The United States says no foreign government is contemplating legitimacy for Taliban rule in Afghanistan, even as the insurgent-turned-Islamist group next month will mark the first year of its return to power in Kabul.

“I think there’s actually a global consensus to include Moscow and Beijing and Iran, that it’s too early to look at recognition,” Donald Lu, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told VOA in an interview.

“Yes, some countries are beginning a very slow process of normalization of relations. No one is talking about formal recognition,” Lu said.

The U.S. diplomat noted that international discussions instead were focused on seeking an engagement with the Taliban that can help improve the situation on the ground in Afghanistan in terms of the rights of women and girls, and security.

“We, as partner countries, should also be working with authorities in Afghanistan to create a better world for Afghan people … to try to influence what is happening in Afghanistan for the betterment of the people of Afghanistan, but also a stable region.”

The Taliban seized power last August when U.S. and NATO partners withdrew their final troops, ending almost two decades of foreign military intervention in the country.

The hardline group installed an all-male interim government, which has placed restrictions on women, limiting their access to work and education. The Taliban have disallowed teenage Afghan girls from returning to secondary school education in breach of their repeated pledges.

“It’s critical that all of us work together to try to encourage the Taliban onto a constructive path,” Lu said. He emphasized the Islamist group “now has to get to the business of governance.”

Washington has made it clear repeatedly that no legitimacy is possible unless and until the Taliban reverse their restrictions on women and induct representatives of other ethnic Afghan groups into the government.

Lu cautioned the Islamist rulers that the investment made by the global community over the past 20 years “will shape the future” of the country, and they “cannot merely impose their own will” on millions of Afghans.

“They have grown to expect certain freedoms in life, a certain standard of living with the economy. Those demands will help to shape the policies of the Taliban going forward,” he said.

The Taliban, who call their government the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, defend restrictions on women and other policies, saying they are strictly in line with Afghan culture and Sharia, Islamic law — claims that scholars in other Muslim countries dispute.

The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, said last week he would run the country in accordance with Sharia and would not compromise.

He renewed his resolve Wednesday in a message he issued in connection with this week’s Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

“The Islamic Emirate is committed to upholding all the rights of its citizens, as Islam commands us to grant and protect the rights of all people. And within the framework of the Sharia law, the rights of women will be ensured,” Akhundzada said.

“Within the framework of mutual interaction and commitment, we want good, diplomatic, economic and political relations with the world, including the United States, and we consider this in the interest of all sides,” the Taliban chief argued.

Neighboring and regional countries, including China and Pakistan — which shares a long border with Afghanistan — have kept their diplomatic and trade contacts open with the Taliban government, citing dire humanitarian and economic emergencies facing the country’s estimated 40 million population.

But these nations also are pressing the Islamist group to rule the country through a politically inclusive administration, ease curbs on women and desist from cracking down on dissent before they decide to consider the Taliban’s call for a formal recognition of their government.

“We hope Afghanistan to be stable, peaceful, pursues a moderate policy and to meet the expectations,” said Wang Yu, China’s ambassador to Kabul, while addressing a rare news conference Tuesday in the Afghan capital.

ISIS threat

Lu told VOA that Central Asian countries also are worried about security threats coming from Afghanistan. The U.S. is talking with them about how it can help with cross-border security and “facilitate conversation with this very unusual Taliban government,” he added.

The regional affiliate of the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, known in South and Central Asia as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), has stepped up attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.

Additionally, the group claims it has launched rocket attacks against military targets in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan from Afghan soil in recent weeks.

“Central Asian governments, the United States and other partners can talk to the Taliban about how we work together against a common threat of ISIS,” Lu said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

On Tuesday, the Uzbek government reported that five shells were fired into its territory from Afghanistan, although they did not explode and caused no casualties. The Foreign Ministry statement said there was “minor damage” to houses near the Afghan border.

There were no immediate claims of responsibly for the attack.

In April, ISIS-K claimed it had carried out a rocket attack on Uzbekistan from an Afghan terror base, but authorities in the neighboring country said at the time the claim was false.

Akhundzada reassured Afghanistan’s neighbors and the world at large Wednesday that the Taliban would not allow anyone to use their territory to threaten the security of other countries.

VOA’s Uzbek Service contributed to this report.
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The social media company Twitter has mounted a legal challenge against orders by the Indian government to take down content.

The lawsuit turns the spotlight on what critics say is a bid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to clamp down on critical online content under strict information technology laws passed last year that gives authorities powers to demand that companies block public access to posts or accounts.

Twitter has not commented on the lawsuit, but media outlets in India reported that the company has asked for a judicial review of the takedown orders saying that they were either “overbroad and arbitrary” or “disproportionate.” The case was filed in the Karnataka high court in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

After the lawsuit was reported, the junior minister for information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted, that while “intermediaries” have the right to seek judicial review, they also have an obligation to follow the country’s rules.

The lawsuit is the first legal challenge by the social media giant to push back against the rules passed last year under which the government can order the removal of social media posts or videos that are hateful, deceptive, libelous or threaten the security of the state among various other grounds.

“The lawsuit by Twitter is significant because it has the potential to set important precedents for freedom of expression in India, particularly online freedom,” said Prateek Waghre, policy director with the Internet Freedom Foundation in New Delhi.

Citing the Lumen database, an American site that analyzes legal complaints and removal requests, he points out that a number of posts and accounts blocked over the past year were that of politicians, activists and journalists.

“There has been an increasing compliance burden on a lot of companies with the new IT (Information Technology) rules, so it was a matter of time before one of them took a more adversarial position,” Waghre told VOA.

Among the content that the social media giant was asked to remove over the last year were tweets relating to a massive protest by farmers and those critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic during a deadly second wave in the summer of 2021.

The new rules also make executives of internet companies liable to face criminal penalties if they do not comply with demands to take down posts or accounts.

The regulations have raised questions on internet freedom in India, where social media companies now have millions of users — Twitter is estimated to have more than 24 million users in the country.

The government defends the regulations saying they are necessary to combat online misinformation and says that social media companies must be accountable. But critics have voiced concern about its growing intolerance of dissenting voices, whether online or otherwise.

According to a transparency report filed by Twitter from January to June 2021, India was among the top five countries that had demanded the removal of content — the others were Japan, Russia, Turkey and South Korea.

Internet freedom in India weakened for a fourth straight year, according to a 2021 country report on freedom on the net by Freedom House, a Washington-based research organization. It said India’s new law had imposed broad obligations on large social media companies to further moderate online content, undermine end-to-end encryption, and increased retention of personal data.

Twitter has had several brushes with the Indian government. In May, last year, the social media giant had expressed concern over freedom of expression in India days after police visited its offices in New Delhi and served a notice to the site after it labeled a tweet by the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of two major political parties in the country, as “manipulated media.” And in June last year, police in Uttar Pradesh state summoned the company’s top executive in India for failing to take down a viral video of alleged communal violence.

 
…

Unidentified assailants in Pakistan have within the past week killed two journalists and tortured a renowned columnist, while police arrested a reporter-anchor-turned-host of a top YouTube political show amid allegations of a government crackdown on dissent and political opponents.

