Undocumented Afghan migrants who fled to Turkey to escape the Taliban say they are unable to get treatment and vaccines for the coronavirus.

While officially registered refugees qualify for health care in Turkey, it is believed that thousands of undocumented Afghan migrants are in the country.

The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021 following the withdrawal of Western forces prompted thousands to flee to neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals had already left their home country for security reasons or to escape poverty. 

VOA spoke to several refugees in the central Turkish city of Erzurum, which lies on a major route for migrants heading west to Europe and is a stopover for many refugees. Some settle and find work in the region. 

According to the United Nations, Turkey is hosting around 183,000 Afghan asylum-seekers, while 300,000 Afghans are permanently settled there. However, unofficial estimates suggest thousands more Afghan migrants are undocumented, living and working in Turkey under the radar and unable to access basic services such as health care. 

“I am from Badakhshan province in Afghanistan. I came to Turkey two months ago. I am 18 years old. We have no ID cards, so the hospitals don’t treat us,” Afghan migrant Muhammed told VOA. 

Lack of ID card a concern

Muhammed works for a local dairy company in Erzurum along with several other Afghan migrants, including his friend Islam. They live in a small, run-down apartment in the city. 

“There are eight or nine people living in this room. Five people have ID cards, and the rest don’t have ID cards,” Islam said. “If any of those who don’t have an ID card catches coronavirus, the hospitals don’t treat them. Those who have no ID card cannot have a vaccine. If they catch coronavirus, we all will catch coronavirus.” 

Several Afghan migrants told VOA they chose not to register as official refugees, fearing arrest and deportation. Many said the status of Afghan refugees remains unclear, and they want clarification from the government. 

Ramped up border security

In recent months, Turkey has ramped up border security and detained hundreds of Afghan migrants in deportation centers. It’s not clear if Ankara intends to deport the migrants back to Afghanistan. Some migrants report being detained for several weeks before being issued with official refugee status and set free. 

The Turkish government did not respond to VOA questions on the number of undocumented Afghan migrants or on the lack of access to health care. Erzurum officials said any unregistered refugees would be arrested.

The United Nations said Turkey is hosting about 4 million refugees, 3.7 million of whom are Syrians fleeing conflict. 

Refugees are a shared problem

In an email to VOA, Selin Unal, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, said that other countries must help share the burden of caring for Afghan refugees. 

“UNHCR is calling on neighboring countries to keep their borders open for those forced to flee and are now seeking protection. Since August, UNHCR has received increasing numbers of Afghans in neighboring countries who have approached our office and partners, indicating their intention to seek asylum. Others still in Afghanistan report hoping to reach neighboring countries to access international protection,” Unal said. 

“Turkey has been hosting the largest refugee population in the world since 2014 and its comprehensive legal framework provides the necessary tools to address the needs of the various categories of Afghan citizens currently living on its territory and seeking its protection. This is a challenging time, effective access to registration remains crucial by Afghan nationals seeking international protection in Turkey and UNHCR is working with national authorities to support effective, fair and fast asylum procedures,” the email said. 

The UNHCR did not provide an estimate for the number of undocumented Afghan refugees who are living in Turkey and unable to access health care. 

Memet Aksakal contributed to this report.

 
…

Undocumented Afghan migrants who have fled to Turkey to escape the Taliban say they are unable to access treatment and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. While officially registered refugees do quality for health care in Turkey, it’s believed there are thousands of unregistered Afghan migrants in the country. Henry Ridgwell reports.

Camera: Henry Ridgwell, Memet Aksakal
…

Afghanistan’s Taliban confirmed Monday their senior delegates met in neighboring Iran with self-exiled key Afghan opposition leaders to urge them to end resistance to the Islamist group’s nascent rule and assure them of security if they return home.

Taliban Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi led his team in the meeting with Ahmad Massoud, who heads what is known as the National Resistance Front (NRF), and Ismail Khan, a former Afghan minister and provincial governor. 

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi, while sharing details of the first known direct interaction between the rival sides in Tehran, said that Muttaqi renewed Taliban assurances that it is striving to ensure a “secure future” for all Afghans to leave “no reason for any resistance.”

Muttaqi himself confirmed the meeting in video remarks Taliban officials later released at the conclusion of his two-day bilateral meetings with Iranian officials.

“Yes, we met with Commander Ismail Khan and Ahmad Massoud in Iran, as well as other Afghans there,” Muttaqi said. 

“We assured all of them that they can come back to live freely and safely in Afghanistan. We (the Taliban) don’t intend to cause any security or other problems for anyone,” the chief Taliban diplomat asserted.

Neither Massoud nor Khan, both ethnic Tajiks, could immediately be reached for comment. The Taliban are largely ethnic Pashtuns, the majority group in Afghanistan. 

The Taliban are under pressure from neighboring countries and the global community at large to promote national political reconciliation and form an inclusive government that respects human rights of all Afghans before the world considers granting legitimacy to the rule in Kabul.

The Islamist group seized power in Afghanistan from the Western-backed government in mid-August after the remaining U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after almost 20 years. The NRF opposed the power shift and violent clashes have since taken place between the two sides in and around the resistance’s stronghold of Panjshir, north of Kabul. 

Analyst Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official, welcomed the Iran-hosted talks. “We need Afghanistan’s internal tensions to be solved through talks,” he said.

“The second and most important part will be for (the) Taliban to open the door for political participation to non-Taliban (groups) at decision-making levels. That will ensure long-term stability in Afghanistan,” Farhadi added. 

Some analysts remain skeptical about Taliban security assurances, citing an increasing crackdown on the rights of Afghan women and government critics as well as reports of revenge killings of former officials despite a blanket amnesty the group announced after taking control of the country.

“I don’t think they (opponents) will trust any Taliban guarantees. The Taliban have a long history of saying one thing and doing another,” Jonathan Schroden, who directs the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the U.S.-based non-profit CNA Corporation, told VOA.

“Their actions since taking control of the government—including targeting former members of the ANDSF (acronym for ex-Afghan government forces) in the face of their announced general amnesty and now detaining prominent critics of the regime—are further evidence against a conclusion that they should be trusted,” Schroden said.

U.S. officials confirmed in November that the NRF had registered with the Department of Justice to carry out political lobbying in the United States. A State Department spokesperson at the time, however, explained the decision was made by the registrant. The spokesperson said it did not require any further action or approval by the Justice Department or any other U.S. government entity.

The Taliban reject criticism of their policies and maintain that their government represents all Afghans. Taliban leaders have also repeatedly ruled out the possibility of including in the Cabinet any Afghan political figures who had served in U.S.-installed governments over the past 20 years. 

No country has recognized the new Kabul government. The Islamist group’s return to power led the United States and other Western nations to immediately suspend most non-humanitarian funding for the aid-dependent country and freeze around $9.5 billion worth of Afghan foreign cash reserves. 

The punitive measures and long-running international sanctions on Taliban leaders have brought the national economy to the brink of collapse, worsening the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan stemming from years of wars, natural disasters and poverty.

Foreign governments have since been scrambling to work out how to engage the Taliban to scale up humanitarian aid and help in preventing an economic meltdown in the country while avoiding formally recognizing the new government.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Monday the Taliban visit over the weekend did not constitute Iran’s official recognition of the new Kabul government. 

Iranian media, however, quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as criticizing Washington over the frozen cash reserves and demanding they be released to help in improving economic and humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan.
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India began administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines to vulnerable groups on Monday, as infections surge to their highest levels in seven months fueled by the omicron variant and crowded cities like New Delhi and Mumbai reimpose restrictions to battle the third wave of the pandemic.

Health care and frontline workers and senior citizens with comorbidities lined up Monday to get what India is calling a “precautionary shot.”

“We raised the demand for boosters for health care workers and doctors four months ago,” said J.A. Jayalal, who was president of the Indian Medical Association until December.“The government has taken the decision a little late, but at least now they will get some protection. That is necessary to ensure that we have sufficient doctors to take care of patients.”

In recent days, as India’s COVID-19 infection rate climbed steeply, hundreds of doctors and health care workers have contracted the virus according to reports in local media. That has led to warnings of staff shortages in hospitals.

Early studies suggesting that booster shots may provide more protection against the highly transmissible omicron variant have prompted several countries to expand booster programs.

In India, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, roughly two-thirds of adults have been fully vaccinated while over 90 percent have received one shot. Last week, the inoculation program was also extended to those between 15 and 18 years old.

