A group of United Nations human rights experts Monday alleged Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban government was attempting to steadily erase women and girls from public life. 

Taliban leaders “are institutionalizing large scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence” against women, the experts said in a statement issued by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The experts reiterated their alarm at a series of restrictive measures, particularly those concerning women and girls, that the Taliban have introduced since seizing power last August. “Taken together, these policies constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices,” the experts said. 

The Taliban have barred most Afghan women from returning to their jobs, ordered taxi drivers to offer rides only to those female passengers wearing hijabs, required a male relative to accompany women traveling further than 72 kilometers, and imposed a strict dress code on women and girls.

“In addition to severely limiting their freedom of movement, expression and association, and their participation in public and political affairs, these policies have also affected the ability of women to work and to make a living, pushing them further into poverty,” the experts said.

The majority of girls’ secondary schools remain closed across Afghanistan. 

Taliban leaders have said they hope to be able to allow all girls to go back to school following the Afghan new year, which starts in early March. They say challenges such as paying salaries to teachers and ensuring a safe environment for female students in line with Islamic teachings are causing the delay. 

“We respect women’s rights but require them to observe hijab,” Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban permanent representative-designate to the U.N., told VOA. 

Critics continue to question the integrity of Taliban pledges concerning girls and schools. 

“We are also deeply troubled by the harsh manner with which the de facto authorities have responded to Afghan women and girls claiming their fundamental rights, with reports of peaceful protesters having been often beaten, ill-treated, threatened, and in confirmed instances detained arbitrarily,” the experts said. 

Women have routinely taken to the streets in Kabul and other cities to protest Taliban rollbacks of their rights. Taliban forces at times have used violence to disperse these protests and banned unsanctioned demonstrations. 

On Sunday, Taliban police fired pepper spray at a group of about 20 women who protested in the Afghan capital, decrying restrictions on their rights, including the mandatory hijab, participants alleged. During the rally, protesters set fire to a burqa or veil the Taliban’s ministry for Islamic guidance has mandated for women. 

The Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice responded by warning that the Islamic holy book, the Quran, has ordered Muslim women to wear the hijab. 

“Opposing hijab is in fact opposing the Quranic commandment and the Prophet’s teachings. We request our Muslim sisters to not be influenced by foreigners and to not encourage the opposition of hijab,” the ministry asserted in a tweeted statement, referring to the Prophet Muhammad. 

Critics such as Heather Barr at Human Rights Watch questioned the Taliban assertions. 

“The obsession with how women dress has often been the least of their concerns, but it is indicative of the Taliban’s desire to dictate and restrict every aspect of women’s lives,” Barr told VOA.

“The Taliban seem to believe they are the only people on the planet who fully understand and respect Islam,” she said.

The fundamentalist group’s oppression of women during their previous hold on power in Afghanistan in the 1990s is one of the main reasons the global community has refused to recognize the new government in Kabul and blocked its access to Afghan foreign cash reserves, largely held in the United States.

The financial restrictions and continued sanctions on Taliban leaders have led to the collapse of the Afghan economy and worsened humanitarian upheavals in the conflict-torn country. 

The U.N. experts called on the global community to step up urgently needed humanitarian aid for Afghans. They stressed the need to pressure Taliban authorities to ensure that restrictions on the fundamental rights of women and girls are removed immediately.
…

Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-educated-Pakistani neuroscientist serving an 86-year sentence in the United States for trying to kill Americans in Afghanistan, is the person whose release was sought by the hostage-taker at a Texas synagogue on Saturday.

U.S. authorities said the hours-long standoff ended with all captives safe and the man holding them dead.

Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist, is being held at a federal prison in Texas.

Marwa Elbially, her attorney, issued a statement condemning the hostage-taking.

“Whoever the assailant is, we want him to know that his actions are condemned by Dr. Siddiqui and her family,” Elbially told CNN.

Siddiqui’s case continues to draw attention ever since she was arrested in the eastern Afghan province of Ghazni in 2008 under suspicion of being in possession of notes on how to make “dirty bombs” and plans to attack U.S. cities. Her family and lawyers have denied the charges.

Siddiqui was immediately flown to the U.S., where two years later a federal court found the 49-year-old mother of three guilty of attempted murder and assault of U.S. officials during interrogation in Ghazni.

The neuroscientist studied at two prestigious U.S. institutions — Brandeis University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology — between 1991 and 2002 before moving back to Pakistan.

The Pakistan-born Siddiqui disappeared from her native Karachi a year later and her whereabouts was not known until she surfaced in neighboring Afghanistan and detained.

Analysts say most Americans are unaware of Siddiqui’s case, but militant groups have been seeking her release and using the case to gain more recruits.

In 2014, Islamic State sent an email to the family of American journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria, offering to release him in exchange for Siddiqui. Foley was later beheaded.

“Siddiqui isn’t well known in the U.S., but in Pakistan she’s a big name — many view her as an innocent victim. Also, at one point, ISIS had demanded that she be released in exchange for ISIS captives,” Michael Kugelman, the deputy director of the Asia program at Washington’s Wilson Center, wrote on Twitter in response to Saturday’s hostage-taking.

The 2010 conviction of Siddiqui sparked outrage in Pakistan, where thousands took to the streets to denounce the U.S.

The Pakistani Senate unanimously passed a resolution in 2018, dubbing Siddiqui as “Daughter of the Nation” and urged the government to take “concrete steps” for her repatriation.

Prime Minister Imran Khan suggested in media interviews after meeting at the White House in 2019 with then-U.S. President Donald Trump that his government could consider the possibility of releasing Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi in exchange for Siddiqui.

In 2018, a Pakistani court sentenced Afridi to 33 years in prison for organizing a fake vaccination campaign to help the CIA locate and kill al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Afridi’s appeal against the verdict is still pending.

In July 2021, Siddiqui suffered serious injuries after an inmate attacked her.

The Foreign Ministry in Islamabad immediately took up the matter with U.S. authorities through its embassy in Washington.

“We lodged a formal complaint with the relevant U.S. authorities to thoroughly investigate the matter and ensure the safety and well-being of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui,” the ministry said at the time.

The attack prompted protests by human rights activists and religious groups in the U.S., calling for improved prison conditions and Siddiqui’s repatriation to Pakistan. 
…

On a cold winter afternoon in the Indian capital, New Delhi, a group of auto rickshaw drivers huddled outside a metro station hoping to pick up passengers. Since the city shut schools, colleges, restaurants and offices to cope with a third wave of the pandemic fueled by the omicron variant, though, they know their wait could be long and probably futile.

“We work on the streets and depend on people being out,” Shivraj Verma said.

“Now I will not be able to earn enough to even buy food in the city. We get crushed when the city closes.”

This is the third consecutive year that tens of millions of workers in India’s vast informal economy are confronting a loss of livelihoods and incomes as megacities such as New Delhi and Mumbai, which are the epicenter of the new wave, partially shutter.

While India has not enforced a stringent nationwide lockdown as it did in 2020, Delhi has closed offices, imposed a weekend and night curfew and restricted large gatherings. In the business hub of Gurugram, markets shut early as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

For those that work on the street, though, contracting the virus is of little concern — their masks hang loosely on their faces, only to be pulled up when a policeman, who might impose a fine, passes by. Their pressing problem is to earn enough money to feed families, send children to school and pay rent for their tiny tenements.

In the lives-versus-livelihoods debate that has posed one of the pandemic’s greatest dilemmas, their vote is squarely with the latter.

“We don’t worry about the virus, we worry about how to take care of our families. I will have to return again to my village if the situation stays the same,” auto rickshaw operator Mohammad Amjad Khan said.

Khan was among millions of migrants returned to their villages when India witnessed a mass exodus in 2020. He only picked up the courage to return to Delhi after a year and a half in September. At that time India had recovered from its devastating second wave.

Its cities were humming, restaurants and markets were packed, and businesses saw a revival. As India’s economy picked up pace briskly, Khan made a decent living from the auto rickshaw he took on hire to ferry customers and could send some money home. The pandemic appeared to have become a distant memory.

The good times lasted for four months. From less than 7,000 new cases a day in mid-December, India has been counting more than a quarter million in recent days. As cities like Delhi hunker indoors, earnings have again plummeted.

“Now I don’t even make enough money to pay for the daily hire of this vehicle. It’s really tough,” Khan said with a despondent shrug.

Indian policymakers have underlined the need to protect jobs.

At a meeting with chief ministers this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there should be minimal loss to the ordinary people’s livelihoods and related economic activity as the country battles the latest wave.

