U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths says Afghanistan needs flexible and sustained international funding before the end of this year to prevent the further collapse of the economy, and he will press the United States to help during meetings in Washington next week.

“What we have become very painfully aware of in recent weeks is that the freefall of the economy is much more violent, severe and urgent than we feared,” Griffiths told VOA recently. “We thought we would manage to survive the winter with pure humanitarian assistance. We now know it’s not enough. We need more.”

Over the past two decades, Afghanistan’s economy has heavily depended on foreign aid to survive. Some 75% of the former government’s budget was donor-funded, as was 40% of its GDP.

Since the Taliban took over on Aug. 15, the suspension of most international aid has contributed to the breakdown in most basic services, including electricity, health services and education. Inflation is rampant, and the price of ordinary goods is beyond the reach of most Afghans.

Griffiths says there is a solution – a currency swap — but it must be finalized and fast.

“We need to provide a facility to allow dollars outside the country to be exchanged for Afghanis, the local currency inside Afghanistan. We need that to be dependable, sustainable and to scale,” he told VOA.

The aid chief said currently the cash required to run the massive humanitarian operation is not available inside the country. The United Nations has appealed for $4.4 billion to assist 23 million Afghans next year – to deal with what has become its largest humanitarian crisis.

On Dec. 21, Griffiths plans to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington. He said his key message will be that the U.N. needs flexible funding which will not land in the hands of the Taliban.

“We also want to send the same message to Congress: that the people of Afghanistan need support, and that supporting them is not support to the Taliban, it’s support to the people of Afghanistan. These are two different things,” the U.N. humanitarian chief said.

Griffiths emphasized that the Americans have been very active in granting humanitarian exemptions to their sanctions and pushing for them at the U.N. Security Council, which has its own sanctions on Taliban elements. But the exemptions have not been enough to improve the confidence of international banks and businessmen, who fear inadvertently violating them if they do business with Afghanistan.

“So, we need a system which does not breach sanctions, which is approved essentially by U.S. leadership to allow for the economy to restart,” he said.

In one positive step, the World Bank said Friday that donors have agreed to release $280 million from its Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund by the end of this month. The bank had paused disbursements after the Taliban takeover.

The U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF, will receive $100 million of the money for health services, while the rest will go to the World Food Program to assist 2.7 million people with food aid. 

In many parts of the world where the United Nations carries out large humanitarian operations, insecurity is often a major obstacle. But since fighting has largely ended since mid-August, except for counter-terror operations against Islamic State Khorasan, access has opened up to areas that were once previously too dangerous to work in and to reach by both road and air.

“Humanitarian space – operational space — has largely prospered under the Taliban,” Griffiths said.

And while the world waits to see if the Taliban will honor commitments to respect human rights, especially those of women and girls, Griffiths says they have “largely” kept pledges to allow humanitarian groups broad access and to carry out their work, including female aid workers, as they see fit.

Griffiths was the most senior international official to visit Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, traveling there in early September to meet with the senior leadership to negotiate terms for the United Nations to continue its massive aid operation.
…

More than 400 million South Asian children have been affected by school closures extending into a second year in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic according to a new UNICEF report.

The United Nations agency has urged the region’s countries to fully reopen schools, warning that the consequences of lost learning are huge and will be long-lasting in a region where access to remote learning is limited.

“The remarkable achievements our region has made in advancing child rights over recent decades are now at risk,” said George Laryea-Adjei, UNICEF regional director for South Asia.

“If we fail to act, the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for decades to come,” he said.

School closures in South Asia have lasted longer than in many other parts of the world with schools remaining fully closed on an average for nearly 32 weeks between March 2020 and August this year, according to the report.

In Bangladesh, schools were shut for 18 months, until September, one of the longest closures in the world. In countries such as India and Nepal they have only partially reopened.

The transition to remote learning has been difficult in a region where many houses do not have internet connectivity and where access to smartphones is limited – an earlier study showed that in India for example nearly half of the students between ages 6 and 13 reported not using any type of remote learning during school closures.

Many teachers also found they lacked the training to make remote learning work effectively, according to UNICEF.

The loss of learning happened in a region where many children were already lagging.

Citing examples, the report said that one study in India showed that the proportion of third grade children who could read a first grade level text fell from around 42% in 2018 to 24% in 2020.

It said girls were at a particular disadvantage because they had more limited access to mobile devices and were under increased pressure to perform domestic work.

There have been some successes – in Sri Lanka and Bhutan the distribution of published material to continue out-of-school learning helped children keep up with their studies.

UNICEF has called on countries to prioritize helping students catch up on the learning they have missed, pointing out that South Asia is home to more adolescents than any other part of the world and will need 21st century skills to gain a foothold in a region where jobs remain scarce.

The report also flagged concerns about the disruption of health services such as regular immunization drives due to the pandemic. It said that key actions are needed to “reverse the alarming rollback in child health and nutrition.”

The report said that the picture in South Asia remains bleak compared to developed countries, where more people are immunized, and economies are recovering.

Only 30% of South Asians are fully vaccinated, the report said, “and as the region braces itself for future waves of the virus, more children and families are slipping into poverty.” 
…

As winter grips Central Asia, the Uzbek government is calling on the international community to help neighboring Afghanistan.

“To prevent a humanitarian crisis there, not words but concrete steps are necessary to assist the Afghan people,” Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said Tuesday in Tashkent.

Uzbekistan is keeping its infrastructure open for international partners and foreign countries to deliver aid to Afghanistan. Specifically, the administration of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev permits U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups to use its territory, airports and railways and, most important, its Friendship Bridge that spans the Amu Darya River that marks the Uzbek-Afghan border. It connects Termez in the Surkhandarya region with Hairatan in Afghanistan’s Balkh province.

“We want a peaceful Afghanistan, politically stable and economically prosperous,” Tura Bobolov, Surkhandarya regional governor, told VOA. “I have traveled there eight times recently. I see a desperate country in need of order and leadership. It needs our assistance.”

At roughly 150 kilometers, Uzbekistan’s border with Afghanistan is its shortest but perhaps its most strategic one. Termez was a military hub during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. And during the two decades of U.S. presence in Afghanistan, this area was used to supply nonmilitary goods to the international coalition forces. From 2001 to 2005, Uzbekistan also hosted an American air base in Karshi-Khanabad, Kashkadarya, an adjacent region.

Termez International Airport, empty nowadays except for Uzbek civilian planes, was leased for more than a decade by the German air force for NATO operations in Afghanistan.

‘Endless economic opportunities’

Tashkent has been treating the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan as a reliable partner, arguing that neighboring states must work with each other no matter who is in power and focus on mutual interests.

“We see endless economic opportunities in and via Afghanistan,” Bobolov said, adding that he is in regular touch with the new authorities there. “We want access to world markets through South Asia, and they want our goods and services. Despite deep security concerns, we see great potential for trade and economic growth.”

Bobolov said that Termez, Surkhandarya’s administrative center and a city of nearly 150,000, is emerging as a logistical hub. He said it could process 17,000 tons of goods at the same time.

VOA toured Termez Cargo Center, which is about a kilometer from the Afghan border. Occupying more than 40 hectares, it has about 120 people working 24/7.

Surkhandarya’s Customs Office, part of the Uzbek State Customs Committee, has dozens of officers inspecting goods coming from or going to South Asia via the Termez-Hairatan crossing.

“Our mission is to receive, store and then ship all goods in transit,” said Okhunjon Hayitov, cargo center manager. “We have four massive storage facilities, equipped with high-tech refrigerators. We ensure the quality of products, whether they are for this market or going out, south or north.”

The center is also responsible for storing cargo — from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Program and other organizations — meant for the Afghan people. The assistance arrives at Termez International Airport and then is stored before being shipped to various parts of Afghanistan by truck or rail.

According to the Customs Office, aid clearance is an expedited process, but shipments to Afghanistan ultimately depend on the Afghans.

Termez Cargo Center deals with at least 50 trucks daily, each carrying 25 tons of goods on average.

“Our job is to inspect that 750 tons of products, mostly vegetables now, especially potatoes, since it’s the season for them. We are getting loads of that from Pakistan, going north,” said Senior Inspector Isfandiyor Madiyev.

