Kyrgyz media have condemned the arrest by Kyrgyzstan authorities of an investigative journalist the U.S. State Department has named an anti-corruption champion.

Bolot Temirov, founder of the independent news website Temirov LIVE, was arrested on Saturday after a raid by drug control officials in the capital, Bishkek.

Temirov was detained and forcibly removed from his office. Police also confiscated computer equipment, documents, and video surveillance camera recordings.

The Interior Ministry said that cannabis was found on Temirov during the search.

Temirov denies the accusation and said that drugs were deliberately put in his pocket. He believes the arrest is linked to recent reporting on alleged high-level corruption. 

On January 20, Temirov Live alleged that relatives of Kamchybek Tashiev, who is head of the State Committee for National Security, were involved in a corruption scheme involving a state-owned refinery.  

The day after Temirov’s arrest, Tashiev said the reporting contained “blatant lies” and that he had “not stolen a single som [Kyrgyz currency] from the state.”

Tashiev said that the State Committee for National Security had nothing to do with the raid on the media outlet. 

Charge questioned

After the raid, police questioned Temirov in the presence of lawyers at the Bishkek police department and released him on the agreement that he not leave the city and sign a nondisclosure agreement, according to his lawyer.

The following day, a court charged Temirov with drug possession and released him on bail. 

After leaving the courtroom, Temirov told reporters he believed the arrest was “directly related” to the story on Tashiev’s family. 

International bodies and rights groups, including the nongovernmental Norwegian Helsinki Committee and New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, have questioned the drug charge and said Kyrgyz authorities should investigate claims that police planted evidence on the journalist.

Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov commented on the arrest Sunday, saying Temirov “will be investigated fairly” and that he would closely monitor the case.

“At the same time, I would like to ask journalists to refrain from public slander and unsubstantiated accusations against anyone,” he said in a post shared on Facebook.

Corruption reporting

Temirov is well known in Kyrgyzstan for reporting on corruption, and in 2021 was one of 12 people recognized by the U.S. State Department as an anti-corruption champion.

The journalist was honored for his “long career” investigating organized crime and high-level corruption. 

The U.S. State Department reacted to Temirov’s arrest on Monday, saying, “A free media is vital to fighting corruption.” 

In a statement on Twitter, the State Department spokesperson Ned Price added, “As a committed partner in the Kyrgyz Republic’s anti-corruption efforts, the U.S. recalls our shared commitments to protect press freedom, including for journalists whose work helps to bring transparency to public affairs.”

At the time of his State Department award, Temirov was chief editor of the news website FactCheck, which investigated a $700 million scandal allegedly involving former deputy Customs Service chief Raimbek Matraimov. 

The U.S. has sanctioned Matraimov, who last year pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

Shortly after the report was published, Temirov was beaten by three unidentified attackers. 

Media solidarity

Protesters gathered in the Kyrgyz cities of Bishkek and Osh this week to demonstrate against Temirov’s arrest. 

Kyrgyz journalists who joined the protest said that a free media is vital for Kyrgyzstan’s development. 

“When will Kyrgyzstan develop? When corruption stops. If there is no freedom of speech, if corruption grows, we will remain as we are,” said Idris Isakov, a journalist who took part in the protests in Osh. “That is why we are not in a position to turn a blind eye to corruption. That’s why we need freedom of speech, that’s why we need journalistic inquiries.”

Another journalist, Shohrukh Saipov, said that freedom of the press in Kyrgyzstan was better than in neighboring countries, but that journalists were sometimes threatened. 

“Whether we like it or not, journalists are constantly under the control of law enforcement agencies,” he said at the Osh protest. “They are also threatened. The case of Bolot Temirov is a clear example of this.”

“Freedom of the press, freedom of thought is the only achievement of the state. However, in recent years, international organizations have reported that freedom of speech and the press in Kyrgyzstan are deteriorating. This is unfortunate,” Saipov added.

Kyrgyzstan ranks 79 out of 180 countries where 1 is freest on the World Press Freedom Index. Its 2021 ranking was a three-point improvement on the previous year according to the data compiled by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

RSF said that media pluralism is “exceptional” in the country but that investigative journalists risk violence, cyberattacks, or being questioned. Exposing corruption “can still be very dangerous,” RSF states.

This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service.
…

Most countries have made little to no progress in bringing down corruption levels over the past decade, and authorities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in many places has weighed on accountability, a closely watched study by an anti-graft organization found Tuesday.

Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures the perception of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, found that “increasingly, rights and checks and balances are being undermined not only in countries with systemic corruption and weak institutions, but also among established democracies.”

Among other issues over the past year, it cited the use of Pegasus software, which has been linked to snooping on human rights activists, journalists and politicians across the globe.

The report said the pandemic has “been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms and sidestep important checks and balances.”

In Western Europe, the best-scoring region overall, the pandemic has given countries “an excuse for complacency in anti-corruption efforts as accountability and transparency measures are neglected or even rolled back,” Transparency said. In some Asian countries, it said, COVID-19 “also has been used as an excuse to suppress criticism.” It pointed to increased digital surveillance in some nations and authoritarian approaches in others.

The report ranks countries on a scale from a “highly corrupt” 0 to a “very clean” 100. Denmark, New Zealand and Finland tied for first place with 88 points each; the first two were unchanged, while Finland gained three points. Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany completed the top 10. The U.K. was 11th with 78.

The United States, which slipped over recent years to hit 67 points in 2020, held that score this time but slipped a couple of places to 27th. Transparency said it dropped out of the top 25 for the first time “as it faces continuous attacks on free and fair elections and an opaque campaign finance system.”

Canada, which slid three points to 74 and two places to 13th, “is seeing increased risks of bribery and corruption in business,” the group said. It added that the publication of the Pandora Papers showed Canada as “a hub for illicit financial flows, fueling transnational corruption across the region and the world.”

The index rates 180 countries and territories. South Sudan was bottom with 11 points; Somalia, with which it shared last place in 2020, tied this time with Syria for second-to-last with 13. Venezuela followed with 14 — then Yemen, North Korea and Afghanistan tied with 16 apiece.

Transparency said the control of corruption has stagnated or worsened in 86% of the countries it surveyed in the last 10 years. In that time, 23 countries — including the U.S., Canada, Hungary and Poland — have declined significantly in its index, while 25 have improved significantly. They include Estonia, the Seychelles and Armenia.

Compiled since 1995, the index is calculated using 13 different data sources that provide perceptions of public sector corruption from business people and country experts. Sources include the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and private risk and consulting companies.
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Pakistan swore in its first woman Supreme Court judge Monday in what is being hailed as a landmark moment in the historically male-dominated judicial history of the Muslim-majority nation.

Ayesha Malik, 55, took the oath at a ceremony in the capital Islamabad that was televised live. She now joins the bench alongside 16 male judges at the top court.

“I want to congratulate Justice Ayesha Malik on becoming the first woman judge of the Supreme Court. I wish her all the best,” Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted.

The process to elevate Malik to the top court from the Punjab provincial high court, which she joined in 2012, had been unusually contentious.

Pakistan’s nine-member judicial commission, which decides on the promotion of judges, had turned down Malik’s elevation last year, before voting 5-4 to elect her this year.

Large sections of bar councils and lawyers’ associations across Pakistan vehemently opposed her nomination, saying it was not in line with seniority lists as Malik was not among the top three most senior jurists of the provincial court.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, who administered the oath to her, told reporters after the ceremony that Malik was competent enough to be elevated to the Supreme Court.