“We have to keep this in mind, whenever we are making a strategy for COVID-19 containment,” he said.

Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has reassured migrant labor that a lockdown will not be imposed.

On the ground however, even partial curbs hit hard the tens of thousands of vendors who line Indian streets – vegetable and fruit sellers, small kiosks selling chips, soft drinks and cigarettes, and food carts.

Anita Singh is allowed to operate her street cart that sells hot meals and snacks till 8 p.m., but in the last two weeks, there have been very few customers to serve.

“Most of my sales were to college students or in the late evening when people left offices. Now they are shut,” she said.

Employment has not returned to its pre-pandemic level since the Indian economy was battered by COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a recent report by the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy. The report said that there are fewer salaried jobs, whereas daily wage work and farm labor has increased – a sign of economic distress.

“There has been a drop in average wages and daily earnings across sectors because of COVID stipulations,” said Anhad Imaan, a communication specialist with several nonprofit organizations working with migrant labor.

“Even in the construction and manufacturing sectors which have remained open, there is less work available per worker.”

That means the quality of lives of those in the informal sector has taken a huge hit.

“They used to spend much of what they earned on food and a place to stay and sent home whatever they saved,” he said, “Now they are down to subsistence levels.”

Although estimates vary widely, studies say millions in India have slipped below the poverty line during the pandemic. A study by Pew Research Center in March pegged the number at 75 million. Another one by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University in May after India experienced a second wave put it at 230 million due to “income shocks.”

Whatever the numbers, it is a reality that the group of auto rickshaw drivers waiting for passengers knows too well. As they talked to each other, their top concern was whether there will be a lockdown and whether they should be heading home for a third time.

 
…

In a Kabul neighborhood, a gaggle of boys kick a yellow ball around a dusty playground, their boisterous cries echoing off the surrounding apartment buildings.

Dressed in sweaters and jeans or the traditional Afghan male clothing of baggy pants and long shirt, none stand out as they jostle to score a goal. But unbeknown to them, one is different from the others.

At not quite 8 years old, Sanam is a bacha posh: a girl living as a boy. One day a few months ago, the girl with rosy cheeks and an impish smile had her dark hair cut short, donned boys’ clothes and took on a boy’s name, Omid. The move opened up a boy’s world: playing soccer and cricket with boys, wrestling with the neighborhood butcher’s son, working to help the family make ends meet.

In Afghanistan’s heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, bacha posh, Dari for “dressed as a boy,” is the one tradition allowing girls access to the freer male world.

Under the practice, a girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, with all the freedoms and obligations that entails. The child can play sports, attend a madrassa, or religious school, and, sometimes crucially for the family, work. But there is a time limit: Once a bacha posh reaches puberty, she is expected to revert to traditional girls’ gender roles. The transition is not always easy.

It is unclear how the practice is viewed by Afghanistan’s new rulers, the Taliban, who seized power in mid-August and have made no public statements on the issue.

Their rule so far has been less draconian than the last time they were in power in the 1990s, but women’s freedoms have still been severely curtailed. Thousands of women have been barred from working, and girls beyond primary school age have not been able to return to public schools in most places.

With a crackdown on women’s rights, the bacha posh tradition could become even more attractive for some families. And as the practice is temporary, with the children eventually reverting to female roles, the Taliban might not deal with the issue at all, said Thomas Barfield, a professor of anthropology at Boston University who has written several books on Afghanistan.

“Because it’s inside the family and because it’s not a permanent status, the Taliban may stay out (of it),” Barfield said.

It is unclear where the practice originated or how old it is, and it is impossible to know how widespread it might be. A somewhat similar tradition exists in Albania, another deeply patriarchal society, although it is limited to adults. Under Albania’s “sworn virgin” tradition, a woman would take an oath of celibacy and declare herself a man, after which she could inherit property, work and sit on a village council – all of which would have been out of bounds for a woman.

In Afghanistan, the bacha posh tradition is “one of the most under-investigated” topics in terms of gender issues, said Barfield, who spent about two years in the 1970s living with an Afghan nomad family that included a bacha posh. “Precisely because the girls revert back to the female role, they marry, it kind of disappears.”

Girls chosen as bacha posh usually are the more boisterous, self-assured daughters. “The role fits so well that sometimes even outside the family, people are not aware that it exists,” he said.

“It’s almost so invisible that it’s one of the few gender issues that doesn’t show up as a political or social question,” Barfield noted.

The reasons parents might want a bacha posh vary. With sons traditionally valued more than daughters, the practice usually occurs in families without a boy. Some consider it a status symbol, and some believe it will bring good luck for the next child to be born a boy.

But for others, like Sanam’s family, the choice was one of necessity. Last year, with Afghanistan’s economy collapsing, construction work dried up. Sanam’s father, already suffering from a back injury, lost his job as a plumber. He turned to selling coronavirus masks on the streets, making the equivalent of $1-$2 per day. But he needed a helper.

The family has four daughters and one son, but their 11-year-old boy doesn’t have full use of his hands following an injury. So the parents said they decided to make Sanam a bacha posh.

“We had to do this because of poverty,” said Sanam’s mother, Fahima. “We don’t have a son to work for us, and her father doesn’t have anyone to help him. So I will consider her my son until she becomes a teenager.”

Still, Fahima refers to Sanam as “my daughter.” In their native Dari language, the pronouns are not an issue since one pronoun is used for “he” and “she.”

Sanam says she prefers living as a boy.

“It’s better to be a boy…I wear (Afghan male clothes), jeans and jackets, and go with my father and work,” she said. She likes playing in the park with her brother’s friends and playing cricket and soccer.

Once she grows up, Sanam said, she wants to be either a doctor, a commander or a soldier, or work with her father. And she’ll go back to being a girl.

“When I grow up, I will let my hair grow and will wear girl’s clothes,” she said.

The transition isn’t always easy.

“When I put on girls’ clothes, I thought I was in prison,” said Najieh, who grew up as a bacha posh, although she would attend school as a girl. One of seven sisters, her boy’s name was Assadollah.

Now 34, married and with four children of her own, she weeps for the freedom of the male world she has lost.

“In Afghanistan, boys are more valuable,” she said. “There is no oppression for them, and no limits. But being a girl is different. She gets forced to get married at a young age.”

Young women can’t leave the house or allow strangers to see their face, Najieh said. And after the Taliban takeover, she lost her job as a schoolteacher because she had been teaching boys.

“Being a man is better than being a woman,” she said, wiping tears from her eye. “It is very hard for me. … If I were a man, I could be a teacher in a school.”

“I wish I could be a man, not a woman. To stop this suffering.”
…

Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers say they hope to be able to open all schools for girls across the country after late March, their spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday, offering the first timeline for addressing a key demand of the international community. 

Since the Taliban takeover in mid-August, girls in most of Afghanistan have not been allowed back to school beyond grade 7. The international community, reluctant to formally recognize a Taliban-run administration, is wary they could impose similar harsh measures as during their previous rule 20 years ago. At the time, women were banned from education, work and public life. 

Zabihullah Mujahid, who is also the Taliban’s deputy minister of culture and information, said their education departments are looking to open classrooms for all girls and women following the Afghan New Year, which starts on March 21. Afghanistan, like neighboring Iran, observes the Islamic solar Hijri Shamsi calendar. 

Education for girls and women “is a question of capacity,” Mujahid said in the interview.

Girls and boys must be completely segregated in schools, he said, adding that the biggest obstacle so far has been finding or building enough dorms, or hostels, where girls could stay while going to school. In heavily populated areas, it is not enough to have separate classrooms for boys and girls—separate school buildings are needed, he said. 

“We are not against education,” Mujahid stressed, speaking at a Kabul office building with marble floors that once housed Afghan attorney general’s offices and which the Taliban have adopted for their culture and information ministry. 

The Taliban dictates so far have been erratic, varying from province to province. Girls have not been allowed back to classrooms in state-run schools beyond grade 7, except in about 10 of the country’s 34 provinces. In the capital, Kabul, private universities and high schools have continued to operate uninterrupted. Most are small and the classes have always been segregated. 

“We are trying to solve these problems by the coming year,” so that schools and universities can open, Mujahid said. 

The international community has been skeptical of Taliban announcements, saying it will judge them by their actions—even as it scrambles to provide billions of dollars to avert a humanitarian catastrophe that the U.N. chief this week warned could endanger the lives of millions. 

