Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday his country is working with other neighbors of Afghanistan to help speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghans and urged the United States to release Afghan foreign cash reserves without any further delay.

“Afghanistan is in a critical transition from chaos to order,” Wang told a news conference in Beijing. He referred to the Taliban’s seizure of power last August, days before the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops from the war-ravaged country after almost 20 years.

“The United States walked away irresponsibly from Afghanistan, leaving the Afghan people in a serious humanitarian crisis and creating enormous security challenges to regional stability,” the chief Chinese diplomat said.

“We call on the immediate lifting of the freeze on Afghanistan’s assets in the U.S. and various unilateral sanctions to unconditionally return assets that belong to the Afghan people,” Wang said. This would help Afghans get through the winter and embrace the coming of spring, he added.

After the Islamist Taliban swept back to power, Western governments immediately ended financial aid constituting more than 70% of government expenditures, and Washington blocked more than $9 billion in Afghan foreign assets, held mostly in the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The punitive measures have accelerated an economic collapse, fueling a cash crunch and deepening a humanitarian crisis, which stems from years of war and persistent drought. The United Nations says more than half of Afghanistan’s estimated population of 39 million are currently on the verge of starvation.

Wide-ranging U.S. economic sanctions against the Taliban date to their first time in power in the 1990s when they harbored the al-Qaida terrorist network and banned Afghan women from education and work.

The U.S. Treasury late last month issued a new general license authorizing all commercial transactions with Afghanistan’s governing institutions, expanding already announced exemptions from sanctions against the Taliban and associated entities that Washington has labeled as global terrorists.

U.S. President Joe Biden recently issued an executive order that would split the frozen Afghan assets, freeing up $3.5 billion for the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, while allocating the remainder for a humanitarian trust fund for Afghanistan.

The move drew strong criticism, but U.S. officials have since clarified that any decision to transfer the funds to 9/11 victims will be subject to court proceedings.

Since October, the Biden administration has announced more than $780 million in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and Afghan refugees in the region.

Wang said Monday that China was preparing to host a third meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors “to harness and contribute our strengths… for the durable stability and security” of the crisis-hit country.

Pakistan initiated and hosted the inaugural session of the foreign minister-level dialogue in September after the Taliban’s return to power, while Iran held the second meeting. The two-day conference in Beijing is scheduled for March 30. Taliban representatives and Russia will also be in attendance, according to Pakistani officials.

No government has yet recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, citing human rights and terrorism concerns as well as a lack of political inclusivity in the interim government the hardline group has installed in Kabul.
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One in three Afghans is going hungry these days. Children are facing acute malnutrition. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports that poor Afghans are resorting to desperate measures, like selling one child to save the others. Camera: Habibullah Azizi, Producer: Malik Waqar Ahmed
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Rallies are planned in cities across the Muslim-majority country amid opposition by religious authorities
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A 22-year-old woman is turning heads as she competes in off-road rally racing in Pakistan. VOA’s Sidra Dar files this report, narrated by Aisha Khalid, from Karachi’s deserts. Camera: Khalil Ahmed
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The business model for farming produce in Pakistan has been the same for years. However, a young female entrepreneur is attempting to change the male dominated multibillion dollar industry by cutting out the middleman all together. VOA’s Saman Khan has filed this report from Manawala, Pakistan narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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One person was killed and more than 20 others injured Sunday when an assailant lobbed a grenade at a busy market in the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

According to local media reports, the target of the attack in Srinagar appeared to have been security personnel in the area. There was a huge crowd in the market when the grenade exploded.

The injured were taken to a hospital.

Police officer Sujit Kumar said that security forces were investigating and that the attacker would be found soon.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in its entirety.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting armed rebels who want to unite the region, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Islamabad denies the accusation and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiri people.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the past two decades.
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Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi dismissed suggestions his country’s “neutral” stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is straining Islamabad’s relationship with the United States or the West at large, in an interview Sunday with VOA.

The South Asian nuclear-armed Muslim country has resisted Western pressure to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, instead advocating dialogue and diplomacy to end the crisis.

Pakistan has argued that it needs to step back from global bloc politics to improve ties with all countries, including Russia, and to tackle its own domestic economic challenges.

“We do not want to be part of any camp. We have paid a price for being in camps. That is why we are very carefully treading. We don’t want to compromise our neutrality, and that’s why we abstained,” Qureshi told VOA.

“The only sensible course is a diplomatic solution,” Qureshi stressed, while speaking by phone from southern Sindh province, where he was attending a political rally of his ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaaf party.

Pakistan, a key non-NATO ally of Washington, abstained last week from voting from both a U.N. Security Council resolution “deploring” Russia’s aggression against its neighbor and a General Assembly vote condemning the invasion. So did 34 other nations, including India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Western diplomatic missions in Pakistan on the eve of the General Assembly vote had collectively urged the host country to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and support international calls for Moscow to immediately stop the war.

Qureshi said that claims that his country has put itself in “Russia camp” were “false” and “misreading” of Islamabad’s stated neutrality in respect to the Ukraine crisis.

“I think our relationship with the United States is a good one. We consider the United States an important partner and we would like continued support from the U.S.,” he noted.

“I have asked for a call with [U.S.] Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken and I was told that he is traveling for the next seven days. But I would be more than happy explain Pakistan’s perspective [on Ukraine] to him,” Qureshi added.

He also contradicted reports that Pakistan’s diplomatic tensions with Washington have increased in the wake of last month’s visit by Prime Minister Imran Khan to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Khan was already in Moscow when Putin ordered his military to attack Ukraine. But the trip reportedly did not go down well in Washington.

“We have briefed the government of Pakistan on the impact that Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine could have on regional and global security,” a State Department spokesperson was quoted on Saturday as telling Pakistani English-language Dawn newspaper. 

Qureshi-Lavrov talk

Qureshi said he spoke to Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov by telephone Saturday and “underlined” Islamabad’s “concern at the latest situation in Ukraine.” He told VOA Lavrov conveyed to him that Moscow was not “averse to the idea of negotiations” with Kyiv “on reaching some sort of a conclusion.”

The chief Pakistani diplomat said his Russian counterpart had “noted” that a “positive outcome” of two rounds of talks with Ukrainian officials was the agreement on establishing a “humanitarian corridor” to allow residents from two Ukrainian cities that were surrounded by Russian forces to evacuate. Qureshi and Lavrov spoke before Russian forces attacked the evacuation corridors.

“We are ready for the third round of talks. Our people are there. In fact, we are waiting for the Ukrainian representatives to come and begin the talks,” Qureshi quoted Lavrov as telling him.

Khan has defended his trip to Moscow, the first by a Pakistani prime minister in 23 years, saying his country’s economic interests required him to do so.

The Pakistani leader avoided criticizing Putin in a statement issued after his meeting with the Russian president. The statement said Khan “regretted the latest situation between Russia and Ukraine and that Pakistan had hoped diplomacy could avert a military conflict.”

Islamabad sided with Washington during the Cold War and played an instrumental role in arming and training U.S.-funded Afghan resistance in the 1980s to the decade-long Soviet occupation of neighboring Afghanistan.

