Sri Lanka’s prime minister resigned following weeks of protests demanding that he and his brother, the country’s president, step down for dragging the nation into its worst economic crisis in decades. 

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Twitter that he submitted his resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a move that followed a violent attack by government supporters on the protesters, prompting authorities to deploy armed troops in the capital, Colombo. 

Four people, including a ruling party lawmaker, died in Monday’s violence, police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa told the Associated Press. President Rajapaksa imposed a countrywide curfew Monday evening lasting until Wednesday morning. 

For more than a month, protests have spread across the country, drawing people across ethnicities, religions and class. For the first time middle-class Sri Lankans took to the streets in large numbers, marking a dramatic revolt by many former Rajapaksa supporters, some of whom have spent weeks protesting outside the president’s office. 

The protests underscored a dramatic fall from favor of the Rajapaksas, Sri Lanka’s most powerful political dynasty for decades. The brothers were once hailed as heroes by many of the island’s Buddhist-Sinhalese majority for ending the country’s 30-year civil war, and despite accusations of war atrocities, were firmly entrenched at the top of Sri Lankan politics until now. 

The prime minister’s resignation comes as the country’s economy has swiftly unraveled in recent weeks. Imports of everything from milk to fuel have plunged, spawning dire food shortages and rolling power cuts. People have been forced to stand in lines for hours to buy essentials. Doctors have warned of crippling shortages of life-saving drugs in hospitals, and the government has suspended payments on $7 billion in foreign debt due this year alone. 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa initially blamed Sri Lanka’s economic woes on global factors like the pandemic battering its tourism industry and the Russia-Ukraine conflict pushing up global oil prices. But both he and his brother have since admitted to mistakes that exacerbated the crisis, including conceding they should have sought an International Monetary Fund bailout sooner. 

Sri Lanka has been holding talks with the IMF to set up a rescue plan, but its progress depends on negotiations on debt restructuring with creditors. Any long-term plan would take at least six months to get under way. 

Sri Lanka was in financial trouble even before the Ukraine war drove up food and oil prices. 

The Sri Lankan government has been running big budget deficits after cutting taxes in 2019 and struggling to collect taxes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has piled up massive foreign debt — much of it owed to China — and has scant foreign exchange reserves to pay for imports and to defend its embattled currency, the rupee. 

Sri Lanka is at the top of a list compiled by Liliana Rojas-Suarez of the Center for Global Development that ranks the countries most exposed to financial shocks. Those most vulnerable rely on commodity imports and have low foreign exchange reserves compared with what they owe other countries. 

Monday’s violence triggered widespread anger, with people singling out Rajapaksa supporters and attacking them in many parts of the country. 

Ruling party lawmaker Amarakeerthi Athukorala and his bodyguard were killed in Nittambuwa, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Colombo after the car they were traveling in was intercepted by an angry crowd, the police spokesman said. 

Athukorala or his bodyguard had fired guns at the protesters, who chased them and trapped them inside a building where their badly beaten bodies were recovered by police several hours later, the spokesman said.  

Three people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds from the shots fired from the lawmaker’s vehicle, he said. 

Separately, in the Rajapaksas’ hometown of Weeraketiya, a crowd that tried to set fire to a local politician’s home was fired upon, killing two protesters, he said. 

Protesters tried several times to break into the prime minister’s official residence Monday night, prompting police to fire tear gas. Homes of government ministers and politicians supporting the Rajapaksas were also attacked and some set on fire. The memorial for the brothers’ parents was vandalized. 

Jayadeva Uyangoda, a political scientist in Colombo, said the prime minister’s resignation marked a new chapter in the country’s political crisis. “The prime minister had to resign in disgrace after his supporters unleashed such violence,” he said. 

He added that it would be difficult for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to maintain credibility after Monday’s violence. 

But the president has so far refused to resign, and Parliament must go through a difficult process if it attempts to oust him. The resignation of the prime minister meant the entire Cabinet was dissolved. 

Earlier on Monday, the prime minister’s supporters attacked protesters who had been demonstrating outside the prime minister’s official residence for weeks, hitting them with wooden and iron poles. They then marched to the president’s office, where they attacked protesters there and set their camps on fire. 

Police fired tear gas and a water cannon, but not forcefully enough to control the mob. The attack occurred despite a state of emergency declared by the president Friday that gave him wide powers for riot control. 

Hundreds of armed soldiers were deployed in the capital, as the protesters accused police of not preventing the attack, despite using tear gas and water cannons on protesters on Friday. 

“Police did not protect us, therefore we have taken it into our own hands,” said Druvi Jinasena, who was helping block roads to protect the protest site. 

An official at the main hospital in Colombo said 173 people were treated, most for minor injuries, though 15 were seriously injured. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media. 

The country’s foreign reserves have plummeted below $50 million, and Sri Lanka owes nearly $25 billion in foreign debt for payment by 2026. Its total foreign debt is $51 billion. 

Meanwhile, popular anger at the Rajapaksa clan has only grown, ramping up pressure on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit too. 

“There has been sustained pressure for the last several weeks for the president to resign but he hasn’t paid much attention to that,” said Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives. 

“People are furious – and that anger is not going away anytime soon.” 
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Afghan journalists and activists who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 say that they are worried about their future in Pakistan and call on the international community to help them relocate to a third country. VOA’s Waheed Faizi has more.
Videographer: Mujib Ahmad Qarizada Produced by: Nawid Orokzai
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Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaska resigned Monday following weeks of protests calling for him and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaska, to step down amid an economic crisis.

Officials said the prime minister sent a letter of resignation to the president.

Government supporters attacked anti-government protesters Monday outside the president’s offices in Colombo, injuring at least 20 people.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon and imposed an indefinite curfew.
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Arooza was furious and afraid, keeping her eyes open for Taliban on patrol as she and a friend shopped Sunday in Kabul’s Macroyan neighborhood.

The math teacher was fearful her large shawl, wrapped tight around her head, and sweeping pale brown coat would not satisfy the latest decree by the country’s religiously driven Taliban government. After all, more than just her eyes were showing. Her face was visible.

Arooza, who asked to be identified by just one name to avoid attracting attention, wasn’t wearing the all-encompassing burqa preferred by the Taliban, who on Saturday issued a new dress code for women appearing in public. The edict said only a woman’s eyes should be visible.

The decree by the Taliban’s hardline leader Hibaitullah Akhunzada even suggested women shouldn’t leave their homes unless necessary and outlines a series of punishments for male relatives of women violating the code.

It was a major blow to the rights of women in Afghanistan, who for two decades had been living with relative freedom before the Taliban takeover last August — when U.S. and other foreign forces withdrew in the chaotic end to a 20-year war.

A reclusive leader, Akhunzada rarely travels outside southern Kandahar, the traditional Taliban heartland. He favors the harsh elements of the group’s previous time in power, in the 1990s, when girls and women were largely barred from school, work and public life.

Like Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, Akhunzada imposes a strict brand of Islam that marries religion with ancient tribal traditions, often blurring the two.

Akhunzada has taken tribal village traditions where girls often marry at puberty, and rarely leave their homes, and called it a religious demand, analysts say.

The Taliban have been divided between pragmatists and hardliners, as they struggle to transition from an insurgency to a governing body. Meanwhile, their government has been dealing with a worsening economic crisis. And Taliban efforts to win recognition and aid from Western nations have floundered, largely because they have not formed a more representative government and restricted the rights of girls and women.

Until now, hardliners and pragmatists in the movement have avoided open confrontation.

Yet divisions were deepened in March, on the eve of the new school year, when Akhunzada issued a last-minute decision that girls should not be allowed to go to school after completing the sixth grade. In the weeks ahead of the start of the school year, senior Taliban officials had told journalists all girls would be allowed back in school.

Akhunzada asserted that allowing the older girls back to school violated Islamic principles.

A prominent Afghan who meets the leadership and is familiar with their internal squabbles said that a senior Cabinet minister expressed his outrage over Akhunzada’s views at a recent leadership meeting. He spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

Torek Farhadi, a former government adviser, said he believes Taliban leaders have opted not to spar in public because they fear any perception of divisions could undermine their rule.

“The leadership does not see eye to eye on a number of matters, but they all know that if they don’t keep it together, everything might fall apart,” Farhadi said. “In that case, they might start clashes with each other.”