With a breakdown of services and only sporadic electricity in the bitterly cold Afghan winters, most people rely on firewood and coal for heat. Among the hardest hit are some 3 million Afghans who live as refugees within their own country, having fled their homes because of war, drought, poverty or fear of the Taliban.

Earlier this month, the United Nations launched a $5 billion appeal for Afghanistan, the single largest appeal for one country. 

Washington has spent $145 billion on reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime. Yet even before the Taliban recaptured the country, the poverty rate was 54%—and a 2018 Gallup poll revealed unprecedented misery among Afghans. 

Mujahid appealed for economic cooperation, trade and “stronger diplomatic relations.” So far, neither Afghanistan’s neighbors nor the United Nations seem ready to grant formal recognition, which would help open up the Afghan economy. However, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for greater economic development, saying it’s critical to rapidly inject liquidity into the Afghan economy “and avoid a meltdown that would lead to poverty, hunger and destitution for millions.” 

The international community has called for a more representative government that includes women as well as ethnic and religious minorities. While all members of the new Taliban Cabinet are men and most are Taliban members, Mujahid said there are exceptions such as the deputy finance minister and officials in the economics ministry who are holdovers from the previous, U.S.-backed administration.

Mujahid also said 80% of civil servants who have returned to work were employees under the previous administration. Women are working in the health and education sector and at Kabul International Airport in customs and passport control, he added. He did not say if or when women would be allowed to return to work in government ministries. 

He also told the AP that most of the new government’s revenue will come from customs that the Taliban will collect at border crossings with Iran, Pakistan and the Central Asian nations to the north. Without offering figures, he claimed the Taliban have brought in more revenue in their first four months in power than the previous government in over a year. 

He appealed to Afghans who have fled to return to their homeland. Since the takeover, there have been cases of opponents arrested, journalists beaten, rights workers threatened and demonstrations by women dispersed by heavily armed Taliban troops firing in the air.

Mujahid acknowledged incidents of Taliban members harassing Afghan civilians, including humiliating young men and forcibly cutting their hair. 

“Such crimes happen, but it is not the policy of our government,” he said, adding that those responsible were arrested.

“This is our message. We have no dispute with anyone and we don’t want anyone to remain in opposition or away from their country.”
…

The bodies of 225 people killed in unrest in Kazakhstan last week, including 19 members of the security forces, were delivered to morgues throughout the country, the prosecutor general’s office said Saturday.

The figure included civilians and armed “bandits” killed by security forces, Serik Shalabayev, the head of criminal prosecution at the prosecutor’s office, told a briefing.

He did not provide an exact breakdown of the figures and said numbers could be updated later.

Violent protests began in the oil-producing Central Asian state this month after a jump in car fuel prices. The toll provided by Shalabayev confirmed the violence is the deadliest in the country’s post-Soviet history.

Shalabayev said 50,000 people joined the riots throughout the former Soviet republic at their peak on January 5 when crowds stormed and torched government buildings, cars, banks and shops in several major cities.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to a Russia-led military bloc for help during the unrest, and he sidelined his former patron and predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev by taking over the national security council.

After complaints about beatings and torture of those detained in the aftermath, Tokayev ordered police Saturday to avoid abuse and told prosecutors to be lenient to those who have not committed grave crimes.
…

Freelance journalist Sajad Gul was at home in Shahgund, a village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, when the army came for him.

It was about 10 p.m. on January 5. The journalist’s family told local media that Gul received a phone call asking him to come outside.

The next thing the family heard, he had been taken to a police station and accused of serious anti-national crimes.

Gul, 26, contributes to the news website Kashmir Walla and studies at Central University of Kashmir.

Fahad Shah, editor at The Kashmir Walla, described the arrest as a “brazen violation of freedom of press [that] threatens the very core of people’s rights.”

Effect on coverage

Shah said that cases like the one against Gul, in which reporters or media outlets are accused of sharing or posting anti-national sentiment, are increasing in Kashmir, and that the threat of legal action is having an impact in a region where journalism plays a significant role.

It’s not an isolated problem. Lawsuits against media are on the rise across India, with a growing trend of judicial harassment and intimidation against those who do not toe the line of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said Daniel Bastard, the Asia-Pacific lead for media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

In Kashmir, Bastard said, that pattern can mean that every journalist who is critical of the government risks being deemed anti-national or anti-Indian. Some may start to self-censor to avoid harassment.

Neither the Jammu and Kashmir Home Department nor India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting responded to VOA’s email requesting comment.

In Gul’s case, his arrest appears linked to a video he posted to Twitter of a protest over the killing of a local militant commander, The Kashmir Walla reported.

A police statement said Gul “uploaded the objectionable videos with anti-national slogans.”

He is charged with criminal conspiracy, assertions prejudicial to national integration — a complaint usually referring to comments deemed against the sovereignty and integrity of India — and making or sharing statements to promote enmity and hatred.

Police in Kashmir did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Sensitive to criticism

The current administration in India appears prickly about criticism, said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

But, she said, the best way for a government to prevent tensions is to act swiftly when credible and fair investigations find evidence of human rights abuses.

Journalists play a crucial role in exposing shortcomings, and a rights-respecting government should rely on that information to address needs, Ganguly said.

“Unfortunately, the government is selective about what it believes exacerbates tension or conflict,” Ganguly said, “quickly punishing peaceful critics, including by accusing them under draconian counterterrorism laws.”

Bastard of RSF shared a similar view, telling VOA, “Censoring journalists who try to cover their fellow citizens’ situation is actually the best way to create frustration among the population, and hence to promote enmity. This is all the more true in a region with a strong history of separatism like Jammu and Kashmir.”

Intimidating calls

Being summoned is always disturbing, Kashmir Walla editor Shah told VOA.

“It is intimidating to be at a police station where you are asked about your personal and professional life,” Shah said. “You are asked to give details of your life, even ID documents, bank details, et cetera, at times. And mostly, you are treated as a suspect for something which you don’t even know. And then it stays on your head like a sword that if you do something that is not liked you will be in trouble.”

Shah has been arrested, questioned and summonsed several times. His media outlet, too, has run into legal issues. It is currently fighting a false-news case in the High Court.

Srinagar photojournalist Mukhtar Zahoor, who contributes to outlets including the BBC and Al Jazeera, says he was left confused by a police raid on his home last October.

“They check my phone, my contacts, and images in the cellphone. It was a traumatic experience,” he said.

Police detained Zahoor and questioned him about his movements on September 1, the day that a veteran separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, died.

At that time, authorities had suspended communications and sealed off the roads around Geelani’s home in a move some believed was an attempt to limit coverage of the death.

“They had all information about my location on that day and the route I took. … Even the Wi-Fi connection of my phone that I shared with my friend,” Zahoor said.

When asked how the raid has affected his work, Zahoor didn’t hesitate: “I am observing self-censorship.”

In some cases, journalists find themselves called by members of the police and army.

Quratulain Rehbar, a female freelancer from Pulwama, said she was contacted by both in December after covering a protest.

“I was getting calls for verification, and they would call repeatedly. Both army and police started calling my family as well,” Rehbar said, still sounding distressed.

Crackdown viewed as arbitrary

The Vienna-based International Press Institute has flagged what it says appears to be a largely arbitrary crackdown on the press.

“We have seen numerous examples of the harassment and intimidation of journalists in what we believe to be an effort by the authorities to control the flow of news and information,” IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen told VOA.

The Kashmir Press Club has urged authorities to improve the environment for journalists.

“The threats, summonses and arrests of the media persons have effectively restrained independent and investigative reporting from the region,” the club said in a statement that also condemned Gul’s arrest.

For Gul, the arrest is not a first. Just over a year ago, Jammu and Kashmir police accused him of participating in an illegal demonstration that he was reporting on.

And he has frequently tweeted about how police harassment affects his work, studies and health.

For now, he is in custody. His editor Shah told VOA, “We have filed for bail plea in the court and will contest these charges through court.”
…

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. 

UN appeals for $5 billion for Afghanistan, neighbors

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that time is running out to stop the humanitarian nightmare that is unfolding in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, the United Nations launched a record aid appeal for more than $5 billion to assist 28 million people inside Afghanistan and in five neighboring countries this year. 

UN Initiates Record $5 Billion Funding Appeal for Afghanistan, 5 Neighboring Nations 

UN urges investigations into violence against Kazakhstan protests 

The U.N. human rights office called this week for prompt, independent and impartial investigations into the deadly crackdown by Kazakhstan authorities on protests that erupted in the country on January 2 over rising fuel prices. 