“She deserved to become a judge of the Supreme Court [and] she became one. That’s what it is,” Ahmed said.

Senior opposition Senator Sherry Rehman tweeted the picture of Monday’s oath taking ceremony to congratulate Malik.

Christian Turner, the British high commissioner to Pakistan, said Malik’s appointment as first woman Supreme Court judge “will inspire girls to believe that there are no barriers to their aspirations.”

Malik, who was educated at Harvard University, was widely hailed last year for her landmark Lahore High Court ruling, outlawing so-called virginity tests on sexual assault survivors in Punjab, the country’s most populous province.

She declared the practice “humiliating,” saying it “had no forensic value” and “offends the personal dignity of the female victim and therefore is against the right to life and right to dignity.”

Malik also directed the federal and provincial governments to take necessary steps to “ensure that virginity tests are not carried out in medico-legal examination of the victims of rape and sexual abuse.”

The WHO has called the test “unscientific, harmful, and a violation of women’s and girls’ human rights.” 

“The biggest way I’ve had an impact is that I’ve become a voice. I’m there to call out the discrimination, call out stereotyping, and bring out the gender perspective,” Malik said in a conversation with a United Nations media outlet when she was the provincial high court judge.

“I’m the voice that nudges, reminds, and suggests ways to improve ourselves and make our system more inclusive.” 
…

A Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday started three days of talks in Oslo with Western officials and Afghan civil society representatives amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

The closed-door meetings were taking place at a hotel in the snow-capped mountains above the Norwegian capital and are the first time since the Taliban took over in August that their representatives have held official meetings in Europe.

The talks were not without controversy, however, reigniting the debate over whether they legitimize the Taliban government, especially since they were being held in Norway, a NATO country involved in Afghanistan from 2001 until the Taliban take over last summer. 

Speaking at the end of the first day of talks, Taliban delegate Shafiullah Azam told The Associated Press that the meetings with Western officials were “a step to legitimize (the) Afghan government,” adding that “this type of invitation and communication will help (the) European community, (the) U.S. or many other countries to erase the wrong picture of the Afghan government.”

That statement may irk the Taliban’s Norwegian hosts. Earlier, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the talks were “not a legitimation or recognition of the Taliban.”

On Sunday, 200 protesters gathered on an icy square in front of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in Oslo to condemn the meetings with the Taliban, which has not received diplomatic recognition from any foreign government.

“The Taliban has not changed as some in the international community like to say,” said Ahman Yasir, a Norwegian Afghan living in Norway for around two decades. “They are as brutal as they were in 2001 and before.”

Taliban leaders met with some women’s rights and human rights activists on Sunday, but there was no official word about those talks.

Starting Monday, Taliban representatives will meet with delegations from Western nations and will be certain to press their demand that nearly $10 billion frozen by the United States and other Western countries be released as Afghanistan faces a precarious humanitarian situation.

“We are requesting them to unfreeze Afghan assets and not punish ordinary Afghans because of the political discourse,” said Shafiullah Azam. “Because of the starvation, because of the deadly winter, I think it’s time for the international community to support Afghans, not punish them because of their political disputes.”

The United Nations has managed to provide some liquidity and allowed the Taliban administration to pay for imports, including electricity. But the U.N. has warned that as many as 1 million Afghan children are in danger of starving and most of the country’s 38 million people are living below the poverty line.

Faced with the Taliban’s request for funds, Western powers are likely to put the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan high on their agenda, along with the West’s recurring demand for the Taliban administration to share power with Afghanistan’s minority ethnic and religious groups. 

Since sweeping to power in mid-August, the Taliban have imposed widespread restrictions, many of them directed at women. Women have been banned from many jobs outside the health and education fields, their access to education has been restricted beyond sixth grade and they have been ordered to wear the hijab. The Taliban have, however, stopped short of imposing the burqa, which was compulsory when they previously ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s.

The Taliban have increasingly targeted Afghanistan’s beleaguered rights groups, as well as journalists, detaining and sometimes beating television crews covering demonstrations.

A U.S. delegation, led by Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West, plans to discuss “the formation of a representative political system; responses to the urgent humanitarian and economic crises; security and counterterrorism concerns; and human rights, especially education for girls and women,” according to a statement released by the U.S. State Department.
…

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian tendered his resignation on Sunday, saying he believes the country’s constitution does not give him sufficient powers to influence events.

Sarkissian, president since 2018, was in a standoff with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last year over a number of issues, including the dismissal of the head of the armed forces.

The role of prime minister is seen as more powerful than that of president.

“I have been thinking for a long time, I have decided to resign from the post of the President of the Republic after working actively for about four years,” Sarkissian said in a statement published on the president’s official website.

“The question may arise as to why the President failed to influence the political events that led us to the current national crisis. The reason is obvious again – the lack of appropriate tools … – the Constitution. The roots of some of our potential problems are hidden in the current Basic Law.”

At a referendum in December 2015, Armenia became a parliamentary republic, while presidential powers were significantly curtailed.

Sarkissian in his statement did not refer directly to any particular events or issues.

Armenia agreed a ceasefire with Azerbaijan last November at their border, after Russia urged them to step back from confrontation following the deadliest clash since a six-week war in 2020 when Moscow also brokered a peace deal to end the hostilities.

Prime Minister Pashinyan has since been under pressure, with regular street protests demanding he step down over the terms of the peace agreement. Under the 2020 deal brokered by Russia, Azerbaijan regained control of territory it had lost during a war in the early 1990s.

Armenia seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991 but remains dependent on Russia for aid and investment. Many Armenians accuse the government of corruption and mishandling an economy that has struggled to overcome the legacy of central planning.
…

A Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday started three days of talks in Oslo with Western government officials and Afghan civil society representatives amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

The closed-door meetings are taking place at a hotel in the snow-capped mountains above the Norwegian capital. The first day will see Taliban representatives meeting with women’s rights activists and human rights defenders from Afghanistan and from the Afghan diaspora.

Before the talks, the Taliban’s deputy minister of culture and information tweeted a voice message he said was from Muttaqi, expressing hope for “a good trip full of achievements” and thanking Norway, a country he said he hopes will become “a gateway for a positive relationship with Europe.”

The trip is the first time since the Taliban took over the country in August that their representatives have held official meetings in Europe. Earlier, they traveled to Russia, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, China and Turkmenistan.

During the talks, Muttaqi is certain to press the Taliban’s demand that nearly $10 billion frozen by the United States and other Western countries be released as Afghanistan faces a precarious humanitarian situation.

The United Nations has managed to provide for some liquidity and allowed the new administration to pay for imports, including electricity, but warned that as many as 1 million Afghan children are in danger of starving, and most of the country’s 38 million people are living below the poverty line.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said the Taliban delegation would also meet with Afghans in Norway, including “women leaders, journalists and people who work with, among other things, human rights and humanitarian, economic, social and political issues.”

“Norway continues to engage in dialogue with the Taliban to promote human rights, women’s participation in society, and to strengthen humanitarian and economic efforts in Afghanistan in support of the Afghan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A U.S. delegation, led by Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West, plans to discuss “the formation of a representative political system; responses to the urgent humanitarian and economic crises; security and counterterrorism concerns; and human rights, especially education for girls and women,” according to a statement released by the U.S. State Department.

On Friday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the visit was “not a legitimation or recognition of the Taliban. But we must talk to those who in practice govern the country today.”