India’s vaccination program picked up pace after the country was devastated by a deadly second wave last summer. At that time authorities had been strongly criticized for mismanaging the crisis – most people were unprotected when the delta variant tore through the country while acute shortages of oxygen and hospital beds had overwhelmed the health care system.

As numbers surge again, authorities say they are better equipped to fight the third wave of infections — oxygen facilities have been ramped up and hospital beds set aside to cope with a new wave.

Most of the infections are also reported to be milder this time, giving rise to some optimism.

“Rising COVID cases are a matter of concern but there is no need to panic. Very few people are getting hospitalized,” Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Sunday.

In the past week, as numbers have grown exponentially, worst hit cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, are bringing back restrictions – cinema halls, gyms, schools and colleges that opened just months ago have been shut and large events cancelled. Delhi has also imposed a weekend curfew.

However, authorities have announced that they will hold elections to choose local governments starting next month in five states, including the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.

But the Election Commission has temporarily banned political rallies – it faced strong criticism last year for allowing massive rallies during a regional election even as cases of COVID-19 were spiraling in the country. The rallies had been flagged by public health experts as super spreader events.

On Monday, India reported 179,723 new cases of COVID-19. India is the world’s second worst affected country by the pandemic – it has so far recorded more than 35 million COVID-19 cases and about 484,000 deaths from the virus, although many believe that the toll could be much higher.
…

Kazakh officials say a four-year-old girl was among the 164 people who were killed in last week’s protests. Authorities say 5,800 people have been detained.  

In an effort to halt the protests, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued a shoot-to-kill order, enabling security forces to open fire on protesters without warning.  

The leader of the former Soviet republic also asked Russia and its President Vladimir Putin for help in quashing the demonstrations. Russia and several other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Eurasian intergovernmental military alliance, responded by sending troops.  

The protests were prompted by a fuel price hike but grew over dissatisfaction with the country’s authoritarian rule.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday on ABC-TV’s This Week that Kazakhstan “has the ability to maintain law and order, to defend the institutions of the state, but to do so in a way that respects the rights of peaceful protesters and also addresses the concerns that they’ve raised – economic concerns, some political concerns.” 

The demonstrations prompted Tokayev to dismiss his cabinet and his mentor, former President Nursultan Nazarbayev from his position as head of the country’s security council. Nazarbayev had led the country from its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 until 2019. 

Authorities also announced the arrest of Karim Massimov, former head of the National Security Committee, on suspicion of high treason. Masimov, 56, led the committee, which is responsible for counterintelligence, until Tokayev removed him last week.  

Erica Marat, a professor at National Defense University, in Washington, told The New York Times that Tokayev “traded his country’s sovereignty to Russia for his own power and the interests of kleptocratic elites.” 

Some material in this report came from the Associated Press. 
…

“The situation has stabilized in all regions of the country,” the office of Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a statement Sunday, after a week of unrest in which he directed security forces in a televised national address Friday to shoot to kill protesters without warning in the Central Asian nation.

During the week, Kazakh security forces killed 26 demonstrators and arrested 5,800, the president’s office said Sunday. The statement from the presidency said “a substantial number of foreign nationals” were included among those arrested.

Eighteen law enforcement officers also died.

More Russian troops arrived Saturday at Kazakhstan’s Almaty International Airport, according to video released by Russia’s defense ministry after the president gave his shoot-to-kill address. 

Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, was mostly quiet on Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse, but security forces were firing warning shots if anyone approached the central square. 

Also Saturday, authorities announced the arrest of Karim Massimov, former head of the National Security Committee, on suspicion of high treason. Masimov, 56, led the committee, which is responsible for counterintelligence, until Tokayev removed him earlier this week. 

The mostly Russian troops began arriving in Kazakhstan after Tokayev declared a state of emergency Wednesday and appealed to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Eurasian intergovernmental military alliance, for help quelling the protests.

About 2,500 troops are being deployed, some guarding government buildings in the capital, Nur-Sultan, freeing up “part of the forces of Kazakhstani law enforcement agencies [to] redeploy them to Almaty to participate in the counter-terrorist operation,” said a statement from Tokayev’s office. 

The CSTO is made up of forces from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

Tokayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call Saturday that “terrorist” attacks are still being carried out in some areas of his country, despite the clampdown, according to a statement on the Kazakh presidential website. 

The Kremlin described Saturday’s conversation as lengthy, during which Tokayev described to Putin the unrest, “noting that it is developing towards stabilization.” 

Tokayev dismissed international calls Friday for his government to negotiate with the protesters. He continues to claim, without evidence, they are trained and organized by unnamed foreign entities.

He called the protesters bandits and terrorists who must be destroyed and promised this would be done shortly. He also thanked Putin for promptly sending troops, at Tokayev’s request, to help crack down on the protests.

“The presidents exchanged views on the measures taken to restore order in Kazakhstan” and agreed to remain in “constant” contact, the Kremlin statement said. 

Protests broke out in Kazakhstan late last week over fuel prices and escalated into widespread violence. 

The U.S. State Department on Friday approved the “voluntary departure” of nonemergency U.S. government employees and their families from the U.S. Consulate in Almaty and warned that the situation in Kazakhstan could affect the U.S. Embassy’s ability to provide assistance to U.S. citizens departing the Central Asian nation. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was “very concerned” about the state of emergency in Kazakhstan. 

“We’re watching the situation with real concern, and we are encouraging everyone to find a peaceful resolution,” he said. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also called Friday for an end to the violence in Kazakhstan. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping praised Tokayev on Friday for having “decisively taken strong measures at critical moments and quickly calming down the situation,” and referred to the violence by protesters as a “large-scale riot.” 

China has invested heavily in Kazakhstan, which is a crucial part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative project connecting China to Europe.

Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China Studies at Sydney’s University of Technology, told VOA’s Mandarin service that China is “very worried about spillover effects” from the Kazakhstan violence, which could encourage citizens in Kazakhstan’s neighbors, or even Chinese citizens, to rise up against their government.

He also noted that while China and Russia often work together on the international stage against the United States, they also have their own conflicts with each other, which he said could flare up over the violence in Kazakhstan. He said if Kazakhstan moves closer to Russia as a result of the current situation this would pose a threat to China’s interests. 

 VOA’s Mandarin Service, Ricardo Marquina contributed to this report. Some information also came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. 

 
…

Army rescuers Sunday cleared routes around a Pakistan hill town sheltering thousands of tourists after 22 people died in vehicles trapped by heavy snow.

The resort town of Murree, around 70 kilometers northeast of Islamabad, was inundated with tourists and day-trippers last week after unusually heavy snow turned it into a winter wonderland.

But a blizzard from Friday onwards felled trees and blocked narrow roads leading in and out of the town, which clings to steep hills and valleys at an altitude of 2,300 meters.

“It was not snow, and not even heavy snow, it was unprecedented… with 4-5 feet (1.2-1.5 meters) in few hours,” Tariq Ullah, an administrative official in nearby Nathia Gali, told AFP on Sunday.

“(I) never saw such a huge snowstorm in my life. There were strong winds, uprooted trees, avalanches. People around were terrified, each having his or her own account of suffering.”

Officials said nearly 100,000 visitors in thousands of vehicles had thronged the town by Friday, causing an enormous traffic jam even before the blizzard.

They said 22 people died in vehicles trapped in the snow overnight Friday — either from cold, or carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes generated by drivers running engines to keep warm.

‘Going to sleep’

They included 10 children — six who died alongside their mother and father, a senior police officer.

“We are switching on the heater and going to sleep,” Dawn newspaper quoted assistant inspector Naveed Iqbal as saying in a final call to his son in the capital.

He was buried late Saturday alongside his family at a ceremony attended by hundreds of fellow officers.

On Sunday, a steady stream of vehicles and people on foot were making their way out of hard-hit Kuldana, close to Murree.

Many vehicles were stuck by the side of the road, hoods up, waiting for a jump-start after draining their batteries to run heaters during their ordeal.

Piles of rubbish marked spots where cars had spent the cold night.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was shocked and upset by the tragedy, but that the unprecedented snowfall and rush of people “caught district admin unprepared.”

Several Pakistan newspapers, however, excoriated administrators Sunday, noting the country’s weather bureau warned as early as Jan. 6 of the approaching blizzard.