UN Urges Release of Thousands Detained During Kazakh Protests 

In brief 

— Aid workers continue to have difficulties getting assistance to the millions in need in northern Ethiopia. The U.N. said this week that there have been no deliveries into the Tigray region since December 14. Fuel, which is vital to putting aid convoys on the road, has been in critically short supply. No fuel has been delivered to Tigray since August 2. Some U.N. partners say they will soon have to suspend their work if no fuel is allowed in. Fighting and intensified airstrikes are also hampering relief efforts and causing civilian casualties. 

— Globally, the U.N. says 274 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance this year because of a number of factors, including conflict, the effects of climate change and COVID-19. The U.N. and its partners hope to reach 183 million of the most needy, at a cost of at least $41 billion. 

— Secretary-General Guterres started his second and final term as U.N. chief on January 1. On January 10, the organization formally announced that his deputy, Amina Mohammed of Nigeria, will be staying on for a second term. 

Some good news

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the wave of omicron variant COVID-19 cases on the African continent appears to have peaked and is now flattening. 

WHO also recommended two new drugs to help treat COVID-19 infections. Baricitinib is “strongly recommended” for patients with severe cases of the virus and sotrovimab is “conditionally recommended” for those with mild or moderate symptoms. 

WHO Recommends 2 New COVID-19 Drugs 

Quote of note 

“Whether there will be war, nobody knows. I would personally say I doubt it, because everybody knows how much there is to lose, including [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.” 

— Estonia’s U.N. Ambassador Sven Jürgenson in response to a reporter’s question about rising international concerns that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine. 

What we are watching next week

On January 21, Guterres will outline his priorities for the year in the General Assembly. 
…

Conservationists and veterinarians are warning that plastic waste in an open landfill in eastern Sri Lanka is killing elephants in the region, after two more were found dead last weekend.

Around 20 elephants have died over the last eight years after consuming plastic trash in the dump in Pallakkadu village in Ampara district, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.

Examinations of the dead animals showed they had swallowed large amounts of nondegradable plastic that is found in the garbage dump, wildlife veterinarian Nihal Pushpakumara said.

“Polythene, food wrappers, plastic, other non-digestibles and water were the only things we could see in the post mortems. The normal food that elephants eat and digest was not evident,” he said.

Elephants are revered in Sri Lanka but are also endangered. Their numbers have dwindled from about 14,000 in the 19th century to 6,000 in 2011, according to the country’s first elephant census.

They are increasingly vulnerable because of the loss and degradation of their natural habitat. Many venture closer to human settlements in search of food, and some are killed by poachers or farmers angry over damage to their crops.

Hungry elephants seek out the waste in the landfill, consuming plastic as well as sharp objects that damage their digestive systems, Pushpakumara said.

“The elephants then stop eating and become too weak to keep their heavy frames upright. When that happens, they can’t consume food or water, which quickens their death,” he said.

In 2017, the government announced that it will recycle the garbage in dumps near wildlife zones to prevent elephants from consuming plastic waste. It also said electric fences would be erected around the sites to keep the animals away. But neither has been fully implemented.

There are 54 waste dumps in wildlife zones around the country, with around 300 elephants roaming near them, according to officials.

The waste management site in Pallakkadu village was set up in 2008 with aid from the European Union. Garbage collected from nine nearby villages is being dumped there but is not being recycled.

In 2014, the electric fence protecting the site was struck by lightning and authorities never repaired it, allowing elephants to enter and rummage through the dump. Residents say elephants have moved closer and settled near the waste pit, sparking fear among nearby villagers.

Many use firecrackers to chase the animals away when they wander into the village, and some have erected electric fences around their homes.

But the villagers often don’t know how to install the electric fences so they are safe and “could endanger their own lives as well as those of the elephants,” said Keerthi Ranasinghe, a local village councilor.

“Even though we call them a menace, wild elephants are also a resource. Authorities need to come up with a way to protect both human lives and the elephants that also allows us to continue our agricultural activities,” he said.
…

Drones sprayed holy water from the Ganges on thousands of Hindu pilgrims on Friday to reduce crowding during a massive festival being held despite soaring COVID-19 cases in India.

The Gangasagar Mela in the east of the country has drawn comparisons with another “superspreader” Hindu gathering last year that the Hindu nationalist government refused to ban. It was blamed in part for a devastating COVID surge.

Officials had said they expected around 3 million people — including ash-smeared, dreadlocked ascetics — to attend the festival’s climax on Sagar Island, where the Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal.

“At the crack of dawn, there was a sea of people,” local official Bankim Hazra told AFP by telephone.

“Holy water from the river Ganges was sprayed from drones on pilgrims … to prevent crowding,” he said.

“But the saints and a large number of people were bent on taking the dip… Pilgrims, most of them without masks, outnumbered the security personnel.”

An AFP photographer said that there were fewer people than in recent years and that rain put off some pilgrims from making the journey.

But there were still huge crowds, mostly without masks, taking a holy dip in the river.

A police official on duty at the event said that it was “impossible” to enforce COVID restrictions.

“Most pilgrims are bent on defying the rules,” he said.

“They believe that God will save them and bathing at the confluence will cleanse all their sins and even the virus if they are infected.”

No lockdown

Fatalities from India’s current wave of infections remain a fraction of what they were during the surge in April and May last year, with 315 deaths recorded Thursday compared with as many as 4,000 per day at the peak.

Infections are rising fast, however, with almost 265,000 new cases Thursday. Some models predict India could experience as many as 800,000 cases per day in a few weeks, twice the rate seen nine months ago.

Keen to avoid another painful lockdown for millions of workers reliant on a few dollars in daily wages, authorities in different parts of India have sought to restrict gatherings.

In New Delhi, all bars, restaurants and private offices are shut, and the capital is set to go into its second weekend curfew on Friday night.

In the financial capital of Mumbai, gatherings of more than four people are banned.

But in West Bengal state, the Calcutta High Court on Friday allowed the Gangasagar Mela to proceed.

As with 2021’s Kumbh Mela, it has attracted people from across northern India who, after cramming onto trains, buses and boats to reach the island, will then go home — potentially taking the highly transmissible omicron virus variant with them.

Amitava Nandy, a virologist from the School of Tropical Medicines in Kolkata, said the government “has neither the facilities nor the manpower” to test everyone attending or impose social distancing.

“A stampede-like situation could happen if the police try to enforce social distancing on the riverbank,” Nandy told AFP.

Devotee Sarbananda Mishra, a 56-year-old schoolteacher from the neighboring state of Bihar, told AFP: “Faith in God will overcome the fear of COVID. The bathing will cleanse them of all their sins and bring salvation.

“Death is the ultimate truth. What is the point of living with fear?” 

 
…

Cambodia on Wednesday postponed the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting under its 2022 chairmanship, the government said, amid reports of differences among the bloc’s members over Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar last week, during which he did not meet with democracy leaders. 

An in-person foreign ministers retreat, scheduled for next week in Siem Reap, was postponed indefinitely, according to an announcement by Khieu Kanharith, the host country’s information minister. 

“The ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat (AMM Retreat) initially scheduled on Jan. 18-19, 2022, in Siem Reap province has been postponed,” he said in a statement on Facebook, without announcing a new date for the meeting. 

The reason for the postponement, he added, is that many ASEAN foreign ministers “have difficulties traveling to attend the meeting.” 

The postponement effectively delays the official endorsement of Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as ASEAN’s new special envoy for Myanmar. 

Radio Free Asia, with which BenarNews is affiliated, tried to contact Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan and Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Koung but did not immediately hear back from them Wednesday. 

Divisions within ASEAN over Hun Sen’s trip to Naypyidaw and a potential invitation to the Myanmar junta’s foreign minister to attend the ASEAN diplomats retreat might be why some diplomats chose not to attend next week’s meeting, analysts said. 

ASEAN states who cited travel difficulties were likely being polite instead of saying outright that they didn’t want to go to Siem Reap, according to Sophal Ear, a Cambodia expert at Arizona State University in the United States. 

“This is not officially a boycott, but [some member states’ foreign ministers] came up with some excuses as to why they cannot join the meeting. … The chickens are coming home to roost, it’s karma for Cambodia’s ‘Cowboy Diplomacy,’ ” Ear, an associate dean and professor at the university’s Thunderbird School of Management in Phoenix, told RFA. 

“When you do things others don’t want you to do, they don’t come to your party and have excuses. … Be ready for a long list of reasons for why someone cannot show up,” he added. 

Another Southeast Asia analyst, Hunter Marston, said Cambodia’s chairmanship had got off to a “rocky start.” 

