Delhi say their example is slowly shifting the throwaway attitudes rampant among India’s middle class.  

New Delhi is dotted with markets offering secondhand clothes, a thrifty alternative for those on low wages — or making an ethical choice.  

“It’s an environmentally conscious decision,” said Yuvika Choudhary, a 21-year-old student shopping for vintage clothes.  

There is rarely an effective system for recycling clothing in India, with waste overflowing in towering landfills.  

Kriti Tula, 36, used repurposed fabric to found the fashion brand Doodlage in 2012.  

When she started, she was worried about telling shoppers her products were made from waste.   

But a decade later she said there was a greater awareness of the importance of sustainability.  

“It’s important to circulate things that are already existing,” Tula said. “The only way to circulate them is to think of ways to rent, to thrift and to repair.”  

India is the world’s fifth biggest garment exporter, with the trade worth $15 billion in 2023, according to the World Trade Organization.  

The industry employs 45 million people, according to the government-backed Invest India agency, nearly the same as the population of Spain. 

‘Consumption’ 

Some in India turned to thrift shopping after being restricted at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and finding online stores promoted on social media.  

Neha Butt, 33, first ran her secondhand clothes business on Instagram before opening a physical store in the capital New Delhi in 2022.  

She said her Huckleberry Hangers store would have been unthinkable before the “help of Instagram and because of climate awareness.”   

The market is microscopic compared to the industrial production of new garments, but shoppers say it is more about the message that it sends — and changing attitudes has to start somewhere.  

Swati Sambyal, an expert in the circular economy, warned that effective resource management required tackling the mass generation of textiles in the first place.  

“When it comes to textile waste as an issue, we also have to address both generation as well as consumption patterns,” she said.  

Sambyal said some brands were shifting to using natural textiles, including ones made from banana and pineapple fibers, in a bid to reduce their environmental impact.  

But in the end, she said, nothing will change unless the consumer changes too.  

“It depends entirely on the consumer,” she said. “It’s at their will and decision.”
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Georgians headed to the polls Saturday in a ballot many citizens see as a make-or-break vote on the opportunity to join the European Union.

The pre-election campaign in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people has been dominated by foreign policy and marked by a bitter fight for votes and allegations of a smear campaign. Some Georgians complained of intimidation and being pressured to vote for the ruling party, Georgian Dream, while the opposition accused the party of carrying out a “hybrid war” against its citizens. 

Ahead of the parliamentary election, Bidzina Ivanishvili — a shadowy billionaire who set up Georgian Dream and made his fortune in Russia — vowed again to ban opposition parties should his party win. 

Georgian Dream will hold opposition parties “fully accountable under the full force of the law” for “war crimes” committed against the people of Georgia, Ivanishvili said at a pro-government rally in the capital Tbilisi Wednesday. He did not explain what crimes he believes the opposition has committed. 

Georgians will elect 150 lawmakers from 18 parties. If no party wins the 76 seats required to form a government for a four-year term, the president will invite the largest party to form a coalition.

Many believe the election may be the most crucial vote of their lifetimes; it will determine whether Georgia gets back on track to EU membership or embraces authoritarianism and falls into Russia’s orbit. 

“It’s an existential election,” Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said.

Georgians want “European integration, want to move forward and want policies which will bring us a better, more stable, future,” Qristine Tordia, 29, told The Associated Press shortly after voting in the capital, Tbilisi.

Around 80% of Georgians favor joining the EU according to polls and the country’s constitution obliges its leaders to pursue membership in that bloc and NATO.

But Brussels put Georgia’s bid for entry to the EU on hold indefinitely after the ruling party passed a “Russian law” cracking down on freedom of speech in June. Many Georgians fear the party is dragging the country towards authoritarianism and killing off hopes it could join the EU.

The opposition parties have ignored Zourabichvili’s request to unite into a single party but have signed up to her “charter” to carry out the reforms required by the EU to join. 

Zourabichvili told the AP on Thursday she believed most Georgians would mobilize to vote “despite some instances of intimidation, despite the use of state resources … and the use of financial resources” by the government.

Georgian Dream took out billboards across the country contrasting black-and-white images of destruction in Ukraine with colorful images of life in Georgia alongside the slogan, “Say no to war — choose peace.”