“All concerned authorities are particularly advised to remain ‘ALERT’ during the forecast period,” the National Weather Forecasting Center said Thursday, adding “heavy snowfall” could cause road closures in Murree and elsewhere.

Investigation promised

Authorities have promised an investigation.

“Our first priority was rescue, which is ongoing, then relief,” Hasaan Khawar, spokesperson for the Punjab provincial government, said Sunday in a video on Twitter.

“Then a high-level inquiry will be launched and if there is any kind of negligence, then action will be taken against all those involved.”

The Pakistan military’s public relations department said they had pulled all survivors from cars trapped along the route to Murree and taken them to shelters set up in the town.

More than 1,000 abandoned vehicles along the route were hampering efforts by bulldozers to clear snow from roads, it said, and in some areas troops were using shovels.

Leading up to the weekend, Pakistan social media had been full of pictures and videos of people playing in the snow around Murree, a picturesque resort town built by the British in the 19th century as a sanatorium for its colonial troops.

Authorities warned as early as last weekend that too many vehicles were trying to enter the town, but even that failed to discourage hordes of day-trippers from the capital.

Many Pakistanis complained on social media Sunday that Murree hoteliers and guest-house owners had compounded the problem by price gouging, prompting stranded people to spend the night in their cars rather than pay for a room.

“Things would have been different if local people and hotels were cooperative, but the reputation and conduct of the local people of Murree are very bad in this respect,” a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

There were also reports, however, of locals throwing open their homes to stranded tourists and offering food and blankets to those caught in the open. 

 
…

An infant boy handed in desperation to a soldier across an airport wall in the chaos of the American evacuation of Afghanistan has been found and was reunited with his relatives in Kabul on Saturday.

The baby, Sohail Ahmadi, was just 2 months old when he went missing on Aug. 19 as thousands of people rushed to leave Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban.

Following an exclusive Reuters story published in November with his pictures, the baby was located in Kabul where a 29-year-old taxi driver named Hamid Safi had found him in the airport and took him home to raise as his own.

After more than seven weeks of negotiations and pleas, and ultimately a brief detention by Taliban police, Safi finally handed the child back to his jubilant grandfather and other relatives still in Kabul.

They said they would now seek to have him reunited with his parents and siblings who were evacuated months ago to the United States.

During the tumultuous Afghan evacuation over the summer, Mirza Ali Ahmadi — the boy’s father who had worked as a security guard at the U.S. Embassy — and his wife Suraya feared their son would get crushed in the crowd as they neared the airport gates en route to a flight to the United States.

Ahmadi told Reuters in early November in his desperation that day, he handed Sohail over the airport wall to a uniformed soldier who he believed to be an American, fully expecting he would soon make it the remaining 5 meters to the entrance to reclaim him.

Just at that moment, Taliban forces pushed the crowd back and it would be another half an hour before Ahmadi, his wife and their four other children were able to get inside.

But by then the baby was nowhere to be found.

Ahmadi said he searched desperately for his son inside the airport and was told by officials that he had likely been taken out of the country separately and could be reunited with them later.

The rest of the family was evacuated, eventually ending up at a military base in Texas. For months they had no idea where their son was.

The case highlights the plight of many parents separated from their children during the hasty evacuation effort and withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country after a 20-year war.

With no U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and international organizations overstretched, Afghan refugees have had trouble getting answers on the timing, or possibility, of complex reunifications like this one.

The U.S. Department of Defense, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

Alone at the airport

On the same day Ahmadi and his family were separated from their baby, Safi had slipped through the Kabul airport gates after giving a ride to his brother’s family who were also set to evacuate.

Safi said he found Sohail alone and crying on the ground. After he said he unsuccessfully tried to locate the baby’s parents inside, he decided to take the infant home to his wife and children. Safi has three daughters of his own and said his mother’s greatest wish before she died was for him to have a son.

In that moment he decided: “I am keeping this baby. If his family is found, I will give him to them. If not, I will raise him myself,” he told Reuters in an interview in late November.

Safi told Reuters that he took him to the doctor for a check-up after he was found and quickly incorporated the child into his family. They called the baby Mohammad Abed and posted pictures of all the children together on his Facebook page.

After the Reuters story about the missing child came out, some of Safi’s neighbors — who had noticed his return from the airport months earlier with a baby — recognized the photos and posted comments about his whereabouts on a translated version of the article.

Ahmadi asked his relatives still in Afghanistan, including his father-in-law Mohammad Qasem Razawi, 67, who lives in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, to seek out Safi and ask him to return Sohail to the family.

Razawi said he traveled two days and two nights to the capital bearing gifts — including a slaughtered sheep, several pounds of walnuts and clothing — for Safi and his family.

But Safi refused to release Sohail, insisting he also wanted to be evacuated from Afghanistan with his family. Safi’s brother, who was evacuated to California, said Safi and his family have no pending applications for U.S. entry.

The baby’s family sought help from the Red Cross, which has a stated mission to help reconnect people separated by international crises, but said they received little information from the organization. A spokesperson for the Red Cross said it does not comment on individual cases.

Finally, after feeling they had run out of options, Razawi contacted the local Taliban police to report a kidnapping. Safi told Reuters he denied the allegations to the police and said he was caring for the baby, not kidnapping him.

The complaint was investigated and dismissed and the local police commander told Reuters he helped arrange a settlement, which included an agreement signed with thumbprints by both sides. Razawi said the baby’s family in the end agreed to compensate Safi around 100,000 Afghani ($950) for expenses incurred looking after him for five months.

“The grandfather of the baby complained to us and we found Hamid and based on the evidence we had, we recognized the baby,” said Hamid Malang, the chief area controller of the local police station. “With both sides in agreement, the baby will be handed over to his grandfather,” he said on Saturday.

In the presence of the police, and amid lots of tears, the baby was finally returned to his relatives.

Razawi said Safi and his family were devastated to lose Sohail. “Hamid and his wife were crying, I cried too, but assured them that you both are young, Allah will give you male child. Not one, but several. I thanked both of them for saving the child from the airport,” Razawi said.

The baby’s parents told Reuters they were overjoyed as they were able to see with their own eyes the reunion over video chat.

“There are celebrations, dance, singing,” said Razawi. “It is just like a wedding indeed.”

Now Ahmadi and his wife and other children, who in early December were able to move off the military base and resettle in an apartment in Michigan, hope Sohail will soon be brought to the United States.

“We need to get the baby back to his mother and father. This is my only responsibility,” his grandfather said. “My wish is that he should return to them.” 

 
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At least 22 people, including 10 children, died in a popular mountain resort town in Pakistan after being stuck in their vehicles overnight during a heavy snowstorm as temperatures plummeted, officials said Saturday.

Most of the victims died of hypothermia, officials said. Among them was an Islamabad police officer and seven other members of his family, fellow police officer Atiq Ahmed said.

More than 1 meter of snow fell in the area of the Murree Hills resort overnight Friday and early Saturday, trapping thousands of cars on roadways, said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The snow was so severe that heavy equipment brought in to clear it initially got stuck during the night, said Umar Maqbool, assistant commissioner for the town of Murree. Temperatures fell to minus 8 degrees Celsius.

Officials called in paramilitary troops and a special military mountain unit to help. By late Saturday, thousands of vehicles had been pulled from the snow but more than a thousand were still stuck, Ahmed said.

Most roads leading to the area’s resorts were largely cleared of snow by late Saturday, and military troops were working to clear the rest, Maqbool said. The military also converted army-run schools into relief camps where they provided shelter and food for the tourists who had been rescued.

Emergency officials distributed food and blankets to people while they were trapped in their snowed-in vehicles, but many died of hypothermia. Others may have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running their car heaters for long periods of time, rescue services physician Abdur Rehman said. As of late Saturday, the death toll included 10 men, 10 children and two women, Rehman said.

In one instance, a husband and wife and their two children all died in their car. In another, four young friends died together, he said.

Located 46 kilometers north of the capital of Islamabad, Murree is a popular winter resort town that attracts well more than a million tourists annually. Streets leading into the town are often blocked by snow in winter. 
…

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan on Saturday arrested an outspoken critic of the government, drawing strong calls for his immediate release from civil society activists.   

Family members said Faizullah Jalal, a professor of law and political science, was seized by security forces from his residence in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“As I confirm this disturbing news, I ask for the immediate release of my father, Professor Faizuallah Jalal,” tweeted Hasina Jalal, the daughter of the detained professor. 