However, Pakistan’s traditionally uneasy relationship with the United States has lately come under increased pressure over allegations that covert support from the Pakistani military helped the Taliban to sustain their insurgency against U.S.-led international forces in neighboring Afghanistan for 20 years and retake power last August. Pakistan rejects those allegations.

Russia and Pakistan, once bitter adversaries, have in recent years moved to restore ties, that analysts say is an outcome of the South Asia country’s frosty relations with the United States.

“A leader of lesser mettle would have thought of abandoning the visit and plunging back into a past of adversity,” Raoof Hasan, a special assistant to Khan on Information, wrote in an article published Friday on the prime minister’s landmark visit to Moscow.

“Instead of backing off, Prime Minister Khan used the opportunity to reiterate his deep belief in peaceful resolution of conflicts,” Hasan said in the commentary published by The News, a local newspaper.

For their part, U.S. officials maintain they view their “partnership with a prosperous, with a democratic Pakistan as critical” to Washington’s interests. They say the United States is Pakistan’s largest trade partner and it considers the South Asian nation “an important regional” country.

U.S. officials acknowledge that Pakistan continues to play a crucial role in assisting international efforts aimed at evacuating Afghans at risk since the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. A dialogue between Washington and Islamabad is also taking place on how to jointly counter terrorism threats emanating from Afghan soil.

Pakistani officials say Khan is preparing to make “important visits” to Western countries after hosting a meeting of foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad later this month. But they have not yet disclosed further details about the expected visits.
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is urging the Sri Lankan government to reform its judicial system and put an end to impunity, which encourages human rights violations to proliferate throughout the country.  A report is under examination at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Bachelet says she is pleased to see that Sri Lanka has taken certain steps to amend some provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.  She says that has resulted in the release of some people who have been detained under the act but says proposed reforms do not go far enough.

She says much more is needed to reform the country’s legal and security systems to put an end to impunity and prevent any recurrence of past violations.  

The high commissioner was referring to the period after Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in the 1980s. Some 60,000 to 100,000 people from all ethnic and religious communities disappeared. The fate of thousands of those who have gone missing remains unknown to this day.

Regrettably, she says, few have been held accountable for the crimes. She says victims and their families continue to be denied truth and justice.

“I remain concerned by the continued suffering and anguish of victims and families of the disappeared, who call for truth and justice, and seek to commemorate their loved ones.  I urge the government to acknowledge their rights, urgently determine the fate or whereabouts of victims, bring perpetrators to justice, and provide reparations,” she said.

Bachelet says she is deeply concerned by continued reports of surveillance, harassment and intimidation of civil society organizations, human rights defenders and journalists by police and intelligence services.

“Repeated incidents of deaths in custody and in alleged armed encounters with police are alarming.  We also continue to receive allegations of ill-treatment and torture by police and military.  This highlights the importance of fundamental security-sector reforms,” she said.

Bachelet warns Sri Lanka will not achieve genuine reconciliation and sustainable peace as long as impunity prevails.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Lakshman Peiris, says there are serious anomalies and weaknesses in the report presented to the council by the high commissioner.

“The fundamental deficiency is its intolerably intrusive character, impinging as it does on core functions and responsibilities of organs of the Sri Lankan state overwhelmingly mandated by the people of our country at three successive elections,” Peiris said. 

He says he deeply regrets the numerous unsubstantiated allegations that have found their way into the report.
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A senior leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban, listed by the United States as a global terrorist, made a maiden public appearance Saturday, his first since the Islamist group seized power in August, days before U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country.

Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s second-in-command, addressed a police graduation ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul, openly in front of cameras. 

“I am appearing before you in public by the grace of Allah to boost your confidence and to your satisfaction to acknowledge how much the leadership values you,” Haqqani told the police force.

Haqqani is wanted by the U.S. for questioning in connection with a 2008 attack on a hotel in the Afghan capital that killed six people, including American citizens. Washington is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading directly to his arrest. 

Diplomatic sources and Taliban officials said ambassadors from China, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, United Arab Emirate, Qatar, Kazakhstan and Iran, along with the United Nations, attended the ceremony televised by Afghan state-run RTA — even though no country has officially recognized the Taliban government.

Haqqani reassured the gathering that Afghanistan would not pose a threat to any country and criticized the global community for suspending foreign assistance and declining to accept the Taliban as legitimate rulers. 

“We urge all those who funded war and instability in the country to now also contribute to this change [in power] and help in the reconstruction efforts,” argued Haqqani, who is believed to be in his 40s. 

He insisted the Taliban had not violated any international laws, saying Afghan women were being given access to work and education in line with the Afghan culture and Islamic Sharia law. 

“They [the international community] complain that we are denying women rights to work and education. Today, our sisters are present with us, and they are receiving [police] graduation diplomas and are going to be assigned tasks accordingly,” insisted Haqqani.

He was dressed like many of the Taliban leaders, heavily bearded, wearing a white shawl and a black turban.

Taliban officials circulated Haqqani’s pictures and videos from Saturday’s ceremony. Until now they would share his digitally blurred photographs from meetings with foreign diplomats since assuming the charge of acting interior minister. 

U.S. international forces chaotically withdrew from the country in late August two weeks after the now-defunct Western-backed government and its forces collapsed in the face of a lightning Taliban offensive, enabling the hardline group to regain power.

U.S. officials say Haqqani heads a powerful subset of the Taliban, known as the Haqqani Network, although Taliban officials deny the existence of any such entity.

The network is allegedly tied to al-Qaida and blamed for planning some of the deadliest attacks on American and coalition forces in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. 

Haqqani’s father, deceased Jalaluddin Haqqani, founded the network in the 1980s, and it worked closely with the American CIA while waging the Western-backed armed resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. 

The Taliban interior minister reportedly survived several U.S. drone strikes over the years in border areas between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, which U.S. officials say served as his main base until he returned to his homeland after the fall of Kabul last August. 

The U.S. and other Western nations have halted foreign aid to Kabul and put in place financial restrictions, including seizing billions of dollars in Afghan foreign cash reserves, mostly held in the U.S. The restrictions stem from worries the money could end up in the hands of the Taliban. 

The international community is refusing to recognize the Taliban out of fears they would not sever ties with terrorist groups, and they would ban women from education, as well as work like they did during their past regime in Kabul from 1996 to 2001. That’s when women were banned from work and education, and al-Qaida leaders were sheltered in the country.

U.N. and foreign aid groups working in Afghanistan say the restrictions on the de facto Afghan authorities have worsened an already bad humanitarian crisis in the country, resulting from years of war and persistent drought. 
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The death toll from a suicide attack at a Shiite mosque in northwest Pakistan rose to 62 overnight as police said Saturday they would try to identify the bomber from two severed feet found at the scene.

Police also released CCTV footage of Friday’s attack showing a man dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez tunic shoot two policemen as he entered the mosque in the Kocha Risaldar area of Peshawar, around 190 kilometers (120 miles) from the capital, Islamabad.

He then detonated a suicide vest packed with ball bearings that ripped through the building, crowded with people just moments before Friday prayers were due to start.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“There are seven bodies beyond recognition including two amputated feet which we believe are of the bomber,” Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP.