“We are extremely concerned about the serious situation in Afghanistan,” Huitfeldt said, noting that economic and political conditions have created “a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe for millions of people” facing starvation in the country.

The Scandinavian country, home to the Nobel Peace Prize, is no stranger to sensitive diplomacy and has in the past been involved in peace efforts in several countries, including Mozambique, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia, the Philippines, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Syria, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka and South Sudan.
…

Human rights and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where hunger threatens millions, will be in focus at talks opening Sunday in Oslo between the Taliban, the West and members of Afghan civil society.

In their first visit to Europe since returning to power in August, the Taliban will meet Norwegian officials as well as representatives of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and the European Union.

The Taliban delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi.

On the agenda will be “the formation of a representative political system, responses to the urgent humanitarian and economic crises, security and counter-terrorism concerns, and human rights, especially education for girls and women,” a U.S. State Department official said.

The hardline Islamists were toppled in 2001 but stormed back to power in August as international troops began their final withdrawal.

The Taliban hope the talks will help “transform the atmosphere of war… into a peaceful situation,” government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Saturday.

No country has yet recognized the Taliban government, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the talks would “not represent a legitimization or recognition of the Taliban.”

“But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster,” Huitfeldt said.

‘Have to involve the government’

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since August.

International aid, which financed around 80% of the Afghan budget, came to a sudden halt and the United States has frozen $9.5 billion in assets in the Afghan central bank.

Unemployment has skyrocketed and civil servants’ salaries have not been paid for months in the country already ravaged by several severe droughts.

Hunger now threatens 23 million Afghans, or 55% of the population, according to the United Nations, which says it needs $4.4 billion from donor countries this year to address the humanitarian crisis.

“It would be a mistake to submit the people of Afghanistan to a collective punishment just because the de facto authorities are not behaving properly”, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated Friday.

A former U.N. representative to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told AFP: “We can’t keep distributing aid circumventing the Taliban.”

“If you want to be efficient, you have to involve the government in one way or another.”

The international community is waiting to see how the Islamic fundamentalists intend to govern Afghanistan, after having largely trampled on human rights during their first stint in power between 1996 and 2001.

While the Taliban claim to have modernized, women are still largely excluded from public employment and secondary schools for girls remain largely closed.

‘Gender apartheid’

On the first day of the Oslo talks held behind closed doors, the Taliban delegation is expected to meet Afghans from civil society, including women leaders and journalists.

A former Afghan minister for mines and petrol who now lives in Norway, Nargis Nehan, said she had declined an invitation to take part.

She told AFP she feared the talks would “normalize the Taliban and … strengthen them, while there is no way that they’ll change.”

“If we look at what happened in the talks of the past three years, the Taliban keep getting what they demand from the international community and the Afghan people, but there is not one single thing that they have delivered from their side,” she said.

“What guarantee is there this time that they will keep their promises?” she asked, noting that women activists and journalists are still being arrested.

Davood Moradian, the head of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies now based outside Afghanistan, meanwhile criticized Norway’s “celebrity-style” peace initiative.

“Hosting a senior member of the Taliban casts doubt on Norway’s global image as a country that cares for women’s rights, when the Taliban has effectively instituted gender apartheid,” he said.

Norway has a track record of mediating in conflicts, including in the Middle East, Sri Lanka and Colombia. 
…

Two Sherpa brothers have proudly returned home after becoming the first Nepalis to reach the South Pole, part of their mission to achieve the hallowed Explorers Grand Slam.

This holy grail of adventuring involves climbing the highest peaks in the seven continents — Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya — and reaching both poles.

“We saw flags of many countries, but the flag of our country was not there,” Chhang Dawa Sherpa said after returning from Antarctica where they also ticked off the 4,892-meter Mount Vinson.

“We felt very happy to add Nepal’s flag there,” he told AFP on Friday.

Sherpa and his elder sibling Mingma, due back in Nepal in the coming weeks, already hold the record for the first siblings to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world.

Their little brother, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, holds the crown as the youngest person, at 19, to climb Everest without using supplementary oxygen.

For the Explorers Grand Slam, the siblings still must climb another five peaks and reach the North Pole, but they are confident they can complete it within a year.

The brothers run the aptly named Seven Summit Treks in Kathmandu, the largest expedition organizer in Nepal, taking hundreds of climbers up Himalayan peaks every year.

Nepali guides, usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest, are considered the backbone of the climbing industry in the Himalayas for bearing huge risks to carry equipment and food, fix ropes and repair ladders.

Long under the shadow as supporters of foreign climbers, Nepali mountaineers are slowly being recognized in their own right.

Last year, a team of Nepali climbers made the first winter assent of K2, the world’s second-highest peak — the notoriously challenging 8,611-meter “savage mountain” of Pakistan — shining a much-deserved spotlight on their own climbing prowess. 
…

India’s health ministry reported 337,704 new COVID-19 cases Saturday. Public health officials have warned that India’s tallies are likely undercounted.

Ireland lifts most of its COVID restrictions Saturday, as the country prepares to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in March, for the first time in two years.

Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said, “Spring is coming, and I don’t know if I have ever looked forward to” a St. Patrick’s Day celebration “as much as this one.”

A face mask mandate, however, currently remains in effect.

Anti-vaccine activists are set to rally Sunday in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. The anti-vaccine propaganda has taken hold among various American groups, including politicians, school officials, professional athletes and health care workers. Public health officials say about 20% of U.S. adults are unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, former Polish President Lech Walesa has announced that he has contracted COVID-19, even though he has been fully vaccinated.

“After this lesson, I will not part ways with a mask,” he posted on Facebook.

The omicron variant in Japan has resulted in a record-high COVID case count in the capital. On Saturday, Tokyo reported 11,227 new daily infections, the highest daily total in four consecutive days.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Saturday that it has recorded 346.5 million global COVID cases and 5.6 million global COVID deaths. Almost 10 billion vaccines have been administered worldwide.

 
…

Thousands gathered in Istanbul this week to demand full justice for high-profile Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed 15 years ago.

Placards reading “We are all Hrant, We are all Armenian” and “For Hrant, For Justice” were waved as the crowd gathered outside the building where a teenage gunman in 2007 shot Dink.

Candles and red carnations were placed next to a commemorative plaque, and Turkish and Armenian songs played in the background. The facade of the building, which was once home to Dink’s media outlet, was covered with a large poster of the journalist and the words: “15 missing years.”

“The beautiful thing is that after 15 years, so many people do not forget Hrant Dink and the message he gave,” Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told VOA.

Peace advocate

As the founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was a leading advocate for peace between the Turkish and Armenian communities. 

But his writing and speeches on Armenian identity and calls for reconciliation made him a target of nationalists in Turkey.

He was prosecuted several times during his journalism career, including a lawsuit in 2005 in which Dink was convicted of “publicly insulting and degrading Turkishness.”

At the time of his death, Dink was awaiting trial as part of a lawsuit over his use of the word “genocide” to describe attacks in 1915 that Armenia says left 1.5 million dead.

The U.S. and some other countries recognize it as a genocide. Turkey acknowledges killings during the Ottoman Empire but denies any genocide.

In early January, special envoys from Turkey and Armenia met in Moscow to try to normalize an otherwise strained relationship.

Search for justice

In 2011, Ogun Samast was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison by a juvenile court on charges including premeditated murder for shooting Dink.

Since then, 76 other suspects accused of involvement in Dink’s killing have been tried. In March 2021, a court in Istanbul sentenced several former high-ranking public and police officers to life in prison for convictions on several charges, including premeditated murder and violating the constitution.