In a statement late Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the arrest of Jalal, accusing him of inciting people to violence against the government through his social media posts.  

Afghan television channels quoted a security source as confirming Jalal was being interrogated by the Taliban intelligence agency for leveling allegations against government departments.

“[The] Taliban never have tolerated criticism or free speech. He should be released immediately,” Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, wrote on Twitter.

“Why & based on what legal ground? Arbitrary arrests for expressing one’s views/analysis is counterproductive & a step in the wrong direction … in any society,” Omar Samad, former Afghan diplomat and senior fellow at Washington’s Atlantic Council asked in his tweeted reaction.  

“Amnesty International condemns the arrest of Professor Faizullah Jalal, Kabul university lecturer, for exercising his freedom of expression and criticizing the Taliban on a TV show. We call on the Taliban authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him,” tweeted the global rights defender.

Rights curtailed   

Critics say the Islamic group’s return to power in Afghanistan last August has resulted in increasingly curtailed freedoms of all citizens, particularly those of women and girls.

Except for those working in a few sectors, most women have been instructed to stay at home until laws and procedures related to women are put in place — more than four months after the Taliban seized control of the country. Millions of girls above grade six across many Afghan provinces are unable to attend school.

The Taliban’s ministry for Islamic guidance has instructed taxi drivers to carry only those female passengers who wear a headscarf or Islamic hijab and are accompanied by a male relative if they travel more than 72 kilometers.  

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforces the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam, has banned Afghan women from driving and has ordered local TV channels to stop showing entertainment programs featuring actresses. Women television news anchors are required to wear hijabs while on the air.   

This week, the ministry spokesman confirmed they had placed posters on cafes and shops around Kabul instructing women to wear hijabs.

“If someone does not follow it, it does not mean she will be punished or beaten, it’s just encouragement for Muslim women to follow Sharia law,” Sadeq Akif Muhajir told Agence France-Presse Friday.

The United States and allied nations withdrew their remaining troops from Afghanistan on August 30, and the Taliban have since consolidated their control of the country. The international community has refused to recognize the new Kabul government until the Taliban ensure respect for the human rights of all Afghans and allow women to fully participate in public life.  

Washington has frozen billions of dollars in Afghanistan’s foreign cash reserves since the Taliban takeover, while most foreign financial assistance has been suspended, bringing the economy of the aid-dependent country to the brink of collapse.

The punitive measures have increased humanitarian needs in the South Asian nation to unprecedented levels amid United Nations warnings that estimated 24 million Afghans will need relief assistance this year, with many likely to be acutely food insecure by March. The humanitarian crisis stems from years of war, poverty and a prolonged drought.
…

Pakistan has concluded a months-long campaign to register Afghan refugees and issue them identity cards that will protect and safeguard their interests. 

The government-run campaign, supported by the U.N. refugee agency, began in mid-April.  The registration drive has updated the data of some 1.4 million Afghan refugees.  This is the first large-scale effort to verify the status of refugees in Pakistan in the last 10 years.

UNHCR spokesman, Babar Baloch says the refugees are given so-called smart identity cards that legitimize their status and facilitate their access to humanitarian aid and other benefits.

“The new identity cards are an essential protection tool for Afghan refugees and give them the faster and safer access to health and education facilities and to financial services as well,” Baloch said. “This drive also provided an opportunity for Afghan refugees to flag any specific protection needs for vulnerabilities.” 

The UNHCR reports more than 300,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the Taliban took over their country in August.  Their situation is precarious as most have entered the country illegally and may be liable for deportation.

The United Nations warns Afghanistan is becoming one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.  It notes 24.4 million people, more than half of the population, need life-saving humanitarian assistance.  It says more than 9 million Afghans are displaced within the country, with little prospect of returning soon to the homes they fled.

Baloch says more than 40 verification sites were set up across Pakistan during the registration drive last year.  He says mobile registration vans sought out Afghan refugees living in remote areas.  

He says a mass information campaign also was carried out to explain the purpose of the campaign to Afghan refugees.  He says this effort has paid off with large numbers participating.   

“Among them, there were 200,000 children under the age of five who were registered by their refugee parents,” Baloch said. “More than 700,000 new smart identity cards have also been issued to date.  The remaining cards will be printed and distributed in early 2022.  These cards are valid until 30th of June 2023.”   

Baloch says the campaign is part of a wider effort to assist and protect Afghan refugees.  Gathering more detailed information about the refugees, he says will enable the government and aid agencies to better tailor assistance to them.

In addition, he says it will facilitate support for those refugees who decide to return home, when conditions in Afghanistan allow.
…

China’s construction of a bridge spanning a Himalayan lake that lies along the India-China border has reinforced concerns in New Delhi about the ramping up of military infrastructure by the Asian giant in contested areas along their frontier.  

The bridge being built over Pangong Lake lies in territory that Beijing controls but is also claimed by India. It will enable Chinese troops to mobilize rapidly in the area where both sides were engaged in a prolonged military standoff, according to analysts.    

Days after satellite pictures revealed the construction of the bridge, India said that it has been closely monitoring the construction activity. “This bridge is being constructed in areas that have been under illegal occupation by China for around 60 years now,” foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing this week. “As you are well aware, India has never accepted such illegal occupation.” 

In response, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that its infrastructure construction is “aimed at safeguarding China’s territorial sovereignty and security as well as peace and stability on the China-India border.” Officials, however, did not refer directly to the bridge.   

“The bridge will make it much easier for Chinese troops to access the north bank of the Pangong Lake from their military base in Tibet,” said Manoj Joshi, a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “So they want to reinforce the north bank, which is a sensitive area for China because it provides access to a key Tibet highway.”  

Two thirds of the glacial lake, situated above 4,000 meters in elevation, lies in Tibet, the rest extends into Ladakh in India.  

Ladakh emerged as a flashpoint between the two countries in 2020, when India accused Chinese troops of intruding into its territory.  

Although Indian and Chinese troops withdrew last year from the Pangong region, where they stood in close confrontation for nine months, Ladakh still remains heavily militarized. Both sides have deployed an estimated 50,000 troops in the region, as disputes along several other strategic locations continue to fester.  

In recent years China has stepped up building military infrastructure, such as helipads, airstrips and roads all along its border with India, according to analyst Joshi. “They are pumping a lot of money into Tibet for development, and they want to ensure that the borders are well defended,” he says.  

India is also accelerating projects to build roads and bridges to enable easier movement of troops and artillery as it confronts the new strategic reality of a more aggressive Beijing and a heavily militarized border. 

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh last week inaugurated 27 roads and bridge projects, most of which have been built to ease access for troops along the Indo-Tibetan border. Those projects include a road above 5,800 meters in eastern Ladakh.  

Indian foreign ministry spokesman Bagchi told reporters Thursday that the government has raised the budget for border infrastructure and completed more roads and bridges than ever before.  

However, analysts point out that India cannot match the infrastructure built by the Chinese. “To catch up with China is impossible although great efforts have been made in the last two or three years. But India has been very late in starting,” says Claude Arpi, a scholar on Tibet and an expert on India and China relations. “First of all, there is the issue of terrain. It is more mountainous on the Indian side, so it is far more challenging for India to build roads and bridges, whereas Tibet is a plateau.”  

New Delhi flagged the construction of the bridge by China days before military commanders of the two countries meet to resolve the standoff in Ladakh. The dialogue on January 12 will be held three months after the last round of talks ended in a stalemate.  

But the atmosphere between the two rivals has again soured since China announced it had given Chinese names to 15 places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as South Tibet. India slammed the announcement, calling it a “ridiculous exercise to support untenable territorial claims.”
…

The Indian government renewed permission for late Catholic nun Mother Teresa’s charity to receive foreign funds, weeks after rejecting it, the organization said Saturday.

On Christmas Day the Narendra Modi government moved to cut off foreign funding to the Missionaries of Charity and refused to renew its license under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Charities and nonprofit firms need to register under FCRA to receive money from abroad.

“The FCRA application has now been renewed,” Sunita Kumar, a close aide to Mother Teresa, told AFP.

The Missionaries of Charity, which runs shelter homes across India, was founded in 1950 by the late Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who devoted most of her life to helping the poor in the eastern city of Kolkata.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize and was later declared a saint.