Madiyev said that so far in 2021, the cargo center has imported 142,000 tons of goods and has exported 135,000 tons, a considerable difference from last year.

“Last year we exported 197,000 tons of goods from this cargo center while importing about 50,000 tons,” he said. “We exported less this year. Perhaps there is less need for our products or fewer opportunities to buy.”

Afghan people focus of policy

Like other leading Uzbek officials, Bobolov, the border region’s governor, also stresses that the country’s Afghan policy is not about the Taliban but the people of Afghanistan.

“We have a deep interest in long-lasting peace there. I assure you, and you can tour the region as much as you want to see how peaceful it is here in Surkhandarya,” Bobolov said.

“The people of Termez and communities beyond this city are not concerned about security here. We have been living with an unstable Afghanistan next door for decades. There are 17 neighborhoods along the Afghan border. I visit them often. They live with their day-to-day worries, and these don’t necessarily include Afghanistan.”

Bobolov said he and other leaders understand the critical need for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Regional diplomacy and building strong ties with neighbors have been the Mirziyoyev administration’s foreign policy priority.

Uzbekistan’s trade within Central Asia, including Afghanistan, rose from nearly $2.7 billion in 2016 to $5.2 billion this year. Almost one-fifth of this commerce has been with Afghanistan.

In the Angor district of Surkhandarya, businesses are expanding by building logistical centers for Uzbek and regional partners who want to sell construction materials and other industrial goods near the border.

Bahriddin Qurbonov, manager of Angor Index LLC, said a new complex would open in 2022.

“You know why we like working with Afghans? Their work is of really good quality, whether in construction or anything manufactured here or there,” Qurbonov said. “This commercial hub, put together partly by Afghan contractors, will be a trading place for everyone in the region, including Afghanistan. That’s what we want, and the Uzbek government has wholeheartedly endorsed it by providing us the space and whatever necessary to get started as soon as possible.”

Uzbek businesses are eager to connect with South Asia, forge enterprises and work on major development projects like this, Qurbonov added, though keeping in mind that security remains the most critical factor. While Uzbekistan has not given up its ambition to get access to seaports in Pakistan and beyond, the authorities in Termez and in Tashkent continue to urge the world to work with them to do whatever possible to ease the worsening situation in Afghanistan.​

This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service. 
…

Officials in northwestern Pakistan said Saturday militants shot and killed one police officer and seriously injured another as they were escorting polio vaccinators.

The attack in Tank, a remote district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan, came during a five-day drive to vaccinate 6.5 million children against the polio virus, said a provincial government spokesman.

Local police and witnesses told reporters the assailants riding a motorcycle targeted the polio security team and no health worker was hurt.

The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistani Taliban, took credit for the attack. Its spokesman, Muhammad Khurasani, claimed the attack had killed two police personnel, although the group is notorious for issuing inflated details for such attacks.  

Saturday’s violence came two days after the TTP called off a 30-day cease-fire with the Pakistani government, accusing the other side of not honoring the deal’s terms.  

The TTP denounces the polio vaccination campaign as a government instrument of spying on them while some Islamic groups in Pakistan see the vaccine as a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the wild polio virus still infects and cripples children.

The TTP is an alliance of about two dozen outlawed militant groups and has been carrying out suicide and other terrorist attacks across Pakistan for many years, killing tens of thousands of people, including Pakistani security personnel.  

The group claims it is fighting for establishing its brand of Islamic laws, or Sharia, in Pakistan. Pakistani officials denounce the claims as ridiculous and dismiss TTP as criminals and thugs.  

The United States and the United Nations have designated the TTP as a global terrorist organization.  

 
…

A day after a court in Bangladesh sentenced 20 students to death for killing a fellow student, members of the victim’s family said they hope the punishments would soon be served.

Abrar Fahad, 21, a student at Dhaka’s elite Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was beaten to death in October 2019 by fellow students who were members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling Awami League [AL] political party.

Fahad’s battered body was found in his university dormitory hours after he wrote a Facebook post that quickly went viral slamming Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, head of the AL party, for signing a water-sharing deal with India.

After the post, a group of pro-Hasina students called Fahad into a room to interrogate him about his “anti-government” post. Police reports say Fahad’s body, severely beaten with cricket bats, tree stumps and sticks, was found six hours later.

History of political clemency

Fahad’s killing sparked outrage among students across Bangladesh, where scores of AL-aligned convicts—some on death row, some facing life sentences—have received clemency from the ruling party since 2010. 

Bangladesh law minister Anisul Huq said Wednesday’s verdict proves Dhaka’s commitment to the rule of law, but some legal experts say there is little chance any of Fahad’s killers will be executed as long as AL remains in power.

“The High Court may overturn the rulings of the lower court soon. [But] if that does not happen, in all probability, the convicts will be granted presidential clemency at [some] point,” said a Dhaka Supreme Court lawyer who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity for fear of political reprisal.

“The BCL members work as foot soldiers of the ruling party,” the lawyer added, referring to the student organization’s notoriety in recent years after some of its members were accused of killing, violence and extortion.

In 2018, its members allegedly used violence in response to a major anti-government student protests. Also in 2018, during the national elections, BCL and AL activists were accused of invading polling places and rigging them in favor of the ruling Awami League.

“The Hasina-led government will not spare any effort to save these students from the gallows,” said the lawyer.

Officials with the BCL did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

Hong Kong-based Bangladeshi rights activist Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said Wednesday’s conviction should be viewed as a temporary damage-control tactic by the government.

“Records suggest the Hasina-led government has made it a practice to ensure impunity for all perpetrators from AL who help determine its political supremacy,” said Ashrafuzzaman, a liaison officer of the Asian Legal Resource Centre. “There are numerous instances showing activists of different wings of the AL who got convicted with death sentences but were later granted presidential clemency when there was no scope to get them acquitted through the judicial process.”

Twenty death row inmates, all ruling party activists, convicted in the murder of an opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader, were granted presidential clemency in 2010, when AL was in power, Ashrafuzzaman added.

As another example, Ashrafuzzaman noted that in 2000, opposition BNP leader Nurul Islam was murdered. In that case, AHM Biplob, son of a leader of the ruling AL party, and four associates were given death sentences in 2003. Biplob was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the

in the cases of the murders of a Chhatra Shibir (the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami) activist in 2000 and a BNP leader in 2001. 

In early 2011, after having absconded for 10 years and seen the Awami League return to power, Biplob surrendered to a court. In July of that year, Biplob was pardoned by the president for the 2000 murder of BNP leader Nurul Islam, after his father, a prominent AL-party figure, filed a mercy petition. In February 2012, Biplob was granted presidential clemency again in the cases of two other murders when his life sentence was reduced to 10-year imprisonment.

Ashrafuzzaman also noted that “In 2018, the president granted clemency to Tofail Ahmed Joseph, who had been a former private bodyguard of Sheikh Hasina and a life term convict in a murder case.”

It can be “safely assumed” that none in the Fahad murder case will be sent to the gallows as long as Hasina is in office, Ashrafuzzaman added.

VOA was unable to reach any official from the Hasina administration for a comment on the clemency actions.

Vows to follow through

Law minister Huq, however, says he is confident the Hasina-led government will cooperate and see that the executions by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era, are carried out.

“The government ensured all steps in the investigation and trial of the case in a responsible manner. Now justice has been served,” Huq told a press briefing with local media. “No one will be spared after committing a ghastly crime like this.”

Faruk Ahmed, a lawyer defending some of the accused students—three of whom remain at large—said he was unhappy with what he called the “unfair” verdict.

“Some bright students of the country have been handed death sentences despite there was no proper evidence against some of them,” Ahmed told local media reporters at the court after the sentencing. “Some masterminds in the case were not named in the police charge sheet.

“We will appeal the sentence in the High Court,” the defense attorney added.

Fahad’s father, Barkat Ullah, said he was happy with the verdict.

“I hope the High Court will uphold Wednesday’s verdict,” Ullah told VOA.

Fahad’s mother, Rokeya Khatun, said she will feel “justice has been served only after the sentences have been carried out.”