“For that reason, the elders have decided to put up with each other, including when it comes to non-agreeable decisions which are costing them a lot of uproar inside Afghanistan and internationally,” Farhadi added.

Some of the more pragmatic leaders appear to be looking for quiet workarounds that will soften the hard-line decrees. Since March, there has been a growing chorus, even among the most powerful Taliban leaders, to return older girls to school while quietly ignoring other repressive edicts.

Earlier this month, Anas Haqqani, the younger brother of Sirajuddin, who heads the powerful Haqqani network, told a conference in the eastern city of Khost that girls are entitled to education and that they would soon return to school — though he didn’t say when. He also said that women had a role in building the nation.

“You will receive very good news that will make everyone very happy… this problem will be resolved in the following days,” Haqqani said at the time.

In the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday, women wore the customary conservative Muslim dress. Most wore a traditional hijab, consisting of a headscarf and long robe or coat, but few covered their faces, as directed by the Taliban leader a day earlier. Those wearing a burqa, a head-to-toe garment that covers the face and hides the eyes behind netting were in the minority.

“Women in Afghanistan wear the hijab, and many wear the burqa, but this isn’t about hijab, this is about the Taliban wanting to make all women disappear,” said Shabana, who wore bright gold bangles beneath her flowing black coat, her hair hidden behind a black head scarf with sequins. “This is about the Taliban wanting to make us invisible.”

Arooza said the Taliban rulers are driving Afghans to leave their country. “Why should I stay here if they don’t want to give us our human rights? We are human,” she said.

Several women stopped to talk. They all challenged the latest edict.

“We don’t want to live in a prison,” said Parveen, who like the other women wanted only to give one name.

“These edicts attempt to erase a whole gender and generation of Afghans who grew up dreaming of a better world,” said Obaidullah Baheer, a visiting scholar at New York’s New School and former lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan.

“It pushes families to leave the country by any means necessary. It also fuels grievances that would eventually spill over into large-scale mobilization against the Taliban,” he said.

After decades of war, Baheer said it wouldn’t have taken much on the Taliban’s part to make Afghans content with their rule “an opportunity that the Taliban are wasting fast.”
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Women in Afghanistan expressed defiance on Sunday after the Taliban issued a directive ordering them to cover fully in public, including their faces, or stay indoors, saying the change would effectively leave them “imprisoned.”

Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada approved the order on Saturday in a move that threatens to push freedoms back toward the harsh rule imposed by the Islamists when they previously held power between 1996-2001.

It also goes against promises about a softer rule made to the international community after the Taliban took power in August last year.

“I am being imprisoned. I can’t live in freedom and all my social life is being controlled by the Taliban,” activist Tahmina Taham, a former government employee who lost her job after the Taliban stormed back to power last year, told AFP.

“Forget about being a woman, I have been stripped of my liberties even as a human being.”

Akhundzada’s decree also specified that women working in government jobs who did not follow the order “should be fired” and that employees whose wives and daughters do not comply will also be suspended from their jobs.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan condemned the decree and said it might further “strain engagement” between the Islamists and the international community, which has tied the resumption of aid to Afghanistan’s economy and the recognition of the Taliban government to their ability to respect women’s rights.

There were no immediate signs of Akhundzada’s order being followed in Kabul on Sunday, with many women seen on the streets without covering their faces.

In the western city of Herat, considered liberal by Afghan standards, resident Fatima Rezaie said many women were now defiant and won’t accept changes imposed by force.

“Women are not the same as 20 years ago,” Rezaie told AFP.

“[Today] they are firm and steadfast and ready to stand up to defend their rights.”

But in the southern city of Kandahar, the de facto power center of the Taliban where the reclusive Akhundzada is believed to reside, women were seen wearing the burqa.

‘Weak point’

In the 20 years between the Taliban’s two stints in power, girls were allowed to go to school and women were able to seek employment in all sectors, though considerable social barriers still impeded freedoms.

But since their return, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women’s rights banning them from many government jobs, secondary education and also from travelling alone outside their cities.

Taham said the new “order will have a very negative impact on the personal and working life of women,” adding her sister had to quit studying after her university refused her admission in a mixed-sex class.

Many are incensed at the retraction of hard-fought freedoms.

“Where (in Islam) is it said that women’s hands and faces should be covered?” said Azita Habibi, a midwife at a hospital in Herat.

But Akhundzada’s decree has also left many women worried for the safety of their male guardians.

“Even I have decided to wear a full covering hijab because I don’t want the men in my family to be punished or dishonored,” said Laila Sahar, a former NGO worker who gave a fictitious name to protect her identity.

“A weak point of a woman is her family, her children, her partner. The Taliban have smartly used this weakness to force her in wearing a hijab,” prominent activist Hoda Khamosh told AFP.

“But no woman will accept to stay at home or stop working.”

 
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An experienced Nepalese Sherpa guide scaled Mount Everest for the 26th time breaking his own record for the most climbs of the world’s highest peak, expedition organizers said Sunday.

Kami Rita reached the 8,849-meter summit on Saturday evening leading a group of Sherpa climbers who fixed ropes along the route so that hundreds of other climbers and guides can make their way to the top of the mountain later this month.

Rita and 10 other Sherpa guides reached the summit without any problems and had safely returned to lower camps, said Mingma Sherpa of the Kathmandu-based Seven Summit Treks.

The group reached the summit around 7 p.m. Saturday, which by Everest climbing standards is late. At night, there is risk of weather conditions deteriorating and climbers losing their way on the way down.

Sherpa said the guides were all highly experienced climbers.

There are hundreds of foreign climbers and an equal number of Sherpa guides who will attempt to climb Everest this month. May is the best month to climb Everest since it has the best weather conditions. There are generally only a couple of windows for good weather on the highest section of the mountain in May that enable climbers to reach the summit.

Rita, 52, first scaled Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since then. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success of the foreign climbers who head to Nepal each year seeking to stand on top of the mountain.

His father was among the first Sherpa guides, and Rita followed in his footsteps and then some. In addition to his 26 times to the top of Everest, Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K-2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse. 
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The Taliban announced Saturday that an all-covering head-to-toe burqa will be mandatory in public for women in Afghanistan, the latest in a set of curbs the Islamist group has imposed on women’s rights in nine months since returning to power.

The reclusive Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada issued the decree requiring all Afghan women to strictly comply with it, said the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, while sharing details at a news conference in Kabul.

The ministry said in a statement that a woman’s male “guardian,” such as her father, brother or husband, would receive a warning before being imprisoned for three days if the woman did not cover her face outside the home. It said the guardian would eventually be taken to a court for a stricter punishment if the decree is still violated.

The ministry stated that female government employees would be dismissed from jobs if they don’t cover their faces, and male employees would face suspensions from jobs if female members of their families are found guilty of breaching the edict.

The statement described a burqa as the best type of hijab, insisting “it is “part of Afghan culture and it has been used for ages.” It added that another preferred type of woman’s hijab is a long black veil and dress that should not be “thin or tight.”

Most women in deeply conservative Afghanistan wear a headscarf for religious and cultural reasons, but many in urban areas, such as Kabul, do not cover their faces.

Critics denounced the Taliban for making a burqa mandatory and continuously infringing upon the freedoms of 50 percent of the country’s estimated 40 million people, warning it would further alienate the international community as well as donors.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it was deeply concerned with Saturday’s decision by the Taliban.

“This decision contradicts numerous assurances regarding respect for and protection of all Afghans’ human rights, including those of women and girls, that had been provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade,” the UNAMA said.

The mission, the statement said, will immediately request meetings with Taliban de facto authorities to seek clarification on the status of the decision.

“The decision six weeks ago to postpone secondary schooling for Afghan girls was widely condemned internationally, regionally, and locally. Today’s decision by the Taliban might further strain engagement with the international community,” UNAMA warned.

The Taliban defend their restrictions on women, saying they are in line with Sharia and Afghan culture. The group has already banned women from undertaking long road trips without a close male relative and ordered taxi drivers to refuse to accept female passengers not wearing an Islamic hijab. Men and women are also banned from visiting parks at same time.

The international community, joined by Islamic nations and Muslim scholars, have been pressing the Taliban to end restrictions on women to uphold their repeated pledges that they would respect human rights of all Afghans.

Heather Barr at Human Rights Watch alleged the Taliban’s apparent goal is “to erase women and girls entirely from public life” and make them “wards and property of their male relatives, with no autonomy.”