The attacks began on July 1 when gunmen in Khairpur district in southern Sindh province fatally shot local reporter Ishtiaq Sodharo. The slain man was associated with a local Sindhi-language weekly. His wife accused an area police officer of ordering the deadly attack against her husband. The motive for the killing was not known.

A day later, Iftikhar Ahmed, a reporter for the Urdu-language national Daily Express, was ambushed and killed by unknown gunmen in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while he was on his way to work. Police said an investigation was underway into the motive for Ahmed’s killing, including personal enmity.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Tuesday condemned the killings, calling on Pakistani authorities to safeguard press freedom in line with their constitutional and international obligations.

“Pakistan’s government must take appropriate measures to ensure journalists’ safety and security, as required by law, and act to reduce assaults on journalists so that they may carry out their work without fear,” the IFJ said in a statement.

On Friday, veteran journalist and political analyst Ayaz Amir was physically assaulted by masked men in the eastern city of Lahore. He was being driven home after his prime-time program on the mainstream Dunya news channel when his car was intercepted.

The 72-year-old nationally known journalist told reporters that the attackers “unleashed blows to my face and dragged me out of the vehicle” on a busy road near his workplace.

Amir alleged the masked assailants also “tore his clothes” before taking away his and his driver’s cellphones.

There were no claims of responsibility for any of the attacks.

Amir was assaulted a day after he delivered a speech at a crowded seminar in the capital, Islamabad, in which he severely criticized Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and the powerful military’s role in national politics.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan also attended and addressed the seminar, which was organized by a local lawyers’ association.

A government statement quoted Sharif as “strongly condemning” the attack on Amir and instructing the authorities in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital city, to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.

Separately, the provincial police late on Tuesday arrested prominent TV anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan on the outskirts of Islamabad in connection with a treason case registered against him, his attorney told reporters.

The detained journalist, who has more than 3 million subscribers of his YouTube channel, has been criticizing and highlighting the military’s alleged role in Pakistani politics.

The former prime minister denounced Riaz Khan’s arrest and tweeted that Pakistan “is descending into fascism.”

Imran Khan’s nearly 4-year-old coalition government was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April, paving the way for then-opposition leader Sharif to replace him and form a new so-called unity government.

The deposed Pakistani leader alleges the United States conspired with his political opponents to remove him from power, charges Washington rejects.

The military denies it is meddling in national politics. The Sharif government also rejects charges it is cracking down on media freedom.

However, Pakistani police in recent days have launched criminal proceedings against several journalists and political talk show hosts known for being critical of both the government and the military.

Pakistan’s Electronic Media Regulation Authority (PEMRA), which is responsible for the regulation and issuing of broadcast, print and electronic media licenses, recently also warned digital news outlets and broadcasters against airing content that ridicules state institutions, particularly the judiciary and army. It cautioned that violators could face immediate broadcast suspensions and fines.

Pakistan is identified as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Successive civilian governments and military-led security agencies, commonly referred to as the Pakistan establishment, are routinely accused of intimidating and harassing reporters.

But critics note that never have so many media personnel in the country collectively faced criminal proceedings or come under escalating violent attacks within a span of one week.

Pakistan ranks 145 out of 180 countries on the most recent World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
…

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to “do all you can” to bring home her and other Americans detained in Russia. 

Griner’s representatives shared parts of the letter Monday. 

“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner wrote. 

Griner was arrested in February on charges of possessing cannabis oil. Her trial began last week and is set to resume Thursday. 

U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Monday that Griner is being wrongfully detained and that the Biden administration “continues to work aggressively — using every available means — to bring her home.” 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Schools in Sri Lanka will be closed for another week, beginning Monday, officials, say.

The cash-strapped country is in a financial crisis and is struggling to pay its bills, including for food, medicine, and fuel.

Officials say there is not enough fuel to transport teachers and students to their classrooms.

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera is asking the country’s ex-patriates to send money home through banks to finance new oil purchases.

Wijesekera said workers’ remittances usually total $600 million a month, but dropped to $318 million in June.

Sri Lanka owes about $800 million to seven fuel suppliers, according to an Associated Press report.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…

Officials in India say at least 20 passengers, including schoolchildren, have died in an accident in India’s Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district.  

Authorities say the bus fell into a gorge.

Emergency workers have reached the scene and the injured are being transported to a nearby hospital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter that the accident was “heart-rending” and that he hopes “those injured recover at the earliest.”

Photos from the scene show a heavily damaged bus.
…

QUETTA, Pakistan — A passenger bus slid off a mountain road and fell into a deep ravine in heavy rain in southwest Pakistan on Sunday, killing 19 people and injuring 12 others, a government official said.

Mahtab Shah, assistant administrator for the district of Shirani in Baluchistan province, said about 35 passengers were traveling in the bus. He said rescue workers were searching for survivors in the wreckage of the destroyed vehicle and the surrounding countryside.

Shah said apparently the bus slid on the wet road amid heavy rain and the driver lost control of the vehicle, which fell about 200 feet (61 meters) into the ravine.

Deadly road accidents are common in Pakistan due to poor road infrastructure and disregard for traffic laws, as well as poorly maintained vehicles. Last month, 22 people were killed in a similar accident when a bus fell into a ravine in Qila Saifullah district.
…

Sri Lanka is struggling to raise $587 million to pay for about half a dozen fuel shipments, a top minister said Sunday as the cash-strapped country tries to cope with its worst financial crisis in decades.

The country of 22 million people is unable to pay for essential imports of food items, fertilizer, medicines and fuel — due to a severe dollar crunch.

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said new fuel shipments were being lined up, but the country is struggling to raise enough funds to pay as the central bank can supply only about $125 million.

Sri Lanka only has 12,774 tons of diesel and 4,061 tons of petrol left in its government reserves, he told reporters in Colombo, the commercial center of the island nation.

“This week we will need $316 million to pay for new shipments. If we add two crude oil shipments this amount shoots up to $587 million,” Wijesekera said.

The first shipment of 40,000 tons of diesel from Coral Energy is expected to arrive around July 9 and partial payment of $49 million must be made for a second one from Vitol by Thursday.

Faced with severely limited diesel and petrol stocks Sri Lanka last week closed schools, asked public employees to work from home and restricted government fuel supplies to essential services.

The minister said the country will have to attempt to raise funds from the open market and seek more flexible payment options from suppliers.

Plans to settle the $800 million owed to seven suppliers for purchases made this year were being discussed, he said.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials will continue to hold talks with Sri Lanka for a possible $3 billion bailout package, the global lender said last week after wrapping up a 10-day visit to Colombo.

However, the immediate release of funds from the IMF is unlikely because the country has first to get its debt on to a sustainable path.  
…

A three-day assembly of Islamic clerics and tribal elders in the Afghan capital concluded Saturday with pledges of support for the Taliban and calls on the international community to recognize the country’s Taliban-led government.

The meeting in Kabul was tailored along the lines of Afghanistan’s traditional Loya Jirgas — regular councils of elders, leaders and prominent figures meant to deliberate Afghan policy issues.

But the overwhelming majority of attendees were Taliban officials and supporters, mostly Islamic clerics. Women were not allowed to attend, unlike the last Loya Jirga that was held under the previous, U.S.-backed government.

