A court in Pakistan barred authorities Monday from arresting former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is facing terrorism charges after being accused of threatening police and judicial officers in a weekend speech. 

Defense lawyer Babar Awan told reporters in Islamabad that the capital’s high court granted Khan pre-arrest bail until Thursday to allow him to meet procedural requirements before taking up his petition against the charges. 

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party has denounced the terrorism charges as an illegal and politically motivated move by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government to silence the opposition, fueling political tensions in the country of about 220 million people. 

The former prime minister has staged massive anti-government rallies across Pakistan, drawing tens of thousands of people since his ouster from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April to pressure Sharif into calling fresh elections to let the people determine his fate. 

The controversial terrorism charges stemmed from Khan’s speech at a big rally in the Pakistani capital Saturday, where he vowed to bring lawsuits against senior police officers and a female judge for their roles in the alleged torture of his detained close aide, Shahbaz Gill.  

“We will not spare you,” Khan said at the rally. “We will sue you.” 

Government officials defended the charges, arguing that “the purpose of the speech was to spread terror amongst the police and the judiciary and prevent them from doing their duty.”  

Khan, 70, could face several years in prison if convicted under Pakistan’s anti-terror law. But PTI leaders and supporters have warned they would march on Islamabad if their party chief is arrested.  

“If Imran Khan is arrested … we will take over Islamabad,” tweeted Ali Amin Gandapur, who was a minister in Khan’s ousted government.  

Addressing a televised seminar in Islamabad on Monday, Khan criticized the terrorism charges, saying it was his legal right to approach the higher judiciary to seek justice for Gill, who he said was abducted and subsequently tortured in police custody. 

“I had called to take legal action against them [police officers and the female judge],” Khan told the televised event. “All these things show that we don’t have rule of law in Pakistan.” 

The former leader noted that he has 16 cases against him, in addition to the latest terrorism case, since his ouster from office.  

Shortly after Khan’s speech on Saturday, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) ordered television channels not to broadcast live his future speeches. The regulatory authority did, however, allow pre-recorded speeches by Khan but alleged he was “leveling baseless allegations and spreading hate speech.” 

Gill was arrested on sedition charges two weeks ago for allegedly making anti-military comments on Pakistan’s most watched ARY News television channel, which was subsequently removed from the air by the government.  

The military has ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its 75-year history through coups against democratically elected governments, and criticism of the powerful institution is considered a red line. 

Gill, 42, was admitted to a government hospital in the capital last week after his health deteriorated in police custody. The assistant professor of business administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is Khan’s chief of staff. Khan and his party alleged that Gill had also been sexually abused.  

Gill told the court Monday that he has been stripped several times and tortured since he was taken into custody on August 9. The judge gave him a “judicial remand” for two more days, which allows police to investigate him further before filing formal charges.   

Khan lamented that instead of investigating Gill’s complaint, the court extended his police custody. Officials at the University of Illinois expressed concern about Gill’s poor health. 

“Shahbaz Gill is a U.S. permanent resident who has been a member of our faculty for more than a decade. … We care deeply about his health and well-being, and we abhor violence and abuse of any kind,” the university said in a statement posted online. “We call on the government of Pakistan and the international community to ensure that Dr. Gill be treated in accordance with international human rights law.”  

Pakistani officials have rejected allegations of torture against Khan’s detained aide. 

“I can confirm with full responsibility as the interior minister that no torture was inflicted on Gill while in police custody,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said. 

Pakistan introduced anti-terrorism laws in the 1990s to deter sectarian and religiously motivated extremist violence in the country. But successive governments have used the legislation in cases against political opponents and critics to deter dissent.  

The Sharif government has also filed terrorism charges against several journalists for reporting in favor of Khan, briefly detaining some of them and forcing a couple of popular political talk show hosts to flee Pakistan. 

On Sunday, Khan addressed a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to Islamabad, but internet providers and cable operators blocked his speech. Global internet monitoring organization NetBlocks confirmed that YouTube service in Pakistan was also disrupted as livestreams of the speech began to appear on the platform.  

Khan demands that Sharif, who led the no-confidence vote against him, step down and dismiss the new government as an illegal entity. The deposed Pakistani leader continues to allege that his ouster stemmed from a conspiracy plotted by the United States, charges that Washington rejects. 

Khan’s PTI swept last month’s by-elections in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, and it also won a key by-election in the largest city, Karachi, on Sunday, underscoring his resurgent popularity. 

The deteriorating political turmoil in Pakistan could undermine efforts by the Sharif administration to address critical economic challenges and secure a much-awaited $1.2 billion installment from the International Monetary Fund, which is due to consider the loan at a board meeting later this month. 

 
…

Pakistan has banned live broadcasts of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speeches and booked him on terrorism charges in what critics swiftly denounced as “repressive policies.”

Khan, 70, has regularly addressed large anti-government rallies of his opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party since his ouster from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April.

Hours after he spoke at a massive rally Saturday in the capital, Islamabad, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) ordered television channels in the country not to show Khan’s future live speeches. However, it allowed airing of only pre-recorded speeches by Khan.

PERMA asserted in its statement that the opposition leader was “leveling baseless allegations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and officers.”

The statement came in response to Khan’s resolve on Saturday that he would bring lawsuits against senior police officers and a female judge for their role in the alleged torture of his detained close aide, Shahbaz Gill.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Sunday rejected accusations Gill was tortured. “I can confirm with full responsibly as the interior minister that no torture was inflicted on Gill while in police custody,” he told a news conference in Islamabad.  

Khan addressed another big rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjacent to Islamabad, to reiterate his criticism. But the speech was not broadcast live and Pakistani authorities allegedly also blocked YouTube service to disrupt the speech.

“The fascist Imported govt sunk to a new low today by banning live coverage of my speeches on TV & then blocking YouTube temporarily during my speech at Liaquat Bagh. All this after continuous intimidation of mediapersons & taking channels off air earlier,” Khan tweeted after the rally.

“This is not only a gross violation of freedom of speech but also negatively affects the digital media industry and the livelihoods of many,” he tweeted.

The government did not respond to the allegations it was behind disruption of the YouTube service.

NetBlocks, a London-based organization tracking internet outages, confirmed the disruption of YouTube on multiple internet providers in Pakistan Sunday, saying it came as Khan made a live broadcast to the public.

“NetBlocks recommends against the use of network disruptions and social media restrictions to counter protests, given their disproportionate impact to fundamental rights including freedom of expression and freedom assembly,” the watchdog cautioned.

Terrorism charge

On Sunday, the federal police booked Khan under anti-terrorism law, accusing him of “terrorizing and threatening” police officers as well as the female judge in his speech the previous day.  

PTI leaders and thousands of Khan’s supporters rushed to his residence on the outskirts of Islamabad late Sunday in a bid to resist any attempt by police to arrest him, fueling political tensions in the country. Supporters in other cities also took to the streets to protest against the possible arrest of Khan.

Gill was arrested on sedition charges August 10 for allegedly making anti-military comments on a TV channel that was subsequently suspended by the government. He was admitted to a government hospital in the capital this week after his health deteriorated in police custody. 

The military has ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its 75-year history through coups against democratically elected governments, and criticism of the powerful institution is considered a red line. 

Michael Kugelman, a senior program associate for South Asia at Washington’s Wilson Center, told VOA, Khan’s troubles stemmed from his “vitriolic and nasty” comments. “But the government’s apparent hope of silencing him will only fire up his ever-growing rank and file and rabid supporters.”    

Kugelman said the Sharif government should be wary that such tactics would make Khan stronger rather than weakening him. 