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
…

Fahima Sarfaraz, an acid attack survivor who briefly stayed in a shelter to avoid domestic violence, is concerned for her friends and other women who used to live with her in the group home in Kabul, Afghanistan.

“Taliban have closed down all the women’s shelters in the country,” Sarfaraz told VOA. “I stayed in one of the shelter homes briefly because I felt safe there. All the women who stayed there felt safe. I am very concerned about those women because they used to tell me stories about their life, how they were abused and beaten up by their family members. Honestly, I do not know if those women would be even alive.”

The acting Taliban government has shuttered 32 shelter homes in Afghanistan since Aug. 6, veritably eliminating the last sanctuary for Afghan women fleeing domestic violence and abuse. These shelters, which were supported by international donors, had long provided a safe haven to thousands of victims of domestic violence, mental torment and abuse.

After the last of them had closed, most of the former residents were forced to rejoin their abusive families.

“Once a woman leaves home in Afghan society, she can be killed for honor, and no one will question the killer,” Sarfaraz said.

Kevin Schumacher, deputy executive director of the U.S.-based Women for Afghan Women (WAW), told VOA that members of the acting Taliban government physically went to the shelters, closing them one by one.

“They verbally and physically abused our staff, shouted at them and threatened to skin them alive,” he said. “We tried to negotiate, argue and reason with them, but it did not work.”

Due to the mass closures, many WAW clients have been reintegrated into their families — some of their own volition, and others, Shumacher said, because they “had no way out.”

“This is so unfortunate, because these women are the survivors of domestic violence. They were girls who were forced into marriage at a very young age despite their consent,” he said. “Many of these victims have experienced physical, psychological sexual abuse and torture.”

Since the closures, Schumacher said, WAW has lost communication with the victims and is concerned about their safety and survival.

“These shelter providers were part of a larger (system of equality),” he said. “We had … family guidance centers across the country. Families used to come to us with any issues that they have had. We tried to mediate and … resolve the issues through psychological counseling, social counseling, and jirga (tribal council) or family conversations. And if none of this worked, then we provided them with shelters for protection.

“And when the person was moved to the shelter,” he added, “we would provide … legal services in collaboration with the government, with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the prison authorities.”

Thousands will suffer

In a recent report, Amnesty International expressed grave worries about these victims of domestic and gender-based abuse.

“Women and girl survivors of gender-based violence have essentially been abandoned in Afghanistan,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, in the Dec. 8 report. “Their network of support has been dismantled, and their places of refuge have all but disappeared.”

Victims of abuse, along with “shelter staff, lawyers, judges, government officials, and others involved in protective services,” now live with the day-to-day risk of violence and even death, says the report, which calls upon the international community to provide immediate and long-term funding for protective services and survivor evacuation.

Thousands of women and children are likely to suffer, said Heather Barr, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s women’s rights division.

“It’s a tragedy because women’s rights activists fought hard for so many years, for the last 20 years, to build the system that would mean that women and girls who would face violence would have somewhere to take refuge,” she told VOA.

“They fought hard for the passage of elimination of violence against women, and all of these systems disappeared in one day on August 15th, 2021,” she said, referring to the day Kabul fell to Taliban forces.

“It is a very painful situation,” said Durani Jawed Waziri, ex-spokesperson for former President Ashraf Ghani. “The Taliban did not only (fail to) include any women in their interim government Cabinet and eliminate the ministry of women’s affairs, but they even banned the age 12 to 18 girls to go to school and get education.

“Taliban have not changed and will not change,” added Waziri, who also used to work with the attorney general’s office as an adviser to eliminate domestic violence.

“While I worked with these women who lived in the shelter homes, I saw how helpless they were,” she said. “Most of these women were victims of physical violence; their husbands had cut of their noses, their ears. I saw women who had mental issues and had been raped on the streets and were pregnant. They had nowhere else to go to. I have been thinking about those women. I do not know where they might be or under which circumstances they might be living.”

Abdul Wassey, the Taliban’s head of international nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan, declined to comment when VOA’s Deewa Service reached him by phone.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service.
…

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, attacks by the Islamic State affiliate have stepped up – especially in the country’s eastern Nangarhar province. Civilians in the region say they fear the threat of violence posed by the group known as the Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K. For VOA, Gaja Pellegrini-Bettoli reports from Nangarhar, Afghanistan.
…

The United States imposed extensive human rights-related sanctions Friday on dozens of people and entities tied to China, Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh, and added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime Group to an investment blacklist.

Canada and Britain joined the United States in imposing sanctions related to human rights abuse in Myanmar, while Washington also imposed the first new sanctions on North Korea under President Joe Biden’s administration and targeted Myanmar military entities, among others, in action marking Human Rights Day.

“Our actions today, particularly those in partnership with the United Kingdom and Canada, send a message that democracies around the world will act against those who abuse the power of the state to inflict suffering and repression,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.

The North Korean mission at the United Nations and the Chinese, Myanmar and Bangladesh embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime to a list of “Chinese military-industrial complex companies,” accusing it of having developed facial recognition programs that can determine a target’s ethnicity, with a particular focus on identifying ethnic Uyghurs.

As a result, it will fall under an investment ban for U.S. investors.

U.N. experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in China’s far-west region of Xinjiang.

China denies abuses in Xinjiang, but the U.S. government and many rights groups say Beijing is carrying out genocide there. The Treasury said North Korea’s Central Public Prosecutors Office had been designated, along with the former minister of social security and recently assigned Minister of People’s Armed Forces Ri Yong Gil.

U.S. President Joe Biden gathered more than 100 world leaders at a virtual summit this week and made a plea to bolster democracies around the world, calling safeguarding rights and freedoms in the face of rising authoritarianism the “defining challenge” of the current era.
…

An outlawed militant alliance waging terrorist attacks in Pakistan has decided against extending a 30-day cease-fire with the government, accusing the other side of not honoring the terms of the deal.

The so-called Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, made the announcement Thursday, hours before the temporary pact was to officially end after taking effect on November 9.

The understanding was aimed at paving the way for future talks between the two adversaries, and it was mediated by the new Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan, where TTP leaders and operatives have long taken refuge. Both sides at the time had agreed to extend the cease-fire depending on the progress in direct negotiations.

But a spokesman for the militant group, Muhammad Khurasani, said in a statement that the government never sent its negotiating team to further the dialogue, nor did it keep its promise of releasing 102 TTP prisoners.

Moreover, Khurasani alleged that Pakistani state security institutions had conducted raids against TTP members despite the truce. “It is not possible for us to extend the cease-fire under the current circumstances,” he concluded.

There was no immediate reaction from the Pakistani government to the militants’ accusations.

Pakistani officials privy to the initial meetings with TTP had insisted the talks were initiated to determine whether the militants were willing to “surrender” to the country’s constitution and lay down their arms.

Pakistan’s national security adviser, Moeed Yusuf, had said late last month in a media interview that the aim of the 30-day cease-fire was to see whether the TTP was serious about engaging in a peace process in line with conditions set by the government.

“The red lines are very much clear; no one would be allowed to challenge the Pakistani constitution, impose their own system of governance or law and resume violent activities,” Yusuf stressed.

TTP has claimed responsibility for carrying out suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks over the past many years, killing tens of thousands of Pakistanis, including security forces.

The violence, however, has significantly decreased in recent years because of sustained Pakistani security operations against TTP bases in areas near the Afghan border, killing thousands of militants and forcing others to flee to Afghanistan.

The United States and the United Nations have designated TTP as a global terrorist organization.

Since regaining power in Afghanistan in August after the withdrawal of foreign troops, Taliban rulers have repeatedly assured neighboring countries and the world at large that no terrorist groups would be allowed to operate and threaten others from Afghan soil.

The counterterrorism pledge is part of a set of international demands the Taliban have to meet to claim much-needed diplomatic recognition for their nascent government in Kabul.

The Taliban have publicly acknowledged they were mediating the talks between TTP and Pakistani government negotiators, saying they have told the militant group that regardless of whether it reaches a deal, it would not be allowed to use Afghanistan’s soil to threaten the neighboring country.