Torek Farhadi, a political commentator and former Afghan official, said Islam does not require women to be in a burqa.

“This is what the Taliban have asked for. They are the same people who have closed teenage girls’ schools as well. They just want to relegate women at home. A shortsighted view of their world,” lamented Farhadi.

Borge Brende, the president of the World Economic Forum, lamented in a statement that the Taliban’s burqa restriction comes on top of banning women from many government jobs and girls from secondary education.

“It is hard to comprehend but the Taliban today imposed one of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan’s women since seizing power, ordering them to wear the all-covering burqa in public,” Brende wrote on Twitter.

The radical group had previously ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when women were barred from receiving an education and leaving home without being accompanied by a close male relative, leading to Afghanistan’s global isolation at the time.

Foreign governments have not yet recognized the interim Taliban leadership and linked any such consideration or opening diplomatic ties with Kabul to respect of human rights, particularly those of Afghan women.

In nine months since they retook Afghanistan on August 15, the Taliban have allowed female university students to return to classes in a newly-introduced, strictly gender-segregated education system. But they have not yet reopened high schools to girls.

The school ban was due to be lifted in late March but the Islamist rulers reversed the decision at the last minute, drawing strong condemnation from domestic critics and foreign governments. It prompted the United States to cancel planned meetings with the Taliban on easing the conflict-torn country’s financial crisis.

Washington and other Western donors cut development aid and enforced sanctions on the Afghan banking system immediately after the Islamist group seized power and the last U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan on August 30 after nearly 20 years of war with the country’s insurgents-turned-rulers.
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The Taliban say that Muslim clerics will meet to decide on the reopening of schools for girls above sixth grade as pressure mounts on the group to allow girls’ secondary education in Afghanistan.  

The Taliban spokesperson for the ministry of education, Aziz Ahmad Rayan, told VOA on Friday that clerics have been “given the duty” to reach a consensus on girls’ secondary education.  

A senior Taliban member, Anas Haqqani, told a gathering in the southeastern province of Khost on Wednesday that an assembly of Muslim clerics will be called to settle the issue of girls’ schools, without mentioning the exact date for convening the gathering.

“The scholars would have meetings and consultations on the issue after Eid. Then this will be finalized, and there is much hope, God willing, that these meetings would have a positive result,” said Rayan.  

According to Save the Children, about 80% of secondary school girls are barred from attending school. The Taliban backed off at the last moment from a promise to reopen secondary schools for girls in March.  

“The majority of secondary schoolgirls – about 850,000 out of 1.1 million – are not attending classes,” the report said.  

The Taliban, who returned to power in August 2021, have imposed strict restrictions on women in Afghanistan, including the ban on girls’ secondary education.  

Before the Taliban’s takeover, Afghan women made some achievements. About 3.5 million girls, out of roughly 9 million students, were going to school. About 30% of the civil servants and around 28% of parliamentarians were women.  

Afghan women’s rights activists in Afghanistan and around the world have been protesting against the Taliban’s takeover, which has curbed the rights and freedoms they won over the last 20 years.  

The Taliban, however, have said that they are not against girls’ education and that they are working on a plan to reopen the schools in accordance with Islamic law.  

In an interview with VOA’s Afghan service, Mohammad Naeem, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s diplomatic office in Doha, Qatar, repeated that the group is committed to reopening girls’ secondary schools.  

“We are working on it. Girls under the sixth grade are going to school. Universities are open. Female students are getting an education. This is a small issue, and it will be solved. But others should not use this as a political tool.” 

But the pressure has been mounting on the Taliban to reopen girls’ secondary schools.  

Afghan clerics and activists across the country have been calling on the Taliban to reopen girls’ secondary schools.  

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA that the U.S., together with its partners and allies, has been discussing the reopening of girls’ secondary schools with the Taliban.  

“We call on the Taliban to overcome whatever impediments exist to allow girls to access education at all levels and honor their commitment to the Afghan people,” said the spokesperson.  
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A UN report recently warned 97% of Afghanistan’s population could sink below the poverty line.
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The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has deteriorated economic and humanitarian conditions in the war-torn nation, prompting tens of thousands of people to cross into Pakistan seeking asylum and a resettled status abroad.

Pakistani officials say that since the Taliban regained power in Kabul last August more than 100,000 urban Afghans, mostly well-off and educated professionals, have arrived in the country on valid visas.

They are largely vulnerable Afghans seeking to move to the United States and other Western countries under refugee resettlement programs. Most of them have ended up in hotels, commercial guesthouses and apartment buildings in and around the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The Afghan migrants are now facing multiple problems because of their extended stay in Pakistan. They allege delays in processing their resettlement applications by relevant Western embassies, a lack of help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Islamabad, and issues related to extending their Pakistani visas.

Some of the migrant families want the UNHCR to register them as refugees. They say they don’t want to return to their native country, citing the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education and other restrictions on women.

“I have applied for a P-2 case. Generally, the process is going very, very slow,” said one Afghan asylum-seeker. The man, who declined to provide his name for security reasons, says he is a member of the Hazara Shi’ite minority community, which has been repeatedly attacked by the Islamic State terrorist group in Afghanistan.

“We are waiting for an email either from the RSC (Resettlement Support Center) or from the U.S. Embassy,” the man said.

“My son and my daughter-in-law are serving American army forces, which is a great threat,” he said, noting he himself was an employee of a foreign media group’s office in Kabul.

Educated Afghans and minorities flee

The United States’ Priority 2, or P-2, program is meant to help relocate at-risk Afghans such as journalists and rights activists who are otherwise ineligible for a decade-old U.S. special immigrant visa program open to interpreters and others who worked with American troops in Afghanistan.

Islamic State has stepped up attacks against Hazara schools and places of worship since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan nearly nine months ago. The violence has killed scores people over the past few weeks alone.

Up to 10% of Afghanistan’s estimated 40 million people are Hazara. The community is considered the most persecuted group and is discriminated against by many in the Sunni-majority country.

Fatima Sadaat is also waiting to hear about her P-2 visa application. The young female Afghan asylum-seeker tells VOA she used to work as a news presenter at one of Afghanistan’s TV stations but lost her job after the Taliban captured the country.

Sadaat was invited to attend a seminar in Pakistan several months ago to discuss issues facing women under Afghanistan’s new Islamist rulers.

“I used to broadcast anti-Taliban news and I knew sooner or later they would target me and possibly kill me for my work. That’s why I decided against going back to Afghanistan,” she said.

Sadaat urged Pakistani authorities to allow her and other Afghans to live comfortably in the country by relaxing visa restrictions and demanded Western embassies speedily address their resettlement requests.

“I can understand the world attention has shifted on Ukraine. But I hope the issue of Afghanistan is not forgotten in the process because security and human rights conditions in my country have even worsened after the Taliban takeover.”

Pakistan, which already hosts at least 3 million Afghans, both refugees and illegal economic migrants, announced last year that it would not accept new refugees from Afghanistan and tightened border controls to block illegal entrants after the Taliban takeover.

Islamabad’s ambassador to Kabul, Mansoor Ahmed Khan, told VOA that every day the mission is issuing 700 to 1,000 multiple entry visas to Afghans intending to travel to Islamabad for business reasons, for medical treatment and for visa interviews in American and Canadian embassies, as well as other Western embassies.

“We are issuing visas to Afghans more liberally than any other neighboring country or any other country in the world. We are doing so to help address Afghans’ humanitarian concerns,” Khan said.

“But if they (Afghans) want their status to be converted into a refugee status, that will not happen nor will we allow it,” he stressed. “We simply don’t want an increase in refugees.”

The exodus has allegedly encouraged corruption and bribes both in Kabul and Islamabad as Afghans seek to secure or extend Pakistani visas.

Many asylum-seekers admit they prefer to pay bribes to get their visas renewed in Pakistan because they don’t want to go back to Afghanistan. The say the trip would be more costly and it would expose them to questions from the Taliban, who have been accused of blocking the departure of educated and skilled Afghans from the country.

P-1 option

Vulnerable Afghans who do not meet the P-2 criteria may be referred under the pre-existing Priority 1, or P-1, refugee program. However, U.S. officials say the application process in all cases can take 14 to 18 months or more.

Qaisar Khan Afridi, the UNHCR spokesperson in Islamabad, told VOA his office is working with local authorities to help address the challenges facing the Afghan community.