“We are trying to ascertain identity of the bomber through DNA testing.”

He said the death toll had risen to 62 — including seven children aged below 10.

It was the deadliest attack since July 2018, when a blast at an election rally killed 149 people — and was also claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group.

Ijaz said officials were checking the biometric data of people who had recently crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan, where IS have previously planned attacks.

Peshawar — just 50 kilometers from the porous border with Afghanistan — was a frequent target of militants in the early 2010s but security has greatly improved in recent years.

Sunni-majority Pakistan has recently been battling a resurgence of its domestic chapter of the Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

A one-month truce last year failed to hold and there are fears the TTP, which has targeted Shiite Muslims in the past, has been emboldened by the success of the Afghan Taliban.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said in a video statement that police will “track them down in the next couple of days.”

Members of the local Shiite community, meanwhile, were sending bodies of victims to their home districts for burial.

The blast came on the first day of a cricket Test match in Rawalpindi between Pakistan and Australia, who have not toured the country in nearly a quarter of a century because of security concerns.
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While U.S. President Joe Biden has played a key role in galvanizing Western nations’ condemnation of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, his administration is finding it harder to build a global coalition in the Indo-Pacific to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Key regional partners such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have announced significant financial sanctions and export controls against Moscow, but others have resisted Western pressure to even condemn the invasion.

Most notable among these is India. While it is a strong U.S. partner in containing China in the Indo-Pacific, New Delhi relies heavily on Russian defense purchases and  abstained from the United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

India also abstained on a U.N. Security Council vote (( )) that Russia vetoed.

India’s reluctance

Biden convened an emergency virtual Quad meeting on Thursday, a day after India’s abstention from General Assembly vote. The Quad, an informal grouping of the U.S., India, Australia and Japan, was established mainly to address regional concerns about China’s rise.

India — which relies on Russia militarily in its border disputes with Pakistan and China — is in a predicament, analysts say. While India’s Western allies expect it to uphold the liberal international order and condemn Russian aggression, its regional geopolitical requirements and dependence on Moscow limit its options.

“India cannot overnight stop all purchases — especially of military spare parts — from Russia, but it can show that going forward, it is going to speed up its military modernization and look to other defense partners — U.S., France, Israel, South Korea — instead,” said Aparna Pande, director of Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia.

“This will be especially helpful as the CAATSA sanctions are still on the table when it comes to India’s purchase of [the] S-400 missile system from Russia,” Pande told VOA. He was referring to the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act — a law allowing sanctions on any country that has “significant transactions with Iran, North Korea or Russia.”

The administration is looking “very closely” at whether those sanctions should be applied to India, Donald Lu, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia, told a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

In a signal to Beijing, Quad leaders agreed that what was happening in Ukraine should not be allowed to happen in the Indo-Pacific, according to statements made by the prime ministers of Japan and Australia. The statements are in line with a joint statement issued after the summit that said the leaders had “discussed the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and assessed its broader implications.”

Perhaps evident of New Delhi’s resistance, however, the Quad statement did not mention Russia or use the word “invasion.” The White House has not responded to VOA’s request for more details about the meeting.

Emerging coalition in Indo-Pacific

Australia has targeted sanctions on key Russian banks, institutions and hundreds of individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top officials. While Australia is not a NATO member, Canberra said it is providing medical supplies, financial assistance and lethal as well as nonlethal military equipment to Ukraine.

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has joined Western allies in blocking major Russian banks from a key international payment network known as SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication); freezing the assets of Putin, his top officials and oligarchs; and tightening export controls, including on semiconductors. It is also imposing sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his top officials, condemning the country for allowing Russian troops to enter Ukraine through its territory.

South Korea has announced tighter export controls and joined the SWIFT cutoff of Russian banks. Among the controlled items are electronics, semiconductors and computers; information and communications supplies; sensors and lasers; navigation and avionics technology; and marine and aerospace equipment.

Taiwan, a democratically governed island that Beijing claims as its breakaway province, said it will align with the West on blocking Moscow from SWIFT. Home to the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, TSMC, Taipei also announced export control rules on chips.

A fractured ASEAN approach

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, has called for an immediate cease-fire and dialogue. While the statement was cautious, some observers say it’s notable that ASEAN, known for its principle of noninterference and neutrality toward major powers, even put out a statement at all. Still, it did not name Russia.

“The invasion should have alerted Southeast Asian policymakers because it tells us that international law, economic interdependence and confidence-building norms exercise — all key features of ASEAN’s regional order — are not sufficient to prevent an outright aggression,” Evan Laksmana, an Indo-Pacific security expert at the National University of Singapore, told VOA Khmer.

“More than the violation of principles Southeast Asian states claim to be sacrosanct, the invasion also tells us that gray zone tactics that major powers use — whether in Ukraine or South China Sea — may be a prelude to an outright war rather than an alternative to it.”

Some ASEAN members, however, have broken with the group and found their own voice in condemning Moscow. Most notably Singapore, which has announced financial sanctions and export controls on items that can be used as weapons against Ukrainians.

Others have released statements condemning the invasion but have not applied punitive measures. Indonesia, the largest Southeast Asian country, has condemned it as “unacceptable” but also did not mention Russia in its official statement. Nor did the Philippines and Brunei.

Other ASEAN members did not release individual statements but have joined the March 2 U.N. General Assembly resolution overwhelmingly supported by 141 countries.

“Mainly (it’s) the democratic states and those that are most closely aligned with the West, who are explicitly on their own condemning the invasion,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Then you’ve got Malaysia and Thailand and Cambodia, who are only doing it under cover of the U.N.,” he told VOA.

In addition to Russia, four countries — Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria — voted against the U.N. resolution, and 35 countries abstained, including the ASEAN countries of Vietnam and Laos.

“Vietnam is stuck in a tough position here where its entire military is running on Russian hardware,” Poling said. “Laos was much more in the Soviet camp than other parties and still does have a very close strategic relationship with Russia.”

Myanmar’s representative at the U.N., acting on behalf of the government in exile, voted yes on the resolution against Russia.

However, the junta in Naypyidaw has thrown its support behind Moscow. “Russia has worked to consolidate its sovereignty,” General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s military council, said in an interview with VOA Burmese. He said the support is “the right thing to do” to show that “Russia is a world power.”

“The Myanmar junta has become close to Moscow, so it isn’t surprising that it is praising the Russian war effort,” Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA.

One reason for ASEAN’s fracture is the effort of individual countries to maintain a balance of power in the region.

“Most ASEAN member states use their relationships with Russia partly to offset the strength of China in the region,” said Aaron Connelly, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Many of them are loath to break relations with Russia because it’s part of the way that they diversify their relationships in the world.”

While ASEAN is limited in its geopolitical clout, Connelly pointed out that later this year ASEAN chair Cambodia will host the East Asia Summit, Thailand will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and Indonesia will host the G-20. All those forums include Russia, and if conflict persists, host countries will come under enormous pressure from Western countries to ban Moscow from the meetings.

Meanwhile, China has been careful to neither explicitly endorse nor condemn the Russian invasion. Analysts say Beijing is eyeing the Ukraine crisis with concern, however, and would prefer to see it peacefully resolved.