The TTP is known to have given shelter and provided fighters to the Afghan Taliban while they were waging a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led international forces for nearly 20 years. That cooperation, skeptics say, will likely discourage the Afghan Taliban from forcefully evicting TTP operatives if requested to do so by Pakistan. 
…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said Thursday that instead of siding with so-called Cold War-like “blocs,” his country would like to help de-escalate tensions between the United States and China.  

Khan cautioned in his keynote speech to a regional security seminar in Islamabad the rivalry between the two world powers “is moving towards (another) Cold War and new blocs are (again) being formed.”  

He said Islamabad does not want to “get trapped” into another Cold War the way it did by joining the U.S.-led Western alliance against the erstwhile Soviet Union.  

“Pakistan must try its best to stop the formation of these blocs. We must not become part of any bloc,” he insisted. Pakistan served as a base for the U.S.-funded Afghan armed resistance dubbed Islamic jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.  

Khan’s remarks came a day after his government said it would not attend U.S. President Joe Biden’s two-day virtual Summit for Democracy starting Thursday, where Washington has invited Taiwan but not China.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry in its official handout on Wednesday did not cite any reason for skipping the summit, but a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Taiwan’s participation is not in line with Islamabad’s long-standing stance of “firmly” supporting the “One-China Policy.”

“We will continue engaging with summit participants and non-participants alike to address ways to strengthen democracy, promote respect for human rights, and fight corruption, whether that work occurs within or outside of the summit framework,” a senior Biden administration official told VOA in response to the snub from Pakistan.

Khan recalled Thursday that Pakistan had served as the channel of communication to arrange a secret visit from Islamabad to Beijing in 1971 of then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, which re-established Sino-U.S. ties after more than two decades of diplomatic silence.  

“We want to bring people together…Pakistan had played a role in opening up China to America back in the 1970s,” Khan said.  

Pakistan’s traditionally close political, military and economic ties with China have solidified in recent years, with Beijing investing billions of dollars in energy and infrastructure development projects in the South Asian country.

Also watch:

Allegations that Pakistan military supported the Islamist Taliban in waging a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led international forces in neighboring Afghanistan for the past 20 years and retaking control of the country last August have further strained Islamabad’s already tumultuous ties with Washington.

Biden has not spoken to Khan since taking office nor has there been any high-level exchanges of visits between the two countries.  

The Pakistani prime minister in his address Thursday warned that the U.S. decision to  freeze Afghan central bank assets and impose financial sanctions after the Taliban takeover of Kabul has plunged the war-torn country into an economic crisis, increasing humanitarian needs to unprecedented levels.  

“We are trying our best to inform them (the U.S.) that regardless of whether you like the Taliban or not the survival of 40 million Afghans is at stake, Khan said. “If the freeze on funds and the economic squeeze persist the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan will aggravate and become a problem for the world eventually.”

 
…

Pakistan has detected its first case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Official said Thursday the infection was found in a 57-year-old unvaccinated woman in Karachi, the country’s largest city and capital of the southern Sindh province.

Local media reported the patient, who was isolating at home after being discharged from the hospital a day earlier, did not have a travel history and contact tracing was under way.

“We have not yet concluded the genomic study of the patient’s sample but the way the virus is behaving, it seems like it is omicron,” provincial Health Minister Azra Fazal Pechuno said in a video statement.

Pechuno said people need not panic and urged them to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“Omicron is highly transmissible, but deaths or serious illnesses have not been seen in reports from South Africa,” where the variant was first detected, she added.

In a statement Thursday, the federal government-run National Institute of Health in Islamabad said it was premature to draw any conclusions whether the patient in Karachi was infected with omicron.

“To clarify, the sample is not yet confirmed to be omicron via whole-genome sequencing, which is to be performed after obtaining the sample,” the statement said. “However, in the light of global situation, the public is strongly urged to get vaccinated at the earliest.”

Late last month, Pakistan placed a complete ban on travel from six African countries, including South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini — formerly known as Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia, and Hong Kong after the discovery of omicron.

Authorities later extended the ban to nine more countries, including Croatia, Hungary, Netherlands, Ukraine, Ireland, Slovenia, Vietnam, Poland and Zimbabwe, and tightened monitoring of passengers arriving from several other nations.

Pakistan, a country of about 220 million people, has reported close to 1.3 million coronavirus cases, including more than 28,800 deaths.

As of Thursday, officials said more than 24% of the total population and 35% of the eligible population had been vaccinated against the pandemic.

 
…

The former interpreter for the U.S. Army counts himself among the lucky as an Afghan who managed to make it through frantic crowds outside the Kabul airport to board a military evacuation flight out of the country with little more than the clothes on his back. 

Esrar Ahmad Saber now waits, along with 11,000 other Afghans, from the safety of a U.S. base in central New Jersey, while worrying about family members left behind and enduring a prolonged resettlement process.

Saber has been at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New Jersey since August 26 as has nearly everyone else at one of the three “villages” set up there for refugees. “They want to go to their new homes and start their new lives,” the 29-year-old said. “They are really excited about it. But the fact is, the process is very slow.” 

The slow pace has become a defining characteristic of Operation Allies Welcome, the largest U.S. refugee resettlement effort in decades, which follows the August 30 withdrawal of troops from the country and an end to America’s longest war. Even as Afghans still arrive, thousands remain in limbo, anxious about their future as they fearfully follow news of Taliban reprisals and economic collapse back in their homeland. 

Operation Allies Welcome reached a milestone this week as the number resettled in American communities—37,000—surpassed the 35,000 at six bases around the country. But people involved with the effort readily concede it’s been a challenge for a number of reasons, including a scarcity of affordable housing, cutbacks to refugee programs under President Donald Trump as well as the sheer number of refugees.

“It’s been a shock to the system because we just haven’t had this many people arrive at the same time in a really, really long period,” said Erol Kekic, a senior vice president with Church World Service, one of nine national resettlement agencies working with the government in what is formally known as Operation Allies Welcome. 

The resettlement organizations and the Department of Homeland Security, the lead federal agency in the effort, are working toward a goal of having everyone off the bases by February 15. The New Jersey installation now hosts the largest number, down from a high of 14,500, followed by Fort McCoy in Wisconsin with 7,500. 

There are 3,200 more at overseas transit points awaiting flights to the U.S. as well as some still making it out of Afghanistan. 

“I feel pretty good about our chances of moving everybody off the base before that day,” Kekic said. “Whether or not we get there by February 15, I think remains to be seen.” 

The government last week conducted a guided tour for journalists of the New Jersey installation, where refugees stay in brick buildings previously used as barracks or in sprawling tent-like prefabricated structures. 

There are fields for soccer, courts for basketball and cavernous warehouses where refugees receive clothes and other supplies. There are also classrooms for the children, who make up about 40% of the population, as well as language lessons and job training for adults and a medical clinic. 

Afghans staying at the base go through immigration processing as well as health screening and vaccinations, including for COVID-19. More than 100 babies have been born at the base. 

Saber, who came from Afghanistan by himself and left a brother and sister behind, says the refugees are happy, just eager to move on. “It’s a dream to be here,” he said. “They just want to get out as soon as possible.” 

Among the refugees are new arrivals as well. Ghulam Eshan Sharifi, a microbiologist, came on November 14 with his wife and two children after 23 days in Qatar. He was relieved but worried about his adult daughters back in Kabul who held government jobs before the Taliban returned. 

“They have no jobs now. They cannot even go outside so we are obviously afraid about what will happen to them,” Sharifi said. “We are hoping that God will solve the problem.” 

He said he hopes to settle in the Denver area but does not yet know when, or if, that will happen. “This is just the beginning for us,” he added. 

Many refugees are also recovering from what was for many a traumatic escape from a country that collapsed much more quickly than the U.S. government, at least publicly, anticipated. 

“Most if not all of them have worked with our forces and they have been part of the U.S. effort in some way,” said Air Force Col. Soleiman Rahel, who came to the U.S. with his family as a refugee from Afghanistan when he was a teenager and is on a temporary assignment working with the refugees at the base. “So, it’s very traumatic. It’s very hard for them.” 

Rahel said he can appreciate the challenges the new arrivals will face since his own parents confronted similar ones, including being forced to take lower-level jobs than they were accustomed to back in Afghanistan so they could support their family and the kids could go to school.