The governing and opposition parties told voters they would pursue EU membership even though laws passed by Georgian Dream have put that hope on hold.

“The EU decided to stop Georgia’s integration process unilaterally,” said Vakhtang Asanidze, who spoke to AP at a pro-government rally in Tbilisi. He said he saw no reason why Georgia could not join the EU in spite of the laws. 

At the EU summit last week, EU leaders said they have “serious concerns regarding the course of action taken by the Georgian government.”

While Georgian Dream has adopted laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on its critics, voters at the pro-government rally said they did not view the election as a choice between Russia or Europe.

“We remember everything about Russia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” said Latavra Dashniani at the rally, referring to Russia’s occupation of 20% of Georgian territory after the two countries fought a short war in 2008. 

Voting for the ruling party, she said, would ensure Georgia enters Europe “with dignity,” alluding to its conservative values, including opposition to rights for LGBTQ+ people.

Polls opened in the parliamentary election at 8 a.m. local time and will close 12 hours later. 

Georgian Dream stands against three coalitions: the Unity National Movement, the Coalition for Changes Lelo, and Strong Georgia.

The Gakharia for Georgia party, set up by former prime minister Giorgi Gakharia, said it will not go into an alliance with anyone but will support the opposition to form a government. 
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islamabad, pakistan — The party of Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may soon begin street agitation against the interim government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, according to a party leader.

“We are planning to demonstrate and start our political activities,” Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, organizing secretary of the Awami League, told VOA on Friday.

Chowdhury is among dozens of Awami League leaders who fled Bangladesh after a student-led mass uprising toppled Hasina’s regime in August. The iron-fisted leader was serving her fourth consecutive term when she was forced to resign on August 5 and flee to India in a military helicopter.

Since the fall of the regime, dozens of party leaders have been arrested, many in connection with the violent crackdown on protesters that killed hundreds across the country between July and August. Thousands of Awami League workers and supporters have gone underground, fearing mob attacks.

On Wednesday, the interim government banned the Awami League’s student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, declaring it a terrorist organization.

Earlier this month, the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants for Hasina and 45 others linked with the ousted regime.

Speaking to VOA over the phone, Chowdhury said the party is working to unite its ranks and is reaching out to other like-minded political forces to launch protests against the interim government.

“After two weeks or one month, we can move,” the Awami League leader said when asked how soon his party was planning to take to the streets.

Major political parties in Bangladesh back the interim government agenda to reform institutions that they say the Awami League destroyed through massive political interference in the past 15 years.

However, political parties are also publicly pushing the Yunus government to ensure a swift return to democracy. One of the country’s biggest political parties is dissatisfied with the progress so far.

“This government is going a bit slow,” said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

“The election commission, they have resigned. But they [the interim government] have not formed the new election commission,” Alamgir told VOA at his residence in Dhaka earlier this month.

Ten commissions, comprising civil society activists, retired officials and academics, are tasked with proposing reforms in key areas including the judiciary, police, constitution, electoral system, mass media and labor rights.

Six of the commissions announced in September must submit their proposals by December 31. However, reviewing those proposals, seeking political consensus for them and implementing them may take several months.

Alamgir, whose party has called out the interim government for embarking on reforms without a timetable, worries a delay in elections will prolong the political vacuum in the country, giving the rival Awami League the opportunity to regain lost political space.

“The fallen fascist Awami League, they have their support [base]. They are a very big, old political party, so they have support here. They will also get time to consolidate and create problems here,” veteran politician Alamgir told VOA.

Bangladesh’s election law requires the government to form a search committee that selects members for the election commission. The interim government recently announced it would follow the existing law but has not given a date for the formation of such a committee.

“Please try to understand that we are not a political force, and for the first time, we are working in a group,” said Asif Nazrul, Bangladesh’s chief law adviser, defending the interim government’s slow progress.

“We don’t have the necessary experience. We have commitment, we have a hardworking attitude, we have integrity,” Nazrul told VOA late last month at his official residence in Dhaka.

One of the major handicaps of the interim government, analysts said, is that it lacks a supportive security and administrative system because much of what is in place is from the last 15 years of Hasina’s rule.