The Turkish government believes a network linked to Fethullah Gulen was behind the attack and that those involved have been brought to justice. The U.S.-based Gulen, whom Turkey also accuses of being behind a failed attempted coup, denies the accusations.

Omer Celik, spokesperson for the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), paid tribute to Dink on Twitter, saying: “Hrant defended brotherhood in this country and resisted those who tried to bring hostility to this country from outside.”

Dink’s family and colleagues, however, believe a wider network was involved in the killing and do not believe everyone has been brought to justice. Lawyers for the family appealed the March 2021 court decision and asked for further investigation.

“Impunity still persists,” said RSF’s Onderoglu, who followed the trial closely. “The Hrant Dink case is not out of our agenda, even if it is out of the hands of the court.”

“We will continue our struggle until the end, until those who targeted Hrant Dink, those who incited them, and the structures that killed him are brought to justice,” he added.

‘15 missing years’

In a column published the day he died, Dink said he felt “dovelike disquiet” because of the death threats and legal cases he faced.

“Doves live their lives in the hearts of cities, amid the crowds and human bustle. Yes, they live a little uneasily, a little apprehensively — but they live freely too,” Dink wrote.

Images of doves were projected onto the building facade a night before the commemoration.

The memorial shows Dink’s lasting impact on the Turkish-Armenian community, even on those who were too young at the time to understand what was happening.

Sila Pakyuz, 20, a Turkish-Armenian university student, told VOA she came to the commemoration with her non-Armenian friends.

“Hrant was shot when we came out of kindergarten. I am an Armenian from Turkey, and I was unaware that I was the ‘other’ in Turkey. I was only a child who spoke Armenian,” Pakyuz said.

“When I got home, my grandmother was crying, ‘Hrant was killed.’ As I got older, I understood what it means to be an Armenian in Turkey. I was living in a bubble,” she said.

At the memorial, Dink’s widow, Rakel, addressed the crowd, speaking about the detention of lawyers, journalists and Kurdish politicians in Turkey.

“Let us not dash any hopes,” Rakel Dink said. “The voice of indignation, rebellion and objection that roared up right from here as we buried you has never kept silent, and it shall never remain silent.”

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
…

A court in Uzbekistan has refused to release from house arrest Miraziz Bazarov, a blogger and rights activist arrested who was severely beaten by unknown attackers in March last year.

The Mirobod district court in the Uzbek capital Tashkent rejected a motion by Bazarov’s lawyer to free the blogger during his trial, which started on January 20.

Journalists say they were not allowed to be present at the trial because they did not provide PCR tests to prove they did not have the coronavirus, adding that they had not been told that such tests were required.

Representatives of foreign embassies and officials from the European Union and United Nations were allowed in the courtroom.

Bazarov’s lawyer, Sergei Mayorov, told RFE/RL the judge ordered all people present at the trial to refrain from commenting to the media about the proceedings or to reveal the process in any way until the trial is over.

Bazarov was hospitalized in March 2021 after he was brutally attacked by unknown men hours after a public event he had organized in Tashkent for fans of Korean pop music and Japanese anime was disrupted by dozens of aggressive men.

He suffered an open leg fracture, a severe concussion, and multiple internal and external injuries.

Later, he became a suspect in a slander case. A religious cleric, two pro-government bloggers, and a schoolteacher filed a lawsuit against Bazarov, accusing him of lying about them on his blogs.

Bazarov has been known for criticizing the Uzbek government on his Telegram channel.

Among other issues, Bazarov also has publicly urged the government to decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct, which remains a crime in Uzbekistan.

Bazarov has openly said that he is not an LGBT activist but believes that being gay is a personal issue and therefore no laws should consider it a crime.

Bazarov also has criticized President Shavkat Mirziyoev for insufficient anti-corruption efforts and has questioned the efficacy of ongoing restrictions to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2020, Bazarov was questioned by State Security Service investigators after he called on the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank on Facebook not to provide loans to Uzbekistan without strict control over how the funds are used.

Bazarov told RFE/RL he received many online threats before the attack, which he told police about, but he said law enforcement did not take any action.

If convicted, Bazarov may face up to three years of parole-like restricted freedom.
…

Curbs have been imposed in India’s cities as a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the country. Health experts, however, are flagging mass gatherings, such as religious festivals held in North India, they fear could turn into superspreader events in the world’s second-worst affected country. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.
…

A Taliban delegation is expected to hold talks with Norwegian officials and Afghan civil society representatives in Oslo next week, the Norwegian foreign ministry said Friday.

The visit is scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday, and “the Taliban will meet representatives of the Norwegian authorities and officials from a number of allied countries,” for talks on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and human rights, the ministry said.

The ministry did not specify which allies would attend, but Norwegian newspaper VG said they would include Britain, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

“We are extremely concerned about the grave situation in Afghanistan, where millions of people are facing a full-blown humanitarian disaster,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.

“In order to be able to help the civilian population in Afghanistan, it is essential that both the international community and Afghans from various parts of society engage in dialogue with the Taliban,” Huitfeldt added.

Stressing that Norway would be “clear about our expectations,” particularly on “girls’ education and human rights,” Huitfeldt said the meetings would “not represent a legitimization or recognition of the Taliban.”

“But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country. We cannot allow the political situation to lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster,” Huitfeldt said.

The Taliban swept back to power in Afghanistan last summer as international troops withdrew after a two-decade presence. A U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since August. International aid came to a sudden halt and the United States has frozen $9.5 billion (8.4 billion euros) in assets in the Afghan central bank.

Famine now threatens 23 million Afghans, or 55% of the population, according to the United Nations, which says it needs $5 billion from donor countries this year to address the humanitarian crisis in the country. 

 
…

A female Afghan human rights activist, her two sisters and another activist have been taken from their homes after recent protests in Kabul, friends and activists say, prompting suspicions they were detained by the Taliban.

Shafi Karimi, a freelance journalist, told VOA that Tamana Paryani and her two sisters have been missing since Wednesday night.

“Tamana’s father went to all the Taliban offices today and found no clues about his daughters,” Karimi said.

The Associated Press, citing eyewitnesses, said the Taliban “stormed” an apartment in Kabul, “smashing the door in” and arresting Paryani and her sisters.

Another woman who took part in Sunday’s protest against a Taliban directive making wearing hijabs, or Islamic headscarves, compulsory for women is also believed to have been detained.

The Taliban denied arresting the women, however. “This news is baseless, and no women [have been] arrested in Kabul,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told the BBC.

Despite the Taliban government’s denials, activists are preparing for more detentions.

A women’s rights activist and friend of Paryani’s who asked not to be named for security reasons told VOA via telephone, “We have reports that the Taliban will conduct more raids tonight. We are not safe at our homes. We are changing our homes and numbers. The Taliban have access to our phone numbers and other information through our arrested friends’ phones.”

Human Rights Watch condemned the Taliban’s treatment of the protesters, calling it a “violent crackdown.” Heather Bar, the associate director of the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch, told VOA the suspected detentions were “deeply alarming.”

“This looks to be a serious escalation in the Taliban’s desire to crush women’s rights protests. The international immunity should urgently defend the protesters,” she said.

‘Help, please’

An Afghan media outlet has broadcast a video that it says Paryani recorded on her phone. The video, which VOA has not independently verified, was broadcast on Aamaj News and appears to show Taliban security forces banging on her door while she calls out for help.