He also can understand why so many of the refugees want to move to areas where there are established Afghan communities — particularly Northern California, the Washington, D.C., area and Houston — even though those requests are straining resettlement efforts there and contributing to delays. 

“That’s natural, because we always gravitate towards our culture, toward people who can help you,” Rahel said. “But we try to give them some comfort that regardless of where they go, American society is such a forgiving and giving society that people will be there to help them out.” 

Given the extent of the challenge, the agencies have enlisted help beyond groups that typically work with refugees, including veterans groups and even local sports clubs to sponsor families to help them get situated. Resettlement officials say it might have been easier if the entire process had been shifted to a U.S. territory such as Guam, which has been used for that purpose in the past, or if there had been more time to prepare for their arrival in advance. 

“This thing should have been planned before they announced the withdrawal, right? So in that sense, it is taking longer than it should,” said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, another of the nine resettlement organizations. “But considering they decided to plan for this after they made the decision to withdraw, given the depletion of the capacity of the U.S. refugee program over the last four years, none of this is surprising.” 

While refugees receive temporary assistance after being resettled, most are expected to achieve self-sufficiency. That proves to be difficult when many don’t speak English well, have academic credentials that won’t be recognized in the U.S., and lack the job and credit history needed. 

Saber said he hopes his experience as a military interpreter will allow him to join the Army. He recently learned that he would be getting resettled in Phoenix, but has no idea when he’ll leave. “I’m just waiting for a flight.” 

 
…

India has posted the fastest pace of growth among major economies, raising hopes of a revival in its pandemic-hit economy. But fears of the omicron variant have triggered concerns of whether the pace can be sustained even as economists warn that unemployment levels are still high in a country where millions lost jobs during the pandemic. 

India’s gross domestic product grew 8.4% from July to September this year compared to the same period last year, according to a government report.

While economies worldwide were hit hard due to the pandemic, India slipped into its worst recession in four decades last year with its economy shrinking by 7.3% after the Indian government imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in the world.

But there has been a significant turnaround in recent months with growth returning to levels before the pandemic, according to officials. “Data clearly shows that corporate income and profit are above the pre-pandemic level,” K.V. Subramanian, chief economist at the Finance Ministry said as he released the latest economic data. 

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has forecast growth of 9.5% for India in 2021 — if the growth stays on track, it would be fastest among major economies in the world, surpassing its projections of about 8% for China. 

“What happens in India has a big impact, both in the region and in the world,” Luis Breuer, the IMF’s senior resident representative to India, said last month. “You’re talking about a large slice of humanity and the global economy.”

Normalcy returning 

Experts say the opening of the economy as the pandemic waned after a deadly second wave in April and May and significant progress in the country’s vaccination program have helped the revival.

India has lifted all restrictions in recent months as cases decline to their lowest in a year and a half — the country has been reporting less than 10,000 new infections a day in recent weeks. 

After spending a year indoors, people keen to get a sense of normalcy have crowded markets, hotels are booked as vacationers head out for holidays and streets in mega cities like Delhi and Mumbai are choked with traffic. That is helping a country whose economy is driven largely by millions of middle-class consumers. 

India’s recent festive season saw shops and malls do brisk business. “We did no business at all for nearly a year, but customers have started ordering clothes from us since August this year,” Geeta Mehra, a boutique clothes retailer, told VOA. “Weddings that had been on hold for the last year and a half are now taking place which has resulted in good sales for us.”

However, she is cautious about increasing stocks and employing more people as fears of the new Omicron variant raise fresh concerns about the pandemic. India is now among nearly 30 countries where it has been found. Health authorities had reported 23 cases by Tuesday. 

Uneven recovery 

Some businesses, however, have still to recover. “Our business is only 20% of the pre-pandemic levels,” said Sanjay Kapur, a stationery retailer since the last 22 years. “Stationery requirement has become minimal as offices and schools are still closed and most work is done online. We can only wait and watch.

The threat of the Omicron variant looms large over people like Kapur — they worry it may keep offices and schools shut for longer than expected. And although the government has said it is not imposing any additional restrictions, curbs on international travel have been imposed. 

Experts have described the recovery as uneven and fractured. 

“The organized sector is looking up whereas the unorganized sector is not doing so well. Even within the organized sector some economic activities are performing better than others,” said Santosh Mehrotra, professor and chairperson of the Centre for Informal Sector and Labor Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He points out that while sectors like manufacturing and technology have recovered, hospitality and retail that are among the biggest job creators, are still struggling. 

Chavi Kasaudhan got a job at a retail store at Delhi airport recently. “I was lucky to get a break but many of those who did a six-month course in hospitality and retail with me are still waiting,” the 20-year-old said. 

While jobs have been returning, millions are still struggling to find work, especially in the country’s vast informal sector that includes farm workers, street vendors, laborers, and rickshaw pullers. 

Economists say official numbers do not reflect how this sector, where an estimated 90% of people work, is faring.

“What is not being captured by data is the fact that unemployment levels are very high,” Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Mehrotra said. Mehrotra estimates that the pandemic has added an additional 15 million to the number of poor people in the country, which represents a reversal of gains made in recent decades in alleviating poverty. 

Still, there is optimism that Asia’s third largest economy is turning a corner, and the stress of the pandemic could be subsiding.

Suhasini Sood contributed to this story.
…

India’s Defense Chief Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other people were killed after a military helicopter they were traveling in crashed in southern India on Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said.

Rawat, 63, was appointed as India’s first Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in late 2019.

The accident took place around noon near the town of Coonoor, and the dead include four crew members of the Mi-17V5 helicopter, the Air Force said in a tweet.

Rawat was traveling from an Indian Air Force base in Sulur to the Defense Services Staff College in Wellington in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to deliver a lecture. Hill station Coonoor is along the flight path.

The Air Force said that Rawat, who had previously served as India’s Chief of Army Staff, was traveling in an Mi-17V5 helicopter. India has dozens of the Russian military chopper that are widely used by the military as well as top government ministers visiting defence locations.

“This is a safe, proven helicopter, I have traveled on it in difficult situations,” former army chief J.J.Singh said.

Video footage from Reuters partner ANI and local media showed rescue workers dousing steaming wreckage of the mangled chopper in a wooded area.

“An inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident,” the Air Force said in a tweet.
…

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan more than three and a half months ago amid a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, their fighters have changed roles, from insurgents fighting in the mountains and fields to an armed force running the country. 

Many Taliban foot soldiers now have new jobs: manning checkpoints on the streets and carrying out security patrols in and around Afghan cities and towns. Last month, several Taliban fighters posed for portrait photographs for The Associated Press on nighttime patrols and at checkpoints in the western city of Herat. 

One of them, 21-year-old Ahmad Wali, was on patrol in the village of Kamar Kalagh, north of Herat. A student in an Islamic religious school known as a madrassa, he said he joined the Taliban because he believed in the teachings of the Quran and was against the American presence in his country and against the previous Afghan government, which was widely criticized for corruption. 

Now, he said, he is very busy with his new responsibilities providing security in the area he was assigned to. He hopes both he and his country will have a bright future, and said he was “99% sure” better days will come for all people in Afghanistan. 

After the Taliban takeover in mid-August, Afghanistan’s already dilapidated and aid-dependent economy careened into full-blown crisis. The international community has withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in financing that the country of 38 million people relied on. Billions of dollars in Afghan assets abroad have been frozen. 

Afghanistan’s banking system has been largely cut off from the world, and the new Taliban rulers have been largely unable to pay salaries, while jobs across the economy have disappeared. 

Women have been mostly barred from the job market, except in certain professions, and from a high school education, while tens of thousands of people, including highly educated professionals, have fled or are trying to flee Afghanistan, leading to a massive brain drain. 
…

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched its largest ever single-country appeal Tuesday to urgently respond to the humanitarian needs of “over 24 million people in Afghanistan, half of whom are children.”

The relief agency said the appeal for $2 billion would help avert the imminent collapse of health, nutrition, education water, sanitation and hygiene as well as other social services for children in the country where families are struggling to heat their homes and keep their children warm in harsh winter conditions.

Alice Akunga, UNICEF country representative, noted in a statement that the current humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is dire, especially for children. She said without additional funding, her agency and partners will not be able to reach the children and families that urgently need relief assistance.