“Its dysfunctional and repressive policies play to his strengths as a populist and enable him to channel public outrage to his advantage. The numbers in those huge crowds don’t lie,” Kugelman said.

Khan’s PTI won the 2018 elections, promising to rid the country of entrenched corruption and cronyism. But rising inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and Pakistan’s deeply rooted economic problems kept his ousted government under sustained opposition criticism.

The former prime minister remains the most popular leader, especially among Pakistani youth, and his rallies prompt television channels to suspend routine programs to show Khan’s speeches in their bid to draw top ratings.
…

Heavy flooding from seasonal rains in eastern Afghanistan and neighboring parts of Pakistan left dozens of people dead overnight, according to local officials Sunday.

The Associated Press video showed villagers in the Khushi district of Logar province south of the Afghan capital of Kabul cleaning up after the flooding, their damaged homes in disarray.

Abdullah Mufaker, head of the province’s natural disaster response authority, said it was still unknown how many were killed and injured by the rising waters but that there were at least nine fatalities.

“The exact number is not clear for the time being, and the people have gone to remove the dead bodies,” he said.

Del Agha, a village elder, said the flooding was unprecedented in the history of Khushi. “It destroyed all the people’s animals, houses and agricultural lands,” he said. “People are homeless, they have been forced to take refuge in the mountains.”

In neighboring Pakistan, flooding triggered by the monsoon rains killed at least 36 people, including 11 dead in areas bordering Afghanistan, according to the country’s natural disaster management authority. Rescue workers backed by the military have evacuated thousands of marooned people to safety, while more rains are expected this week in Pakistan.

The monsoon season runs from July through September.

Last week, heavy rains set off flash floods that killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing in northern Afghanistan.
…

At least 40 people have died and others are missing in flash floods triggered by intense monsoon rains in northern India over the past three days, officials said Sunday.

The rains inundated hundreds of villages, swept away mud houses, flooded roads and destroyed bridges in some parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states. The Indian Meteorological Department predicted that heavy to very heavy rain would continue to fall in the region for the next two days.

An official government release Sunday said landslides and flooding in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh over the last three days killed at least 36 people. Hundreds were taking shelter in relief camps after being displaced from their flooded homes.

In the neighboring state of Uttarakhand, a series of cloudbursts Saturday left four dead and 13 went missing as rivers breached banks and washed away some houses.

Rescue teams were evacuating the stranded in both states.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan north during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.

Last year, flash floods killed nearly 200 people and washed away houses in Uttarakhand.
…

The Indian government has revoked a plan to give free residential housing to Rohingya Muslim refugees in New Delhi following protests by the right-wing Hindu organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad [VHP], which called the refugee community “infiltrators.”  

India’s Housing and Urban Affairs minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, said Wednesday the government would address the problem of housing of Rohingya refugees — signaling a potential change in the government’s policy toward the ethnic refugee community from Myanmar.  

Fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar, thousands of Rohingyas have entered India over the decades. The refugees do menial jobs for a living and live in decrepit shack colonies in many parts of the country.  

“In a landmark decision,” India has decided to allot flats to “Rohingya refugees” in the Bakkarwala area of Delhi, where they will be provided with basic amenities and police protection, Puri, a leader and minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party- [BJP] led federal government, said in his tweet.

For decades, India has identified Rohingyas as “illegal immigrants,” not as refugees. But in his tweet, Puri called the Rohingyas in India “refugees,” surprising many.  

The government revoked its decision hours after Puri tweeted Wednesday, with India’s Home Ministry denying on Twitter that it had issued any order to provide flats to the “Rohingya illegal foreigners.”  

In another tweet, the Home Ministry said the Rohingya would be held in a detention center until they were deported to Myanmar. The section of the ministry that deals with the refugees refused to comment on the issue when asked by VOA why the government backtracked on the decision to provide housing to the Rohingyas.  

Some local media reported the government made a U-turn on the decision because of protests from the VHP.  Alok Kumar, the central working president of the VHP, said his organization was surprised by Puri’s statement.  

“It is also shocking to find that Mr. Puri identified the Rohingyas as ‘refugees.’ The government of India consistently maintained that they are not refugees, but infiltrators,” Kumar said.  

“The VHP urges the government of India to reconsider this issue and instead of providing the Rohingyas with housing, make arrangements to send them back and out of India.”  

In social media, many right wing Hindu and BJP activists called the Rohingyas “terrorists” and said that they should not be treated as refugees. Saurabh Bhardwaj, the spokesperson of BJP’s rival Aam Aadmi Party, said in a tweet that the “people of Delhi will not allow” Rohingyas to settle down in the city.

It was estimated there were about 18,000 Rohingyas in India, and some 1,100 live in Delhi.

Since the Narendra Modi-led Hindu nationalist BJP formed the federal government in 2014, anti-Rohingya sentiment has been sweeping across India, with many Hindu groups demanding their expulsion from the country.  

Following pressure from the Hindu groups, the BJP-led Indian government subsequently ordered every state to identify and detain all Rohingya Muslim refugees and deport them to Myanmar.  

Pro-Hindutva groups accused Rohingya refugees of being associated with terrorism and other criminal activities.  

New Delhi-based Supreme Court lawyer Tanveer Ahmed Mir said the charge that the Rohingya refugees are involved in terrorism in India is “baseless.”  

“No government law enforcement agency has found any Rohingya being involved in subversive or terrorism-related activities. There is no UAPA case in which any Rohingya has been booked,” Mir told VOA, referring to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, which is frequently used to book people for terrorism-related activities.

Fear of deportation

Currently, about 1,000 Rohingya are imprisoned in different parts of the country after being charged with illegal entry into India. A few dozen of them also have been deported to Myanmar in the past four years.  

Wednesday’s announcement by the Home Ministry about the plan to deport more Rohingyas to Myanmar has triggered a new panic among the refugees. Rohingyas had long been aware of India’s unwelcoming policy toward the community, and so the housing minister’s tweets about providing flats came as a surprise to them, said Delhi-based Rohingya activist Ali Johar.

“However, many of us were also aware that the government was in a plan to concentrate all of us into detention facilities for a long time. If that’s what is going to happen, it will be a nightmare for an already vulnerable genocide-survivor people. All Rohingyas are living in fear of detention and deportation,” Johar told VOA.  

The Indian government “absolutely must stop arresting, detaining, and forcibly returning” Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, where they face serious rights abuses at the hands of the military junta, Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, told VOA.  

“The Myanmar military has committed crimes against humanity and acts of genocide in Rakhine state, so it is inconceivable that any government would agree to put Rohingya refugees back into their hands. If India proceeds with the deportations, they will have on their hands the blood of any Rohingya sent back,” Robertson said.  

“The global community must demand that India end these rights violating refoulements of refugees, and instead permit UNHCR to have full access to protect all Rohingya asylum seekers and refugees in India.”
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban say they are in talks with Russia to import 1 million metric tons of petroleum products, possibly in exchange for raisins, raw material for medicines and minerals.

A Taliban delegation currently is in Moscow holding meetings with Russian officials and private businesses to boost mutual trade ties and encourage investment in the war-torn South Asian nation.

Russian officials said the visitors were also discussing import of other essential products, including wheat and sunflower.

Taliban Minister of Industry and Trade Nuriddin Azizi, the head of the delegation, was quoted by Russian media Friday as saying that Kabul requires more than 4 million tons of oil and some of it is already being imported from neighboring countries.