“Seems internal divisions over the chair’s invitation to the Myanmar military-appointed Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin have created an impasse,” Marston, a doctoral student at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, said on Twitter. 

‘A non-political representative’

Hun Sen, the leader of Cambodia, which this year took over the revolving annual chairmanship of ASEAN, had said before going to Myanmar last week that he wanted the Burmese junta to be represented at the bloc’s meetings. 

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had categorically said that if Burmese coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing did not implement an earlier agreed upon five-point road map to democracy, then Myanmar should be represented only by a non-political individual at ASEAN meetings. 

A Malaysian foreign ministry spokesman, meanwhile, told BenarNews on Monday that Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah would attend the Siem Reap meeting only virtually. 

Critics said that Cambodia had undermined the regional bloc through Hun Sun’s meeting with the Burmese junta leader Min Aung Hlaing after he was disinvited from the ASEAN summit in late 2021 for reneging on his promises to implement the bloc’s five-point consensus. Back then, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore had backed shutting out the coup leader from the regional bloc’s top summit. 

By visiting Myanmar and meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, Hun Sen legitimized him, pro-democracy activists in Myanmar said. 

The military leader who toppled the elected Burmese government last February had promised, among other things, to end violence and give an ASEAN special envoy access to all parties in the Myanmar political crisis. He has done none of those things. 

Min Aung Hlaing refused to allow an ASEAN special envoy access to democracy leaders last year. 

Meanwhile, more than 1,400 mostly pro-democracy protesters have been killed by security forces since the February 1, 2021, coup. And a day after Hun Sen left Myanmar, National League for Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to four more years in prison over what many said were frivolous charges. 

Hun Sen may have divided the regional bloc because of what some describe as his cowboy diplomacy with Myanmar, causing more authoritarian member-states to be at odds with liberal democratic ones, analysts had said. 

‘China appreciates Myanmar’s readiness’

In other developments, Japan on Tuesday “welcomed Cambodia’s active engagement as ASEAN Chair on the situation in Myanmar, and both ministers shared the view to coordinate closely,” the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement. 

Additionally, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said that ASEAN member-state Thailand’s top diplomat had sent a “congratulatory message” saying “he strongly supported the outcomes of the Cambodia-Myanmar joint press release,” local media reported. 

On Monday, China, Myanmar’s close ally, spoke in favor of Hun Sen and Cambodia, as well as Myanmar. 

“China appreciates Myanmar’s readiness to create favorable conditions for ASEAN’s special envoy to fulfill his duty and [he] works toward effective alignment between Myanmar’s five-point road map and ASEAN’s five-point consensus,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters. 

The two road maps have nothing in common. 

“China will fully support Cambodia, the rotating chair of ASEAN, in playing an active role and making [an] important contribution to properly managing the differences among parties of Myanmar,” Wang said. 

 
…

Autocratic leaders are facing a democratic backlash from their people in several countries around the world, according to the organization Human Rights Watch in its annual global report, which was published Thursday.

The report said that in the past 12 months there have been a series of military coups and crackdowns on opposition figures. 

In Myanmar, the military seized power last February and ousted the democratically elected government, jailing President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

In Nicaragua, opposition members were jailed on treason charges ahead of the November election, as President Daniel Ortega consolidated power.

In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected in January 2021 after security forces arrested and beat opposition supporters and journalists, killed protesters, and disrupted opposition rallies.  

Democratic Backlash

“The conventional wisdom these days is that autocrats are in the ascendancy and democratic leaders are in the decline, but when we looked back over the last year, we found that that view is actually too superficial, too simplistic,” said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, in an interview with VOA. 

In fact, there are encouraging signs of democratic uprisings, Roth said. “There’s an emergence of a series of popular demonstrations, popular protests for democracy against the autocrat. And we’ve seen this in a range of countries: in Thailand, Myanmar and Sudan, in Uganda, Nicaragua, Cuba, Poland, many parts of the world, these outpourings of support for human rights, for democracy, and against autocratic rule.”

Despite the optimistic tone, the report catalogues the suppression of democracy and human rights in more than 100 countries. Tens of thousands of opposition activists, human rights defenders and civilians have been jailed, beaten or killed. 

Russia

In Russia, opposition leader Alexey Navalny remains in prison on parole-related violations after surviving a nerve agent attack he blamed on the Kremlin. Russia denied involvement.

“The legislative crackdown that started in November 2020 intensified ahead of the September 2021 general elections,” the Human Rights Watch report says. “Numerous newly adopted laws broadened the authorities’ grounds to target a wide range of independent voices. Authorities used some of these laws and other measures, to smear, harass, and penalize human rights defenders, journalists, independent groups, political adversaries, and even academics. Many left Russia for their own safety or were expelled. Authorities took particular aim at independent journalism.”

Since December 2020, the report says, “the number of individuals and entities (that) authorities branded (as) ‘foreign media—foreign agent’ exploded, reaching 94 by early November. Most are prominent investigative journalists and independent outlets,” the report said.

Human Rights Watch says Moscow continues to suppress democracy at home and lend support to autocrats overseas, including President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, who has jailed hundreds of anti-government demonstrators and activists following the 2020 election that critics say was rigged. 

Russia earlier this month sent troops to Kazakhstan to help its autocratic president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, crush anti-government protests. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, continues to offer military support to his Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of crimes against humanity in his brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising and its aftermath.

China

The report says China has locked up thousands of pro-democracy activists and has intensified its crackdown on democratic freedoms in Hong Kong following the imposition of the National Security Law on the territory. 

“With President Xi Jinping at the helm, the Chinese government doubled down on repression inside and outside the country in 2021. Its ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards COVID-19 strengthened the authorities’ hand, as they imposed harsh policies in the name of public health,” the Human Rights Watch report says.

“Authorities (are) committing crimes against humanity as part of a widespread and systematic attack on Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution. Tibetans continued to be subjected to grave abuses, including harsh and lengthy imprisonment for exercising their basic rights,” the report adds.  China has denied committing abuses in Xinjiang.

Rule by force

Roth says, despite the seemingly overwhelming force wielded by oppressive states, there is cause for hope.

“To maintain power by force is a very short-term strategy. If you look at Myanmar where the junta performed a coup almost a year ago, all they have is force. The entire population is against them. I think in Sudan, the military is facing something similar. They’ve just ousted the civilian prime minister, but they now face such a hostile population,” Roth told VOA.

Opposition coalitions

The report says that in countries that still permit reasonably fair elections, opposition politicians – and electorates – are getting more sophisticated.

“We’ve seen the emergence in a number of countries that still permit reasonably fair elections of broad political coalitions, alliances for democracy. And we saw these coalitions oust Prime Minister (Andrej) Babiš in the Czech Republic, they got rid of (Benjamin) Netanyahu in Israel, they were really behind the coalition that chose Joe Biden to contest (U.S. President) Donald Trump. And today in Hungary and in Turkey, Prime Minister (Viktor) Orbán and President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan are facing similar broad coalitions that are really putting their grasp on power in jeopardy,” Roth said.

Democratic duty

Human Rights Watch says the leaders of democratic countries must end their support for autocratic regimes, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt – and they must do a better job of delivering for their own people.

“Particularly today when there really are big global challenges, climate change, the pandemic, poverty and inequality, the threats from technology. These are huge problems that demand visionary leadership,” Roth told VOA. 

“But instead, typically we’re getting from democratic leaders minimalism, incremental change, really short-term steps, and that’s not enough. If that’s all that they can come up with, they’re going to generate despair and frustration, which are going to be a breeding ground for a second wind for the autocrats.”

The Human Rights Watch report strikes an optimistic tone – but cautions that the “outcome of the battle between autocracy and democracy remains uncertain.”
…

An outlawed militant alliance fighting the government of Pakistan confirmed Thursday that one of its top commanders was killed in neighboring Afghanistan earlier in the week.  

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, in a statement identified the dead man as Khalid Balti, saying he was killed on Sunday while traveling. The TTP paid tribute to Balti’s contributions to the group and vowed to avenge his killing soon; but it did not say who was responsible. No group has claimed responsibility.

The confirmation comes after Pakistani security officials disclosed on Monday that Balti had died in Afghanistan’s eastern border province of Nangarhar, saying they were in the process of gathering more information about the circumstances.

In Islamabad, a government official who asked not to be named said that in 2014, Balti went on the run after fleeing a Pakistani counter-terrorism military operation against TTP bases in border districts and taking refuge on the Afghan side.  