“The government is operating without having full control of the law enforcement and bureaucracy,” political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman said.

To rid the system of the remnants of the Awami League, the interim government has been transferring and reassigning police officers and bureaucrats in and out of the capital, Dhaka.

To chart a course for Bangladesh and calm political nerves, Yunus’ team has been ramping up engagement with political parties. The Awami League so far has been shut out of the consultations.

“They should be given the political space. They should be given the right to do politics. They should also be given [a chance] to participate in elections in future. That’s what I agree.” said Rahman, who is also a member of the electoral reform commission.

But Rahman warned that bringing the Awami League to the table anytime soon could cause a backlash.

“Calling Awami League for [discussing] reforms, I think, will have some severe reaction in the society.”

The Awami League is not interested in sitting down with the interim government either, Chowdhury said.

“This [interim] government is totally unconstitutional,” he said. “If we protest them, demonstrate all over the country, this [interim] government will be no more.”
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BERLIN, Germany — Close to 200 countries are scheduled to negotiate a new climate finance target for the Global South at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November.  

Dubbed the “Finance COP,” next month’s conference is expected to see focused discussions on a New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, or NCQG. It defines a new target for monetary support from historic emitters – mostly countries in the Global North – to address climate needs in poorer countries.    

Surging climate needs  

In 2009, countries including the United States and the European Union agreed to contribute $100 billion collectively each year by 2020, but an OECD report showed that they struggled to meet that goal over the years. Worse still, much of the climate finance came in the form of loans, which critics say have piled more pressure on developing countries already drowning in debt.    

The new negotiations come after a spate of extreme weather conditions intensified by human-caused climate change. July, for instance, witnessed the three hottest days ever recorded. Scientists said in an article on BioScience that as fossil fuel emissions reached an all-time high, the Earth is on track for 2.7 degrees Celsius warming by 2100, far above the 1.5 degrees Celsius target established in the 2015 Paris Agreement.   

To combat the burgeoning crisis, developing countries will now need more than $100 billion a year, with estimates ranging up to $6 trillion by 2030. Even that does not sufficiently cover measures to adapt to already inevitable climate change, according to a 2021 U.N. report. 

Conference host Azerbaijan in July launched the Climate Finance Action Fund with an initial goal of raising $1 billion from fossil-fuel producing countries and companies. 

Nations are likely to reach a compromise at the lower end of a NCQG goal, according to Irene Monasterolo, professor of climate finance at the Utrecht University. 

“These results of the negotiations may not be able to address the current need for climate finance in low-income countries, which are massively affected already now by climate risk,” Monasterolo told VOA. “The focus so far has been mostly on mitigation [reducing emissions] projects and measures, while adaptation investments are lagging behind.”   

Adaptation finance   

While adaptation finance has gone up over the years, mitigation still accounts for the majority of current climate finance, the OECD report revealed. Monasterolo said the scale of adaptation finance ultimately depends on mitigation efforts.    

“We don’t see bold plans for mitigation that would be needed to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius target, including the Global North. We have instead some issues of policy reversal and some major economies and polluting countries like the U.S. stepping back and in Europe,” she added.    

“The science is clear. To limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, we need to drop production, extraction, use of fossil fuels and related carbon activities and focus on renewables, and low-carbon activities should go up. But that’s not happening. In the latest geopolitical crisis, we increased our dependency on fossil fuels.”  

The wars in the Middle East and Russia have put energy security at risk, according to the International Energy Agency. While a record high level of clean energy came online last year, emissions from the energy sector also broke records.    

Another reason for low adaptation finance, Monasterolo said, is the complexity of assessing climate risks. “We need to work on how to integrate forward-looking climate risk into investors and financial authorities’ models. Market-based approaches based on past data are a poor proxy of what could happen in the near future with ongoing climate change.”   

Loss and damage fund   

At COP28 in Dubai last year, countries agreed to set up a voluntary fund for historic emitters to pay for the damage caused by climate disasters in vulnerable developing countries. Western countries also called for large emitters like China to contribute. Negotiators are expected to continue the discussion at COP29.    