“The Chinese are risk averse, and if this crisis has taught them anything, it is that there are dire consequences to pay for doing stupid things,” said Sergey Radchenko, Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“Putin has staked Russia’s future on this conflict, and he seems to be losing at the moment,” he told VOA. “Beijing is therefore looking for ways to bring Russia to its senses, perhaps through mediation.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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A key leader in the Pashtun rights movement in Pakistan was sentenced this week to life in prison by an anti-terror court in Karachi, accused of making statements against the government.

Qazi Tahir was sentenced to life in prison for his alleged participation in a political protest in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, in December 2020. Tahir is accused of making derogatory statements about Pakistani state institutions during the protest.

Members and supporters of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a loose network of Pashtun activists demanding equal rights and protections for the minority Pashtuns in Pakistan, claim that their leaders are incarcerated, harassed and even eliminated by government forces.

Pashtun activists have been waging a sit-in at the Provincial Assembly in Pakistan’s Sindh province for almost three weeks.

PTM leaders and other democracy campaigners say Tahir did not even participate in the December 2020 protest.

“No evidence could be produced to justify the harsh sentence. The state continues to push peaceful Pashtun activists to the wall,” wrote Mohsin Dawar, a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly and a leader of the National Democratic Movement in Pakistan, in a tweet March 2.

Over the past two years, Pakistani authorities have arrested several PTM leaders and activists on similar charges – making incendiary remarks against state institutions.

Ali Wazir, a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly and a PTM co-founder, and several other activists were arrested in December 2020 for “hatching a criminal conspiracy and passing derogatory remarks against state institutions,” Pakistan media reported.

For Manzoor Pashteen, 27, who founded PTM in 2014 while he was a university student, the systematic arrests and summary sentencing of his comrades is a continuation of the Pakistani government’s treatment of Pashtuns as second-class citizens with limited rights.

“There is no justice for Pashtuns in Pakistan,” Pashteen told VOA. “When we demand our rights, equal rights, and protest against this colonial-like treatment of our people, we’re thrown [in]to jails indefinitely.”

Pashtuns make up about 15% to 18% of Pakistan’s population, mostly in the insurgency- and counterinsurgency-stricken province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along the porous border with Afghanistan.

Dissidence versus terrorism

Pakistani authorities say their country has been a victim of terrorism, and that thousands of Pakistani citizens, including military personnel, have died in terrorist attacks over the past two decades.

Pakistani military officials say they’re still actively fighting terrorists.

“Their desperate attempts for revival won’t be allowed to succeed,” the Pakistani chief of army staff reiterated. “We will eliminate all remnants of terrorists, their abettors & accomplices whatever is the cost,” a spokesperson for the Pakistani army said in a tweet February 9.

Critics, however, accuse Pakistan’s powerful military of covert involvement with militant groups that conduct terrorist operations in India and Afghanistan.

There are also concerns that the military has been abusing anti-terror laws to stifle legitimate dissent.

“Civil and political dissidence is not terrorism,” Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani senator, told VOA, adding that the government should stop treating political activists, particularly Pashtun and Baloch minority rights activists who criticize state institutions, as terrorists.

Human rights organization also say minorities in Pakistan are subjected to discrimination and persecution with the government failing to provide protection.

Throughout 2021, Pakistani authorities “expanded their use of draconian sedition and counterterrorism laws to stifle dissent, and strictly regulated civil society groups critical of government actions or policies,” Human Rights Watch said in its annual report.

Media censorship

Journalists and free-media advocates say there is a widespread environment of fear in Pakistan that impedes media coverage of abuses perpetrated by state military and intelligence forces.

“There are numerous instances where both the army and the civilian government have come and joined hands to make sure that nothing sensitive is really properly discussed,” said Ahmed Rashid, a prominent Pakistani journalist.

“We have upwards of 50 channels and every channel is monitored by the military’s information department, and many talk shows run like a few minutes late so there is the chance to cut out something somebody might have said which is too sensitive to put on air,” he told VOA.

There is also self-censorship by the media outlets trying to avoid angering the military, Rashid said.

PTM activists decry media restrictions and claim a media blackout has been imposed on their activities.

“The media don’t talk to us. They don’t report on our demands and activities,” Pashteen said, adding that no Pakistani media outlet had talked to him and other PTM members about the ongoing sit-in the group has maintained since February 16.

“Pakistani media can’t report on PTM and its activities, even if it is on merit,” said a journalist who preferred anonymity to avoid risks to his security and to protect his job.

Human rights groups accuse the Pakistani government of intensifying efforts to control the media and curtail dissent by harassing and detaining journalists and civil society activists.

Last month, the government passed a controversial cybercrime law that makes “online ‘defamation’ of authorities, including the military and judiciary, a criminal offense with harsh penalties,” according to Amnesty International.

Pakistani authorities vehemently deny media censorship and claim a free and robust media landscape in the country.

For Pashteen, the PTM leader who advocates for nonviolent activism, the fate of free media and democracy in Pakistan is tightly linked to ensuring equal rights and protections for all ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan.

“We will continue our struggle even if we’re censored in the media,” he said.
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A suicide bomb blast has ripped through a crowded minority Shiite Muslim mosque in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 56 worshipers and injuring at least 194.

The deadly attack occurred during Friday afternoon prayers in a congested neighborhood in central Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mohammad Asim, a spokesman for the nearby Lady Ready Hospital, confirmed the casualties. He told reporters more than a dozen people among the injured were in “critical condition” and the death toll could increase.

Haroon Rashid, a senior police officer, told reporters that the attacker stormed the mosque in the famous Qissa Khwani Bazaar, killing two police guards at the gate before detonating his vest inside the main hall packed with hundreds of worshipers.

A witness, Shayan Haider, had been preparing to enter the mosque when a powerful explosion threw him on to the street.

“I opened my eyes and there was dust and bodies everywhere,” the English-language Dawn newspaper quoted Haider as saying.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the attack and directed the authorities to provide urgent care required to the affected people, his office said.

No one immediately took responsibility for what has been one of the deadliest bombings in Pakistan in recent years.

Attacks on Shiite worship places are not uncommon in Pakistan, a predominately Sunni Muslim nation. Militants linked the Islamic State terrorist group and the outlawed Pakistani Taliban have in the past carried out similar attacks.

“The United States condemns the heinous and cowardly attack targeting a mosque in Peshawar,” said Angela P. Aggeler, the U.S. embassy chargé d’affaires.  

“We offer our deepest condolences to the victims and their families,” she added in statement tweeted by the embassy. 

Friday’s attack comes as Australian cricket players are in Pakistan for a bilateral tournament series, the first visit by an Australian team to the terrorism-stricken South Asian nation in 24 years. The first match between the two countries began Friday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi under tight scrutiny.

Major cricket-playing countries have avoided sending their teams to Pakistan since a deadly terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in the eastern city of Lahore in 2009.

Improved security measures across the country have encouraged some foreign teams to visit the country in recent years.

New Zealand called off its team in September just before opening its first match in Rawalpindi, citing security concerns.
…

Despite its growing strategic ties with the United States, India is resisting pressure from Washington to join the West and other countries in condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine for fear of alienating Moscow at a time when New Delhi views Beijing as its main threat, according to some analysts.