The former insurgents, who have kept a complete lock on decision-making since taking over the country last August, touted the gathering as a forum on issues facing Afghanistan.

According to Mujib-ul Rahman Ansari, a cleric who attended the gathering, an 11-point statement released at the end urges countries in the region and the world, the United Nations, Islamic organizations and others to recognize a Taliban-led Afghanistan, remove all sanctions imposed since the Taliban takeover and unfreeze Afghan assets abroad.

Ansari said that more than 4,500 Islamic clerics and elders who attended renewed their allegiance and loyalty to the Taliban’s supreme leader and spiritual chief, Haibatullah Akhundzada.

In a surprise development, the reclusive Akhundzada came to Kabul from his base in southern Kandahar province and addressed the gathering Friday. It was believed to be his first visit to the Afghan capital since the Taliban seized power.

In his hourlong speech carried by state radio, Akhundzada called the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan a “victory for the Muslim world.”

His appearance added symbolic heft to the gathering. The Taliban are under international pressure to be more inclusive as they struggle with Afghanistan’s humanitarian crises.

The international community has been wary of any recognition or cooperation with the Taliban, especially after they restricted the rights of women and minorities — measures that hark back to their harsh rule when they were last in power in the late 1990s.

Saturday’s 11-point resolution called on the Taliban government to pay “special attention and to ensure justice, religious and modern education, health, agriculture, industry, the rights of minorities, children, women and the entire nation, according to Islamic holy law.” The Taliban adhere to their own strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

On Friday, Akhundzada, who rose from a low-profile member of the Islamic insurgent movement to the leader of the Taliban in a swift transition of power after a 2016 U.S. drone strike killed his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, also offered prayers for Afghanistan’s earthquake victims.

The powerful quake in June killed more than 1,000 people in eastern Afghanistan, igniting yet another crisis for the struggling country. Overstretched aid groups already keeping millions of Afghans alive rushed supplies to the quake victims, but most countries responded tepidly to Taliban calls for international help.

The gathering in Kabul also touched on the Taliban’s chief rivals, the militant Islamic State group, and appealed on Afghans across the country, saying that “any kind of cooperation” with IS was prohibited.

On Thursday, at the start of the gathering, gunfire was heard near the heavily guarded assembly venue, the Loya Jirga Hall of Kabul’s Polytechnic University. Later, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters that security forces fired on someone suspected to have a hand grenade, but that “there is nothing of concern.”

However, IS claimed responsibility for the attack. It said in a statement that three of its fighters climbed onto the roof of a building near the gathering and posted a video showing a group of heavily armed men, their faces masked, who say they have “taken positions very close to the gathering” and are awaiting orders to attack.

The IS affiliate in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province or IS-K, has been operating since 2014. Since the Taliban takeover, IS militants have staged numerous assaults on Afghanistan’s new rulers and the Taliban have launched a sweeping crackdown against IS in the country’s stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.
…

A rare public protest took place in Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan autonomous republic over a planned constitutional reform that would change its status, Uzbek authorities said Saturday.

Karakalpakstan, located in northwestern Uzbekistan, is home to Karakalpaks, a distinct ethnic minority group with its own language, and the current Uzbek constitution describes it as a sovereign republic within Uzbekistan that has the right to secede by holding a referendum.

The new version of the constitution – on which Uzbekistan plans to hold a referendum in the coming months – would no longer mention Karakalpakstan’s sovereignty or right for secession.

According to Uzbekistan’s Interior Ministry, “as a result of misunderstanding the constitutional reforms” a group of Karakalpakstan residents marched through its capital Nukus and held a rally Friday at the city’s central market.

Separately, the government of Karakalpakstan said in a statement that protesters had tried to take over government buildings, prompting police to intervene and detain their leaders and those who put up active resistance.

Order has now been restored in the province, which has a population of 2 million people, said the authorities in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic that has close ties with Russia.

Changes concerning Karakalpakstan are just one part of the broad constitutional reform proposed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, which also includes strengthening civil rights and extending the presidential term to seven years from five.

If the referendum endorses the reform, it will reset Mirziyoyev’s term count and allow him to run for two more terms.
…

The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader Friday ruled out any talks or compromise on his “Islamic system” of governance in Afghanistan in an apparent rebuke to international calls for his hardline ruling group to ease restrictions on women’s rights to work and education.

“I am not here to fulfill your [foreigners’] wishes, nor are they acceptable to me. I cannot compromise on Shariah [Islamic law] to work with you or even move a step forward,” Hibatullah Akhundzada told a men-only closed-door gathering of around 3,500 mostly religious clerics in Kabul.

He made the rare public appearance and speech amid tight security. Audio of his speech was aired live by Afghan state-run social media.

Akhundzada hailed last year’s Taliban takeover of war-shattered, impoverished Afghanistan and the subsequent enforcement of the “Islamic system” there.

The insurgent-turned-ruling group seized power in August, when the United States and NATO partners withdrew their final troops from Afghanistan after almost two decades of military intervention.

“The success of the Afghan jihad is not only a source of pride for Afghans but also for Muslims all over the world,” Akhundzada told the audience.

“Mujahedeen [holy warriors] have established peace and order throughout Afghanistan in the last 10 months. It is a great achievement but its survival depends on us all being united,” he said.

Men only

The Taliban have installed a men-only administration, restricting women’s access to public life and preventing most teenage girls from returning to secondary school education. Women have been ordered to wear face coverings in public and have been barred from traveling beyond 70 kilometers without a close male relative.

The harsh treatment of women and girls and a lack of political inclusivity in governance have kept the global community from granting diplomatic recognition to Taliban rule.

Akhundzada, in an apparent response to the criticism, said that Afghanistan “is now a sovereign” country and did not need orders or interference in its affairs.

“They want to run Afghanistan on their whims,” the Taliban chief told the clerics. “They say, ‘Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that?’ Why do you even interfere in my work, my country and my principles?

“You have used the mother of all bombs and you are welcome to use even the atomic bomb against us because nothing can scare us into taking any step that is against Islam or Shariah,” the Taliban chief added.

Akhundzada referred to the U.S. dropping what was described as the “mother of all bombs,” or the most powerful conventional bomb in the American arsenal, in 2017 on an Islamic State terror base in eastern Afghanistan.

First such session since takeover

The three-day Kabul huddle began Thursday under tight security in and around the venue in the wake of a recent wave of deadly Islamic State attacks.

The meeting is the first of its kind since the Taliban takeover of the country. Critics saw the event as an attempt by the hardline group to demonstrate its hold on power and domestic legitimacy.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters after the inaugural session of the three-day Kabul meeting that women were not invited to the event because it was organized at the request of independent participating scholars and that the government had nothing to do with attendees nor the agenda.

Critics questioned the effectiveness and legitimacy of the grand scholars’ meeting in the absence of women, almost 50% of the country’s estimated 40 million population.

The Taliban takeover prompted Washington and other Western countries to immediately cut financial assistance to largely aid-dependent Afghanistan, seize its foreign assets worth billions of dollars, mostly held by the U.S., and isolate the Afghan banking system.

The action and long-running terrorism-related sanctions on senior Taliban leaders have thrown the cash-strapped country into a severe economic upheaval, worsening an already bad humanitarian crisis blamed on years of war and persistent drought.