“He was planning terrorist activities in Pakistan and was working for unification of all TTP (breakaway) factions,” the official said. He added Balti had planned several attacks against Pakistani security officials and civilians “in close liaison with the TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud.”

An Afghan Taliban government spokesman rejected reports the TTP commander was killed on the Afghan side of the border. Bilal Karimi told VOA that “nothing like that happened nor are any foreign nationals here.”

Pakistan launched major ground and air counterterrorism offensives in 2014 in volatile districts next to the Afghan border, killing thousands of TTP militants and forcing others to take shelter in Afghanistan, where U.S-led foreign troops were battling the Afghan Taliban in support of the Western-backed government in Kabul at the time.  

U.S. counterterrorism drone operations also killed many key TTP commanders along with others.

Afghan security forces arrested Balti in 2015. He and other inmates were released when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. TTP in its statement Thursday said that Balti was arrested in early 2015 and remained in custody until the end of 2021. It didn’t elaborate.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan later mediated and brokered a 30-day cease-fire between Pakistan and TTP in a move aimed at laying the groundwork for substantive peace talks.  

The truce expired in early December without any progress in the peace process and the militants resumed attacks in Pakistan.

Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, in a visit to Islamabad in November, confirmed his government had played a central role in arranging the talks. The new Afghan rulers are under pressure from neighboring countries and the global community at large to stop transnational terrorists from using Afghanistan for cross-border attacks
…

The Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan has accelerated the country’s human rights crisis and humanitarian catastrophe, a new report warned Thursday.

The Islamist group rolled back women’s rights advances and media freedom after taking control of the conflict-torn impoverished nation, Human Rights Watch alleged in its annual review of rights practices around the world.

“Afghans are caught between Taliban oppression and the specter of starvation,” lamented Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director for the U.S.-based watchdog.

“Governments involved in Afghanistan over the past two decades should provide humanitarian aid and fund basic services, including health and education, while using their leverage to press for an end to Taliban rights violations,” she said in a statement.

Despite assurances that they would respect human rights of all Afghans, the interim Taliban government announced a steady stream of polices and regulations that curtailed women’s rights.

Afghan women are largely prohibited from working in jobs outside of teaching and health care while many secondary schools for girls remain closed across the country. The Taliban religious police have told women they cannot travel in public without being accompanied by a male guardian and have ordered taxi drivers to offer a ride only to women who wear a hijab or headscarf.

Taliban authorities are also cracking down on dissent and wide-ranging restrictions on media as well as violence against journalists have led to the closure of nearly 70% of Afghan television and other news outlets.

Women’s rights and media freedom were hailed as the foremost achievements of the international presence in Afghanistan over the past two decades.

The Taliban seized power from the Western-backed government last August on the heels of a U.S.-led foreign troop withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years.

Relief agencies say the subsequent freezing of billions of dollars in Afghan foreign assets, international sanctions on the Taliban and suspension of most non-humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken country have accelerated an economic collapse, deteriorating an already dire humanitarian crisis, an outcome of decades of wars and natural disasters.

The United Nations has warned millions of Afghans are at risk of famine and nearly four million children are severely malnourished.

“The Taliban victory propelled Afghanistan from humanitarian crisis to catastrophe, with millions of Afghans facing severe food insecurity due to lost income, cash shortages and rising food costs,” said Human Rights watch.

The Taliban have announced a blanket amnesty for Afghans who served the deposed government, but the global rights monitor said Taliban forces had “summarily executed many former members of the Afghan government’s security forces.”

“The expedited (foreign troop) withdrawal did not include plans for evacuating many Afghans who had worked for the US and NATO forces or for programs sponsored by donor countries,” the Human Rights Watch said in the report. It added that the chaotic evacuation of thousands of Afghans left behind many who remained at risk of Taliban retaliation.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the findings of the Human Rights Watch report as baseless.

“All the rights of the people of Afghanistan have been protected since the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) came to power,” Mujahid tweeted in response to the report. “Such reports are based on misinformation spread by some hostile circles as propaganda,” he said without elaborating further.

Taliban leaders say they will soon allow all female students to rejoin schools as well as universities across Afghanistan in line with “Islamic law and teachings.”

However, Afghan women and rights activists have routinely demonstrated against the restrictions, prompting Taliban forces at times to use violence to disperse the rallies.
…

Indian and Chinese army commanders are holding talks beginning Wednesday to disengage troops from a key area along their contested border in Ladakh in an attempt to ease a 20-month military standoff.

The two sides reportedly are focusing on withdrawing from Hot Springs, one of several friction points that emerged after Indian and Chinese soldiers fought a violent clash in May 2020.

Since then, both countries have massed tens of thousands of troops, along with artillery and fighter jets, at disputed areas along their approximately 3,400-kilometer-long border.

Indian army officials said the talks will conclude either late Wednesday or Thursday.

Last year, the two sides pulled back troops from a strategic Himalayan lake, Pangong, in the Gogra area, but subsequent talks held in October to discuss disengaging at other places ended in a deadlock, with both sides blaming each other for a lack of progress.

India accuses Chinese troops of having intruded into territory it controls in several areas and wants it to withdraw to positions China held prior to the military standoff. China denies it and wants to maintain the status quo along the border.

Ahead of the talks, both countries described the situation along the border as “stable.” But India’s army chief, M.M. Naravane, said at an annual press conference Wednesday that de-escalation and withdrawal of troops would depend on the success of the talks the two sides are holding.

“I am hopeful of further developments in the days ahead. But while there has been partial disengagement, the threat has by no means [been] reduced,” he said.

“If talks prolong, so be it. We are prepared to hold our ground where we are for as long as it takes to achieve our national goals and interest,” he told reporters. 

On Tuesday, China appeared to put the onus for progress on India. “We hope the Indian side can work with China and strive to switch from emergency response to normalized management and control in the border area as soon as possible,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. He described the situation along the India-China border as “generally stable.”

Ahead of the talks, the U.S. said it is closely monitoring the situation along the India-China border and supports “peaceful resolution of these border disputes.”

“We’ve been pretty clear how we view Beijing’s behavior in the region and around the world. We believe it can be destabilizing. And, we’re concerned by the [People’s Republic of China]’s attempt to intimidate its neighbors,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a regular press briefing Monday in Washington in response to a question on China’s “aggressive behavior” on its border with India.

“We’ll continue to stand with our partners on that,” Psaki said.

Analysts say the huge trust deficit that has emerged between the two sides means the India-China border will continue to remain heavily militarized even if they achieve progress in disengaging troops from some areas.
…

India’s top court on Wednesday said it will take up a petition seeking prosecution of several saffron-robed Hindu religious leaders for allegedly making highly provocative speeches against Muslims at a closed-door meeting last month.

Three Supreme Court judges said they were issuing a notice to the Uttarakhand state government that they will investigate the case next week.

The religious leaders called on Hindus to arm themselves for “a genocide” against Muslims during the meeting in the northern holy town of Haridwar in Uttarakhand in December, according to a police complaint.

The police said they were questioning suspects, but no arrests have been made.

Uttarakhand state is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, whose rise to power in 2014, and a a 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.

The petition filed by retired Judge Anjana Prakash stated that the speeches made at the Hindu religious leaders’ congregation “pose a grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens,” said Bar & Bench, an online portal for Indian legal news.

Last month, Indian police arrested a Hindu religious leader for allegedly making a derogatory speech against India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and praising his assassin.

Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu extremist during a prayer meeting in the Indian capital in 1948, because he was considered sympathetic toward Muslims during the partition of the Indian subcontinent by British colonialists in 1947 into secular India and Islamic Pakistan.

Kalicharan Maharaj was arrested in central Madhya Pradesh state for allegedly promoting hatred between religious groups in a speech.

According to media reports, Maharaj said “Gandhi destroyed the country … salutations to Nathuram Godse, who killed him.”

If convicted, he could be jailed for up to five years.
…

Kazakh authorities said Wednesday they detained 1,678 more people in the past 24 hours over their alleged participation in the violent unrest that rocked the former Soviet nation last week, the worst since Kazakhstan gained independence three decades ago. 

The additional detentions, reported by authorities in Almaty, the country’s largest city that was hit the hardest by the turmoil, brought the total number of arrests to about 12,000. More than 300 criminal investigations into mass unrest and assaults on law enforcement officers have been opened. 

Protests over soaring fuel prices erupted in the oil- and gas-rich Central Asian nation of 19 million on Jan. 2 and quickly spread across the country, with political slogans reflecting wider discontent over the country’s authoritarian government. 