India stayed firm in its position at the United Nations over the past week, abstaining from both a Security Council resolution “deploring” Russian aggression and a General Assembly vote condemning the invasion.

Analysts say India does not want events in Europe to distract it from its own challenging security environment, where it faces archrivals China and Pakistan on its northern borders, and where Beijing has been pressuring India along the non-demarcated Himalayan heights, resulting in a huge troop build-up.

Deterring China

Alienating Russia would drive Moscow even closer to China and Pakistan, say some experts, leaving New Delhi increasingly isolated in a hostile region. Faced with China’s expanding military capabilities, India cannot afford any break in the supply of military goods that flow from Moscow, which constitute more than two-thirds of the Indian military’s weapons systems.

“India does not want to see an even tighter China-Pakistan-Russia axis. Were that to happen, Russia could, for example, come under pressure from Beijing not to give India arms, which it needs critically to meet the Chinese threat,” said Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. “So, India finds it convenient to look the other way when Russia’s interests are involved.”

Even before the crisis over Ukraine erupted, India went ahead with the purchase of Russia’s sophisticated S-400 anti-aircraft missile system despite the threat of U.S. sanctions because New Delhi considers it a crucial deterrence against China.

Indo-Russian ties

Just two months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a high-profile visit to India, where the two countries signed a 10-year defense cooperation agreement and firmed up a proposal to manufacture rifles in India.

Analysts also cite India’s “historical experience” with Moscow dating back to the 1960s, pointing out that Russia repeatedly backed India in international forums. That included supporting it during the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, using its veto when resolutions on Kashmir were introduced at the U.N., and supporting the controversial removal of Kashmir’s special status in 2019.

In Washington, where strategic ties with New Delhi have grown over the last two decades, frustration over India’s refusal to publicly condemn Russia are apparent. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday recalled a cable to American diplomats instructing them to inform Indian counterparts that their position on Ukraine put them in “Russia’s camp.” A State Department spokesperson later said the language in question was never intended for clearance and the cable was released in error.

US position

American officials say they are conducting a high-level dialogue with their Indian counterparts over Ukraine to “underscore the importance of a collective response condemning Russia’s invasion.”

“Let me say that all of us have been working to urge India to take a clear position, a position opposed to Russia’s actions. But what have we seen so far? We have seen a number of abstentions,” U.S. Assistant Secretary for State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

“We work every day to make sure that we are trying to close the gap between where we are and where our Indian partners are,” Lu said, adding that he hopes “India will find it is now time to further distance itself from Russia.”

Analysts say that New Delhi, while staying neutral, has not been completely uncritical of Russia.

“India has said at the U.N. that international law and territorial integrity and sovereignty of countries has to be respected. That is indirectly sending a message to Russia that what it is doing is not acceptable without [naming] names,” said Chintamani Mahapatra, professor of international relations at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“India has taken a judicious position from its own standpoint and the U.S. knows India has its limitations,” he said.

Quad

Amid U.S.-India differences over Russia, President Joe Biden on Thursday hosted a virtual meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with India, Japan and Australia, a grouping that focuses on countering China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

“I met with my fellow Quad leaders Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio about Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine and our commitment to sovereignty and territorial integrity around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific,” Biden tweeted after the meeting.

In its readout, however, New Delhi said Modi “underlined that the Quad must remain focused on its core objectives of promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Analysts say the hastily convened meeting was meant to put to rest speculation that India’s insistence on maintaining a neutral stand on Russia would hurt the Quad.

“The government thinks that for any viable Indo-Pacific policy, the U.S. needs India and that will keep relations on a steady keel,” said Joshi.

But India’s struggle to balance ties with the U.S. and Russia could prove increasingly difficult as the crisis in eastern Europe worsens.

“So far, India is playing it by the ear, it is basically trying to duck and weave,” Joshi said. “But pressure on India is mounting, and in the circumstances where a new kind of Cold War has come, the logic often becomes ‘you’re either with us or against us.'”
…

A suicide bomb blast has ripped through a crowded minority Shiite Muslim mosque in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 30 worshipers and injuring more than 60 others. 

The deadly attack occurred during Friday afternoon prayers in a congested neighborhood in central Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 

Mohammad Asim, a spokesman for the nearby Lady Ready Hospital, confirmed the casualties. He told reporters more than a dozen people among the injured were in “critical condition” and the death toll could increase.

Haroon Rashid, a senior police officer, told reporters that the attacker stormed the mosque in the famous Qissa Khwani Bazaar, killing two police guards at the gate before detonating his vest inside the main hall packed with hundreds of worshipers.

A witness, Shayan Haider, had been preparing to enter the mosque when a powerful explosion threw him to the street.

“I opened my eyes and there was dust and bodies everywhere,” the English-language Dawn newspaper quoted Shayan as saying. 

Prime minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the attack and directed the authorities to provide urgent care required to the affected people, his office said.

No one immediately took responsibility for what has been one of the deadliest bombings in Pakistan in recent years.

Attacks on Shiite worship places are not uncommon in Pakistan, a predominately Sunni Muslim nation. Militants linked the Islamic State terrorist group and the outlawed Pakistani Taliban have in the past carried out similar attacks.

Friday’s attack comes as Australian cricket players are in Pakistan for a bilateral  tournament series, the first visit by an Australian team to the terrorism-stricken South Asian nation in 24 years. The first match between the two countries began Friday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi under tight scrutiny. 

Major cricket-playing countries have avoided sending their teams to Pakistan since a deadly terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in the eastern city of Lahore in 2009.

Improved security measures across the country have encouraged some foreign teams to visit the country in recent years. 

New Zealand called off its team in September just before opening its first match in Rawalpindi, citing security concerns. 
…

Few countries are more conflicted by the latest war in Europe than Pakistan, which purchases military tanks from Ukraine and has just agreed to import 2 million tons of wheat from Russia.

A key non-NATO ally of the United States, Pakistan abstained from voting Wednesday on the U.N. General Assembly’s resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. So did 34 other countries, including three in South Asia: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Pakistani U.N. representative Munir Akram said Pakistan abstained because the resolution did not address some of Russia’s security concerns.

Pakistan’s abstention was all but assured when Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan visited the Kremlin last week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

Khan avoided condemning Russia in a televised address on Monday, instead defending the highly criticized trip to Moscow and promising the nation that Pakistan would acquire 2 million tons of wheat from Russia. Khan avoided discussing his country’s defense and commercial agreements with Ukraine.

In a news conference the next day, Ukraine’s ambassador in Islamabad, Markian Chchuk, reminded Pakistan it had imported 1.3 million tons of wheat from Ukraine the previous year. He noted the Ukrainian wheat helped Pakistan’s food security.

“We hope that our Pakistani partners will take a proactive stance in condemning the war and make decisive steps urging Russians to de-escalate tension and stop its aggression,” the Ukrainian ambassador said.

Beyond grain, Pakistan has a great deal of trade with Ukraine, a defense partner since the late 1990s. Neither Khan nor Chchuk mentioned that in his remarks.