India’s home ministry issued a statement in December saying it was rejecting the renewal application because the charity did not meet “eligibility conditions” and that “adverse inputs were noticed.”

Last week, Oxfam India said the Indian government had blocked its access to international funds, a move which it said would have severe consequences for its humanitarian work.

The Modi government has been accused of cutting off access to funding of charities and rights groups in the country.

Amnesty International announced in 2020 that it was halting operations in India after the government froze its bank accounts. 

 
…

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued a shoot-to-kill order Friday for security forces dealing with protesters following a week of unrest in the Central Asian nation.

In a televised national address, the president said, “Terrorists continue to damage state and private property and use weapons against civilians. I have given the order to law enforcement to shoot to kill without warning.”

In the address, Tokayev dismissed international calls for his government to negotiate with the protesters. He continues to claim, without evidence, that they are trained and organized by unnamed foreign entities.

He called the protesters bandits and terrorists who must be destroyed and promised this would be done shortly. He also thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for promptly sending troops, at Tokayev’s request, to help crack down on the protests.

Meanwhile, Kazakh authorities arrested Karim Massimov, former head of the national security committee, who was fired earlier this week as demonstrations sprang up around the country. He is being held on suspicion of high treason.

Protests broke out in Kazakhstan late last week over fuel prices and escalated into widespread violence.

Leaders outside the region reacted Friday to the developments in the country.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was “very concerned” about the state of emergency in Kazakhstan.

“We’re watching the situation with real concern, and we are encouraging everyone to find a peaceful resolution,” he said.

The State Department Friday approved the “voluntary departure” of nonemergency U.S. government employees and their families from the U.S. consulate in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.

A State Department advisory also warned that the situation in Kazakhstan could affect the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan’s ability to provide assistance to U.S. citizens departing the Central Asian nation.

In Berlin, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christofer Burger said Germany was still investigating the reports from Kazakhstan, but he questioned the use of lethal force against civilians and said the government bears responsibility for the protection of its citizens.

During a joint news conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Ursula Von der Leyen called for the rights and security of Kazakh citizens to be protected, and both leaders called for an end to the violence. France currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also called Friday for an end to the violence in Kazakhstan.

Speaking after chairing a virtual NATO meeting in Brussels, Stoltenberg said alliance members were concerned about the situation in Kazakhstan and said the rights of peaceful protest and freedom of expression needed to be respected.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called for Kazakhstan to respect “human rights and international standards while reestablishing public order.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping praised Tokayev on Friday for having “decisively taken strong measures at critical moments and quickly calming down the situation,” and referred to the violence by protesters as a “large-scale riot.”

China has invested heavily in Kazakhstan, which is a crucial part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative project connecting China to Europe.

Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China Studies at Sydney’s University of Technology, told VOA’s Mandarin service that China is “very worried about spillover effects” from the Kazakhstan violence, which could encourage citizens in Kazakhstan’s neighbors, or even Chinese citizens, to rise up against their government.

He also noted that while China and Russia often work together on the international stage against the United States, they also have their own conflicts with each other, which he said could flare up over the violence in Kazakhstan. He said if Kazakhstan moves closer to Russia as a result of the current situation this would pose a threat to China’s interests.

Reports from Almaty said that while sporadic gunfire could be heard early Friday, the unrest appeared have paused, with similar reports from other cities.

The demonstrations began late last week in the western part of the country in protest of doubling fuel prices. But because they grew and spread so quickly, some political observers are suggesting they reflect wider discontent in the country that has lived under authoritarianism since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

On Friday, Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry reported that security forces killed 26 protesters during the unrest and said 18 law enforcement officers were killed. It said more than 3,800 people had been detained. The numbers could not be independently verified.

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

 
…

Six months ago, pilot Hana Khan saw her picture on an app that appeared to be auctioning scores of Muslim women in India. The app was quickly taken down, no one was charged, and the issue shelved – until a similar app popped up on New Year’s Day.

Khan was not on the new app called Bulli Bai – a slur for Muslim women – that was hawking activists, journalists, an actor, politicians and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai as maids.

Amid growing outrage, the app was taken down, and four suspects arrested this week.

The fake auctions that were shared widely on social media are just the latest examples of how technology is being used – often with ease, speed and little expense – to put women at risk through online abuse, theft of privacy or sexual exploitation.

For Muslim women in India who are often abused online, it is an everyday risk, even as they use social media to call out hatred and discrimination against their minority community.

“When I saw my picture on the app, my world shook. I was upset and angry that someone could do this to me, and I became angrier as I realized this nameless person was getting away with it,” said Khan, who filed a police complaint against the first app, Sulli Deals, another pejorative term for Muslim women.

“This time, I felt so much dread and despair that it was happening again to my friends, to Muslim women like me. I don’t know how to make it stop,” Khan, a commercial pilot in her 30s, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Mumbai police said they were investigating whether the Bulli Bai app was “part of a larger conspiracy”.

A spokesperson for GitHub, which hosted both apps, said it had “longstanding policies against content and conduct involving harassment, discrimination, and inciting violence.

“We suspended a user account following the investigation of reports of such activity, all of which violate our policies.”

Misconception

Advances in technology have heightened risks for women across the world, be it trolling or doxxing with their personal details revealed, surveillance cameras, location tracking, or deepfake pornographic videos featuring doctored images.

Deepfakes – or artificial, intelligence-generated, synthetic media – are used to create porn, with apps that let users strip clothes off women or swap their faces into explicit videos.

Digital abuse of women is pervasive because “everybody has a device and a digital presence,” said Adam Dodge, chief executive of EndTAB, a U.S.-based nonprofit tackling tech-enabled abuse.

“The violence has become easier to perpetrate, as you can get at somebody anywhere in the world. The order of magnitude of harm is also greater because you can upload something and show it to the world in a matter of seconds,” he said.

“And there is a permanency to it because that photo or video exists forever online,” he added.

The emotional and psychological impact of such abuse is “just as excruciating” as physical abuse, with the effects compounded by the virality, public nature, and permanence of the content online, said Noelle Martin, an Australian activist.

At 17, Martin discovered her image had been photoshopped into pornographic images and distributed. Her campaign against image-based abuse helped change the law in Australia.

But victims struggle to be heard, she said.

“There is a dangerous misconception that the harms of technology-facilitated abuse are not as real, serious, or potentially lethal as abuse with a physical element,” she said.

“For victims, this misconception makes speaking out, seeking support, and accessing justice much more difficult.”

Persecution

Tracking lone creators and rogue coders is hard, and technology platforms tend to shield anonymous users who can easily create a fake email or social media profile.

Even lawmakers are not spared: in November, the U.S. House of Representatives censured Republican Paul Gosar over a photoshopped anime video that showed him killing Democrat Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. He then retweeted the video.

“With any new technology we should immediately be thinking about how and when it will be misused and weaponized to harm girls and women online,” said Dodge.

“Technology platforms have created a very imbalanced atmosphere for victims of online abuse, and the traditional ways of seeking help when we are harmed in the physical world are not as available when the abuse occurs online,” he said .

Some technology firms are taking action.

Following reports that its AirTags – locator devices that can be attached to keys and wallets – were being used to track women, Apple launched an app to help users shield their privacy.

In India, the women on the auction apps are still shaken.

Ismat Ara, a journalist showcased on Bulli Bai, called it “nothing short of online harassment.”

It was “violent, threatening and intending to create a feeling of fear and shame in my mind, as well as in the minds of women in general and the Muslim community,” Ara said in a police complaint that she posted on social media.

Arfa Khanum Sherwani, also featured for sale, wrote on Twitter: “The auction may be fake but the persecution is real.”
…

During violence and protests in Kazakhstan this week, a media worker was killed and a video journalist was injured when their vehicle came under attack. 

Muratkhan Bazarbayev, who worked for Almaty TV as a driver, died when the station’s vehicle was shot at during clashes in the city of Almaty on Wednesday. A camera operator for the station was hospitalized in the same attack, according to the news outlet and media rights groups.

The news crew was covering protests that began late last week in response to a fuel price hike and evolved into mass unrest and violence in the capital and other cities.

Dozens of protesters have died after security forces opened fire. Journalists have also been arrested or injured while covering the unrest.

The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) called on authorities to examine the circumstances of Bazarbayev’s death and warned of the risks to media workers. 