As the unrest mounted, the authorities attempted to mollify the protesters and announced a 180-day cap on fuel prices. The ministerial Cabinet resigned, and Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s former longtime leader, was ousted from his influential post of head of the National Security Council. 

Still, over the next few days, the demonstrations turned violent, with dozens of civilians and law enforcement officers killed. 

In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s former capital and largest city, protesters set government buildings on fire and briefly seized the airport. The unrest was largely quelled by last weekend. 

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has blamed the unrest on foreign-backed “terrorists” and requested help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, a Russia-led military alliance comprising of six ex-Soviet states. The bloc authorized sending 2,500 troops to Kazakhstan. 

Tokayev said Tuesday that the CSTO will start withdrawing its troops this week, as they have completed their mission and the situation in the country has stabilized. 
…

A daughter of an Afghan professor detained for four days by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers says her father has been released thanks to international and domestic pressure.  

In a VOA interview on Tuesday, Hasina Jalal, who lives in Washington, said her father Faizullah Jalal, a prominent critic of the Taliban, assured her that he was fine when they spoke by phone following his release in the Afghan capital Kabul earlier in the day. Taliban militants had arrested the Kabul University professor at his home on Saturday and detained him at an intelligence jail.  

Jalal’s detention sparked an outcry from Afghans on social media and calls for his release from international human rights groups, German and EU diplomats and U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks.  

Hasina Jalal said a group of five to 10 of her father’s friends, including his fellow Kabul University professors, had also gone to the intelligence jail where he was being held earlier Tuesday to demand his release.  

“They said to the Taliban, you can put us in the jail with him, we are not going to leave. And of course, the Taliban was aware of all the international advocacy. So, I think all of this pressured them to release him,” she said. “The Taliban thought that if they detained him longer, his case would get more traction internationally and more people would raise their voices.” 

The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August as U.S. troops and their NATO allies withdrew almost 20 years after ousting the Islamist militants from power in a 2001 invasion. But the Taliban has lacked international recognition since seizing power from an elected government and have overseen an economic collapse that has left many Afghans facing famine.  

The United States and its allies have demanded that the Taliban allow any potential future government to be inclusive and representative of the Afghan people to earn legitimacy.  

Faizullah Jalal, speaking to VOA sister network RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi after his Tuesday release, said he was well-treated in Taliban custody.  

But he said the militants “encouraged” him to “reflect the realities” of Afghan society in his political commentaries. He said one Taliban member told him those realities include respecting the more restrictive Islamist view of free expression rather than the liberal interpretation of the West.  

The professor vowed to continue “telling the truth.”  

Jalal, who has been an outspoken critic of the Taliban and Afghanistan’s previous leaders for decades, caused a stir on social media after participating in a November 20 heated televised debate with Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem on the Tolo News network. At one point, Jalal called Naeem a “calf,” which in Afghanistan is an insult implying someone is stupid.  

After Jalal was detained Saturday, another Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted that the professor had been arrested for making “nonsensical” statements and “inciting” people against the nation’s rulers. Mujahid illustrated his post with screen shots of four tweets purporting to be from Jalal.  

Jalal’s family members said the tweets shared by Mujahid were from a fake Twitter account and reported it to Twitter, which later shut it down. They have said Jalal does not personally use Twitter and have been tweeting on his behalf from another account since November.  

Hasina Jalal told VOA that her father had shown the men who detained him that he did not have a Twitter app on his phone, but they jailed him for four days anyway.  

Jalal, a PhD scholar at University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, said her father’s detention was more than just a misunderstanding. “It shows the world that the Taliban is intolerant,” she said.  

She said Afghan presidents Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai, who led the country after the Taliban was ousted in 2001, did not jail her father despite his criticisms of their governments.  

For many other Afghans around the country, criticizing the Taliban has resulted in much harsher treatment by the militants.  

In a report published Sunday, the Wall Street Journal cited human rights groups and eyewitnesses as saying Afghans who “dare to voice criticism via social media or in person are being arrested or even killed.”  

Rooshan Noorzai of VOA’s Afghan service contributed to this report. 
…

The tension between India and China is mounting again in the Himalayan region of Ladakh over a new bridge constructed by the Chinese on the banks of the Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh. Analysts say there is a possibility of continued skirmishes between the two nuclear states.

An open-source intelligence analyst, Damien Symon, with the Twitter handle @detresfa_, recently shared satellite imagery of the area that showed a bridge-like structure connecting the two banks of the Pangong Tso Lake. 

The head of the department of Peace and Conflict Research at Sweden’s Uppsala University, Professor Ashok Swain, told VOA this is a clear sign China has no plans to withdraw from the areas of India from which it took control in 2020.

Swain emphasizes that India lacks the military muscle to push China to agree to de-escalation. He says China’s President Xi Jingping gains the upper hand in the escalating the border conflict, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political calculation forces him to downplay the Chinese aggression, and within this context, disengagement is the best India can hope to achieve.

This standoff in the frigid Himalayan region also comes amid the allegation Beijing is erecting settlements on the Indian side. India criticized China for building a bridge in eastern Ladakh, which India’s Ministry of External Affairs, or MEA, asserted was being erected in territories “that have been under unlawful occupancy for around 60 years now by the Chinese.”

While confirming the development, Arindam Bagchi, an official spokesperson with the MEA said, “The administration has been keeping a close eye on allegations that China is building a bridge over Pangong Lake. The land on which this bridge is being built has been illegally occupied by China for the better part of 60 years.”

Reacting sharply to India’s allegation, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, in a media briefing, said, “I want to stress that China’s infrastructure construction on its territory entirely falls within its sovereignty and is aimed at safeguarding China’s territorial sovereignty and security, as well as peace and stability in the China-India border.” 

Long-simmering dispute

The fundamental reason for the tension between the two countries, according to senior fellow and co-director China, East Asia at the Stimson Center, Yun Sun, is the dispute about the territory and both want to advance their positions and strengthen their claims. Sun told VOA the Chinese also can present their own complaints about the buildups by India in the disputed region. The result is a classic infrastructure race, akin to an arms race.

Experts say the purpose of this new bridge is to ensure quicker military action if needed by reducing the distance to the other side by about 125 kilometers. Earlier in 2020, China faced a setback when the Indian army took control of the Kailash Range on the southern bank of Pangong Tso Lake.

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia program and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center, told VOA the new transport infrastructure for Chinese troops is significant because it strengthens China’s posture along the border in the event of another showdown with India.

“Since the border isn’t clearly defined and is disputed in different places, any new act, even if seen in isolation as perfectly harmless, can be perceived by the other side as a problem, if not a provocation. With India-China relations still tense even nearly two years after the Ladakh crisis, it won’t take much to cause a new crisis.

“This is why dialogue will be essential, and especially military-to-military, to preempt the possibility of a new crisis,” Kugelman added.

Building infrastructure

Pravin Sawhney, a former Indian army officer and author of many books, told VOA the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is creating a permanent habitat, training positions and an operational base on the borders of Ladakh. “At present, about 75 percent of the lake is with China, and according to the intent behind China’s new bridge, seems to take over the whole lake,” Sawhney claims.

Another reason for renewed tension between India and China is the new maps being drawn by India, where Ladakh is shown as being Union Territory and certain parts claimed by China are shown as being Indian areas. “It has not gone well with China,” said Sawhney.

Additionally, analysts say a gray-zone operation like this one by the Chinese side could reach a threshold limit any time and be a prelude to a war in the near future. According to Sawhney’s assessment, the PLA will be ready for conflict by 2023, and then actually going to war will be only a matter of time. “PLA is doing it all under grey-zone operation,” Sawhney said. “War between India and China can’t be ruled out.”

Tense standoff

Aparna Pande, research fellow and director at the Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia, underscored that there will always be tension along a border between two nuclear-armed countries that have more than 200,000 troops facing each other. She says there is a possibility of continued skirmishes but not necessarily a war.

Pande told VOA that the more aggressive China is on the border and in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, the more India will push back and align closer to the U.S. and its allies. The less aggressive China is, the more India will continue with a policy of hedging and balancing.

Contrary to what Pande believes, Craig Singleton, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies —  a nonpartisan research group focused on foreign policy and national security issues — told VOA that China’s leaders are clearly unnerved by New Delhi’s deepening ties with Washington, not to mention Tokyo and Canberra.

By maintaining an active presence on India’s border and by seeking leverage over New Delhi, China may be attempting to coerce India’s leadership to make political concessions.