Since late 1997, Pakistan has been a major recipient of Ukraine’s advanced T-80UD tanks. According to Jane’s, a leading publication on global defense matters, some 320 Ukrainian tanks have been deployed in Pakistan’s tank force since then.

In an interview with Voice of America’s Deewa Service, retired Pakistani Air Marshal Shahid Latif said, “Before the Soviet Union’s collapse, Ukraine’s technology was the best in the bloc. Pakistan had gotten tanks from China, but Ukraine-made tanks are best in its capabilities.”

Last year, Jane’s reported that Pakistan had agreed to pay Ukraine $85.6 million for the repair and maintenance of 320 Ukrainian T-80US tanks in 2021. The tanks make up a significant portion of the Pakistan armored corps’ non-Chinese tank fleet.

Amjad Shoaib, a retired lieutenant general in the Pakistan army, told VOA, “We have Al-Zarrar and T-80UD tanks. We also have modern Chinese tanks, but you can say the T-80UD tanks are our main battle tanks.”

While Pakistan’s government and military do not disclose the exact number or cost of weapons imported, a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a watchdog for arms control, armaments and disarmament, put the value of the Ukraine-Pakistan defense contracts at $1.6 billion from 1991 to 2020.

The bilateral defense agreements between the two countries are not one-sided. In May 2021, Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, was greeted with an honor guard by a Ukrainian military force in Kyiv.

The two countries had agreed to improve military-to-military ties, particularly in defense production, according to a statement issued later by the Pakistan army. Later, Bajwa toured military sites in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which currently is under Russian siege and is the country’s tank-manufacturing heartland.

Pakistan signed a deal with Ukraine in September 2021 for the maintenance of its Ilyushin IL-78 refueling tankers, according to the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post. The value of the deal had not been disclosed by Kyiv authorities, according to the newspaper, although the Ukrainian foreign arms trade agency had mentioned the two countries signed 12 working contracts for a total of $150 million.

Without praising Russia, which was once an opponent for Pakistan in the 1980s, Khan has expressed remorse for Pakistan’s support for the U.S. in the “war on terror” in Afghanistan during the first two decades of the 21st century.

“The most embarrassing part was that a country was fighting in support of a country that was bombing it,” Khan said in his address to the nation, referring to the hundreds of drone attacks in Pakistan against militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions.

The drone campaign and targeted operations killed a number of top terrorists in Pakistan, including al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service, with contributions by Malik Waqar Ahmad from Islamabad, Pakistan.
…

It’s a story as old as America, immigrants who have made their home in the United States, reaching out to help those who come after them. This is the case of an Afghan American mother and daughter in Jacksonville, Florida, who are helping with the resettlement of Afghan refugees. VOA’s Zheela Noori reports.
…

The United States has initiated talks with Muslim-majority countries to encourage them to take the lead in pressing Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers not to exclude the country’s women from public life in the name of religion.

Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, told a seminar in Washington Wednesday that she is leading the diplomatic initiative to have an “alignment of position” among all international stakeholders on the issue. 

The envoy, speaking virtually to a seminar hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said she visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar last week and intends to travel other Muslim-majority nations to engage them on “the regressive practices” the Taliban are enacting to curtail women’s freedom. 

“What I noted to them is what the Taliban are saying about women’s rights and making the argument that it’s on the basis of Sharia, is not just bad for Afghanistan and for Afghan women — it’s bad for Islam,” Amiri said of her talks with Saudi and Qatari officials. 

“The actors that need to be leading and countering that narrative [are] the Muslim majority countries,” she added.

Amiri noted that many regional and Islamic countries maintain a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and, in their engagement with the Taliban, they advocate for political as well as ethnic inclusion in the government, but “very little” is being said about women’s inclusion.

“When they engage the Taliban, what I’ve asked them to do is include women in their delegation show that women are playing prominent and strong roles in their own countries,” Amiri said. 

The Islamist group took over Afghanistan in August and installed a male-only interim government including mostly Pashtuns, the country’s largest ethnic group, like the Taliban themselves. 

Critics say the insurgency-turned-government has rolled back women’s rights in almost every area, including crushing women’s freedom of movement, over the past six months, despite Taliban pledges they would not bring back harsh policies of their previous rule from 1996 to 2001, when women were banned from education and work. 

Women are not allowed to share transportation with men or take long trips without a close male relative, and taxi drivers are told not to offer a ride to female passengers who are not wearing hijabs.

“The vast majority of girls’ secondary schools are closed. Universities recently reopened, with new gender segregation rules. But many women are unable to return, in part because the career they studied for is off limits now, as the Taliban banned women from most jobs,” said Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch in a statement Wednesday.

The Taliban dismiss criticism of their government, saying it meets all requirements to be recognized as the legitimate entity and it is not allowing terrorist groups to operate on Afghan soil. They also strongly defend restrictions on women, saying they are in line with Islamic principles. The radical group has promised to open secondary schools for all girls in Afghanistan this month.

Taliban leaders have traveled abroad, including to Qatar, in recent weeks for talks with representatives of Western and Islamic governments.  But they have failed to win diplomatic legitimacy for their government because of concerns about human rights, political inclusivity and terrorism. 

Amiri said she recently also held talks in Qatar with Taliban delegates who reiterated that Kabul wants to improve its relationship with the West. 

“My response has been, ‘Don’t just focus on improving your relationship with the West, improve your relationship with Afghans inside the country, build confidence not just by having inclusivity of a few actors from different ethnic groups but an inclusive process that is transparent, that engenders confidence among the population,” Amiri said.

Amiri said she also warned the Taliban that their return to power has only paused the Afghan conflict and it will not come to an end in the absence of inclusivity.

Critics are skeptical whether conversations with the Taliban to challenge their extremely restrictive view of Islam would produce the desired outcomes.

“I don’t think there are a lot of people who can influence the Taliban from the outside,” Anne Richard, a former U.S. diplomat, told the viral seminar.  “But I think who can, U.N. officials, special envoys, potentially certain governments, I think we really have to ensure that their efforts are taken seriously and are pursued and we get as much information to them then from the people who are inside Afghanistan as we can.”

Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors, including Pakistan and Iran, as well as regional countries, have all cautioned the Taliban that the country’s economic and humanitarian troubles may intensify unless they live up to international expectations.

Last month, diplomats from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council met in Doha with representatives from Afghanistan’s de facto authorities and underscored the need for a national reconciliation plan that “respects basic freedoms and rights, including women’s right to work and education.”
…

Donors and relief agencies have helped temporarily stave off mass starvation and famine in Afghanistan this winter by assisting about 20 million needy Afghans, but the country still faces bleak economic prospects.

“We believe as the winter season comes to an end that we have perhaps averted our worst fears of famine and widespread starvation,” Deborah Lyons, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative and head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Relief agencies had warned about mass starvation during the cold season, which lasts through March. The landlocked country plunged into a massive humanitarian crisis and its economy nearly collapsed after the Taliban took power in August 2021.

While donors have ceased all development aid to Afghanistan since August 2021, U.S. and other donors have continued providing financial aid to U.N. agencies and NGOs to assist the most vulnerable Afghans. On Tuesday, the World Bank announced it would provide more than $1 billion to U.N. agencies and international NGOs to mitigate humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.