“Since Russia is a friendly country to us, we have come here to reach an agreement on the import of Russian oil and other petroleum products. We plan to import about one million tons of gasoline and diesel fuel,” Azizi told RIA Novosti.

The Taliban sealed a deal last month with neighboring Iran to purchase 350,000 metric tons of oil.

The minister said his government would like to conclude the deal as soon as possible.

“Our priority is to import these Russian goods on a barter basis,” Azizi said, noting that the countries have “historical experience in mutual barter trading.”

If the barter plan does not work, he added, then Afghanistan can use financial transactions to secure the supplies from Russia.

Azizi also said the United States and European Union have not imposed sanctions on Afghanistan in terms of importing raw materials. “Afghanistan can pay for these goods with money.”

When asked whether his government would allow Russian investments in Afghanistan’s mineral deposits, including lithium, Azizi said the Taliban “can provide Russia with some of our minerals in exchange for imports” of energy resources. “We have a very good and high-quality lithium.”

The Taliban minister said without elaborating that Kabul was already supplying raw materials to factories in China and can supply raw materials to Russia.

China advocates engagement

Beijing has also stepped up engagement with the Taliban since the Islamist group seized power from a Western-backed Afghan government a year ago, when all U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after 20 years of war with the then-insurgent group.

China — along with Russia, Turkey, neighboring Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries — has kept its embassy open after the Taliban takeover, which prompted Western nations to relocate their diplomatic missions to Qatar.

The Chinese government has since delivered urgent humanitarian aid and tried to help the cash-strapped government in Kabul deal with economic upheavals. It has also urged Washington to release around $7 billion in frozen Afghan foreign reserves, which Kabul’s central bank deposited in the New York Federal Reserve Bank at the time of the Taliban takeover.

China and several other nations, along with nearly 80 family members of 9/11 victims, have criticized the Biden administration’s decision to withhold the funds as immoral. The Biden administration says it’s working on how to make half of the funds available to the Afghan people but that effort apparently suffered a setback after the discovery that al-Qaida’s leader had been taking refuge in Kabul, apparently with knowledge of the Taliban government.

State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the administration is seeking alternative ways to direct the money to help Afghans amid a growing hunger crisis.

“We’re looking at mechanisms that could be put in place to see to it that these $3.5 billion in preserved assets make their way efficiently and effectively to the people of Afghanistan in a way that doesn’t make them ripe for diversion to terrorist groups or elsewhere,” said Price. The remainder of the $7 billion has been set aside to settle pending lawsuits in the United States.

China’s special envoy for Afghan Affairs, Yue Xiaoyong, during a visit this week to the turmoil-hit neighboring country, noted that “stability is gaining ground” in Afghanistan. He told Chinese official CGTN broadcasters on Thursday that it was “necessary” to engage with the Taliban and speed up “practical cooperation” with Afghanistan.

“Any true help for Afghan people can hardly be materialized if one bypasses the Afghan authority,” Yue stressed in comments to CGTN.

The Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights to work, education and political participation have kept the international community from recognizing their government and dealing directly with them.

“While many have paid extensive attention to inclusive government structure, women’s rights and education of middle-school girls in Afghanistan, it is important to know that dealing with these issues is not incompatible with economic reconstruction,” the Chinese envoy said. “They are mutually reinforcing.”

Yue did not mention that the Taliban’s reversal of advances for women and girls’ rights appears to be increasing.

China has also recently announced it would not charge tariffs on 98% of goods imported from Afghanistan in a bid to boost bilateral trade ties and help the Taliban repair the country’s sanctions-hit economy.

“We have also imported signature products such as pine nuts, saffron, almonds, figs and raisins, and have been implementing our promise of one billion yuan’s aid ($147 million) for humanitarian and development purposes to relieve the Afghan people’s difficulties,” Yue said.

Yue reiterated Beijing’s call for the Taliban to fulfil their promise on countering terrorism by taking “visible, tangible and verifiable measures.”

Chinese engagement with the Islamist rulers is primarily aimed at encouraging them to prevent fugitive members of the outlawed East Turkistan Islamic Movement from using Afghan soil for attacks against China. The insurgents say they are fighting for the rights of Uyghur Muslims in western Xinjiang province, which borders Afghanistan.

Neighboring Pakistan has also dramatically increased coal imports from Afghanistan and Central Asian countries via Afghan territory, which helps the Taliban generate much needed revenue to govern the country.

Pakistan imported 70% of its thermal coal from South Africa to run its cement, steel and Chinese-built power plants, but Islamabad is currently facing a payment crisis due to rising international prices and dwindling foreign cash reserves.

This has prompted Pakistani authorities to boost imports of coal from Afghanistan. Officials in Pakistan say the Afghan coal is comparatively cheap — about 40% of the international market value — and less time-consuming to acquire.
…

Some newly arrived Afghans in Germany are complaining they feel forgotten as Ukrainian refugees enter the country. VOA’s Helay Asad has the story, narrated by Roshan Noorzai.
…

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Thursday that the death toll from an overnight bomb blast inside a mosque in Kabul had risen to at least 21.

Khalid Zadran, a police spokesman in the Afghan capital, told VOA that at least 33 worshipers also were wounded.

Witnesses and police said the powerful blast ripped through the Siddiquiya Mosque in the city’s northern Kher Khanna neighborhood during evening prayers on Wednesday.

Prayer leader Amir Mohammad Kabuli, a renowned Afghan scholar and preacher of Sufi Islam, was said to be among the dead.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) called on the Taliban authorities to take concrete steps to prevent all forms of terrorism in the country and bring those behind such attacks to justice.

“We deplore yesterday’s attack in a Kabul Mosque, the latest in a disturbing series of bombings which have killed & injured more than 250 people in recent weeks, the highest monthly number of civilian casualties over the last year,” UNAMA said on Twitter Thursday.

The Italian-run Emergency7 charity hospital in Kabul said in a statement that of the 27 victims brought to the facility from the blast site, two were dead and a third patient died in the emergency room. It said five children, including a 7-year-old, were among the injured.

The ruling Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, condemned the deadly attack, saying the “perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and will be punished.”

No one immediately took responsibly for the attack. Suspicions fell on the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, however, which condemns Muslims practicing Sufism as polytheists.

The Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group, has stepped up attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power a year ago. The terror outfit has carried out bomb attacks against Taliban fighters and civilians, particularly minority Afghan Shiite Muslims that it denounces as apostates.

Last week, an Islamic State group suicide bomber killed a prominent and highly respected Taliban scholar inside his Islamic seminary, or madrasa, in Kabul.

The Taliban repeatedly have claimed to have degraded ISIS-K in military operations. Critics question those claims, though, in the wake of recent high-profile attacks in Kabul and deadly bombings elsewhere in Afghanistan.
…

The release of 11 convicts who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for gang rape and murder in India has triggered a chorus of protest, while the victim of the rape has urged the government to reverse its decision, saying it has shaken her faith in justice. 

The attack on Bilkis Bano and her family was one of the most heinous that took place during deadly communal riots that wracked the western state of Gujarat two decades ago. Bano, who was five-months pregnant at that time, was brutally gang-raped. Seven other family members including her 3-year-old daughter were killed. 

The 11 men walked out of jail in Gujarat’s Godhra town on Monday after the state government approved their application for remission of sentence. Their release coincided with India’s Independence Day celebrations. 

Bano, a Muslim woman now in her 40s, urged the Gujarat government to reconsider the decision and give back her “right to live without fear and in peace.” The state is governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. 

“When I heard that 11 convicted men who devastated my family and life had walked free, I was bereft of words. I am still numb,” she said in a statement late Wednesday. 