“As families struggle to put nutritious food on the table and health systems are further strained, millions of Afghan children are at risk of starvation and death,” warned Akunga.

She urged donors to support Afghanistan’s children through its humanitarian appeal to keep children alive, well-fed, safe and learning. “It won’t be easy but with the lives and wellbeing of so many children at stake, we must rise to the challenge,” she said.

UNICEF estimates that one in two children under five in Afghanistan will be “acutely malnourished” in 2022 due to the food crisis and lack of access to key social services.

In addition, 10 million children are at risk of dropping out of school if teacher salaries are not paid and crippling poverty levels continue, according to the U.N. agency.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August following the United States-led Western military withdrawal from the country and the ensuing punitive international financial sanctions on the Islamist group have increased humanitarian needs to unprecedented levels. The humanitarian crisis stems from years of war, high levels of poverty and a nationwide drought.

The worsening economic and humanitarian crisis is prompting desperate Afghan families to try to flee to neighboring countries.

Up to 5,000 Afghans are crossing into neighboring Iran daily, using illegal border routes between with the help of human smugglers, and more than 300,000 people have crossed into Iran in the past three months, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“The Afghan state is collapsing after the world responded to the Taliban takeover by freezing state assets, cutting aid and offering only limited sanctions relief for humanitarian purposes,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) said Monday.

The ICG noted in its report that Afghan government employees lack salaries, basic services are not being delivered, the financial sector is paralyzed, and the economy is in freefall.

“The rising number of people fleeing the country could provoke another migration crisis. State collapse would mark a terrible stain on the reputation of Western countries, which is already tarnished by chaotic withdrawal,” the ICG said. 
…

Over the course of an hour on a recent night, the bus waiting in the Herat station filled with passengers. Mostly young men, they had no luggage, just the clothes on their backs, maybe a bag with some bread and water for the long road ahead of them. 

That road is leading them to Iran. 

Every day, multiple buses rumble out of Afghanistan’s western city of Herat, carrying hundreds of people to the border. There they disembark, connect with their smugglers and trek for days, sometimes crammed into pickup trucks bumping through wastelands, sometimes on foot through treacherous mountains in the darkness, eluding guards and thieves. 

Once in Iran, most will stay there to look for work. But a few hope to go farther. 

“We’re going to get to Europe,” said Haroun, a 20-year-old sitting in the bus next to his friend Fuad. Back in their village there is no work. “We have no choice, the economy here is a wreck. Even if it means our death on the way, we accept that.” 

Afghans are streaming across the border into Iran in accelerating numbers, driven by desperation. Since the Taliban takeover in mid-August, Afghanistan’s economic collapse has accelerated, robbing millions of work and leaving them unable to feed their families. In the past three months, more than 300,000 people have crossed illegally into Iran, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, and more are coming at the rate of 4,000 to 5,000 a day.

The European Union is now bracing for a potential swell in Afghans trying to reach its shores at a time when EU nations are determined to lock down against migrants in general. 

So far, a post-Taliban surge of Afghan migrants to Europe hasn’t materialized. Afghan entries into the EU have “remained mostly stable,” according to an EU weekly migration report from Nov. 21. The report noted that some Afghans who arrived in Italy from Turkey in November told authorities they had fled their country after the Taliban takeover. 

But a significant portion of migrants likely intend to stay in Iran, which is struggling to shut its doors. It already hosts more than 3 million Afghans who fled their homeland during the past decades of turmoil. 

Iran is stepping up deportations, sending 20,000 or 30,000 Afghans back every week. This year, Iran deported more than 1.1 million Afghans as of Nov. 21 — 30% higher than the total in all of 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration. Those deported often try again, over and over. 

In Afghanistan, the exodus has emptied some villages of their men. In Jar-e Sawz, a village north of Herat visited by The Associated Press, an elderly man was the only male left after all the younger men left. 

One smuggler in Herat — a woman involved in the business for two decades — said that before the Taliban takeover, she was transporting 50 or 60 people a week into Iran, almost all single men. Since the August takeover, she moves around 300 people a week, including women and children. 

“The country is destroyed so people have to leave,” she said, speaking on condition she not be named because of her work. “I feel like I’m doing the right thing. If some poor person asks me, I can’t refuse them. I ask God to help me help them.” 

She charges the equivalent of almost $400 per person, but only about $16 up front, with the rest paid after the migrant finds work. The pay-later system is common in Herat, a sign that there are so many migrants, smugglers can accept some risk that some will be unable to pay. Along the way, smugglers pass out bribes to Taliban, Pakistani and Iranian border guards to turn a blind eye, she said. 

Everyone going gives the same reason. 

“There is nothing here. There is no work and our families are hungry,” said Naib, a 20-year-old who was pausing with a group of migrants one night in a desolate area within sight of the Iranian border outside Herat. “We go crawling if we have to. There is no other choice.” 

Afghanistan was already one of the poorest countries in the world before the Taliban takeover, and the economy has deteriorated the past year, worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and a punishing drought since late 2020. 

When the Taliban came to power on Aug. 15, the main artery keeping Afghanistan’s economy alive — international donor funds — was severed. With the Taliban government unable to pay salaries, hundreds of thousands of state employees found themselves with no livelihoods. With funding for projects gone, many jobs vanished across the labor market. 

Farid Ahmed, a 22-year-old in Herat, used to go to a main square each day to be hired by building contractors for a day’s work. Previously, he found work most days. “Now we wait all day and no one comes to hire us,” he said. 

So last month, he took his wife and their two young daughters — ages 8 months and 2 years — across the border. From a relative already there, he heard that a Tehran weaving factory had jobs for him and his wife. 

The crossing was a nightmare, he said. They had to walk for three hours in the darkness with several hundred other people across the border. In the cold and darkness, his daughters were crying. Once in Iran, they were almost immediately caught by police and deported. 

Back home, nothing has changed. He goes to the square every day but finds no work, he said. So, he will try taking his family again. “After winter,” he said. “It’s too cold now for the children to cross.” 

Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, is a main hub for Afghans from other parts of the country making their way to Iran. 

The city is only about an hour’s drive from the Iranian border, but the frontier is too heavily patrolled here. Instead, migrants embark on a 300-mile (480-kilometer) trip south to Nimrooz, a remote region of deserts and mountains that is Afghanistan’s most sparsely populated province. Here, the migrants cross into a corner of Pakistan, from where they can more easily slip into Iran. 

It’s an arduous journey. Reza Rezaie, a Herat resident, made the trip with his 17-year-old son. The most harrowing moment comes at the Iranian-Pakistani border, where migrants must ascend and then descend Moshkelghar, literally “Difficult Mountain,” on narrow trails along steep drop-offs. 

“It’s pitch darkness and you can’t turn on flashlights for security,” he recalled. On the way up, they walk in single file, each holding the scarf of the person in front of them. Descending on the Iranian side, they gingerly crawl down so they don’t tumble off the edge. “If you fall, no one will help you because they will fall too,” he said. 

At one point in Iran, he and others hid in the luggage compartment under a bus to get around checkpoints. He worked for a few weeks doing construction in Shiraz before he was caught in a police raid and expelled. 

But he is undaunted. His father recently died, so he has to wait for the 40-day mourning period to end. Then he’ll try Iran again. 

“What else can I do? Here, there is nothing,” he said. 
…

The U.N. General Assembly upheld a decision on Monday to further delay action on allowing the Taliban and Myanmar’s junta to represent Afghanistan and Myanmar in the international body.

The General Assembly’s Credentials Committee announced last week that it would postpone action on evaluating the Taliban’s and the military junta’s requests to represent their countries in the 193-member body.

As a result, the envoys appointed by Afghanistan’s and Myanmar’s former governments will, for now, remain in these nations’ seats, a decision backed by the General Assembly on Monday.

Following the Taliban’s and the military junta’s assumptions of power in their nations, these new governments attempted to challenge the authority and credibility of Afghanistan’s and Myanmar’s current ambassadors.

The Taliban ousted the Afghan government in August, after which it began questioning Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai’s credentials. The Taliban government sought to have him replaced by a new permanent representative, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, who served as a Taliban spokesperson during peace negotiations in Qatar.