“We are currently discussing with the government of Pakistan the way forward on registration and documentation of asylum-seekers,” Afridi said. “There might be therefore delays in the process, which we systematically convey through our communication with communities.”

Afridi explained that his organization operates “hotlines and dedicated email accounts” to respond to Afghans “facing serious risks and/or having vulnerabilities” that require support from UNHCR or its partners.

He stressed, however, not every Afghan individual or family may qualify for resettlement in a third country because the program is reserved for refugees “with significant protection needs and vulnerabilities.”

“Some countries have announced opportunities for Afghan nationals who have worked or been affiliated with those countries to apply for permission to travel to those countries,” Afridi said.

“These programs are established by those countries and UNHCR does not refer people to the programs or process applications,” he said in response to allegations his office was not providing timely and adequate assistance to Afghan asylum-seekers.

The last U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, ending nearly two decades of war with the Taliban.

Although Washington and its allies evacuated more than 124,000 at-risk people from Kabul after the Taliban takeover, tens of thousands of other vulnerable Afghans who were left behind are struggling to find a pathway to safety.

Pakistan also helped the U.S. and other Western countries to evacuate thousands of at-risk Afghans for their onward journey to the country of their resettlement. Last month, a group of about 300 Afghans was flown out of Pakistan to Germany while thousands more who worked for German forces in Afghanistan remain behind, said officials in Islamabad.

The Taliban’s ban on girls’ education has added to the problems of stranded Afghan families as their children are still unable to resume classes.

Shahpour Yousaf, a medical doctor, left Afghanistan with his family three months ago and has applied for a P-1 case at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. He said he had missed the U.S.-run evacuation flights out of Kabul in August because the chaotic situation at the time prevented them from reaching the city airport.

Yousaf, a father of three, said he was heading the drug demand reduction national program at the Afghan health ministry and was running partnership projects with the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

“There is no delay from the U.S. side but the UNHCR is taking time to process our case. We request the UNHCR to speed up our application process because our Pakistani visas will soon expire and we may face legal issues here,” said the Afghan doctor.

Yousaf explained that before leaving Afghanistan, he sold his vehicle and is using that money to pay for the rent and other expenses. His wife is also a doctor and they have two sons and a 10-year-old daughter. One of his sons graduated from a law college and the other was studying at a medical university in Kabul.

“My elder son is jobless right now. My younger son nor my daughter can resume education because neither one have enough money to fund it nor our current status in Pakistan allows them to attend a local institution.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this report misspelled Shahpour Yousaf’s first name. VOA regrets the error.
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India and France on Wednesday called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” in Ukraine, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi again stopping short of condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

India, which imports much of its military hardware from Russia, has long walked a diplomatic tightrope between the West and Moscow, notably refusing to denounce the latter or vote against it at the United Nations over its actions in Ukraine.

“France and India expressed their deep concern over the humanitarian crisis and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement after they met in Paris for talks and a working dinner.

“Both countries unequivocally condemned the fact that civilians have been killed in Ukraine and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in order for the two sides to come together to promote dialogue and diplomacy, and to put an immediate end to the suffering of the people.”

However, only France condemned “Russian forces’ illegal and unjustified aggression against Ukraine.”

The two countries said they would “respond in a coordinated and multilateral way” to the risk the conflict would intensify a global food crisis. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s main wheat producers.

Ahead of the meeting, Macron’s office had said he would “emphasize the consequences of the war for the international order well beyond the European Union, including in Asia” to Modi.

France wants to “help the Indians diversify their supply” away from Russian arms and energy, officials added.

The aim, they said, “is not to leave the Indians with no way out, but to offer solutions.”

Modi, who is on a European tour, told reporters after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Monday that “there won’t be any winners in this war and everyone will lose.”

The Elysee said Macron has an “extremely warm relationship” with Modi, who has visited France three times since 2017, while the French leader went to India in 2018.

Modi invited Macron to visit India again to deepen cooperation on defense technology and the transition to clean energy.

The two men embraced and posed for photographs when Modi arrived in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace, where he was also greeted by Macron’s wife, Brigitte.

Going into the meeting, officials described France’s relationship with India as “trusting,” and the joint statement reaffirmed the two countries’ desire to strengthen the “strategic Franco-Indian partnership, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.”

Securing France’s place in the region is especially important after Britain, the United States and Australia last year sealed their AUKUS security pact, dumping a lucrative French contract to supply Canberra’s next generation of submarines along the way.

India has bought dozens of French Rafale fighter jets and six submarines and cooperates with Paris on civil nuclear projects. French state-owned energy giant EDF wants to build six next-generation EPR reactors in Jaitapur on India’s west coast.

The Elysee said it was pushing hard to get that deal signed, fitting in with Macron’s vow ahead of his reelection last month to renew France’s nuclear industry and replace its fleet of ageing power plants. 
…

Uzbekistan has emerged as a key interlocutor with the Taliban, engaging with its southern neighbor across a range of issues while insisting that it will not formally recognize the interim government in Afghanistan before the world community. 

That nuanced position has allowed it to begin exploring opportunities for economic cooperation with Kabul without alienating the United States and other Western powers that have sought to isolate Afghanistan with asset seizures and other sanctions. 

Ismatulla Irgashev, special representative to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, said during an interview in Tashkent that his government is “working closely” with the Taliban. “We have long established solid contacts, talk regularly, [and] discuss cooperation.” 

Uzbekistan sees the Taliban “as a reality that must be accepted,” he explained. Seeking a peaceful and stable neighbor, he added, “We see no other option. We share a border, deep history and culture.” 

“Imagine what happens if we don’t engage. … More conflict, another civil war, more blood, poverty, suffering, threats to the neighbors and the international community.” 

Reflecting on President Mirziyoyev’s description of Afghanistan as an integral part of Central Asia, Irgashev said, “We see a common future with immense common interests, no matter who is in power there.” 

In the short term, Uzbekistan has become a key hub for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, earning it the appreciation of donor nations.

“We … very much welcome the strong humanitarian support that you’ve been providing to the Afghans,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during talks in March. 

Mirziyoyev recently dispatched a delegation to Washington, urging more assistance to Afghanistan. Irgashev claimed Tashkent has persuaded the European Union to return diplomats to Kabul and hopes the U.S. will ultimately take similar steps. 

“The Taliban don’t want to be isolated,” Irgashev said.  “They want international recognition.” 

While urging greater engagement with the Taliban, Irgashev said Tashkent is committed to moving ahead with formal recognition only in concert with the international community. 

“We will not recognize them alone,” he said. “When it happens, we want a collective voice and stand.” 

Most world governments cite three conditions for recognition of the Taliban — the formation of an “inclusive” government, protection of the rights of women, and steps to ensure that Afghan territory will not become a base for international terrorists. 

The concern about terrorism is one that Uzbekistan and the United States “share very deeply,” said U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum. “Terrorist groups operate there. There’s some evidence that they’ve been growing in number and ability to operate since the change of government last summer,” he told VOA.

But, he said, Uzbekistan “has been extremely collaborative and communicative about its Afghanistan policy.” 

Irgashev said he believes it will be difficult for the Taliban to quickly meet the other conditions for recognition. 

“For 20 years at least, the Taliban fought the West and its mission. They promised a government based on Taliban principles. How can we expect them to revise their agenda so fast?” he asked. 

“But they realize they need to make changes to be accepted internationally. They need time to adjust step-by-step. We’ve discussed these complexities with Americans and Europeans.” 

Irgashev pointed out that most members of the interim government in Kabul “have very little, if any, experience with governance or management.” In his view, he added, “they also need time to work out internal disagreements.” 

Arguing for greater engagement with the Taliban in the meantime, Irgashev noted that they are in firm control of Afghanistan, their rule challenged only by minor resistance movements based mainly in the Panjshir Valley. 

“The Taliban is an independent military and political force that controls the entire country,” Irgashev said, stressing that they are the first government in Kabul in 40 years to rule without direct foreign backing. 

Tashkent’s thinking is also colored by practical economic concerns, not least the prospect of securing a trade route from landlocked Uzbekistan through Afghanistan to Pakistani seaports on the Indian Ocean. 

“We believe the Taliban shares these goals and is committed to work with us on these endeavors,” Irgashev said. “There will surely be problems and challenges but we’re working on trade, transportation, communication, and other sectors.” 