“Journalists across Kazakhstan are currently working in extremely challenging conditions while documenting the unrest, from indiscriminate attacks by protesters to detentions and brutality from security services,” the IPI’s advocacy officer Jamie Wiseman said in a statement.

“It is vital that the safety of all journalists and media workers is guaranteed and that the freedom of the press is fully respected in the wake of the unrest,” Wiseman added. 

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said journalists, including those clearly identified as press, have been arrested. One of them, Uralskaya Nedelya editor Lukpan Akhmedyarov, was questioned for several hours about alleged “extremist activities.” Others were injured by rubber bullets and stun grenades. 

Two journalists with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) were also detained. RFE/RL and VOA are both independent networks under the U.S. Agency for Global Media. 

Police in the capital, Nur-Sultan, detained RFE/RL editor Darkhan Umirbekov at a protest on Tuesday. A few hours earlier, Almaty bureau chief Kasym Amanzhol was detained briefly after he filmed protests. 

Access to news websites including RFE/RL, Orda.kz and KazTag has been blocked, along with some messaging platforms, and the internet was suspended throughout the country Thursday, RSF said. Internet was restored briefly that day for a televised address by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Kazakh authorities have condemned the violence and protests, with Tokayev blaming “bandits” and referring to the unrest as a “terrorist attack.” 

In a separate televised national address on Friday, Tokayev issued a shoot-to-kill order, saying, “Terrorists continue to damage state and private property and use weapons against civilians.”

The head of RFE/RL, Jamie Fly, said that at this unstable time, Kazakhstan should allow journalists to “report the facts as they unfold.” 

“Reports of gunfire and other violence directed at those reporting on these protests, are deeply concerning — as are attempts to limit the flow of information within and out of the country, by targeting the internet and social media and blocking media websites, including that of our Kazakh Service,” Fly said in a statement.

Following an election in 2019, Kazakhstan appeared to be opening up to allow greater freedom of expression, though the state sought to control the internet and block access to some news websites and social media platforms, RSF data show. The country ranks 155 out of 180 countries where 1 is freest on the watchdog’s press freedom index. 

 
…

The Taliban’s religious police have put up posters around the Afghan capital, Kabul, ordering women to cover up, an official said Friday, the latest in a string of creeping restrictions.

The poster, which includes an image of the face-covering burqa, was placed on cafes and shops this week by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Since returning to power in August, the Taliban have increasingly curtailed freedoms, particularly those of women and girls.

“According to Sharia law, Muslim women must wear the hijab,” the poster reads, referring to the practice of covering up.

A spokesman for the ministry, responsible for enforcing the Taliban’s harsh interpretation of Islamic law, confirmed to AFP on Friday that it was behind the orders.

“If someone does not follow it, it does not mean she will be punished or beaten, it’s just encouragement for Muslim women to follow Sharia law,” Sadeq Akif Muhajir said.

Trying ‘to spread fear’

In Kabul, women already cover their hair with headscarves, though some wear modest Western clothing.

Outside the capital, the burqa, which became mandatory for women under the Taliban’s first regime in the 1990s, has remained common.

“What they’re trying to do is to spread fear among the people,” a university student and women’s rights advocate, who did not want to be identified, told AFP.

“The first time I saw the posters I was really petrified. I thought maybe [the Taliban] will start beating me. They want me to wear a burqa and look like nothing, I would never do that,” the student said.

The Taliban, who are eager for international recognition to allow funding to again flow to the war-wracked country, have so far refrained from issuing national policies.

Instead, they have published guidance for men and women that has varied from province to province.

“This is not good — 100 percent, this will create fear,” said Shahagha Noori, the supervisor of a Kabul restaurant where the poster had been put up by the Taliban. “I think if the Taliban get international recognition, then they will start to enforce it.”

Although the Taliban have promised a lighter version of the hardline rule that characterized their first time in power from 1996 to 2001, women are largely excluded from government employment, and secondary schools for girls have remained shuttered in several provinces.

Women have also been banned from traveling alone on long journeys.

No nation has yet formally recognized the Taliban government, and diplomats face the delicate task of channeling aid to the stricken Afghan economy without propping up the hardline Islamists.
…

The speed with which Russia dispatched troops this week to help quell violent demonstrations in neighboring Kazakhstan is testimony to the Kremlin’s recurring fear of “color revolutions,” say Western diplomats and analysts. Moscow must have been horrified by how quickly the protests spread in Kazakhstan, long seen as one of the most stable of the former Soviet countries, they emphasize.  

Sparked by a fuel price hike and cost of living grievances, the protests, which began in the oil-rich western part of the country, rapidly escalated this week into the worst violence the Central Asian nation has seen since turning independent 30 years ago. 

And the grievances over fuel prices voiced initially by the protesters snowballed into a bigger threat against the government after dozens died when Kazakh armed forces opened fire.  

Demonstrators have been demanding regime change and the departure of both Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and the country’s 81-year-old former leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down three years ago after almost three decades in power but retained the official title of “leader of the nation.”  

He is still believed to rule behind the scenes, and protesters reference him with chants of “Get out, old man.” On Wednesday demonstrators in Taldykorgan, a town in southern Kazakhstan, pulled down his statue from the main square. 

Protesters stormed government buildings Wednesday in Almaty, the country’s largest city, and briefly occupied the airport with reports of “dozens” of protesters being killed in clashes along with at least 12 policemen. Thursday saw videos circulating on social media showing Kazakh military units exchanging gunfire with armed opponents in Almaty. 

Russian officials and pro-Kremlin media have claimed the West is behind the agitation and is trying to foment another color revolution with the goal of disorienting Russia on the eve of major Russia-U.S. security talks next week with the United States and NATO amid fears the Kremlin may be considering invading Ukraine. 

Russia has previously accused Western powers of being behind popular uprisings in the former Soviet states of Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine.  

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said unrest was foreign-backed and aimed to “undermine the security and integrity of the state by force, using trained and organized armed formations.” Konstantin Kosachev, a senator who chairs the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said the protesters included Islamic militants who had fought in Afghanistan. 

“It’s a tense moment in the former Soviet Union, with Russian troops and tanks surrounding Ukraine on three sides. The last thing Moscow wants or needs is legitimate protests in a country it considers to be in its sphere of interest,” said Melinda Haring, of the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based research organization. “Moscow is looking for a hidden hand. The Kremlin doesn’t accept the protests in Kazakhstan as genuine,” she added. 

Kazakhstan is an important regional power with vast energy resources.  

President Tokayev, who has ordered troops to “shoot to kill without warning” and says protesters who fail to surrender will be “destroyed,” also has blamed outsiders for unprecedented agitation. He alleged in a broadcast to the nation Thursday that Almaty had been attacked by “20,000 bandits” who had a “clear plan of attack, coordination of actions and high combat readiness.”  

Tokayev expressed “special thanks” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for agreeing to his midweek request for assistance “in overcoming this terrorist threat.”  

The request was formally made to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led regional security pact comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Tokayev invoked article 4 of the CSTO pact, which commits members to assist each other to defend against “foreign interference.” It is the first time any CSTO member has cited article 4 of the military alliance, which was formed in 1994.

The Russian defense ministry says about 3,000 paratroopers and other servicemen are being flown to Kazakhstan “around the clock” with up to 75 huge transport planes being used in the emergency airlift. Kazakhstan’s interior ministry said in a statement Friday that 26 protesters had been killed during the unrest, 18 injured and more than 3,000 arrested. It said 700 security personnel had suffered injuries and confirmed 18 had been killed.  

Sporadic gunfire could still be heard Friday in Almaty, despite Tokayev telling Kazakhs that order had largely been restored. “Constitutional order has been mainly restored in all regions,” Tokayev said Friday. “Local authorities are monitoring the situation. But terrorists are still using weapons, causing damage to civilian property. Therefore [a] counterterrorist operation will continue until the total destruction of the militants.” 

Tokayev may have turned to Russia for assistance because he feared not all of his security forces would remain loyal, if the agitation escalated, a British diplomat told VOA. He said in some smaller towns, the police appeared to have sat out the protests and in Aktobe, near the country’s border with Russia, the police are reported to have sided with the protesters. 

Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, currently CSTO chairman, says the forces will be committed “for a limited period, in order to stabilize and normalize the situation.” And Stanislav Zas, secretary-general of the CSTO, said the outside forces would “minimize and localize threats” to Kazakhstan’s territorial integrity. He, too, said the mission would be temporary. 