“Let’s be realistic. What we have done has been only to buy a little time,” Lyons said, adding that Afghanistan’s economy was facing a tipping point as businesses close, unemployment rises and more Afghans fall into poverty.

“It is imperative that we not find ourselves six months from now in the situation we faced six months ago, with millions of Afghans facing another winter of starvation and the only tool at our disposal being expensive and unsustainable humanitarian handouts,” she said.

U.N. agencies have appealed for $4.4 billion to provide essential aid to 22 million people in Afghanistan in 2022. As of this week, less than 13% of the appeal has been met, according to a U.N. financial tracking service.

Work with Taliban

Afghanistan needs a path to rebuild its economy and achieve financial stability to prevent future humanitarian crises, but such efforts are handicapped by economic and political sanctions on Taliban leaders and their de facto government, aid agencies say.

Humanitarian assistance funds are designed to bypass Taliban authorities. The sanctions are imposed on the Taliban for terrorism concerns and to force the de facto government to respect the rights of women and minorities and form an inclusive Afghan government.

No government has yet recognized the Taliban’s Islamic emirate.

“Let me make it clear that we do not believe that we can truly assist the Afghan people without working with the de facto authorities. This must be difficult for some to accept, but it is essential for the future,” the U.N. envoy said.

The U.N. has reported a marked drop in armed security incidents and civilian casualties of war in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power, but there are growing concerns about worsening human rights.

“We cannot say peace before justice,” Rina Amiri, U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, said during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Wednesday.

“Everything is interwoven in Afghanistan — the humanitarian situation, the political situation, the human rights situation. You will not achieve political stability without inclusion,” she added.

Calling on all the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council to renew a strong political mandate for UNAMA, Lyons said the world body was facing a critical moment in its relationship with Afghanistan.
…

Authorities in southwestern Pakistan said Wednesday a roadside bomb explosion had killed at least three people, including a senior officer, and wounded 24 others.

Initial police reports found the bomb was hidden in a motorbike, parked along a main road, and targeted a police convoy in central Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

A hospital spokesman, Waseem Baig, said several of the wounded victims were in “critical condition” and he feared the death toll could increase. At least 10 policemen were among the injured.

There were no immediate claims of responsibly for the deadly attack.

Outlawed ethnic Baluch militant groups and the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), routinely carry out attacks against security forces and civilians in Baluchistan.

Last month, two major Pakistan army bases came under attack in the sparsely populated province and the ensuing clashes had lasted three days, killing nine soldiers and 20 assailants.

The Baluch Liberation Army, or BLA, designated as a terrorist group by Pakistan and the United States, took responsibility for the simultaneous assaults.

That attack came just days after militants ambushed and killed 10 Pakistani soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks in years in Baluchistan. The BLA claimed credit for the violence.

The natural resources-rich province is at the center of a multi-billion-dollar mega development program funded by China under its Belt and Road Initiative.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC has built highways and a power plant in the country and the Chinese-operated deepwater Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea in Baluchistan.

Baluch militants accuse Pakistan and China of exploiting resources of the province to justify their insurgency, saying they are fighting for the independence of Baluchistan.
…

The executive board of the World Bank on Tuesday approved a plan to use more than $1 billion from a frozen Afghanistan trust fund to finance urgently needed education, agriculture, health and family programs, the bank announced. 

The plan, which will bypass sanctioned Taliban authorities by disbursing the money through U.N. agencies and international aid groups, will provide a major boost to efforts to ease the country’s worsening humanitarian and economic crises. 

The approach “aims to support the delivery of essential basic services, protect vulnerable Afghans, help preserve human capital and key economic and social services, and reduce the need for humanitarian assistance in the future,” the bank said in a statement. 

Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) was frozen in August when the Taliban overran Kabul as the last U.S.-led international troops departed after 20 years of war. 

Foreign governments ended financial aid constituting more than 70% of government expenditures while the United States led in the freezing of some $9 billion in Afghan central bank funds. 

The funding cuts accelerated an economic collapse, fueling a cash crunch and deepening a humanitarian crisis that the United Nations says has pushed more than half of Afghanistan’s population of 39 million to the verge of starvation. 

The World Bank statement said that as a first step, ARTF donors will decide on four projects worth about $600 million that will support “urgent needs in education, health and agricultural sectors, as well as community livelihoods.” 

There will be a “strong focus on ensuring that girls and women participate and benefit from the support,” the statement continued. 

The Taliban have unraveled gains in rights made by women during the last two decades, including restricting them from working and limiting their travel unless accompanied by a close male relative. 

Most girls have been barred from going to school beyond seventh grade since the Taliban takeover. The Islamist extremists say that all girls will be allowed to return to classrooms later this month. 

 
…

Despite strategic partnerships with the Kremlin, no Central Asian government has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or recognized Luhansk and Donetsk as independent. Russian claims that regional leaders “understand” President Vladimir Putin’s decisions have been refuted or ignored.

U.S. media reports that Kazakhstan refused Moscow’s “request to send troops,” attributed to the U.S. National Security Council, also have not been confirmed by authorities in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital. Kazakh and American pundits suspect the White House may have disclosed intelligence without providing details.

Central Asian governments have been evacuating their citizens from Ukraine.

During a February 28 virtual meeting with Central Asian foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine and reiterated Washington’s support for that nation’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. His Central Asian colleagues, however, did not publicly echo this line.

Experts tell VOA that authorities in the region are “walking the thinnest line ever.” The public has been more critical of Russia’s war than their leaders.

“The government is calculating possible risks,” said Kazakh scholar Daniyar Kosnazarov. “All of us will be affected.”

The Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent a short-duration military deployment to Kazakhstan in January when the government faced mass protests and violence.

“No one wants foreign troops. We had this experience, even for a small amount of time, so we can relate to Ukraine,” said Kosnazarov, who is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.

He urged the Kazakh government to focus on its domestic agenda and implement political and economic reforms promised by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

“This conflict will definitely affect the course and quality of reforms, but society will continue to demand increased living standards.”

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also are part of the CSTO. Uzbekistan, which has joined and withdrawn twice, has observer status.

The Kremlin has said the Kyrgyz and Uzbek leaders have told Russian President Vladimir Putin that they support his military action in Ukraine but press services in those nations have stressed only that they “exchanged views on the situation around Ukraine.”

Bishkek, Tashkent and Dushanbe have chosen to stay neutral, citing close ties to both Russia and Ukraine, calling for dialogue and upholding international norms. All five Central Asian countries, like Ukraine, were once part of the Soviet Union.

More than 3 million Uzbeks work in Russia. Tajikistan has more than 1.6 million, and Kyrgyzstan 620,000 citizens working in that country, according to official statistics. World Bank data shows that remittances from Russia constitute nearly one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Tajikistan — more than 20% for Kyrgyzstan and more than 10% for Uzbekistan.

“As Russia’s economy sinks, ours will, too. Ruble devaluation will mean further devaluation of our currencies,” predicted Tajik intellectual Parviz Mullojanov.

Central Asian states want productive relations with the United States, European Union, and Russia, he said. “They don’t want to sever ties with the West at all but need to deal with Russia next door.”

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of Moscow’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which also includes Armenia and Belarus.