He said Taliban leaders understand they must also develop a “workable relationship” with the West in order to improve the living conditions of their people. “Therefore, they are eager to collaborate on infrastructure projects and we are urging our Western partners to seize the moment and help guide them.” 

This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service. 
…

The United States is giving Ukraine 16 Mi-17 helicopters that Washington had procured for Afghanistan, a U.S. government agency charged with monitoring Afghan events said Wednesday.

The Department of Defense (DOD) notified Congress in January that it intended to give the Ukrainian government five of the Russian-built helicopters, which had been undergoing maintenance at a Ukrainian facility.

“Ukraine accepted these excess defense articles on March 11,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted in its quarterly report submitted to U.S. lawmakers this week.

The report added: “In mid-April, President (Joe) Biden announced a military assistance package to Ukraine that included an additional 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had been scheduled for Afghanistan.”

Mi-17s are mostly used to carry troops and military equipment. Ukraine is one of the former Soviet Union republics which hosts production and repair facilities for the helicopters.

US equipment left in Afghanistan

In its report this week, the

SIGAR also confirmed reports that the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government last August gave the country’s new Taliban rulers access to more than $7 billion worth of U.S. Department of Defense equipment.

“DOD estimates that $7.12 billion worth of ANDSF equipment remained in Afghanistan in varying states of repair when U.S. forces withdrew in August 2021,” the report said in reference to the U.S.-trained and funded former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

The SIGAR also clarified, citing the Pentagon data, that $18.6 billion worth of ANDSF equipment was procured through the U.S. Afghan Security Forces Fund (ASFF) since 2005 — not the $80 billion reported by some media. Much of that equipment was destroyed during combat operation, it added.

The equipment includes aircraft, vehicles, munitions, guns and communication equipment, as well as other gear, “in varying states of repair,” according to Pentagon spokesperson Army Major Rob Lodewick.

“Nearly all equipment used by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan was either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal,” Lodewick said in a statement last week.

Pentagon officials also told VOA that only a sliver of U.S.-owned and operated equipment was left behind when the last U.S. troops departed Afghanistan, estimating its value at just more than $150 million before it was destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable.

The Taliban seized power from the now-defunct Afghan government in mid-August 2021. U.S.-led foreign troops finished withdrawing from Afghanistan on August 30 after nearly two decades of war with Taliban insurgents.

Afghan air force personnel also flew almost 50 helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to neighboring Uzbekistan as the Taliban took control of the country in a lightning 11-day military offensive. Several more aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters were taken to neighboring Tajikistan to prevent them from falling into Taliban hands.

The SIGAR report quoted the Taliban air force commander and former Afghan Air Force (AAF) personnel as saying that about 4,300 members, half of the former AAF, have joined the Taliban’s air force, including 33 pilots.

“Only a fraction of the 81 aircraft at the Kabul military airport are functional, including six repaired UH-60 Blackhawks,” the report said.

Humanitarian assistance

Meanwhile, the SIGAR report said that the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had paused the majority of development assistance programs in Afghanistan during August and September 2021. Since then, more than a dozen programs have restarted to address critical needs of the Afghan people.

“Efforts in these areas are being implemented through NGOs, international organizations, and other third parties, minimizing benefit to the Taliban to the extent possible,” the report noted.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan, ravaged by years of war and the worst drought in three decades, are in need of humanitarian assistance. An estimated nearly 9 million of them remain at risk of famine-like conditions.

The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 3.2 million children in Afghanistan will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, with one million severely malnourished children at risk of death if immediate action is not taken.

The Biden administration on March 31 pledged more than $204 million in humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan, according to the SIGAR. This is in addition to $308 million announced on January 11. The U.S. humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees in the region since October 2020 now totals nearly $986 million.

VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
…

For several months Pashtana kept rejecting marriage proposals made for her 14-year-old daughter, Zarghona, until she had to make a final decision.   

“I had to choose between the survival of my four little children and giving Zarghona to marriage,” Pashtana told VOA over the phone from the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, where last year her husband, an army soldier, was killed in clashes with then Taliban insurgents. 

The young widow made every effort to provide for her children, but there was no job for her under a Taliban regime that has banned work for women. 

Pashtana’s family disowned her 15 years ago when she married her former husband against their will, and she only has an elderly mother in-law from her husband’s family. 

“I gave Zarghona to this man who was wooing her for several months…what else could I do? How else could I feed my little children?” said the bereaved mother adding the man paid 200,000 Afghanis or about $2,300 in dowry. 

Zarghona’s story is not an exception.

As hunger grows deeper in war-ravaged Afghanistan, which has the world’s highest number of people in need of emergency food assistance, an increasing number of Afghan families are offering their underage girls in exchange for dowry, debt relief and other social and economic incentives. 

In the eight months since the Taiban took control of the country, more than 120,000 children are feared to have been bartered for some sort of financial incentive, according to an analysis made by several aid agencies. 

“UNICEF is hearing more and more reports of destitute parents being forced to take desperate measures to keep their families alive,” Joe English, a spokesman for the U.N. Children’s Agency (UNICEF), told VOA. 

Legal confusion 

As is common in Afghanistan, Zarghona’s husband, twice her age, was not lawfully required to register the marriage at a public office. The wedding was officiated only in the privacy of the family.  

While a civil law by the previous Afghan government allowed girls’ marriage only at age 16, the new de facto Taliban Islamist regime has a different policy. 

“The Sharia is clear about this,” said Sadiq Akif, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, referring to the Islamic jurisprudence. 

“When a girl reaches puberty, she can be given to marriage,” Akif told VOA. 

Most girls reach puberty between the ages of 11 and 13, according to Nadia Akseer, a scientist at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. 

Under the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law, the marriage of an 11-year-old girl, considered middle childhood in most countries, is allowed. Medical professionals strongly disagree.  

“Girls bodies are changing and growing their whole life but especially once they hit puberty. That pubertal growth spurt continues from initiation of puberty (say age 12 years) until their early 20s. During these years, girls have a heightened need for good nutrition and healthy behaviors to grow to her fullest potential,” Akseer told VOA. 

One critical consequence of the prevalence of child marriage in Afghanistan, estimated at 28% nationwide, is maternal mortality. Afghanistan has the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in Asia. For every 100,000 live births 700 to 1,600 mothers die. 

“From a medical standpoint for the girl to attain her full health and development, she should not get pregnant at least until her early 20s,” said Akseer. 

Other risks

“Girls who are forced into early marriage have their childhoods ripped away from them. They are often denied access to education and face a future they are not physically, emotionally and psychologically ready for, which has a devastating impact on their health and mental wellbeing,” said Sacha Myers, a spokeswoman for Save the Children in Afghanistan. 

While poverty pushes vulnerable parents to extreme remedies such as giving their teenage daughters for dowry, the Taliban’s ban on secondary education and work for women appears to have facilitated the rise in child marriages in Afghanistan. 

“When girls are banned from school and from work outside, what options are left for parents other than giving their daughters into early marriage?” said Tamana Bahar, an engineering specialist who was sacked from a government job by the Taliban last year because of her gender. 

After seizing power last August, the Taliban fired all female government employees except for medical professionals and some teachers. 

Pashtana, who is now able to feed her four young children with the dowry she took for Zarghona’s marriage, could not see a better future for her teenage daughter. “This is how life is for women in this country,” she said.

Hunger and severe malnutrition threaten the lives of more than 1 million Afghan children, UNICEF has warned. 

To save these children, their parents will likely continue to opt for the type of extreme solutions that led to Pashtana’s fate.
…

A judge in Fiji has ruled that U.S. authorities can seize a Russian-owned superyacht — but has put a hold on his order until at least Friday while defense lawyers mount a challenge.

The yacht Amadea — worth $325 million — had earlier been stopped from leaving the South Pacific nation because of its links to Russia. That order will stand for now, preventing U.S. authorities from taking the yacht to Hawaii or elsewhere.

A question remains over which of two Russian oligarchs really owns the Amadea, with only one of them facing sanctions. There are also questions about how far U.S. jurisdiction extends into Fiji.

Suva High Court Justice Deepthi Amaratunga on Tuesday granted an order allowing the U.S. to seize the superyacht after the U.S. had earlier filed a warrant. But the judge has also allowed for a pause while defense lawyers put together their challenge.