Some Russian analysts and Kazakhs have warned the Russian deployment risks triggering further trouble. “Whoever took this decision has absolutely no understanding of the Kazakh mentality,” Polat Dzhamalov, a Kazakh living in Moscow, told the independent TV Rain, an internet channel. “Kazakhs have never tolerated occupation.” 

Some Russian analysts also have highlighted the risks of Russian troops maintaining any longer-term presence and of being dragged into the unrest.

“For now, this is less an armed intervention than a police operation,” said Andrei Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, a Kremlin-linked policy organization. “But if it drags on, consequences for Russia could mount up,” he told the English-language newspaper the Moscow Times. 

The United States, Britain and other western countries have urged all sides to show restraint.

“We are concerned about the violent clashes and are following developments closely. We are urging against further escalation and want to see a peaceful resolution,” a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. 

 
…

An affordable COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. researchers and being produced in India could help address the vaccine inequity that is prolonging the pandemic as hundreds of millions in low-income countries wait for shots, according to public health experts.

India recently granted restricted emergency authorization to the vaccine, called  Corbevax, which is based on a conventional, protein-based technology. 

The Hyderabad-based company Biological E that collaborated with Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, has said it will make 100 million doses starting next month and plans to deliver 1 billion doses globally. It already has a stockpile of 150 million doses.   

There could still be time before Corbevax shots get into arms – Indian authorities have not yet added it to the shots being presently used in the country’s inoculation program.    

The vaccine’s affordability is getting attention, though, as the raging omicron variant turns the spotlight on the abysmally low vaccination coverage in many countries and raises demands for booster shots in others.   

“We think it’ll be one of the lowest-cost vaccines out there — a few dollars a dose. So certainly far less than the cost of mRNA vaccines or some of the other technologies, which again is a big advantage,” Dr. Peter Hotez, told VOA. He developed the vaccine along with Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi.  Both are co-directors at the Texas vaccine development center. 

Its developers say the reason for the vaccine’s lower cost is that it is being shared patent-free without “any strings attached.” According to reports, it could be the cheapest vaccine available so far – less expensive than the AstraZeneca vaccine that has been the backbone of inoculation programs in India and several other developing countries.  

Public health experts are optimistic that the vaccine could make a difference in Asian and African countries where vaccine coverage is abysmally low. 

“It is going to be helpful in the overall global vaccination program. As we are still facing the challenge of variants, we will need more vaccines for many more people and as the West is preoccupied with giving booster after booster, the rest of the world is going to be kept waiting,” said K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

“So, it is best to use this time-tested technology to produce more vaccines to ensure that more people in other countries also get the vaccine. It’s a simpler, safer technology, something that has been time-tested and adverse effects are very few in number though they do exist,” he said. 

Health experts point out that variants of concern have emerged in countries with low vaccination coverage — the delta variant originated in India last year when most people were not inoculated and the omicron variant was first identified in South Africa.    

“If we ever hope to forestall the emergence of future variants, it means vaccinating the southern hemisphere, vaccinating Asia, Africa and Latin America as fast as possible, and that’s the goal with our vaccine,” Hotez told VOA.  

While world vaccine availability has improved with several new vaccines, cost still remains a limiting factor. Health experts point out that Astra Zeneca, whose COVID-19 vaccine was billed as the vaccine for the world, said in November that it will restrict its not-for-profit model only to poorer countries. Meanwhile, despite pressure, Moderna and Pfizer have not agreed to license their mRNA technology to developing countries, keeping it out of reach for much of the world.   

Many African countries, including some of the continent’s largest, such as Nigeria, have so far vaccinated fewer than 5% of their populations. The World Health Organization has been pushing for a 70% coverage for all countries by the middle of this year, but this could also be missed across many countries.

The developers of Corbevax say they are talking to manufacturers around the world.

“We now have relationships with other manufacturers in Indonesia, in Bangladesh — we’re working with a company that is building capacity — in many locations in Africa, including Botswana and South Africa,” Bottazzi told VOA. “We have the hope that we also can transfer this technology to other countries like Vietnam, potentially also in Latin America.” 

However, there are skeptics. While the Texas Children Hospital has said the vaccine was found to be safe and well-tolerated through Phase 3 clinical trials with more than 3,000 subjects, some caution that public data on its clinical efficacy is limited.  

“It still has to be approved by the World Health Organization and we will also need more data to be convinced that it works against omicron,” according to Achal Prabhala at Access IBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.

“Moreover, Corbevax takes longer to produce, hence it is not really that easy to scale up. And the world needs billions of more doses,” he said.  

Preliminary research has suggested that many of the existing vaccines do not work to prevent infection against omicron, though they reduce the severity of the disease.  

Bottazzi said that studies of the vaccine’s efficacy against omicron are continuing. The vaccine is based on a conventional technology used to make the recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine that had been used for several decades.

Experts say that as countries begin to opt for vaccine combinations, Corbevax could help low- and middle-income countries expand their programs.  

In India, the vaccine is in trial for booster doses and could also be used for export according to officials. 

So far boosters will be rolled out starting Monday to health care workers and senior citizens with comorbidities with AstraZeneca and a locally developed vaccine. 

However, public health experts expect Corbevax to play a role when the country widens the administration of booster shots — calls for a third shot have been growing as the omicron variant spread rapidly in the country.

Megan Duzor contributed to this report.
…

Kazakhstan’s president said in a televised address Friday that he has authorized the country’s security forces to “shoot to kill without warning,” as he seeks to end anti-government protests.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said it was “stupid” to negotiate with the protesters whom he described as “criminals and murderers.”

The Kazakh leader said Russian peacekeeping troops were in the country at his request on a temporary basis to ensure security.

Earlier Friday, the president said in a statement that constitutional order had largely been restored after a week’s unrest in the Central Asian country.

“Local authorities are in control of the situation. But terrorists are still using weapons and damaging the property of citizens. Therefore, counter-terrorist actions should be continued until the militants are completely eliminated,” the president’s statement said.

Reuters reported that gunshots could still be heard Friday morning in Almaty, the country’s largest city.

The Kazakh Interior Ministry said in a statement Friday that 26 “armed criminals” were “liquidated,” while more than 3,000 had been detained. The ministry also said 18 police and national guard members had been killed since the protests started.

The demonstrations began late last week in the western part of the country in protest of the doubling of fuel prices. But because they have spread across the country so quickly and have grown so large, some political observers are suggesting they reflect wider discontent in the country that has lived under authoritarianism since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

In news video taken from the streets of Almaty, security forces — some in armored vehicles — could be seen firing repeatedly into a crowd of protesters in the city’s Republic square. A representative from one of the protest groups told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that most of the people in the square were unarmed.

Russian news agency Tass said late Thursday that the square had been cleared of protesters but that sporadic gunfire continued. Reuters and Associated Press also reported sporadic gunfire.

“I didn’t know our people could be so terrifying,” Samal, a nursery school teacher, told AFP near the presidential residence, where bullet casings littered the ground.

Thursday’s crackdown comes a day after the protests — which began days earlier over a jump in fuel prices — turned violent, with thousands of people, some reportedly armed with clubs and shields, taking to the streets, storming government buildings and setting some on fire, including the president’s residence.

As Kazakh security forces lost control of the situation, Kazakh President Tokayev requested Russian military intervention under the terms of the so-called collective security treaties that exist among several formerly Soviet countries.

As Russian-led troops began arriving in Kazakhstan on Thursday, the United States warned them not to seize control of Kazakh institutions.

“The United States and, frankly, the world will be watching for any violation of human rights,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

“We hope that the government of Kazakhstan will soon be able to address problems which are fundamentally economic and political in nature,” Price added, saying the U.S. is a “partner” of the Central Asian nation.

In a nationally televised address on Wednesday, Tokayev declared a state of emergency and referred to the protesters as well-organized thugs and terrorists with outside support, which he did not identify, and promised to deal with them harshly.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Thursday with Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi regarding the ongoing state of emergency, according to a statement from State Department spokesperson Price. Blinken reiterated full U.S. support for “Kazakhstan’s constitutional institutions and media freedom and advocated for a peaceful, rights-respecting resolution to the crisis,” Price said.

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

 
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With the aid of Russian-backed troops, government security forces fired on protesters in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, on Thursday, killing dozens as unrest in the former Soviet republic escalated, police in Almaty said. 