Taliban and U.S. officials concluded a two-day meeting Wednesday in Doha, Qatar, where the issue of unlocking the frozen Afghan funds also came under discussion. The talks were the first in person since March, when the Taliban abruptly decided against allowing teenage Afghan girls to resume secondary school education, prompting Washington to suspend the dialogue.
…

Thursday afternoon in Kolkata, India, fruit seller Tanvir Alam sat behind a basket of mangos on the sidewalk of a busy street, saying the nationwide ban on single-use plastic bags that goes into effect Friday, would hurt business.

“I do not know now what I will use to pack my fruits when there is a ban on thin plastic bags from tomorrow [July 1],” Alam told VOA Thursday.

India last year banned the use of bags made of plastic less than 75 microns thick. Market vendors and shopkeepers, though, are still using such bags.

“If we cannot use plastic bags, paper bags are the next available option for us. In the market, there are stronger paper bags, which are used by big shops. But I cannot afford to use those costly bags for my business on the footpath,” Alam said.

“One stronger paper bag that can carry 2 kilograms of mango will cost at least 8 rupees. But paying 8 rupees [$ 0.10] I can buy at least 25 plastic bags.”

Some market customers said plastic bags are convenient and useful.

“Every time carrying cloth bag from home is no more our culture for a long time. We prefer that the sellers provide bags for us. Plastic bags are cheap, they come almost free with the goods,” said a 65-year-old carpenter.

Officially announcing the single-use plastic ban last week, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests released a list of the single-use plastic items to be banned.

The list of the banned single-use plastic items includes plastic cups, plates, cutlery, ice cream sticks, candy sticks, straws, wrapping and polystyrene (thermocol/Styrofoam).

In a recent statement, India’s Central Pollution Control Board asked people to switch to cotton and jute bags, clay cups, bamboo or wooden cutlery and other items made of biodegradable materials. People criticizing the latest ban say that the alternatives are either not abundantly available or very expensive.

The Indian government said in April the country was generating 3.5 million metric tons of plastic waste annually. However, the New Delhi-based nonprofit research group Centre for Science and Environment estimates the figure should be higher.

In May 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an address that India will eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by the end of 2022.

“The choices that we make today will define our collective future. The choices may not be easy. But through awareness, technology and a genuine global partnership, I am sure we can make the right choices. Let us all join together to beat plastic pollution and make this planet a better place to live,” Modi said.

In an article in The Guardian newspaper, Erik Solheim, former head of U.N. Environment Program, wrote in June 2018, “Let there be no doubt: we are on edge of a plastic calamity.”

Praising India’s initiative, though, he wrote again in 2018, “They have shown that political motivation, turned into practical action, can inspire the world and ignite real change.”

Welcoming the ban, Anoop Kumar Srivastava, founder of the Foundation for Campaign Against Plastic Pollution, told VOA the ban by the Indian government will pave the way for a reduction in plastic pollution in the country and eventually eliminate it.

“However, enforcement of the ban on single-use plastics will be challenging in India and will need to be coupled with a campaign to bring about behavioral change among the people. Awareness needs to be created about how single-use plastics harm human health and also the impact on the environment, which will adversely affect the future generations,” Srivastava said.

“This would reduce the demand for single-use plastics and help in the enforcement of the ban. At the same time, strict action would need to be taken against those who continue to produce banned items,” he said.

Anyone found violating the single-use plastic ban will be jailed for five years or fined more than 100,000 rupees ($1,265). Special control rooms will be set up to monitor and ensure enforcement of the ban at national and state levels, a statement from the environmental ministry read.

Yet, a vegetable seller on a sidewalk market said it is difficult for the government to enforce the ban completely.

“The thin and cheap plastic bags that we have used so far will still somehow be available in the underground market, the way cannabis or illicit liquor is sold. And many vendors will secretly buy and use the plastic bags,” Afroza Begum said.

Another fruit-seller, Begum’s neighbor who requested anonymity, said: “People running businesses on footpath know how to grease the palms of the police and others. The use of banned plastic bags will now perhaps reduce to some extent but will not stop completely. …This is India.”
…

India’s top court has slammed a former spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for making controversial comments on the Prophet Muhammad, saying she had “set the country on fire.”  

The derogatory comments made by Nupur Sharma during a television debate a month ago sparked protests in which two demonstrators were killed and triggered an outcry across over a dozen Islamic nations.

Sharma, who made the comments while she was the spokesperson for the BJP, was suspended from the party soon after New Delhi faced diplomatic protests from several countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.  The BJP distanced itself from Sharma, saying her views did not represent the views of the party.  

In unusually strong comments, two judges on the Supreme Court said that “the way she has ignited emotions across the country, this lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country.”  The court asked her to apologize to the nation and said, “she and her loose tongue has set the entire country on fire.”     

The observations were made as the judges turned down Sharma’s request to consolidate multiple cases that have been filed against her in courts across the country.  

As the controversy erupted, Sharma had withdrawn her comments. But the judges said that “she was too late to withdraw, and that, too, she withdrew conditionally, saying ‘if sentiments were hurt.’”

Political analysts and opposition parties have often blamed right wing Hindu activists linked to the ruling party and BJP politicians for a rising tide of hate speech targeting the country’s Muslim minority since the party took power in 2014. The BJP says it does not discriminate against any minority.   

“The comments by the court against Sharma are meant to check hate speech, but they do not address the bigger picture, which is the entire climate of hate that is being promoted for the last seven or eight years,” says Niranjan Sahoo, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation. “She is not alone in being responsible for the rise in hate that we see. She is only the symptom of a larger malaise, a small fish in the larger ocean of inflammatory speech.” 

Political analysts and opposition politicians have also criticized the BJP for not pursuing any legal action against its former spokesperson.  

The court also linked Sharma’s comment to the murder of a Hindu tailor in the northern city of Udaipur in Rajasthan on Tuesday that has sent shockwaves through the nation.  

He was brutally killed on camera by two men who said they were “avenging an insult to Islam.”  

In two videos posted online, two Muslim men brandished a meat cleaver while claiming responsibility for killing the tailor, who had backed Nupur Sharma in a social media post. They also issued a threat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their video.   

Rajasthan’s chief minister, Ashok Gehlot, told reporters the case is being investigated as a “terrorism-related incident” rather than a communal one.   

The incident has raised fears of deepening communal tensions in the aftermath of the killing. On Friday, thousands of Hindus marched in Udaipur, demanding protection for Hindus.  
…

Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban arranged Thursday a men-only conference of about 3,500 mostly clerics and tribal elders from across the country in an apparent bid to demonstrate their hold on power and domestic legitimacy. 

The three-day, closed-door conference began in Kabul amid tight security in the wake of a recent spike in Islamic State-claimed terrorist attacks in the Afghan capital and elsewhere in the war-torn South Asian nation. 

The insurgent-turned-ruling group seized power last August, when the United States and NATO partners withdrew their final troops from Afghanistan after almost two decades of military intervention, but the world has not yet recognized the interim Taliban government. 

Acting Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, while addressing Thursday’s inaugural session, urged participants to share their advice and suggestions to help strengthen the government so it can deal with foreign policy issues. 