The judge’s next decision in the case will come on Friday, when he will decide whether to continue to put a hold on the yacht’s seizure pending a formal appeal by the defense.

The U.S. Justice Department in March announced the creation of a team of federal agents and prosecutors to pursue wealthy Russians or those aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The team, called Task Force KleptoCapture, was set up to seize assets belonging to oligarchs with the aim of pressuring Russia to end the war.

The U.S. claims the real owner of the superyacht Amadea is Suleiman Kerimov. The economist and former Russian politician was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 for alleged money laundering and has faced further sanctions from Canada, Europe, Britain and other nations after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Kerimov made a fortune investing in Russian gold producer Polyus, with Forbes magazine putting his net worth at $14.5 billion.

But defense lawyers claim the real owner is Eduard Khudainatov, the former chairman and chief executive of Rosneft, the state-controlled Russian oil and gas company. Khudainatov currently does not appear to face any sanctions, unlike many oligarchs and people with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin who have been sanctioned since the war began.

As with many superyachts, determining the real ownership of the Amadea is difficult due to the shadowy trail of trusts and shell companies. On paper, the superyacht is registered in the Cayman Islands and owned by Millemarin Investments Ltd., also based in the Cayman Islands.

Defense lawyers have claimed in court that Millemarin Investments Ltd. is the legal owner of the vessel and that the company is linked to the real, or beneficial, owner, Khudainatov. But U.S. authorities have claimed that behind all the various fronts, the real owner is Kerimov.

On April 19, after the yacht had sailed into Fiji from Mexico, the High Court in Suva ordered that the Amadea not leave Fiji until the merits of the U.S. warrant to seize the vessel were determined. Perhaps reflecting the question over ownership, the court later ordered Fijian prosecutors to amend an original summons, which named just Kerimov, to also include Millemarin Investments Ltd. as a second respondent to the case.

For now, the yacht continues to sit in a Fijian harbor with its crew of about 25 rotating on and off the vessel, while a police officer remains on board to ensure it stays put.

According to Boat International, the Amadea is 106 meters long and was built in 2017. It features a stainless steel albatross that extends off the bow and weighs more than 5 tons, a live lobster tank in the galley, a 10-meter (33-foot) pool, a hand-painted Pleyel piano and a large helipad.

The U.S. Embassy in Suva earlier said in a statement that the U.S. was acting with allies and partners around the world to impose costs on Russia because of its “war of choice.”

“We continue to ratchet up the pressure on Putin’s oligarchs and we are working with allies and partners to go after corrupt gains from some of the individuals closest to Putin, no matter where they are held around the world,” the embassy said.
…

Putting pandemic woes behind it, India is set to become the world’s fastest growing major economy for a second straight year, growing at nearly double the rate forecast for China.

India’s economy is projected to expand 8.2 percent this year in comparison to 4.4 percent pegged for China, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Economists, however, warn that the uncertainties created by the Ukraine crisis pose a huge challenge in maintaining the momentum as India too grapples with the runaway fuel prices and high food inflation that are hurting countries around the globe.

Another challenge faced by India is that growth is uneven – while jobs and incomes have come roaring back in some sectors, such as information technology, millions who lost livelihoods during the pandemic are still struggling.

“The evidence is reasonably clear that some sectors of the economy are growing much faster than others,” says Ravi Srivastava, director of the Center for Employment Studies at the Institute for Human Development in New Delhi. “This obviously has consequences — employment and earnings have still not recovered. It is only a small segment that is benefiting.”

India’s economic rebound means different things to different people.

For some people, these are boom times. A 39-year-old employee at a consultancy firm who did not want to be named due to company policy is switching jobs.

“Twenty-five to 30 percent hikes are easy in the job market today. There is no dearth of opportunities,” she said. “If a company does not meet the expectation of an employee, people are quickly moving on. It is happening all around me.”

Some of India’s biggest technology companies have seen attrition rates of more than 20 percent in recent months.

The formal sector, however, accounts for only about 10 percent of jobs. Most livelihoods are created in the country’s vast informal sector, which was hit hard during the pandemic.

Here too there are signs of revival as cities lift all restrictions — small shop owners to taxi drivers say work is picking up.

Dhan Singh Negi, who rents his car to a company, says in recent months about 80 percent of his pre-pandemic business has revived. “I mostly pick up my company’s clients from the airport and take them around the city. In the last two months, work has been good.”

Negi had returned to his village after nearly a year, along with his brother — part of a mass exodus of about 100 million migrant workers who returned to their villages as work in cities dried up two years ago when the pandemic began.

Now, all segments of the Indian economy are open, most offices have begun recalling employees and flights, trains and buses are packed as travel, both business and personal, resumes in full swing.

That has made it possible for Negi to find work after returning.

His brother was not so lucky. He is still in the village, mostly working under a jobs program that offers poor households in rural areas up to 100 days of unskilled labor per year on public projects such as building roads and canals. Launched 15 years ago to offer a livelihood to people in rural India, the program emerged as a huge safety net for migrants who returned to their villages in the wake of the pandemic.

Wages at about $3 a day are meager – much less than workers can earn in cities.

Despite the economic recovery, the numbers seeking employment under the pro-poor jobs program continue to be high, which economists say is a sign of continuing distress. More than 253 million households enrolled last year, according to government figures – much higher than 186 million in 2019 before the pandemic.

The number of workers in the agriculture sector has also surged as migrants who worked in cities returned to their small farms. It was termed “reverse migration.”

“Data shows that a larger percentage of the workforce has slipped off the grid away from regular employment into some form of informal self-employment,” says economist Srivastava. “So the quality of employment is poorer today than two years ago and there is a bulge in rural self-employment.”

Economists say what has happened is essentially a reversal of modern development that sees people leave the agriculture industry to work in more modern sectors.

The government, however, hopes that the overall recovery will trickle down to poor people and is optimistic that the economy will maintain its fast trajectory through this decade.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a visit to Germany, said Monday, “We are confident that India will be an important pillar of global recovery.” But he also said that the impact of “skyrocketing” oil prices and a shortage of food grains and fertilizers due to the Ukraine crisis “on developing and poor countries will be even more serious.”

Already growth estimates of 9 percent that had been made before the war erupted have been pared down – the current estimate is 8.2 per cent.

Still, the rebound in Asia’s third biggest economy is significant. “Healthy for India, but also positive in a world where growth slowdown is creating a major problem,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, said two weeks ago.
…

 An unusually early and brutal heat wave is scorching parts of India, with acute power shortages affecting millions as demand for electricity surges to record levels.

Supplies of coal at many thermal power plants are running perilously low, spawning daily power outages in several states. The shortages are sparking scrutiny of India’s long reliance on coal, which produces 70% of the country’s electricity.

The situation highlights India’s pressing need to diversify its energy sources, as demand for electricity is expected to increase more than anywhere else in the world over the next 20 years as the densely populated country develops, according to the International Energy Agency.

The shortages hit as blisteringly high temperatures are sweeping over parts of the country, prompting authorities to close schools, sparking fires at gigantic landfills, and shriveling crops as a cool spring suddenly turned unrelentingly hot. 

India recorded its hottest March since 1901, and average temperatures in April in northern and central pockets of the country were the highest in 122 years, the Indian Meteorological Department said. Temperatures breached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in 10 cities last week, although cloudy skies and rain could bring some relief soon.

Climate change is making severe temperatures hotter and more frequent, with heat waves likely to strike India about once every four years instead of every five decades in the past, said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. India urgently needs to prepare for record increases in power consumption as a result.

Current power cuts are hurting economic activity, which had been rebounding after pandemic shutdowns, and could disrupt essential services such as hospitals, experts warn. Many states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are experiencing blackouts of up to seven hours.

On Friday, the railways ministry canceled more than 750 passenger train services to allow more freight trains to move coal from mines to the power plants.

Out of India’s 165 coal plants, 94 are facing critically low coal supplies while 8 are not operational as of Sunday, according to data from the Central Electricity Authority. This means stocks have dropped below 25% of normal levels.

Government rules mandate that power plants maintain 24 days’ worth of coal stocks, but many routinely don’t, said Vibhuti Garg, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Much of India had a cool spring this year before temperatures rose quickly and dramatically. “Then suddenly the demand started picking up and the inventories started declining much, much faster than anticipated,” Garg said. “And this becomes a kind of panic situation that they’ll start running out of coal pretty soon.”