“Help, please, the Taliban have come to our home … only my sisters are home,” Paryani is saying in the footage, according to AP. In the background, other women are heard saying, “I can’t open the door. Please … help!”

The Taliban’s detention of female protesters has faced widespread criticism from politicians and civil society activists.

Afrasiab Khattak, a human rights activist and a former member of Pakistan’s Senate, denounced the detention of the activists. It shows the “brutality of the lawless militia in a country without constitution and law-based state system,” he said. “Afghans are thrown to wolves. Silence of the U.N. and international community is deafening.”

Fawzia Koofi, a former deputy speaker of parliament in Afghanistan — the first female to hold the post — and a former chairperson of Afghanistan’s Women, Civil Society and Human Rights Commission, condemned the arrests, calling them extrajudicial detentions.

Koofi tweeted Thursday: “Many women activists live under tremendous fear & horror. Women of Afg. deserve to live in safety and enjoy every right that is granted for them in the laws. Extra judiciary arrest must stop.”

Four detained

On Tuesday, the Taliban detained four activists — Azeem Azeemi, Ahmad Shah, Abdul Karim Bilal and Hayatullah Raufi — for organizing a protest against Pakistani national security adviser Moeed Yusuf’s visit to Kabul.

Inayatullah Qazizada, an activist, told VOA Deewa in a phone interview that his friends were still in Taliban detention and that no one had been allowed to talk to them.

From time to time, women’s rights activists in Afghanistan have staged demonstrations demanding their rights to education and employment.

Human rights violations in Afghanistan have been repeatedly highlighted in recent reports by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

This report originated in VOA’s Deewa Service. Some information came from The Associated Press.
…

Police in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, said Thursday a bomb explosion in a busy central marketplace had killed at least two people and injured at least 29 others.

A spokesman for the so-called Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA), one of several outlawed ethnic separatist militant groups active in mineral-rich southwestern Baluchistan province, took responsibility for the attack.

The blast, caused by a planted device, happened in the eastern city’s famous Anarkali bazaar, which is known for selling Indian goods, according to an official statement quoting Abid Khan, a deputy police inspector general in Lahore.

“Investigations are ongoing, but it is premature to speculate on where the explosive device was planted,” Khan said.

Earlier media reports quoted authorities as saying the bomb was attached to a motorcycle.

In video taken at the scene, clothing and wreckage from a motorcycle can be seen on the ground as well as damaged store fronts. People can also be seen attempting to help the wounded.

The injured were transported to a nearby hospital where some of them were reportedly listed in critical condition. Officials said a 9-year-old child was one of those killed.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed regret over the “loss of precious human lives,” his office said.

“This attack targeted bank employees. A detailed statement will be issued soon,” wrote a BNA spokesman wrote on Twitter. The veracity of BNA’s claim of responsibility could not be independently verified. 

Pakistan has experienced a surge in deadly militant attacks across the country in recent weeks, mostly claimed by the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. 

A month-long cease-fire between the government and the TTP expired in early December, leading to rise in attacks by the militant group, which officials say operates out of sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan. 

On Monday, two armed TTP militants on a motorcycle carried out a rare attack on a police checkpoint near a busy market in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The attack killed a police officer and wounded two others. An ensuing shootout killed both assailants.

The militant group claimed responsibility for the Islamabad attack, prompting authorities to step up security across the city and elsewhere in Pakistan.

Analysts say the Pakistani Taliban have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power across the border in Afghanistan and anticipate a further rise in militant violence in Pakistan in the near future.

The AP reports that TTP since August has warned of more attacks.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

International health workers say the end of the war in Afghanistan brings new hope to efforts to rid the country of the crippling disease polio. 

For many years, efforts to immunize all Afghan children under five years old were considered unfeasible because of widespread insecurity and threats to health workers. 

But with the end of the war, and Taliban pledges last year to support the polio immunization campaign, aid agencies now say they can access nearly all parts of the country, giving them an opportunity to eradicate poliovirus.  

“If we succeed to implement the planned polio campaigns with high coverage of 95%, we can interrupt the circulation of polio virus by the end of 2022,” Kamal Shah Sayed, a UNICEF spokesman in Afghanistan, told VOA.  

Backed by the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), a three-day nation-wide polio immunization campaign targeting nearly 10 million children was launched in Afghanistan on January 17. Four additional campaigns are planned for this year.  

Taliban back immunization campaign

Once considered a major obstacle in the way of anti-polio efforts because of their indiscriminate attacks as they fought U.S. and Afghan Government forces, the Taliban are now helping U.N. agencies to eradicate polio, Sayed confirmed. The U.S. withdrew all forces from Afghanistan last August as the Taliban fighters toppled the U.S.-backed Afghan government and declared the country an Islamic Emirate.  

Only four cases of poliovirus were confirmed in 2021 in the landlocked country, down from 56 cases a year before.  

However, there are still several challenges for making a polio-free Afghanistan in 2022.  

Poliovirus is still virulent in the neighboring Pakistan and can easily be transferred through the long and porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border crossings. Polio cases also saw a significant drop in Pakistan from 79 cases in 2020 to only one confirmed case in 2021, according to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program.  

Poor awareness about poliovirus and how to protect children against it remains another problem, particularly in rural Afghan communities.   

Immunization workers also need to have access to every household across the country, but this has been resisted by some Taliban officials who prefer to conduct immunization campaigns at local mosques.  

“The house-to-house polio campaigns are very important,” said Sayed of the UNICEF adding that such access should be especially ensured in the traditional “key polio reservoir regions of the South and East.”  

The drive to rid Afghanistan from poliovirus is taking place as the country suffers from an economic paralysis and a widespread humanitarian crisis which threatens most of the country’s estimated 35 million population. The U.N. has called for nearly $5 billion to provide life-saving food, health, and shelter assistance to the most vulnerable Afghans in 2022. 

The polio immunization campaigns appear to have no funding shortfalls thanks to some 70,000 Afghan volunteers as well as financial contributions from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rotary International, the Canadian government, United Arab Emirates, and the Japanese government, UNICEF said.
…

Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:

US, Russia, Ukraine

The United States will continue relentless diplomatic efforts to prevent Russia from further military aggression against Ukraine while providing defensive security assistance to Kyiv, Blinken said Wednesday.

“We’ve offered Russia a clear choice, a choice between pursuing dialogue and diplomacy on the one hand or confrontation and consequences on the other hand,” Blinken told VOA in an interview.

Standing with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at a press conference, Blinken added that U.S. security assistance deliveries to Ukraine were ongoing and that more were scheduled “in the coming weeks.”  

VOA Interview: Blinken Warns Russia of Action Should Moscow Invade Ukraine

After Ukraine, Blinken heads to Berlin on Thursday and then to Geneva, where he will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday. Blinken will urge Russia to “take immediate steps to de-escalate” tensions along its border with Ukraine. The hastily arranged trip for the top U.S. diplomat comes one week after U.S.-Russia talks in Geneva reached an impasse.

Blinken, Lavrov to Meet in Geneva Friday to Continue Diplomacy Over Ukraine

US-North Korea

In response to North Korea’s recent missile launches, the United States called on Pyongyang to “cease its unlawful and destabilizing activities.”

In a call with South Korean and Japanese officials, Sung Kim, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, “expressed concern” about the missile launches and urged Pyongyang to return to dialogue “without preconditions.”

North Korea’s launch on Monday, which South Korea said involved short-range ballistic missiles, marked North Korea’s fourth weapons test this month as Pyongyang flexes its military muscle while ignoring the United States’ offers of talks. 