“How can justice for any woman end like this? I trusted the highest courts in our land. I trusted the system, and I was learning slowly to live with my trauma. The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice” she said. “Please undo the harm.” 

Bano said authorities had not approached her before taking the “big and unjust decision.”

Bano’s gang rape and the killings of her family members had highlighted the horrific violence that swept through Gujarat after 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a fire on a passenger train in the town of Godhra in 2002. Blaming Muslims for the blaze, Hindu mobs attacked Muslims. 

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the rioting, which took place when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the state. Critics had accused him of not doing enough to stop the violence, but in 2013 the Supreme Court said that there was insufficient evidence against him. 

Efforts by Bano to obtain justice were not easy — there were attempts to destroy evidence and the trial of the accused men had to be shifted outside Gujarat to Mumbai to allow her to testify safely. 

It is not just the release of the 11 convicts that has caused outrage — it is also the welcome they received outside jail. 

Videos on social media that have gone viral showed relatives giving them sweets and garlands and touching their feet — a custom that is a mark of respect. 

A senior official in Gujarat, Raj Kumar, told The Indian Express newspaper that the convicts were granted remission because they had completed 14 years in prison and that a panel formed to consider their appeal for release had taken into account factors such as their age and behavior in prison. 

Several senior lawyers, however, told Indian television that the release went against federal guidelines that rape and murder convicts cannot be granted remission and must remain in prison for life. 

Activists have slammed the decision, calling it discriminatory against India’s minority Muslims, who critics say have been marginalized under the BJP rule. 

“This is nothing but a message to minority communities, the lower castes and the marginalized that majoritarianism is in play in the country,” Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women told VOA. “Seeing rapists and murderers walk free is a huge setback to efforts to secure justice for women.” 

Opposition politicians and female activists said that their release flew in the face of the government’s policy to deal stringently with violence against women. Dozens of women held a protest against the release in New Delhi. 

In a tweet, the head of the opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, asked “what is the message going out to the women of the country, from those speaking of women empowerment.” That was a reference to Modi’s Independence Day speech, in which the Indian leader called on the country to empower women and not do anything to lower their dignity. 

“The entire country is seeing the difference between your words and deeds,” Gandhi said. 
…

Taliban authorities and hospital sources in Afghanistan said Wednesday that a powerful bomb blast ripped through a packed mosque in the capital, Kabul, during evening prayers, causing dozens of casualties.

Khalid Zadran, a city police spokesman, told VOA that “there are casualties and fatalities” but he would not give further details. Intelligence teams and investigators had arrived at the blast site and investigations were underway, he added.

Multiple sources reported that at least 20 worshippers were killed and many more were wounded in what reportedly was a suicide blast. Maulvi Amir Mohammad Kabuli, a renowned Afghan scholar and preacher of Sufi Islam, was said to be among the dead.

An eyewitness and police officers were quoted as confirming to The Associated Press the deaths of at least 10 people, including Kabuli. Taliban officials did not comment on the casualties.

The Italy-run EMERGENCY charity hospital in Kabul said in a statement that of the 27 victims brought to the facility from the blast site, two were dead and a third patient died in the emergency room. It said five children, including a 7-year-old child, were among the injured.

The ruling group’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, condemned the deadly attack, saying the “perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and will be punished.”

No one immediately took responsibility for the attack on the Siddiquiya Mosque in Kabul’s northern Kher Khanna neighborhood.

Suspicions fell on the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, however, which condemns Muslims practicing Sufism as polytheists.

The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State, has stepped up attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power a year ago. The terror outfit has carried out bomb attacks against Taliban fighters and civilians, particularly minority Afghan Shiite Muslims whom ISIS-K denounces as apostates.

Last week, an Islamic State suicide bomber killed a prominent and highly respected Taliban scholar inside his Islamic seminary, or madrasa, in Kabul.

The Taliban repeatedly have claimed they degraded ISIS-K in military operations. Critics question those claims, though, in the wake of recent high-profile attacks in Kabul and deadly bombings elsewhere in Afghanistan.
…

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights called Wednesday for the Bangladesh government to establish “an impartial, independent and transparent investigation” into allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killing and torture.

At a press conference concluding her four-day visit to Bangladesh, Michelle Bachelet also urged the South Asian nation’s government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

“Bangladesh is party to all the core U.N. human rights treaties, except for it,” she said, adding that there are “continued, alarming allegations of both short-term and long-term enforced disappearances, and concerns about the lack of due process and judicial safeguards.”

Bachelet said inviting the U.N. Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to visit Bangladesh would “show a commitment to decisively address this issue.”

The U.N. rights chief came to Bangladesh on Sunday and has met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, several other ministers, civil society, rights activists and the families of alleged victims of rights violations.

She also visited the Rohingya refugee camps in the southern district of Cox’s Bazar and met Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in the face of persecution and killings by the Myanmar military, which the U.N. says were conducted with “genocidal intent.”

On Wednesday, she appeared at a press conference in a Dhaka hotel to discuss her findings.

Probe of rights violations 

Bachelet told journalists that she raised her deep concern about the serious allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture with government ministers.

She called on ministers to establish a “more specialized mechanism that works closely with victims, families and civil society to investigate allegations of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings,” given the “long-standing frustrations at the lack of progress in investigations and other obstacles to justice.”

On Monday, several Bangladeshi rights activists urged Bachelet to impress upon the government the need for an independent commission to investigate extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

When asked her opinion about such a commission, she said different countries have different mechanisms to deal with human rights violations.

“Some commissions can be judicial whereas some can be independent. There is no one-size-fits-all solution,” she said, adding that for such a commission to be successful it would be to have a “clear mandate, resources, independence and power to do the job.”

“My office is ready to provide advice on how such a body could be designed in line with international standards,” she added.

Civic, political capacity

Bachelet told journalists that successive U.N. human rights reports have documented “a narrowing of civic space, increased surveillance, intimidation and reprisals often leading to self-censorship” in Bangladesh.

“When you want to be graduated from the status of Least Developed Countries, it’s not just about improving your GDP. It’s also about strengthening the capacity of your civic institutions,” she said in reply to a question.

For Bangladesh to aim for the next level of development, Bachelet said, it is essential to ensure a “democratic and civic space, as well as effective checks and balances and accountability.”

Referring to a national election scheduled for next year, she said it would be an important time for Bangladesh to maximize the civic and political space, including freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly of political activists, human rights defenders, opposition parties and journalists.

“It is also important to ensure that law enforcement forces have the necessary training to manage protests without resorting to the excessive use of force,” she said.

Bachelet was asked about Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act, which the Sheikh Hasina government passed in 2018 and has used to jail politicians, journalists and others.

Bachelet said she recognized a need to “regulate the online space, addressing online hate speech, disinformation and combating cybercrime.” But she said her office had submitted recommendations to the Bangladesh government “for repeal and revision of certain provisions of the act, with a view to ensuring their compliance with international human rights laws and standards and preventing arbitrary application or misuse.”

Hopes for Rohingya?

Bachelet welcomed the Bangladesh government’s “impressive effort” in hosting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar in 2017. “The importance of Bangladesh’s humanitarian contribution — and its historical significance — cannot be overstated,” she said.

But she expressed worries about increasing anti-Rohingya rhetoric in Bangladesh and the stereotyping and scapegoating of Rohingyas as the source of crime and other problems.

“I call on the government and all Bangladeshis to be vigilant against such harmful rhetoric, to actively counter misinformation with facts, and to foster understanding with the host communities,” she said.