Myanmar’s military leaders wanted to replace ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who openly opposed the February 1 coup that deposed the civilian government under de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Associated Press reported that Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said in July that Kyaw Moe Tun had been terminated for “abuses of his assigned duty and mandate.”

Wunna Maung Lwin said that Aung Thurein, who served in the military for 26 years, had been appointed as Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.N.

The Credentials Committee’s decision to delay action on these rival representation claims has proven a major obstacle to the Taliban’s and Myanmar’s military leaders’ quests for international recognition.

The authority of the former governments’ ambassadors will now remain intact.

The Credentials Committee’s members are the Bahamas, Bhutan, Chile, China, Namibia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Sweden and the United States.

According to The Associated Press, Sweden’s ambassador to the U.N., Anna Eneström, told reporters last week that the committee has not scheduled another meeting to discuss the issue and did not say how long it would be deferred.

Some information for this article comes from Reuters and The Associated Press. 

 
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed their ties at a New Delhi summit that aimed to reboot a relationship that has stagnated in recent years as India moves closer to the United States and Russia to China.

The Russian leader on Monday called India “a great power, a friendly nation, and a time-tested friend,” while Modi said that despite the emergence of different geopolitical equations in the last few decades, “the friendship of India and Russia has been constant.”

Although the altered geopolitical landscape poses challenges in maintaining close ties, a strong defense partnership that goes back to the Cold War years is a key pillar binding the two countries. New Delhi has diversified its defense procurement in recent decades, but Russia is still India’s largest arms supplier with more than two-thirds of its military equipment being of Russian origin.

Defense ties topped the agenda with Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh calling for increased military cooperation with Russia.

The bilateral agreements signed included one for India to procure more than 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles from Russia and another to extend their military technology cooperation over the next decade.

Indian officials said Russia has begun deliveries of the S-400 air defense missile systems that India is buying from Moscow – their biggest military deal was clinched by New Delhi in 2018 despite the threat of sanctions from its close strategic partner, the United States.

Washington has often warned New Delhi that the purchase of five long-range surface-to-air missile systems from Russia runs counter to U.S. legislation passed in 2017, whose aims include deterring countries from buying Russian military equipment.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference in the Indian capital that the deal was being implemented despite what he said were U.S. efforts to undermine the accord.

India has told American officials that it needed the missile defense system – one of the most sophisticated in the world — to build its military capacities as it faces a hostile China along its northern borders. It is hoping for a presidential waiver from sanctions.

The Indian and Russian defense and foreign ministers of the two countries, who also held a strategic dialogue in the Indian capital, emphasized the importance of their relationship. With an eye on boosting trade, both sides signed 28 investment pacts in areas such as energy and shipbuilding.

The situation in Afghanistan was also on the agenda of both countries that remain wary of the potential for terrorism from the Taliban-ruled country.

Putin said that the “fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime” were key challenges for both countries.

India also hopes its ties with Russia will help it regain some ground in the country where Pakistan and China have emerged as key players.

Key differences as the two countries build new alliances will test ties going ahead, say analysts. Russia opposes the creation of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the Quad, saying it is against security blocs in the Asian region. India has embraced the alliance of which it is a part and that is aimed at counterbalancing China in the Indo-Pacific region. Besides India, the Quad includes Australia, Japan and the United States.

Analysts point out that despite India’s growing strategic convergence with the U.S., both New Delhi and Moscow want to give momentum to their own ties.

“The summit’s key takeaway is that both nations are not willing to abandon each other,” according to Harsh Pant, director of research and head of the Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“Their interests might be diverging, but the fact that Putin has come for his first bilateral visit to India since the pandemic, that India is buying the S-400 system despite the threat of U.S. sanctions, shows they see some value in each other as partners and want to invest in that relationship,” Pant said.
…

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Sunday rejected Western allegations they were carrying out targeted killings of security officials linked to the ousted U.S.-backed government in Kabul, saying the Islamist group was fully committed to enforcing a general amnesty across the country.

“Any (Taliban) member found breaching amnesty decree will be prosecuted and penalized,” tweeted Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman. “Incidents (of targeted killings) will be thoroughly investigated, but unsubstantiated rumors should not be taken at face value.”

On Saturday, the United States led a host of Western countries and allies in condemnation of reports that the Taliban have killed or illegally detained more than 100 former Afghan police and intelligence officers since returning to power in mid-August. 

“We are deeply concerned by reports of summary killings and enforced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces as documented by Human Rights Watch and others,” read a statement by the United States, the European Union, Australia, Britain, Japan and others, which was released by the U.S. State Department.

The alleged actions “constitute serious human rights abuses and contradict the Taliban’s announced amnesty,” the statement said. It urged the new rulers in Kabul to uphold the amnesty “across the country and throughout their ranks.”

Human Rights Watch released a report last week, saying it documented the summary execution or enforced disappearance of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces, other military personnel, police and intelligence agents “who had surrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces” from mid-August through October.

The joint international statement demanded a prompt and transparent investigation into these incidents. “We will continue to measure the Taliban by their actions,” it said.

The Islamist group is under pressure to uphold commitments that it would protect human rights of all Afghans, including those of women, and govern the country through an inclusive political setup. 

The international community has not recognized the Taliban government and Western countries have blocked the group’s access to billions of dollars in development aid as well as in Afghan central bank assets, largely held in the U.S. Federal Reserve, over human rights and terrorism concerns. 

The financial sanctions have raised the prospects of an economic collapse in Afghanistan where millions of people are already in need of urgent humanitarian assistance due to years of conflict, high levels of poverty and a prolonged nationwide drought.
…

Supporters of Bangladesh’s largest opposition party have been demonstrating across the country since mid-November, demanding former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia be allowed to travel outside the country for medical treatment.

A seven-day countrywide protest organized by the student wing of Zia’s Bangladesh National Party ended on December 4.

Doctors treating Zia said November 28 that she has advanced cirrhosis of the liver and that it would be difficult to save the life of the 76-year-old opposition leader if she were not immediately allowed to travel abroad for treatment.

Zia, who was sentenced to a 10-year jail term on a 2018 corruption conviction, is barred by the government from traveling outside Bangladesh.

Leaders of Zia’s party are urging the government to revoke the ban.

For decades, Zia and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, chief of the ruling Awami League party, would alternate in government with metronomic regularity. They have been each other’s archrival for years and were called the “Battling Begums” of Bangladesh.

Since 2009, when Hasina became prime minister a second time, her party has won all national elections and she has remained in power for the past 12 years.

In February 2018, Zia was convicted of embezzling $252,000 in foreign donations for a Bangladeshi orphanage trust. She was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment. Later, following a prosecution appeal, a higher court increased the jail term to 10 years.

Zia’s followers say the charge and the conviction were politically motivated.

Zia’s jail term was suspended by the government in March 2020 and she was released from jail on parole, in view of the risk of her being infected with COVID-19. The sentence was suspended on the conditions that she would not be able to leave the country and must receive any medical treatment in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Law minister Anisul Huq said last week that the existing law stipulates that the government can suspend the execution of a sentence, “with conditions or without any conditions.”

“[While suspending her sentence] we attached the condition that she would not be able to go abroad. We also added that she would receive medical treatment staying in Bangladesh. She is indeed free. She is not in the government custody,” Huq said inParliament, after a BNP member of the parliament urged that Zia be freed and allowed to go abroad for her treatment.

The law minister is not speaking the truth, said exiled BNP leader AKM Wahiduzzaman.

“The team of the doctors said, Begum Khaleda Zia urgently needs to undergo a medical procedure in an advanced liver care facility abroad. Does she have the freedom to go out of Bangladesh for medical treatment? No, she is not allowed to travel abroad. She is out of jail. But, she is not free, actually,” Wahiduzzaman, a former university teacher in Bangladesh, who fled to Malaysia in 2016, told VOA.

According to her personal physician, Zia is diabetic and suffers from kidney, heart, liver and other ailments. She has recovered from COVID-19, which she was diagnosed with five months ago. Her health recently worsened, and she was admitted to the critical care unit of a private hospital in Dhaka in mid-November.