Emil Umetaliev, former Kyrgyz economy minister, said the costs of war always fall on ordinary people.

“As an EEU member, our country will suffer. We are dependent on Russia’s diminishing economy. This will especially hurt small- and medium-size businesses.”

Countries in the region must survive as independent nations, argued Umetaliev. “Central Asian leaders should coordinate foreign policies, establishing a common strategy in line with international agreements, to prevent separatism and invasion.”

Marlene Laruelle, Central Asia program director at George Washington University in Washington, believes the region’s players are “very unhappy and afraid of what Russia is doing.”

“They may see Russia as the aggressor, but also feel that the West has pushed it too much, especially on NATO enlargement.”

These states do not have much room to maneuver, she added. “The Russian economic recession, driven by Western sanctions, will have a huge impact on investment and remittances.”

Maqsuda, 45, an Uzbek migrant in Samara, Russia, told VOA that workers like her are extremely nervous about their earnings losing value. “I send at least $400 a month to my family in Jizzakh. I may lose my job and even if I keep it, how am I to exchange and send money? ATMs here already don’t work.”

Laruelle thinks the war on Ukraine will damage Russia’s credibility. “Clearly the regime will now be seen as more repressive and authoritarian than ever.”

She views Central Asian opinion on Ukraine-Russia as polarized.

“Putler,” a play on “Hitler,” is a common pejorative for Putin on Uzbek and regional social media.

Posts in both native languages and Russian condemn the war and support Ukraine.

Uzbekistan’s Parliamentary Deputy Speaker Alisher Kadirov, known for anti-Russian stands, applauds Ukraine for fighting, calling the Kremlin’s war wrong.

But he advocates a calm, pragmatic approach, and peace, hailing the position taken by the administration of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

“As friends of both Ukraine and Russia, we hope these dark clouds will vanish soon,” Kadirov wrote on his Telegram channel.

Don’t be fooled by this social media outpour, said Uzbek blogger and editor Eldar Assanov, underlining that Central Asia still largely lives in a Russian-dominated information space.

Several Uzbek news outlets informed VOA that they’ve been unofficially ordered not to publish and air pro-Ukraine content.

“We’ve been warned to be balanced and neutral, which we always try to be, but in this case, the authorities don’t want us to put out any view deploring Russia and/or defending Ukraine,” said a manager of a well-established media outlet in Tashkent, speaking on condition of anonymity and not revealing the name of the organization.

Assanov is not surprised at such restrictions. “Many follow Russian websites and channels, don’t know Ukrainian arguments, and just support Russia.”

But the Russian media presence has decreased with improved content in native languages. And social media expose Central Asians to global debates and diverse opinion.

Still, Assanov said, Russian influence is very strong. “Uzbek media just copy Russian content.”

“No country wants what Ukraine is experiencing,” he said. “So, leaders may get softer with Russia, but not rush to join its projects and cultivate other powers to counter the Russian pressure, such as Turkey.”

Journalists and bloggers across Uzbekistan take credit for advancing Uzbek media but don’t see particularly higher levels of critical thinking. “I can’t say we’ve been that effective yet, perhaps with the next generation,” said Assanov. “For now, for many, Russia is great because it can invade.”

This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service. Davron Hotam in Kyrgyzstan and Ozod Mas’ul in Tajikistan contributed to this report.
…

Western diplomatic missions in Pakistan collectively urged the host country Tuesday to denounce Russia’s invasion on Ukraine and back international calls for Moscow to immediately stop the war.

The statement, signed by ambassadors of 22 countries and the head of the European Union delegation in Islamabad, comes as the United Nations General Assembly is expected to adopt a draft resolution this week condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and demanding the withdraw of all Russian forces from its territory.

“As heads of missions to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, we urge Pakistan to join us in condemning Russia’s actions and to voice support for upholding the U.N. Charter and the founding principles of international law,” the statement said.

“Standing with our colleagues,” tweeted the U.S. embassy in Islamabad in response to the joint statement.

Islamabad has avoided criticizing the Russian assault on Ukraine and called on both sides to seek a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was visiting Moscow for official talks on Thursday when President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine. Islamabad has decided to remain neutral in the General Assembly session under way in New York, according to the local English-language DAWN newspaper.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry has not immediately responded to journalists’ requests for a reaction to the joint statement nor said whether Islamabad will attend the General Assembly session. But federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari criticized as “ironic” the Western-led call for Islamabad to condemn Russia’s actions.

Mazari tweeted that Khan “has stated clearly (ou)r position that we do not support use of mly (military) force to settle conflicts but u cannot adhere to Charter & IL (international law) selectively as has been done by the powerful for decades.”

She continued, “So let’s also see condemnation of ongoing Indian & Israeli violations of UN Charter & IL. As the UN SG had stated the UN Charter is “not an a la carte menu” but sadly the powerful have all been using the Charter exactly as such.”

The emergency General Assembly meeting was convened after Moscow vetoed a resolution in the 15-member Security Council on Friday that would have deplored the Russian aggression. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained from voting on the U.N. Security Council resolution. No country has veto power in the 193-member General Assembly.

The envoys who signed Tuesday’s joint statement represent countries that are Pakistan’s major development partners. They include France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, Markian Chouchak, also appealed for Islamabad to condemn the Russian attack.

“We hope that Pakistan will oppose this war, will take meaningful steps to force Russia to end its military aggression,” Chouchak told a news conference in Islamabad.

“We believe that unless there is a full-fledged international response to the Russian war aggression, the situation will only get worse in the event of a neutral stance,” the ambassador said.

Prime Minister Khan’s office said in a statement issued after his three-hour meeting at the Kremlin last week that he “regretted the latest situation between Russia and Ukraine” and said Pakistan “had hoped diplomacy could avert a military conflict.” He also stressed the need for settling disputes through dialogue and diplomacy.

The Pakistani leader has repeatedly said that his country is seeking balanced ties with major world powers and would not become part of any global bloc politics.

On Monday, Khan defended his trip to Moscow, the first by a Pakistani prime minister in 23 years. He said in an address to the nation that his predecessors’ “wrong foreign policy” of siding with the U.S.-led Western war on terrorism in Afghanistan had cost 80,000 Pakistani lives and about $150 billion in economic losses.

“The most embarrassing part was that a country was fighting in support of a country that was bombing it,” Khan said in an address to the nation, referring to U.S. drone strikes against suspected militant hideouts in Pakistani areas near the Afghan border.

”My government’s foreign policy is independent, and our visits to China and Russia will prove beneficial for Pakistan in the future,” Khan said in his televised speech.

Russia and Pakistan, once bitter adversaries during the Cold War, have restored ties in recent years. Beijing, both a close ally of Moscow and Islamabad, has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan over the past six years in major infrastructure projects, further cementing bilateral ties.

Pakistan’s frosty relations with the United States, analysts say, have pushed the South Asian nation closer to China and Russia in recent years.

Islamabad’s tensions with Washington stem from allegations that covert support from the Pakistani military helped the Taliban to sustain their insurgency against U.S.-led international forces in neighboring Afghanistan for 20 years and retake power last August. Pakistan rejects those allegations.
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