She also called on the government to expand “education and livelihood opportunities” to the children in the camps.

“I was heartened to see young girls and boys at learning centers [who] attended lively maths and Burmese classes taught by community members,” she said. But while the younger children were energized and spoke of their aspirations for their future, she said, the older Rohingya children expressed their frustration at a lack of education facilities.

“Expanding education and livelihood opportunities” for these older Rohingya girls and boys “will be the best way to prevent social problems and criminality and to fully prepare refugees for sustainable reintegration in Myanmar society,” she said.

Bachelet said the current situation in Myanmar is not right for the repatriation of Rohingyas. “Repatriation must always be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, only when safe and sustainable conditions exist in Myanmar,” she said.
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban said Wednesday that their security forces killed a fugitive rebel commander in a shootout near the Iranian border.

The Defense Ministry identified the slain man as Mawlawi Mehdi, who hailed from the country’s minority Shiite Hazara community and joined the Sunni-based Taliban before they seized power last year from the then-internationally backed Afghan government.

The ministry referred to Mehdi as the “leader of the rebels” in Balkhab, a coal mines-rich district in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol, saying he had fled to nearby mountains along with some of his fighters after revolting against the Taliban government.

The statement said the rebel commander was intercepted and shot dead in the western Afghan border province of Herat.

“[Mehdi] was attempting to escape to Iran when intelligence and security forces targeted him in the border area between Herat and Iran, and punished him for his actions,” the ministry wrote on Twitter without elaborating.

Mehdi’s supporters did not immediately comment on his killing.

The ethnic Hazara commander was appointed as the intelligence chief for neighboring Bamiyan province after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

The Taliban fired Mehdi in April for reasons not made public. He returned to his native Balkhab and organized an armed rebellion.

The Taliban sent several delegations to negotiate a peaceful settlement, but he refused, prompting them to launch a clearance operation in the district in June. The military action forced the rebels to flee to nearby mountains.

The minority Hazara community is largely based in central and northern provinces and sees itself as a politically persecuted religious group in Afghanistan.
…

In the past year, there has seen a dramatic transformation in the way customers pay for their purchases in Banuri, a village in the Himachal Pradesh state of North India. Whether at a small grocery store or a street cart, instead of handing over cash, they use a simple system that involves scanning a code on a smartphone to make an online payment.

“Even if someone buys only half a kilogram of vegetables, he can pay digitally. We do the smallest of transactions,” said Nishant Sharma, a vegetable vendor in Banuri as he hands over a cauliflower to a customer that costs 75 cents. “It is much easier than handling cash.”

In recent years, a government initiative called “Digital India” has helped millions plug into new digital technologies as internet access expands to distant areas. One of them is a payments system that is transforming the way retail business is transacted in vast rural areas and small towns, where more than two thirds of India’s 1.4 billion people live.

Much like glitzy city stores, street vendors to small shops are making the switch to digital payments. But instead of credit or debit cards, they use India’s Unified Payment Interface popularly known as UPI. It is a payment system that involves no merchant fees and can be used for the smallest of transactions to make instant transfers across bank accounts. It was developed under the initiative of India’s Central Bank.

“It is the ease of the technology and overall reduction in transaction cost that has made this system popular. It takes place with the click of a button, it is cost-effective, and easy to manage,” said economist N.R. Bhanumurthy, Vice Chancellor at D.R. Ambedkar School of Economics University in Bengaluru. “It is certainly a huge transformation from what we did in the past and has changed the way we do business.”

Its expansion has also been helped by a massive push in recent years to bring more people into the banking system. More than 80% of adults now have bank accounts, compared to just one-third of adults some years ago. Affordable smartphones that cost as little as $50 are in the hands of about 750 million people. The COVID-19 pandemic, when cash transactions were discouraged, also prompted many to switch to digital payments.

“The Digital India Movement can bring about revolutionary changes in India and the lives of the common man,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an Independence Day address on Monday. According to the Indian leader, 40% of the real-time digital transactions made in the world now take place in India.

Whether in big towns, cities, or small villages, India’s retail sector is dominated by millions of small stores and shops, who for decades only did business in cash.

The speed and scale with which they are embracing the new payment system is evident in Banuri village. The owner of a chemist shop, Akhilesh Sharma, said about 70% of his customers pay online. It has eased his life.

“Whenever I open PhonePe or Google Pay app, all the transactions are done in my business account,” said Sharma. “In cash, I have to count the money at the end of the day, and it is a little long process. Then I have to go to bank and deposit the cash.”

Economists say digital payments boost business by facilitating transactions. Small town and village residents, especially younger customers, are also discovering the benefits of going cashless.

“I don’t have to worry about carrying money,” said Vikas Sharma, a resident of Palampur. “Earlier when I went to a crowded place, I worried about getting my wallet stolen. Now all I need is my phone.”

Digital transactions are just one of the benefits that the internet has brought people living in outlying areas. For older people such as a retired government employee, Romesh Dogra, the biggest benefit is connecting via video calls with his three daughters who live outside his district.

“I get energized daily when I talk to my grandchildren,” said Dogra, a retired official. “I can watch them growing up. Life has become good.”

There are still gaps to plug in — internet speeds can pose a challenge, especially in villages and small towns. And while the numbers of people with access to the internet have doubled to nearly 700 million in the last five years, millions are still not connected. But with rapid progress, it may not take long for India’s digital footprint to expand.
…

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told the visiting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet that there are no cases of enforced disappearances or extrajudicial killings in the country.

Bachelet arrived in Bangladesh on Sunday for a five-day visit to discuss a range of human rights issues with the government, civil society and others.

The U.N. said in a tweet that Bachelet would make a statement on Wednesday at the end of her visit.

After senior ministers met with Bachelet on Sunday, Momen said in a news briefing that Bachelet had been told that during the regime of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, no one became a victim of an enforced disappearance or an enforced killing in the country.

Rights activists and families of the victims said the government’s claim of no extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances was not true.

“There is legally acceptable evidence of hundreds of such cases in Bangladesh,” Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of the Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Center, told VOA. “What the ministers told the U.N. human rights chief in this issue of serious human rights abuse is a downright lie.”

‘No extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance’

In the past decade, several reports from global human rights organizations alleged that the police, army, the elite paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion and other security agencies in Bangladesh were involved in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

According to the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, between 2009 and June 2022, at least 2,658 people were killed extrajudicially and at least 619 became victims of enforced disappearances.

In December 2021, the United States imposed human rights-related sanctions on the RAB and six of its former and current officers, saying they were responsible for hundreds of the enforced disappearances and killings.

“We told [Bachelet] that there is no case of enforced disappearance in our country,” Momen told the local media on Monday. “Some people said 76 people had disappeared by the government in Bangladesh in the past 10 years. Actually, we traced 10 of them. The government was unable to trace the others because their families were not cooperating with the police.”

Momen added that the ministers told Bachelet that no case of extrajudicial killings took place in Bangladesh in the past 13 years.

“Extrajudicial killings took place in Bangladesh between 2002 and 2005 [when Hasina’s arch-rival Khaleda Zia was the prime minister of Bangladesh]. But since 2008, there is no report of such killings in the country, we told her,” Momen said.

Hasina has been the prime minister of Bangladesh for three terms, after winning the national elections in 2008.

Opposition activists, dissidents targeted

The families of the victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, opposition political parties, and rights activists have criticized the Hasina-led government, saying it was attempting to hide the truth.

“Enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, torture in custody and other human rights abuses are going on in the country for year,” Afroza Islam Ankhi, a co-founder of Mayer Daak, which represents the families of the victims of enforced appearances, told VOA. “Among those who were abducted or picked up by security agencies, some were found killed, their bodies riddled with bullets. Some remain missing.”

Ankhi’s brother, Sajedul Islam Shuman, a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — the largest opposition party in the country — disappeared after he was allegedly abducted by RAB in 2013.

“In front of many witnesses, they abducted my brother and five others from Dhaka. ‘RAB-1’ was embossed on the van that they used during the operation. Some of the men were in the regular uniform of RAB and carried guns. He remains missing since. The media then reported the case, quoting witnesses,” she said. “The ministers are denying the truth and making insensible comments.”

BNP leader AKM Wahiduzzaman said most of the victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh are political activists and dissidents opposing the Hasina-led government’s views.

“Rights group-collated figures show that the incidents of extrajudicial killings tripled in the last two national election years — in 2014 and 2018 — under the Hasina-led government. This proves that the government is using law enforcers to eliminate the entire opposition in Bangladesh,” Wahiduzzaman said.

“To cling on to power, Sheikh Hasina is pursuing a policy which is too dangerous for a democracy.”

Secret detention cells

Ashrafuzzaman told VOA that in the past at U.N. sessions, the ministers of the Hasina-led government consecutively lied about the issue.

“They followed the same policy this time, too, and provided untrue information to Bachelet. … Fearing fatal reprisals from the security agencies, most of the enforced disappearance victims who return alive are too scared to speak out,” Ashrafuzzaman said. “From the few who dared to reach out to the rights groups, we knew the stories of how the security agencies abduct people and torture them in secret detention cells.”

Angelita Baeyens, vice president of international advocacy and litigation at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, said the several hundred cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh have been well documented and denounced by local and international civil society and experts.

“The total denial of the problem by the government further confirms the level of tolerance and involvement of the Bangladeshi authorities in it,” Baeyens said. “Further, it signals a complete lack of will to change course, which is extremely concerning and shouldn’t go unnoticed by the international community.”
…

Gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire on police officers escorting a team of polio workers Tuesday in northwestern Pakistan, killing two policemen, authorities said. 

None of the polio workers were harmed, said Mohammad Imran, a local police official. The four polio workers and their police escort were all traveling on motorcycles. 

The assailants fled the scene, and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the town of Gomal, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. 

The attack came on the second day of Pakistan’s latest anti-polio campaign in the province. Pakistan has registered 14 new polio cases since April, all from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 

The outbreak has been a blow to the Islamic nation’s efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children. 

Pakistan’s anti-polio campaigns are regularly marked by violence as Islamic militants often target polio teams and police protecting them, falsely claiming that the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic. In 2021, Pakistan reported only one case, raising hopes it was close to eradicating polio. 

 
…

Since evacuating tens of thousands of Afghan allies following the U.S. withdrawal from the country a year ago, the State Department has been tasked with determining how to provide humanitarian aid to Afghans living under the Taliban during a serious food shortage. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine provides an update.
…

Assailants on Tuesday killed a local Hindu man and injured his brother in a shooting that police blamed on militants fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir.

Police said militants fired at two brothers belonging to minority community of Kashmiri Hindus inside an apple orchard in southern Shopian district.

The two were taken to a hospital with critical gunshot wounds where one died, police said in a statement.

Reinforcement of soldiers and police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to find the attackers.

Kashmir has witnessed a spate of targeted killings in recent months. Several Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, have been killed. Police say the killings — including that of Muslim village councilors, police officers and civilians — have been carried out by anti-India rebels.

The killings this year come as Indian troops have continued their counterinsurgency operations across the region amid a clampdown on dissent and press freedom, which critics have likened to a militaristic policy.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.

Rebels in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Kashmir’s minority Hindus, who are locally known as Pandits, have long fretted over their place in the disputed region. Most of an estimated 200,000 of them fled Kashmir in the 1990s when an armed rebellion against Indian rule began. About 4,000 of them returned after 2010 as part of a government resettlement plan that provided them with jobs and housing.

The recent killings, however, have heightened their fears.

In May, after the killing of a Hindu revenue clerk, hundreds of them organized for the first simultaneous street protests in the region and demanded the government relocate them to safer areas.
…

In a startling text and video investigative report, a Sweden based news portal focusing on Bangladesh has revealed the possible location of a secret prison in which the victims of enforced disappearances are kept in Bangladesh.

The detailed report by Netra News is based upon the on-the-record accounts of two victims of enforced disappearances who say they were kept inside the prison in the heart of the capital, Dhaka. Both men reaffirmed the details of the Netra article in telephone interviews with VOA.

According to the two men, the prison is named Aynaghar (House of Mirrors) and is run by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) — the intelligence branch of Bangladesh’s defense forces.

Netra News also published photos of the prison cells, which they said were provided to them by military officers who are still active in service.

The Netra News report appeared on the eve of a four-day visit to Bangladesh by United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who arrived on Sunday and already has talked with several ministers about widespread allegations of enforced disappearances by state agencies.

According to the Bangladeshi human rights organization Odhikar, at least 605 individuals became victims of enforced disappearance in the country, between 2009 and September 2021. Among those who disappeared, 81 were found dead and 154 people remain missing, the organization said.

Human Rights Watch has published a list of 86 men whom they say were picked up over a 10-year period, and whose whereabouts remain unknown, and they are suspected of still being in secret state detention or killed.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen told reporters after speaking with Bachelet that there is no such thing as “enforced disappearances” in Bangladesh, while Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan suggested some of the missing persons had fled to other countries after committing crimes, or they had chosen to disappear after becoming bankrupt or because of family conflicts.

Regarding the Netra News investigation, Khan told reporters on Sunday that Netra News always comes up with “fake and bogus news.” “We don’t consider these as news at all,” he said.

DGFI was contacted for comments, but they didn’t reply.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, said, “Harrowing details of enforced disappearances disclosed by survivors in Netra News investigations should prompt independent, immediate and effective investigations into the incidents to hold perpetrators to account.”

“The U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet must clearly and strongly denounce these human rights violations and call for an independent and impartial inquiry into these barbaric practices during her ongoing Bangladesh visit.”

Allegations of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings conducted by the state-owned forces have become commonplace during the administration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, which has been in power since 2009.

Those who fell victim to such disappearances and were later released have never spoken publicly about their detention before for fear of retaliation. This is the first time these victims have spoken on the record and provided details of their experiences.

Similar statement

The detainees Shekh Mohammad Salim and Hasinur Rahman were interviewed separately by the Netra News, but they provided strikingly similar descriptions of the secret prison, leading the news portal to conclude that they were kept in the same place.

They described their respective cells as windowless, having a high ceiling with a single light, and loud and large exhaust fans running nearly constantly, drowning out all other sounds. They also provided similar descriptions of toilet facilities, food, and wall carvings where previous detainees had identified “DGFI” as their captors.

While Salim, a small-time welder now residing in Malaysia, was not 100% sure about the identity of the security forces, Rahman, a former lieutenant colonel of the Bangladesh army and a recipient of Bir Pratik — the fourth highest gallantry award of Bangladesh — had no doubts.

Rahman was once posted as a commander of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) — a notorious paramilitary unit on which the United States imposed a human rights-related sanction in December of last year.

Rahman himself led several anti-militancy operations, but in 2012, after 28 years in the service, he was sacked on the vague allegation that he himself had been involved with militancy — a charge he strongly denies.