Singleton assesses that China is attempting to establish leverage over India by denying its territorial integrity without engaging in wanton expansionism. What remains unclear, however, is how far Beijing is willing to go in antagonizing New Delhi at the same time its leaders face serious domestic economic challenges and increasingly find themselves isolated on the world stage.

The move has come at a time when the residents of Chushul already are deeply concerned. These new developments further add to their worries. Last October, the commander-level military discussions came to a standstill when the Indian Army said the Chinese side had not accepted their “positive proposals” following the 13th session.

India and China have agreed to resume the 14th round of military discussions expected to be held on January 12. More than 50,000 troops currently guard the sensitive region of the LAC from both sides. 
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Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government has asked Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to return air force planes and helicopters flown to the neighboring countries by fleeing pilots as the U.S.-backed government in Kabul collapsed last August.

Addressing an Afghan air force ceremony in the capital Tuesday, Taliban Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob said his government would never allow the aircraft to be seized or used by these countries.

“I respectfully call on [Uzbekistan and Tajikistan] not to test our patience and not to force us to take all possible retaliatory steps [to retake the aircraft],” Yaqoob said without elaborating further.

U.S.-trained Afghan air force pilots flew themselves and their families to safety in Uzbekistan aboard more than 40 aircraft, including A-29 light attack planes and Black Hawk helicopters, just days before the Taliban takeover of the country on August 15.

Uzbek authorities reported in early September they had deported hundreds of Afghan pilots and their families for illegally flying into the county aboard military aircraft. 

The Afghan citizens were reportedly transferred to a U.S. military base in the United Arab Emirates under an arrangement Washington negotiated with Uzbekistan to move more than 450 Afghans. 

But the fate of the aircraft remains unclear. Before the fall of the government in August, Afghanistan had more than 164 active aircraft, a large number of which were flown out of the country. Only 81 were left behind, according to Afghan media reports.

Yaqoob in his speech Tuesday invited all the pilots and engineers to come back to safety in Afghanistan. “They wouldn’t be honored in foreign countries. We will honor them. They are the treasure of our country,” he said. 

Critics say the Taliban consider the pilots among the most reviled members of the U.S.-trained and equipped former Afghan security forces for their role in carrying out airstrikes against Taliban insurgents over many years. 

Analysts remain skeptical about Taliban security assurances and a blanket amnesty the group has announced for former Afghan government officials. Dozens of ex-Afghan security personnel have been killed in recent weeks, allegedly by Taliban forces in reprisals attacks, charges the Islamist movement denies.
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The U.N. human rights office is calling for prompt, independent, and impartial investigations into the deadly crackdown by Kazakhstan authorities on protests that erupted in the country January 2 over rising fuel prices.

Officials in Kazakhstan say dozens of people have been killed over the past week and that some 9,900 protesters have been arrested and are in detention.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell says her agency has not been able to verify an official death toll from the protests.

“What we expect, and hope is that, of course, as more information comes to light, that we are able to get more complete and reliable figures…into these killings. And that would include, for example, whether unnecessary and disproportionate use of force was made by the security forces,” she said.

Under international law, Throssell said, people have the right to protest peacefully and express their opinions. She said people should not be arrested and detained simply for exercising their rights. Throssell said those currently held should be released immediately.

The spokeswoman said it is important that Kazakhstan’s ombudsperson be able to visit places of detention to monitor conditions under which prisoners are held. Regardless of what people have done, she said detainees should be allowed contact with a lawyer.

“That is a key human rights safeguard that we repeat on many occasions as you know… And it is very important that the people like the ombudsperson in Kazakhstan are able to visit places of detention to prevent any torture and ill treatment, to monitor the situation of detainees,” she said.

Throssell said her agency’s regional office in central Asia is monitoring developments in Kazakhstan from its base in nearby Kyrgyzstan. She said U.N. staff will engage with the Kazakh authorities whenever it deems appropriate and is possible.

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday claimed the main goal of the recent protests “was to undermine the constitutional order and to seize power.”
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Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Tuesday that Russian-led security forces would begin withdrawing from the Central Asian country two days after completing its mission to help restore order in the troubled country.

The forces are part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization peacekeeping mission made up of soldiers from four other former Soviet republics. They were deployed to Kazakhstan at Tokayev’s request, who blamed the unrest on foreign-supported “terrorists.”

Demonstrations erupted on January 2 in the western part of the country to protest doubling fuel prices and escalated into the worst public unrest since Kazakhstan’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Dozens of civilians and law enforcement officers have been killed in the unrest, during which protesters in the former capital of Almaty set government buildings on fire and briefly seized the airport before it was largely quelled last weekend.

Because the protests grew and spread so quickly, some political observers have suggested they reflected wider discontent in the country that has lived under authoritarianism since gaining independence. 

“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed, Tokayev said in a videoconference address to the government and parliament.

He said a “phased withdrawal” of the forces would begin in two days and would be completed in “no more than 10 days.”

When asked if it was premature to begin withdrawing the forces only five days after their arrival, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “utterly and completely” Kazakhstan’s decision.

Tokayev also announced the appointment of Alikhan Smailov as the country’s new prime minister. The country’s government resigned last week in an apparent concession to the protesters, along with a 180-day cap on fuel prices and the firing of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s first president, as head of the National Security Council. 

Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry reported Tuesday that 9,900 people had been detained in the unrest. The president’s office said 338 criminal investigations linked to the violence and attacks on law enforcement officers have been launched. 

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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The United States announced Tuesday $308 million in new humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. 

It came as the United Nations launched a record appeal for the people of Afghanistan, warning that half the country’s population is facing acute hunger.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement that the aid would go directly from the U.S. Agency for International Development to “independent humanitarian organizations.” 

USAID said in its own statement Tuesday that the funding would specifically go toward food and nutrition aid, supporting health care facilities and mobile health efforts, making sure aid workers and supplies can reach difficult areas, and programs to help people get through the winter such as shelter kits, heaters, blankets and warm clothing. 

“The United States remains committed to helping the people of Afghanistan,” USAID said. “However, for this assistance to be the most effective, all aid workers, especially women, must be permitted to operate independently and securely and be able to reach women and girls without impediments. The United States continues to urge the Taliban to allow unhindered humanitarian access, safe conditions for humanitarians, independent provision of assistance to all vulnerable people, and freedom of movement for aid workers of all genders.” 

In addition to announcing its own contributions, the United States also urged other nations to contribute. 

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated since the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces in August and the subsequent freezing of international aid to the Afghan government with the Taliban’s takeover of the country. 

The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution in late December exempting certain humanitarian aid activities from U.S. sanctions against Taliban figures to try to get help to the Afghan people without relief funds benefitting the Taliban. 
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The United Nations is appealing for a record $5 billion to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to 28 million people in Afghanistan and in five neighboring countries of refuge this year.

The bulk of the funds — $4.4 billion — will provide vital relief for 22 million people in Afghanistan, nearly half of the country’s population. This is the largest ever appeal for humanitarian assistance for a single country — but then the needs of this country are enormous. 

The United Nations warns Afghanistan is becoming one the world’s worst, fastest growing humanitarian crises. It says half of Afghanistan’s population is facing acute hunger, more than nine million people are internally displaced, and millions of children are out of school. 

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, says farmers and herders are struggling to survive amid the worst drought in decades. He says people need help to endure the impact of years of conflict and of a shattered economy. 

“Up to a million children under five if we do not get assistance to them will suffer from severe and acute malnutrition,” he said. “We need to get food to the families where they live. We need to get seeds to the farmers where they plow. We need to get health services to the clinics in locations throughout the country. And we need protection services for all those people who want to return home.” 

Afghanistan is facing a massive problem of internal and external displacement. More than nine million people are displaced inside the country — about one third because of conflict. More than six million Afghan refugees are living in neighboring countries, mostly in Pakistan and Iran. 

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, says it is urgent to help sustain Afghanistan’s economy and public services to ward off more large-scale displacements. 

“If the country collapses, implodes—we have said it so many times—but it is worth repeating, then we may see a much bigger exodus of people,” he said. “The key issue here is to transform this massive internal displacement — probably the biggest in the world in terms of numbers – and prevent this from becoming a massive external displacement, which is a very major risk at this point.” 

Grandi urges the international community to do everything it can to prevent a catastrophe in Afghanistan. He warns this would further drive displacement both within the country and throughout the region. 

The U.N. Says it needs $623 million to support 5.7 million Afghan refugees and the communities hosting them in neighboring countries. The funds will provide protection, health and nutrition, food, shelter, water and sanitation, education, and other essential relief. 

 
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