North Korea Confirms Latest Missile Test

US-Iran 

U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley will meet with Barry Rosen, an American who was taken hostage in Iran in 1979, while giving “full attention” to and seeking the release of all wrongfully detained American citizens in Iran, a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

Rosen began a hunger strike in Vienna on Wednesday to press U.S. and Iranian officials to come to an agreement about the release of Americans and other Westerners of Iranian origin jailed by Tehran. He hopes the move will help to break a monthslong stalemate in indirect talks between the two sides.

Former US Hostage in Iran to Begin Hunger Strike to Press for Prisoner Deal

Humanitarian assistance to Afghans 

The United States said it would continue to support the people of Afghanistan, as Washington delivers more doses of COVID-19 vaccine and provides humanitarian funds.

He highlighted the United States’ latest contribution of more than $308 million toward humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people during a virtual meeting with U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths. The U.N. said it is “in a race against time” to prevent millions of Afghans from falling deeper into a severe economic and humanitarian crisis.

UN Chief: ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Afghan Economy
…

The Taliban’s acting prime minister asked the global community Wednesday to grant legitimacy to Afghanistan’s new government, insisting it has met all conditions required for the official recognition.

Mohammad Hassan Akhund spoke at a conference in Kabul where his interim administration convened to discuss massive economic upheavals facing the country since the Taliban seized power last August. The event was also attended by United Nations officials.

“I call especially on Islamic countries to not wait for others and take the lead in officially recognizing our Islamic Emirate,” Akhund said.

This would help expedite efforts aimed at addressing dire economic and humanitarian problems facing Afghanistan, he argued.

No country has yet recognized the new government, which the Taliban officially refer to as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Foreign governments are watching to see how the ultra-conservative group will govern the country this time around.

Akhund blamed the current economic crisis on international sanctions and the freezing of roughly $9.5 billion in Afghanistan’s foreign cash reserves by Western nations led by the United States.

Deborah Lyons, the head of the U.N. mission in Kabul, told the conference the global body was working to “revitalize” the Afghan economy and “fundamentally” address the economic problems.

“The economic crisis is not the only problem facing Afghanistan. But it is one of the most urgent and above all is one where action is possible and must be taken quickly by all of us,” Lyons said.

She praised some of the steps the Taliban administration has taken to contain economic deterioration.

“Foremost among these is the adoption recently of a national budget that, for the first time, is totally financed by national revenues and not dependent on any donor grants,” Lyons noted. “In addition, revenue generation has been growing, despite the economic slowdown, in large part because of efforts to address corruption.”

Lyons, however, stressed the importance of women’s participation in economic activities, saying stable societies and economic progress require inclusion, respect for human rights and equality among all citizens.

Other senior Taliban Cabinet members also addressed Wednesday’s conference and called for ending international economic sanctions.

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the Taliban government was seeking to establish close economic relations with international partners.

“Humanitarian aid is the short-term solution to economic problems but what is needed to solve problems in the long run is the implementation of infrastructure projects,” Muttaqi said.

“I again avail this opportunity to call on the United States of America to unfreeze the assets of Afghanistan’s Central Bank and to remove all impediments for relief organizations and Afghans in money transfers to Afghanistan,” the foreign minister added.

Taliban officials said representatives of 20 foreign nations attended the conference, while dozens more participated virtually.

Since the Taliban took over the government five months ago, the suspension of most international development funding to aid-dependent Afghanistan, the imposition of financial restrictions and long-running terrorism-related sanctions on Taliban leaders, have led to a breakdown in many basic services, including electricity, health services and education.

Inflation is rampant, and the price of ordinary goods is beyond the reach of most Afghans.

Under the previous Taliban government from 1996 to 2001, women were excluded from public life, girls’ education was banned, human rights abuses were rampant, and transnational terrorists were active on Afghan soil, triggering international sanctions and the diplomatic isolation of the country.

Although Taliban leaders have pledged to govern the country differently, they have not yet allowed most women to return to public sector jobs. While schoolboys were allowed to resume classes in September, secondary schools for girls across Afghanistan have mostly remained shuttered.

Women are not allowed to travel beyond 72 kilometers without a male relative and taxi drivers are ordered to refuse a ride to women not wearing an Islamic hijab or veil. 

The International Labour Organization said Wednesday in a new report that Afghanistan had lost more than half-a-million jobs since the Taliban took control of the country. That number could rise to more than 900,000 by the middle of this year, the report said. The ILO noted women were hit hardest, estimating that female employment dropped by 16% in July, August and September.
…

Human rights activist Azeem Azeemi and three other activists were detained by the Taliban for organizing a protest against Pakistani national security adviser Moeed Yusuf’s visit Tuesday to Kabul.

Yusuf’s visit was subsequently postponed due to weather conditions, according to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul. 

Azeemi publicized the scheduled demonstration Monday on Twitter, asking Taliban leaders to provide them with protection.

The three activists who were detained with Azeemi are Ahmad Shah, Abdul Karim Bilal and Hayatullah Raufi.

“Our friends saw (the) Taliban arresting and assaulting Azeem and other activists in Shash-Darak district 2 Kabul,” activist Inayatullah Qazizada told VOA Deewa in a phone interview. 

General Mobin Khan, media chief of the Taliban’s police headquarters, responded on Twitter to VOA Deewa, saying, “I will gather information and get back to you.” No further response has been provided.

Habib Khan, head of Afghan Peace Watch, told VOA Deewa that he was in contact with Azeemi and his friends moments before their arrest. 

“We are calling on (the) Taliban to release the arrested human rights activists,” Khan said in a phone interview. “Azeemi had made it clear that the protest was not against the Taliban; it was against Pakistan. But because (the) Taliban are Pakistan’s proxies, they cannot tolerate these kinds of protests.” 

The top trending hashtag and topic on Twitter in Afghanistan was #releaseAzeem. 

On Twitter, protest organizers said more than 150 people were ready to protest the Pakistani delegation’s visit to Kabul in front of the international airport. 

More Afghan protests 

Afghan women protested on January 15 the killing two days earlier of 25-year-old Zainab Abdullahi, a former Afghan government worker, as she returned home from a wedding. They also protested the disappearance of Alia Azizi, a former Afghan government police officer, demanding her release. According to the protesters, Azizi has been in the Taliban’s custody about four months. 

Mohammad Abdullahi, Zainab’s brother, told VOA that his sister was shot during a search at a security checkpoint in western Kabul’s Dasht-e-barchi area.

“We were all in the car with family and kids when the Taliban stopped us at a security checkpoint. We were told to move on, and then they fired a bullet that went straight through my sister’s heart,” Mohammad Abdullahi said. 

Afghans have held anti-Pakistan protests and condemned senior Pakistani officials’ frequent visits to Kabul, calling them an intrusion in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. Pakistani officials have denied any involvement in Afghanistan’s affairs or providing support to the Taliban. 

In December, Pakistan hosted an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in which humanitarian aid for Afghanistan was mobilized. 

Human rights breaches in Afghanistan have been repeatedly highlighted in recent reports by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service. 

 
…

China said Tuesday that Afghanistan’s Taliban will have to live up to international expectations “at an early date” to earn legitimacy for their interim government in Kabul.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the statement in response to reports the Islamist group was seeking China’s help in getting the new Afghan administration recognized by the global community.

Zhao noted while addressing a news conference in Beijing that Taliban interim authorities have “actively” engaged in international exchanges and held dialogue with “quite a few” countries since taking control of the war-torn country.