In news video taken from the streets of Almaty, security forces — some in armored vehicles — can be seen firing repeatedly into a crowd of protesters in the city’s Republic square. A representative from one of the protest groups told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that most of the people in the square were unarmed.

Russian news agency Tass said late Thursday that the square had been cleared of protesters but that sporadic gunfire continued. Reuters and Associated Press also reported sporadic gunfire. 

Kazakh police reported killing dozens of protesters overnight and into Thursday and detaining more than 2,000 people in the past day. As many as 18 police officers were killed, police said, with one officer reportedly found beheaded. 

“I didn’t know our people could be so terrifying,” Samal, a nursery-school teacher, told AFP near the presidential residence, where bullet casings littered the ground. 

Thursday’s crackdown comes a day after the protests — which began days earlier over a jump in fuel prices — turned violent, with thousands of people, some reportedly armed with clubs and shields, taking to the streets, storming government buildings and setting some on fire, including the president’s residence. 

As Kazakh security forces lost control of the situation, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev requested Russian military intervention under the terms of the so-called collective security treaties that exist among several former Soviet countries. 

As Russian-led troops arrived in Kazakhstan on Thursday, the United States warned them not to seize control of Kazakh institutions. 

“The United States and, frankly, the world will be watching for any violation of human rights,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters. 

“We hope that the government of Kazakhstan will soon be able to address problems which are fundamentally economic and political in nature,” Price added, saying the U.S. is a “partner” of the Central Asian nation. 

In a nationally televised address on Wednesday, Tokayev declared a state of emergency and referred to the protesters as well-organized thugs and terrorists with outside support, which he did not identify, and promised to deal with them harshly. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Thursday with Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi regarding the ongoing state of emergency, according to a statement from State Department spokesperson Price. Blinken reiterated full U.S. support for “Kazakhstan’s constitutional institutions and media freedom and advocated for a peaceful, rights-respecting resolution to the crisis,” Price said. 

The demonstrations began late last week in the western part of the country in protest of the doubling of fuel prices. But because they have spread across the country so quickly and have grown so large, some political observers are suggesting they reflect wider discontent in the country that has lived under authoritarianism since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. 
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As violence surrounding a popular uprising in Kazakhstan escalates, Russia has responded to the Kazakh’s president’s call for military assistance. Police in the main city, Almaty, say “dozens” of people have been killed, and local news reports say the bodies of at least two police officers have been found beheaded. Observers warn the growing unrest and Russian intervention raise new questions about the future of the region. Jon Spier narrates this report from the VOA Moscow bureau.

Producer: Henry Hernandez.
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Pakistan has confirmed the appointment of the first female Supreme Court judge in the Muslim-majority nation’s history, members of the ruling party said on Thursday.

A commission that decides on the promotion of judges on Thursday voted to make 55-year-old Justice Ayesha Malik the first female judge on the Supreme Court in the 75 years since the South Asian country’s independence.

“An important & defining moment in our country as a brilliant lawyer & decorated judge has become Pakistan’s first female SC judge,” a legislator of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and parliamentary secretary for law Maleeka Bokhari said on Twitter.

“To shattering glass ceilings,” she added.

Though historic, the move has been divisive. The nine-member body that was to confirm her appointment turned down her elevation to the top court last year, and Thursday’s repeat vote was also close – divided five votes to four – according to sources familiar with the proceedings.

Many lawyers and even judges, in the forum and outside, opposed the move because they say the appointment was made in contravention of seniority lists without any set selection criteria.

Malik was not among the top three most senior judges of the lower court from which she was elevated.

“The major issue is not that there was ever a question mark on Justice Ayesha Malik’s competence or the fact that she is a good judge,” Imaan Mazari-Hazir, an Islamabad-based lawyer and vocal rights activist, told Reuters.

“The question mark was and remains on the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s arbitrary and non-transparent decision making and the process,” she said, adding that the judge’s gender was exploited.

A number of lawyers bodies have threatened to strike and boycott court proceedings over the appointment after they say their calls for the drawing up of fixed criteria for the nomination of Supreme Court judges were ignored.
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Kazakhstan is experiencing the worst street protests the country has seen since gaining independence three decades ago. 

The outburst of instability is causing significant concern in Kazakhstan’s two powerful neighbors: Russia and China. The country sells most of its oil exports to China and is a key strategic ally of Moscow. 

A sudden spike in the price of car fuel at the start of the year triggered the first protests in a remote oil town in the west. But the tens of thousands who have since surged onto the streets across more than a dozen cities and towns now have the entire authoritarian government in their sights. 

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has cut an increasingly desperate figure. He first sought to mollify the crowds by dismissing the entire government early Wednesday. But by the end of the day he had changed tack. First, he described demonstrators as terrorists. Then he appealed to a Russian-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, for help in crushing the uprising and the CSTO agreed to send an unspecified number of peacekeepers. 

Why are people angry? 

Of the five Central Asian republics that gained independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan is by far the largest and the wealthiest. It spans a territory the size of Western Europe and sits atop colossal reserves of oil, natural gas, uranium and precious metals. 

But while Kazakhstan’s natural riches have helped it cultivate a solid middle class, as well as a substantial cohort of ultrarich tycoons, financial hardship is widespread. The average national monthly salary is just under $600. The banking system has fallen prey to deep crises precipitated by non-performing loans. As in much of the rest of the region, petty corruption is rampant. 

The rally that set off the latest crisis took place in the dusty western oil town of Zhanaozen. Resentments have long festered in the area over a sense that the region’s energy riches haven’t been fairly spread among the local population. In 2011, police shot dead at least 15 people in the city who were protesting in support of oil workers dismissed after a strike. 

When prices for the liquified petroleum gas most people in the area use to power their cars doubled overnight Saturday, patience snapped. Residents in nearby cities quickly joined in and within days large protests had spread to the rest of the country. 

Who is leading the protests? 

The suppression of critical voices in Kazakhstan has long been the norm. Any figures aspiring to oppose the government have either been repressed, sidelined, or co-opted. So although these demonstrations have been unusually large — some drawing more than 10,000 people, a large number for Kazakhstan — no protest movement leaders have emerged. 

For most of Kazakhstan’s recent history power was held in the hands of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. That changed in 2019 when Nazarbayev, now 81, stepped aside and anointed his long-time ally Tokayev as his successor. In his capacity as head of the security council that oversees the military and security services, Nazarbayev continued to retain considerable sway over the country. Tokayev announced Wednesday that he was taking over from Nazarbayev as security council head. 

Much of the anger displayed on the streets in recent days was directed not at Tokayev, but at Nazarbayev, who is still widely deemed the country’s ultimate ruler. The slogan “Shal ket!” (“Old man go”) has become a main slogan. 

How are the authorities responding? 

A police official in Almaty said Thursday that dozens of protesters were killed in attacks on government buildings. At least a dozen police officers were also killed, including one who got beheaded. 

There were attempts to storm buildings in Almaty during the night and “dozens of attackers were liquidated,” police spokeswoman Saltanat Azirbek said. She spoke on state news channel Khabar-24. The reported attempts to storm the buildings came after widespread unrest in the city on Wednesday, including seizure of the mayor’s building, which was set on fire. 

The initial reaction was in keeping with usual policy in the face of public discontent. Police and the National Guard were deployed in large numbers. The crowd that made its way to City Hall in the commercial capital, Almaty, early Wednesday was met by large phalanxes of riot police and armored personnel carriers. While gatherings are normally dispersed with ease, the number of people on the street this time was too large. 

With government buildings coming under assault in several large cities, Tokayev appealed for help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-led military alliance. He justified the appeal for external intervention by claiming the protesters were operating at the behest of international terrorist groups. He offered no details on what he meant by that. 

Is the government likely to be toppled? 

This is uncharted territory for Kazakhstan. The country has seen major demonstrations before: In 2016, after the passage of a contentious land law. And again in 2019, after the contentious election that secured Tokayev’s hold on power. But never anything on this scale. 

In one of his appeals to the public Wednesday, Tokayev pledged to pursue reforms and hinted that political liberalization might be possible. His darker remarks toward the end of the day, however, suggested he would instead go down a more repressive road. 

Still, because the street protests are so lacking in focus, at least for now, it’s difficult to see how they might end. But even if they fail to topple the government, it looks possible they might lead to deep transformation. What is not clear is what that might mean. 
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