“You can see that even after completing almost one year, no country — be it Muslim, non-Muslim, neighboring or regional — has formally recognized this regime,” Yaqoob said. 

“My fundamental demand from you all is to courageously formulate a fatwa (decree) for us that helps us end our shakiness in terms of resolving our external problems and bridge any differences that, God forbid, may arise in future between us and the (Afghan) nation,” the defense minister said without elaborating. 

The Taliban’s harsh treatment of women and girls and a lack of political inclusivity in governance have kept the global community from granting diplomatic recognition to the new Afghan rulers.  

The Islamist group has suspended secondary education for most teenage female students, ordered women to wear face coverings in public and barred them from traveling beyond 70 kilometers without a close male relative. 

The U.S. and the world at large have been urging the hardline group to reverse some of its curbs on women and ensure inclusive governance if it wants them to consider the Taliban’s demand for diplomatic recognition. 

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, later in the day, briefed reporters about the opening proceedings, saying women were not invited to the meeting because it was organized on the request of independent participating scholars and the government had nothing to do with attendees nor the agenda of the event. 

Mujahid said Hibatullah Akhundzada, the reclusive Taliban chief, “may” also attend the ongoing Kabul gathering, but he shared no further details.  

Taliban leaders have rejected calls for removing the restrictions on women, insisting they are in accordance with Afghan culture and Islamic Shariah law. 

Acting Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi argued on Wednesday that women’s participation in the huddle was taking place as their male family members would attend. 

Critics questioned the effectiveness and legitimacy of the grand scholars’ meeting in the absence of women, almost 50% of the country’s estimated 40 million population. 

“Durable peace and reconciliation also requires inclusive administration represented by all political, religious and ethnic groups,” said Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. 

“It is vital that national ethnic religious and linguistic minorities, including minority women in Afghanistan, are included in all decision-making processes,” Bennett remarked at an online seminar Tuesday. 

Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, while addressing the seminar, suggested rights-related issues would require engagement with the new rulers in Kabul. 

“We try to identify very specific measures that the international community can consider and can try to move forward and also how we can press the Taliban to do more because they are right now the reality in the country,” Amiri said. 

Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official and political commentator, is skeptical about the outcome of the meeting.  

“An allegiance from 3,000 selected guests by (the) Taliban in a meeting will not help fix any of the problems (facing the country), nor confer any internal or external legitimacy to (the) Taliban,” Farhadi told VOA. 

“The book of God in Islam is gifted to women and men equally. Depriving women to have a voice in society is going against the precepts of Islam.” 

The Taliban takeover and their subsequent installation of an all-male interim government prompted Washington and other Western countries to immediately halt financial assistance to largely aid-dependent Afghanistan, seize its foreign assets worth more than $9 billion, mostly held by the U.S., and isolate the Afghan banking system. 

The action and long-running terrorism-related sanctions on senior Taliban leaders have thrown cash-strapped Afghanistan into a severe economic upheaval, worsening an already bad humanitarian crisis blamed on years of war and persistent drought. 
…

For Breshna Salaam, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year meant a return to the same extreme poverty she and her mother had experienced under the Taliban’s first time in control of the country.  

In 1996, the Taliban fired Salaam’s mother from a public service job, denying the widow and her daughter their only source of income. In August 2021, with her mother retired, the Taliban fired Salaam from a job at the Ministry of Agriculture.  

Deprived of work and education in her own country, she applied for graduate programs abroad and was offered a scholarship at New York University.  

“I cried out of happiness when I received news of the scholarship,” Salaam told VOA.  

But her happiness did not last long.  

First, she had to pay more than $2,000 in bribes to get a new passport and a short-term visa to Pakistan, where she needs to submit a student visa application at the U.S. embassy. The embassy in Afghanistan remains closed since the Taliban entered Kabul last year.  

“I had to literally beg relatives and friends for money to pay for the passport and the Pakistani visa,” she said.  

And, there are more expenses she has to cover.  

“I have to buy a flight ticket to Islamabad, pay for my accommodation in Islamabad, have to pay $510 for U.S. visa fees, and finally, if I’m given a visa, I will have to buy my ticket to New York,” said Salaam, adding that she had no means to pay all the required expenses on her own.  

Staff at her U.S. university contributed $350 for her SEVIS fee, a payment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security required from all international students before they submit an F-1 student visa application. Students also have to pay a $160 F-1 visa fee to the U.S. embassy. Both fees are non-refundable, even if the visa is denied.  

Calls for help unanswered   

Over the past four months, more than 500 U.S. academics and human rights activists have signed at least two appeal letters to the White House and the Department of State calling for assistance for Afghan scholars, particularly women, who strive to come to the United States to continue their education.  

“We are deeply concerned about the lives and well-being of these Afghan academics, especially women,” reads a June 21 letter signed by academics from more than 20 U.S. colleges and universities. It is addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  

The letter criticizes the delays and rejections of student visas for Afghan scholars – even while a fully funded stipend and scholarship is provided by the inviting university – and calls on Blinken to personally intervene “to rectify this shameful situation.” 

“We have received no response to the letter,” Chloe Breyer, executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York and a signee of the letter, told VOA.  

In a separate letter sent to U.S. President Joe Biden in February, more than 450 academic organizations and individuals made a similar call for support for at-risk Afghan scholars.   

“Please help facilitate access to our colleges and universities for the many Afghan scholars and students, who deserve our continued support and investment,” the letter asked Biden.  

“We have received no updates from the U.S. government,” Edward Liebow, executive director of the American Anthropological Association, told VOA.  

More than 80,000 Afghans have come to the U.S. over the past 10 months, mostly through Operation Allies Welcome, a U.S. government program designed to resettle former U.S. Afghan allies and at-risk individuals.

U.S. officials have repeatedly voiced support for Afghan women and minorities whose fundamental rights are reportedly violated under Taliban leadership.

Visa fees 

Already one of the poorest countries in the world, Afghanistan has plunged deeper into poverty over the past 10 months largely due to a cessation of foreign development aid, rampant unemployment, and international banking and economic sanctions imposed on the Taliban leadership. Afghan women, deprived of work and education, are particularly suffering the brunt of the harsh poverty, aid agencies say.  

To help Afghan scholars, U.S. academics have called on the Department of State to waive the student visa fees.  

“The cost of J-1 visas for academics and F-1 for students is a non-refundable fee of $160, a considerable challenge to most applicants, with further expense for those with family, each of whom pays the same fee,” said Breyer.  

A spokesperson for the Department of State said there is no exception in visa fees for Afghan students.  

“The department does not have the authority to waive visa fees on an ad hoc basis and the department’s regulations contain no exemption from the payment of visa fees that would apply to Afghan students, in general,” the spokesperson told VOA.  

For Breshna Salaam, the SEVIS and visa fees are as much an impediment to her education as are the Taliban’s outright denials of her right to work and learn.  

“I hear a lot from U.S. officials in the media that they support the right of Afghan women and girls to education and work, but it would be good to see some actions like waiving student visa fees for Afghan women or making the visa process a little easier so we don’t have to travel to a third country only to submit a visa application,” Salaam said.  

More than 914,000 international students were enrolled at U.S. academic centers in 2021, of which 354 were from Afghanistan, according to the Institute of International Education.  