Even before Rahman was discharged from the military, he was abducted in 2011, allegedly by the security agencies, and his whereabouts remained unknown until his release after a few months. In 2018, he was abducted again and was kept inside Aynaghar for 18 months.

Rahman told Netra News that he was able to identify the location of Aynaghar by peeking to the outside through the toilet exhaust fans. As a former army man, he knew the ins and outs of the Dhaka cantonment and provided the outlet with enough details through which the news portal was able to geolocate the facility by using Maxar satellite images.

Great risk taken

Talking with VOA from Malaysia, Salim said he has gone on the record because he believes he is a victim of gross injustice.

The Netra News investigation found out that Salim’s detention likely was a case of mistaken identity. The security agency was interested in a person who used the alias “Selim” and was accused of planting bombs to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“While I was there in that prison, I heard a lot of people crying in different cells. I am lucky that I got released, but many unfortunate people are still there,” Salim said. “I am taking this great risk just for the sake of them. I am urging [the government] to stop this heinous crime of enforced disappearances.”

Zulkarnain Saer, who was part of this Netra News investigation, told VOA that victims of enforced disappearances keep silent when they are released because the state has total control of their lives and those of their families.

“One misstep and they could be abducted and disappeared again, so it is hugely significant that these voices are heard and reported,” said Saer who worked as an undercover reporter on Al Jazeera’s award-winning investigative film “All the Prime Minister’s Men.”

Talking with VOA, Netra News editor Tasneem Khalil said it is the responsibility of the Bangladeshi authorities to provide security to these two survivors. “They are now known to the world for their courageous testimonies. Any attempted harm against them or their families will also be promptly brought to the attention of international communities.”
…

A Chinese survey ship whose visit to Sri Lanka was delayed following security concerns in India arrived in the island nation on Tuesday after Colombo gave it approval to dock at the southern port of Hambantota.

The controversy over the visit underscores the fierce competition between New Delhi and Beijing over influence in the strategic country amid India’s concerns about the growing Chinese footprint in the Indian Ocean.

The Yuan Wang 5 is described as a research and survey vessel according to analytics website MarineTraffic. But security analysts say that the ship is also packed with space and satellite tracking electronics that can monitor rocket and missile launches.

Officials in Sri Lanka said the Chinese ship has been given clearance for replenishment purposes. They said that the two sides had agreed it would keep its identification systems on and would not carry out any research activities while in Sri Lankan waters.

At a ceremony to welcome the ship, China’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, said the two countries enjoy outstanding friendship and that the visit of Yuan Wang 5 was part of “normal exchanges between the two countries.”

The ship was originally due to dock on August 11 but Sri Lanka postponed the ship’s visit last week, apparently due to Indian objections. That drew a sharp reaction from Beijing’s foreign ministry, which said it was completely unjustified for “certain countries” to “pressure” Sri Lanka citing “so-called security concerns.”

Days later, Colombo made a U-turn and granted permission to Yuan Wang 5 to dock. “It is Sri Lanka’s intention to safeguard the legitimate interests of all countries in keeping with its international obligations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Indian officials have rejected claims that New Delhi put pressure on Sri Lanka to turn the vessel away, but reports said there were intense negotiations with Colombo as both India and the United States raised concerns about the ship’s arrival.

Security analysts say India’s apprehensions over the ship’s docking in Sri Lanka stem from fears that the Hambantota port, where the ship has docked, will be used as a military base by Beijing. The port, which lies barely 500 kilometers from Indian shores, was built as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative and leased to a Chinese company in 2017 for 99 years after Colombo was unable to pay back its debt.

While India has long confronted China along their contested Himalayan borders, it has also been seeking to check Beijing’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, which New Delhi sees as its traditional sphere of influence.

It is pushing back by accelerating its naval engagement with neighboring countries. A day before the Chinese ship docked at the Hambantota port, India gifted a Dornier surveillance aircraft to Sri Lanka to bolster its maritime security.

“Induction of the aircraft is timely in view of the current challenges to Sri Lanka’s maritime security,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.

For Sri Lanka, the tussle over the ship posed a diplomatic dilemma as it tried to balance ties with India and China, both of whose help it needs as it battles its worst-ever economic downturn.

A Sri Lankan cabinet spokesman, Bandula Gunawardana told reporters on Tuesday that ships from countries like the United States and India had come to the country earlier. “We have allowed these ships to come. In the same way we have allowed the Chinese ship to come,” he said.

India has given Sri Lanka nearly $4 billion in loans and credit lines to help it import much-needed food and fuel in recent months. But the small country, which owes more than 10% of its debt to China, also needs an agreement with Beijing to restructure its loan before it can seal a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
…

Australia’s immigration minister Andrew Giles is reviewing Canberra’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan a year after the Taliban reassumed control. Campaigners are calling on Australia to grant more visas to refugees seeking to flee the conflict-torn country. 

It’s been a year since the United States-led alliance left Afghanistan.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. and Europe.

Australia said earlier this year it would allow the resettlement of 16,500 more refugees from Afghanistan over the next four years.

But the number of Afghan nationals trying to reach Australia far outweighs the number of places available.

Authorities in Canberra have received applications for more than 200,000 Afghan asylum seekers, but almost half are yet to be considered.

Andrew Giles, Australia’s immigration minister, has acknowledged that the processing system has been overwhelmed. He has ordered a review into Australia’s handling of the asylum crisis.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said that Australia remained “committed to supporting the Afghan community at this distressing time and asks for patience with visa application processes.

But Josephine Langbien, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Center, an independent rights organization, is demanding Canberra do more.

“The Australian government promised to help the people of Afghanistan, but help is not coming fast enough. We [were] promised additional humanitarian visas, but we know that only a few thousand of those visas have actually been issued.”

Australia has been granting around 14,000 humanitarian visas each year.

The government hopes to increase the annual refugee intake to around 27,000 people. However, asylum seekers who arrived by boat were treated differently than those who applied and were supported under different international programs. Those who arrived by boat were detained in Australian-funded offshore camps in the South Pacific with no prospect of resettlement in Australia. The policy was condemned as inhumane by rights groups, but the government said it had prevented them from risking their lives at sea.

A detention center in Papua New Guinea has closed, and around 100 migrants remain on the island of Nauru.
…

The Taliban marked one year Monday since they retook power from the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, Afghanistan, seeking international partnership in bringing stability to the country which has been racked by years of war.  

Fighters of the insurgent-turned-ruling group took to the streets in Afghan cities, including the capital, on motorcycles and vehicles, chanting victory slogans. A small group of them also marched past the former U.S. embassy in Kabul while raising signs. 

The Taliban seized power August 15, 2021, days before U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan after almost 20 years of war with the insurgents 

“We want to use this opportunity to have good and strong political and economic relations with all the countries of the region and the world,” Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar said in a statement.  

“A stable and self-sufficient Afghanistan is in the interest of all. Let’s work together to maintain and strengthen this stability,” Baradar added.  

But the United Nations and foreign governments, including the U.S., renewed their calls for the Taliban to uphold commitments that would prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups, govern the country inclusively, and respect human rights, especially women’s rights to work and pursue an education. 

“The international community will continue to expect that the Taliban meet the commitments that they have made to the Afghan people in key areas,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington. 

However, Price questioned the Islamist rulers’ counterterrorism assurances to the world, referring to last month’s killing of fugitive al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a U.S. drone strike at his safe house in the heart of Kabul.  

“We are taking a close look at the implications of that, because in terms of the Taliban’s inability or unwillingness to live up to the commitments it has made to the people of Afghanistan with regard to the rights of women and girls, this was a grave breach of the U.S.-Taliban agreement,” Price said.  