“At the same time, we hope the Afghan side will respond further to the expectation of the international community, establish an open and inclusive political architecture, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, firmly combat all sorts of terrorist forces,” he said.

Zhao urged the Taliban to combat terrorist forces in Afghanistan, establish friendly terms with other countries, especially neighbors, and “integrate into the international family at an early date.”

The Chinese foreign ministry posted the transcript of Tuesday’s news conference on its website.

The Taliban seized power from the Western-backed Afghan government in August as the United States-led foreign military forces withdrew from the country after 20 years.

No country has yet recognized the new government, citing a lack of political inclusivity, exclusion of most Afghan women from public life and girls from education, and the group’s alleged ongoing links to transnational terrorists.

Taliban leaders dismiss criticism of their government, saying it represents all Afghans and pledge they will allow all women to study and work in line with Sharia or Islamic law. They insist the new political setup in Kabul has met all the conditions required to be recognized by the world.

The Taliban takeover led to an immediate suspension of non-humanitarian international funding for aid-dependent Afghanistan and the freezing of roughly $9.5 billion in Afghan foreign cash reserves, mostly held in the United States.

The financial restrictions have pushed the country’s fragile economy to the brink of collapse and worsened an already bad humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The United Nations estimates that about 24 million Afghans are facing acute hunger.

Neighboring China, Pakistan, and Iran, as well as Russia, all have been urging the U.S. to unfreeze Afghan assets to help contain economic upheavals.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in a telephone conversation Monday discussed the Afghan humanitarian conditions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The prime minister also underscored the importance of release of Afghanistan’s financial assets for addressing the dire needs of the Afghan people,” Khan’s office quoted him as telling Putin.

The U.N. asked donors earlier this month for a record $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan in 2022. Washington announced it would provide an additional $308 million in relief assistance.

The U.S. and other countries are exploring ways to scale up humanitarian assistance by injecting cash directly into the Afghan economy so they can bypass Taliban-led ministries and make sure the funds do not support activities of the Islamist group.

Some cabinet ministers in the new dispensation remain under U.S. and United Nations terrorism-related sanctions, which makes it difficult for foreign diplomats to directly engage with the government.

Last week, the Taliban proposed creating a joint body of their officials and international representatives to help coordinate the aid plan.

“We ask the international communities that they should use the government capacities for their aid goals,” Acting Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi told reporters.
…

The outlawed Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a rare overnight attack in Islamabad that killed a police officer and wounded two others. 

Police officials said two gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a security checkpoint near one of the city’s busy markets late on Monday. They say the ensuing shootout killed both the assailants.

“The gunfire by terrorists martyred a police officer while two others were wounded,” said a police statement.

Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the gun attack as an act of terrorism.

“We have received a kind of signal that terrorist incidents have started happening in Islamabad,” local media quoted Ahmed as telling reporters after attending the funeral prayers of the slain police officer.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Twitter and confirmed the killing of its two gunmen involved in it.

The TTP has increased attacks in Pakistan, particularly since early December when a 30-day ceasefire between the militants and the government expired.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban had brokered the truce to try to pave the way for substantive peace talks between the two adversaries. But the Pakistani Taliban refused to extend the ceasefire deal, citing a lack of progress in the talks.

Over the years, the TTP has claimed responsibility for carrying out hundreds of suicide bombings and other attacks in Pakistan that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security forces.

Pakistan says TTP leaders and fighters have taken refuge in neighboring Afghanistan from where they are organizing cross-border terrorist attacks.

Last week the TTP confirmed the killing of one of its top commanders in the eastern Afghan border province of Nangarhar. The dead man was identified as senior leader Khalid Balti but it was not clear who killed him.

The United Nations and the United States have also designated the Pakistani Taliban as a global terrorist organization.

The Pakistani Taliban is the largest militant outfit fighting the Pakistani government. TTP and the Afghan Taliban are close allies and jointly fought the United States-led international forces that backed the Western-supported government in Afghanistan until their pullout last year.
…

The first death from a massive underwater volcanic blast near the Pacific island nation of Tonga has been confirmed, as the extent of the damage remained unknown Monday. 

Tonga remained virtually cut off from the rest of the world, after the eruption crippled communications and stalled emergency relief efforts. 

It is two days since the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano exploded, cloaking Tonga in a film of ash, triggering a Pacific-wide tsunami and releasing shock waves that wrapped around the entire Earth. 

But with phone lines still down and an undersea internet cable cut — and not expected to be repaired for weeks — the true toll of the dual eruption-tsunami disaster is not yet known. 

The first known death in Tonga itself was confirmed: that of a British woman swept away by the tsunami. She was identified as Angela Glover, 50, who lived in the Tonga capital with her husband, James, Glover’s brother Nick Eleini told British media.

Two women also drowned Saturday in northern Peru in big waves recorded after the volcanic blast, authorities there said. 

Only fragments of information have filtered out via a handful of satellite phones on the islands, home to just over 100,000 people. 

In one of the few communications with the outside world, two stranded Mexican marine biologists made a plea for help from their government, using a satellite phone provided by the British Embassy to call their family. 

“They said they were sheltering in a hotel near the airport, and they asked us for help to leave the island,” Amelia Nava, the sister of 34-year-old Leslie Nava, told AFP in Mexico. 

Tonga’s worried neighbors are still scrambling to grasp the scale of the damage, which New Zealand’s leader Jacinda Ardern said was believed to be “significant.” 

Both Wellington and Canberra scrambled reconnaissance planes Monday in an attempt to get a sense of the damage from the air. 

And both have put C-130 military transport aircraft on standby to drop emergency supplies or to land if runways are deemed operational and ash clouds allow. 

There are initial reports that areas of Tonga’s west coast may have been badly hit. 

Australia’s international development minister Zed Seselja said a small contingent of Australian police stationed in Tonga had delivered a “pretty concerning” initial evaluation. 

They were “able to do an assessment of some of the Western beaches area, and there was some pretty significant damage to things like roads and some houses,” Seselja said. 

“One of the good pieces of news is that I understand the airport has not suffered any significant damage,” he added.

“That will be very, very important as the ash cloud clears and we are able to have flights coming into Tonga for humanitarian purposes.” 

Major aid agencies, who would usually rush in to provide emergency humanitarian relief, said they were stuck in a holding pattern, unable to contact local staff. 

“From what little updates we have, the scale of the devastation could be immense, especially for outlying islands,” said Katie Greenwood, IFRC’s Pacific Head of Delegation. 

Even when relief efforts get under way, they may be complicated by COVID-19 entry restrictions. Tonga only recently reported its first-ever coronavirus case. 

France, which has territories in the South Pacific, pledged to help the people of Tonga. 

“France is willing to respond to the population’s most urgent needs,” the Foreign Ministry said. This assistance would be provided through a humanitarian aid mechanism with Australia and New Zealand that is known as FRANZ, the ministry added.

What is known is that Saturday’s volcanic blast was one the largest recorded in decades, erupting 30 kilometers into the air and depositing ash, gas and acid rain across a swath of the Pacific. 

The eruption was recorded around the world and heard as far away as Alaska, triggering a tsunami that flooded Pacific coastlines from Japan to the United States. 

The Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa, was estimated to be cloaked in 1-2 centimeters of ash, potentially poisoning water supplies and causing breathing difficulties.

“We know water is an immediate need,” Ardern told reporters. 

After speaking to the New Zealand Embassy in Tonga, she described how boats and “large boulders” washed ashore. 