 
…

US official tells VOA: ‘We are advancing these interests through engagement’
…

Fears that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would spur China to take a similar approach to Taiwan do not appear to be playing out, at least not yet, according to the top U.S. intelligence official. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping “quite clearly sees reunification of Taiwan as a goal,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told an audience in Washington late Wednesday, adding Xi “continues to prefer doing that peacefully as opposed to using military force.” 

“There are not indications that he is currently intending to take Taiwan by military force even as he is planning for the potential,” Haines added. 

Senior U.S. defense officials have repeatedly warned about China’s increasing aggressiveness in and around the South China Sea and Taiwan, and a military buildup larger than any seen since World War II. 

Those concerns were echoed Wednesday by NATO, which accused Beijing of “bullying its neighbors and threatening Taiwan.” 

“China is not our adversary, but we must be clear-eyed about the challenges it represents,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at the alliance’s summit in Madrid. 

“We see a deepening strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing, and China’s growing assertiveness and its coercive policies have consequences for the security of allies and our partners,” he added. 

The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday placed export restrictions on five Chinese companies for providing military-related support to Russia. 

Asked about the restrictions, Haines echoed the concerns. 

“They’ve tried very hard to quite publicly not take a critical stance of Russia,” she said. “Yet at the same time what we do see is that they are helping the Russians in a variety of ways behind the scenes.” 

Other top U.S. officials have previously said there has been no evidence of direct Chinese government support for Russia’s military efforts in Ukraine.
…

Internet services have been suspended in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, while in the city of Udaipur, a curfew is in place over fears of retaliatory communal violence following the killing of a Hindu tailor, allegedly by two Muslim men.

Following their arrests, the suspects reportedly said that they killed the Hindu man because he insulted the Prophet Muhammad by supporting Indian politician Nupur Sharma and sharing a related post in social media.

Sharma, a spokesperson of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made controversial comments about the Prophet Muhammad last month. Sharma’s remarks triggered a diplomatic storm, with many Islamic countries condemning the comments and registering protests against India. The BJP then suspended her from the party.

Kanhaiya Lal, the tailor, was briefly detained by police after sharing the controversial tweet earlier this month and had been receiving death threats from unknown people since then. His family on Wednesday criticized police for not providing him with protection.

The Indian government has sent a special team of the National Investigation Agency, the country’s anti-terrorism agency, to look into whether the killing was linked to any terrorist group.

On Tuesday, tensions climbed when two video clips of Lal’s killing went viral on social media.

One of the clips, allegedly made by his killers, shows the two men attacking him with cleavers. In the other, the two men allegedly declare that they have beheaded the tailor and threaten Prime Minister Modi, while brandishing the cleavers.

One of the two men also allegedly said in the video, “We live for the Prophet Muhammad, as we are ready to die for him. … Listen, Narendra Modi, you lit the fire, but we will douse it and, if God is willing, our daggers will reach your neck soon, too.”

A senior Rajasthan police official urged the media to stop showing the video because it is “too ghastly to watch.”

Hindu nationalists are calling on the Muslim suspects to be treated as terrorists and hanged. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Twitter that the case will be handled by a special investigation team and “speedier justice and strict punishment” will be ensured.

“Please stay calm and don’t help serve the assailants’ motive of spreading discord in the country,” Gehlot said.

The tailor’s killing has been widely condemned by Muslims, with many calling the act completely “un-Islamic.”

India’s largest Islamic organization, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, called the killing “barbaric” and “uncivilized.”

“There is no room for justification of violence in Islam. … We strongly condemn it. No citizen should take law in his own hands,” a tweet from the organization said. 

New Delhi-based Muslim community leader Zafarul-Islam Khan said that the Udaipur killing is “completely illegal and deplorable.”

“The criminals must be appropriately punished but a minute probe is also necessary to uncover the conspiracy behind the killing. … The probe must also focus on who benefits from this crime. It flows into the polarization politics and demonizes Muslims,” Khan told VOA.

Another Muslim community leader, Syed Azharuddin, described the killing as “inhuman” and “un-Islamic.”

“We strongly condemn this killing. The culprits should be dealt with strictly, through the legal process,” Azharuddin told VOA.

“Let us not forget that the Quran teaches us saving a human is equivalent to saving entire humanity vis-a-vis killing a human is equivalent to killing entire humanity.” 
…

Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban have invited about 3,000 religious scholars and tribal elders from across the country to a meeting Thursday in Kabul, where officials said national unity would be discussed.  

The men-only session in the Afghan capital is the first of its kind and is seen as an attempt to promote domestic legitimacy for the insurgent-turned-ruling group so it can secure much-needed international recognition.

The Taliban seized power from the internationally backed Afghan government last August, when the United States and NATO partners withdrew their final troops from the country after almost 20 years of military intervention. 

Taliban Acting Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi said Wednesday that prominent university professors, national businessmen and influential personalities would also attend the gathering, saying an Islamic system of governance and economics, as well as social issues facing Afghanistan, would be discussed.

‘We respect them a lot’ 

“This will be a positive step for stability in Afghanistan and strengthening national unity,” Hanafi told state broadcaster RTA. 

“The women are our mothers, sisters. We respect them a lot. When their sons are in the gathering, it means they are also involved, in a way, in the gathering,” he said when asked whether female delegates had been invited to Thursday’s event.  

No country has yet recognized the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, mainly because of their harsh treatment of women and girls. The Islamist rulers have suspended secondary education for most teenage girls, ordered women to wear face coverings in public and barred them from traveling beyond 70 kilometers without a close male relative. 

The Taliban are also being pressed to govern the country inclusively and give all Afghan groups proper representation to ensure long-term national stability. 

Critics questioned the legitimacy of Thursday’s grand meeting in the absence of women, who make up almost 50 percent of the country’s estimated 40 million population.  

“An allegiance from 3,000 selected guests by [the] Taliban in a meeting will not help fix any of the problems [facing the country], nor confer any internal or external legitimacy to [the] Taliban,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official and political commentator. 

“The book of God in Islam is gifted to women and men equally. Depriving women to have a voice in society is going against the precepts of Islam,” Farhadi told VOA.  

The Taliban takeover and their subsequent installation of an all-male interim government prompted Washington and other Western countries to immediately halt financial assistance to largely aid-dependent Afghanistan, seize its foreign assets — worth more than $9 billion, mostly held by the U.S. — and isolate the Afghan banking system.

Economic upheaval

The action and long-running terrorism-related sanctions on senior Taliban leaders have thrown the cash-strapped country into a severe economic upheaval, worsening an already bad humanitarian crisis blamed on years of war and persistent drought. 

The U.S. and the world at large have been urging the hardline group to reverse some of its curbs on women and ensure inclusive governance if it wants the global community to consider the Taliban’s demand for diplomatic recognition.  

Taliban leaders have rejected calls for removing the restrictions on women, insisting they are in accordance with Afghan culture and Shariah, or Islamic law. 

“Durable peace and reconciliation also require inclusive administration, represented by all political, religious and ethnic groups,” said Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.

“It is vital that national ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, including minority women in Afghanistan, are included in all decision-making processes,” Bennett remarked at an online seminar Tuesday.   

Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, while addressing the seminar, suggested rights-related issues would require engagement with the new rulers in Kabul. 