For now, it remains unclear whether the loss and damage fund will be included in the new NCQG, according to Karoliina Hurri, researcher at the Center on Climate Politics and Security at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. 

The fund “is defined as voluntary, so it’s not based on the same categorization of developed and developing countries. … Some developed countries argue that the loss and damage fund is not part of the mandate and should be negotiated separately from this.”  

Looming NDCs   

As countries are slated to declare new and more ambitious national green goals by February 2025, COP29 is expected to be a big push.   

“I am afraid we won’t see ambitious enough NDCs [national determined contributions], but I think this is really important at this COP, especially the discussion of how to ensure the [recommended] outcomes of last year’s Global Stocktake, and the discussion about transitioning away from fossil fuels,” Hurri explained. 

Hurri said many countries said they would lead by example to announce goals aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming goal. “But at the same time, nations can decide for themselves what the alignment means. This clarifies how difficult it is to reach the NDC.”   

At COP28, countries signed a historic deal to start transitioning away from polluting fossil fuels. Hurri said, however, it remains to be seen how the phases translate into actions. “Do we see, for example, schedules of roadmaps on how this process is planned on the national level?”   

Pivotal US election   

The U.S. election results could have a large impact on the implementation of potential negotiation results, including cooperation measures with the world’s biggest emitting nation, China, according to Hurri. 

“I have not seen very detailed climate policy arguments from either of the candidates, although we know that they have very different views on climate change. … We know what happened last time during President [Donald] Trump’s term that the U.S. decreased financial contribution for climate,” she said.    

COP29 will also mark the first cooperation talks between the new envoys from the United States and China — John Podesta and Liu Zhenmin. They had a working group meeting in Beijing in early September, in which they agreed to host a summit on methane and non-carbon greenhouse gases during the climate conference.   

“While the U.S. election might not influence the cooperation at this year’s COP, the election outcome can have an influence on the credibility of their cooperation in the long term on a high level,” Hurri said.   
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A spate of targeted killings of nonlocals in Indian-administered Kashmir worries migrant workers, who find themselves torn between the need to earn a livelihood and the fear of being killed. VOA Correspondent Muheet Ul Islam has more from Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir. Videographer: Wasim Nabi
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Islamabad — Pakistani authorities said Friday that clashes with militants killed at least 14 security force officers and injured several others in a northwestern province bordering Afghanistan.

The violence took place in the militancy-affected Khyber, Bannu, and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, frequently ambushes military and police personnel and stages attacks against their outposts.

Local security officials in Khyber said a gunfight between TTP assailants and security forces erupted Friday, resulting in the deaths of at least two personnel and injuries to three others. They also reported the killing of at least two militants.

Separately, militants ambushed a police vehicle in Bannu, killing a senior police officer and his guard.

The Bannu attack came just hours after authorities in nearby Dera Ismail Khan reported that at least 10 security force members were killed when heavily armed militants stormed their outpost late on Thursday, according to multiple security officials.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attacks in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, paying tribute to the “martyred” security personnel, his office said in Islamabad. It did not specify the number of fatalities from these attacks, nor did it mention the deadly clash in Khyber.

TTP, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed it carried out the raid in Dera Ismail Khan in retaliation for the recent killing of one of its senior commanders, identified as Ustad Qureshi, by Pakistani security forces.

The Pakistani military reported on Thursday that Qureshi was one of nine TTP members, including two suicide bombers, killed this week in an intelligence-driven operation in the Bajaur district next to the Afghan border.

Pakistani officials allege that TTP operates out of sanctuaries in Afghanistan with the support of the neighboring country’s Islamist Taliban leaders.

Islamabad has reported a dramatic surge in TTP-led insurgent attacks in Pakistan since the Taliban regained power in Kabul three years ago. The violence has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Pakistanis, half of them security forces, across the country in the first 10 months of this year alone.

The Afghan Taliban deny allegations that the TTP or any other transnational militant groups are present on their territory, a claim disputed by recent United Nations security assessments and regional countries.

“We urge for more visible and verifiable measures in Afghanistan to ensure that the territory of Afghanistan is not used by terrorists,” stated a joint declaration after the BRICS summit hosted by Russia this week.
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