Wellington’s defense minister said he understood the island nation had managed to restore power in “large parts” of the city. 

But communications were still cut. The eruption severed an undersea communications cable between Tonga and Fiji that operators said would take weeks to repair. 

“We’re getting sketchy information, but it looks like the cable has been cut,” Southern Cross Cable Network’s networks director Dean Veverka told Agence France-Presse. 

“It could take up to two weeks to get it repaired. The nearest cable-laying vessel is in Port Moresby,” he added, referring to the Papua New Guinea capital more than 4,000 kilometers from Tonga. 

Tonga was isolated for two weeks in 2019 when a ship’s anchor cut the cable. A small, locally operated satellite service was set up to allow minimal contact with the outside world until the cable could be repaired. 

 
…

Rights activists in India are outraged after members of two right-wing Hindu groups put up posters around the ghats of the Ganges River in Varanasi, asking “non-Hindus” to stay away from the bank of the river in the north Indian city.

With the posters, members of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) or World Hindu Council and its youth wing Bajrang Dal (BD) tried to whip up anti-minority passion and polarize the society on a communal line, activists said.

VHP leaders said that some activists from the organization put up the posters without knowledge of the group’s leaders. “We have suspended from our organization two activists who were involved in the Varanasi ghat case,” the national spokesperson of VHP, Vinod Bansal, told VOA.

Hindus view the Ganges as a holy river, and every year, millions of Hindu pilgrims from India and other countries visit the ghats of the Ganges and the nearby temples of Varanasi, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The centuries-old ghats – steps leading down to the river — are also very popular among foreign tourists who are largely Christian and Buddhist.

‘This is a warning, not a request’

The posters that the VHP and BD activists put up around the ghats of the Ganges in Varanasi on January 6 and 7 had “Entry Prohibited for Non-Hindus” written on top.

“The ghats and temples along the bank of Mother Ganga are symbols of the Sanatan Dharma [Hindu religion], Indian culture and faith. Those who follow the Sanatan Dharma are welcome here. Others should note, it’s not a picnic spot,” read one of the posters in Hindi. “This is a warning, not a request,” a highlighted line of the poster read.

Local leaders of the VHP and BD appeared in separate videos warning non-Hindus to stay away. Both were arrested and released on personal bonds.

VHP spokesperson Bansal said the posters reflect feelings of the Hindu activists who are angry with what he called the “anti-Hindu activities of the jihadis.”

“However, the activists in Varanasi did this without taking consent from the central authority of our organization. We disapprove of their posters…This is not the policy of VHP to boycott any religious community or stop it from entering any public place,” Bansal said.

Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), happens to be the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh, where crucial state elections will be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7.

‘Strategy to humiliate India’s minorities’

The right-wing Hindu activists, whose ideology is known as Hindutva, released the posters in Varanasi with a plan to polarize the society along communal lines and help the BJP win more votes in the upcoming state elections, Dhananjay Tripathi, a local school teacher and social activist told VOA.

“Varanasi has a history of all religious communities living together peacefully for generations. With the posters the VHP and Bajrang Dal activists threaten to destroy the legacy of the city’s communal harmony,” Tripathi said.

Many are of the view that since Modi became prime minister in 2014, Muslim and Christian minorities have found themselves marginalized, attacked by right-wing Hindu groups and subjected to many discriminatory practices as his party pursues a Hindu nationalist agenda.

“The posters at the Ghats of Varanasi manifest the continuation of their strategy to humiliate India’s minorities, particularly Muslims, by openly infringing upon their fundamental human rights,” Professor Ashok Swain, head of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, told VOA.

“The overall strategy of Hindutva forces is to reduce India’s minorities as second-class citizens of the country in all spheres of life,” he said.

Hindus make up an estimated three-fourths of India’s 1.4 billion people.

Zafarul-Islam Khan, former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, said that the Hindu right-wing activists operate as foot soldiers of the BJP.

“In recent years, the spike in cases like those of forcing Muslims to chant Hindu slogans, beating up Muslims on trumped-up charges, lynching them, framing them in false ‘love jihad’ cases shows that the perpetrators, who are the Hindutva groups, enjoy impunity,” Khan told VOA.

“Love jihad” is a controversial term used by Hindu nationalists who say that Muslim men marry non-Muslim women to spread Islam.

Professor Apoorvanand, who teaches at Delhi University and uses one name, agrees that impunity helps Hindutva groups in their campaign to marginalize the non-Hindu minorities.

“The ideology of Hindutva claims that Hindus have the first claim over all the natural and cultural resources of India. For the last decade or so, non-Hindus, mostly Muslims, are being pushed out of economic activities and common public spaces and they find it increasingly difficult to buy houses or land in Hindu-dominated areas. The idea is to create a segregated India making its large parts free of Muslims,” Apoorvanand told VOA.
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Indian authorities have charged a Hindu monk with inciting religious violence after he called for the “genocide” of India’s Muslims at a meeting of right-wing supporters, police said Monday.

Senior police officer Swatantra Kumar said Yati Narsinghanand Giri, an outspoken supporter of far-right nationalists who also heads a Hindu monastery, was initially arrested on Saturday on allegations that he made derogatory remarks against women. He appeared the following day in a court in the town of Haridwar, where he was sent into 14 days of custody for hate speech against Muslims and calling for violence against them.

Kumar said the monk Giri, whom he described as a “repeat offender,” was formally charged Monday for promoting “enmity between different groups on grounds of religion.” The charge can carry a jail term of five years.

In December, Giri and other religious leaders called on Hindus to arm themselves for “a genocide” against Muslims during a meeting in Haridwar, a northern holy town in Uttarakhand, according to a police complaint. He is the second person to be arrested in the case after India’s Supreme Court intervened  last week.

Uttarakhand state is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata. The political party’s rise to power in 2014, and landslide reelection in 2019, has led to a spike in attacks against Muslims and other minorities.

Muslims comprise nearly 14% of India’s 1.4 billion people, a largely Hindu country that has long proclaimed its multicultural character.

The three-day conference that the monk Giri helped to organized was called the “Dharam Sansad” or “Religious Parliament” and followed on years of rising anti-Muslim hate speech. The closed-door meetings witnessed some of the most explicit calls for violence yet.  

Videos from the conference showed multiple Hindu monks, some of whom have close ties to Modi’s ruling party, saying Hindus should kill Muslims.

“If 100 of us are ready to kill two million of them, then we will win and make India a Hindu nation,” said Pooja Shakun Pandey, a Hindu nationalist leader, referring to the country’s Muslim population. Her calls for such a massacre were met with applause from the audience.

Pandey is being investigated by police for insulting religious beliefs.

During the congregation, Hindu monks and other supporters, including Giri, took an oath calling for the killing of those who were perceived to be enemies of the Hindu religion.

The calls for violence were met with public outrage and drew sharp criticism from former military chiefs, retired judges, and rights activists. Many questioned the Modi government’s silence, warning hate speech against Muslims will only grow as several Indian states, including Uttarakhand, head to the polls in February.

Last week, students and faculty at the Indian Institute of Management — one of India’s most prestigious business schools — submitted a letter to Modi in which they wrote his silence “emboldens” hate and “threatens the unity and integrity of our country.”

Modi’s ruling party has faced fierce criticism over rising attacks against Muslims in recent years.

Opposition leaders and rights groups have accused it of encouraging violence by hardline Hindu nationalists against Muslims and other minorities. The party denies the allegation.
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