After examining Zia last week, a medical board of five doctors said at a media briefing that she had advanced-stage cirrhosis of the liver.

“If she does not undergo TIPS right now, she is likely to suffer internal bleeding again soon,” Dr. Fakhruddin Mohammad Siddiqui, chief of the board, said November 28. He was referring to a medical procedure called transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, which helps to stop bleeding from a cirrhotic liver.

Dr. Mohammad Samsul Arfin, another member of the board, said TIPS is a highly sophisticated medical procedure that is not available in Bangladesh, He said it is done in a few advanced medical centers, which are located in the U.K., United States and Germany.

Hasina has so far rejected pleas from Zia’s family and the BNP to let the former prime minister go abroad for treatment.

She has done “quite much” to help ill Zia, Hasina said.

“I have allowed her to go out of jail, stay at home and receive medical treatment. Is this already not quite much?” Hasina asked.

Hong Kong-based rights activist Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said the justice mechanism of Bangladesh has been subjugated and has turned into an oppressing tool in the hands of the government.

“The systemic denial of access to justice for the hundreds of enforced disappearances and few thousand extrajudicial killings clearly indicate that the entire criminal justice system serves the purpose of the incumbent regime,” Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of the Asian Legal Resource Center, told VOA.

Dhaka-based human rights group Odhikar says that in the past 12 years, close to 600 dissidents have disappeared and remain untraced in Bangladesh. The group also said around 3,500 extrajudicial killings have occurred.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in India Monday for a summit as Moscow begins the delivery of air defense missile systems to India that could spur U.S. sanctions.

India’s $5.4 billion deal with Russia to purchase S-400 air defense missile systems highlights New Delhi’s challenge in maintaining its partnership with Moscow, even as it embraces closer strategic ties with the United States.

While Washington has often warned New Delhi that the purchase of five long range surface-to-air missile systems from Russia runs counter to 2017 U.S. legislation, India’s consistent message has been that its national security interests guide its defense purchases.

“The government takes sovereign decisions based on threat perceptions, operational and technological aspects to keep the armed forces in a state of readiness to meet the entire spectrum of security challenges,” Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt told Parliament Friday.

India says it needs the S-400 system to counter the threat from China — it is expected to be deployed along disputed Himalayan borders where troops from both countries have been locked in a standoff since last year.

Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey last December for purchasing the same missile system from Russia under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, whose aims include deterring countries from buying Russian military equipment.

New Delhi however is optimistic about getting a presidential waiver, as its strategic ties with the United States continue to gain momentum in the two countries’ common efforts to contain China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region — India is part of the Quad group expected to play a key role in countering China.

Potential waiver

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told a November 23 briefing that the Biden administration has not decided on a potential waiver for India, but analysts in Washington say a waiver is inevitable. 

“The Biden administration doesn’t want to do anything that would risk imperiling its relations with New Delhi. Sanctioning India would plunge bilateral relations to their lowest point in several decades,” Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Wilson Center in Washington, said. 

However, he said, a waiver for India would be a one-time affair. 

“It won’t offer any blanket free passes to New Delhi on its broader defense trade with Moscow. So, the Russia factor will remain a rare tension point in U.S.-India relations,” he said.

Strategic affairs experts point out that while India and Russia have pulled in different geopolitical directions, New Delhi is not ready to dismantle its security relationship with a Cold War ally that remains a key defense supplier.

“For India, China is the No. 1 adversary, whereas for Russia, China is a partner. And for Russia, the main adversary is the U.S., with which India’s ties are growing. So, there is a significant mismatch in terms of our perceptions in where our threats originate from,” said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. 

“However, India needed the S-400 system to boost its military capabilities and it was available at a reasonable price,” she said.

A rare overseas trip

The Monday summit marks a rare overseas trip for Putin since the COVID-19 pandemic — he has left Russia only once, to meet U.S. President Joe Biden in June.

The defense and foreign ministers of the two countries will also meet in New Delhi. The summit is expected to the signing of 10 agreements that could include U.S. purchase of assault rifles to be made in India and renew a framework for military technical cooperation. India’s ambassador to Russia, Venkatesh Verma, told the Tass news agency last month that India could also order fighter jets and tanks.

While India has moved away from its heavy dependence on Russian equipment in recent decades by significantly increasing acquisition of military equipment from countries like the United States, France and Israel, Russia remains India’s largest weapons supplier.

“It is more of a business relationship with Russia than a strategic partnership. We understand how close Russia is with China, but we need critical military equipment such as the S-400 missile systems,” according to Chintamani Mahapatra, rector and professor of American studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

India hopes that its ties with Russia will also help it in playing a role in Afghanistan, where its rivals China and Pakistan are now key players.

Analysts say that maintaining relations with Moscow is important for New Delhi to underline that it is not too closely aligned with any one country. 

“We don’t want to be seen as completely in the U.S. or Western camp. So we want to keep the Russia relationship alive,” Pillai said.

Russia, for its part, is also uneasy about India’s deepening security ties with the United States, especially New Delhi’s participation in the “Quad” —  the alliance among the United States, Japan Australia and India. Moscow has said it opposes the creation of security blocs in the Asian region.

“India-Russia partnership is a potential obstacle for the Quad, but not a major one,” according to Kugelman who said that amid a growing China-Russia relationship, “the geopolitical signposts all point to reduced India-Russia partnership in the coming years.”

 
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At least 14 tribal civilians and one security personnel were mistakenly killed when Indian forces opened indiscriminate fire in the remote northeastern state of Nagaland, government and military officials said Sunday.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said he was “anguished” at the news of civilians being killed in the incident late on Saturday night.

Nagaland’s chief minister Neiphiu Rio told Reuters a probe will be conducted and the guilty punished in the incident, which he ascribed to intelligence failure.

At least a dozen civilians and some members of the security forces were injured in the attack, said a federal defense ministry official based in New Delhi.

Locals in Nagaland have frequently accused forces of wrongly targeting innocent locals in their counterinsurgency operations against rebel groups.

The incident took place in and around Oting village in Mon district, bordering Myanmar, during a counterinsurgency operation conducted by members of the Assam Rifles, a part of Indian security forces deployment in the state, said a senior police official based in Nagaland.

Firing began when a truck carrying 30 or more coal-mine laborers were passing the Assam Rifles camp area.

“The troopers had intelligence inputs about some militant movement in the area and on seeing the truck they mistook the miners to be rebels and opened fire killing six laborers,” the senior police official told Reuters, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak with journalists.

“After the news of firing spread in the village, hundreds of tribal people surrounded the camp. They burnt Assam Rifles vehicles and clashed with the troopers using crude weapons,” he said.

Members of the Assam Rifles retaliated, and in the second attack eight more civilians and a security member were among those killed, the official said.

In recent years India has tried to persuade Myanmar to evict rebels from bases in the thick jungles of the region, which borders Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. 

 
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The United States on Saturday led a group of Western nations and allies in condemnation of the Taliban over the “summary killings” of former members of the Afghan security forces, reported by rights groups, and demanded quick investigations.

“We are deeply concerned by reports of summary killings and enforced disappearances of former members of the Afghan security forces as documented by Human Rights Watch and others,” read a statement by the United States, the European Union, Australia, Britain, Japan and others, which was released by the State Department.

“We underline that the alleged actions constitute serious human rights abuses and contradict the Taliban’s announced amnesty,” the group of nations said, as it called on Afghanistan’s new rulers to ensure the amnesty is enforced and “upheld across the country and throughout their ranks.”

Early this week Human Rights Watch released a report that it says documents the summary execution or enforced disappearance of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces, other military personnel, police and intelligence agents “who had surrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces” from mid-August through October.

“Reported cases must be investigated promptly and in a transparent manner, those responsible must be held accountable, and these steps must be clearly publicized as an immediate deterrent to further killings and disappearances,” the countries, which include Canada, New Zealand, Romania, Ukraine and several European nations, said in their statement.

The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in mid-August as the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and the country’s military collapsed.

Washington held talks with Taliban officials earlier this week when it urged the hardline Islamist group to provide access to education for women and girls across the country.

It also “expressed deep concern regarding allegations of human rights abuses,” a U.S. spokesperson said. 
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