But the power outages are less the result of a dearth of coal than inadequate forecasts of demand and plans for transporting it in time, experts said.

“We don’t have enough resources to do proper forecasting. The hike in demand should not have come as a surprise,” Garg said.

“There is enough coal, but a lack of anticipation and planning” caused problems, said Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. “This could have been avoided.”

Some of the shortfall could also have been met with imported coal, Garg said. But global prices have shot up since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reaching $400 per ton in March, putting it out of reach for perennially cash-strapped power distribution companies.

Analysts expect demand to dip in the coming weeks, especially if the heat subsides, but it is likely to surge again in July and August, driven by rising humidity and the planting season in some Indian states. It is also the start of the monsoon, when heavy rains can flood coal mines and disrupt both mining and supply.

A similar energy crisis occurred last October following unusually heavy rains that flooded several mines.

The freeing up of freight trains to transport coal is likely to ease the situation and provide some relief, but it isn’t a long-term solution, experts said.

With climate change exacerbating heat waves, energy shortfalls will become more routine and demand will only rise further. But the answer is not to open new mines or add more coal to India’s energy mix, because that will increase greenhouse gases that in turn will trap more heat, experts said.

“We need to aggressively focus on bolstering renewable energy and making it more reliable. Otherwise, the same issues will keep occurring, because we are too reliant on this one source of fuel,” Dahiya said.

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden called for religious tolerance as he hosted a reception Monday to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Biden praised the contributions of Muslim Americans, saying, “Muslims make our nation stronger every single day, even as they still face real challenges and threats in our society, including targeted violence and Islamophobia.”

Biden, who is Catholic, told attendees at the event in the White House’s East Room, “There’s a lot of similarities between all the three major religions.”

He said, “For the first time in decades, three Abrahamic faiths all celebrate their holy days at the same time,” listing Ramadan, Passover and Easter.

Muslims celebrate the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday at the conclusion of Ramadan, a holy month in which Muslims typically engage in daylong fasts.

“Through their fast, Muslims demonstrate empathy for the suffering of others, strengthening and renewing their resolve to give generously and to make the world a better place, better for all who suffer,” Biden said.

The president was joined at the White House event by his wife, Jill Biden, and Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris could not attend because she has been in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 last week. Her office said Monday that she had tested negative for the virus and would be back to work on Tuesday.

In a statement issued ahead of the event, the Bidens said, “The tradition of religious freedom for all strengthens our country, and we will continue to work with Americans of all beliefs and backgrounds to safeguard and deepen our collective commitment to this fundamental principle.

“This year, we will resume the tradition of celebrating Eid at the White House, and of honoring the inspiring Muslim Americans who are leading efforts to build greater understanding and unity across our nation.”

Last year’s White House Eid celebration was held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bidens also highlighted the “millions of displaced persons and refugees around the globe who are spending this sacred holiday separated from their families and unsure of their future.” They said the nation must “uphold our commitment to serving as a beacon of hope for oppressed people around the world.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters.

 
…

Officials in Pakistan confirmed Sunday that former Prime Minister Imran Khan, along with 150 others, had been booked under the country’s blasphemy law, a move that drew condemnation of the government for using religion “as a tool” to intimidate political rivals.

The disputed blasphemy charges stemmed from heckling of new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation by some Pakistani pilgrims during an official visit last week to Saudi Arabia. 

The hecklers were allegedly linked to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Several videos circulating on social media have shown people chanting “traitors” and “thieves” on Thursday as Sharif’s team members visited the holy mosque built by Islamic Prophet Mohammad in Medina.

Saudi authorities confirmed Friday they arrested several Pakistanis for their alleged involvement in the incident.

Rana Sanaullah, the Pakistani interior minister, in a tweet Sunday defended the blasphemy charges levelled against Khan in a police complaint, promising to bring to justice those behind the incident in Saudi Arabia. “No one will be spared in this matter and law will take its course,” the minister told a local television channel. 

Sanaullah added that the former prime minister and his aides could be arrested if evidence linked them to the incident.

Khan and his aides have rejected the charges as “ridiculous” and an outcome of public pressure building on the new government in the wake of the deepening economic and energy crises facing Pakistan. 

Last month, a parliamentary no-confidence vote ousted Khan’s nearly four-year-old government and Sharif replaced him as the head of a coalition.

Fawad Hussain, a former minister and central member of Khan’s party, drew the attention of international human rights groups to alleged misuse of the blasphemy law by the Sharif government.

“Pakistan Interior minister in his statements has accepted the use of blasphemy laws as a tool to charge political opponents,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Probably first time in the history of Pakistan, [a] government is using Blasphemy laws against opposition earlier private sects and extremists weaponised these sections to avenge personal vendetta but today….[the] interior minister triumphantly claimed victimisation as success,” Hussain said in a subsequent tweet.  

Rights activists have also dismissed the blasphemy charges as political victimization, saying they are meant to deter Khan from organizing anti-government protests.  

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan demanded the cases against the PTI leadership be withdrawn immediately. “No government or political party can afford to allow allegations of blasphemy to be weaponised against its rivals,” the rights watchdog said on Twitter.

The blasphemy provision used in the police complaint specifically states that offensive remarks made against the Islamic prophet would only be treated as blasphemous. Additionally, law experts noted that Pakistan’s legal framework does not allow registration of cases in criminal acts committed on a foreign land. 

Critics have long called for reforming Pakistan’s blasphemy law, saying it is often abused by influential members of society and religious fanatics to intimidate religious minorities and pressure opponents into settling personal feuds.

Insulting the Prophet Mohammad can carry a death penalty in Pakistan but no one has been executed to date because higher courts often overturn lower court convictions in blasphemy-related cases. 

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in the predominantly Muslim Pakistan where suspects are often attacked and sometimes lynched by mobs.

“This is the public reaction because they are angry,” Khan told the private ARY news channel while responding to the heckling incident. “How they connected us with what happened in Medina,” he asked in the interview the channel will broadcast Monday.

On Sunday, Khan told reporters that “anyone who loves the prophet cannot even think of asking people to chant slogans at the sacred place (of worship in Medina).”

The deposed Pakistani leader alleges the United States sponsored the no-confidence vote against him as punishment for a visit he made to Moscow against Washington’s advice. Khan visited President Vladimir Putin on the day the Russian leader ordered troops to invade Ukraine. 

Khan has organized mass rallies across major cities in recent days against the Sharif administration, dismissing it as an “imported government” imposed by the United States.

Washington rejects the accusations as untrue. 

Khan is demanding the government announce early elections and has called on his supporters to march on Islamabad in the last week of May and stage a sit-in protest until the demand is met. 

Government officials have dismissed the demand, saying the elections will be held next year as scheduled. 

Sharif took the oath of office April 11 on a day when he was due to be indicted and sent to jail in a massive money laundering case. He is the younger brother of three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was convicted in a corruption case and imprisoned. 

The Khan government allowed the elder Sharif to leave the jail and go to London for six weeks to seek urgent medical treatment in 2019. He has not returned to Pakistan.
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The reclusive Taliban chief, in a rare public appearance, Sunday hailed what he said was the return of security and the Islamic system to Afghanistan after his hardline group seized power last August.

“Congratulations on this victory, freedom and success,” Hibatullah Akhundzada told several thousand worshippers at the central mosque in the southern city of Kandahar. He spoke at the start of three days of Eid al-Fitr festivities to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The second largest Afghan city is known as the Taliban’s birthplace and de facto power center.

Akhundzada was making his first public speech since the takeover. He delivered the brief address without turning to face the worshippers.

Taliban security confined journalists, including the crew of the official Afghan television, to a corner of the mosque and did not allow them to approach Akhundzada.

An eyewitness told VOA the compound was heavily guarded, with machine-gun positions on the roof of the mosque around the dome and under construction towers next to the building. A large number of Taliban soldiers were deployed in and outside of the house of worship and Russian-made MI-17 helicopters and a Cessna aircraft hovered over the mosque when Akhundzada was delivering his speech.

The tight security measures stemmed from a series of bombings in mosques, schools and other civilian targets across major Afghan cities, including the capital, Kabul, over the past two weeks, killing and injuring scores of people. The victims were mostly members of the minority Shi’ite Muslim community.

Some of the attacks have been claimed by Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province, commonly known by the acronym ISIS-K.