The Taliban condemned the strike, saying they were not aware of al-Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul, and promised to conduct a “serious” and “comprehensive” investigation into the matter. The Islamist group also condemned the U.S. action as a violation of Afghan territory and international laws.  

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a gathering in Kabul Monday their government was determined not to allow any group to threaten other countries, including the U.S., from Afghan soil, saying no such incident has taken place ever since they returned to power a year ago.  

Price rejected media reports as “simply wrong and not true” that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden had decided against releasing any of the roughly $7 billion Afghan central bank foreign assets held in the United States. 

Biden issued an executive order in February aimed at unfreezing half of the $7 billion for humanitarian aid to benefit the Afghan people. The rest would be held for ongoing terrorism-related lawsuits in U.S. courts against the Taliban. 

“Our focus right now is on ongoing efforts to enable the $3.5 billion in licensed Afghan central bank reserves to be used precisely for the benefit of the Afghan people,” Price said.

He noted that the U.S. continues to engage Afghan central bank technocrats about measures to enhance the country’s economic macroeconomic stability.  

“So right now, we’re looking at mechanisms that could be put in place to see to it that these $3.5 billion in preserved assets make their way efficiently and effectively to the people of Afghanistan in a way that doesn’t make them ripe for diversion to terrorist groups or elsewhere.”

The Afghan central bank requires those frozen funds to stabilize local currency, stem soaring inflation and encourage trade-related activities in the country. 

The male-only Taliban government has banned most teenage girls from school beyond sixth grade, kept women out of most government jobs and barred them from traveling beyond 72 kilometers (45 miles) unless accompanied by a male chaperone. The hardline group defends their polices as in line with Afghan culture and Sharia — Islamic law.

The curbs on women’s access to work and education have kept the world from recognizing the Taliban government.  

In addition to blocking Kabul’s access to billions of dollars in Afghan central bank assets internationally, Washington and other Western capitals have imposed economic sanctions and isolated the Afghan banking sector.  

The measures have plunged the country into an economic crisis and deteriorated already bad humanitarian conditions, with millions of Afghans facing acute hunger.  

Price noted Monday that the United States remains the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, pledging more than $774 million over the past year.  

Last Friday, he said, Washington announced an additional $150 million in funding. 

“We made this point a year ago that our commitment to the people of Afghanistan …would not end upon the departure of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. We have been able to make good on that,” Price said. 
…

A top U.N. official in Afghanistan said Monday that millions of Afghans are on the brink of starvation as winter approaches and humanitarian funding is running low. 

“The situation can be best described as pure catastrophe,” U.N. deputy special representative and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov told reporters via video from Kabul. 

He said 19 million people are food insecure in the country and 6.6 million of them are at emergency levels, just a step away from famine. The problem is growing, with 35 million of Afghanistan’s 40 million residents living in poverty, while the price of a basic food basket is up nearly 30%. 

Alakbarov said the deterioration of the situation is a reflection of the country’s overall economic decline. 

Over the past two decades, the economy has been heavily dependent on foreign aid. Some 75% of the former government’s budget was donor-funded, as was 40% of its GDP. 

Since the Taliban seized power exactly one year ago, the suspension of most international aid has contributed to the breakdown in many basic services, including electricity, health services and education. Inflation is rampant, and the price of ordinary goods is beyond the reach of most Afghans. 

On top of the political crisis, there has been an earthquake and severe floods since the Taliban came to power. Afghanistan is also reeling from the effects of two severe droughts, in 2021 and 2018.  

Farmers are facing severe fertilizer and pesticide shortages and disease outbreaks among their livestock. 

“The people of Afghanistan are known for their resilience and their ability to survive,” Alakbarov told reporters. “Unfortunately, negative coping strategies for Afghanistan are already quite serious. You’ve seen people selling organs. You’ve seen people selling children. This has been widely covered in the media. This is what we will be seeing again if support is not provided.” 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly urged the release of frozen currency reserves and reengaging with the country’s central bank, as well as foreign cash injections for the ailing economy. 

Despite concerns about aid money falling into Taliban hands, donors have been generous. The U.N. requested a staggering $4.4 billion for the humanitarian response this year and has received about $1.8 billion so far. But the $2.6 billion shortfall could translate into lost lives, especially during the harsh winter months. 

Alakbarov emphasized that the U.N. needs more resources to scale up its response. The organization has reached nearly 23 million people, with at least one form of assistance in the past year. 

Despite concerns, there have been no reports of aid diversion and the U.N. maintains a stringent monitoring system. 

“It’s a high-risk environment, but we are taking every mitigation measure possible. And it’s being taken very, very seriously,” Alakbarov said. 

 
…

When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan a year ago, they promised to be more inclusive. Many of the Taliban’s pledges concerned respecting the rights of women, a change in stance from their rule 20 years prior. On the anniversary of their return to power, we look at which promises the Taliban have kept and which they have broken.
…

India celebrated the 75th anniversary of its independence from British rule with Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying out an ambitious goal to make the country a developed nation in 25 years.

In an address to the nation Monday from the ramparts of the 17th century Mughal-era Red Fort in the Indian capital, New Delhi, Modi said “It’s a big resolution, and we should work towards it with all our might.”

Tight security was mounted for the event with thousands of policemen guarding the historic site as Modi wearing a turban speckled with the white, orange and green colors of the Indian flag gave an 80-minute speech.

Pointing to the fact that the traditional 21-gun-salute on the occasion was for the first time given by domestically manufactured howitzers, Modi said the nation must aim to become self-reliant. 

In a country where patriarchal attitudes are still deeply entrenched and which has one of the world’s lowest participation of women in the work force, the Indian leader urged the country to empower women, saying their contribution would be critical to take India ahead.

Modi said the world was also looking toward the country to help resolve global issues.

On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated India for its national day calling the two countries “indispensable partners.”

In a statement, he said he was confident that in the years ahead the two democracies will continue to stand together to defend the rules-based order; foster greater peace, prosperity and security for our people; advance a free and open Indo-Pacific; and together address the challenges we face around the world.

In India in recent days, the debate on the milestone anniversary has centered on the progress the country has made in the last 75 years and the challenges it still faces. India is presently ranked as a lower-middle income developing country by the World Bank.

Observers say India has made significant strides in reducing poverty since becoming independent, created a huge middle class and is now counted as Asia’s third largest economy. Its growth has been propelled on the back of a services sector powered by highly educated professionals. While it faced food shortages for several decades, it is now a food surplus nation.

In a column in the Times of India newspaper, one of India’s well-known economists, Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, noted that it is a matter of pride that “after a slow start India has risen from being the biggest beggar for foreign aid” to becoming the fastest growing major economy.

However, India’s biggest challenge is growing unemployment as the country struggles to create enough jobs for its huge young population and in lifting millions still mired in poverty.

In his address on Monday, Modi called India the “mother of democracy.” He said that “the country has proved that it has a precious ability and faced many challenges during its journey of 75 years.” 

But in the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, opposition parties and critics have accused his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of undermining democracy. They say freedom of speech is under threat, accuse the government of targeting opponents and say that religious minorities feel increasingly insecure amid a rising tide of Hindu nationalism. The BJP strongly denies such allegations.

“Although there may be some pressure on democratic institutions, the rising participation of people in elections and growing political awareness among citizens will ensure that India’s democracy stays robust,” said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst in New Delhi.

Millions of homes across the country marked the Independence Day celebrations by unfurling the national flag following a mass campaign by the government urging every household to fly the flag for three days.
…