“We try to identify very specific measures that the international community can consider and can try to move forward and also how we can press the Taliban to do more because they are right now the reality in the country,” Amiri said 

Washington-based Freedom House, a pro-democracy organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world, organized the seminar.
…

The United States and the Taliban are scheduled to hold talks in Qatar later this week that are expected to focus on economic and banking sanctions on Afghanistan, where last week’s devastating earthquake has worsened a humanitarian crisis.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, along with senior Finance Ministry officials and representatives of the Afghan central bank, traveled to Doha Wednesday to attend the meeting.

Muttaqi’s office said U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West, accompanied by Department of Treasury officials, will lead the U.S. delegation at the talks in the Qatari capital.

U.S. officials are reportedly working with the ruling Islamist group on a mechanism to allow the Afghan central bank to use its frozen foreign funds, worth billions of dollars, to deal with a hunger crisis stemming from years of Afghan war and persistent drought, according to a report this week in The Washington Post.

The proposed framework would have to ensure the Taliban insurgent group-turned-rulers do not benefit from the money and it is used only to avert a humanitarian disaster in a country where the United Nations says more than half its estimated 40 million people is in need of emergency aid.

Western countries froze around $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets, mostly held in the U.S., after the Islamist Taliban seized power from the internationally backed Afghan government last August as American and NATO troops withdrew from the South Asian nation.

Western countries also suspended financial assistance to largely aid-dependent Afghanistan, isolating the country’s banking sector in the wake of long-running terror-related sanctions on the Taliban.

Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration acknowledged that efforts were underway to seek a resolution to the Afghan funding problem and get funds moving.

“We are urgently working to address complicated questions about the use of these funds to ensure they benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Saturday.

Biden issued an executive order in February that was aimed at freeing half the $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on U.S. soil. The money would be used to benefit the Afghan people while the rest would be held for the ongoing terrorism-related lawsuits in U.S. courts against the Taliban.

But humanitarian challenges have intensified in parts of Afghanistan. A powerful earthquake on June 22 killed some 1,150 people, including at least 155 children, and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes in hardest-hit southeastern Paktika and Khost provinces, according to Taliban officials and global aid agencies.

The disaster reportedly prompted Biden aides to begin talks to allow Afghanistan at least partial use of the frozen funds, while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban.

“So, in signing an executive order several months ago, the president took a significant step to preserve these funds and ensure they go toward benefiting the people of Afghanistan. If the president hadn’t taken this action, the funds would have remained tied up for years,” Jean-Pierre reiterated on Saturday.

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday the United States will give nearly $55 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to people in Afghanistan impacted by the earthquake.

The State Department said the funds will be used to deliver essential food items, clothing, cooking utensils, blankets, jerry cans, and sanitation supplies to prevent waterborne diseases in the disaster-hit Afghan areas.

“The United States has an enduring commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and we welcome and encourage support from our international partners in this time of great need,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday.

U.S. officials noted that Washington has been the largest humanitarian donor to Afghanistan and committed more than $774 million in humanitarian assistance over the past year.

No country has yet recognized the Taliban’s interim government, citing concerns over terrorism and human rights, particularly restrictions on women’s rights to education and work.
…

Police in Delhi have arrested the Muslim co-founder of a fact-checking website for allegedly “hurting religious sentiment” of Hindus. Media rights activists called the action a new low for press freedom in India.

Journalist Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, was arrested Monday after being accused of insulting Hindu beliefs in a tweet he posted in 2018. Zubair regularly highlights the marginalization of minority Muslims and identifies fake news in his tweets.

The tweet that led to Zubair’s arrest carried a photo of a hotel sign repainted from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel.” Monkey god Hanuman is revered by Hindus.

Along with the photo, which was a screenshot from a 1983 Bollywood comedy, the text in the tweet said, “Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel.”

On June 19, a Twitter account called Hanuman Bhakt, (follower of Hanuman, in Hindi), shared the 2018 tweet and charged that linking the monkey god to honeymoon was a “direct insult” to Hindus, and urged Delhi police to “take action” against Zubair.

Delhi police said Zubair’s tweet was “highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feelings of hatred.”

“Transmission and publication of such posts have been deliberately done by Mohammed Zubair @zoo_bear through electronic media to insult the religious feelings of a particular community with the intent to provoke breach of peace,” the First Information Report filed by police said.

Vrinda Grover, Zubair’s lawyer, said Zubair is being targeted because he is a journalist and speaking “truth to power.”

“Many others tweeted the same, but the only difference between those handles and my client is his faith, his name and his profession,” Grover said to the court, referring to Zubair being Muslim and a journalist.

Refused bail

Zubair was refused bail Tuesday before being remanded to four days of police custody.

Apart from being a critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, Zubair has been known for routinely tracking and highlighting anti-Muslim hate speeches, mostly by Hindu right-wing activists.

Recently, he highlighted allegedly derogatory comments made by Nupur Sharma, a spokesperson for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), about the Prophet Muhammad. His tweet on the issue was widely shared and sparked strong protests against India from many Muslim countries.

Tens of thousands of Hindu nationalists came out in support of Sharma. They held rallies across the country and launched a #ArrestZubair campaign on Twitter. On social media, many of them said that Zubair often posted tweets insulting Hindu gods and goddesses and he should be prosecuted.

#ReleaseZubair trending on Twitter

Following Zubair’s arrest Monday, #IStandWithZubair and #ReleaseZubair began trending on Twitter in India, with journalists, opposition party leaders and rights activists expressing solidarity with him.

Opposition party leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Every person exposing BJP’s hate, bigotry and lies is a threat to them.”

Delhi-based Muslim community leader Zafarul-Islam Khan said Zubair is being targeted because he consistently exposed the lies spread by the Hindutva [right-wing Hindu] groups.

“Under this regime, anyone who opens his mouth and raises his head must be put down. The plan is to silence all critics so that peace of graveyards sways over India,” Khan told VOA.

“Another low for press freedom in India”

Demanding Zubair’s immediate release, Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement: “The arrest of journalist Mohammad Zubair marks another low for press freedom in India, where the government has created a hostile and unsafe environment for members of the press reporting on sectarian issues.”

Calling Zubair’s arrest “clearly a petty, vindictive, and vengeful act,” social activist Rohit Chopra, an associate professor at Santa Clara University, told VOA that through his work, Zubair has shown how the “current government, its officials and supporters routinely spread fake news to demonize minorities, critics and their political opponents.”

Ashok Swain, head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, said the charges against Zubair are “fictitious,” and the severity of action against him is more because he is Muslim.

“When the critic is from a minority community, the government’s action becomes much more severe, as it not only prohibits others from raising their voices but also makes the core majoritarian supporters of the ruling party happy,” Swain told VOA.

Audrey Truschke, associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University, said Zubair’s arrest is a startling move by an authoritarian state whose intolerance grows by the day.

“These are indeed dark times for India, which is already one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. India’s government shames itself, tarnishes its reputation, and harms its own citizens by continuing down this horrific path,” Truschke told VOA.

India fell eight places in the 180-country World Press Freedom Index this year. In 2021, it ranked 142. In 2022, it ranks 150th.
…

Police in Bangladesh have arrested two men over their social media posts criticizing a new multibillion dollar bridge that has been trumpeted by the government as “a symbol of pride” and its greatest feat.