The deadliest of the attacks took place in the northern province of Kunduz, where a bomb ripped through a crowded mosque, killing at least 36 worshippers and wounding scores of others. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

War-related casualties, however, have almost disappeared in Afghanistan since August 15, when the insurgent-turned ruling Islamist group seized power from the then-Western-backed government in Kabul and U.S.-led coalition troops withdrew from the country days later after 20 years of war with the Taliban.

Akhundzada’s public appearance on Sunday was his second known since he was appointed as the supreme leader of the Taliban in 2016. He had visited a mosque in Kandahar last October and briefly spoke to a small gathering of his followers.

Taliban social media accounts later released an audio recording from the October event in a bid to dismiss rumors of his death and media speculation about the role the low-profile Akhundzada is playing in the policy making affairs of the interim government in Kabul.

The Taliban rulers are being denounced by the global community for not lifting a ban on schoolgirls’ education in Afghanistan despite repeated public pledges they would allow women to work and receive an education.

In a message on Friday ahead of the Eid festival, the Taliban chief tried to address those concerns.

“We respect and are committed to all the Sharia (Islamic law) rights of men and women in Afghanistan; no one should worry about it and do not use this humanitarian and emotional issue as a tool for political ends,” Akhundzada said.

“The IEA is committed to take further steps in this regard, as education is the key to rescue our compatriots and pave the way towards our country’s development and prosperity,” he said, using the official name of the Taliban government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by the U.S.-led military invasion of the country for harboring al-Qaida leaders blamed for the deadly terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11 of that year. The ensuing war killed nearly 300,000 people, including foreign troops, with Afghan civilians forming the majority of the casualties.
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Afghan Taekwondo champion Nisar Ahmad Abdulrahimzai fled Afghanistan for Ukraine and is now in Switzerland. Despite his circumstances, he says he is ready to represent Afghanistan in competition. VOA’s Waheed Faizi has the story.
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A bomb blast in a passenger van in Kabul on Saturday killed at least one person, officials said, in the second explosion in the Afghan capital in two days, as security concerns rise on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

“One woman was killed and three more injured,” Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for Kabul’s commander, told Reuters.

A day earlier, an explosion killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque amid a spate of mosque attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.  

One witness to the passenger van blast, Ali Maisam, 19, who was waiting outside a nearby bakery at the time, said he saw a number of bodies.

“I saw people coming out of the minibus with bloody and burnt faces. … I saw that four bodies were taken out and a woman was among the dead,” he said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, but most previous bombings have been claimed by an Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State militant group.

Security concerns have risen across Afghanistan as the country prepares to mark Eid al-Fitr on Sunday under Taliban rule for the first time in more than 20 years, after the group was removed from power following a U.S. invasion in 2001.

The Taliban retook power last August after foreign forces pulled out of the country.

Taliban authorities announced on Saturday that Eid would be marked the following day, leading to raucous rounds of celebratory gunfire in the streets of Kabul late on Saturday night.

The authorities also moved to assuage people’s fears over security ahead of Eid.

“We ensure our countrymen we will ensure security during Eid,” spokesman for Taliban interior ministry Abdul Nafee Takor said.
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Meteorologists warn the extreme heat gripping India and Pakistan is likely to have many cascading effects on human health, ecosystems, agriculture, water, energy, and the economy. 

For the past few days, hundreds of millions of people have been sweltering under temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius in widespread areas of India and Pakistan. The intense heat is predicted to continue until May 2 and then subside.

The World Meteorological Organization says both India and Pakistan regularly experience excessively high temperatures in the pre-monsoon period, especially in May. While heatwaves do occur in April, it says they are less common.

WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis said national meteorological and hydrological departments in both countries are implementing measures that have been successful in saving lives in the past few years.

“A lot of work has been taken on heat health action plans specifically and in particular to protect the most vulnerable, and the most vulnerable in urban areas where the impact of the heat tends to be magnified,” she said. “So, we do hope that mortality from this ongoing event will be limited.”

Nullis said large swaths of Pakistan are experiencing daytime temperatures between five and eight degrees Celsius above normal for this time of year. She said the extreme heat will have a punishing impact on Pakistan’s mountainous regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The Pakistan Meteorological Department is warning that the unusual heat has the risk of speeding up the melting of snow and ice, and this might trigger what we call glacial lake outbursts, which lead to flash floods,” she said. “These are, obviously, very deadly hazards.”

Meteorologists say it is premature to attribute the extreme heat in India and Pakistan solely to climate change. However, they agree it is consistent with what is expected in a changing climate.

In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns heat waves and humid heat stress will be more intense and frequent in South Asia this century.
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Nepal has banned imports of cars, alcohol and other luxury goods to conserve foreign exchange reserves as spiraling prices of fuel and food imports stemming from the war in Ukraine strain an economy already battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Himalayan nation between India and China is the second South Asian country, after Sri Lanka, to face a foreign exchange crunch.

The goods that will not be imported include expensive televisions and mobile phones, the government said this week. The ban will remain in force until mid-July.

To conserve fuel, which Nepal imports, the work week in government offices has been shortened to five days.

“This is a short-term measure taken to prevent the economic condition of the country from going bad,” said Narayan Prasad Regmi, a senior official in the Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ministry.

Nepal’s central bank has said foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to cover just over six months of imports, down from 10 months in mid-2021. The landlocked nation of 29 million is heavily dependent on imports.

The government hopes the measures will help stave off a crisis like the one roiling Sri Lanka, where acute foreign exchange shortages have resulted in massive supply shortfalls, runaway price increases of fuel and food and a suspension of payments of its foreign debt.

Experts however call Nepal’s temporary ban on luxury goods and the shortening of the work week “desperate measures” that will not address the root cause of the problem that the economy faces.

“All this is only a quick fix and a Band-Aid over essentially what is a very big crack. The basic problem is that our imports far exceed our exports, so we face a huge balance of payments problem,” according to Santosh Sharma Poudel, co-founder of Nepal Institute for Policy Research.

Nepal’s foreign exchange crunch began during the COVID-19 pandemic. With tourism hit, earnings from foreign visitors plummeted in a country where more than a million tourists used to come before the pandemic.

Remittances sent by an estimated 3 million to 4 million Nepali migrants employed mostly in the Middle East and India have also taken a hit – before the pandemic they added up to as much as one-fourth of the country’s gross domestic product.

The war in Ukraine has added to its woes, as prices of both crude oil and food spiral in global markets — Nepal’s imports most of its essential needs, such as fuel, and food, such as cooking oil.

While Nepal’s economy is not as fragile as Sri Lanka’s, there is apprehension of what lies in store in one of the world’s poorest nations. The World Bank warned this week that the war in Ukraine is set to cause the “largest commodity shock” since the 1970s and “households across the world are feeling the cost-of-living crisis.”

They are households like that of Vijay Thapa, who works as a cook in New Delhi to support his family in a village in Nepal. “They can no longer manage in what I send. Prices of everything have spiked, whether it is cooking oil or wheat. Taxi fares have gone up by 50%.”

The situation is more worrisome for small countries, experts say.

“This is the second example in South Asia of how the war just after the pandemic is affecting us,” said Dhanajay Tripathi, a professor at the South Asian University in New Delhi.

“There are real worries for countries like Nepal because with smaller incomes it is harder for them to absorb the shock of high imports compared to larger countries such as India where the huge economy makes it possible to manage,” he said.

Analysts also warn that fixing the economy could be more difficult because Nepal also has some of the political problems that contributed to Sri Lanka’s crisis.

“We also have crony capitalism; corruption is high and there is political instability. That makes it harder to put long-term efficient policies in place,” Poudel said.

Economic mismanagement that led to the crisis in Sri Lanka has been blamed on the powerful Rajapaksa political dynasty that controls the government. Although some family members have resigned as ministers, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda, who is prime minister, still hold the top posts.

In Nepal constant infighting among political parties has resulted in short-lived governments for the last three decades.  For much of last year, the country was mired in political turmoil and is presently ruled by a fragile five-party coalition.

Plummeting COVID-19 cases, though, have encouraged the country to lift restrictions on tourists. Tourism earnings are up, although still far below prepandemic levels. And as Middle East countries increase crude output after the pandemic, when demand had plunged, jobs are coming back for Nepalese nationals, which could mean remittances will again pick up.
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