The Padma multipurpose bridge — Bangladesh’s longest bridge — was inaugurated Saturday by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after eight years of construction plagued by delays, political conflict, high costs and allegations of graft.

The 6.15-kilometer bridge, which cost a whopping $3.87 billion, is billed by Hasina’s government as the jewel in its crown, and the fanfare over its completion has been matched only by the harsh response to any criticism of it.

Police arrested one person Monday from the coastal district of Noakhali in southern Bangladesh for uploading a derogatory post about the Padma Bridge on his Facebook page.

Abul Kalam Azad, 42, a former low-level leader of the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said in a post that he would like to take a photograph of himself urinating on the bridge.

Azad’s post angered a lot of people in his native Companiganj town and was removed. Azad vehemently denied posting the remark, however, and insisted that his Facebook ID had been hacked.

Rashidul Islam, a police officer in Companiganj, told VOA that Azad was sent to jail by the district’s chief judicial magistrate on Tuesday morning.

Controversy over TikTok videos

Mohammad Bayezid Talha, 31, was arrested Sunday because of a viral TikTok video in which he showed he was able to unscrew nuts and bolts from the bridge with his bare hands.

This is the Padma Bridge made of billions [of Bangladeshi taka],” Talha said on the video as he unscrewed the nuts. “Its unhinged screws are in my hands now.”

After Talha’s arrest, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh’s police said Talha had used tools to unscrew the bolts and insisted it could not be done with bare hands. 

“He intentionally did that to denigrate the construction standard of the bridge,” the CID said at a press conference.

Talha was booked under the Special Powers Act, which criminalizes sabotaging or damaging government undertakings, and has previously been used to curb press freedom. Penalties under the act can range up to the death penalty. He was remanded for seven days.

Police are still seeking another unidentified individual who also was seen in a viral video unscrewing nuts with his bare hands.

RTV — a local Bangladeshi channel — aired interviews with construction workers who said they had been sent to tighten some nuts on the bridge that were not properly secured.

The RTV report created an uproar in social media, with many people charging that Talha had been arrested for exposing a “weakness of the bridge” and questioning the CID’s claim that the nuts couldn’t be unscrewed without tools.

Talking with VOA, Ratul Mohammad, the spokesperson of People’s Activist Coalition (PAC) —a Bangladeshi political organization that promotes human rights — said the arrests went against the spirit of “people’s freedom of speech.”

“By doing so, the government only curbs people’s democratic right,” Mohammad said. 

Asif Nazrul, professor of law of Dhaka Universit,y told VOA that what Talha did could have motivated others to do the same, causing serious damage to the bridge. “But booking him under Special Powers Act — the highest punitive measure, which is capital punishment — is way too much,” Nazrul said.

High Court ruling

Bangladesh’s High Court, meanwhile, ordered the government on Tuesday to form a commission within 30 days to identify people who have made up false stories about corruption involving the Padma Bridge project.

A day earlier, the court said those who have criticized the bridge construction are “enemies of the country” and “must be identified.”

“If there was no conspiracy, then why did the World Bank suspend its funding?” the court asked rhetorically. The World Bank and other donors withdrew financing for the project after allegations of corruption were brought against senior government officials and ministers a decade ago.

Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin was accused of bribing top Bangladeshi officials overseeing the project and was banned from bidding on World Bank projects for a decade. Prosecutors in Canada eventually declined to pursue graft charges against company executives after a court ruled some wiretap evidence against them was inadmissible.

Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission also investigated the matter but found no clear evidence for the allegation.

“Constructing Padma Bridge is a massive achievement and success of the Hasina administration but what they are doing surrounding it is ignominious,” law professor Nazrul said.

“At the end of the day, it is just a structure — a mega one. But it’s nothing sacred,” he said, adding that criticizing it is not blasphemy.
…

The United States will give nearly $55 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to people impacted by a recent earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan.

The funds will be used to deliver essential food items, clothing, cooking utensils, blankets, jerry cans, and sanitation supplies to prevent waterborne diseases in the disaster-hit areas.

The U.S. has been the largest humanitarian donor to Afghanistan and committed more than $774 million in humanitarian assistance over the past year, according to the Department of State.

“The United States has an enduring commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and we welcome and encourage support from our international partners in this time of great need,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday.

The U.S. announcement came only a day after the United Nations appealed for $110.3 million in urgent humanitarian response to some 360,000 Afghans impacted by the earthquake.

On June 22, a 5.9 magnitude quake killed about 1,000 people, including at least 150 children, and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes in several districts in Paktika and Khost provinces, according to aid agencies and Taliban officials.

Several countries in the region, including China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have responded to the disaster with planes loaded with tents, clothes, medical supplies and food items.

On Tuesday, two planes carrying $8 million worth of Chinese relief supplies for quake survivors landed at Kabul airport, Taliban officials announced.

Last week’s earthquake has compounded humanitarian needs in Afghanistan, where some 90% of the population is facing hunger, aid agencies say.

Through a separate humanitarian appeal, the U.N. has asked donors for about $4.4 billion to mitigate the most pressing needs and save lives in Afghanistan this year.

As of June 28, less than 34% of the Afghanistan 2022 humanitarian appeal has been fulfilled. The U.S. is on top of the donors’ list with a $459.6 million commitment.
…

Indian immigration to Australia has surged, overtaking China, according to national census data released Tuesday. The survey, which is held every five years, also revealed a growing number of Australians identifying as indigenous.

According to the new census data, Australia’s demographics are changing rapidly and it is becoming increasingly culturally diverse.

More than half of its residents were born overseas or have an immigrant parent.

Indians are now the second-biggest immigrant population after those from Britain, overtaking settlers from China and New Zealand.

More than one million people moved to Australia since the last census in 2016. The vast majority — about 850,000 — arrived by the end of 2019 before the start of the pandemic and the closure of Australia’s international borders.

The research has shown the number of people who used a language other than English at home increased to more than 5.5 million people since 2016. Of those, 850,000 reported that they did not speak English well or at all.

Australian Bureau of Statistics’ deputy statistician Teresa Dickinson told a news conference Tuesday the country is becoming increasingly multicultural.

“The number of us who are first-generation Australians — those born overseas — and second-generation Australians — those with one or both parents born overseas, which includes me — has grown and is now over half the Australian population. We have seen the largest increase in country of birth outside Australia being India with 220,000 additional people counted, making India now the second highest overseas born population after England and leapfrogging China and New Zealand.”

The proportion of Australians identifying as Christians has fallen below 50% for the first time.

The number of people who identified as Hindu increased by 55% over the past five years, reflecting the flow of immigrants from India and Nepal.

The survey has reported a growth in the number of indigenous Australians. Collectively, they speak 167 traditional languages at home. It was also the first time that “non-binary” was offered as an option to report an individual’s gender.

Completing the survey is compulsory. Those who do not comply can be prosecuted and fined up to $153 each day until the census is completed.

There were 25.5 million people in Australia on census night in August 2021, excluding overseas visitors. This is an increase of more than two million people from 2016.

Census data is used to develop policy about transport, schools, health care, and infrastructure.
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